In the winter of the twelfth year of Shenwu, it was later than in previous years.

Since the first snow fell in early October last year, it was not until early February this year that the winter snow began to melt, and the harsh winter lasted for more than four months.

Therefore, when the spring rain fell, everything recovered, and the rain and snow melted, Lu Yuan took the spirit girl to travel together to enjoy the beautiful scenery of spring.

"Concubine Ling, there is a small pavilion in front, overlooking the beautiful scenery of the seven peaks of the West Mountain, we can go there to rest."

After playing on the mountain for a long time, Lu Yuan looked at Concubine Ling's slightly bulging belly and was concerned about the proposal.

In this winter, Lu Yuan's family spent half a year in Tianluo Lynx, and under the joy of the concubines every day, in the harem, not surprisingly, several people were pregnant with children.

However, among the pregnant concubines, the one he valued the most was the spirit girl.

It is said that the mother is more expensive than the son, but sometimes, the son is also expensive because of the mother.

The spirit girl herself is congenital, and there is a whole snowfield fan behind her as a support, among the harem women, it can be said to be the most expensive one, even the queen Lan Caier is faintly inferior.

After all, the Five Poisons Sect behind Lan Cai'er has long been a matter of fact to this day.

Under the assimilation of more than 20 years, millions of Miao people have basically disappeared, and they are no different from the Chu people.

Even the Five Poisons Sect, with the addition of the original or present innate sects such as Baifeng Temple and the Six Yang Sect, rapidly reduced its role and influence on the rivers and lakes of the Chu State, and became a first-class force in the ordinary rivers and lakes.

Fortunately, the two brothers Lu He and Lu Hao are about to grow up, and when they grow up, they will be two congenitals.

They are also sisters-in-law, relying on this, coupled with Lu Yuan's deep feelings, Lan Caier's status is worry-free.

"The concubine listens to the king."

When the spirit girl heard Lu Yuan's suggestion, she smiled slightly and agreed obediently.

Then the two of them walked towards the small pavilion not far ahead.

I have to say that Ziyun Dao, as a great sect of immortals that has been inherited for thousands of years, has a profound heritage.

In Luo Mountain alone, there are 28 chain peaks in the north and south, east and west, and a large number of pavilions and pavilions have been built on the peaks.

On this main mountain, there are a large number of palaces, which are more exquisite and luxurious than ordinary palaces.

Even in the fairy mountain, the ethereal and independent artistic conception of the world makes people feel like a fairy.

It is precisely because of this that Lu Yuan was a little reluctant to leave after moving to Tianluo Mountain.

This is not only because this mountain has a lot of spiritual energy for him to practice, but also because this mountain has beautiful scenery and a group of palaces, and when it comes to the environment and enjoyment, it is really much better than his Chu palace in Baling.

With such a good place, how can you be willing to go back to the Burrow?

When they arrived at the small pavilion, the palace maid who was stationed here to clean saw that the king was here, and was busy serving, and soon prepared tea and pastries, and lit incense for the two of them to enjoy.

"Concubine Ling is pregnant, she needs to eat more, although the pastries here are a little worse, but you can also relieve your appetite, and taste it first."

Lu Yuan picked a piece of pastry, handed it to the spirit girl's mouth with his own hands, and fed her food.

The spirit girl took a small bite, swallowed slightly, and refused to eat any more, her face was also a little depressed, and her eyebrows revealed sadness.

Seeing this, Lu Yuan frowned and asked, "Concubine Ai has lost her appetite, but she has something on her mind?" ”

The spirit girl turned her head, with a little sadness on her face, and said sadly: "Back to the king, the concubine just thought that my clan is still suffering from ice and snow on the snowy field, and people are hungry and cold every day.

But I have pastries to eat, and I can't bear it, so I don't have an appetite. ”

"Snow ......"

Lu Yuan heard the spirit girl mention his hometown, and he couldn't help but groan thoughtfully.

In the past two years, the life of the people in the snow field has not been easy.

From the year before last, that is, in the autumn of the tenth year of Shenwu, the people of the Snow Plains invited the Chu State to join them and send troops to the Zhou State.

However, at that time, Lu Yuan was preparing for a decisive battle with Ningguo, Jiangdong, Lingnan, and Jiangbei were threatened, and Chu State itself was short of soldiers and horses, so he was really unable to take care of others.

So in the end, the matter was refused.

Therefore, as a last resort, the people of the Snow Plains could only send their own troops to fight the Zhou people.

But with only one Xueyuan, how can it be the opponent of the Zhou people?

Not surprisingly, the war in the autumn of that year ended in a crushing defeat for the Tibetans.

