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Chapter 966: Chapter 402 Preparation for the Northern Expedition Chapter 966: Chapter 402 Preparation for the Northern Expedition The Northern Expedition, this was a decision Lu Yuan made after deep contemplation.

“Northern Expedition?”

Upon hearing Lu Yuan’s words, Sun Siwen fell into deep thought.

The Northern Expedition, well, it’s not out of the question.

Now, after more than a decade of war, the four states in the North have greatly declined in strength.

Wei Country has lost the entire territory of Yan State, holding only four counties in the eastern part of Yong State.

Zhao State and Xu State are much the same, impacted by the Barbarian invasions from the grasslands and the southern migration from the Mysterious Snow Forest, each losing a large portion of their territories in Ji Province and Xuzhou, their home grounds.

They’re only a few years away from being driven out of these two provinces.

However, after more than a decade of fierce fighting, unlike Wei Country which gained nothing, Zhao and Xu states are slightly better off, having acquired territories in Qingzhou and respectively seized the eastern county of Liang Country and Qingping County, barely securing themselves a ticket to enter Central State.

But of course, the land of just one county is naturally insufficient to satisfy Zhao and Xu states.

Like Wei Country, with the increasingly frenzied southern invasion of the Barbarians on their northern borders, most of their strength is tied down, leaving no extra force to commit to the battlefield of Qingzhou.

To be able to hold the hard-won eastern county and Qingping County with the forces they have on the Southern Line is already quite an achievement.

They might as well reallocate a million soldiers and muster them to move south if they wish to continue expanding into Qingzhou.

Under such circumstances, Zhao and Xu states were also incapable of expanding southward, and the war with Liang Country had gradually subsided.

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To put it simply, they were unable to fight on.

It could be said that it was precisely the accelerated southward movement of the Barbarians from the North that provided the greatest help to Liang Country, suddenly tying up a significant portion of the three enemy states’ energies and giving Liang a breather.

However, after fighting for more than a decade, Liang Country’s losses were also substantial.

Not to mention the two lost counties in Qingzhou, in recent years, the soldiers who died in domestic battles alone have already surpassed five million.

They had also lost more than twenty Inborn Grandmasters.

These two items alone had reduced the military strength of Liang Country by at least one-third.

Moreover, in the previous years, due to the tactical errors made by Wei, Zhao, and Xu states in their battles, Liang Country seized the opportunity for a counterattack, causing the three states to lose a million soldiers all at once.

Liang Country’s momentum surged, and there was a major success as they looked like they could counterattack and take back their lost land, pushing Zhao and Xu states back to Hebei.

At that time, Chu State noticed that the situation might be taking a turn for the worse, with the possibility of a single dominant power emerging north of the river.

They were compelled to intervene and lend assistance to the Three Nations.

Of course, the intervention wasn’t a direct deployment of troops, but under the indication of Lu Yuan, Chu State cut off the grain trade with Liang Country that had been in place for years.

In the past ten-plus years of war, as the scale of troops used increased, the number of able-bodied men dying on the battlefields also grew.

As a result, Liang Country domestically fell into a situation of labor shortages.

In such a state, relying on the production of the old, weak, women, and children in the rear was certainly unable to support the grain needs of Liang Country’s front lines, which consumed food for five to six million soldiers.

To maintain the war effort and ensure supplies, it had become imperative for Liang Country to increase grain purchases from Chu State.

In fact, not just Liang Country.

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Wei Country, which had fallen into warfare on two fronts early on, had, since the beginning of the war, depended on Chu State for nearly half of its domestic grain consumption.

The lifeline of grain for both Liang and Wei countries was now in the hands of Chu State.

With their very survival at the mercy of others, Wei and Liang countries were well aware that such dependence was dangerous and improper.

Yet, if they chose not to seek help from Chu State, they wouldn’t have enough troops to deploy to the front lines for the defense of their homeland.

Whether they would die from having their lifeline strangled was uncertain.

But one thing was sure, they would first perish from a lack of sufficient military force, leading to the destruction of their country and homes.

Between two detriments, they chose the lesser.

One was a potential death in the future; the other was an imminent death now.

The outcome was naturally clear.

And so, Liang Country, after making that critical decision over ten years ago, was now facing the delayed onset of the poison they had chosen.

So, when Chu State decided to cut off grain to Liang Country at that time, the latter’s domestic grain supply immediately encountered problems.

Local grain prices skyrocketed, and the populace struggled to obtain even a single grain of rice.

By the time this reached the front lines, the armies lacking resupplies, despite achieving major victories, couldn’t push forward due to the absence of sufficient grain.

In the end, they could only watch as opportunities slipped away and were forced to retreat in dejection.

But the unrest hadn’t ceased.

Having sensed Liang Country’s strength, even though Liang had already withdrawn its troops, Chu State continued to withhold grain supplies.

Consequently, the Liang country, long dependent on Chu for grain, suddenly plunged into a nationwide famine.

Within two years, nearly ten million people in Liang Country starved to death because of the famine.

In an effort to resolve the famine, Liang Country had no choice but to disband a large portion of its army, allowing those adult men to return to the rear to engage in farming and reduce the scale of the war in order to survive the grain shortage.

They also sent Messengers to Chu State to negotiate and seek to reopen the grain trade.

Further, they sent representatives to Yuzhou to inquire about purchasing the grain produced there.

Through a series of measures and three to five years of struggle, Liang Country finally managed to catch a breath.

Meanwhile, during this time, the Wei, Zhao, and Xu states were recuperating and aggressively attacking Liang Country.

But they too were exhausted, and despite their efforts, they achieved no significant results.

Now, with Liang Country having recovered, they were even less capable of moving south and could only adopt defensive positions.

Sun Siwen reviewed the current state of the four Northern countries and finally nodded, saying, “Indeed, it’s time for a Northern Expedition.

Now, Wei, Zhao, and Xu states are all worn out, troubled by Barbarians in the North, while on the south, Liang Country has regained its vitality and is sharpening its blades.