To achieve immortality, I cultivate using Qi Luck

Chapter 938: Chapter 392: Barbarians Requesting Allegiance_3 Chapter 938: Chapter 392: Barbarians Requesting Allegiance_3 Over there in the northwest, it’s a dead end, just like Liang State in the Central State, becoming the center of a vortex.

All sorts of powers took their turns on the stage in Helong’s two prefectures, with one performing after another’s rest.

Countless people are buried here, their blood watering the soil.

For the Snow Plains Nomads to have been able to remove themselves from this place, enter Chu State, and preserve their lives and legacy, might actually be considered fortunate.

Otherwise, do they really have to end up as the very last of the nomads for that so-called homeland?

At this moment, the procession ahead began to move again.

One could see the Chuguo officials leading the team had already coordinated with the military officers at the city gate, and had opened a side gate.

Now, leading the team, he entered the city through the newly opened side gate.

The pedestrians and Merchants and Travelers in line next to them couldn’t help but look on with curiosity and envy.

Hu Yan Bi, looking at this scene, suddenly felt a surge of hope.

…

In the Chu Imperial Palace, Diligent Governance Hall.

“Your Majesty, the barbarian Messengers have been settled in the city’s embassy,” Sun Siwen reported, bringing news of the barbarian Messengers who had arrived.

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“Oh, after enduring these years, those Snowy Wilds’ Tribes finally came to their senses, realizing the benefits of staying under a large tree, huh?” Lu Yuan put down the memorial he was reviewing and looked up with a smile, “Still, when you think about it, it’s quite good.

These years, it was the Barbarians who stood fast in Helong, helping us block the northern Barbarians from harming our northwest border.

Now that the Barbarians can’t hold on any longer and want to give up the northwest,

With the Barbarians taking over Helong’s two prefectures, their influence will surely increase.

Great Chu has been supporting the Barbarians, and those northern brutes must be itching for revenge.

Now that they share a border with Great Chu, they might send troops to raid Hanzhong County as retribution,” he said.

This had become one of Great Chu’s core strategies ever since it had responded to the Barbarians’ request to send troops to Helong to help them resist Western Liang.

Using the Barbarians as a northwest barrier to protect Hanzhong County was one of them.

And ever since Huang Xin finally wore down Western Liang eight years before, bringing down this potential rising power in the northwest,

During five years of fierce fighting, Western Liang made several strong attempts to breach the TaoShui defenses but was repelled beneath the fortified cities, unable to break through Chu’s defenses.

Meanwhile, Chu forces, allied with the Barbarians, sent out two to three hundred thousand Cavalry during each planting and harvesting season, scattering them into dozens or hundreds of raiding parties to wreak havoc within Western Liang, preventing their agricultural activities.

After five years, Western Liang was exhausted and weakened, with its resources drained.

Two famines broke out, claiming the lives of hundreds of thousands.

Plus, with the cold waves and military disasters, the limited national strength of this small northwest power quickly declined and weakened.

They held on for only five years before they couldn’t anymore.

When they surrendered, the nation had lost a million lives, leaving only about three million people, of whom fewer than five hundred thousand were soldiers.

With no other choice, for the sake of survival, Western Liang had to surrender to Chu State.

Lu Yuan then decreed the resettlement of the entire population of Western Liang to places like Xichuan, Hanzhong, and Xiangyang in Yangzhou.

Their soldiers were selected to form an elite force of one hundred thousand, and together with the remaining four Inborn Grandmasters, they were incorporated into the Chu military ranks.

In this way, the small northwest power, Western Liang, was annexed by Chu State.

Having annexed Western Liang, Lu Yuan then divided the three prefectures of the former Western Liang to reward the Barbarians for their meritorious service.

It was also intended to have the Barbarians control the northwest and guard Chu’s borders.

After all, at that time, the Barbarian population, having gone through successive bloody conflicts, had decreased to only a little over three million, and even if they were to mobilize all their people, they could at most raise seven or eight hundred thousand soldiers, which was not enough to change anything significant.

Using such a weak tribe to defend the borders could both shield the northwest and deter other Barbarians from migrating to Yong West.

Chu State would not have to worry about the Barbarians growing too powerful.

It was a perfect solution.

However, after utilizing the Barbarians for eight years, it now seems that under the repeated invasions of the northern Barbarians, the opponent can’t hold on any longer and is now contemplating coming under our dominion and migrating inward.

“Hanzhong is impregnable with Longshan’s treacherous terrain to the west and Xiong Ridge forming a barrier to the north.

The roads in between are difficult to traverse, and no large army can pass through.

Those northern Barbarians, relying on the advantage of their Cavalry, were able to dominate Helong.

But within Longshan, it’s difficult for people to walk, let alone gallop horses?”

Hearing Lu Yuan’s lighthearted comment, Sun Siwen stroked his beard with a smile, “It’s all well if those Barbarians don’t come, but if they dare to, with True Person Huang Xin leading two hundred thousand formidable soldiers to defend Hanzhong, they will certainly be made to come without return, all buried within Longshan.”

Lu Yuan laughed heartily, “Brother Sun is right.

After these years of rest and recuperation, Great Chu’s formidable soldiers number two million, with forty-two Inborn Grandmasters.

We own ten prefectures and eighteen nations, with a population of over forty million.

With such considerable strength, a few million northern Barbarians are hardly worth mentioning,” he said confidently and proudly.

Since he integrated the two Jiangdong prefectures and accepted the surrender of the ruler and ministers of Ning Country, the part of Yangzhou governed by Chu State had entered a pathway of rapid development.

Especially after the six million people from the four prefectures of Lingnan, as well as the three million from the three prefectures of Western Liang, were relocated to various places north and south of the Yangtze, the population of the ten prefectures under Chu control increased rapidly, and the local prefectures and counties were substantially developed.

In just over a decade, aside from the vassal nations ceded, the prefectures within Chu territory of Yangzhou and Yong State have quickly regained their past prosperity.

It was even better than the glorious days of Former Zhou and Pre-Yue.

The current Chu State boasts crisscrossed roads and villages everywhere, the sounds of chickens and dogs heard from road to road in the countryside, plentiful shops throughout the city centers, peaceful citizens, and thriving civil and military affairs.

Such a peaceful era is more than enough.

And as the one who created this era of Shenwu prosperity, how could he not feel gratified and proud?

‘This magnificent era has been forged by me.

These tens of millions of common people are protected by me.

The chaos in Jiangnan was ended by me.’

Thinking this, the smile on Lu Yuan’s face grew even wider.

“Your Majesty’s achievements are such that the people of Chu dearly appreciate and respect you.

It’s said that some are now calling Your Majesty the unmatched emperor of all ages.”

Seeing his close friend quite pleased with himself, Sun Siwen offered the compliment before bowing and asking, “Your Majesty, the Barbarians request to come under our dominion.

Shall Great Chu accept them?”

Lu Yuan said as a matter of course, “Accept them, of course we shall accept.

How can we turn away the population and soldiers willingly offered to us?”

He paused in thought, then said, “Tomorrow morning, you’ll bring those barbarian Messengers here.

I will receive them.”

“Yes.”

Sun Siwen nodded, promptly agreeing.