To achieve immortality, I cultivate using Qi Luck

```

Thud, thud.

A white blade goes in, a red blade comes out.

With a push of the hand, a figure full of disbelief fell to the ground.

"Why must we be forced to charge at the point of a bayonet while they can wield their swords over us?"

A Liang captive who had just killed a former comrade stood atop the city wall, brandishing his sword and shouting, "Kill them and break through their camp, let them experience being forced to charge forward like us.

No, we’ll be the ones drinking and feasting, watching them charge ahead."

"Kill them, break through the camp!"

"Kill them, break through the camp!"

These highly seductive words instantly ignited the baseness in the hearts of all the Liang captives.

A sense of not wanting others to fare well if one is not.

The desire to destroy what is beautiful appeared in everyone’s mind.

The wild beast within their hearts was unleashed from its cage and began to wreak havoc.

"Eliminate these rebels."

"Traitors."

"Kill these ungrateful wretches."

The Liang soldiers on the city walls, upon seeing their countrymen and former comrades behave this way, were also inflamed with rage.

Thinking of what their commanding officer had said previously, they could no longer hold back.

And so, both sides began to clash.

But how could a group of captives who lacked armor, were starving, and even carried subpar weapons possibly stand a chance against the well-equipped Liang defenders?

Once the defenders got serious, it only took moments before all the Liang captives who had rushed the walls were driven back down.

Even the captives under the ramparts suffered heavy casualties from the rolling logs, stones, and the onslaught of poured-down filth, crying out in agony as they died.

The mere hundred or so captives who survived the gruesome scene were thoroughly terrified.

Crying out, they fled backwards.

The Liang soldiers on the city walls, having just been through a bloody battle, had also been aroused to kill.

No longer caring about their countrymen or comrades, the archers readied their arrows and, aiming at the fleeing figures, let loose.

One after another, bodies fell to the ground as arrows found their marks.

By the time those Liang captives ran back, out of the original thousand or so, only about thirty remained.

Just one attempt at a charge resulted in such heavy losses for the captives.

The Chu army, observing from a distance, had halted their approach while the Liang soldiers were not on guard.

And after the captives were defeated, they retreated to their original position, watching from afar.

It was as if the matter did not concern them, as if they were outsiders.

Isn’t that the case indeed?

A group of Liang people fighting among themselves, what do the Chu people have to mix in for?

"Very good, you all are warriors to have charged the camp," said the same Chu officer, once again riding up to those who had managed to escape, now lying, sitting, standing, with expressions of laughter, vacantness, terror, clearly out of their minds.

"As promised, for the next ten days, you can indulge in eating and drinking without having to return to the battlefield.

If you’d already made a charge previously, then consider this another tally toward your charge count.

Once you’ve acumulated three charges, a reward of hundred taels of silver will be bestowed upon each of you, and you’ll be sent home to your riches."

```

This Chu general once again declared the rewards and punishments before signaling for the captives to be taken away.

He was quite satisfied with the charge.

Though over a thousand cannon fodder had died, their deaths were meaningful.

Not only did they deplete a large amount of arrows, rocks, and filth used for defending the camp by the Liang people, but they also severely struck at the morale of those inside the camp.

What was most important was the factional strife among the Liang; these captives had killed at least a hundred Liang soldiers.

That was no small gain.

Without losing a single soldier of his own, he had made the Liang consume themselves. How could such a matter not bring joy?

As for the substantial loss of captives, what could be done?

In the main camp, there were hundreds of thousands of Liang prisoners, and in the counties behind, millions more.

There was such an abundance of cannon fodder that it was impossible to use it all up.

After all, they were unstable elements; releasing them back into society would surely bring trouble to Chu State.

It was better to take the opportunity during the siege on Liang to use them all up at once.

Though it might be cruel, it was a good strategy for long-term stability.

"Compassion has no place in commanding an army," the Chu general muttered to himself as he touched the sword at his waist, looking out over the battlefield that reeked strongly of blood.

...

As dusk fell, a bloody battle finally came to a halt.

Inside the camp, Lu Yuan received the day’s casualty statistics for the captives and the achievements of the battle.

"Sixty thousand captives died, two camps were breached, eight thousand Liang soldiers killed, and over three thousand captured."

Looking at the report handed to him by a military officer, he nodded slightly, his expression calm, "Not bad. At this rate, in half a month, we should be able to clear all the camps on the periphery of the Liang capital."

For the past half month, after the captives were escorted to the main camp, the Chu army officially commenced their attack on Liang, or more precisely, on the satellite camps around the capital.

The Liang army had established and dug over a hundred camps of varying sizes around the capital, where a total of four hundred thousand soldiers were stationed.

These were the Liang’s second line of defense after the three prefectures of Ning Ling, Yu City, and Gu Shu.

Without removing these hundreds of "nails," the Chu army couldn’t even touch the corners of Liang’s city walls.

Therefore, to attack Liang, they had to first breach the camps.

This was undoubtedly a project that required sacrificing lives.

Fortunately, with over a million captives gathered in the main camp, the Chu ruler had plenty of cannon fodder at his disposal.

And so, after fighting continuously for half a month, more than seven hundred thousand Liang captives died, and more than half of the camps outside the capital had been uprooted.

The defenders in the camps had also suffered more than one hundred thousand deaths and between fifty and sixty thousand had been captured.

These captives weren’t wasted, either.

Those captured today were driven to the battlefield tomorrow, just like their predecessors, coerced by the Chu army with blades and spears.

They were rapidly recycled for use.

Thanks to this efficiency, the Chu army’s breakthrough progress against the extensive outer defensive lines was extremely smooth.

Based on the current pace of advancement, Lu Yuan optimistically estimated that in half a month, they would reach the outskirts of the Liang capital.

"However, the loss of captives is a bit heavy, only less than three hundred thousand remain in the camp," he said, frowning. Then he picked up the silk fabric to write an order: "Better have the rear send another five hundred thousand men over, we’re running low on cannon fodder."

Under the cold pen and paper, a stream of numbers flashed by, representing countless lives.