To achieve immortality, I cultivate using Qi Luck

How unbearable this is.

Emperor Liang discovered that he now harbored such hatred for the Chu people and such regret that he hadn’t eradicated them at all costs when Chu State was first rising.

"Your Majesty, the Chu army is formidable, and their sharp edge is unstoppable,"

from among the crowd below, one of Liang’s veteran generals, Lord Changyi Yang Chen, stepped forward and said, "In my opinion, our army should, just like last year, hold out in the great city of Liang, and wait for the enemy to retreat on their own.

The Chu people, moving from west to east, have provoked numerous enemies—the Western region foreign tribes, Wei people, Zhao people, our Liang people, Zheng people—the front stretches for tens of thousands of miles, all of them adversaries of Chu.

To oppose so many enemies at the same time requires millions upon millions of soldiers.

Moreover, they have encountered a subterranean fire attack in the Lingnan Region and are relocating the common folk, which is yet another expense involving millions of people.

With such enormous costs, even if the Chu people were to cultivate for thirty years and save up substantial national strength, they would still struggle to sustain such consumption for long.

We needn’t do much, just wait for them to run out of grain, and the Chu soldiers will retreat on their own."

Yang Chen expressed the view held by most people at the time.

That is, the Chu army cannot sustain for long.

After all, the consumption of a near forty million people is almost equivalent to the total population of dominant states like Zhao and Xu.

No matter how powerful Chu State is, it cannot support such a non-productive population for too long. Given enough time, it will naturally withdraw its troops due to exhaustion of national strength.

In fact, many people are already surprised and incredulous that Chu State has managed to hold out until now.

Most people thought that under normal circumstances, the Chu army should have been unable to sustain as early as last autumn.

Who would have expected that not only did they get through last autumn, but come this spring, without taking a breath, they charged straight in again.

This is truly incomprehensible, leaving many unable to fathom the situation.

"Waiting for the Chu army to retreat on their own is not so easy. If the Chu army were not confident, why would they mount a Northern Expedition again? Hoping to wear them down until they run out of grain is only wishful thinking on our part,"

After listening to Yang Chen’s words, Emperor Liang shook his head, quite disappointed.

Although he was unclear about how much grain Chu State still had, he was well aware that there are no minor matters in military strategy.

Emperor Chu Lu Yuan, the present era’s most renowned general, how could he possibly not know the perils of an army short on grain?

Last year, the Chu army had to withdraw once already due to a lack of grain, having suffered that loss.

Now making a comeback, how could they not take precautions and prepare sufficient grain?

So if the Liang army still holds the naive notion of waiting for the enemy to run out of grain and retreat, that would be wishful thinking.

Chu State will not give them that opportunity.

"Even if the Chu army is flush with cash and grain and has no worries about shortages, the strong defenses of great Liang are sufficient to hold off the Chu army,"

Seeing Emperor Liang a bit pessimistic, Yang Chen hurriedly said, "Inside the city of great Liang, we have three hundred thousand elite troops. Outside the city, another four hundred thousand troops safeguard the perimeter, with camp connections stretching over fifty miles.

In various towns throughout Liang County as well, we have another five hundred thousand troops stationed to guard the major cities, with local militias ready to assist, enough to ward off the enemy.

With one million two hundred thousand troops at our disposal, even if three million Chu soldiers come to attack, they cannot dream of breaching Liang County.

It’s even doubtful they can reach the borders of great Liang.

Your Majesty need not worry."

When the Chu army attacked last year, the Liang side was indeed thrown into chaos for a while.

However, after the initial panic, once the monarch and ministers of Liang reacted, the bottom of the barrel strength that befits the once world’s leading dominant state immediately erupted.

Even though they lost nearly half of their territory, the remaining half still had a population of nearly forty million.

Facing a life-and-death crisis, they mustered their forces without any hesitation, and in a short amount of time, Liang managed to pull together a massive army of four million.

This four million-strong army, excluding one million stationed along the eastern front in Qingping and Jiaodong Counties to guard against Chu and Tang forces,

the remaining three million were almost entirely allocated to the western front to resist the invasion from Chu State.

And in great Liang, the capital, one million two hundred thousand, many of them elite with strong capabilities, were especially assigned.

Judging from the advantage of defense, although the Chu army had more troops, it was only about thrice the number of the Liang defenders.

This gap was enough to be evened out with the advantage of the city walls.

"That’s only the conventional wisdom, but since its foundation, how many times has the Chu army ever followed conventional wisdom?"

Emperor Liang shook his head, "If we went by conventional wisdom, how could Emperor Chu, once a mere Hunter, gain dominance over Jiangnan, and nearly bring great Liang to the brink of collapse?

If we went by conventional wisdom, how could the Chu manage to send out an army of ten million without any logistical concerns?

It may seem we have nothing to worry about now, but if the Chu army surprises us again, whether great Liang can hold is something no one can be certain about.

Don’t forget, that Emperor Chu Lu Yuan is now the last cultivator in the Nine Provinces.

Relying on just himself, he possesses the ability to turn the tide of battle with Immortal Technique, and although he has not yet revealed his Immortal Technique, we cannot be unprepared.

Besides, as the imperial capital, having great Liang surrounded time and again is a disgrace to our nation’s reputation.

What would the country’s people think when they see this, how restless would their hearts be?

If possible, we should block the Chu army at the nation’s gate and not let them invade our capital."

With the rise of Chu State, especially after last year’s stunning performance that took down the world’s first and second strongest nations and shocked the world,

Research into Emperor Chu Lu Yuan, the man behind all this, suddenly became heated.

And as the research went deeper, the various incredible things about Lu Yuan became known to people.

Things that people previously didn’t believe,

such as the rumors that the True Persons of the Qing and Huang series were avatars of Emperor Chu, gradually gained credibility.