To achieve immortality, I cultivate using Qi Luck

Most people won’t have enough rice to eat.

If they don’t have enough rice, they can only starve to death.

Eating soil, eating grass, even resorting to cannibalism, these kind of tragic scenes will all be played out on this land.

If such a scene really occurs,

ask yourself, if you were a conscripted Wei soldier and you knew that your family back home was facing this tragic situation, would you still have the heart to fight to the death against Chu people?

Moreover, they themselves might be starving and personally experiencing this tragic situation.

If these things truly erupt, the morale of the Wei Army would inevitably plummet, and its people’s hearts would scatter.

Let alone fighting, if there weren’t a mutiny or rebellion with everyone killing the instigators, it would be like the sun rising in the west.

Just the issue of insufficient grain alone is a deadly weakness for the Wei soldiers on both sides.

This is also why Lu Yuan, after assessing the potential of Wei Country, despite knowing that the opponent’s strength was not weak and that merely relying on two military expeditions probably wouldn’t suffice, still decided to mobilize his troops.

That’s because the opponent lacks grain.

As long as he grabs hold of this vital point, he has in fact seized the whole of Wei Country.

Therefore, at this moment, Qingyunzi is not anxious about the slow progress in these two provinces.

He simply has people firmly hold the current region, while clearing out the Wei resistance within the occupied areas, coordinating with Lu Yuan’s iron-fisted campaign, to purify the two provinces.

What he did most, then, was send messages to the rear, telling them to hurry up and transport grain over.

Yes, transport grain.

Since they already know that within the Wei-controlled areas, a tragedy is about to unfold.

How could Chu State not prepare for this?

In the two provinces, there are still about twenty million people under Wei control.

All these Wei people, being descendants of the Three Emperors, do not have much cultural barrier with Chu people and can be directly assimilated and absorbed.

To Lu Yuan, these people are also a precious resource, providing him with Qi Luck, soldiers, and various resources.

He did indeed once say that for the peace of Central State, he wouldn’t hesitate to eliminate half, or even most, of the population.

But that was just to show determination.

If he can stabilize the region without killing, Lu Yuan naturally wouldn’t want to commit such slaughter.

So even if they are Wei people, if he can save one, he would still be willing to try his best to save them.

The world is in chaos, why should the innocent suffer?

The lords of the Nine Provinces have already caused much suffering to the people because of their struggle for imperial power.

Now that Lu Yuan has the ambition to pacify the world and restore peace to the Nine Provinces, naturally he must start from this moment.

He regards the people of all countries as his own, the Nine Provinces as his world, the common people as his children, so as not to fail in through them, acquiring everything.

This could also barely count as a trace of his compassion.

Of course, he’s not purely playing the saint.

Qingyunzi’s gathering of a large amount of grain in Henan and Nanyang and stockpiling it there, also serves to disintegrate the resistance of the Wei Army.

Just think about it.

You’re there, starving, practising child exchange for food, witnessing unnatural tragedies occur.

Over here, we have our fill at every meal, rice wafting its fragrance, even wine and meat to enjoy, life couldn’t be more carefree.

Comparing both sides, if you were a Wei soldier, what would you choose?

Most likely, a single bite to eat would easily tempt the Wei Army to defect.

A bag of rice could persuade a city to open its gates.

This is not a joke, but a bloody reality made for survival.

Hoarding grain, what’s being stored isn’t just grain, it’s the hearts of the people, the momentum, the world.

In Henan and Nanyang, the Wei Army may still be stubbornly resisting and even controls most of the area.

But these two provinces, in essence, have already turned into a deathtrap.

The monarch and ministers of Wei Country in Chang’an, if they really chose to hunt to the east, would surely enjoy temporary peace.

But such tranquility wouldn’t last two months before they, along with the entire nation’s subjects, would starve and people would start to eat each other.

Moreover, if they fled there, Chu State could block Guannei and Shuofang, trapping them like turtles in a jar, unable to escape even if they grew wings.

Faced with such a future, only a fool would go there.

On the other hand, hunting in the north towards Shuofang, albeit remote and impoverished,

would offer the plains to their east, where their own million-strong army still remained.

To the south lay Guannei and Chang’an, where another hundred thousand-strong army stood watch, along with hundreds of thousands of Village Braves and civilian workers who had answered the call to gather.

These people were still holding fast to the capital in Chang’an, still enduring the siege in various key cities within Guannei, serving as a southern shield as well.

To the east was Zhao Country, Wei’s "little brother."

Alright, now that Wei had fallen on hard times, the opponent certainly no longer wanted to be its "little brother."

But after all, the two countries had been allies for decades.

Now that Wei was in dire straits and Chu was rising, posing a threat to the security of all nations,

there was still some foundation for Wei to seek aid from Zhao.

Even if Zhao refused to send troops to help, if they simply provided some monetary and grain aid to Wei, just as Xu State had for Liang, there would be no problems whatsoever.

As long as Zhao could provide grain, Wei’s biggest issue of food shortage could find relief.

You say solving the food problem of the whole nation is indeed a stretch.

After all, the population currently under Wei’s control also amounts to over twenty million.

Reliance on Zhao alone certainly wouldn’t be enough to sustain them all.

But to solve the food problem for the several millions of the army temporarily conscripted by Wei, that could just about be managed for a while.

As long as they could hold on, Wei could still withstand the threat, and its dynasty could continue.

Even if, in the end, they really couldn’t bear it any longer,

there in Shuofang, Wei still had a northern escape route.

If it came down to it, they could just return to their Old Home in Yan State and start fighting over territory with the southern migrating Barbarians anew.

Although nowadays, only a few counties in the southern part of Yan were left habitable due to the invasion of the cold climate.

And these habitable territories were shrinking more and more.

Possibly within a decade or so, Yan would be finished.

But within these ten or so years, can’t people still live there?

Moreover, the southern lands of Yan, home to nearly ten million south-migrating Barbarians,

were once scoffed at by Wei, who felt they were difficult to civilize and would be a hidden danger if integrated into the nation.

But now, having fallen into such a state, who were they to be choosy?

A population in the millions, if united, could also form the foundation of a powerful state.

If, in the end, they really couldn’t stay in Yong State any longer and had to retreat to their Old Home in Yan, subdue those Barbarians, and establish another Wei, there would still be a chance to start all over again.

Therefore, Henan is a deathtrap, whereas Shuofang is the chance for survival.

The monarch and ministers of Chang’an in Wei Country saw this very clearly.

So after swiftly moving the capital and leaving behind a prominent minister to defend Chang’an,

Wei then announced the establishment of a new northern capital in the Shuofang town of Lingshou, where the Emperor and ministers would reside and handle domestic affairs.

Meanwhile, a Messenger was sent out to Zhao Country,

requesting that this former "little brother," now their lifeline, offer assistance.

In addition, an order was issued to establish defensive zones within Guannei and Heyang, dispatching prominent ministers and princes of the Clan to both places to prepare for resisting the Army of Chu.

Well, after such turmoil, the decrepit small court of Wei, under the heavy blow from Chu, just about managed to find its footing to carry on somehow,

but it was merely struggling to survive.

The ultimate future prospects, truly uncertain and hard to predict.