To achieve immortality, I cultivate using Qi Luck

It can be said that the emergency changes made by Wei State’s ministers indeed salvaged the nation’s fate.

For at the time they were preparing for the Northern Expedition, the Heyang Military Expedition of Chu State had already dispatched a vanguard of about four hundred thousand light infantrymen who swiftly advanced, bypassing the prefectures and counties along Nanyang and directly invading the territory of Henan Prefecture.

Behind them followed another two hundred thousand elite Chu troops, along with over a million civilian workers making up the rear army, advancing in an imposing manner.

Within the territory of Henan, the Wei Army left to defend held only about three hundred thousand men, with likewise merely three Inborn individuals present.

This strength, although not weak, was absolutely incapable of suppressing the invading Chu forces.

Even the mere thought of hastily conscripting some civilian workers to help defend the city was somewhat difficult.

Because the Chu Army’s arrival was just too fast and too urgent.

So fast that they could not react in time, so urgent that they had no time to resist.

It was as if overnight, the heavens had changed.

The Chu Army suddenly appeared beneath their walls, suddenly breached their cities, and suddenly wreaked havoc across all of Henan.

Like thunder, like a gusty downpour, leaving no time for anyone to adjust.

The Northern Expedition, which Chu State had been preparing for thirty years, involved countless plans and consumed immense effort.

Now, all that had turned into fuel, powering the army as it crushed the entirety of Henan.

Of course.

Although the Chu Army’s arrival was swift, indeed catching the Wei Army off guard,

a long-distance raid of over a thousand miles would ultimately not be easy.

By the time the Chu Army arrived in Henan and launched their first wave of offense, they were more or less at the end of their strength.

The four hundred thousand vanguard troops only occupied some secondary lines in the southern part of Henan. After establishing their footing, they could only fortify the cities and regroup, waiting for reinforcements.

Although the fighting at the front lines continued, it was but a selection of elites occasionally harassing the Wei forces in Henan.

Wei Country still had three hundred thousand troops here, not a significant numerical difference from the vanguard, and with the advantage of the local terrain, they had access to immeasurable resources and manpower.

With these advantages, they could easily bridge the small gap in numbers with the Chu Army.

What’s most important was,

as the focus of Wei State’s development over the past decade, Nanyang and Henan Prefectures were the core regions that absorbed the culmination of all Wei Country’s efforts and energy.

A large portion of Wei Country’s immigrants had already relocated to these two prefectures, and together with the original Zhou Country immigrants, the total population of these two prefectures was almost thirty-four million.

With such a large population, a mere push for mobilization could summon countless militia armies.

Adding to the slightly fierce martial culture of Wei Country, the actual war potential of these two prefectures was not small at all.

The only drawback was probably the issue of grain shortage.

Almost half of Wei Country’s annual grain consumption was purchased from Chu State.

But now as Chu and Wei were at war, and the countries had become enemies, Chu State’s grain could naturally no longer be sold to Wei Country.

Therefore, although there was no lack of population on the Wei side and they could draft large numbers of troops at any time,

how to feed these people became a problem.

But now, in this moment of life-and-death struggle, who would care if the army could be sustained?

The Chu Army came surging in, their forces numbering in the millions, seemingly covering the sky and pressing down like dark clouds on the town.

In such circumstances, when the Wei forces deployed a wave of troops to the battlefield, before long, they’d be completely depleted.

Thus, the so-called difficulty of sustaining a large army was in fact non-existent.

Therefore, in this critical moment, the governors and commanders of Henan and Nanyang in Wei Country, after brief consultations, rapidly reached a consensus.

Conscription, wide open conscription.

In every prefecture, county, and village town still under Wei control, as long as they were men able to wield weapons, no matter their age, all were forcefully enlisted into the army as soldiers.

In the years of great contention, competition had intensified, and the scale of military engagement had grown ever larger. Almost every country had already experienced to some extent a shortage of military forces.

Therefore, to solve this problem, the system of universal military duty had become inevitable.

All countries had universalized military education, namely the training of Village Braves during farming off-seasons that Lu Yuan had initiated at the beginning of his rise.

So these conscripted Wei Country Village Braves actually had some military training, and with a bit of organization, they became an army that could be put to use.

Although such an army might have a shortfall in strength and could not fight directly on the battlefield,

they were perfectly capable of defending a city.

Before the start of the Northern Expedition, Huang Yun reported to Lu Yuan that the martial spirit in Wei’s Guannei Prefectures was strong, and the local Village Braves were formidable, comparable to the regular troops of any prefecture or county.

When attacking this area, it was not enough to only consider Wei’s regular military forces; the local men who grew up in that culture also had to be taken into account.

Gathered together, these people constituted a significant military force that could not be ignored.

On account of this report, Lu Yuan revised the Northern Expedition plan, adding a Hanzhong Military Expidition at the last minute.

And in the Wei regions of Nanyang and Henan Prefectures, although their martial spirit was slightly inferior to that in Guannei and Shuofang Prefectures, it was still not to be underestimated.

A conscription order was issued.

After initial panic and confusion subsided, the Wei forces that came to their senses quickly conscripted a tremendous number of Village Braves in both prefectures.

In just a short half-month period, the number of Wei troops in Nanyang Prefecture surged to a million.

The Wei Army in Henan Prefecture directly broke through two million.

With a population of thirty-four million, if all able-bodied men were directly drafted, the limit could even reach tens of millions of Village Braves and civilian workers.