It should be said that the temporary changes made by the Wei monarchs and ministers did save their national destiny.
Because just when they were preparing to hunt in the north, the Chu State's Heyang camp had already separated a vanguard, with about 400,000 light troops of the Chu army rushing forward. They ignored the prefectures and counties in Nanyang along the way and went directly into Henan County.
Behind them, there are 200,000 elite Chu troops and a rear army composed of millions of civilians, driving over in a mighty manner.
In Henan, there are only about 300,000 Wei troops left behind, and there are also only three people innate.
Although this strength is not weak, it is absolutely impossible to suppress the incoming Chu army.
It is even difficult to temporarily recruit some civilians to help them defend the city.
Because the Chu army came too fast and too urgently.
Too fast for them to react, too fast for them to resist.
It was as if the sky had changed overnight.
The Chu army suddenly reached their city, suddenly broke through the city, and suddenly ravaged the entire Henan.
Like thunder, like strong wind and rain, no one is given time to adapt.
The State of Chu had been preparing for the Northern Expedition for thirty years. I don’t know how many plans were made and how much energy was spent.
Now it has all turned into fuel, helping the army to crush the entire Henan.
certainly.
Although the Chu army arrived quickly, it did catch the Wei army by surprise.
But traveling thousands of miles is not that easy after all.
After the Chu army reached Henan and launched the first wave of offensive, it was almost at the end of its power.
The 400,000 vanguards only occupied some auxiliary lines in southern Henan. After establishing a foothold here, they could only stick to the city, rest and regroup, and wait for backup.
Although the war on the front line is still going on, they just select some elites to harass the Wei army in Henan from time to time.
The Wei State still has an army of 300,000 troops here, which is not much different from the number of vanguard sterilizers. And relying on the local land and resources, it can mobilize an unknown amount of material and manpower.
With these advantages, it is enough to close the small numerical gap with the Chu army.
The most important thing is.
As the core hinterland of Wei State's key operations for more than ten years, Nanyang and Henan counties can be said to have poured all the effort and energy of Wei State into it.
Most of the original immigrants from the Wei State have moved to these two counties. Together with the original immigrants from the Zhou State, the total population of these two counties combined is almost 34 million.
With such a large population, it only takes a little mobilization to pull out countless militia armies.
Coupled with the slightly tough and martial ethos of Wei State, in fact, the war potential of these two counties is not small at all.
The only drawback is probably the food shortage.
Originally, nearly half of the food consumed by Wei State each year was purchased from Chu State.
Now that Chu and Wei are at war, the two countries have become enemies. Naturally, Chu's food can no longer be sold to Wei.
Therefore, although the Wei State has no shortage of population, they can mobilize a large number of troops at any time if they want.
But how to feed these people is a problem.
But now it's a matter of life and death. Who cares whether we can feed the army?
The Chu army came with great force, millions of troops and horses, it was overwhelming and black clouds pressed down on the city.
In this case, if the Wei army pulls out a group of soldiers and horses and sends them to the battlefield, they will be completely consumed in a short time.
In this way, the so-called difficult problem of raising a large army does not actually exist.
Therefore, at this critical moment, the governors and generals of Wei State's Henan and Nanyang counties quickly reached a consensus after just a brief discussion.
Conscription, open to conscription.
In all prefectures, counties, villages and towns still under the control of the Wei State, as long as men who could obtain weapons, no matter how big or small, were forcibly recruited into the army and made into soldiers.
In these years of great strife, competition has become increasingly fierce, and the scale of military use has become larger and larger. Various countries have experienced a shortage of military forces to a greater or lesser extent.
Therefore, in order to solve this problem, it has become inevitable to implement a universal compulsory military system.
All countries have popularized military education for all the people, which was implemented by Lu Yuan when he first started his career. During the leisure time, civilians trained bravery in rural areas.
Therefore, these Wei Guoxiang warriors gathered together have actually experienced certain military training. With a little training, they can become a usable army.
Although such a large army is not strong enough to fight on a frontal battlefield.
But there is no problem in using it to defend the city.
Before the Northern Expedition began, Huang Yun reported to Lu Yuan that the martial arts in the Guannei counties of the Wei State were strong, and the folk and rural soldiers were strong, not inferior to the soldiers in other counties.
