As good news came one after another from various battlefields in the Hezong Alliance, the alliance's advantage over the three southwestern Yi countries was established.
A glorious victory is about to come.
However, at this time, Lu Yuan withdrew from the frontline battlefield and led his troops back to Shicheng, the present-day capital of Qianzhong County.
Just half a month ago.
Shicheng, which had been gradually settling down, suddenly broke out into turmoil.
Tens of thousands of Chili Yi remnants who were originally scattered throughout Qianzhong County suddenly gathered and launched a massive rebellion in the rear of Qianzhong County.
Because the incident happened suddenly, and the county troops at all levels in Qianzhong County had not yet been formed, and Lu Yuan's army was on the front line.
The empty Qianzhong County in the rear was unable to stop this sudden rebel force.
Especially among the rebels, there are many martial arts masters, and their strength has reached the first-class level. For the county town with empty defense, facing this kind of enemy, the opponent can almost break the city alone.
Therefore, in just a few days, several local county towns were captured by this rebel army. Thousands of immigrants who had just moved in, together with the officials and generals in the city, died in the revenge of these barbarian rebels.
Then these rebels moved quickly and had extremely clear goals, heading all the way towards Shicheng, the capital of Qianzhong County.
Fortunately, the current guarding captain of Qianzhong County is the new true disciple Liucheng, who was carefully promoted by Lu Yuan from among his many named disciples.
Not only is his strength above the first level, he is also a veteran on the battlefield. He has been following Lu Yuan since the days of Shaoyang Mansion.
For more than ten years, he has fought in the north and south, and has made great achievements in battle. He has an extremely sensitive grasp of the battlefield smell.
When he heard that rebels had appeared in the territory, Liucheng immediately gathered soldiers from several surrounding cities and mobilized immigrants in the county city. Together with the original county guards, he assembled a force of 3,000 soldiers and horses.
Then he sent out an urgent report, asking for help like the master on the Lushui front line.
This series of actions was extremely fast and bought precious time for countering the rebellion.
So when Lu Yuan received the news, the rebels had just arrived in Shicheng and were tentatively planning to attack the city.
However, compared to when they first rebelled, the number of rebels has expanded a lot.
Having previously conquered several cities, the rebel force's momentum quickly spread. In many places, Yi people who were dissatisfied with the rule of the Chu people came to respond.
Coupled with some barbarians who had been coerced along the way, by the time they reached Shicheng, this group of rebels had grown much larger, reaching a size of nearly 20,000 people.
Although there are many people, most of the soldiers are old and weak. Children less than four feet tall can be seen everywhere, as well as gray-haired old people who are shaking when they walk, and even some strong women with strong bodies.
After being wiped out by Li Xiong in successive battles, the Yi people in Qianzhong County had already suffered an extremely heavy blow.
This kind of blow not only refers to the damage to various local constructions and the stagnation of production, but also refers to the destruction of almost four generations of men, old, middle, young and young.
Nowadays, the Yi people in Qianzhong County, including white-haired old men in their eighties, children as young as ten or even eight or nine years old, and a large number of men who can handle weapons have been conscripted to the front line and participated in various tasks. In the cruel war, they were constantly consumed. …
This kind of destruction and consumption was devastating to Qianzhong County.
It almost completely destroyed the social and demographic structure of the county and almost turned it into a daughter country.
But it seems that it is precisely because of this kind of destruction that the current rebellion is limited to a mere 20,000 people.
Otherwise, if those barbarian men were left alone, they would still be scattered throughout the territory.
It is really hard to imagine how far this sudden turmoil will develop now.
I'm afraid that when the time comes, we will raise the flag and give a shout, crowds will gather in the scenery, and a hundred thousand troops will gather overnight, right?
"Fortunately, such a scene did not occur."
Lu Yuan looked at the battlefield that had just ended. There were broken corpses, scattered weapons, and burning black smoke everywhere, and he thought in his heart.
This is Changfeng County, Jinxi Prefecture, and it is also the last stronghold of the rebel barbarians.
Since seven days ago, he led his troops back to Shicheng urgently and defeated the rebels who were besieging the city with thunder.
In the past few days, they have been chasing the rebels, regaining five lost counties in succession, and finally reached Changfeng County, which was the last city of the rebels.
