To achieve immortality, I cultivate using Qi Luck

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Earlier Lu Yuan was concerned about his reputation and didn’t want to forcibly conscript local Liang citizens to be cannon fodder, driving them to swarm and attack the city.

But now the Liang people had themselves gathered the individuals together, even turning the original Liang citizens into Liang soldiers, switching from a production unit to a military unit.

With this change of status, everything was fine.

Driving citizens to attack a city was inhumane, the act of a tyrant, and contravened his own reputation for benevolence and righteousness.

But driving prisoners of war to attack a city, that was surely not a problem, right?

Even if the news got out, nobody could really fault him for it.

Over there, there were 240,000 Liang prisoners, and by sending them to the front line to fill the trenches, the Chu State could have 240,000 fewer casualties.

If this practice continued, perhaps an additional one million of the ten million Chu civilian workers could ultimately return home.

For the Chu people, this was a significant act of kindness.

For the Chu State, being able to keep more of its supportive population meant that its base was stronger, which was also a very good thing.

Therefore, after realizing this, Lu Yuan gave orders to the Central State counties in the rear to stop sending the large number of Liang soldiers captured last year to work on new water conservancy projects, and instead, redirect them all to prepare for filling the trenches.

Last year, the Chu army achieved a series of brilliant victories during which they captured a large number of soldiers from various countries.

Among them, Liang had the most with approximately 2.3 million people becoming prisoners, both soldiers and civilian workers included.

Wei Country was next, with about 1.5 million people captured.

Zhao Army was after that, around 700,000 people.

Zheng Kingdom had the least, roughly 200,000 people.

All of these amounted to 4.7 million people in total, a vast number.

Instead of releasing these prisoners, the Chu State directly used them as corvee labor, assigning them to tasks like road maintenance, grain transport, city and water conservancy construction, mining, and excavation.

All of these were harsh labors, which previously required the conscription of citizens to perform corvee labor. Each time, many would die, causing considerable civilian discontent.

Now that they had free labor, naturally, they did not need to trouble the citizens and add to their suffering.

Chu Army was able to begin the second Northern Expedition this year without any hesitation, and indeed, they could not afford to give up the credit of this free labor.

Late April.

Successive victories were reported from Yu City and Gu Shu, the two prefectures were conquered.

After spending a month, the barrier surrounding the main camp of Liang was finally removed by the Chu Army one by one.

Two detached armies killed 300,000 Liang soldiers and captured 200,000, with their own losses at 230,000, equally not small in death and injury.

As per custom, Lu Yuan likewise ordered the two detached armies to escort these prisoners, along with themselves, to the front-line main camp.

In Qingzhou counties in the rear, there were also 600,000 Liang prisoners, who, during this period, were successively escorted to the front line.

By early May, as various forces converged here, Lu Yuan’s massive army once again broke through the two million mark.

Similarly, following along, there were a million Liang prisoners.

These cannon fodder would be the first to strike in the great siege of the main camp of Liang, paving a blood-and-flesh road to Liang for the Chu army behind them.

However, Lu Yuan was not in a hurry to take action.

It was only early May, with five months to go before winter.

This lengthy period was enough for him to take the city of Liang.

However, the various detached armies had previously gone through three difficult sieges, each suffering significant losses, and the morale among the soldiers was somewhat low.

This was especially true for those civilian workers who had been used as cannon fodder to fill the trenches.

Obviously, it was not possible, in such a state, to immediately engage in a major battle.

So Lu Yuan planned to let all the forces rest well, take a ten-day to half a month break, to recover their morale.

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Meanwhile, with new cannon fodder arriving here, it’s very likely that civilian workers from Chu will seldom be used.

This point, could also be communicated to the low-level civilian workers.

Believing in this heartening news, their mood and morale would see a significant shift.

This task, too, needs to be arranged as soon as possible.

Therefore, after the main camp assembled, the Chu Army’s camp continued to rest and wait.

But inside the city of Liang.

As the various Chu armies arrived, almost everyone understood that Ning Ling, Yu City, and Gu Shu, three prefectures nearby Liang, must have all been lost.

This was much faster than their original estimation of the time it would take for the Chu Army to conquer the three prefectures.

The fighting capability of the Chu Army was stronger than they had imagined.

And the chance for Liang to survive was less than expected.

Liang, which was originally expected to hold out for two to three months, now had to be defended for four to five months.

The time had doubled—could Liang really hold out?

This question arose in many people’s minds. The panic that had been suppressed reemerged and began to spread throughout the city as Chu’s forces arrived.

Inside the city, there was widespread alarm and despondency.

But at this time, within the Chu camp, there was celebration.

Because from Yong State, news had arrived.

The Wei Army in Nanyang, after holding out for over a year and having consumed all of their stored food, and even resorting to cannibalism, finally could no longer endure.

Dizzy from hunger, after their repeated failed charges against the Chu siege, and ultimately being decisively defeated.

They couldn’t bear it any longer, and directly chose to surrender.

The remaining 300,000 soldiers of the Wei Army surrendered their last four cities, wading through a sea of blood and rotting flesh, marching toward their doom.

Thus Nanyang was pacified.

When the news reached Henan, the Wei soldiers there, although with some aid from the Zhao Army of Hebei, were in a much better state than the Wei soldiers in Nanyang—they hadn’t resorted to cannibalism, at least.

But as Chu’s assault on the Eastern Province intensified and Zhao deployed more and more troops there, their own consumption of money and supplies significantly increased.

What was left for the Wei Army grew less and less.

When the tragic situation of the Nanyang Wei Army was conveyed to Henan, the deeply impacted Wei soldiers there were all shaken.

No one wanted to become a beast that resulted to cannibalism, nor did they wish for their families to suffer the bleak fate of those in Nanyang.

So realizing that the situation was hopeless, the more than 600,000 Wei soldiers holding out there also chose to open their gates and surrender.

The last piece of Wei territory in Central State thus fell.

As for the 300,000 cannibalistic soldiers from Wei in Nanyang, Lu Yuan had only one order after learning of their surrender:

Send them to the Eastern Province, dispatch them to the Chu-Zhao front lines.

These cannibals had utterly lost their humanity, sparing not even their own families.

Such people, such an army, no matter how fierce, would not be wanted by Chu.

Although they were reluctantly accepting their surrender now, it didn’t mean they were forgiven.

It was still appropriate to send them to the cruelest front lines, to serve as cannon fodder, to use their lives to atone for their past sins.

It just so happened that there were quite a few large cities in the Eastern Province, and one Imperial Capital, all in need of large amounts of cannon fodder.

If these 300,000 people could survive after the Eastern Province campaign,

Then, with these merits, granting them amnesty would not be unreasonable.