In the spring of last year, after a crushing defeat, only 300,000 soldiers and horses were left in the army, which was an unprecedented drop.

This kind of strength is not even as good as the Zhou people stationed in He, Longer County, and there is no accident, they were defeated, and finally the Zhou State captured more than 100,000 prisoners and won a complete victory.

In the autumn of last year, after a summer of relief, the Tibetan people recovered a little vitality, and in order to save the decline, they tried their best to draw out an army of 500,000 again.

almost poured out of the nest, wanting to seize the second county of Helong from the Zhou State.

At that time, the Wei state in the north also raised 500,000 troops from the occupied Shuofang County to the south to attack the Hanoi County of the Zhou State.

The Fan people and the Wei State attacked from two directions, echoing each other, and dispatching an army of millions, which can be described as huge.

At that time, it can almost be said that it was the most eye-catching and dazzling war in Kyushu.

Even the decisive battle in Jiangnan commanded by Lu Yuan was overshadowed.

Compared with the soldiers and horses of the two sides, after a series of battles in the Zhou State at that time, there were only 200,000 soldiers and horses left in Helong and Guannei.

The situation is dire.

In this country, only for a while, after urgent discussions, the Zhou people finally decided that the strong man broke his wrist and directly gave up Hexi County, and all the remaining million people in Hexi County were moved to Nanyang County in the eastern part of the Kanto.

After shrinking the defensive line, the burden of Hexi County was gone, and the 100,000 defenders of Hexi County were transferred by Zhou State to Guannai County to assist in the defense, bringing the number of defenders in the Gyeonggi area to 300,000.

On the Longxi County side, only 100,000 soldiers and horses were left, and 100,000 people were requisitioned to guard against the Tibetans.

Obviously, compared to the repeated defeats, the Fan people have not been able to get anything cheap from themselves.

Or since he went south, he has won great victories one after another, destroyed hundreds of thousands of Zhou soldiers, and took away a Shuofang County of Wei from his own hands, which is more threatening in the eyes of the Zhou people.

Therefore, in order to resist the southward advance of the Wei state, the Zhou people had to concentrate more forces to guard against the Wei people.

In fact, the threat of the Wei people is indeed great.

There was no big battle in the autumn and winter of last year, the Wei people's 500,000 army was fiercely offensive, and in the early days of the war, even the three prefectures of Guannei County of Kezhou State, the vanguard almost hit the edge of Chang'an, the capital of Zhou State, and frightened them to shake the whole country.

Later, He Batsheng urgently counterattacked, and Zhou Renguo requisitioned more than 200,000 people in one go, and sent them to add lines as cannon fodder, and finally paid a heavy price before finally rushing back again.

However, even so, the three mansions lost to the north of Guannei County were finally recaptured only the land of the second prefecture, and one of them was firmly controlled by the Wei people.

In the north of Guannei County, the Wei State has obtained the main road to the south, and Chang'an, the capital of the Zhou people's country, is always under the Wei people's soldiers.

Under such circumstances, Zhou Guo was already discussing whether to move the capital.

For example, from Chang'an, the national capital, to Heyin City, Henan County, which is still in the rear and has the danger of a big river in the north.

It's just that the relocation of the capital is significant, the royal family of the Zhou State, and the ancestral cemetery are all in Guannei County, which is also the most populous place in the Zhou State, and it is the place where it is the foundation.

If you want to move the capital from here, there are too many entanglements of interests involved.

Therefore, the country was divided into two factions, and there were endless debates every day, and the matter of moving the capital was dragged down like this, and there was no conclusion.

However, there is a lot of controversy about the relocation of the capital, but there is a lot of consensus in Zhou on whether to continue to give up Longxi County.

In the great war last winter, after the Tibetan people moved their tribes to Hexi County, which was abandoned by the Zhou State, they raised 500,000 troops to invade Longxi County.

In Longxi County, the Zhou State only has 100,000 soldiers and horses, 100,000 people, and its strength can be described as weak.

Especially the innate grandmaster, the Fan people can be said to have taken out all their family resources this time, and a total of eight people were dispatched.

Zhou Guo is in Longxi County, but there are only two of them.

With 500,000 against 200,000 and 8 against 2, there was such a huge disparity in strength, and the Zhou State was at a rare disadvantage on the battlefield in Longxi, and it was defeated and retreated.

Within a few months, half of the territory had been lost.

If it weren't for He Batsheng who repelled Wei later, and led 50,000 soldiers and horses to rush back to help, I am afraid that the entire Longxi County would be lost.

However, after losing half of Longxi County, the court of Zhou clearly realized that the national strength of Zhou at this time could no longer support the two-front battle.