Now, the last two thousand barbarians who were defending the city were completely destroyed. The martial arts masters in the army had no chance to escape in front of Lu Yuan and were shot dead on the spot.
"However, the moves and routines of these martial arts masters are clearly inherited from the Chili Clan Shrine. Is this rebellion in Qianzhong County the work of the Shrine?"
Lu Yuan looked at the two corpses lying beside him.
These two people didn't seem to want to hide, and there was no need to hide their identities.
When fighting him, Dafangfang used the martial arts inherited from his shrine, and directly revealed his origins.
Judging from his posture, it seemed that he wanted him to know where he came from.
"Is this a deterrent to me?"
Lu Yuan stared at the corpse for a while, with a cold look in his eyes.
Although he had already expected this situation and was mentally prepared.
But when it really happened, I still couldn't help but feel angry.
The rebellion instigated by the Shrine sent people to the rear was put down in less than half a month due to its quick response.
However, even in this short period of half a month, the area around Shicheng, which had not yet recovered from the war, was once again subjected to unimaginable damage.
Not only were six county towns captured, but nearly four thousand immigrants in the cities were killed, causing the few Dongyang people in the county to suffer huge losses and severely drain their vitality.
Even the barbarians in these areas suffered heavy losses, with tens of thousands of people killed or injured.
These were all important forces that could have been the cornerstone of Chu State and allowed Chu State's rule to take root here, but now they have all been wasted in vain.
How could this make Lu Yuan happy?
What's more important is that rebellions like this don't happen alone.
As long as the shrine is still there, as long as the great leader and the country are still there, as long as they still have masters in their hands, they can be sent to the rear of Qianzhong County at any time to instigate one rebellion after another.
Although more than 20,000 rebels were successfully annihilated this time, the remaining Chili soldiers scattered throughout Qianzhong County were basically wiped out. …
Even if the other side wants to instigate rebellion in the future, it will never be possible on a scale of tens of thousands like it is now.
But even if it is a small-scale rebellion with hundreds or thousands of people, if it happens from time to time, it will cause serious damage to the local area, and more importantly, it will be disgusting.
After all, Qianzhong County covers an area of four thousand miles, with eight prefectures and eighty counties. In such a large area, it is impossible for Lu Yuan to fortify and monitor everywhere to perfectly eliminate the hidden dangers of rebellion.
It has always been possible to be a thief for a thousand days, how can one guard against a thief for a thousand days?
But if he wanted to completely solve this hidden danger, he had no good way.
After all, although the country of Ojowa is losing ground on the front lines, it still has a lot of power in its hands.
Especially in terms of martial arts masters, the two innate masters, dozens of first-rate masters, and a larger number of second-rate and third-rate masters are all the foundation accumulated by the entire Chili tribe for thousands of years.
At this level, it is indeed difficult for the Chu State, which was founded less than ten years ago, to catch up with and rival it.
What's even more annoying is.
The other party could send people to Qianzhong County to incite the local barbarians to rebel, but Lu Yuan could not use the same method to suppress the other party.
After all, there are not a large number of Chu people in Dachanghe for him to bewitch. Moreover, the martial arts masters that the Chu State can send out may not be able to match the other party's reserve of masters that is several times larger than its own.
In contrast, facing the sneak attack method of the Divine Palace, Chu State could only passively defend itself.
"It seems that we can only strengthen local defense."
Lu Yuan exhaled helplessly, suppressed the annoyance and dissatisfaction in his heart, left the battlefield, and entered the county government office that had just been tidied up in the city.
When he arrived at the Yameni, he was not in a hurry to rest. Instead, he came to the study, sat on a chair, and meditated quietly.
Due to the lack of strength and the poor foundation of local governance, in the past few years, Chu State was destined to adopt this strategy of passive attack and defensive counterattack when faced with the sneak attacks from the shrine.
But defensive counterattacks also require attention.
With such protection, how can we protect it well and how can we protect it tightly?
How to fight back, to what extent, and how to use counterattack to shock the hearts and minds of local people who are ready to move?
The above questions are all worth pondering.
As for these issues that need to be pondered, no one can help him solve them. He can only rely on Lu Yuan, the King of Chu, to decide.
