In a land of ice and snow, accompanied by a whistling wind and snow, the ten years of Shenwu have quietly passed, and the time has come to the eleventh year of Shenwu.

This New Year's Spring Festival, Lu Yuan spent it in Jiangxia City.

Like many of him in the past, when he went out on expeditions, he couldn't return to Baling at all, and he couldn't accompany his wife, children, and family, and he didn't even have any friends here.

Living in this troubled world, living in this world of calamity, everyone is involved in it, and they can't be autonomous.

can only passively follow the tide of the times, wave after wave of efforts to push forward, and strive for the glimmer of life ashore.

This point, even if Lu Yuangui is now the king of Chu and the lord of thousands of miles of rivers and mountains, it is no exception.

Fortunately, since he first cultivated the Taiping Daoist Book and decided to embark on the road of dominating the world, he has prepared and expected all of the above in his heart.

Now fifteen or sixteen years have passed, and most of the years have been spent on the journey, and Lu Yuan is used to this kind of day, so he doesn't feel any discomfort.

Besides, he now lives in Jiangxia City.

This city is surrounded by mountains and rivers, standing on the attic at the highest point, you can overlook the Yangtze River snow scene at a glance, and see thousands of miles of mountains and rivers.

With such a beautiful and stable residence, I don't know how much better it is than drinking wind and snow in the poor mountains and bad waters in the past.

Therefore, under the joy, he also understands the hard work of the soldiers, and during the New Year, Lu Yuan directly ordered that the food in the army will be increased by fifty percent compared with the fixed New Year's food, and the rewards will be issued more often, so that the soldiers can have a happy New Year.

Now the treasury of the state of Chu, after receiving 100 million taels of silver from the Tibetan people before, can be said to be extremely rich.

Although in the past two years, because of the war in Hanzhong and the current war in Jiangnan, a lot of money and food have been spent.

However, the Chu country has a thick foundation, and originally saved 80 million taels of silver, and later got 100 million taels of silver, and the treasury savings were enough to have more than 180 million taels of silver.

The two wars only wiped out a fraction of the 80 million taels of silver behind the treasury, and there are still 100 million taels of silver in the treasury.

It cost 80 million taels of silver for two years, which seems like a lot, but compared to Lu Yuan's previous newly expanded 230,000 soldiers and horses, now he has mobilized nearly 800,000 soldiers and horses, and recruited an additional million people, it is actually not much.

Moreover, in the past two years, as the Chu army has continued to plunder the population in Zhou Guohe and Longer County, and now it has successively settled four or five hundred thousand people in Xichuan, which is also a large amount of expenses, which is included in the expenditure of 80 million taels of silver.

To spend all this money and accomplish so many things, Lu Yuan thinks it's worth it.

However, the cost is so great, with the current savings of the Chu State, it can only last for three years at most.

After three years, the 100 million taels of silver in the treasury will be exhausted, and the state of Chu will also be financially bankrupt.

This financial problem is also one of the reasons why Lu Yuan chose to be top-heavy at the beginning of the war, distributing the main force in three partial battlefields, and implementing that risky strategy.

With the background of the Chu State, he couldn't maintain a million-sized army for too long, which was the reason why he made this choice.

In a war of this scale, relying on tinkering, the state of Chu can last for five years at most.

For more than five years, even if the Chu army was not defeated on the frontal battlefield, it would have to choose to shrink, give up many strategic points, and retreat to the country because of the shortage of money and food.

This is almost the same as being undefeated and defeated.

One thing must be admitted.

Although the state of Chu has risen to become a hegemon with a radius of 30,000 li and a population of tens of millions.

In Kyushu, the limelight is beyond the first line of Ningguo, and there is the style of the first country in the south of the Yangtze River.

But in terms of its heritage, in terms of accumulation, the state of Chu is really not as good as Chengping for more than ten years, with a solid household registration, rich money and grain, and almost all of the land under its rule is Ningguo.

At least Ning Guo dared to propose an expansion of the army by two million, but now that Lu Yuan had expanded his army to one million, he still hesitated, picking and searching, and did not dare to mention this idea at all.

The disparity between the two countries is so desperate.

It was precisely this desperate gap that prompted him to never think about fighting a war of attrition with Ning Guo and playing a balance.

Because of the struggle for the foundation and the consumption, the Chu State is not the opponent of the Ning State at all.

Quickly decisive, with the style of the Chu army's attacking and fighting, quickly defeated the opponent, so that the opponent was wiped out by the Chu State before the other party mobilized everything.

