To achieve immortality, I cultivate using Qi Luck

Chapter 628: Chapter 289: Border Defense Pressure

After briefly lamenting his own uncertain fate on the path of longevity, Lu Yuan quickly gathered his emotions and began to consider what changes would take place in the Southsea Country after it lost its founding monarch, Yan Wangqiu, to death.

And amidst this change, how should the Chu State maintain its interests?

After pondering quietly for a while, he soon issued an order.

An order was sent to the whole country: a forbidden army stationed in Baling City, the capital city, was to be transferred to Yangshan Prefecture City to closely monitor the Southsea Country, and to guard against any moves from Ning Country in Yuzhang Prefecture.

It must be said that Yan Wangqiu died at a very inconvenient time.

His death suddenly disrupted the balance of power in the southern region.

The original balance between Chu State, Southsea Country, Ning Country, and Su Country, the four-legged tripod situation, suddenly lost one of its corners.

Without the Inborn Grandmaster in the Southsea Country, there was a lack of top combat power, and the strength of the country had been neglected for years, making it the weakest among the four states.

Even Su State, which had experienced internal turmoil, was much stronger than it.

And amid a situation where they were surrounded by tigers, leopards, wolves, and hyenas, a weak and fat lamb with dripping juice appeared all of a sudden. How could the predators beside them be willing to give up such a chunk of fat meat?

There was no need to think too much. As soon as the news spread, Ning Country and Su Country would likely make new moves soon, extending their claws to Southsea Country.

And no matter which of the two countries swallowed up the Southsea Country, it would be a disaster for the Chu State, directly increasing the pressure on the southern border defense.

So, in order to prevent this from happening, or not to allow the other two countries to take all the benefits, Chu State must follow closely, whether willingly or not, and get involved in the affairs of Southsea Country.

Whether directly dividing it up, maintaining the status quo, or helping Southsea Country resist the invasion of the other two countries, Chu State must not be absent.

The worst thing was that at this moment, Chu State had no spare capacity to intervene in this matter.

At present, Chu State is trapped in the war in the southwest, with the threat of the Nanzhao army in Xichuan Prefecture, which can be described as fighting on two fronts.

And to cope with these two wars, four of the nine forbidden armies of Chu State were deployed in Qianzhong County, two were sent to Xichuan Prefecture, and a total of 120,000 elites were unable to move.

Now in the country, the 20,000-strong forbidden army in Xichuan Prefecture must guard against Zhou Country, Liang Country, and Ning Country, and the pressure is no less than that in Qianzhong and Xichuan.

If it weren’t for the newly promoted Grandmaster Zhou Qing stationed there, the surrounding countries would have been unable to restrain themselves and started attacking Chu State long ago.

With three prefectures of Chu State mired in war, or potentially about to be plunged into war, the situation in the third prefecture, where the capital city of Dongting is located, was not much better.

Because on the north side of Dongting Prefecture, Ning Country controlled the three prefectures in Xiangyang Prefecture and stationed 50,000 troops led by the Wucheng Marquis Yang Jing.

On the east side of Dongting Prefecture, the waterside main camp in Chaisang Prefecture, Yuzhang Prefecture of Ning Country, was also home to 50,000 naval troops led by Wucheng Marquis Shangguan Ming.

In both the north and east directions, Ning Country had a total of 100,000 land and water troops led by two inborn Grandmasters, posing a strong threat to the safety of Chu State’s capital city Baling.

And to cope with this threat, there was only one Inborn Grandmaster, Lan Cai’er, and two Forbidden Armies and Jinwu Guards stationed in Baling City, a total of no more than 44,000 people.

This meager strength was only half of what Ning had.

However, outside Baling City, in Dongting Lake, Chu Wei had expanded the Chu State’s naval forces after nearly six years of training. They now had a scale of 30,000 people.

Adding together these forces, along with some prefectural and county soldiers, the number of troops Dongting Prefecture could muster was almost enough to counterbalance the Ning forces.

However, all of this was based on the premise that Ning Country would not add more troops and horses to the front line, in order to maintain a balance.

In recent years, Chu State has been continuously developing, and Ning Country, which occupies four prefectures in Jiangdong, has a stronger foundation and has been developing even more rapidly and aggressively.

Since taking over from Pre-Yue, after six years of recuperation, Ning Country has almost smoothed out the wounds caused by the nine years of war.

Not only has local agricultural production substantially recovered, with grain output approaching or even surpassing the peaceful years of Longqing and Pre-Yue times, but also local tranquility and abundant resources have naturally attracted merchants and travelers from all over the world, bringing a significant wealth to Ning Country.

With no shortage of money, food, or stability, the males lost to large-scale conscription in Jiangdong due to the war have recovered quickly with the rise of a new generation.

Even a baby boom has erupted in Ning Country due to the post-war peace, resulting in a rapid increase in population.

With all these accumulations, the standing army of Ning Country now numbers 500,000, once again boasting the formidable military strength of a Supreme Dominator.

Warehouses in various localities have also stockpiled enough grain for two years for the entire population, allowing the army to be supplied for at least ten years without shortage.

The national treasury also has stored forty million silver tales, enough to support the needs of a 500,000-strong army for several years.

In other words, after six years of development, Ning Country has not yet returned to its peak of national power and still has a lot of potential to be tapped.

But if it wanted to, Ning Country could at any time now pull out an army of 300,000 to wage war.

Three hundred thousand troops.

Just thinking about this number made it somewhat difficult to breathe.

Now, the whole Chu State’s army, including prefectural and county soldiers, has only 220,000 people, far fewer than the other side.