A month later, Jiangxia City.

On this day, Lu Yuan climbed the cliff, facing the morning sun, and enjoyed the beautiful sunrise.

The river breeze is cold, although it has been a long time since spring, but there are still a lot of remnants of the chill between heaven and earth, which makes people feel a little unbearable.

Fortunately, Lu Yuan is already a martial arts innate, and his qi and blood are like an oven, and he has long been invasive from the summer and cold. His own cultivation mana is also extremely profound, and he is only cold, so he is naturally not taken seriously.

In contrast, it is still the beautiful scenery of this early morning, which cultivates sentiment, makes people feel refreshed and happy, and makes him yearn for it even more.

Looking at the rising sun, Lu Yuan's eyes narrowed slightly, and the golden sunlight sprinkled the heavens and the earth, bringing a burst of vitality to the recovery of all things.

It's really hard to believe that a world with such a rising sun is about to usher in a catastrophe in the near future.

The fate of the whole world will also be uncertain and unpredictable in this catastrophe.

'I don't know if they have arrived in the Northern Netherworld at this time? How is the ascension going, but is it still going well? ’

Suddenly, Lu Yuan remembered the Taoist friend who had discussed the Tao with him several times last winter, and his heart couldn't help but drift away.

Since September last year, Feishuang Road and the entire Kyushu Xianmen crossed the sea and left, and now at the beginning of April, more than half a year has passed.

The sea is adrift, the northern underworld is far away, and those Kyushu immortal gates have also arrived smoothly.

I don't think so.

After all, when the cold wave came, the Kyushu Xianmen speculated that when something went wrong in the Northern Netherworld, they sent someone to investigate.

At that time, it took three full years to go back and forth.

In other words, if everything goes well, it will take a year and a half to go to the Northern Netherworld.

At this time, only half a year has passed, maybe these people are still floating in the domain of the East China Sea at this time, and they are still moving forward with difficulty, accompanied by the wind and waves of the sea.

"The cold wave is coming, it is affecting the entire northern part of Kyushu, don't leave the Taoist friends, even if they are in the East China Sea, they should not be affected by the cold wave.

And the further north you go, the heavier the cold wave becomes, and the colder the world becomes.

When I get close to the Northern Netherworld, I'm afraid that the entire North Netherworld Sea has now turned into a glacier.

Although Mo Li Daoyou and the others are monks, even if they are immortal and martial dual cultivators like me, it is impossible to be completely immune in the face of an extremely cold environment, and they need to use their qi and blood internal forces from time to time to warm their bodies, or use mana to dissolve the cold.

Their long-term fight against the cold wave may not be so simple.

Maybe on the way to the Northern Netherworld, some people who are not strong in mana and lack of strength will be eliminated first. ”

Lu Yuan thought of the chill last winter, and his eyes couldn't help but be a little deep.

The winter that just passed, it was a little colder than in previous years, and it was already a preliminary threat to ordinary martial artists with internal strength.

Under the erosion of this cold, unless they have internal strength, ordinary people will not be able to go out and move under the wind and snow.

If you insist on being strong, I am afraid that in a few moments, it will freeze into ice.

And this is just winter in the land of Jiangnan.

If it is in the northland, or in the snowfield, the cold wave is afraid to be more severe.

"Not long ago, the people of Xueyuan sent a messenger to invite me to Dachu again and jointly send troops to the Zhou State.

But the soldiers and horses they promised to dispatch this time were only 300,000, only six or seven percent of the scale of the previous spring raids.

Moreover, those who had been negotiating with those Tibetan people before, exchanged food and materials for the female population on the snow field, and these Tibetan people, who had been reluctant to agree, finally relented.

Agree to provide 100,000 snowy women of appropriate age this year, and sell the captured Zhou people to my Chu State.

The scale of the troops sent has become smaller, and this condition has been agreed again, it seems that this winter, the losses suffered by the people of the snow field may be even greater than imagined. ”

Lu Yuan thought of the information that had just been transmitted by Huang Xuan through Shen Nian from the central Han Dynasty in the northwest two days ago, and his expression was thoughtful.

Since the Snow Plains Fan people chose to migrate to the two counties of Helong of the Zhou people to survive due to the influence of the cold wave, a huge war broke out between the two countries in the spring and autumn of each year.

In order to plunder enough food and materials, the Tibetan people will mobilize herdsmen from various tribes and send as many as four or five hundred thousand herdsmen cavalry to plunder the two counties of Helong.

At its largest, the herdsmen mobilized in the spring even amounted to more than 700,000, which was almost comparable to the total population of some small countries.

