Although Lu Yuan was worried about the current crisis, he actually had some confidence in taking such a risk.
This confidence does not come from others, but from his own strength.
When Lu Yuan broke through and condensed his energy, he naturally mastered one magical power and three spells recorded in the Book of Taiping.
Among them, the magical power of the Yellow Turban Warrior has already spawned two clones, Huang Xuan and Qingyunzi.
Relying on these two clones, they have helped him a lot over the years, greatly alleviating the dilemma of Chu State's lack of top experts. Their importance and help are almost irreplaceable.
In addition to this magical power, the state of condensing Qi can also master three spells.
They are Mire Technique, Ground Thorn Technique, and Earth Wall Technique.
Of these three spells, Earth Stab is specialized in offense. It can be used by a group of individuals. It is extremely powerful. It is the most offensive spell that Lu Yuan has mastered now.
However, although this spell also has a group attack, it can summon multiple ground thorns at the same time to attack the enemy.
But with Lu Yuan's current magic power, he could only summon thirty or forty ground thorns with all his strength. The area that could be covered was small, so it was still quite difficult to achieve a large-scale attack.
As for the earth wall technique, it is a defensive spell, needless to say.
What Lu Yuan really likes in this battle and relies on as his trump card is the quagmire technique.
The mire spell is a spell that turns an area into a mud swamp for a period of time and is used to change the terrain.
Previously, when Lu Yuan had just broken through and condensed his energy, he cast this spell. With his full strength, he could transform the terrain within a hundred feet radius and turn it into a quagmire.
Take the current mainstream formations as an example. When large armies confront each other, the most basic formation is basically a formation of 500 people, which is a battalion of soldiers and horses.
The area occupied by such a small battalion-level square formation is only an area of twenty or thirty feet in radius.
Going up to the battalion level, this is the first-level captain who commands several battalions. When several square formations are arranged, they can almost reach a radius of a hundred feet.
That is to say.
When Lu Yuan gathered his energy, he used the Mire Technique to turn a hundred feet in radius into a swamp. In an instant, he could cover a battle group commanded by a captain and let the swamp swallow one or two thousand people.
But now it has been five years since Lu Yuan broke through and condensed his Qi.
In five years, although he was unable to break through the condensation of two qi due to the thinness of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, he also made great progress in the realm of condensing one qi.
The most obvious point is that the accumulation of mana increases.
Compared with when he first broke through, Lu Yuan now has about three times the amount of mana accumulated in his body than when he first entered this realm.
In other words, as long as he is willing, he can turn an area of three hundred feet into a quagmire at any time.
With a radius of three hundred feet, the area covered above can cover almost half of an army of ten thousand people.
Some small towns are only this big.
Such a large area, to some extent, has changed the world.
And Lu Yuan, who has mastered this power, undoubtedly has the power to change the world.
As long as he wants to, he can cast the Mire Technique in an instant. Kill six or seven thousand people, or destroy a small town.
Such great power, if displayed on the battlefield, can instantly defeat an army.
And this is only the most direct effect, not counting the collateral effects.
think about it.
The two armies lined up in front of the formation, using their own methods on each other, arrows flying in random directions, and swords and guns moving in unison.
Even if there are some powerful warriors, they can only defeat dozens or hundreds of people. Although they are still terrifying, they are still within the scope of ordinary people's understanding.
Even if the innate master takes action and uses his martial arts outer body, he can change the environment in a radius of ten feet, which is almost comparable to that of gods and demons.
But even if such a terrifying innate master wanted to kill thousands of people, it would take more than a dozen breaths, and it would be extremely expensive and impossible to last.
If a top-notch master leads a team to stop him along the way and is assisted by many battlefield weapons, it may be difficult for an innate master to kill thousands of people on the battlefield.
With these constraints, although the innate master is extremely terrifying, the mortal army is not without any resistance.
If you are willing to pay the price, even if tens of thousands of people die, you can still defeat the Xiantian Grandmaster.