This is the style of the Chu army and the victory opportunity of the Chu country.

Fortunately, all of this has now been realized.

The situation of stalemate that could have been possible has been completely broken with the successive victories in the three battlefields of Jiangbei and Lingnan, and it is impossible to appear.

And the victory of the two armies in Lingnan, the Soviet Union, the South China Sea, and even more so were surrounded, and the destruction was only in an instant.

The Lingnan war situation, perhaps in the eleventh year of Shenwu, can be over.

This made Lu Yuan see the hope of sweeping Jiangdong and unifying Yangzhou in the next three years.

As long as Jiangnan can be unified within three years, then the so-called financial crisis will naturally not exist.

The state of Chu, which owns the entire Yangzhou in the south of the Yangtze River, can naturally afford to raise an army of one million, and even the two million army that Ning Guo is proposing now.

You don't even have to wait until the unification of Jiangnan.

Now, as the Lingnan and Lingnan armies swept through all countries, especially after sweeping the South China Sea, they continued to break through the cities along the way and looted the manors of those big clans, and the Chu State had gained a lot.

When Lu Yuan led the Hezong Alliance to attack Southwest Yi, the South China Sea was engaged in grain trade, but it sucked a wave of blood from Chu, Su, and Song.

In particular, the Su State gave almost all the gold and silver obtained during the attack on Southwest Yi to the South China Sea State.

These vampires who speculate on high food prices have made a lot of money one by one, and I don't know how fat they are.

In addition, after a long period of recuperation, the South China Sea has not heard of any war in its territory for nearly 20 years.

Twenty years of peace have created an incomparable prosperity in the South China Sea, which is almost comparable to Jiangdong under the rule of Ningguo.

Such a piece of fertile land, I don't know how many local tyrants and squires have been supported on it.

These people almost occupy more than eighty percent of the wealth of the South China Sea Kingdom, plus one percent of the Yan royal family, as long as they are tortured, the Chu State can eat fat in waves.

Therefore, since the army entered the territory of the South China Sea, the spies of the Imperial City Outer Division, who were originally placed there, began to take the initiative to jump out one by one according to Lu Yuan's orders.

took the lead in leading the army, according to the list that had been prepared, and went to attack and loot various manor mansions, raid the family and exterminate the clan, and harvest money and food.

For this reason, when the cold winter came, the wind and snow covered the ground, and it was not suitable for attacking the city, Qingyunzi led the main army to besiege Nanhai City, and asked the soldiers and horses who originally led the troops to attack the border between the eastern part of the South China Sea and the Ning Kingdom, and there was no need to rush back.

Instead, he cooperated with the spies of the Imperial City Division to scavenge money and grain in the local area to raise military expenses for the Chu army.

The commander of the road is Li Xiong, who was born as a thief, and in order to raise military funds and help himself break through the congenital, he directly tossed a rich Xichuan County in Yangzhou into the bottom poor county.

It can be seen how high this person's ability to squeeze money is.

Although there are now restrictions from the Chu State, it is impossible for Li Xiong to kill chickens and take eggs and destroy Nanhai County.

But even so, thinking that with him, the gentry of the South China Sea, who have become more and more unspeakable over the years, and the wealthy businessmen from all over the world, can also experience what is called the reincarnation of heaven, and who has been spared by the sky.

Over the years, they have to vomit out all the food they have eaten, and they have to bring their own share, so that they can be regarded as profitable.

Lu Yuan has already handed over this matter to Qing Yunzi to handle, and I believe that this doppelganger who can understand his own mind will not be disappointed.

And that's pretty much the case.

Now it is only the preliminary torture of the provinces and counties in the South China Sea, but the soldiers and horses led by Li Xiong have already collected more than 30 million taels of silver.

With further digging in the future, the number of silver taels is expected to rise to sixty or seventy million taels of silver.

These are not the limits.

Because of the large wealth of the Nanhai Kingdom, a large number of top ministers and nobles fled to the safest Nanhai City with their family savings long before the start of the war.

If you can break through Nanhai City, rob the families of these ministers and nobles, rob the Nanhai treasury and the savings of the royal family, and expect the harvest to be no less than that of the local prefectures and counties.

Other words.

As long as the South China Sea Kingdom can be successfully robbed, the Chu State can also account at least 100 million taels of silver, so as to obtain a large amount of manpower and material resources, as well as a place to produce grain.

Taking here, even if it continues to be consumed according to the current scale of the war, the state of Chu will be able to hold out for another three more years.

The wealth of the South China Sea can be seen from this.