"Now after several months of recruitment, five thousand county soldiers have been recruited in the country, and these people have been sent to various places in Qianzhong County.
In addition, the county also recruited 5,000 county soldiers from the 200,000 Yulin County immigrants.
So now the entire county can barely gather 10,000 prefectural and county soldiers.
But these forces are still too small. Ten thousand soldiers from prefectures and counties are divided among the counties in the county, and each county can only get a little over a hundred people.
It is simply a fool's errand to think that these people can control barbarians all over the world. "
Lu Yuan couldn't help having a headache when he thought about this problem.
The Ministry of War has been recruiting soldiers from prefectures and counties in Qianzhong County for more than half a year.
However, in more than half a year, only 5,000 prefecture and county soldiers were recruited. One can imagine how difficult this work was to advance.
This is not to say that no one in Chu State wants to be a soldier and pay.
On the contrary, there are actually many people in Chu who are willing to serve as soldiers and get paid. Quite a lot. …
After all, over the years, Chu State has expanded externally and achieved numerous victories. These brilliant victories can be said to be quite inspiring.
In addition, this is an era of extraordinary manifestations of saints. There has always been a martial culture among the people, and there is no shortage of hot-blooded men.
Under such environmental conditions, it is quite simple for the Chu State to recruit troops.
And with the Chu State itself, with a population of nearly six million, there are enough qualified soldiers for the Ministry of War to select and recruit.
Therefore, there is no problem in recruiting troops.
What really makes it difficult for the Ministry of War to recruit troops is a harsh place like Qianzhong County.
Prefecture and county soldiers are local troops. After being recruited, their duty is to maintain local security, clean up bandits, and suppress rebellions.
This kind of purely public security force will basically not be mobilized again after it is placed in the local area.
That is to say.
After a prefectural soldier arrives in his prefecture, if nothing unexpected happens, he will settle here for the rest of his life.
If it were in the three counties of Da Chu, then many people would be willing to serve as county soldiers there. The military salary of three taels of silver a month is quite attractive.
But if it were Qianzhong County, the originally attractive military salary would instantly become less attractive.
Where is that place in Qianzhong County?
There are barbarians everywhere, there are barren mountains and rivers everywhere, and there are wars and dangers everywhere.
In such a shabby place, even if you offer a high salary of three taels of silver a month, not many people are willing to come here to serve as soldiers.
Compared to the peaceful, prosperous and prosperous Dachu mainland, no one who is used to a good life is willing to go to a remote place for the rest of his life, where he and his family will be in danger of being killed at any time, and spend their lives in fear.
It is precisely for this reason.
So when the Ministry of War recruited soldiers, many people who came to apply were unhappy when they heard that they were going to that damn place in Qianzhong County, and they disappeared without a trace.
In the end, only those whose families are really poor want to risk their lives to become rich. Or as the second son, someone who was kicked out by his family and had nowhere to go. Only then will they choose to apply and participate.
How many of these people can be found in Dachu today?
After these people go through physical fitness screening, even fewer will pass.
This is the reason why for more than half a year, the Ministry of War only recruited a mere 5,000 people out of 6 million people.
Recruitment work is making difficult progress, and very few domestic people are willing to come to Qianzhong County to join the army.
But the court cannot use coercive means.
Otherwise, if you forcibly recruit people, they might have to flee when they arrive in Qianzhong County.
This is not impossible.
After all, most of those who can serve as soldiers are in good health, and some even have a skill or two in martial arts, which is no worse than those low-level fish in the world.
Those miscellaneous fish at the bottom of the rivers and lakes can travel everywhere, and these people who are forcibly recruited can naturally escape everywhere.
Even if they flee in groups, these deserters with certain military qualities may become bandits who seriously threaten local public security and pose a huge security risk.
If it gets more serious, it is not impossible to even start a small rebellion. …
Moreover, it is difficult to expect a force with resentment and no fighting spirit to be able to maintain local security in Qianzhong County.
We even have to worry about whether they will deliberately cause riots in the local area because of their dissatisfaction, and then they will lose everything.
Therefore, due to various considerations, the Ministry of War finally gave up the forced recruitment plan and chose voluntary recruitment with little results.
But at this rate, I want to make up for it. Qianzhong County's third-level military force in prefectures and counties is really far away.