However, in the spring of this year, the Tibetan people changed their previous generosity, and only used 300,000 horses, which is really not like their style.

A small 300,000 people, a cavalry raiding regiment composed of basically militia herdsmen, is not as many as the regular army of Zhou Guohelong County?

What can be the effect of sending them to spring plunder?

I'm afraid it's not to loot, but to deliver food to people.

But the Tibetan people knew this, but they still did it, and the meaning of it couldn't help but make people think deeply.

"It seems that the Tibetan people can't hold it after so many years of fighting!"

Lu Yuan couldn't help but sigh a little.

Carefully calculated, from the summer of the sixth year of Shenwu, the people of the Snow Plains took the initiative to start a war with the Zhou people due to the impact of a major flood, and now in the spring of the eleventh year of Shenwu, six years have passed.

After six years of fighting, no matter how many herdsmen there were, the cannon fodder cavalry on the grassland was no longer valuable, and the losses were extremely terrifying.

According to conservative estimates, in the past six years, more than 1.5 million herdsmen have died on all the battlefields.

The population loss caused by cold, hunger, war, etc., is estimated to have exceeded 5 million.

In this way, the total population loss of more than 6.5 million people has been more than one-third compared with the population of 16 million at the peak of the Tibetan people.

The loss is so serious, especially the loss of the population, and there are so many young and strong essences, it can almost be said that the Tibetan people have reached the verge of extinction.

According to this inference, Lu Yuan is optimistic about the future of the Tibetan people.

In fact, in fact, the actual situation of the Tibetan people was even worse than he expected.

Lu Yuan wanted to collect information about the Tibetan people, but after all, he could only go through the channels of the Helong battlefield, as well as some of the blood details mentioned in his mouth by his spirit concubine.

Although these two channels are good, they will eventually take a lot of time and be much less detailed than collecting directly on the snowfield.

In fact, the situation faced by the people of the Snow Plains was much more serious than Lu Yuan had speculated.

The losses of the Snow Plains tribe in the past years are not much different from the inferences of the many intelligence collected by the Chu State in the past.

But last winter, because of the sudden aggravation of the cold wave, many unprepared tribes in the snowfield were severely hit.

It's just that a winter has passed, and more than a million people have been directly frozen to death in all parts of the snow field, and some of them have even received supplies.

Such a big cold wave directly took away the people of the snow plains, one-tenth of the total population.

Now, after the cold wave and attrition, the total population of the entire snowfield has dropped to less than 9 million.

Of the remaining nine million people, there are also many who can no longer be a qualified labor force and combat unit because of the large number of frostbite, frostbite, and even toes and fingers that have been left on their bodies last winter.

It is precisely because of the large-scale reduction of these populations and the emergence of a large number of light and serious wounded that it is difficult for the people of the snowy fields to organize large-scale soldiers and horses today.

At this time, it can already be said that it is a rare and miraculous thing to gather 300,000 horsemen from the remaining 9 million people.

If it weren't for the life-and-death persecution of the entire tribe and the entire ethnic group, the entire social order would have collapsed long ago after suffering such a catastrophe.

How can it still be like now, still be able to draw out 300,000 horsemen and launch a spring raid invasion of the Zhou people.

However, with only 300,000 riders, it is indeed as Lu Yuan thought.

It's already hard to get the 300,000 soldiers of the Zhou people stationed in the second county of Helong, and the militia of almost the same size.

On the frontal battlefield, the strength and strength of the Zhou people have officially surpassed the Xueyuan people, and even achieved a crushing advantage.

In the future, unless there is an external force to intervene, otherwise when the entire people on the snow field are dead, the two counties of Helong will not be able to fight.

It is precisely because of the decline of his own strength and the difficult situation that he has obtained more supplies in order to alleviate the food shortage caused by the pressure of the population.

Only then would the young women of their tribe agree to trade with the Chu State in exchange for valuable grain and various supplies.

It's not that they don't know that the loss of those precious, childbearing women of the right age will affect the long-term development of the tribe in the future, and even perish step by step.

But they knew that if they didn't do this, not only would these women starve to death, but even their tribe would suffer more losses, or even perish directly.

The lesser of the two powers, exchanging the long-term future for the short-term future is like drinking water to quench thirst, and it has to be done.

Maybe after doing this, with enough funding, they can regain their strength, fight a decisive battle with the Zhou people, and desperately grab the land to close together?

This hope may be slim, but there is always a glimmer of sight.

Compared to other futures, which are already doomed to be bleak and impossible, this is enough to be accepted.

Of course, the above is limited to the shortage of intelligence, and Lu Yuan is not clear.

