"Now the Middle Route Army directly under me, there are about 51,000 soldiers and horses in the forbidden army."

Lu Yuan counted his family.

51,000 men, a decrease of about 9,000 from 60,000 before the war.

A war of more than 100,000 people lasted for more than half a year, and it was quite incredible that there were so many losses, but in exchange for such a big result as today.

However, if you look closely, you can actually find that this loss ratio is actually quite reasonable.

Because since the defeat of the Great Changhe Army in Stone City, in the past few months, although Lu Yuan's army has been fighting with the other party, it has hardly stopped.

However, the main force of the Chu army fighting with the Dachanghe army has always been the driving surrender of the Yi soldiers.

Whether it was under the stone city at the beginning, the continuous assault on the camp forced the other party to retreat.

Not long ago, under Longhe City, Li Xiong captured the city regardless of casualties.

In these two key battles, the main forces of the siege were basically surrendered and captured Yiren. The forbidden army of Chu State is among them, and it only plays the role of supervising the battle team and the final finale elite.

Both of these roles are in the rear positions, and it is normal that they rarely go to the battlefield and suffer few personnel losses.

Therefore, from another point of view, it is the blood and sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of Chiliyi people that won the victory of these two battles for the Chu State, and there is no problem.

Even Lu Yuan would not deny this.

"Now that Li Xiong has conquered Longhe City, he has pursued all the way to victory, and now he has taken the Qinzangchuan and Chiyan Cities in the southern part of Kunhai for a generation, and has captured more than ten cities.

According to the previous agreement, all the land in the Kunchi area east of Lushui belongs to Li Xiong alone, and I will not interfere.

Therefore, in the newly captured area, there is no need for me to send troops to garrison it, and there is no need to follow Li Xiong to continue to wage war against the Dachanghe army.

In this regard, I do not need to contribute additional troops. ”

Lu Yuan thought in his heart.

Since the fall of Longhe City by Li Xiong, the former emperor of Xishu seems to have regained some of the style of the previous Xichuan overlord, and has a bit of invincible momentum on the battlefield in the Kunhai region.

After breaking the dragon and the city, this person first gathered some of the troops in the city, reorganized the remnants outside his city, and finally got 30,000 soldiers and horses.

Immediately after that, he didn't give his subordinates a chance to breathe, chased the direction of the escape of the Great Witch Festival of the Divine Palace, and went all the way to Kunhai.

During this period, several skirmishes broke out with the Great Chang and the army, all of which were quickly defeated by the other party.

In the end, if it weren't for Li Chuan, who had returned to the country to repair, he hurriedly led 20,000 soldiers and horses to intercept and stopped Li Xiong in the area of Shachi, I am afraid that he would have been chased to the capital by the other party in one go.

But even so, after more than half a month of fighting, Li Xiong has successfully captured the Qinzang River and Chiyan City in the southern part of Kunhai, and captured more than a dozen cities.

You must know that this is the most prosperous and rich Kunhai area in the entire Southwest Yi region. In particular, the wars of the previous years have not affected this side, and it has retained a lot of vitality here.

Although Li Xiong only occupied a small part of the Kunhai region, the population under his control at this time had exceeded 200,000.

Although this population does not seem to be large, for Li Xiong, it is another piece of land that can provide a stable source of tax soldiers after seven years of displacement.

The previous barbarian states do not count.

At that time, although he controlled the Barbarian Country, when he issued various decrees to the Barbarian Country, he still had to rely on the original lord of the Barbarian State and nobles at all levels, and he could only hide behind the scenes and manipulate these.

And like this time, this is to come to the front of the stage openly, and truly become the leader of a place as the lord of a place.

The difference between these two is still very big.

The most obvious point is that even if the country has not yet been sealed, Li Xiong has already used his identity as the lord of Kunhai to collect taxes and recruit soldiers from the Chiliyi people in the area under his control.

At this time, although it has just begun, according to the latest report from Li Xiong in front.

The generation of Qinzangchuan and Chiyancheng under his control now has sufficient reserves for a year's military supply of 50,000 troops. Moreover, the household registration is abundant, and now more than 20,000 soldiers have been recruited, so that Li Xiong's soldiers and horses have expanded to 50,000 people.

Well, despite all of the above, it's still nothing.

But Li Xiong's initial self-sufficiency there actually greatly alleviated the logistical pressure on Lu Yuan's side.

Seriously.

Although the war has only been started for more than half a year, it has already made the logistics of the Chu State quite difficult.

After all, from the mainland of Chu State, transporting grain and grass all the way to the Lushui frontline, the distance by land alone is more than 1,300 miles.

