"Currently, there are about 51,000 Forbidden Army soldiers and horses in the Central Army directly under my command."
Lu Yuan took stock of his family assets.
There are 51,000 people, which is a decrease of about 9,000 people from the 60,000 people just before the war started.
A battle involving more than 100,000 people lasted for more than half a year. It was quite incredible that such losses were achieved in exchange for such great results.
However, if you look carefully, you can actually find that this loss ratio is actually quite reasonable.
Because in the past few months since the defeat of Da Changhe's army in Shicheng, although Lu Yuan's army has been fighting each other, it has almost never stopped.
However, the main force in the battle between the Chu army and Da Changhe's army has always been the surrendered Yi soldiers.
No matter when they were under the stone city, they kept storming the camp, forcing the opponent to retreat.
It was not long ago that Li Xiong captured the city at the foot of Longhe City regardless of casualties.
In these two key battles, the main siege forces were basically surrendered and captured barbarians. Among them, the Imperial Army of Chu State only served as the supervising team and the final elite.
These two roles are at the rear. Basically, they rarely go to the battlefield and the personnel losses are small, which is normal.
Therefore, from another perspective, it is no problem that the blood and sacrifices of hundreds of thousands of Chili Yi people won these two battles for Chu.
Even Lu Yuan would not deny this.
"Now after Li Xiong captured Longhe City, he pursued the victory all the way. Now he has captured Qinzangchuan and Chiyan City in the south of Kunhai, and captured ten cities.
According to the previous agreement, all the city land in the Kunchi area east of Lushui belongs to Li Xiong alone, and I will not interfere.
Therefore, there is no need for me to station troops in the newly captured area, nor do I need to follow Li Xiong to continue waging war against Daejanghe's army.
In this regard, there is no need for me to deploy additional troops. "
Lu Yuan was thinking in his heart.
Since the fall of Longhe City by Li Xiong, the former emperor of Xishu seemed to have regained some of the style of the previous overlord of Xichuan, and gained a somewhat invincible momentum on the battlefield in the Kunhai area.
After breaking Longhe City, this man first gathered some surrendered troops in the city, then reorganized the remaining troops outside his city, and finally got 30,000 troops.
Immediately afterwards, without giving his men a chance to breathe, they chased the direction in which the Grand Wizard of the Shrine escaped, heading all the way deep into Kunhai.
During this period, several small-scale battles broke out with Daochanghe's army, and they were defeated quickly.
In the end, if Li Chuan, who had returned to the country to recuperate, had not hurriedly led 20,000 troops to block the attack, and stopped Li Xiong near the sand pool, he would have been chased to the capital in one go.
But even so, after more than half a month of fighting, Li Xiong had successfully captured Qinzangchuan and Chiyan City in the south of Kunhai, and captured more than a dozen cities.
You must know that this is the most prosperous and prosperous Kunhai area in the entire Southwest Yi region. Especially since the wars of the past few years have not affected this area, it has retained a lot of vitality here.
Although Li Xiong only occupies a small part of the Kunhai area, the population under his control at this time has exceeded 200,000.
Although this population does not seem to be large, for Li Xiong, it is another piece of land that he has finally obtained after being displaced for seven years and can stably provide a source of tax troops.
The previous Wuman Kingdom does not count.
Although he controlled the Wuman Kingdom at that time, when issuing various political orders to the Wuman Kingdom, he still had to rely on the original Wuman Kingdom leader and nobles at all levels, and he could only hide behind the scenes and manipulate these.
But like this time, he came to the stage openly and truly became the leader of a place as the lord of a place.
The difference between these two is still very big.
The most obvious point is that even if the country has not yet been enfeoffed, Li Xiong has already used his identity as the Lord of Kunhai to collect taxes and recruit soldiers from the Chili Yi people in the area under his control.
Although it has just begun at this time, according to the latest report from Li Xiong ahead.
The Qin Zangchuan and Chiyan City under his control now have enough warehouses to support an army of 50,000 for one year. Moreover, the household registration is abundant and more than 20,000 soldiers have been recruited, making Li Xiong's troops expanded to 50,000.
Well, although the above is still nothing.
But Li Xiong's initial self-sufficiency actually greatly eased the logistical pressure on Lu Yuan's side.
honestly.
Although the war had only begun for more than half a year, the Chu State's logistics had already been overwhelmed by such a short period of time.
After all, the distance on land alone from the Chu mainland to transporting grain and grass all the way to the Lushui front line was more than 1,300 miles.