Otherwise, with the current predicament of the Tibetan people, the Chu State could have put forward more conditions in order to squeeze more benefits.

The Tibetan people, who have been cornered, have lost all their bargaining chips, and in the face of excessive conditions, as long as they don't want to exterminate the clan, they can only accept it in the end.

Of course, these benefits are actually nothing to the Chu State, which is now about to unify Jiangnan.

Lu Yuan didn't pay much attention to it.

Compared with this, he attaches more importance to the friendship with the Tibetan people.

After all, among the Tibetan people, in addition to those ordinary herdsmen, there are still more than ten innate grandmasters.

If the Xue Yuan Fan people are destroyed in the future, the Chu State may be able to rely on the previous relationship with the Snow Plains and the identity of the spirit girl to recruit a group of people from those Fan people to obtain the other party's greatest heritage.

In the future, there will be less and less aura, and after those Kyushu monks arrive in the Northern Netherworld and extract the last active aura between heaven and earth, the original god-blood xenomorphs who can still survive in the blessed land of the cave will also slowly die of old age due to the lack of aura.

At that time, without the assistance of the Divine Blood Elixir, it will be difficult for Kyushu to give birth to innate.

In today's world, it is basically the last time for all martial arts people to win the innate victory.

From now on, in the next 100 years at most, it will be difficult to give birth to innate beings in the world.

At most, in two hundred years, all the innate grandmasters may be extinct, just like the current great grandmasters, and completely become a legend.

Therefore, if you can win over more at this time, the last afterglow of the innate grandmaster, then in the future, the battle between the Chu State and other countries in terms of high-end combat power will naturally be able to occupy a greater advantage.

Therefore.

Compared to ordinary people who can recover in just a few decades. In the next two hundred years, one less will die, and the innate grandmaster who cannot be born will undoubtedly be more important.

If the Chu State can obtain the innate allegiance of all the Fan people in the Snow Field, then add the innate that he already has, and a group of innate people who may surrender after attacking and destroying the Lingnan of Ningguo.

The number of innate grandmasters possessed by the Chu State may be able to directly break the number of thirty.

Thirty congenital.

If you really have such strength, let alone enter Jiangbei, you will gain a foothold in Zhongzhou in the future.

Even if he directly attacked the Liang State, Lu Yuan also had some certainty.

Therefore, compared with such a long-term future, a little benefit at this time is certainly not in his eyes.

Even if it is even, Lu Yuan is more willing to give the other party a little more help when the people are in trouble.

Anyway, there is a high probability that these people will not be able to turn over.

That being the case, it is better to invest more in the future, and exchange the goodwill of today for the harvest of the future.

Of course, this is long-term work and there is no need to rush it.

Now you just need to wait for the next few years, or even more than ten years, when the fruit will ripen, and then pick it.

Lu Yuan has this patience.

"But those people in Tibet are not comfortable, and the situation of the Zhou people is not much better."

He thought in his heart about the information coming from Zhou Guo's side.

Last winter, the people of Tibet had a hard time, and the losses of the Zhou State were actually very heavy.

At that time, under the joint efforts of the Fan people, the Chu State, and the Wei people, the Zhou State, under the leadership of He Batsheng, a famous general in the world, relied on its strong strength, although it repelled the Chu State and the Fan people, it still guarded the iron bucket of the two counties of Helong, without revealing the slightest gap.

But on the battlefield in the north of the Zhou State, the 300,000 troops of the Zhou people who fled in a hurry were defeated again under the blow of the famous general Xiao Invincible of the Wei State.

The 400,000 troops of Wei fought with the 300,000 soldiers and horses of the Zhou people, and the Zhou people were defeated again, losing more than 100,000 soldiers.

Even if the Zhou army had a strong city to defend in danger, it was difficult to resist the Wei soldiers.

The remaining Shuofang half of the county controlled by the Zhou State was completely lost in just three months.

Finally, at the beginning of October last year, more than ten days after the first snow fell in the north, the entire Shuofang County was controlled by the Wei state, and the Zhou state completely lost the gateway to the north.

If it weren't for the fact that it was already in the depths of winter and the snow was continuous, it would have been difficult to use troops.

I am afraid that by taking advantage of this opportunity, the Wei people will continue to wave their troops south, enter Guannei County, and march to Chang'an, the capital of Zhou State.

But even so.

The loss of Sofang County and the threat to the land of Gyeonggi still terrified the Zhou Kingdom.

In order to defend against the Wei State, Emperor Zhou even transferred He Batsheng, the only famous general in the country, back from Helong, and ordered him to return to the north and fortify the dangerous pass in the north of Guannei County to deal with the attack of his old rival Xiao Invincible.