After these years of war, Longxi County has long since lost its original prosperity of abundant water and grass and fertile fields.

At its peak, Longxi County, with a population of 3 million, now has only more than 1 million people left, and more than half of the territory is occupied by prisoners.

Half of Longxi County, which is really in the hands of Zhou State, has only a population of more than 800,000 left.

With such a small population, not to mention the more than 100,000 Zhou soldiers who maintain this place, it is enough to support themselves in the war.

Longxi County has been the same as the Zhou State.

Therefore, after discussion, Zhou decided to abandon Longxi County, and then move the remaining more than 800,000 people of the county to Henan County in the rear.

As for the remaining tens of thousands of soldiers and horses in the county, they were also withdrawn to Kannai-gun to supplement the lack of troops in Gyeonggi after the war.

After such a toss, the Zhou State successively lost Hanzhong County, Shuofang County, Hexi County, and Longxi County, and the remaining territory in the country was only Guannei County, Henan County, Nanyang County, and Xiangyang County, a total of four counties and 32 prefectures.

The territory can be said to be only about 40% of the peak.

The territory of the country has been greatly reduced, and the population of the Zhou State has naturally decreased greatly.

Today, the estimated population of the 32 prefectures in the four counties of Zhou is only about 13 million, a decrease of 7 million from the peak.

Among the domestic soldiers and horses, there are only 150,000 soldiers and horses left in Henan County, 150,000 in Nanyang and Xiangyang counties, and 200,000 in Guannei County, totaling 500,000 soldiers and horses.

Compared with the more than one million people at its peak, it is nearly one million.

The national strength of the Zhou State can be said to have been greatly attenuated, from the original forefront hegemon, vaguely falling to the threshold of the hegemon, and no longer returning to the past prosperity.

What's even worse is that even if a large amount of territory is abandoned, the geopolitical environment near the Zhou State has not improved at all.

The two counties of Helong in the west have become the pastures of the Tibetan people.

In Shuofang County in the north, hundreds of thousands of troops of Wei State were eyeing each other, and obtained the passage into Guannei County, sending troops south day and night.

The state of Chu in the south has also defeated the old enemy Ning State, and has the momentum of unifying the south of the Yangtze River, and also has the spare strength to draw troops north.

The Liang State and the Zhao State in the east have also coveted the Henan and Nanyang counties of the Zhou State for a long time, and although they have not yet sent troops to attack at this time, they will not mind taking a piece of the pie if they have the opportunity.

In this case, the Zhou State can be said to be enemies on all sides, and each enemy is extremely powerful, except for the Fan people, they can be compared with it, not weak.

In the face of such a bad geography, Zhou's sense of crisis can be described as explosive.

So after abandoning Longxi County and withdrawing the people to the country.

In the face of strong oppression from all sides, and his own side lost troops one after another, Zhou had to order another 500,000 troops to be conscripted, and the number of soldiers and horses was re-expanded to one million to cope with the increasing demand for troops.

With the remaining 13 million people of the Zhou State, it is difficult to recruit 500,000 soldiers and horses to feed an army of one million, but it is not impossible.

But soldiers and horses are easy to move, but a general is hard to find.

On the battlefield of Longxi before, a general of the Zhu State of Zhou was found by the Fan people and directly besieged by six congenital beings, and he did not even have a chance to escape, and fell on the spot.

In the previous wars with Wei, the Zhou State also fell to two Congenital Pillar States.

So today, the generals of the Zhu State of Zhou have fallen directly from the original ten to seven, and the top combat power has shrunk greatly, which is inferior to Ning Guo in the second county of Jiangdong.

Therefore, even if the Zhou State only retained two pillar states in the Henan and Nanyang regions in the east, it would guard against Zhao, Liang, Chu and other states.

However, there are only five of the Innate Pillar Kingdoms that can be gathered in Kannai County.

This number is far from the thirteen congenitals that Wei now claims to be, and the eight congenitals claimed by the Tibetan people.

The Zhou State, which was once dominant, has really come to the point of declining and nearing annihilation.

However, although it is said that the country is about to be destroyed, relying on today's foundation, the Zhou State can still hold out for a while.

After all, in the north of Wei, there were also a large number of barbarians who went south, like the Fan, to attack the northern border of Wei, which involved most of Wei's energy.

The strength that Wei can take out to attack Zhou is at most like last winter, four or five hundred thousand soldiers and horses, and three or five congenitals.

Other forces have to deal with those barbarians and ensure the stability of their own country.

The Tibetan people are no better.

In the past two years, the weather has become colder, not only the Tibetan people can't stand it, but also the Xiliang country, which is in the same area as them.