However, compared with the rich South China Sea, the Soviet Union, which has been in war and turmoil all these years, is poor and scum.

The people of the country were originally only a million, and they were few and poor.

Now after a war, the population has suffered serious losses, directly falling below the scale of one million.

And with its reckless and militant oppression, the local people, even those powerful clans, are all poor and scum, and they can't squeeze out any oil and water.

So after laying down this place, Lan Caier's harvest along the way, except for the territory and population, did not have much harvest.

This battle is basically a loss.

Fortunately, in addition to the Su State, the Song State has been managed by Xie Ning quite well over the years, not only with a prosperous population, but also with enough money and grain savings.

If you can capture the two counties of this country, it should be enough to make up for the money and food consumed by Lan Cai'er's army.

However, if you want to attack the Song State, you must first break through Yulin City and destroy the Su State.

And now the sky and the earth are cold, even Lingnan has snowed heavily, and the army is inconvenient to move, even if it is urgent, now it can only shrink into the camp built outside the city, and the siege is shivering with cold.

It is only those teams that have been selected, with strong martial arts, who are specially used to attack the manor and loot money and food, so that they can walk in this cold winter without fear of wind and snow.

When the entire northern country fell into silence, Lingnan, which is located in the south of the world, was also more noisy and bloody.

And in this calm, with a little turbulent atmosphere, the time soon came to the beginning of February of the eleventh year of Shenwu.

……

"Hahaha......"

On this day, in Jiangxia City, in a manor residential area halfway up the mountainside, a burst of hearty laughter instantly floated and spread.

With such a big movement, it was natural that it quickly attracted people's attention.

Even because the manor residential area here is specially provided for the Marshal Gate of the Chu State who came with the army, there are also special sergeants patrolling and guarding.

At this time, the sergeants heard the movement, and soon under the leadership of the patrol commander, the source of the sound came.

"This is General Wei's mansion."

"General Wei, is he laughing?"

"What's going on here? Is General Wei okay? ”

The patrol soldiers came to the door and questioned the soldiers of General Wei, who were guarding the mansion, but both sides were at a loss, apparently not knowing what was going on.

However, looking at General Wei's happy smile, everyone can be sure that General Wei, who made this move, must have encountered something good, not trouble.

Even so, in the face of this top ten general of the Chu State, the soldiers did not dare to disturb, and they were ready to leave after saying a few words to each other.

Fortunately, when they began to disperse, the laughter in the mansion had stopped and did not continue to disturb the people.

This made many patrol soldiers breathe a sigh of relief in their hearts.

Either way, it's a good thing that your responsibilities aren't affected.

Just while relaxing, many people couldn't help but have a lot of curiosity in their hearts about why General Wei was laughing.

With a high-ranking and powerful existence like General Wei, what else in the world can make him so out of shape?

For a while, all kinds of thoughts appeared in people's minds, but everyone wisely did not say them, and openly discussed the general's privacy.

Instead, I chose to guess in my heart and guess by myself, which is a little fun.

And what everyone didn't know, General Wei, who had a lot of guesses in their hearts at this time, had already left his mansion and was no longer in the mansion when the laughter disappeared.

"General Wei Chu Wei, ask to see the king."

After Chu Wei left the mansion, he went all the way to the top of the mountain, and then outside the gate of a requisitioned Taoist temple, he made his intention clear to a eunuch stationed outside.

Soon, he was ushered in to a secluded backyard house.

"The disciple has seen the master."

Entering the room, the chamberlain retreated, and only Chu Wei and Lu Yuan, whom he asked to see, were left in the room.

Seeing this, Chu Wei knelt down directly, bowed down and said: "The disciple lives up to the teacher's earnest teachings, has practiced for a year, and today he finally broke through to the innate realm. The kindness of the master will never be forgotten by the disciples. ”

Lu Yuan was practicing calligraphy at this time.

This is a small hobby that he has awakened in the war in the past year, which can cultivate his sentiments, calm his mind, and help him think better, which can be regarded as a small hobby.

After slowly writing the word "Dao", he put down the brush and looked at Chu Wei who was kneeling on the ground, with a smile on his face: "You don't have to be so polite, get up quickly, let the teacher take a good look at you." ”

"Yes."

Chu Wei answered, and then got up.

Lu Yuan looked at his disciple, looking up and down, looking at the other party's true intention that had not been completely contained because he had just broken through, as well as some of the external visions that occasionally leaked out, he couldn't help but nod with satisfaction.

"Not bad, not bad."