Even if the innate master is stubborn, it is not impossible to consume him to death.
But if you use Lu Yuan's spells, you don't have to fight hard or waste time and energy. You can kill thousands of people in an instant by chanting spells and casting spells.
And in an instant, thousands of people died in front of their eyes. This scene, which was like a divine punishment, had an unimaginable impact on people's will.
Lu Yuan could tell.
As long as he uses the Mire Technique, he can not only cripple a legion instantly, but also directly collapse the morale of several nearby enemy legions.
The defeat of tens of thousands of people at once, the collapse of tens of thousands of people, this is almost a sure defeat for a big battle, the kind that is irreversible.
So relying on this magic, Lu Yuan only had to pull out his troops and have a big battle with Ning Jun.
Then the moment the quagmire technique appeared, the defeat of Ning's army was inevitable.
The Chu army took advantage of the situation and defeated the Ning army in one fell swoop. This was unlikely.
After all, the Ningren army is a well-trained standing soldier, and there are also second-level innate masters in the Ningguo army. Whether they are at the bottom or at the top, their strength and quality are not bad.
Wanting to defeat them in one go is really looking down on the other party.
But taking advantage of this battle, it was still possible to eliminate tens of thousands or even 100,000 of Ning's troops and keep their morale low for a while, and Wen Chu's expression changed in a short period of time.
As long as this is achieved, the strength gap between Chu Ning on the main battlefield can gradually return to balance from the original disparity.
Balance means equivalence; equivalence means stalemate.
At that time, on this main battlefield, between the Chu State and the Ning State, it will become a boring game where no one can do anything to the other, and in the end they can only compete purely for consumption and heritage.
However, in terms of balance on the main battlefield, it seems that neither side suffered a loss.
Don't forget it.
In the other three secondary battlefields, Chu State had the advantage.
The main battlefield is stalemate, and the other three battlefields are dominant.
Then when these dominant battlefields are over and Chu wins, the excess power will be transferred back to the main battlefield.
The originally balanced situation would naturally turn in favor of Chu.
In the end, the victory of this war will belong to Chu State.
Therefore, on the main battlefield, as long as Lu Yuan maintains a stalemate, it will be equal to victory.
Therefore, mastering the quagmire technique is actually equivalent to mastering the key to victory in this war and mastering the important weight on the scale.
In the other three battlefields, Chu was in an invincible position.
In this main battlefield, Chu State is also in an invincible position.
"but……"
Lu Yuan thought of the Quagmire Technique and went through the various essences of this spell in his mind. Don't sigh slightly: "If I want to achieve the above effects, I must use up all my mana.
But with the aura of the earth being so thin and bad, all my mana has been exhausted, and it will take at least half a year to recover it.
That is to say.
Within half a year, I couldn't continue to improve my cultivation. I could only recharge and replenish my mana. "
In today's law-ending world, it is very difficult to make up for lost mana.
When Lu Yuan attended the Tianluo Dharma Assembly, the Taoist masters were extremely stingy in their spells. They were reluctant to use any powerful spells, and they all made something close to the illusion system to trick people. .
Is this because Taoist Master Ziyun and others are not good at their magic and their cultivation is not deep?
Of course not.
This is because mana requires spiritual energy to be converted, and spiritual energy has a fixed share. Every point you use will result in a loss of one point.
After using it, if you want to make up for it, you can only rely on time to accumulate.
This huge flaw puts the monks in a weird state of high burst, low battery life, and long blood regeneration.
Everyone knows that they are powerful, but everyone also knows that it is impossible for them to do anything easily.
Between the immortal sect and the mortals, a strange balance can be achieved despite the unequal fighting power. It is difficult to say that it is not because of the cherishment of mana.
On weekdays, monks have to be careful and economical with their magic power to improve their cultivation. How can they be willing to use it for meaningless battles with others?
If you have that energy and magic power, wouldn't it be good to use it to improve your cultivation and achieve breakthroughs?
As my cultivation deepens and my realm breaks through, can I live for dozens or hundreds of years more?