Therefore, in the autumn of last year, when the Tibetan people attacked Longxi County of the Zhou State in a big way, the Xiliang Kingdom, which was in the west of Yongzhou and had been closed off for all these years, was also unable to bear it and sent 400,000 troops to attack Hexi County, which was occupied by the Tibetans.

The Tibetan people were raided, and half of Hexi County was lost in an instant, and countless migrated tribes were plundered and enslaved by the Xiliang people.

It was precisely because of the threat to the rear that although the battle situation in Longxi County was good at that time, the Fan people still did not hesitate to give up the attack when He Batsheng led 50,000 troops to the rescue.

The reason for this is precisely because of the invasion of the Western Liang Kingdom.

At this time, the Tibetan people had already returned to the aid in a large way, and the Xiliang Kingdom was in Hexi, and they were inseparable.

After years of accumulation and development, the strength of Xiliang Kingdom cannot be underestimated.

This country has three counties, a population of more than 4 million, and because it is in a land where barbarians are mixed, in order to protect themselves, everyone practices martial arts and training, and the martial style is brave.

According to the report of the spies of the Imperial City Division, every household in this country has good horses, all men are knights, and even women can bend bows and shoot arrows, which is no worse than that of the grassland herdsmen.

Under such martial arts, this country has a standing army of 300,000, and the country can also recruit 500,000 civilian horsemen, and its strength is not ordinarily strong.

Even the innate grandmasters, because there are remnants of the Tianshan Mountains in the territory and a lot of blessed land, there are as many as five in the Xiliang Kingdom, which is one step ahead of ordinary big countries.

With the invasion of such a powerful country with a strong martial style, the Tibetan people naturally had headaches and were difficult to deal with.

Coupled with the fatigue of a long battle, they who had just withdrawn from the frontline battlefield were not the opponents of Xiliang Country at all.

Four major battles were fought in succession, losing more than 200,000 soldiers, and they failed to drive away the Xiliang Kingdom.

On the contrary, the remaining half of Hexi County lost two or three more mansions, and he only had one or two mansions left.

The Fan and Zhou kingdoms fought hard for several years, killing and wounding millions of people, but the hard-won results were stolen by the Xiliang Kingdom.

How can they endure this?

But the battlefield was fought head-on, and the Fan people were not the opponents of the Xiliang people.

So under the hardship, they naturally thought of their in-laws, who had just won a great victory over Ningguo in Jiangdong and had become the only overlord of Yangzhou.

Therefore, in this winter, the Tibetan people, who were forced by the Western Liang State, sent envoys to the Chu State to discuss the matter of asking for help.

At the same time, let's talk about a deal.

This time, in the second county of Helong, the Zhou people captured about 700,000 Zhou people, and according to the previous covenant between the Chu State and the Fan people in the snow field, the Fan people could use the population to exchange the population for weapons, armor, stomach, grain and grass materials with the Chu State.

Now there have been successive fiascos, all kinds of ordnance and weapons have been seriously damaged, and production has been affected by a large number of wars in the tribe, and there has been a food crisis among the Tibetan people.

Therefore, they urgently need to exchange enough weapons and armor from the Chu State to arm their warriors to compete with the Xiliang State.

At the same time, a large amount of food and grass is needed to feed the hungry tribes within the tribe.

Therefore, the 700,000 people of the Zhou State were used as bargaining chips by them to exchange with the Chu State.

Regarding this matter, Lu Yuan has already sent a letter to Sun Siwen and asked him to discuss with Zhou Guo.

Today, although the state of Chu has seized a large area of territory in the south of Jiangdong Lingnan, the domestic population has increased by more than 10 million people.

But even so, there are still a large number of sparsely populated counties in the country that are in urgent need of immigrants to fill them.

The people of Fan are willing to send these 700,000 Zhou people, which is in Lu Yuan's heart.

So for this business, he agreed.

However, business is easy to do, but for what the Fan people said, they wanted to ask the Chu State to send troops to help them defeat the Xiliang Kingdom, which made Lu Yuan hesitate.

After all, the Western Liang Kingdom is far away from the Chu State, and there is no contradiction with the Chu State.

Xiliang is also poor in China, not only has little money, but also has a small population, and the income that can be obtained from fighting it is too little.

On the contrary, the opponent's martial arts are strong, the soldiers are strong, and the strength is not weak, just like the previous Chu State, he is a thorny Xiaoqiang, but he is not so easy to mess with.

For this request for help, there is naturally quite a controversy within the Chu State.

The spirit girl in front of her is probably because of this, she wants to persuade Lu Yuan to help her mother.

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