Shicheng, the camp of the Chu army.
"I pay my respects to the king."
In the camp, Li Xiong, who hurried from the city to meet the new monarch, respectfully paid homage to Lu Yuan.
Lu Yuan sat at the top, looking at the other person with sharp eyes.
He had always heard about this hero who had stirred up the situation between Nishikawa and Dacho and the country, but for various reasons, he had never been able to see him in person.
At this time, I finally met him and finally knew what this war madman was like.
Well, he has a majestic and heroic face, a tall and strong figure, and a height of nearly two meters in front of him, giving people a great sense of oppression.
'Such a demeanor is indeed that of a leader. No wonder he attracted so many people to follow him and caused two big chaos in succession. '
Lu Yuan thought to himself, then looked at the respectful posture of the person in front of him, and couldn't help but smile, raised his hand slightly and said, "Get up."
"Thank you, Your Majesty."
Listening to this voice, Li Xiong also stood up below.
Then, taking advantage of the gap when he stood up, he finally had some time to look at the new king he recognized in front of him.
The first impression is that of youth.
Li Xiong couldn't help but be stunned by the unexpected face, the breath of youth, and the vitality of a boy.
Ever since he broke through his innate ability and gained enough self-preservation power, Lu Yuan no longer relied on makeup to disguise his age.
And after he cultivated the immortal method and this fact was exposed, he directly returned to his appearance as a young man.
The external excuse is, of course, that he has practiced magic and has become a child again.
And this excuse did not arouse the suspicion of many people.
After all, immortality and eternal youth are the impression that the world has of immortals.
Even among the six major meridians, there are actually many secret techniques that can preserve one's appearance. It is not uncommon for people to maintain a youthful appearance.
On the contrary, Lu Yuan's true appearance is so young, which is even more confirmed by outsiders, especially Danding Dao.
That was the age at which he practiced immortality. It was indeed very early, long before he obtained the Book of Taiping. It did not start in the past two years at all, which further proves the fact that he did not practice the Book of Taiping.
This incident was an unexpected surprise.
However, Lu Yuan is not clear about this yet.
And Li Xiong in front of him was even less aware of these secrets.
At this time, he looked at Lu Yuan, who was too young. Especially when he could clearly feel the terrifying power beneath his young appearance, he felt the shock in his heart, as well as the infinite fear and awe that followed the shock. It was beyond words.
'This is definitely not innate, definitely not innate. '
Li Xiong roared filial piety in his heart.
Although his horizons are not too broad due to his background, he has been the emperor of Xishu for several years, so it is impossible for him to gain nothing, and he still has a lot of knowledge.
Now that I see Lu Yuan, I can naturally clearly tell that the other person is definitely not an ordinary innate, or not a pure innate.
From Lu Yuan, Li Xiong felt unprecedented pressure and threats in his life.
Of all the innates he had seen before, no one could give him this kind of talent.
Above the innate world, is it the second realm?
He couldn't help but think of this realm that he had been trying to find but could never reach.
Immediately, there was even greater shock and fear.
How old is the other party?
In his early thirties, is he already in the second realm of Xiantian?
Facing such a genius, no, it should be said that he can dominate the whole world, Li Xiong couldn't help but feel fear.
Facing such a person, he really couldn't muster the energy to fight against him.
Some of the unreconciled dreams that I had at first were instantly shattered after meeting me, and I gave up completely.
Lu Yuan could not guess the constant fluctuations in Li Xiong's inner thoughts, but through the changes in his expression and breath, he could also understand the huge shock in the other person's heart.
He couldn't help but smile at this.
The reason why he exposed his aura at this time was to use his absolute strength to intimidate this tycoon who had already caused two major chaos and turned Nishikawa and Daichang Wakuni into chaos.
'Now it seems that even if this move is not fully successful, it has achieved considerable results. '
Thinking like this, the smile on Lu Yuan's face became thicker, and then he looked at the other party and said: "Since you have surrendered, you are my minister of Dachu. From now on, you only need to take orders with your heart, serve me, and live your life forever." Endless wealth.”
Li Xiong bowed his head slightly: "I know this, and I will definitely live up to your majesty's grace."
