To achieve immortality, I cultivate using Qi Luck

Since May, the Chu Army had changed its strategy. After starting to pour large numbers of captured cannon fodder into the front line, the situation for the Zhao Army in Dongjun quickly took a turn for the worse.

On the battlefield in Liang County, in order to attack Liang, the Chu Army had committed over a million prisoners in a relentless assault without regard for casualties. Thus, their progress was extremely smooth.

Over there in Dongjun, the Western Military Expedition led by Huang Lin also advanced at an equally rapid pace.

After adjustments last winter, the forces of the Western Military Expedition were reorganized, and its current composition was one million soldiers and one and a half million civilian workers.

On the other hand, their enemy, centered around Dongjun’s Diqiu, consisted of the Zhao Army with roughly one million soldiers and about eight hundred thousand civilian workers who had been hastily conscripted.

Honestly speaking, although this force was still slightly inferior to the Chu Army’s, it was more than sufficient for defense.

Therefore, in the first two months of the year, as the Second Northern Expedition commenced, the Zhao and Chu forces engaged in a fierce battle in Dongjun. Both sides tested and measured each other without giving way, revealing no weaknesses.

But by May, following an order from Lu Yuan, the seven hundred thousand Zhao Army prisoners captured by the Chu forces last year, along with the three hundred thousand soldiers of the Nanyang Wei Army who had surrendered in April, were all dispatched to the Dongjun battlefield.

Then the Chu Army, which had previously been cautious about casualties and fought with many restrictions, suddenly became like an unbridled wild horse, embarking on their unfettered campaign.

Millions of prisoners, unconcerned about their own deaths or injuries, were sent to the front line, and the Chu Army’s manpower suddenly swelled.

In particular, the concentrated use of prisoners allowed the Chu Army to gain an advantage of two to three times, or even four to five times the number of troops in certain parts of the battlefield.

With this kind of advantage, Huang Lin decisively launched targeted breakthroughs.

He first amassed a large force in the central part of Dongjun at Baima County, creating a smokescreen as he had done the previous year, to draw the attention of the Zhao Army.

Then, leading a surprise attack with his main force, he fiercely attacked Watign County to the southeast of Dongjun, and in just three short days, used the lives of one hundred thousand prisoners to force a breach in the city.

The southeastern defenses of Dongjun were immediately compromised, exposing a vulnerability to the advancing Chu Army.

The rest of the plan became much simpler.

With the southeastern frontline breached, Huang Lin continued leading the prisoners and the elite troops northward, penetrating from behind directly into Liang City, which was located at the back of Baima County.

Liang City, situated to the south of the Yellow River, has always been an important port city bridging Henan and Hebei and the most important logistics base for the millions of Zhao troops on the Baima frontline. It was also the largest port for receiving supplies from Hebei to Dongjun.

It can be said that even if the Zhao Army’s main force at Baima County were to be lost, Zhao may not necessarily be defeated, and Dongjun may not necessarily fall.

After all, Zhao, being an established hegemon, dominates a whole province and still has some depth to fall back on.

Even if they lost a million of their main force in one fell swoop, they could still scrape together roughly another million people from within the nation.

With troops and supplies, they could continue to fight against the Chu people.

However, if Liang City were to fall, then Dongjun, which is situated in Henan, and Ji Province, held by Zhao in Hebei, would lose the most crucial transportation route between them.

Subsequently, while the Zhao people would still maintain a few large and small ports within Dongjun to maintain communication with Hebei,

the combined throughput of all these ports would not even amount to half of Liang City’s capacity.

With such limited transportation efficiency, it would clearly be impossible to sustain a large army in prolonged combat in Dongjun.

Therefore, the loss of Liang City essentially meant the loss of Dongjun for the Zhao people.

This was also why the Zhao nation had placed their main force in front of Liang City, three hundred li away in Baima County.

The purpose was to shield this critical logistics base and prevent the Chu Army from threatening its security.

But now, Huang Lin had taken a detour of a thousand li and was no longer attacking Liang City from the direction of Yong State.

Instead, he led another group of freshly arrived prisoners and his own selected elites.

From the direction of Qingzhou, they launched a surprise attack on Watign City to the southeast of Dongjun and, taking advantage of the Zhao’s unpreparedness, broke through their meticulously arranged defenses.

After achieving the breakthrough, they advanced rapidly with a light force, and in less than ten days, they appeared like divine troops before Liang City.

This series of maneuvers was as erratic as a celestial steed flying in the heavens.

And the intent was frighteningly straightforward.

They were heading straight for Liang City.

Huang Lin was, of course, well aware of the importance of Liang City.

Last year, when he led his troops into Dongjun, they had spent almost half a year fighting numerous battles around Liang City with the Zhao forces.

But the Zhao were equally aware of its importance. After their attempt to invade Xingyang County failed, they quickly amassed a large force there for stringent defense.

Even though the Chu forces were aggressive, several great battles that resulted in tens of thousands of casualties failed to capture that location, and they couldn’t even break through Baima County.

It was last year’s lessons that made Huang Lin acutely aware of the robustness of the Baima defensive line, which was nearly impossible to penetrate by human force.

At the very least, without a five to tenfold advantage, it was unbreakable for the Chu Army.

So this year, he did not insist on taking this position head-on.

Aside from laying a smoke screen to attract the Zhao Army’s main force, he directed the main breakthrough towards the southeast, where the Zhao forces were more thinly stretched.

Even better, when he developed this plan, his headquarters had sent over a million cannon fodder.

This provided a huge boost to the southeastern breakthrough strategy.

Whether or not the captured million could be trusted, and despite being a significant risk that could explode at any time,