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Chapter 477: 238: Conclusion of Negotiations – Part 3

Not only were the casualties heavy, but the failure to capture Guan City severely affected the morale of the soldiers and the army.

Therefore, when He Basheng learned that reinforcements had arrived in the city, he did not continue to besiege the city. Instead, he stationed his soldiers outside the city to regroup and confront the enemy.

Another ten days passed like this.

Inside Guan City, more reinforcements arrived one after another. Apart from Feng City and the two prefectures of Taibai, all other major prefectures in the south of Hanzhong sent two thousand soldiers each to support them.

With the arrival of these soldiers, the defenders in the city once again increased to thirty-three thousand, more than before the start of the war.

Even more, these new soldiers were elite fighters, and their actual combat power was several times greater than before.

In light of this situation, Lu Yuan even allocated thousands of soldiers to return to Feng City and Taibai’s two prefectures to resume the task of relocating the civilian population.

While he was reorganizing his troops inside the city, the Zhou army camp outside the city didn’t sit idle either.

Over there, they were training soldiers, restoring morale, and requesting food and fodder, weapons, and more civilian workers from the rear to replenish their main camp.

After another ten days or so, the time had come to the middle of Hongdao’s eighth year’s seventh month.

After waiting for more than a month, the Zhou army camp outside the city had amassed enough food and resources, and additional civilian workers gradually arrived. The number of soldiers finally returned to three hundred thousand.

Moreover, after a month of rest, the originally low morale of the soldiers had slowly recovered.

Seeing this situation, He Basheng finally gave the order again for the army to attack the city.

Facing his renewed offensive, Lu Yuan only led the city defenders to resist for a few days, giving the rear a little time, before abandoning Xiegu Pass and leading his troops away.

Yes, he abandoned the pass and left.

As for the specific reason, it wasn’t that the city couldn’t be defended but rather that the brutal siege warfare was too costly for the soldiers.

In just four days, Lu Yuan’s troops suffered a loss of five thousand, a massive consumption of resources.

How many elite soldiers did he have left?

Especially the trusted elite combatants.

After the continuous attrition since the Northern Expedition, including the Jiangnan area, he now had only about seventy thousand left.

How could such a small number of soldiers be enough?

If these soldiers were lost, how would Lu Yuan be able to stabilize the country and subdue the assimilated Zhou combatants without his core troops?

Therefore, the direct-line fighting force in his hands could not be consumed any further.

Fortunately, at this time, after nearly half a year of hard work, the relocation of Hanzhong’s population had almost come to an end.

In just half a year, Lu Yuan managed to relocate two hundred thousand households and over a million people from six prefectures to the west and north of Hanzhong. Additionally, a hundred thousand households and more than five hundred thousand people were also relocated from the forty prefectures in the south.

Adding these together, a total of three hundred thousand households and 1.6 million people were relocated from Hanzhong.

In other words, with this relocation, Hanzhong lost more than half of its population, a staggering blow to the strength of the area.

Even though continued relocation was possible, thirty thousand households and 1.6 million people were enough to fill up Dongting Prefecture and the three eastern prefectures of Xichuan.

After all, Dongting Prefecture had lost more than a hundred thousand people due to the war for several years, and it was estimated that there were only a few hundred thousand people left in the three eastern prefectures of Xichuan.

The people looted and relocated from Hanzhong were just enough to fill these areas.

If there were more people, there would be no place to settle them.

Therefore, seeing that his strategic goal has been achieved, Lu Yuan no longer needed to stubbornly defend Xiegu Pass and could instead lead his troops to retreat.

On the twenty-fifth day of the seventh month of Hongdao’s eighth year, Lu Yuan led his troops away from Xiegu Pass.

On the way, they combined troops from each prefecture, totaling fifty thousand soldiers, and continued to head south.

On the first day of the eighth month, Lu Yuan’s army arrived at Nanzheng city.

The next day, Lan Cai’er led thirty thousand defenders of Yangping Pass to return to Nanzheng.

Three days later, Zhou Qing’s thirty thousand militia, newly recruited from Xichuan, arrived at Nanzheng city.

With this, twelve thousand troops gathered inside and outside Nanzheng city under Lu Yuan’s command, including fifty thousand elite and Miao soldiers, and seventy thousand militia.

On the eighth day of the eighth month, after splitting his troops to take over the six northern prefectures abandoned by Lu Yuan, He Basheng led his troops southward and arrived at Hanzhong’s city.

However, by this time, He Basheng’s advantage over Lu Yuan’s forces had dropped from originally tenfold to merely twofold.

Moreover, Nanzheng city was also a provincial city with high walls and deep moats, and there were plenty of food, weapons, and equipment in the city. With over a hundred thousand soldiers defending the city, it was extremely difficult for He Basheng’s three hundred thousand-strong army to take it down.

As a result, after trying to attack a few times, He Basheng gave up on the plan.

In the days that followed, Lan Cai’er showed her face a few times alongside Lu Yuan, and after learning that there was another Inborn Grandmaster here, He Basheng completely gave up the idea of attacking the city.

Originally, he and another Pillar State Grand General had been able to barely restrain Lu Yuan together.

However, with the addition of another Inborn Grandmaster on the opposing side, the delicate balance in their top-tier combat power was instantly broken.

If they were to attack the city again, it would be difficult to guarantee that the Inborn Grandmaster on the other side would not take action if pushed too hard.

Even if Lu Yuan could be restrained and unable to take action, just having Inborn Grandmaster Lan Cai’er appearing on the battlefield would still have a horrifying effect on the morale and consumption of their troops.

Therefore, upon confirming that the strengths of both sides were balanced, He Basheng dared not attack the city recklessly anymore.

Afterward, other than sending some soldiers every day for symbolic small-scale skirmishes with the enemy, there were no more major battles.

Time dragged on like this until the ninth month of Hongdao’s eighth year.

During the transition from the Mid-Autumn Festival and the refreshing autumn days, news finally came from both the northern Zhou court and the southern Yue court.

After months of negotiations and compromises following the ongoing battle in Hanzhong, the peace talks between the two countries finally reached a conclusion.

The negotiations had ended.