It is not easy to ensure adequate support for such a long transportation and logistics line, especially for a hundred thousand troops.
In order to ensure that there was no shortage of supplies on the front line, in the early days of the war, Lu Yuan recruited 200,000 civilians in the country to transport grain and grass.
Later, when he won the Battle of Shicheng and conquered the lands east of Lushui, he took the opportunity to seize a large number of grain and grass materials and warehouses left by the army, which greatly relieved the logistical pressure. , gradually reduced the number of civilians transporting grain and grass to about 100,000.
Moreover, many of them are filled by newly-immigrated immigrants and local barbarians who are paid for, which can be regarded as a kind of work-for-relief.
But even so, the long-term confrontation and the recruitment of a large number of civilians still seriously affected the economic development and local people's livelihood of Chu State.
Ren Luyuan had to resolve the war as soon as possible.
Having previously launched a decisive battle across the river and hinted that Li Xiong would consume the captured barbarian soldiers, he also had the idea of reducing the logistical pressure.
Now it seems that the 50,000 troops and horses in Li Xiong's hands are no longer burdened by Lu Yuan for the time being, which is good news.
"With Li Xiong and 50,000 people supporting him from the front, the defensive pressure west of Lushui will not be too severe before he is defeated by Da Changhe.
In this case, I only need to leave 10,000 soldiers and horses to garrison and defend in Anning City on the east bank of Lushui. As the second line of defense after Li Xiong, I can almost isolate the military threat from the west.
Then the remaining 41,000 people can be dispersed and distributed to local counties. In this way, even if 400 people are resettled in each county, there will only be 22,000 people.
There are nearly 20,000 people left, which can be used as a central mobile force to respond to rebellions in various places at any time.
At the same time, it can also be used as a mopping up force to further clean up the remaining barbarian soldiers in the mountains and strengthen local security. "
Lu Yuan thought this in his mind and quickly made a decision.
…
Time flows slowly.
After quelling the rebellion in Qianzhong County in the rear, Lu Yuan quickly began to adjust his troops and horses in various places according to his own strategy.
A large number of forbidden troops were dispersed and placed in various prefectures and counties in central Guizhou Province according to the establishment of one hundred soldiers per soldier or five hundred soldiers per battalion to assist local officials in maintaining public order.
The remaining main force of the Forbidden Army began to carry out large-scale bandit suppression operations in local governments, with thousands of people, and continued to clean up the remnants of local bandits, as well as some barbarian tribes that were still resisting. .
In addition to suppressing bandits, Lu Yuan also began to clean up the local villages and towns outside the county seat, preparing to formally bring them under the rule of the government.
He came in a hurry before, in order to deal with the great commander and the army, after establishing a local territory, he basically only occupied a city to ensure nominal rule.
As for the countless villages and towns outside the city, I really don’t have much energy to take care of them.
Therefore, as Zhao Xianzhi, the magistrate of Qingshui County, said before, his local county offices can only manage the barbarians in the county and the newly arrived immigrants.
As for the many barbarian tribes in many villages and towns in the vast countryside, they really have no ability to control them.
Official uniforms were just a matter of making use of the great military power of Chu to make the local villages, towns and tribes submit in name only.
But beyond these superficial effects.
In fact, the government cannot even collect taxes from local villages, towns and tribes. The strength of local control is extremely weak.
Originally, Lu Yuan planned to wait for the current situation in Qianzhong County to be fully prepared for the local government and county soldiers at all levels, and the local government officials to be in place, and then let them handle it on their own.
But now that the recruitment of soldiers from the prefecture and county is not going smoothly, it is obviously unrealistic to rely on the local government to solve the problem on its own.
Since we plan to suppress the bandits at this time, and the Forbidden Army happens to be free, we should simply resolve this matter as well.
Anyway, all the able-bodied men in the local villages, towns and tribes have been recruited away, leaving some old, young, women and children. Even if they want to make trouble, they can't make any big trouble.
When the heavenly soldiers of the imperial court arrive, they must not obey their orders obediently.
certainly.
Naturally, there were some people who wanted to die and wanted to die. Lu Yuan was not polite to these rebellious guys and suppressed them directly.
Without killing everyone, how can we establish the authority of the imperial court over the local area, establish the king's law here in Chu, and how can we make those barbaric barbarians surrender?
For a time, the peaceful Qianzhong County once again erupted into countless wars and chaos.
Just this time.