Don't even think about it in three to five years, or even ***.
But for such a long time, the local security in Qianzhong County cannot be neglected because of this, right?
Otherwise, barbarian rebellions like today's will only come out one after another, never ending, from various local prefectures and counties, and will never be completely quelled.
"It seems that there is really no other way. We can only use the Forbidden Army to support us first."
After thinking about these bad things for a long time, Lu Yuan could only smile bitterly and make this decision.
People in the country are unwilling to settle down in Qianzhong County and cannot recruit enough soldiers from the prefecture and county. Moreover, the security of Qianzhong County cannot be ignored. So the problem of local stability here can only be temporarily supported by the Forbidden Army, which can be constantly rotated. .
However, although it was decided to let the Forbidden Army temporarily take over the security, how many Forbidden Army should be sent and which Forbidden Army should be sent are also issues that need to be considered.
"Across from Huichuan Kingdom in the north, my father-in-law has quite a few troops from Da Changhe Kingdom. He needs to guard against them and wait for an opportunity to attack Huichuan Kingdom. From there, he can seize the land of the two prefectures and make up for Qianzhong County. The territory of the ten prefectures.
The mission there is very heavy, so his 20,000 forbidden troops cannot be moved. "
Lu Yuan pondered in his heart.
Although the main force in the central part of his side had made a breakthrough under Li Xiong's desperate efforts to cross the river.
However, the Chu army did not make a breakthrough on both sides of Huichuan State in the north and Nongdong State in the south.
Opposite the two partial armies, there are still tens of thousands of barbarian troops from the Great Chowa Kingdom defending each side. There are also many martial arts masters in these barbarian armies, making them an extremely powerful force.
Therefore, in the face of these tight defenses, Lu Yuan currently has no better way to deal with them.
After all, he can't just follow the example of the middle road and treat his precious Imperial Army as worthless barbarian soldiers, driving them to cross the river and attack with countless lives, right?
That would indeed break through the barbarians' defense line.
But after the breakthrough, most of the people in the two partial armies were dead.
Even if they break through the defense line, they won't be able to gain more territory. On the contrary, he lost a lot of strength and it was completely meaningless.
Therefore, the confrontation between the northern and southern fronts is still maintained.
Lu Yuan's strategy was to continue to break through in the central part. With the results in the central part, he forced Dachohe State to mobilize troops from the northern and southern fronts, giving the two partial armies a good opportunity to achieve a breakthrough.
Only in this way can we achieve the greatest possible results with the least possible losses.
"Nongdongguo, the area opposite Li Liang, also belongs to the Kunhai area. I have promised this territory to Li Xiong, and according to the previous agreement, Li Xiong is allowed to capture it himself.
Therefore, for Li Liang, it actually doesn't matter whether he crosses the river or not. The battle can be left to Li Xiong. He only needs to contain the Da Changhe army in that department.
If he follows this strategy, of the 20,000 people he has in hand, he only needs to leave 10,000 people to set up defenses along the river bank to prevent the barbarians on the other side from attacking.
The remaining 10,000 people can be dispersed to the Nongdongguo area to serve as security forces to maintain local stability and suppress possible rebellions. "
Lu Yuan held the map and looked at the direction of Nongdong Country. Although the markings on it were not very clear, the mountains, rivers and rivers were probably described.
But now on the map, the territory that originally belonged to the Nongdong Kingdom has been divided into the East Xie Mansion, West Xie Mansion, and part of the Shougong Mansion area.
There are 25 counties in these two prefectures and a half. If 10,000 people are filled in, each county can be assigned 400 forbidden troops. Plus the original more than 100 prefecture and county soldiers, one county has a military strength of more than 500 people. .
More than five hundred soldiers and horses were enough to suppress the local barbarians, who had already lost a large number of men.
"In this case, the territory of these two and a half prefectures is almost settled. What is left is the other five and a half prefectures."
Lu Yuan looked at other areas. In the twenty-five counties south of Qianzhong County, Li Liang could help share the pressure.
But in the remaining fifty-five counties in the remaining regions, it is up to him to find a way to solve the security problem.
In other words, people need to be transferred from the more than 50,000 forbidden troops under his direct control to fill the vacancies in public security in these places.