"Well, it's good to know this." Lu Yuan hummed, and then did not continue to beat the newly attached minister, but asked: "I first came with the troops, and I briefly fought with the barbarians and forced them to retreat. , which can be regarded as solving the siege of Shicheng.
However, although the Yi people retreated, they still stationed troops outside the city. There were more than 100,000 soldiers and horses, which should not be underestimated.
To defeat it, the troops and horses just outside the isolated city are not enough.
How many troops do you have left in the city? How many can be pulled out to fight? "
Since ten days ago, Lu Yuan led his army to a surprise attack on Da Changhe's army outside the city, and defeated the enemy's east camp in one fell swoop.
In the past few days, the two sides have been fighting constantly.
Therefore, there are no more battles involving more than ten thousand people, but other small-scale battles involving dozens or hundreds of people have never stopped.
Relying on these small-scale battles, Lu Yuan also gradually expanded the camp in his hands, slowly and completely drove the opposing army from the east, and relieved the opponent's siege of Shicheng.
And he himself also set up camp in the east of the city, and he and Shi Cheng were at odds with each other, and finally established a firm foothold.
But even so, those Yi people were still outnumbered.
Hundreds of thousands, and possibly even as many as two hundred thousand, Yi people were still firmly distributed in the three directions of the city's north, west, and south, surrounding the dozens of miles around Shicheng.
It is simply unrealistic to defeat and drive back all the enemies from these three directions. After continuous fighting, only more than 50,000 troops and horses are left in Lu Yuan's hands.
The three or four times difference in the number of people is not something that can be erased simply by relying on quality.
Not to mention those Yi people, ever since they discovered that the Chu people had arrived and they were no match for them in a field battle.
He never took the initiative to come out and engage in a head-on confrontation.
Instead, they have been huddled in the camp and played a trick of holding on.
There are two innates on the opposite side, and there are a large number of first- and second-rate warriors in the army, supplemented by an army that is too large to count.
Faced with such defensive power, even if Lu Yuan personally took action several times, he was unable to achieve many breakthroughs on the three fronts.
The opponent couldn't defeat him, and he couldn't easily defeat the opponent.
The armies on both sides fell into a cruel and boring confrontation.
Things were just as expected. The war against the Great Chowa Kingdom had ended in a stalemate and turned into a bad war.
Fortunately, Lu Yuan had anticipated this situation.
Not only did it reserve a huge military expenditure of more than 10 million taels of silver, but it also invited the three countries of Su, Song, and Xichuan to join the war.
With these reserves and the combined efforts of the four countries, it is enough to fight a long war with these southwestern barbarians that will last more than ten years.
But being prepared for a protracted war is one thing.
But in this long war, it is another matter to waste one's elite imperial troops on a meaningless front line.
Lu Yuan, who had already lost four to five thousand people after fighting for several days, soon felt some physical pain.
Of course Lu Yuan couldn't bear to see the elite soldiers he had trained so hard for several years being wasted in a place where people were just wasting their lives.
But on the battlefield, sacrifice is inevitable.
If you don't send troops to destroy the barbarians' camps one by one and consume the other party's troops, how can you win this victory?
Therefore, the dead must die and sacrifices must be made.
However, it is debatable who should die and which group of people should be sacrificed.
So today, Lu Yuan urgently summoned Li Xiong and asked him to come to the camp to ask questions.
After I listened to his question, Li Xiong felt a little nervous. As a warlord, he naturally knew what the other party meant.
Nothing more than wanting to treat his troops as cannon fodder and send them to the battlefield to be consumed.
In this way, you can not only save yourself losses, but also eliminate dissidents and strengthen your rule. It is really the best of both worlds.
But Lu Yuan is beautiful, but Li Xiong is miserable.
Without the soldiers and horses at hand, the only bargaining chip he had worth using to negotiate terms was his own strength as an innate master.
No one is willing to do such self-defeating things.
He deliberately pushed it, but when he looked at Lu Yuan's calm eyes, his heart couldn't help but tremble, and he instantly remembered the strength of the second level of Xiantian on the opposite side, and the huge Chu country behind him.