When attacking here, we should not only count the regular army of Wei State, but also the civilian men who have lived in this custom since childhood.
The gathering of these people is also a military force that cannot be ignored.
Because of this report, Lu Yuan revised the Northern Expedition plan and temporarily added a Hanzhong camp.
In Nanyang and Henan counties, although the martial arts style of the Wei people here is somewhat worse than that of Guannei and Shuofang counties, they still cannot be underestimated.
A call-up order goes down.
After experiencing the initial panic, the Wei army reacted and quickly recruited a large number of rural warriors from the two counties.
In just half a month, the number of Wei troops in Nanyang County surged to one million.
The Wei army in Henan County directly defeated two million people.
With a population of 34 million, if all men were directly recruited, the ultimate limit would be to recruit tens of millions of brave village men.
At this time, only more than two million people were mobilized, which cannot be called extreme mobilization, but can only be regarded as preliminary mobilization.
Therefore, as time passes and Wei slowly reacts, the number of Wei troops will further increase and continue to expand on the current basis.
After all, Wei is the third largest country in the world. Zhao Xu has been the leader of the alliance for more than ten years. His status as the eldest brother is unquestionable.
It is indeed difficult for the Chu State to destroy him suddenly, at least it cannot be said to be an easy task.
To destroy Liang, Lu Yuan used four camps.
If Wei is destroyed, there will be only two camps.
To be honest, this does underestimate the Wei State. To be more prudent, three camps should be used to be safe.
Fortunately, before attacking the Wei State, the Chu State also used a plan to divert the tiger away from the mountain in advance and deceived half of its main force in the country.
This blow to Wei's strength is barely worth a camp.
But even so, it is still difficult for the two of them to quickly destroy Wei.
Just like in front of you.
Henan and Nanyang temporarily exploded and produced three million Wei troops. It would be difficult for the Heyang camp to suppress them.
And this difficulty will gradually deepen and worsen as time goes by.
The only good news is probably in Nanyang County. Due to the sudden sneak attack by the Chu army, more than two-thirds of the counties in Nanyang County were controlled by the Chu army before the Wei army here could react.
Although Nanyang County later reacted and began recruiting troops and breeding, the total population of only one-third of the counties under his control was only about five million.
With a population of five million, it is already the limit to be able to explode the one million troops in Nanyang County today.
Next, even if they want to recruit more soldiers and horses, the Wei army in Nanyang County has no that potential.
Therefore, the Wei army that Chu State has to deal with here is only about one million people.
It's the Henan County side.
Because Nanyang County acted as a buffer, the news was received promptly and the response was much faster.
Although the Chu army's light troops advanced rapidly, they were still caught off guard. In the early stages of the battle, many prefectures and counties were lost.
But after the vanguard of the Chu army exhausted their last breath of energy, the Wei army reacted and quickly rearranged their defense lines to strengthen their defense against the Chu army.
The Chu army was able to capture only one-fifth of the counties in Henan.
As a key county of the Wei State, Henan County even has the capital here, and its population is even higher than that of Nanyang County.
The total population of Henan County was about 20 million, but one-fifth was lost at this time, and the remaining population was more than 15 million.
With this population, it would be easy to pull out three to four million people if we carried out an explosion.
To be honest, this number of soldiers and horses is no less than that of Heyang Xingying.
If you add the millions of Wei troops in Nanyang County, they would be even more powerful than the Chu troops in terms of quantity alone.
However, although they had the advantage in quantity, in terms of quality, the Wei army was completely crushed by the Chu army.
The Heyang camp led by Qingyunzi consisted of about one million soldiers.
The Wei army in Henan and Nanyang counties originally had only 500,000 soldiers.
Now, under the sudden attack of the Chu army, these Wei troops suffered heavy losses. In the end, there should be less than 300,000 people left.
With 300,000 soldiers versus one million soldiers, this is naturally an extremely disparate number.
Therefore, although the Chu army camped in Heyang only had three million people, it still had a huge advantage against the Wei army that had expanded to nearly four million.
On the frontal battlefield, it is completely crushing.
However, the Wei army also knew their own weaknesses, so after suffering several heavy losses in the early stages of the battle, they gave up their plan to engage in a head-on confrontation and drive the Chu army out.
Instead, they adopted a strategy of defending the city and focusing on defense.
