To achieve immortality, I cultivate using Qi Luck

Chapter 814: Chapter 351: The High-Stakes Gamble

After the assignments were distributed, everyone quickly sprang into action.

The Four Kingdoms were pressing in aggressively, and even the frontier of Chu State might have already clashed with the enemy forces.

The situation was extremely dire.

In such times, there was no room for delay.

Therefore, after receiving their orders and the Tiger Tally, Lan Cai’er, along with Han Hu, hurried towards the front line of Lingling Prefecture that very day.

At the same time, directives from Baling dispatched various messengers and spirit eagles brought from the Snowy Wilderness, sending them through different channels to Qianzhong County and the three vassal states of the southwest.

Sun Siwen also took his position in Baling, beginning to coordinate the overall situation according to Lu Yuan’s command, allocating supplies and troops for all sides, playing a central role.

As for Lu Yuan, leading the Spirit Consort, he took charge of Dongting Lake’s fifty thousand naval forces, journeying by boat downstream toward Jiangxia City at the border of Chu Ning.

Jiangxia City was a frontline battlefield; Chu State had always stationed tens of thousands of forbidden troops there, but now the number had risen to a hundred thousand soldiers and horses, forming the first line of defense against Ning Country.

According to the messages from the front, the main vanguard army of Ning Country led by Shen Qiu had already arrived outside of Jiangxia City.

Now the Ning Army was building camps and forging weapons outside the city, preparing for a siege.

The cavalry outside the two armies had started to engage in small-scale confrontations, with several battles involving more than a hundred men each, and the intensity was quickly escalating.

At the front line now, only a few of Lu Yuan’s disciples tasked with commanding the various forbidden troops were holding the line.

Although these disciples were also direct disciples, whether in terms of strength, ability, or experience, they were far inferior to Chu Wei, Li Liang, and others.

Not to mention when compared with those Innate Generals.

Entrusting them with watching over the front line, Lu Yuan naturally felt uneasy.

Therefore, once the meeting concluded, and the mobilization and task distribution were completed, he set out at the earliest time, leading the assembled naval forces to the front line.

Jiangxia City is by the water and can even be described as a riverside city. Outside the city, there are piers and water fortresses, which are connected with the city and can be regarded as part of it.

To defend the city, it’s not enough to rely solely on forbidden troops comprised of infantry and cavalry.

There also needs to be a navy stationed in the water fortresses to help seal off the river surface and intercept Ning Country’s naval forces in order to secure the city.

Therefore, to confront Ning Country’s naval forces, Lu Yuan this time gathered all domestic naval power, assembling all fifty thousand members of the navy, in hopes of protecting the waterway.

Even to prepare for any eventuality, he had also called out Chu Wei, who was in closed-door cultivation striving for the Inborn realm, planning to have this disciple, who created Chu State’s navy, direct and command this great battle.

As for whether this would slow down Chu Wei’s progress in breaking through to the Innate realm, Lu Yuan could no longer afford to worry about that.

Without the navy to guard the river passages, the Ning People’s navy could ascend the river, block the Yangtze’s surface, and cut off Chu State’s north and south along the river.

They could even deploy Ning Country’s infantry and cavalry through their navy to infiltrate various places along the coast of Chu State, advancing deep into the prefectures of Xichuan and Qianzhong, and assaulting the heartland of Chu State.

Having one more or one less Innate combatant, for the camps that had both invested more than ten Innates, was important but couldn’t fundamentally affect the overall situation.

However, if the naval forces were wiped out or severely damaged, this could indeed affect the overall situation.

The relative importance of the two was self-evident.

At most, while Lu Yuan was with Chu Wei, he would have to fulfill his responsibility as a teacher more, teaching him Innate techniques, which should also compensate for his distraction from the navy.

…

On the broad expanse of the river, thousands of warships of various sizes formed a staggered formation, cutting through the waves as they made their way downstream.

Lu Yuan stood at the bow, looking at the dense morning fog, his mood somewhat somber.

Jiangxia City was about two hundred li by water from Baling; with favorable winds like now, it would actually only take half a day to arrive. @@novelbin@@

If all went well.

By about one or two o’clock in the afternoon, the naval forces should be able to reach Jiangxia City.

By then, with these fifty thousand naval forces joining, the combined land and water forces of Jiangxia City would reach a total of one hundred and fifty thousand, and with his and the Spirit Consort’s two Innate battle strengths, it should be enough to make the city as impregnable as a fortress, unbreachable by the Ning people.

However, the stability of Jiangxia City did not necessarily mean the stability of Dongting Prefecture.

Just like the capital, Baling City, Jiangxia City belonged to Yueyang Prefecture and was the furthest north-eastern fortress city by the water in northern Dongting.

However far its influence radiated, at most it could only secure an area near Yueyang Prefecture, unable to exert much more expansive control.

Yet the areas of Dongting Prefecture bordering Ning Country are not limited to Yueyang Prefecture alone.

South of Yueyang Prefecture is Changsha Prefecture, also a fortified city, as well as the most important grain-producing area on the Dongting Plain, contributing over three-tenths of the grain produced in the prefecture.

The significance of Changsha Prefecture goes without saying.

Further south of Changsha is Hengyang Prefecture.

This prefecture is also an important grain-producing area, though not as significant as Changsha, producing about fifteen percent of the prefecture’s grain, and is equally important.

Even further south of Hengyang is Luyang Prefecture, the site of the Seven Star Sect’s rebellion – half of Lu Yuan’s starting base.

While Luyang Prefecture is not a major grain-producing area, it is akin to Changsha and Hengyang Prefectures, bordering Yun County of Ning Country.

Through these bordering regions, Ning Army from Yuzhang Prefecture could at any time send large forces to attack these three prefectures.

Accordingly, to guard against this in the three prefectures bordering on Yuzhang Prefecture, Lu Yuan stationed a forbidden army in each of Changsha and Hengyang, arranging his last mobile forbidden troops in these two locations.

Finally, in the remaining Luyang Prefecture, one thousand county soldiers from Dongting, along with six thousand prefectural and county soldiers from other regions, were stationed to take charge of defense.