Lu Yuan praised twice in succession, and praised: "As a teacher, you are indeed not mistaken, among the many disciples under my sect, you are second only to Xiaoqing." It has only been a long time since the elixir has been stabbed, and it has already broken through the innate level.

Calculate carefully, it's only been a year since I gathered your five senior brothers, right?

A year of breakthrough innate speed, this speed is faster than Xiaoqing. ”

At the beginning, it took Zhou Qing nearly a year and a half to break through the innate realm, which can be said to take a long time.

However, when Lu Yuan cultivated Zhou Qing at the beginning, Zhou Qing was still young after all, only in his early thirties, and whether it was his heart or cultivation accumulation, he was far inferior to Chu Wei and the others at this time.

And at that time, Lu Yuan was busy conquering Southwest Yi, and he didn't have time to teach Chu Wei every day.

Therefore, Zhou Qing's speed of breaking through the innate is a little slower, but it can be understood.

"The disciple doesn't dare to compare with the senior brother."

Chu Wei also knew Zhou Qing's status in Lu Yuan's heart, and he never thought of replacing this senior brother, so he was busy and modestly said at this time: "Senior brother is extremely talented, and he can break through the innate alone with himself."

The disciple relied on the teacher's daily ear to mention his life, so that he could be lucky and happy, and he really didn't dare to take credit for himself. ”

When Lu Yuan heard this, he couldn't help but smile: "That's it, that's it." Now that you have broken through the innate nature, from now on, you will be a first-class martial arts master. Not only can it be a martial god, but it can also be a powerful opponent.

Even his own longevity can be twice as long as that of mortals, extending to one hundred and fifty years.

Such a miracle is enough to be a sentence, a land immortal.

You are my disciple and the pillar of Da Chu, and in the future, my Da Chu will compete with the world, but I will rely on you. ”

Lu Yuan said meaningfully and expectantly.

Compared with these outsiders, the three cold gods of the Flying Frost Dao, Chu Wei and other disciples who were cultivated by himself and had the status of master and apprentice, were naturally more valued by him.

In between, they are also their own people.

Now with Chu Wei's congenital ascension, the power of his cronies that Lu Yuan can rely on in the future, in addition to the clone and the harem group, finally has one more disciple.

The strength is getting stronger and stronger, which is naturally worth looking forward to.

Chu Wei is also very knowledgeable, or for the innate master who helped him with his own hands, he also has a lot of gratitude in his heart, and immediately expressed his attitude at this time: "The disciple will live up to the expectations of the master, and in the future, he will fight for the north and south of the Great Chu, crisscrossing the rivers and seas, in order to thank the master for his kindness." ”

Lu Yuan nodded, then took out a letter of appointment from the side of the desk, waved it down: "Recently, there have been a lot of changes in the Ning people, which seems to be effective as if the previous sneak attack on Changsha Mansion has the intention of dividing the army to attack Dongting.

In the Luyang Mansion, there is no innate guard, and it can be said that the mansions east of my Dongting are the most empty and weak places.

Now that you've been born, it's time to entrust you with a big responsibility.

This is the transfer of troops, and in the future, you will be the guard of Luyang, commanding 100,000 soldiers and horses there.

I hope to live up to the trust of loneliness and guard this important place in southern Xinjiang for my Dachu. ”

These days, with the beginning of spring, the wind and snow in the sky and earth are gradually thinning.

Ning Jun, who had been silent for a winter, moved more and more.

The spies of the Imperial City Division of the Chu State even inquired about the movements of the 100,000 left-behind troops in the camp of Peng Li of the Ning State.

And according to the information on the transfer of materials in various parts of Yuzhang, it was inferred that the Ning army planned to divide the troops and attack Luyang and Hengyang.

So after receiving the news, as early as ten days ago, Lu Yuan asked the spirit girl to leave in advance and rushed to Hengyang Mansion to guard first.

Now that Chu Wei has arrived, the last defense line of Luyang Mansion can finally be completed.

"Yes, the minister obeys."

When it came to military affairs, Chu Wei also changed his name and respectfully received orders.

"Go ahead. You've just broken through, and your cultivation isn't yet stable. You can rest in the city for two days first, stabilize your cultivation, and then it's not too late to rush. ”

Lu Yuan waved his hand, asked people to step back, and continued to practice calligraphy.

Chu Wei saluted again, then quietly exited the room and left the Taoist temple where the master lived.

After coming out, looking at the magnificence of the world and the magnificence of the mountains and rivers, I couldn't help but feel a sense of pride in my heart.

"From today onwards, I am also a grandmaster."

He muttered to himself, laughed, and floated away to the mansion down the mountain.