Those who were massacred were no longer local immigrants or barbarians who had begun to register their households. It was the tribesmen who were untamed and unruly.
…
Just as Lu Yuan was intensifying public security and governance issues in Qianzhong County, other places also started their own major actions.
After roughly controlling Qin Zangchuan and Chiyan City for a generation, in early April of the fifth year of Shenwu, Li Xiong, who had expanded his army to 50,000, continued to use his aggressive and brave style to attack the great commander and army led by Li Chuan in the Shachi area. Attack.
However, after this period of preparation, Li Chuan has successively mobilized 30,000 troops and horses from the rear of the country. At this time, his military strength is equal to that of Li Xiong, and his morale is even better.
Therefore, the two sides fought for a while, and Li Xiong's Yi soldiers were shaken. Finally, Li Chuan seized the opportunity and defeated them.
Li Xiong lost more than ten thousand troops and had to lead the remaining defeated troops to retreat to Chiyan City.
Li Chuan took the opportunity to advance, took back several lost cities, and led his troops to surround Chiyan City.
At this time, the Qin Zangchuan rear controlled by Li Xiong also broke out in riots because of his defeat, and there was a hint of rebellion in response to Li Chuan's trend.
In an emergency, Lu Yuan quickly ordered the 10,000 imperial troops on the east bank to cross the river and station themselves in Longhe City. Only then did they intimidate the barbarians who were ready to move, so that they did not dare to make trouble.
After that, Li Chuan fought around Chiyan City for more than a month and lost over 10,000 troops, but he still had no choice. In the end, because the army was short of food and the summer harvest was approaching, he had to withdraw his troops.
After this encounter, Li Xiong did not dare to be as reckless and careless as before, and did not dare to continue attacking the sand pool guarded by Li Chuan. Instead, he left 30,000 troops and horses to let his brother Li Shou guard Chiyan City.
He himself carried thousands of remaining soldiers and returned to Qinzangchuan. While continuing to recruit troops, he waited for the summer harvest and slowly licked his wounds.
However, according to Li Xiong's report, he has now changed his strategy and no longer goes to attack Shachi City, which is tightly defended by Li Chuan and is like an iron bucket of gold and silver.
Instead, they plan to continue to expand southward first and take over the remaining area south of Kunhai, that is, the Dachanghe Army in Luchuan, which is confronting Li Liang across the river.
After taking down the last piece of the puzzle in the southern part of Kunhai and expanding their rear, they can then turn around and head north, continue to compete with Lichuan, and try to break through and penetrate to the north of Kunhai.
In this regard, Lu Yuan is happy to see the success.
He even gave an order to Li Liang to cooperate with Li Xiong. The two sides should work together to solve the hidden dangers in the south first.
The fighting was lively here in Kunhai, and the war in Dali Guoyinsheng area to the south was also raging at this time.
After several months of repairs, in May of this year, Su and Song, who had already achieved preliminary communication, began to jointly send troops to attack Yinsheng City controlled by Dali from two directions from the southeast.
In Dali, facing the huge crisis of invasion by the two countries, in addition to King Pingchuan who was already in command, the domestic shrine shaman priest finally took action, leading a group of shrine shaman priests to join the battlefield.
At this time, the Dali Kingdom had gathered an army of 300,000 people and was fighting with the Soviet Union and Song Dynasty in the Yinsheng City area.
The two sides went back and forth and fought fiercely.
But generally speaking, Dali still had the upper hand.
After all, Dali had a military advantage, with an army of 300,000 people facing off against the Soviet Union and Song Dynasty, which had an army of 150,000 people.
Even though most of Dali's soldiers and horses are militia in nature, they are not capable of fighting. However, the consumption of not fearing death still made the Soviet Union and Song Dynasty somewhat unable to support themselves, and gradually exposed a bit of decline.
Fortunately, even so, with the strength and size of these two countries, they can still sustain it.
After the troops and horses on the front line have been defeated, the worst thing to do is to replace them from the rear.
The Soviet Union and the Song Dynasty were both large countries with a population of over one million, and they had enough population to support their consumption with the Dali Kingdom.
Even with the size of the two countries, Dali will be the one who cannot hold on until the end.
Therefore, although the battle situation in the south was unfavorable, there were no major problems.
On the contrary, something happened in the north.
In July of the fifth year of Shenwu, Lu Yuan, who had just completed the initial public security improvement work in Qianzhong County, received some bad news from Xichuan County.