But if you win a battle with others, what can you get besides some morale?
The monks are all very shrewd, and of course they cannot do such a thankless thing.
same.
Lu Yuan is also very smart. He can use magic on weekdays, but he will never use it.
Even his two clones only consume the minimum amount of mana every day to maintain their activities.
Even if I can avoid doing anything with others, I will never do it.
Even if he really wants to take action, he will rely on his own hard body and pure physical strength to fight against people.
What is consumed in this way is only the ability of the clone's body itself. It will not consume too much mana, and can save a lot of mana surplus, so that the clone does not have to absorb too much spiritual energy from the world.
Yes, just let the clone absorb less spiritual energy.
Lu Yuan created the clone of the Yellow Turban Warrior. In addition to using it to alleviate the Chu State's lack of high-end combat power, its biggest use was actually to assist him in his cultivation.
With the help of the luck brought to Chu State after the clone appeared, he could practice faster.
Based on this purpose.
In today's situation where the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is used less and less, if the clone is using more now, doesn't it mean that he will use less in the future?
Therefore, being able to save the mana used by the clone means that Lu Yuan will have more spiritual energy to use in the future, and can go further on the path to immortality.
Same thing.
Now that he is consuming all his own mana, which is equivalent to condensing energy, and will approach the perfection state in the later period, it is equivalent to reducing the amount of spiritual energy he can use in the future.
No one knows how much spiritual energy there is in the earth today?
Maybe it was the lack of such a little spiritual energy that allowed Lu Yuan to resume his cultivation and use it. In the future, when he wanted to break through to a certain realm, he just didn't have enough spiritual energy and could only be stuck at that critical point.
This is all possible.
Therefore, this behavior is tantamount to exchanging the future for the present in disguise.
Of course, this is a long-term thing.
No matter how thin the spiritual energy of the world is now, it would take decades at least for Lu Yuan to absorb it all.
That day is still a long way away.
Talk about something closer.
Lu Yuan is now in the late stage of condensing qi, or almost in a perfect state.
This realm is about a year away from breaking through and condensing two qi.
Now if he consumes all his mana, then the breakthrough time will continue to be delayed along with the mana recovery time.
This is also the exchange of the future for the present, and it is the foreseeable future.
In summary.
Although Lu Yuan can use the Mire Technique, the cost of using this magic is actually quite high in a sense.
Even cruel.
If he really had to choose, he might be more willing to sacrifice tens of thousands of people in exchange for not using this spell and saving mana.
After all, if tens of thousands of people die, Chu will be able to make up for it in a year and a half.
But with so much spiritual energy missing, Lu Yuan couldn't restore it.
Compared with renewable human power, non-renewable spiritual energy is now more precious.
The reality is cruel, but very realistic.
"So whether to use magic can only be listed as the last backup option. Unless it is really critical, ordinary people should solve things that can be solved by ordinary people.
In the final analysis, this is just a war between secular dynasties.
Mortals return to mortals, and immortal magic returns to immortal magic.
In this apocalyptic world, where immortals and gods are invisible and all spirits are extinct, it is better for the extraordinary not to interfere too much with ordinary people. "
Lu Yuan thought for a while, then buried this last option deep in his heart and hid it.
…
The boats traveled quickly all the way, and at noon, the navy finally arrived at Jiangwan outside Jiangxia City.
Standing on the bow of the ship and looking into the distance, Jiangxia City stands on the south bank of the Yangtze River, sailing inward from the crescent-shaped river bay. A wide pier spreads toward the depths of the river, picking up countless incoming boats. All types of cargo handling.
As the third largest port in Dongting County, Jiangxia Port has a huge wharf that can accommodate hundreds of ships at the same time. It occupies an area of more than three miles. It is lined with inns and restaurants, and various shops that store bulk goods are also located here. , making the dock area extremely prosperous.
On the side of the pier, two miles along the river bend to the northwest area, there is also a deep pier and harbor.