Those civilian men recruited temporarily could not fight a tough battle, but there was no problem in defending the city.
With the city as a support, a common man can be used as a soldier against a Chu army.
Relying on this advantage, the gap between the two sides can be erased.
Faced with Wei Jun's stubborn defense, Qingyunzi really didn't have any good ideas.
A person just acts like a tortoise and hides in his shell. What can you do to him?
Therefore, after testing several times, Qingyunzi could only give up the attack and began a confrontation and consumption.
The Wei army had a local defense and could rely on the advantage of a fortified city.
The Chu army naturally has its own advantages, that is, more money and more food.
The Wei army did not fight a head-on battle with the Chu army, but wanted to defend the city in a war of attrition. Otherwise, it was taking advantage of its own advantages, but it was not helping the Chu army to take advantage of the Chu army's own advantages.
Don’t forget, nearly half of Wei’s food comes from Chu.
Its domestic food self-sufficiency rate is only half.
In other words, even when the country is stable, it can only meet half of its own food consumption.
The remaining half of the people will go hungry.
But now, the two countries are fighting, and the two counties of Henan and Nanyang, which were originally the hinterland of the Wei State, have been killed by the Chu army, turning the world upside down.
Almost all the men in the two counties were conscripted into the army, and the only ones left behind were some old, weak, women and children.
How many fields and acres of land can be cultivated with these old, weak, women and children?
Therefore, there is no doubt that the grain output in the areas controlled by Wei in the two counties this year will usher in a sharp decline.
By then the food harvest will be short and the two counties will not be short of food. The problem will not be one-half, but may be two-thirds or even three-quarters.
Most people will not have enough to eat.
If they don't have enough to eat, they can only starve to death.
Eating soil, eating grass, and even cannibalizing each other, all kinds of tragedies will be staged on this land.
If this scene really happens.
Let me ask you, as a Wei man who was forcibly recruited into the army, after knowing that your wife, children, and children were in such a miserable state at home, would you still have the heart to fight desperately against the Chu people?
They may even go hungry themselves and experience this miserable situation firsthand.
If this really breaks out, the morale of the Wei army will plummet and their hearts will be scattered.
Let alone a war, unless there is a mutiny and uprising, and all the rebels are killed, the sun will rise in the west.
Just a lack of food was the Achilles heel of the Wei people in both armies.
This is why Lu Yuan, after estimating Wei's potential, still sent troops despite knowing that the opponent was not weak and might not be able to support it with just two camps.
That means the other party is short of food.
As long as this key point is grasped, the entire Wei State will be captured.
Therefore, progress in these two counties is slow at this time, and Qingyunzi is not in a hurry.
He just asked people to stick to the existing area, and at the same time clean up the Wei resistance forces in the occupied area, and cooperated with Lu Yuan's Iron Fist operation to purify the two counties.
Then the most important thing to do was to send a message to the rear and ask them to hurry up and transport food.
Yes, it’s about transporting food.
Now that we know that a tragedy is about to happen in the area controlled by Wei State.
So how could Chu State not make preparations?
Within the two counties, the population controlled by Wei State is still about 20 million.
So many Wei people are descendants of the Three Emperors Miao. There is not much cultural barrier with the Chu people and they can be directly assimilated.
For Lu Yuan, these people provided him with luck, soldiers and horses, and produced valuable wealth of various resources.
Although he once said that for the sake of stability in Zhongzhou, he would not hesitate to kill half or even most of the people.
But this is just an expression of determination.
If the place could be settled without killing people, Lu Yuan would naturally not want to commit murder.
So even if he is from Wei, if he can save one person, he is still willing to do his best.
The world is in turmoil, why should the common people deserve it?
The heroes of the Nine Provinces fighting for the throne of the emperor have already suffered too many people.
Now that Lu Yuan is determined to bring peace to the world and restore peace to Kyushu, he naturally has to start from now on.
If you regard the people of all countries as your own people, the world of Jiuzhou as your own world, and the dawn of life as your bastards, then you can live up to everything you have gained through them.
This can barely be considered as a trace of benevolence on my part.
Of course, he is not just a saint.
Qingyunzi mobilized a large amount of grain and hoarded it in Nanyang County, Henan Province, which itself was also useful in breaking down the Wei army's resistance.
think about it.
