Chapter 599 - Chapter 599: Chapter 279: Stalemate in Suppressing Bandits_2

Chapter 599: Chapter 279: Stalemate in Suppressing Bandits_2

However, even so, the long-term consumption and the large-scale mobilization of civilian workers still seriously impacted the economic development and local people’s livelihood in Chu State.

Lu Yuan had to resolve the war as soon as possible.

Previously, he had launched a decisive battle across the river and hinted to Li Xiong to use up the captured barbarian soldiers, intending to relieve the pressure on the logistics.

Now it seems that the 50,000 troops in Li Xiong’s hands are not Lu Yuan’s burden for the time being. This is good news.

“With Li Xiong’s 50,000 men taking the lead, the defense pressure on the west side of the Lu River will not be too severe before he is defeated by the Great Changhe Country.

In this case, I only need to leave 10,000 soldiers to defend and guard the Peaceful City on the east bank of the Lu River and serve as the second line of defense after Li Xiong, which should be able to isolate the military threats from the west.”

Then, the remaining 41,000 men can be dispersed and distributed to various counties. Even if each county is settled with 400 men, it only takes 22,000 people.”

The remaining nearly 20,000 people can serve as the central mobile force, ready to assist in rebellions that occur in various places.

At the same time, they can also serve as a sweep force, further cleaning up the remnants of the barbarian soldiers scattered between the mountain ridges, and strengthening the local security governance.”

Lu Yuan thought so in his heart and soon made a decision.

…

Time slowly flowed by.

After calming the rebellion in Qianzhong County from the rear, Lu Yuan quickly began to adjust the deployment of troops in various places according to his own strategy.

A large number of forbidden troops were disbanded and deployed to various prefectures and counties in Qianzhong County to assist local government offices in maintaining security and order.

The remaining main forbidden troops began to carry out a series of operations on a large scale, eliminating bandits and remnants and resisting Yi tribal forces in various prefectures.

Lu Yuan also seized the opportunity to clear the suburbs of the county towns and prepare to formally incorporate them into the rule of the government.

He had come in a hurry before and, in order to deal with the Great Changhe Army, had only occupied some cities to ensure nominal rule after taking territory on the local level.

He didn’t have much energy to manage the countless villages and towns outside the cities.

As a result, as the county magistrate Zhao Xianzhi of Qingshui County said earlier, these local county government offices could only manage the Yi people in the county cities and the newly settled immigrants.

They had no ability to control the vast number of rural villages and the many Yi tribes in them.

The official uniforms could only be used to make these local villages and tribes submit in name only, relying on the current mighty prestige of the Great Chu Army.

But apart from these superficial efforts.

In reality, even the taxes from the villages and tribes on the local level couldn’t be collected by the government. The control over the local level was extremely weak.

Originally, Lu Yuan planned to let the various prefectures and counties of Qianzhong County handle this situation after their government officials and clerks were assembled, and the local troops were mobilized.

But now that the recruitment of local troops is not going well, it seems unrealistic to rely on the power of the local government to solve this problem on its own.

Since he was planning to eliminate bandits and the forbidden army happened to be free, he might as well solve this problem all at once.

After all, the strong men in the local villages and tribes had been drafted one after another, leaving only the elderly, women, and children. Even if they wanted to make trouble, they couldn’t cause much of a commotion.

The imperial army arrives, and they have no choice but to obey.

Of course,

There will be some who are not open-minded and seek death. For these rebels, Lu Yuan will not be polite and will suppress them directly.

How to establish the authority of the court over the local area and establish the laws of the Great Chu here, and make these barbarians submit to the fierce nature?

For a time, the once peaceful Qianzhong County was again filled with countless troops and turmoil.

Only this time.

The ones who were slaughtered were no longer the local immigrants and the newly registered Yi people. Instead, it was the tribes of the Yi people who were unwilling to submit and had an untameable wild nature.

…

While Lu Yuan was dealing with public security and strengthening rule in Qianzhong County, other places were also starting their own actions.