However, the dock here is not open to the public, but only accommodates naval ships and is exclusively used by the military.
On this military wharf, a fortress camp was built, with various fortresses and arrow towers standing there. The city wall was built from the bend of the river, spreading inward, and connected with the city wall of Jiangxia City, forming a A horizontal plane more than seven miles long blocked the entire south side of Jiangxia City.
So after Lu Yuan led the navy into the military port, the navy officers and men manned the ships and began to return to the port one by one according to the instructions and settled in the water fortress in the port.
He led the general's cronies directly to the city tower and headed all the way from Shuigang to Jiangxia City.
Jiangxia City is a mountain city.
The bottom plain at the foot of the mountain is the outermost periphery of the city. Except for the north and west sides of the mountain, the remaining east and south sides are wrapped by a wall of more than ten miles long like a normal city.
There are neatly planned streets in the city, where both commercial and residential areas are located.
In this outer city area, spreading all the way up the mountainside, some relatively special and important buildings such as mountain temples, Taoist temples, academies, and mansions of large households were built.
At the mountainside, these are the various government agencies, core buildings such as government offices, warehouses, military camps, etc.
In addition, a large number of watchtowers and arrow towers were built on the mountainside, especially one near the river. A large number of platforms were built, and many long-range weapons such as trebuchets and ballistae were placed, numbering in the hundreds.
Relying on these long-range weapons, Jiangxia City, located high in the mountains, can almost block the hundred-foot-wide river outside and firmly guard the water in this area.
Previously, Chu's navy was weak, and it was this dangerous riverside fortress that could prevent Ningren ships from entering and exiting the country.
Any Ning Navy that dares to enter here will face hundreds of catapults and crossbows. Under the rain of stones and arrows, even if the Ning ships can pass through the waters here, they will have to sink. Dozens or hundreds of ships came.
If a large number of crossbowmen are deployed in the mountain fortress, and a fleet of boats and ships are deployed in the upstream waters, then under the alliance of the three parties, even if the Ningren navy is several times larger than our own, Chu will be able to compete with it. , or even defeat and repel it.
This was why even though Lu Yuan knew that Ning Guo already had 150,000 navy troops and his side only had 50,000, he still had no fear and came with the navy troops.
The mountain where Jiangxia City is located is the Chu State's fortress that will never fall south of the river.
As long as this fortress is in hand, Ningguo's navy can never even think of crossing the river.
Even south of the river, on land, as long as Jiangxia City is there, Ningguo can't even think of passing here.
Lu Yuan was not sure whether Ningguo would attack Changsha, Hengyang and other southern prefectures.
But on the territory of Yueyang, on the territory near Jiangxia City, two to three hundred miles around, this city is the most eye-catching core, a key point of natural danger that no one can get around.
If Ning State wants to attack Chu State from this road, it must uproot Jiangxia City.
If the city is not broken, not only can it be impassable by water, but it is also difficult to advance even half a step by land.
Relying on this strong fortress and the 150,000 land and water troops in the fortress, it is just a matter of attacking and defending the city.
Lu Yuan was confident that even if Ning Guo's 400,000 main force were completely killed, he would not be able to capture this city.
However, attacking the city is difficult and dangerous, and Ningren should not be so unwise and attack head-on.
How this battle will turn out in the end depends on the opponent's decision.
But Lu Yuan was already prepared, confident that he could face any move, and now he was waiting for his opponent to come.
October 12, the tenth year of Shenwu.
At this time of late autumn and early winter, before the first snowfall, after Chu King Lu Yuan led his army to Jiangxia City, Ning Emperor Shen Qiu also led a main force of 150,000 land and water, and hurriedly arrived at the city and joined the ancestors. Fifty thousand pioneers arrived here.
By now, Ningguo had gathered 200,000 troops by land and water near Jiangxia City.
In contrast, this is Chu's 150,000 land and water army.
The masters of both sides are here.
It is the so-called soldier against soldier, king against king, who is in charge of ups and downs.
