To achieve immortality, I cultivate using Qi Luck - Chapter 711

Chapter 711: Chapter 316: Swords Pointing to Hegu_3

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This is because Chu State’s remaining strength is genuinely incapable of continuing the fight.

The price of grain within the country has soared, and Chu State even had to buy grain from those vampire grain merchants in Nanhai Country.

If we continue to fight, Chu State will become the next Su Country.

Naturally, Lu Yuan did not wish to see this situation.

So in the end, he chose to stop and withdrew from the fight, choosing Qiao Kangquan as a sacrificial pawn.

He used the three vassal states to block the remaining two major barbarian nations in the Southwest – Nanzhao and Dali.

This allowed Chu State to withdraw and begin its recovery.

Only then were they able to retain a portion of the originally hoarded grain, after deducting the consumption of the stationed armies and the new immigrants.

Otherwise, they would have definitely run out of food.

“One million stone?”

Upon hearing Cui Changqing’s tally, Lu Yuan had a clearer understanding of his current resources.

In Xichuan, the hundreds of thousands of civilians originally from the Xichuan country, coupled with the five hundred thousand people relocated from all over Chu State, added up to nearly a million people. Now, they are all waiting anxiously for food provisions from Chu State.

In Qianzhong County, there are also hundreds of thousands of new immigrants and war prisoners who also require aid from the court.

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Add to that the tens of thousands of soldiers from the two armies…

Even though the war has ceased for now, the grain and fodder consumed by Chu State has increased due to the implementation of various policies.

However, the time has come.

Just as Cui Changqing said, they have planted the grain now, and they only need to wait two or three more months before they can harvest the summer crop.

At that time, with the richness of the Jianghan Plain and Dongting Plain, the two counties of Xiangyang and Dongting combined will be able to harvest seventy million stone of grain.

With so much grain, even after leaving some for the local people, there should still be ten to twenty million stone of grain left to support subsequent consumption.

Moreover, in the latter half of the year in golden autumn, they will be able to harvest another batch of grain.

By then, the immigrants who have relocated to Xichuan and Qianzhong will be able to obtain their own food without extra subsidies from the court.

When everything is back on track, Chu State should slowly recover, no longer needing to scrape and scrounge as they do now, struggling to get through each day.

They can also extract grain to make a profit in Su Country.

Shaking his head, Lu Yuan brushed off these thoughts and turned to Cui Changqing, saying, “Of these remaining one million stone of grain, you will divert five hundred thousand stone, all to be transported to Xichuan for the use of the army.

The court here is also preparing to assign a group of officials, ready to move to Xichuan at any time.”

Hearing his king say this, Cui Changqing’s mouth twitched, and he instantly understood what the king planned to do, asking, “Is the king preparing to mobilize troops in Xichuan?”

As the prime minister, he hesitated to speak up.

Chu State’s resources are almost depleted, and it urgently needs to recuperate. The national policy set previously was also for this purspose.

Why has the king changed his mind after only a few months?

As Prime Minister, Cui Changqing felt he had the responsibility to dissuade the king.

Lu Yuan glanced at him, immediately understanding his thoughts, and laughed, “Prime Minister, rest assured, I do indeed plan to mobilize troops, but I have no intention of raising a large army.”

After explaining, he continued, “In Xichuan, the Barbarians on the snowfields are suffering from a lack of grain due to the mass death of their cattle and sheep from snowstorms and subsequently chose to descend from the mountains to loot Xichuan.

If this troublesome issue is not resolved, Xichuan will never be stable, and the development policy we previously set will be difficult to implement.

Therefore I thought, since we have to fight anyway, it is better to strike first than to be struck.

The Barbarians in the valley near Xichuan are weak and add up to only over two hundred thousand people, distributed into dozens of large and small tribes.

This amount of strength is not a match for our Chu Elite Army.

Therefore, I plan to let Huang Xuan, the ‘True Person’ who is stationed in Xichuan, lead the troops. He doesn’t need many, just one reserve army and some local county soldiers, around thirty to forty thousand people, should be enough to wipe out the valley Barbarians.”

The Snowfield Valley there, when added up, also stretches for over two thousand miles. Towards the north, it stretches towards the areas near Hanzhong County, with three small valleys that stretch nearly a thousand miles.

These three thousand miles of valley can be divided, allowing the establishment of five or six Prefectures.

I plan to clean up the valley Barbarians and then migrate people over there to set up Prefectures, establishing another Valley County for Chu, as a buffer for Xichuan.”

Lu Yuan said with a light smile.

The strength of the valley Barbarians is weak. All the tribes add up to only two hundred thousand. Even if they include the small valleys near Hanzhong, the population would only be about three hundred thousand at most.

And among these many Barbarians, the strongest is just first-rate; there isn’t even a single ‘Inborn’.

This insignificant strength is something Chu State could easily assimilate.

Moreover, the place they inhabit, although also a snowy region, is a comparatively survivable valley area within the snowfields.

It possesses rivers and lakes, allowing for the cultivation of agricultural crops on both banks.

Such territories are not purely nomadic and have agricultural potential. Chu State can perfectly control and establish cities and counties in these territories.

As for the Valley County to be established, the total population of five or six Prefectures is only around three hundred thousand, too sparse for efficient development and governance — this is nothing to worry about.

In the newly established Jianchuan and Jianchang Prefectures in Qianzhong County, due to the premature end of the war resulting from Da Changhe’s quick surrender, there were not enough time for cleaning up.

In these two Prefectures, over two hundred thousand Yi People are still scattered around, posing a major hidden danger.

Lu Yuan was originally wondering how to deal with them, but he doesn’t need to worry anymore.

More than twenty thousand Yi People can be taken out, along with their families released from the captured Yi People, and relocated to Valley County.

In this way, they would be in a strange place surrounded by Barbarians, becoming the weak side.

If they wanted to establish a foothold here and resist the threat of the local Barbarians to survive in the valley, they would have to rely on Chu State.

Then, a group of Chu people will be relocated there as the core backbone, supplemented by a large number of Yi People, and deterred by a large army. Without ten to twenty years, Valley County will be able to stabilize, becoming Chu’s important western frontier city between the snowfields and Zhou Country.