To achieve immortality, I cultivate using Qi Luck

When Lu Yuan first rose to power and was fighting in Dongting County, every time he conscripted civilian workers as cannon fodder, barely any would be left by the end of the battle.

At that time, the mortality rate of cannon fodder basically soared above eighty or ninety percent.

Nowadays, having it at thirty or forty percent is already quite good.

Other nations have been waging war in recent years, and every time they conscript civilian workers, the death rate is also very high.

Otherwise, why do you think Liang, which has been stable in most of its territories for thirty years of war, has not only failed to increase its population.

Instead, the total population decreased from the peak of over eighty million to less than seventy million, a reduction of over ten million people.

Where did the population that should have grown naturally each year go?

It was consumed as cannon fodder on the front-line battlefields, that’s where.

Liang is not alone; the recent population decline in the other nations of Zhao, Wei, and Xu is basically due to the same reason.

The loss of five or six million people may seem large for Chu State, but when compared with other nations, it’s actually not that much more.

Considering he is now fighting the world alone, having directly opened seven military camps on seven battlefields, these losses are actually even less substantial.

Averaged out, each military camp lost less than a million men.

After Chu took control of Central State and its population swelled to 140 million, this loss, less than one twentieth of the total population, was completely acceptable.

That’s why, after letting go of last year’s civilian workers, Lu Yuan doesn’t plan to release this year’s newly recruited two million civilians meant to replenish those lost last year.

After all, the battlefields across Chu State are fiercely contested, and although preparations are being made for a standing regular army, the need for cannon fodder in warfare is unavoidable.

It’s heartbreaking to use the elite troops trained with such effort as cannon fodder.

Sometimes, when sieging cities and filling trenches, some civilian workers are still needed as cannon fodder to reduce elite casualties.

Moreover, although the Chu army has gradually gained a foothold in Central State, some counties in the rear have even begun to produce food and fodder, supporting the front-line troops.

Here, the Chu army is no longer on a campaign thousands of miles from home, but has a hint of fighting on its own territory.

The pressure on logistics and transportation has been greatly reduced.

Gradually, there’s no need for so many civilian workers to transport food from afar.

But fewer doesn’t mean none at all.

The food and fodder for the front-line armies still need laborers to transport them, which requires civilian workers.

Therefore, this year’s newly conscripted two million cannot be released, but must stay to serve as new cannon fodder after the five or six million old civilian workers are let go next year.

However, according to the plan, after capturing Liang this year, the war with other nations next year will not be as fierce as it is now.

Of these two million civilian workers, even if they are to serve as cannon fodder, half should still be able to survive in the end.

It’s not entirely without a glimmer of hope.

Although Lu Yuan may be ruthless on the battlefield, he’s not completely merciless, still leaving some ways out for people.

Especially for his own people.

Planning is one thing, but how to recruit more than two million new soldiers?

How to release five or six million civilian workers?

After they leave, how to adjust the strength of each military camp?

After the reduction of troops in hand, should an offensive or defensive stance be adopted against other nations on various military fronts?

All these issues are in urgent need of resolution.

It’s not something Lu Yuan can decide on a whim or settle with a single word.

That’s why, as he sat in a standoff with the defenders of Great Liang City, he began to convene meetings with the generals in the camp, as well as accompanying ministers and officers, to coordinate and discuss the matter.

The adjustment of tens of millions of people involves too many aspects to be planned for replenishment. To come up with a plan and execute it by the end of this year is certainly not an easy task.

Therefore, Lu Yuan could only work overtime with the many civil and military officials, discussing and planning every day.

Time also began to fly by in such busy work.

At the end of March in the forty-second year of Shenwu, the Chu army arrived at Great Liang.

At the beginning of April, the Chu army repaired the camp, sealed off all four routes, and Great Liang City was besieged, completely isolated from the outside world.

By mid-April, after half a month of static confrontation, news came from Ningling Prefecture in the south that after half a month of siege, the Chu army finally broke through the city and took this major stronghold of southern Liang.

Of the hundred thousand Liang defenders in the city, seventy thousand died in battle and thirty thousand surrendered. Additionally, the two hundred thousand civilian workers from Chu who were forcibly conscripted during this period lost a hundred thousand and a hundred thousand surrendered.

The Liang forces lost three hundred thousand men, and the two Inborn generals guarding Ning Ling also perished in battle, buried with the city.

On the Chu side, although no Inborns were lost, the army still suffered casualties of one hundred and fifty thousand men, and even though most were cannon fodder civilian workers, it was still enough to cause distress.

In light of this, Lu Yuan, with a touch of regret, could only order that the surrendered Liang people, along with those from Mengshan Pass, totaling two hundred and forty thousand people, all be escorted to Great Liang City.

The battle of Ning Ling made him realize once again the horrors of siege warfare.

The consumption of human life in such battles is like a meat grinder, never enough to fill the gaps.

Even though the Chu army already held the advantage, taking down Great Liang could ultimately cost the lives of a million men.

However you look at it, it was the capital of a once world-dominating power, renowned for decades as the strongest fortress in the world.

For the Chu army to capture such a world-famous stronghold, the road to the city must be paved with fresh blood and flesh—it would be unreasonable otherwise.

Since people are bound to die, it’s certainly better for them to be people of Liang than people of Chu.