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Chapter 422: 220: The Might of Wu An Soldiers

“When I, the Lonely King, was in the Southsea, I repeatedly heard about Yue Country’s great king making repeated victories in the north of the river, recapturing several cities and reclaiming Tianmen Prefecture. Such bravery is awe-inspiring.”

Yan Wangqiu first flattered him before shifting the topic, asking, “The great king has achieved consecutive victories, so you should have a deep understanding of the battles in Tianmen Prefecture.

We two countries are allies, and I ask that you share the full picture – how are things over there?

Having marched the army northward, is it possible to engage in battle now?”

While in Nanhai Country, in order to urge Yan Wangqiu to action, messengers from the court repeatedly sent news of victories, without any breaks.

But things in the world aren’t always as they appear on the surface.

Despite the court’s claims of continued victories, Yan Wangqiu still had doubts about the war in Tianmen Prefecture.

He well remembered that half a year earlier, when he left Dongting County, the Zhou People’s huge army, numbering tens of thousands, seemed like they were about to cross the river and march southward at any moment.

At that time, how formidable were the invading forces from the north?

How is it that just a few months later, the Zhou people are finished?

This certainly did not make sense.

Therefore, under Yan Wangqiu’s contemplation, he naturally felt worried. Finally, having met Lu Yuan, he decided to ask his ally directly, hoping to understand the truth behind these matters.

Lu Yuan contemplated for a moment upon hearing Yan Wangqiu’s inquiries, before finally saying, “Leading the army northward, it is naturally possible to fight though it might not be as easy as outsiders might think.”

Yan Wangqiu furrowed his eyebrows, “What do you mean by this?”

Lu Yuan sighed, “While the recapture of Tianmen Prefecture seems like the court’s consecutive victories over the Zhou people to outsiders, it is not what it seems.”

Looking at his ally, he revealed the truth: “In this Northern Expedition, although our allies fought bravely, we indeed won several battles and pushed the Zhou People back.

However, each victory came at a great cost.

In the battles in the north of the river, seven major fights involved more than a hundred thousand troops. Even though we won each, we also captured over seventy thousand Zhou soldiers.

However, our own losses also exceeded fifty thousand.

Moreover, after interrogating prisoners it became clear that the casualties on Zhou’s side consisted primarily of the original Yue’s surrendered troops and irregularities from the Qiang People. The loss was not significant amongst the Zhou’s elite troops.”

Therefore, although they faced multiple defeats, the main force of Zhou’s army sustained no substantial damage and they still have two hundred and forty thousand troops.”

Even now, they have retreated to a rear position, shortening their logistical supplies, and are defending their strong cities. It will not be as easy to break through as before.”

“Therefore, it is possible to fight this time going north. But if we want to see results, we can’t expect it to happen without losing tens or hundreds of thousands of lives.”

Just as Lu Yuan intended to deplete the domestic Miao People’s surrendered troops with the Northern Expedition, this time the Zhou people were also planning to exhaust a wave of miscellaneous troops.

While the multiple grand battles made the United Army appear to be in a strong position, in reality, they didn’t gain much advantage.”

Even the retreat of Zhou’s troops was not out of fear of the United Army.

After all, the Zhou people still maintained twenty-three to twenty-four thousand soldiers, while theUnited Army roughly had two hundred thousand.”

With a larger number of troops, how could the Zhou People be afraid?

On hearing these words, Yan Wangqiu couldn’t help drawing a sharp breath, “In this case, out of my hundred thousand Lingnan brothers, I wonder how many will be able to return.”

Standing by him, Lu Yuan shook his head, “Forget about the Lingnan brothers. Even among my Dongting soldiers, nearly twenty thousand losses have already been incurred since the Northern Expedition. By the time the war ceases, who knows how many will survive, and whether half the forces can return.”

Even though the majority of these casualties were Miao People, in Lu Yuan’s view, these losses still cause a heartache.”

Wouldn’t these troops be better utilised elsewhere?

These casualties were needless deaths that ended up happening in the north of the river.

Upon hearing these words, Yan Wangqiu, realising the extent of Lu Yuan’s losses, couldn’t help but sigh, “The warfront is quite perilous. I can only hope this Northern Expedition ends soon. Then all our countries can dismiss their troops and restore peace. From then on, peace and joy.”

This King of the Southsea, advancing in years, was increasingly finding this violence unpleasant, and simply wished for quiet in his later years. The stable transition and inheritance of Southsea Country had already become his persistent ambition.

Looking at his aging ally who had already shown signs of decline, Lu Yuan sighed in his heart, “Let’s hope so.”

Although he said this, Lu Yuan knew in his heart the other’s wish would by no means be realised.”

Because he was unwilling, and so were the courts. Even Zhou Country and Liang Country would never want to see a peaceful world.”

There is only one way for all countries to achieve peace and that is for a powerful country to eliminate other countries, unify the world and integrate all territories.”

Only then can peace be achieved without fighting.”

But is this possible?

Or rather, how many wars need to be fought, how many people need to die, to achieve this goal?

And until this goal is achieved, wars will never cease.”

The conversation between the two fell into melancholy and drew to a close from there.

Three days later, with Yan Wangqiu’s arrival, Su Xuange finally led his troops to Changsha City.

As Lu Yuan led Yan Wangqiu to greet him, he also took the opportunity to look at the forces under his command before shaking his head in private.

Just like the army from Nanhai Country, the forces from Ninghai Country that were due to march northwards were also cobbled together by civilians.

Both these nations had established themselves recently, as expected, they could barely pull together any elite forces. They could only forcibly recruit some able-bodied men to make up the numbers.”