You are starving here, you are exchanging children for food, and human tragedy is happening.
I have a full meal here, the rice is fragrant, and there is even wine and meat, and my life is so lively.
Comparing the two sides, you are Wei Jun, what would you choose?
I'm afraid that when the time comes, giving him a bite of food will easily tempt Wei Jun to defect.
Give a bag of rice and a city can open its doors.
This is not a joke, but a bloody fact for survival.
When you store grain, what you store is not food, but people's hearts, the general trend, and the world.
Although the Wei army in Henan and Nanyang counties still resisted tenaciously, they even controlled most of the area.
But these two counties have essentially become dead places.
If the monarchs and ministers of Chang'an in Wei State really choose to hunt east, they will certainly be able to find peace for a while.
But the peace will not last more than two months, and the whole country will be hungry together with everyone, and everyone will compete with each other to eat.
And if they run there and the Chu State blocks the pass and Shuofang, they will really become turtles in a urn, unable to escape.
Faced with this kind of future, you would be a fool to go there.
On the contrary, Beishou Shuofang is more remote and poorer.
But there is grassland to the east of here, and there is also an army of one million people there.
To the south is Chang'an within the Pass, where a hundred thousand troops remain, as well as hundreds of thousands of brave villagers who came in response to the call.
These people are still holding on to Chang'an, the western capital, and are still holding on to various important cities in Guannei County, which can also serve as a southern barrier.
To the east is the State of Zhao, the younger brother of the State of Wei.
Well, now that the Wei State is in decline, the other party will definitely not want to be his younger brother.
But anyway, the two countries have been allies for decades.
The state of Wei was in trouble, and the state of Chu rose up, which began to threaten the security of all countries.
With this premise, there is no problem for Wei State to ask Zhao State for help.
Even if the State of Zhao does not send troops to help, there is still no problem in following the example of the State of Xu in helping the State of Liang and providing some money and food support to the State of Wei.
As long as Zhao can provide food, Wei's biggest food shortage problem can be alleviated.
You said you can solve the problem of food for the whole country, but you are really reluctant to do so.
After all, Wei currently controls a population of more than 20 million.
It is really impossible to support Zhao State alone.
But it was still barely enough to solve the problem of feeding the millions of troops that Wei had temporarily recruited.
As long as it can hold on, Wei Guo can still withstand it, and Guo Zuo can still maintain it.
Even if I can’t bear it anymore in the end.
Here in Shuofang, Wei also has a northern retreat.
In the worst case, he would return to his hometown in Yanzhou and start fighting for territory with the barbarians who moved south again.
Although in Yanzhou today, under the attack of the cold wave, only two or three counties in the south can still survive.
Moreover, these areas suitable for survival are getting smaller and smaller.
Maybe within a dozen years, Yanzhou will be finished.
But in the past ten years, can people still live there?
Moreover, in the southern part of Yanzhou, the barbarians who migrated south have a population of nearly ten million.
Originally, Wei State looked down upon these people and felt that they were difficult to educate and their absorption would only be a hidden danger to the country.
But now that he is in such a miserable state, how can he still be picky?
With a population of tens of millions, if integrated, it is also the basis of a hegemonic country.
In the end, I really couldn't stay in Yongzhou anymore, so I ran back to my hometown in Yanzhou, defeated the barbarians, and built another Wei Kingdom, so that I could have a chance to start over.
Therefore, Henan is a place of death, while Shuofang is a place of life.
The monarchs and ministers of Chang'an in Wei State saw this very clearly.
Therefore, he happily moved the capital and left important ministers to guard Chang'an.
The State of Wei then announced that it would establish the Northern Capital in Lingshou, the city of Shuofang County, where the emperor and ministers would be stationed to handle domestic government affairs.
At the same time, an envoy was sent to the State of Zhao.
Asking this former little brother and current supporter for help.
In addition, he conveyed orders to set up Guannei Defense Area and Heyang Defense Area, and sent important ministers and clan kings to the two defense areas to prepare for the resistance against the Chu army.
Well, after all this trouble, Wei, a small and dilapidated court, managed to gain a foothold and continue to survive under the heavy blow of Chu.
But it's just a matter of survival.
The ultimate future prospects are really uncertain.
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