To achieve immortality, I cultivate using Qi Luck

Chapter 852: Chapter 363 The Key to Breaking the Situation_3

Ning Country certainly did not want to see Chu State occupy the entire Lingnan region.

Lingnan, with its three nations and five counties, spanned a vast twenty thousand li and housed a population of six to seven million.

If Chu State were to acquire such a fertile territory, not only would its borders swell to twice the size of Ning’s in an instant, but its population would also rapidly catch up, becoming comparable to that of Ning.

Then, just with its national power alone, Chu State would far surpass Ning Country. Given two to three decades to develop and fully unleash the potential of its new territory, Chu would eventually crush Ning with its superior strength, leading to Ning’s downfall.

Confronted with matters that endangered the very existence of his nation, Shen Qiu naturally could not sit idly by.

Therefore, he had no choice but to reluctantly abandon his own plans to launch a sneak attack on Dongting, defeat Chu State, and turn defeat into victory.

By making a showy declaration to Chu State that he intended to attack Dongting covertly, he forced Chu to redeploy troops from Lingnan to assist in defending the exposed Dongting County, alleviating the pressure on the Lingnan Battlefield faced by both Song Country and Nanhai Country.

As long as one or two Inborns and tens, even hundreds of thousands of soldiers could be redeployed from Lingnan, the pressure on the United Army in Lingnan would significantly decrease, allowing them to maintain the current standoff against Chu’s forces.

In this way, with a significant portion of its strength tied up in Lingnan, Chu would be unable to spare more forces to support the battlefield in northern Dongting.

Ning Country could then continue its opposition against Chu State.

This was precisely why the two allies in Lingnan were so vital, integral chess pieces in Ning’s ambitions. Having already lost Su Country, it was even more imperative not to give up on them lightly.

Because to do so would mean abandoning Su Country’s ambitions—something they could not afford to lose.

Of course, this move also stemmed from Shen Qiu’s realization that Chu’s forces were advancing unstoppably in the Southsea and that his own plans to attack Dongting County were likely to fail.

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Chu’s army had probably already withdrawn its soldiers and Inborns to defend Dongting. The possibility of launching a successful sneak attack against Chu was now practically nonexistent.

Even if the original plan were to proceed, advancing deep into enemy territory alone could result in falling into Chu’s ambush, leading to heavy losses and further worsening the already disadvantageous situation for Ning’s forces.

By openly laying out his intentions, he might lose the opportunity for a surprise attack, but it would also spare him the danger of taking risky moves and falling prey to Chu’s potential ambush.

To prevent this possibility, Ning Country had already dispatched countless scouts to lurk along the various main roads from Lingnan to Dongting County, specifically monitoring every move of Chu’s army, fearing Chu was devising an ambush against them.

“Heh, perhaps those Ning People still believe that I would withdraw reinforcements from Lingnan to the north because of the crisis in Dongting, thereby giving up the advantageous situation we have in Lingnan.”

“However, I have already secretly nurtured Chu Wei and sent him to Luyang, making Dongting as impregnable as a fortified stronghold.”

“If Ning wishes to attack, they will be faced with fortified walls and strong generals, and apart from bashing their heads and bleeding, they won’t be able to proceed even an inch.”

“This battle has already made Chu State an invincible land.”

“Nevertheless, they are right about one thing.”

“On this battlefront in Dongting, I indeed have sent reinforcements and withdrawn strong generals. It’s just that these reinforcements and strong generals did not come from Lingnan, but from Hanzhong instead.”

Lu Yuan thought of Shen Qiu’s clumsy scheming and couldn’t help but sneer twice, his gaze shifting toward the west.

At this very moment, the reinforcements from Hanzhong should have already entered the Yangtze River waterway of Dongting County, heading towards Dongting Lake, no?

They intended to use the safety of Dongting as a bait to force Chu State to give up the favorable situation in Lingnan.

And he himself also planned to use this as bait to seize the opportunity to consume Ning’s forces that invaded Dongting, swiftly breaking the stalemate between the two nations at Dongting, and completely defeating those Ning People.

According to information from the Imperial City Division, not only have the forces of Ning’s Pengli main camp split into two divisions planning to attack Luyang and Hengyang separately, but Ning has also started a new round of mobilization and expansion within their country, planning to recruit an additional five hundred thousand soldiers to cope with the current insufficiency of troops.

Moreover, some friends from Linhai County have also surreptitiously passed on even more detailed information about the high-level discussions within Ning Country.

That is Bai Yian’s plan for staunch defense and Shen Qiu’s modified backup fortress strategy, which is currently being initiated.

Ning Country was already planning its retreat without having been defeated yet, preparing seven hundred thousand troops within the country and building fortresses along the border with Chu, reinforcing town defenses and checkpoints, getting ready for a prolonged war in the future.

When Lu Yuan received this piece of intelligence, he too was startled.

Because if Ning managed to achieve this, facing the million-strong army of Jiangdong and a dozen or so Inborn Grandmasters in mere defense,

Even if Chu State doubled its current troops and added another ten Inborn Grandmasters, facing this turtle shell, Chu would have nowhere to bite and would be at a loss.

By then, it might indeed turn out as Bai Yian said, with the two nations engaged in a long-term attrition war here, waiting to join forces to head north when the great calamity arrives.

As soon as he thought of this terrifying future, Lu Yuan was determined not to let Ning Country succeed in its endeavors.

Hence, to thwart this plan and to defeat the opponent before Ning was fully prepared,

And then to invade Ning Country and suffocate this preparation.

Last winter, he had already secretly ordered Huang Xuan to withdraw a portion of the soldiers from Hanzhong, gather them in Yuzhong Prefecture of Xichuan, and stand by for orders at any moment.

Then, when he learned about the dire straits of the Snow Plains Nomads and knew their spring raid this year would yield little to no gains and could even result in a significant defeat,

Lu Yuan flatly rejected their request to invite Chu State to dispatch troops.

This spring and summer, Chu would not send Hanzhong troops to the Helong Battlefield to meddle in this mess.

Meanwhile, with Wei people having reached the Capital and the Barbarians tied up, Zhou Country would no longer pose a threat to Chu’s Hanzhong region.

With all these conditions in place, Lu Yuan then sent a message to Huang Xuan, instructing him to rush to Yuzhong Prefecture and quietly lead the fifty thousand soldiers of the Forbidden army stationed there. They boarded the naval warships that Lu Yuan had secretly ordered to be ready in the region and sailed down the river, heading toward the Changsha Battlefield.