To achieve immortality, I cultivate using Qi Luck

Meng Chenglin’s assembled main force of five hundred thousand was considered the cream of the Wei army.

When he led this elite force to launch a surprise attack on Blackwater City, they clashed with the Heturulo army below, and instantly gained a tremendous advantage.

The elite main force of the Heturulo army was simply no match for the Wei army in head-to-head combat.

Not to mention that their main force was only about three hundred thousand strong.

Whereas the Wei army had a full five hundred thousand men.

One side was more elite and numerous, and the other had lower combat power and fewer people, leaving no suspense as to who would win or lose when the two sides clashed.

Under the fierce assault of the Wei army, the Heturulo army suffered successive defeats, losing a hundred thousand soldiers and proving to be no match.

What about the Wei army then?

Although they won battle after battle and conquered numerous enemies, they too were having a tough time.

Because once the Heturulo army realized they were no match for the Wei army in a frontal engagement,

they simply stopped fighting head-on.

After losing several battles, the remaining two hundred thousand Heturulo troops withdrew straight into Blackwater City.

They then relied on the fortifications of this strong city to hunker down and engage in a war of attrition with the Wei army.

How difficult is it to attack a well-maintained city with ample money, grain, and a strong defensive force? Just look at the siege of Great Liang City by the Chu State.

Lu Yuan, leading a massive army of three million, went to besiege Great Liang City, but facing a city with a mere six hundred thousand defenders, they couldn’t breach the outer defenses after more than a month.

Let alone capturing Great Liang City, they didn’t even manage to break through its perimeter defenses or reach the city walls.

In the end, due to various issues in the rear, they had to retreat when supplies ran out, temporarily ending the siege of Great Liang City.

Although Blackwater City was just a steppe city and its scale and defense were far inferior to Great Liang’s, it nevertheless possessed the necessary attributes of a dominant country’s capital.

With two hundred thousand Heturulo troops holding the city, Meng Chenglin’s force of just over four hundred thousand had no chance of taking it by storm.

Thus, after nearly a month of siege, the Wei army lost more than a hundred thousand men, soldier’s morale wavered, and they failed to capture Blackwater City.

On the contrary, the Heturulo army inside Blackwater City saw their numbers swell as various forces from the steppe gathered to support them. They slowly outnumbered the Wei army, reaching around four hundred thousand.

Meanwhile, Meng Chenglin’s forces, after consecutive losses, dwindled to just over three hundred thousand.

And these three hundred thousand men, with wavering morale, exhausted officers and soldiers, sagging spirits, and cut-off logistics, faced a shortage of supplies.

The downsides of employing a cunning strategy were now manifesting themselves.

Meng Chenglin’s decision to lead an army on a surprise attack on Blackwater City indeed had an astonishing effect, significantly intimidating and shaking the Heturulo army.

However, because he failed to quickly seize the city, or ration the supplies within to his advantage,

his raiding force fell into the Heturulo army’s encirclement, cut off from the rear and trapped in a dire situation.

By that point, even if he wanted to retreat, it was impossible under the scrutiny of hundreds of thousands of Heturulo soldiers, deep within enemy territory.

The ultimate fate of his forces remained unknown, as no further news came out.

Only messages from the steppe indicated,

the rear guard of five hundred thousand left by Meng Chenglin, along with tens of thousands of civilian workers, came under frenzied attack from the Heturulo forces after the main army withdrew.

In the end, nearly a million of these individuals were killed or injured, with more than half sustaining casualties. The remnants, upon retreating back to Wei Country, were captured by the Chu army, which had already taken over the Guannei Prefecture, and all became prisoners of war.

Yes, prisoners of war of the Chu army.

After Meng Chenglin ventured deep into the steppe, Huang Xin conveyed a message to Lu Yuan, prompting his true self to launch the Northern Expedition.

As the first avatar to sense the opportunity arise, his reaction was swift.

After realizing that Wei Country’s main force could not return in a short time, Huang Xin decisively abandoned the newly conquered Helong region, led his troops back, and launched a surprise attack while Wei Country was completely unprepared.

After leaving a million civilian workers as reserve forces to defend Hanzhong, the remaining 1.4 million army marched directly into Guannei Prefecture.

Then, with a million elite main forces drawn away and forty thousand troops from the Northern Border allocated to guard against the southward-moving barbarians from Yan State,

Guannei Prefecture, where the Imperial Capital was located, was left with only a hundred thousand Wei defenders, and only three Inborn Grandmasters.

One hundred thousand men against 1.4 million, ten Inborn against three.

Such a huge disparity in strength, and with the added disadvantage of being caught off guard, left them fundamentally unprepared.

"How are you supposed to fight this?"

In fact, it was impossible to fight at all.

When the monarch and ministers in Chang’an City received the news that Chu Army had suddenly turned hostile and an army of over a million had struck Guannei Prefecture, everyone was stunned.

After their initial bewilderment, extreme panic set in.

Anger, fear, dread, chaos...

These emotions and scenes played out in rotation in the imperial court.

Then, under the continuous threat of the advancing Chu army, even with hearts filled with reluctance and anger, the Wei state’s ministers had no choice but to make a painful decision, a Northern Expedition.

However, as soon as this decision was made,

urgent news came from Nanyang.

The Chu army had suddenly crossed the river and launched a surprise attack on Wei forces in Nanyang Prefecture.

The Chu army’s onslaught was fierce, and their numbers seemed beyond count.

Now, just a few days into the battle, the spearhead of Chu army was already directly pointing at Nanyang Prefecture city.

The Nanyang defenders numbered just over two hundred thousand, with only three Inborn, not at all a match for the Chu army, who were urgently requesting aid from the court.

Hearing this news, the Chang’an monarch and ministers, who had initially planned the Northern Expedition, suddenly halted their steps.

Not only did Chu State dispatch troops to attack Guannei Prefecture from Hanzhong, but they had also started action against Nanyang?

And judging from the report from Nanyang, the number of Chu troops there seemed even greater than in Hanzhong Prefecture.

It made sense.

Nanyang Prefecture, being closer to the Chu capital Baling and having the Han River and the Yangtze River as water routes for transporting supplies, naturally found it easier to mobilize a large army compared to crossing the numerous mountain ridges from Hanzhong.

Thus the main force of the Chu army was in the east.

Guannei here was just a diversion.

Realizing this, the Wei state’s ministers quickly revised their plan.

The original Northern Expedition was immediately changed to a retreat.

The east was already a dead end; combined, Henan and Nanyang prefectures had no more than five hundred thousand Wei soldiers.

This force, facing millions of Chu armies, could hardly be of significant use, and even defense was extremely difficult.

Going there would be like walking into a trap, foolishly running into the encirclement laid by Chu.

On the other hand, in the northern Shuofang Prefecture, there were still four hundred thousand elite main forces from the Northern Border, and it connected directly to the steppes, where they could immediately communicate with over a million forces on the grasslands.

If they could contact Great General Meng Chenglin and have him lead his troops to return swiftly,

then after the two forces joined, they would have two million soldiers and more than ten Inborn.

At that point, moving southward to clash with the Chu army, they would have a fighting chance.