After gaining approximate control of Qin Cang Chuan and Chiyang City, Li Xiong, who had expanded the army to 50,000 by the beginning of the fourth month of the fifth year of Shenwu, continued to display his aggressive and daring style, launching an attack on the Da Changhe army led by Li Chuan in the vicinity of Sha Chi.

However, after this period of preparation, Li Chuan had already drawn 30,000 soldiers from the rear of the country, and his strength was equal to that of Li Xiong, and his morale was even higher.

As a result, both sides fought for a while, and the hearts of the Yi soldiers under Li Xiong’s command wavered, eventually being taken advantage of by Li Chuan and defeated.

Li Xiong lost more than 10,000 soldiers and could only lead the remaining defeated soldiers to retreat to Chiyang City.

Li Chuan took the opportunity to push forward, recaptured several lost cities, and led his troops to surround Chiyang City.

At this time, due to Li Xiong’s defeat, the rear area under his control in Qin Cang Chuan also became restless, with an incipient tendency to launch a rebellion and respond to Li Chuan’s advances.

In an emergency, Lu Yuan hastily ordered the 10,000 forbidden troops on the east bank to cross the river and enter Dragon City, which deterred the restless Yi people in the area, stopping them from causing trouble.

Afterwards, Li Chuan besieged Chiyang City for more than a month, losing more than 10,000 soldiers, but still could not overcome it. Finally, due to a lack of military supplies and the approaching summer harvest, he had to withdraw his troops.

Having survived this ordeal, Li Xiong no longer acted as recklessly as before, not daring to continue attacking Li Chuan’s defended Sha Chi, and instead left 30,000 troops to be guarded by his younger brother, Li Shou.

He himself returned to Qin Cang Chuan with a few thousand remnants to continue recruiting soldiers and wait for the summer harvest, slowly healing his wounds.

According to Li Xiong’s report, he has now changed his strategy and no longer tries to force his way through the strictly defended, golden and silver bucket-like Sha Chi City.

Instead, he plans to continue expanding southward first, swallowing up the remaining piece of the area south of Kunhai, that is, the Da Changhe army on the opposite side of Li Liang’s Lu River.

After capturing the last piece of the puzzle in the southern part of Kunhai and expanding his rear, he will turn his attention northward, continue fighting against Li Chuan, and try to break through to the north of Kunhai.

Lu Yuan was happy with this outcome.

He even issued an order to Li Liang, asking him to cooperate with Li Xiong’s actions and work together to eliminate the hidden dangers in the south first.

While there were fierce battles in the Kunhai area, there were also raging wars in the southern neighbouring area of Yingsheng City, which belonged to Dali Kingdom.

After several months of adjustment, the Su and Song countries, who had already achieved initial communication, jointly launched an attack on Yingsheng City controlled by Dali Kingdom from the southeast direction in May this year.

In response to the huge crisis of invasion by the two countries, besides the already deployed King Pingchuan, the Great Witch Priest of the Divine Palace in Dali Kingdom finally took action, leading a group of Divine Palace witch doctors to join the frontline of the battlefield.

At this time, Dali country had gathered an army of 300,000, fighting against Su and Song countries in the vicinity of Yingsheng City.

The two sides fought fiercely.

However, on the whole, Dali country still held the upper hand.

After all, Dali had an advantage in troop strength, with 300,000 troops against the 150,000 troops of Su and Song countries.

Even though most of Dali’s soldiers were of militia quality and had weak combat power, they were not afraid of death and could wear down their enemies, making it difficult for Su and Song countries to support them, and gradually revealing a weak momentum.

Fortunately, even so, with the strength and scale of these two countries, they could still hold on.

If the frontline soldiers were used up, they could simply be replenished from the rear.

With a population of over one million, Su and Song countries had enough population to support their consumption battle with Dali Kingdom.

Even considering the size of these two countries, it was Dali that couldn’t hold on in the end.

Therefore, although the situation in the south was not favorable, there were no serious problems.

On the contrary, it was in the north where an accident occurred.

In July of Shenwu’s fifth year, just after finishing the initial public security rectification work in Qianzhong County, Lu Yuan received tragic news from Xichuan County.