To achieve immortality, I cultivate using Qi Luck

Chapter 995: Chapter 411: Blundering Through All the Way_3 Chapter 995: Chapter 411: Blundering Through All the Way_3 And all these confusing distractions.

After discussion, the Monarch and Ministers of Liang unanimously agreed that Chu State currently had no capacity to open a third battlefield.

Therefore, based on this view, in March of this year, once they confirmed that Chu had opened another battlefield in the northwest and was engaged in fierce fighting,

and Wei Country’s main forces were tied up on the grasslands, making them unavailable for deployment in Henan County,

feeling secure about their southern and eastern territories, Liang breathed a sigh of relief.

So, they began to withdraw troops from the western front, as well as from inland localities and the central region of Jingji, amassing another army of five hundred thousand, which they sent to the eastern front, under the command of Yan Yunqing.

By then, the troops in Liang’s Jiaodong County on the eastern front officially reached a total of one and a half million, surpassing the half million mark, even after deducting the hundred thousand lost last year.

The support for Yan Yunqing was immense.

And such importance came with demands.

The Monarch and Ministers of Liang had a simple request, that with this superior force, to quickly defeat Huang Xuan’s forces in Yangxia County and drive them out of Yuzhou.

At the very least, they needed to severely damage the Chu army and expel them from Jiaodong County, ensuring they could no longer pose a threat to the security of Liang’s eastern territories.

And they needed to act quickly, not dragging it out too long, with the conflict concluded by the end of this year at the latest.

The reason was simple, both ChuWei Countries would withdraw their troops by the end of the year.

At that time, the defensive pressure along Liang’s western and southern lines would surge abruptly as two million troops from Two Countries returned.

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Then, for border security, they would have to redeploy the troops they had withdrawn, scattering them along the two defense lines to reinforce their positions.

Therefore, the support of the Monarch and Ministers of Liang for Yan Yunqing could only last until the end of this year.

Once this year passed, and Wei and Chu adjusted their national policies, it would be difficult to say whether the court could redirect any surplus Strength.

If Yan Yunqing failed to seize this final opportunity, Jiaodong County would be destined to be a perpetual pain for Liang.

Therefore, according to the above records, the current interior of Liang, both the eastern part and the inland core areas, as well as the Jingji region, were extremely vulnerable in terms of defensive troops.

In some places, there were no regular forces at all, with only some Officials and militia maintaining order.

On the Southern Line, north of the river, Liang still maintained a substantial force of around five hundred thousand soldiers and nine Inborns, scattered along the lines of Jiangxia and Guangling, prepared to defend against Chu.

According to the conjecture of the Monarch and Ministers of Liang.

With such a number of troops, even if Chu mobilized another three hundred to five hundred thousand Soldiers for a Northern Expedition, the defenses north of the river could cope on their own and fend off the enemy at the nation’s gates.

If Chu mobilized even more troops, say a million-strong force, then the five hundred thousand troops could hold out for a significant amount of Time, sufficient to stall until Liang could react and send Reinforcements.

One could say this arrangement was already very meticulous, comprehensive, and showed great consideration towards Chu.

However.

When the Northern Expedition forces of Chu turned into 3.6 million soldiers, 6 million civilian workers, nearly 10 million troops in total,

this mere half a million-strong Liang army suddenly seemed so fragile and laughable.

A nineteen-fold disparity in troops, nearly seven times the Advantage in Inborn soldiers, was enough to breach any defense line.

The Liang army standing in the way was merely like a mantis trying to stop a chariot, foolhardy.

Therefore, in the strategies formulated by Lu Yuan for this Northern Expedition, he didn’t take this defense line of Liang’s troops north of the river seriously at all.

According to his plan, for this river crossing and advance to the north, the eastern, middle, and western Military Expedition camps would each have nine detachments of troops leading the way, totaling nine hundred thousand men, along with nine Avatars.

These troops were the elite, led by Avatars with only a limited supply line behind them, marching directly and rapidly northward, relentlessly pushing into the heartland of Liang.

Their only goal was to penetrate as far north as possible, reaching deeply into the heart of Liang before they could even react, seizing as much land as possible to reduce the areas under Liang’s control and throttle their potential to mobilize further forces.

Following the nine vanguard units, the main army would catch up, taking over their routes and surrounding and dealing with the alerted Liang forces along the way.

For instance, when the half a million troops of Liang’s Southern Line defense area north of the river realized that Chu troops were marching north and prepared to cut off their retreat,

the following Chu forces would also catch up, launching fierce attacks on these Liang troops, who had just been drawn out of their defensive positions.

In this manner, the front and rear assaults would quickly dismantle Liang’s defenses along the river in the north.

Of course.

Even if the Liang troops didn’t fall for it and decided to shrink back like turtles, refusing to leave their fortresses, it wouldn’t matter.

For this Northern Expedition, Chu mobilized so many troops, well over ten million.

With so many troops, even if they had to besiege city by city, there would still be enough to go around.

Chu didn’t need to forcefully attack those cities defended by Liang’s troops; it would suffice to allocate Defenders two to three times the number of Defenders inside the cities outside the walls, completely encircling and starving them out.

After all, with just half a million people, folding it two or three times would only make it a million or so.

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For the Northern Expeditionary Chu army, that was just a tenth or so of their number; diverting that much would scarcely be impactful.

What is meant by overwhelming Strength and tremendous force?

This is it.

A mighty tide rolling over, no matter how sturdy your fortress or how perfect your strategy, before absolute power, it’s futile.

As long as Chu doesn’t have internal issues, it’s invincible.

And for Lu Yuan, who had distributed thirty-nine Avatars among the camps and troops while personally overseeing the overall situation,

with these Avatars helping him manage troops at the grassroots level, how could there be internal problems?

Not possible.

Liang had fallen for the diversion strategy without any defenses against it; such an enormous Gap in Strength, from every angle, spelled their impending doom.

Such a straightforward situation would be unwinnable even by a fool if they weren’t interfering with the command, simply following the original strategy.

So for this Northern Expedition, their straightforward march forward would suffice.

On April 20th, the forty-first year of Shenwu, Chu’s army crossed the river.

Nine vanguard forces moved simultaneously, with light cavalry dashing a thousand miles in just over ten days, reaching the territories of Xingyang and East Sea Counties.

Liang’s defensive line north of the river was breached, Chu soldiers rose in the heartland, shocking the nation.

That same month, several millions of Chu troops crossed the river, Liang’s southern advances collapsed.