It is not easy for such a long transportation logistics line, especially the logistics line of a 100,000-strong army, to ensure that it is sufficient.

In order to ensure that there was no shortage of materials on the front line, in the early days of the war, Lu Yuan requisitioned 200,000 people in China in one go to transport grain and grass.

That is, later, when he won the battle of Shicheng and conquered the lands east of Lushui, he took the opportunity to seize a large number of grain and grass materials left by the army and warehouses in various places, which greatly relieved the logistical pressure and slowly reduced the number of people transporting grain and grass to about 100,000.

Moreover, many of them are newly relocated immigrants and local Yi people, who are paid to fill the positions, which can be regarded as a kind of cash-for-work in some way.

But even so, the long-term confrontation and consumption and the requisition of a large number of people still seriously affected the economic development and local livelihood of Chu State.

Ren Luyuan had to settle the war as soon as possible.

The previous decisive battle of crossing the river, and hinting that Li Xiong consumed those captured Yi soldiers, did not have the idea of reducing the logistical pressure.

Now it seems that the 50,000 soldiers and horses in Li Xiong's hands do not need to be burdened by Lu Yuan for the time being, which is good news.

"With Li Xiong's 50,000 people in front, before he was defeated by Dachang and the country, the defensive pressure west of Lushui would not be too serious.

In this case, I only need to leave 10,000 soldiers and horses to garrison Anning City on the east bank of Lushui, as the second line of defense after Li Xiong, which can almost isolate the military threat from the west.

The remaining 41,000 people can then be scattered and distributed to local counties. In this way, even if 400 people were to be resettled in each county, only 22,000 people would be needed.

There are nearly 20,000 men left, which can be used as a central mobile force to respond to the rebellion that arises in various places at any time.

At the same time, it can also be used as a sweeping force to further clean up the remnants of the Yiren left in the mountains and strengthen the rectification of local security. ”

Lu Yuan thought so in his heart, and quickly made a decision.

……

Time flows slowly.

After quelling the rebellion in Qianzhong County in the rear, Lu Yuan soon began to adjust the soldiers and horses in various places according to his own strategy.

A large number of forbidden troops were dispersed and placed in all prefectures and counties of Qianzhong County according to the establishment of one hundred men per soldier or one battalion of 500 men to assist the local government in maintaining law and order.

The remaining main forbidden army began to carry out a series of anti-bandit operations in local governments on a large scale of thousands of people, constantly cleaning up the remnants of the local bandits, and some Yiren tribes who are still resisting.

In addition to suppressing bandits, Lu Yuan also began to clean up the localities, those suburban villages and towns outside the county seat, preparing to officially bring them under the rule of the government.

In order to deal with the Great Commander and the army, after laying down the territory in the local area, he basically only occupied a city and ensured his nominal rule.

For the countless villages and towns outside the city, I really don't have much energy to care.

Therefore, just like Zhao Xianzhi, the commander of Qingshui County, said before, he, the local county government, can only manage the people in the county and the immigrants who have just moved in.

And for the vast countryside, many Yi tribes in many villages and towns are really unable to control them.

The official uniform is to use the military power of the prosperous Great Chu nowadays to make the villages, towns and tribes in those places nominally submit.

But beyond these superficial efforts.

In fact, the government can't even collect the taxes of the local villages, towns and tribes. The control of the local area is weak to the limit.

Originally, for this situation, Lu Yuan planned to wait for the local county governments and county soldiers at all levels in Qianzhong County to complete the preparations one after another, and the local officials and officials to arrive one after another, and then let them deal with it themselves.

But now, since the recruitment of soldiers from the prefecture and county is not going well, it is obviously unrealistic to rely on the local government's own strength to solve this matter.

Since the plan is to suppress the bandits at this time, and the forbidden army happens to be free, then simply solve this matter as well.

Anyway, those villages, towns and tribes in the local area, all the strong men have also been requisitioned and transferred, and there are some old and young women and children left, even if they want to toss, they can't afford to make any big waves.

As soon as the heavenly soldiers of the imperial court arrived, they were not allowed to obey their orders.

Of course.

Naturally, there are some people who can't think of seeking death, and for these rebellious guys, Lu Yuan is not polite, and directly suppresses the matter.

If you don't kill people's heads, how can you establish the authority of the imperial court over the locality, establish the royal law of Great Chu here, and how to make those fierce and barbaric people submit?

For a while, Qianzhong County, which had just been peaceful, once again gave rise to countless soldiers and hustle and bustle.

Only this time.