Faced with such power, Li Xiongshi couldn't think of deception and knew that he couldn't deceive the other party.
In the end, I could only sigh in my heart, and then replied with a bit of bitterness: "Back to your Majesty, there are still more than 23,000 soldiers and horses in the city, including more than 2,000 wounded. Excluding those who defend the city, there are Send out 15,000 men to help in the battle."
"Fifteen thousand people?"
Lu Yuan frowned slightly when he heard this number.
Although there are a lot of people, the attack and defense of the camp is so difficult. Even if there are 15,000 people, they will not last for a month and they will be exhausted.
However, he also knew a little bit about Li Xiong's situation, and knew that this should be the only power the opponent had on hand.
No matter how hard I try, I can't get much out of it.
So in the end I could only nod and say: "Okay, you can bring this group of people over tomorrow and put them under my command for the time being."
Hearing this order, Li Xiong smiled bitterly in his heart. Sure enough, he couldn't escape this step in the end.
But since he had no room to resist, he could only obey his orders: "I will obey my orders."
Seeing that Li Xiong did not resist, but obeyed the order obediently, Lu Yuan couldn't help but smile on his face. Then he comforted him and said, "Li Qing, please relax, I am recruiting your troops today to defeat the barbarians.
If we can defeat the Yi people and take over all their lands, then our great Chu can take over thousands of miles of territory.
In this vast land, it is unrealistic to set up all the prefectures and counties.
In the end, Shao Shao had to be enfeoffed and let people guard the territory of our great Chu.
As long as Li Qing can make enough contributions in this battle, he will be like the story of King Gu, King Su and others who helped Vietnam in the Northern Expedition, and help me destroy the Great Changhe Kingdom.
Such a great achievement, let alone a mere achievement in the Four Kingdoms.
Even if it's half a county, or even a whole county, what's the point of being alone? "
Lu Yuan always likes to be beaten with a stick and given a sweet date. At this time, after seizing the opponent's military power, another big pie was drawn in an instant.
A very tempting pie.
really.
After hearing Lu Yuan's promise and using his own experience as an example, Li Xiong, who had also experienced the same thing, was instantly attracted.
Half a county, or even a whole county?
Thinking of this promise, Li Xiong couldn't help but breathe a little faster.
If he can really obtain such a territory, as a hero who controls a land thousands of miles away, even if he nominally submits to Lu Yuan, his identity, status and power in the world will be improved by an unknown amount compared to what he is now.
'At least, no matter what, he will not be worse than those two old guys Ji Hui Bald Donkey and Qiao Kangquan. '
With this thought in his mind, he couldn't help but get excited, and he quickly said excitedly: "Your Majesty is kind and generous, and I dare not die for you. I will definitely fight bravely to eradicate these barbarians and open up the southwest for your Majesty."
Seeing that the other party was mobilized, Lu Yuan couldn't help but smile and nod: "As long as Li Qing is here, I will be alone."
He said it half sincerely, half expectantly.
The promise given this time by Lu Yuan was not to deceive Li Xiong.
If we can really conquer the entire Dachanghe Kingdom this time, especially the people in it, they will all be barbarians who are incompatible with the Dongyang people.
So facing this vast territory that covers two counties, it is larger than the entire territory of Chu State combined.
With the current strength of Chu State, it really cannot afford it.
Not to mention, if the territory is expanded twice, how many soldiers and horses will be deployed to guard it, and how many officials will be deployed to govern it?
Just say that the Chili Yi people in the country who had their country destroyed would really be willing to accept the rule of the Dongyi people who destroyed their country and destroyed their faith?
By that time, the rebellions and the endless killings will never stop.
In this case, the larger the territory you occupy, the more troops and energy will be involved, and the greater the cost of governance to maintain the occupied area.
In the end, I am afraid that when we really have to learn how to go forward and destroy Jinghai Kingdom, there will be a permanent army of 100,000 troops stationed on the territory of Daochanghe Kingdom, and an innate grandmaster will always be guarded.
No, it could be worse.
