To achieve immortality, I cultivate using Qi Luck

Chapter 1107: Chapter 449: Xu Country Battlefield Chapter 1107: Chapter 449: Xu Country Battlefield As for the blatant ambitions of the Chu army, the people of Liang would naturally not stand idly by and await their doom.

The Liang army inside the town had also taken the initiative to launch several counterattacks.

However, facing the Chu army, whose preparations and strength both surpassed their own, these counterattacks ended in severe defeat each time.

After suffering losses, the Liang army no longer dared to launch any more attacks.

After their victories, the Chu army was able to build fortifications smoothly, completely besieging Xian’an City.

Now that the defenses were established, Huang Xuan, aside from leaving troops to maintain the siege,

had already dispatched another detachment.

They were sent to attack prefectures and county towns around Xian’an, still under the control of Liang, preparing to complete the last link of the encirclement.

The war in Liang’s Qingzhou had reached its final phase, and after another two to three months of siege, it would roughly come to an end.

The battlefields in Liang and Xu were drawing to a close for one country.

The peace talks between Yuzhou and Jin Country had also made a breakthrough after Lu Yuan’s concession.

The third Northern Expedition of the Chu army had only begun for two or three months, yet the situation was already looking very favorable.

“Over there in Liang, now I just need Huang Xuan to continue the siege on Xian’an City, that should be about it.

I don’t need to pay too much attention,”

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Having assessed the situation of the battlefield in Liang, Lu Yuan couldn’t help nodding in satisfaction.

Of the three Northern Expeditions so far, this campaign against Liang could be considered the easiest.

Without much effort, Chu had neatly crushed Liang and was about to seize the final fruits of victory.

Such pleasing and satisfying outcomes naturally made him happy.

Especially considering the problems that had occurred back home, such good news was all the more precious.

After passing the message to Huang Xuan through their shared understanding, telling him there was no need to rush and he could besiege the city at his leisure,

Lu Yuan then put this matter aside and turned his focus to the battlefield in Xu State, which he was personally directing.

…

The situation at the original battlefield of Xu State, especially in the area of Dongping Prefecture, had been turned into a veritable fortress by Xu after two years of preparation, causing him great headaches.

But no matter how tight the defense, with dedication, it is always possible to find a loophole.

After two months of adjustments, particularly with the successive establishment of the Le’an Camp and the Qingping Camp, the two major camps, under the command of their respective leaders, began the Northern Expedition.

As a result, the situation in Xu State changed abruptly once again.

Firstly, in Le’an Prefecture,

Accompanying Qingyangzi who led the Le’an Camp, attacks were launched on Le’an Prefecture from three directions—southwest, southeast, and directly south—dividing the forces from Shanyang and Jiaoxi counties.

The defense circle that Xu State had prepared specifically to guard against enemies from the direction of Dongping instantly had a breach torn into it.

Because two years ago, even before the fall of Dai Liang last year, Shanyang and Jiaoxi were under Liang’s control.

These counties were the heartland of Liang, heavily guarded, territories that Liang would never abandon under any circumstances.

Given the current relationship between Xu State and Liang, Xu could confidently entrust the defense of its southern border to Liang.

And Liang, at the beginning of the second Northern Expedition last year, was a dominant state controlling seven prefectures, with an army of more than four million soldiers—a power ranked second or third in the world.

From the perspectives of Xu and Liang, with this level of power, even if Liang lost the battle of Dai Liang, the country would not be annihilated all at once.

Afterward, in counties like Shanyang and Jiaoxi, they could still withstand and draw out the fight with Chu—the war was far from over.

With Liang blocking the way in counties like Shanyang and Jiaoxi, situated to the south of Xu, there was no need to worry about the security of Xu’s southern territories until the defeat of Liang and the breakthrough of these defense lines.

Therefore, when initially constructing Xu’s defense line in Qingzhou, the Xu People only considered pressure from the west, specifically the pressure from Dongping.

The defenses at Xu’s Xichang—Shouzhang and Wuyan—Sheqiu were built based on this concept.

They were targeted only against enemies from the east and southeast.

Other areas were not given much attention and had remained undefended.

However, reality proved that all these ideas were overly optimistic.

Firstly, last year, Lu Yuan resumed the tactic of using captured conscripts as cannon fodder, driving the large numbers of prisoners taken during the Northern Expedition to assault cities and assume the casualties that the Chu army would have otherwise incurred.

And on the side of Chu, because the conscripts bore the brunt of the causalities, the main force suffered minimal losses, retaining most of its fighting capability.

So, by the later stages of the battle for Dai Liang, the Chu army, which still preserved its main fighting strength, was able to engage the remaining forces of Liang.

Thus, the remnants inside Dai Liang and the troops from Xu that had come to set up new defenses to the east after the fall of the city,

came head-to-head with the Chu army’s well-rested main force.

In the ensuing battle, well-prepared by the Chu, the united army from Xu and Liang, numbering over a million, stood no chance—the entire army was annihilated in an encirclement.

The pre-planned defense lines from Shanyang to Jiaoxi collapsed along with those troops, turning into an utter void.

At the same time, in Rencheng Prefecture, Liang suffered another devastating defeat.

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Yan Yunqing, who led the southern defenses of Liang, lost over a million men once again, and the passage obstructing Chu’s eastward advance into Yuzhou opened up.

The eastern expeditionary force of Chu and the forces from Yangxia, after two years, finally joined forces.

Thereupon, the rapid collapse of Liang this year was decisively cemented.