It is no longer the local settlers who have been slaughtered, nor the people who have begun to form households. It is the tribal Yi people who do not obey the king, and are wild and untamable.

……

Just when Lu Yuan was in Qianzhong County, vigorously engaged in public security and strengthened the rule issue, other places also started their own big moves.

After roughly controlling Qinzangchuan and Chiyancheng for a generation, at the beginning of April of the fifth year of Shenwu, Li Xiong, who had expanded his army to 50,000, continued to exert his style of diligence and courage to launch an attack on the Dachanghe army led by Li Chuan in the Shachi area.

However, after this period of preparation, Li Chuan has successively transferred 30,000 soldiers and horses from the rear of the country, and at this time it is equal to Li Xiong in terms of strength, and the morale is far superior.

Therefore, the two sides fought for a while, and Li Xiong's soldiers were shaken, and finally Li Chuan seized the opportunity and broke it.

Li Xiong lost more than 10,000 soldiers and horses, so he had to lead the remaining defeated troops and retreat to Chiyan City.

Li Chuan took the opportunity to advance, recovered several lost cities, and led his troops to surround Chiyan City.

At this time, the rear of Qinzangchuan controlled by Li Xiong also caused a riot because of his defeat, and faintly launched a rebellion in response to the trend of Li Chuan.

In an emergency, Lu Yuan hurriedly ordered the 10,000 forbidden troops on the east bank to cross the river and settle in Longhe City, which deterred the people who were about to move in the place where they lived, so that they did not dare to make a mistake.

After that, Li Chuan besieged Chiyan City for more than a month, losing more than 10,000 soldiers, but he still had no choice, and finally because of the lack of military rations, and at the same time, the summer harvest was approaching, so he had to lead troops to return.

After this experience, Li Xiong did not dare to be as reckless as before, and did not dare to continue to attack the sand pool defended by Lichuan, but left 30,000 soldiers and horses, and let his younger brother Li Shou guard Chiyan City.

He himself returned to Qinzangchuan with thousands of remnants of soldiers, and while continuing to recruit troops, he waited for the summer harvest and slowly licked his wounds.

However, according to Li Xiong's report, he has now changed his strategy and no longer gnaws at the sand pond city that was tightly defended by Li Chuan in front of him and was like an iron bucket of gold and silver.

Instead, he planned to continue to expand southward first, and eat the remaining area in the southern part of Kunhai, that is, the Great Changhe Army in the Luchuan area that was facing Li Liang across the river.

After winning the last piece of the puzzle in the southern part of Kunhai and expanding his rear, he turned around and went north, continued to compete with Li Chuan, and tried to break through and infiltrate the north of Kunhai.

In this regard, Lu Yuan is happy to see it.

He even gave Li Liang an order, asking him to cooperate with Li Xiong's actions, and the two sides worked together to solve the hidden dangers in his south first.

Kunhai is lively here, and the Dali Guoyinsheng area in the south is also in flames of war at this time.

After several months of repairs, in May this year, the Su State and the Song State, which had already achieved preliminary communication, began to jointly send troops to attack Yinsheng City controlled by Dali from the southeast and southeast directions.

In Dali, in the face of the huge crisis of the invasion of the two countries, in addition to the king of Pingchuan, who was already in command, the domestic shrine witch festival finally took action, leading a group of shrine witch festivals to join the front line of the battlefield.

At this time, Dali had gathered an army of 300,000 and fought with the Su and Song countries in the area of Yinsheng City.

The two sides come and go, and the fight is inseparable.

But in general, it was Dali that had the upper hand.

After all, Dali has an advantage in military strength, with 300,000 troops against the 150,000 troops of the Soviet Union and the Song Dynasty.

Even if most of these soldiers and horses in Dali are in the nature of a militia group, their combat power is unbearable. But relying on not being afraid of death to consume, the Soviet Union and the Song Dynasty still couldn't support it, and gradually exposed a bit of decline.

Fortunately, even so, with the strength and size of these two countries, they can still support it.

The front-line soldiers and horses are finished, and it's a big deal to make up for it from the rear.

The two countries of the Soviet Union and the Song Dynasty are both large countries with a population of more than one million, and they have enough population to support them to consume with Dali.

Even with the size of the two countries, it is really consumed in the end, and Dali is the one who can't hold it.

Therefore, although the situation in the south was unfavorable, there were no major problems.

On the contrary, in the north, there is a change.

In July of the fifth year of Shenwu, Lu Yuan, who had just finished the preliminary public security rectification work in Qianzhong County, received a piece of bad news from Xichuan County.