Because the Kingdom of Jinghai was originally a tributary state of Dai Viet, although it was mainly a country composed of South Vietnamese people, which was different from the Dongyang people. However, it has always been influenced by Dai Viet, and its cultural customs have become increasingly similar to those of Dongyang people.
Even because of their long-term tribute, they all have a sense of identity with the Jinling emperor system of the Edong Yang people, and they consider themselves to be king-like people.
Therefore, after Dai Viet destroyed the Tranquility Kingdom, apart from the need for blood transfusions from the court in the first two years, by the beginning of the third year, the output of this place would be enough to meet the daily needs of Xie Ning's 50,000-strong army.
So it's easier to assimilate there.
And in this Southwest Yi territory, this is a completely unexplored and barbaric land.
There is no cultural influence of the Dongyang people here, and the county system has not been accepted. The social atmosphere is still at the tribal level, and there is even a very high belief in theocracy.
This kind of land is completely different from Dachu. It is many times more difficult to assimilate them and rule here than to assimilate Jinghai Kingdom.
If it is unable to assimilate and effectively rule, it will be unable to provide sufficient output and taxes to Da Chu until this territory is completely quiet.
They can't even provide food for the army stationed here.
The Chu State needs a steady stream of blood transfusions here and a steady flow of immigrants here. Only after carrying this burden for more than ten years can it achieve positive benefits.
In today's changing world, where wars between countries are becoming increasingly fierce, it is by no means a good thing for the Chu State to carry such a burden.
Even in the end, the occupied Daochanghe Kingdom may become a burden to the Chu State and a flaw in the Chu State, and other countries may seize the opportunity and use it as a means to defeat the Chu State.
Therefore, all these concerns and disadvantages finally contributed to Lu Yuan's decision, that is, this time he sent troops to Changhe Kingdom. Even if he won a big victory, the territory he would swallow in the end could only be one county.
The territory of a county is only three to five thousand miles wide. After the war, it was estimated that there were only a million people, or even less than a million.
This small amount of territory, with the current strength of the Chu State, is still a bit of a burden, but it is within the tolerance range.
It can be guaranteed that after enough protective force is left in the occupied area, there will still be enough power left to deal with challenges from other countries, and it can still be swallowed.
But no more will do.
Therefore, if this conquest can really capture more than one county, Lu Yuan will not mind using the extra territory to reward heroes or use it to make deals with other allies.
Since he couldn't eat it himself, giving it to Li Xiong would also allow him to stand in front of him, face the front line of the war, and become a buffer zone to help Lu Yuan withstand the counterattack of the southwestern barbarians after they captured Da Changhe.
You can also ask this person to help sort out the territories that you cannot control, clean up the barbarians in the country, and make advance preparations for taking over these territories in the future.
Lu Yuan would not refuse this kind of thing that offers the best of both worlds.
However, he has been preparing for several years to govern the southwestern Yi people, and of course he will not only have this method.
Therefore, after finishing drawing the cake, Lu Yuan looked at Li Xiong and continued: "To destroy the Great Changhe Kingdom, just relying on these soldiers and horses is not enough. We need more help from the army. Li Qing has worked hard in this country for many years. Hard work and deep roots.
I intend to order Li Qing to be the general recruiting officer of our Great Chu Expedition to the West, specifically responsible for recruiting those warriors who aspire to become kings and are willing to serve our Great Chu in this southwestern barbarian land.
Is Li Qing willing to take over? "
Hearing this appointment, Li Xiong was slightly startled, not knowing what the purpose was.
I was thinking anxiously and vaguely guessed something, but I didn't dare to confirm it yet.
However, the appointment had been given, and he had just eaten the painted cake. He would not refuse such a meritorious deed, and immediately accepted the order and said: "I have been ordered to serve the king."
Lu Yuan nodded slightly, and then immediately issued an order: "Since Li Qing has taken over, I will order someone to send me official seals and official uniforms later. Now, Li Qing will go back first to help Gu organize things."
Send manpower to help recruit 50,000 barbarian soldiers and horses in the old areas of Wuman Kingdom, as well as Huichuan and Nongdong that were conquered in the past few days. "
Lu Yuan said in a tone that left no room for doubt.
