To achieve immortality, I cultivate using Qi Luck

Chapter 833: Chapter 357: The Second Strategy of Controlling Chu_2

The very thought that the dynasty he had founded might come to an end by his own hand sent a chill through Shen Qiu’s heart, and he immediately calmed down.

Then, he forced a thin smile onto his face, nodded, and said, “The Wuan Marquis speaks truly, it is I who have been somewhat out of sorts due to the unfavorable military situation.”

Shen Qiu knew he couldn’t stubbornly hold his ground, as that would surely offend Bai Yian, as well as people like Yang Jing and Shangguan Ming, and their respective alliances behind them.

So he yielded a little, then lightly moved on from the subject, turning to ask, “However, now that we have suffered defeats in both the north and Lingnan, Xiangyang and Southsea are in critical danger, and even Su Country’s capital is besieged. The Chu villains advance unrestrained, with none in the north or south to stop them.”

“If their momentum isn’t curbed, I fear all of the northern and Lingnan regions will fall to the Chu villains.”

“Once they seize these two territories, the Chu’s might will greatly increase, and they will become even more difficult to manage.”@@novelbin@@

“And our land in Jiangdong may well follow in the footsteps of the north and Lingnan, ultimately being annihilated by the Chu villains.”

“The situation has become so dire that I am at my wit’s end. Does the Wuan Marquis have any good strategy that can rescue the nation from peril, stem the tide of the Chu invaders, and salvage this battle from the brink of disaster?”

Shen Qiu’s inquiry was partly passing the buck and partly in earnest.

The disadvantage he had created himself was now beyond his own ability to resolve.

But Ning Country wasn’t just Shen Qiu’s Ning Country; it belonged to all the aristocratic families of the six surnames and seven clans.

As Ning Country faced imminent disaster and seemed poised to fall, you, Bai Yian, cannot expect to remain uninvolved. It’s time to contribute your efforts.

If you have any good solutions, speak up quickly. Don’t hold back anymore.

Otherwise, as the delays continue, not only will I, the Emperor, suffer, but you aristocrats will suffer as well.

In Shen Qiu’s heart, there was both spite and bitterness.

Facing his inquiry, after some contemplation, Bai Yian said, “Your Majesty, the current situation has reached a life-or-death crossroads; we must fight with all we have. I have two strategies to offer against Chu.”

“The first strategy is to mobilize everything, spare no effort, and gather all the two hundred thousand soldiers stationed across the country, leaving only the navy and the necessary troops for defense. With this, we can muster another one hundred thousand troops.”

“With these one hundred thousand men, combined with the forces stationed in Yuzhang Prefecture, we can have a total force of two hundred thousand.”

“Moreover, if we draw two Martial Marquises from those serving as reserves in the country to join the two positioned in Yuzhang Prefecture, we would have four Martial Marquises, ready to take orders at any moment.”

“With two hundred thousand troops and four Martial Marquises, whether we redirect them to the Jiangxia front line or command them to lead their troops to attack the various prefectures along Dongting’s border, we can regain the advantage on our main battlefield and for our homeland.”

“With full commitment and the nation’s entire military force, we could march west in indignation and fight Chu to the death.”

“If we win, the land will be united, and Yangzhou will return to peace.”

“If we lose, we will merely lay down our weapons, face west, and submit.”

“This is indeed putting our whole effort into a single battle, deciding life or death in one fight. The Altars of Soil and Grain and the Ancestral Temple Inheritance will all be determined by this battle.”

Bai Yian’s gaze burned intently as he looked at Shen Qiu, voicing the strategy he was most inclined toward and believed in most.

However, upon hearing this strategy, Shen Qiu’s face changed color immediately, and the other ministers in the hall also erupted in uproar.

“The Chu invaders are barbaric, mere hunters from the hills, who delight in war and violence and are no more than reckless ruffians. We are nobles of the imperial family, holders of the poetic tradition, stewards of an enterprise lasting a thousand years. How can we gamble our lives against the invaders, pinning our hopes on the outcome of a single battle’s win or lose?”

“Your Majesty, while we still have prospects of victory and the current situation is stable, we only need to sit poised on high, awaiting the right opportunity. What the Wuan Marquis proposes is to gamble recklessly, disregarding the well-being of our kingdom and dynasty. Your Majesty must not heed his words!”

“How dare the Wuan Marquis voice such nation-ruining suggestions?”

The ministers in the hall opposed and criticized Bai Yian’s strategy of deciding the war with a single decisive battle, almost unanimously.

Another Martial Marquis from the main camp, a fellow member of the aristocratic families and the vanguard in this battle, Marquis of Wuxi Li Minghao, was particularly explicit in his rebuttal, “The Wuan Marquis’s words are misguided! The Chu villains are merely currently superior in battle, but they have waged war for consecutive years, first subduing the southwestern tribes, then conquering the two states of Xichuan, next campaigning in the Hegu territories, and afterwards seizing Hanzhong from Zhou.”

“These four campaigns have stretched over six years, with military movements every year, and no rest in sight.”

“Now, Chu faces an exhausted people and a weary population, having been engaged in bitter war for a long time.”

“Yet instead of recuperating and aiming for peaceful times, they act greedily and insatiably, breaking alliances and making oaths, arbitrarily attacking Southsea and ultimately provoking a joint attack by our Four Kingdoms, leading to today’s catastrophe.”

“At this moment, it is just a temporary setback.”

“Even though our Royal Teacher has suffered a temporary defeat on the battlefields of the north and Lingnan, the total loss of soldiers is but a mere seventy thousand.”

“Even including the losses on the Jiangxia side, the troops lost number only about one hundred and fifty thousand.”

“While such losses are substantial, our Da Ning Elite Army of eight hundred thousand, even after the loss of one hundred and fifty thousand men, still has six hundred and fifty thousand remaining, and our forces hardly seem inferior to that of Chu.”

“Moreover, our densely populated Ning Country has millions of citizens, like a vast sea of people.”

“After more than ten years of resting and accumulating strength, our royal treasury of gold and silver is immeasurable, and our granaries of grain are beyond calculation.”

“With just a command from the king, the five prefecture’s citizens, the six treasuries’ silver, and the hundred granaries’ grain can all be deployed, and an army of a million can be formed in a moment.”

“Such depth of foundation and richness of resources are the result of more than ten years of kind governance and hard toil.”

“Now, with the foundation still intact and the resources yet untapped, and the Elite Army still within our lands.”

“There is no need to abandon gold and jade for sticks and stones, to forsake the fundamental for the trivial. Why would we demean ourselves to fight against barbaric groups and engage in reckless actions?”

Not everyone has Bai Yian’s determination to risk everything for the future.

The many officials in the hall, most of them born into aristocratic families, whether they came from influential families of the prefectures or were descendants of sects,

All had their own homes and businesses, wives and daughters, relatives and clans, and boundless wealth too.