However, now in Guannei County, even if the Zhou State integrates the remnants of the army, and then counts the 50,000 soldiers and horses guarding the national capital, the total strength is only about 200,000.

Previously, although the Wei people had adopted an offensive with huge casualties in order to quickly break through the Zhou people's defense line, they had suffered heavy losses in soldiers and horses, and it was reported that there were more than 200,000 dead and wounded.

However, in the Wei State, except for those tribes who need to guard against the steppe in the north and go south, there are no enemies in other directions, and there is no need for too many forces to garrison.

Therefore, more than 200,000 soldiers and horses were killed and injured for a time, although it was also a huge loss for the Wei State, but in fact, it was not unbearable.

The size of the Wei and Zhou states, while maintaining sufficient defenses in the north, can still easily recruit and transfer troops and horses in the country to supplement the attrition of the southern front.

At this time, the Wei army of Shuofang County, after a winter and half a spring of replenishment, the size of the soldiers and horses returned to 400,000.

Moreover, among the 400,000 troops, the number of innate grandmasters of the Wei State is even more, and it is said that the size of the soldiers and horses is almost twice that of the Northern Frontier Army of the Zhou State.

This kind of strength, although it is not enough to directly crush the Zhou State, is also a gap that is enough to make people desperate.

With He's ability to win, if he wants to block the Wei army, I'm afraid it's enough.

So in the end, Zhou Guo either believed in He Batsheng's ability, fought twice the gap in strength, and fought to the death with Wei in northern Xinjiang, gambling on a slim chance of victory.

Either abandon the two counties of Helong and migrate the remaining troops and population to Guannei County, so as to concentrate the resources of soldiers and horses, the strength of Guannei County can undoubtedly be greatly increased, and it can naturally resist the Wei State.

It is to risk losing all three counties and gambling on a chance to win.

It is better to abandon the two counties of Helong that have been ruined, and protect the core Guannei County, where the whole country is located.

How should Zhou Guo choose?

This should also be the last cautious glimmer of life for the Tibetan people, right?

As long as the Zhou State gave up the two counties of Helong, the people of Fan, who were already on the verge of collapse, could obtain the two counties of Helong and survive for the time being.

This may have a big impact on my plan to annex the Tibetan people, so it should be considered a variable......"

Lu Yuan thought of his future plans, and couldn't help but think in his heart, and finally shook his head: "It shouldn't be." I heard that the Xiliang Kingdom in the northwest of Yongzhou has gradually shown signs of food shortage in recent years due to the influence of the cold wave.

Now the Xiliang army has begun to tentatively infiltrate the two counties of Helong, hoping to obtain new money and grain production areas to tide over the catastrophe.

and the state of Wei in the north.

Now Shuofang County has been obtained, and it already borders Helong County.

Wei was more affected by the cold wave, had more food difficulties, and had a greater demand for land that could produce grain.

In this case, if Guanzhong County becomes an iron bucket and it is difficult to get into the mouth, who knows if Wei Guo will have any thoughts about the second county of Helong next to it.

There is also Zhou Guo, who lost the western barrier all of a sudden, and it is estimated that he will not be reconciled.

After relieving himself, he may also try to return and want to recapture the second county of Helong.

With so many wolves looking around, it's good that the Tibetan people don't take the second county of Helong.

If it is really taken, it will replace the current position of the Zhou State, which will be besieged by the three parties, and the left and right sides will be weakened.

Perhaps, when the time comes, the time of the fall of the Tibetan people may be faster than normal, and I will be able to accept their inheritance sooner. ”

Lu Yuan reasoned and felt at ease.

Then he looked at the rising sun on the river, which had completely risen, and an urgency rose in his heart.

The situation in the north is changing so rapidly that the Zhou State is even in danger of extinction, and it may be that Yongzhou is about to change hands.

As the cold wave slowly worsens, the turmoil in the world is becoming more and more obvious.

The Chu country where he is located also has to step up his pace quickly and strive for more advantages in this chess game of the world's dragon competition.

Otherwise, if you wait for the gradual unification of the northern lands and the integration of the resources of various states, those top-level empires that cross states and even counties, far better than the overlord of one state, will appear.

Then even if it is Lu Yuan, before he survives those innate grandmasters, he is afraid that he will be powerless and helpless.

"So, if you don't want to be left behind, you have to speed up a bit."

Looking into the distance in the east and staring in the direction of Ning Guo, Lu Yuan's eyes were deep, and he had already made a decision.