Since Liang Jun was unwilling to fight, Lu Yuan did not force it.

The main force he is leading now is indeed a little less, only a million.

Moreover, among these million people, there are only six innate grandmasters, which is less than the Liang people in the city.

In this case, it is simply wishful thinking to say that you want to lay down Daliang City.

He could also guess what the Liang people's idea was, it was nothing more than to use the surrounding important towns to consume the strength of the Chu army and delay time.

But these are nothing to Lu Yuan.

The Liang people underestimated him, and also underestimated the Chu army, and wanted to take the Liang's determination.

At this time, the other party wants to delay time, why don't you want to delay time?

"Let's wait."

Lu Yuan sneered: "When the three mansions of Ningling, Yucheng, and Gushu are taken, and the Great Liang Barrier is lost, it will be when the imperial capital of the two countries will fall." ”

Looking at Daliang City from afar, he withdrew his gaze and turned around to return to the camp.

After the Chu army arrived in Daliang, the initial period passed in peace.

The Liang army did not want to fight, and the Chu army did not have enough troops and did not want to fight.

In addition to building high bases and spreading camps, the two sides confronted each other, and no one took the initiative to take action.

The two sides looked at each other from a distance across the walled city.

A sit-in war, with such a strange posture, appeared on this battlefield that attracted the attention of the world.

……

After returning to the camp, Lu Yuan did not remain idle.

As for the plans for military expansion and disarmament, although it is not yet time to implement them because of the ongoing war in various camps.

But the time for implementation is actually not far away.

He plans to take advantage of this winter, during the period of the cold wave, to start this matter as soon as possible.

The Northern Expedition of the Chu Army has been going on for almost two years.

After two years of fighting, those standing armies are a little better, people eat this bowl of rice, and they fight outside all year round, which is ordinary, and there is nothing to complain about.

But the conscripted men were different.

They were all ordinary people, and they were only temporarily recruited because of the war.

This kind of solicitation, a few months, or even a year, is a little better.

But like now, it can be as long as two years, or maybe even longer, which is unacceptable.

The people were drafted out, and their families were missing a pillar of support, which would greatly affect both agricultural production and other work.

What's more, there is one less man in their family, who knows if their wives and children will be bullied?

What should I do if my husband is away from home for a long time and my wife steals someone?

It's all something that's going to happen.

Therefore, homesickness has actually begun to spread widely among the people's husbands.

The Northern Expedition of Chu was indeed overwhelming, and it defeated two powerful countries in the world in World War I.

But no matter how smoothly the war progresses, the hope of a quick victory is still slim.

After fighting for so long, no matter how unfamiliar those people are, this rumor spreads, and they almost all know about it.

This war will not be able to end in three or five years, or even longer.

When they thought of the day when they would be discharged from the army, there was no end in sight, and many people felt despair in their hearts, feeling that they might die on the battlefield and never return home.

Last year, after a year of fighting, the results were brilliant, but under the glory, nearly 2 million people died of 12 million people.

The conquered cities and the territories under control were all bought with blood by those people and soldiers.

In just one year, so many people died.

In this year's Northern Expedition, a Mengshan Pass was beaten, and another 100,000 people died.

Now we have to fight Ningling, Yucheng, and Gushu, and it is estimated that another two or three hundred thousand people will die, or even more.

If you hit the big beam later, I'm afraid that more than a million people will die?

The above are not numbers, but fresh lives.

No, it should be said that in the eyes of the generals, this is just numbers.

But in the eyes of the soldiers and the people, this is their own life.

Every majestic city has to be filled with your own life.

At present, the Northern Expedition army, with 3 million people, may finish this battle of Daliang, and in the end, I don't know if there will be 2 million people left.

With last year's experience, all the people have some expectations for this, and they know that this time, there is probably a high chance that they will not be able to go back.

In this case, can their emotional morale not be affected?

Lu Yuan was aware of this, so he had to make adjustments.

Disarmament is not only to reduce food consumption, but also to enable those who have been away for a long time to return home to reunite with their wives and children.

If he didn't let them go, he was really afraid that the morale of the army would collapse.

But even if you want to let people go, it doesn't mean that you can let them go.

Those old people who went on the Northern Expedition last year can be put back.

At their peak, there were 12 million people, but now there are only two left

About 10 million people.

After the second Northern Expedition is fought this year, the seven major camps will consume another wave, and it is estimated that there will only be seven or eight million people left.

Of these seven or eight million people, if another two million are recruited into the army, five or six million people should be able to go back in the end.

Well, 12 million when you come, 5 or 6 million when you go back, and half of the people who can go home alive are quite acceptable.

After all, in a war of this level, the people who are cannon fodder have only lost half of them, not all of them have died, and they are already quite lucky.

Like when Lu Yuan first rose, he fought in Dongting County, and every time he recruited people as cannon fodder, but after each battle, there were not a few people left.

At that time, the mortality rate of cannon fodder was basically more than eighty or ninety percent.

Now it's only three or four percent, which is already quite good.

Other countries have been fighting wars over the years, and every time they recruit people, the mortality rate is also very high.

Otherwise, why do you think that after 30 years of war, the Liang State, which has stabilized most of the territory in the country, has not only failed to increase its population.

On the contrary, the total population has dropped from more than 80 million at its peak to less than 70 million, a decrease of more than 10 million.

How come there is no such population that naturally reproduces every year?

Isn't it being used as cannon fodder and consumed on the battlefield on the front line?

Not only the Liang Kingdom, but also the other Zhao, Wei and Xu Kingdoms, the reasons for the population decline in recent years are basically the same.

The loss of five or six million people in the Chu State this time seems to be quite large, but compared with other countries, it is actually not much.

Considering that he is now a country that single-handedly fights the world, and directly opened seven camps and seven battlefields, this loss is actually even less.

On average, the number of soldiers and horses lost in each battalion was less than a million.

After the state of Chu now controls Zhongzhou, it has swelled to a population of 140 million, which is less than one-twentieth of the total population, which is completely acceptable.

Therefore, after letting go of last year's minfu, Lu Yuan did not plan to let go of the two million minfu recruited this year to make up for the loss last year.

After all, the battlefields in Chu are fierce, and although it is now said that it is ready to implement the regularization of soldiers and horses, the demand for cannon fodder in the war is still inevitable.

It is really distressing to use those hard-trained elites as cannon fodder.

Sometimes when attacking the city and filling the pits, some people are still needed to act as cannon fodder to reduce the loss of elites.

Moreover, although the Chu army has gradually gained a firm foothold in Zhongzhou, some counties and counties in the rear of Zhongzhou have even begun to produce grain and grass to feed the soldiers and horses on the front line.

The Chu army is here, and it is no longer a 10,000-mile expedition, but it has some meaning of local combat.

The pressure on logistics and transportation has been greatly reduced.

Slowly, there are no more people to come to transport grain for thousands of miles.

Not so much, not at all.

The grain and grass of the front-line army still need coolies to help transport it, which also requires people's husbands.

Therefore, the two million people newly recruited this year can only stay and use them as new cannon fodder after the five or six million old people are released next year.

However, according to the plan, after capturing Daliang this year, the war with other countries next year will not be as fierce as it is now.

These two million people, even if they have to be used as cannon fodder, should be able to survive half of them in the end.

It's not entirely hopeless.

Although Lu Yuan is ruthless on the battlefield, he is not completely ruthless, and he will still leave people with some way to live.

Especially their own people.

It's just that the plan is planned like this, but how to recruit more than two million recruits?

How can five or six million people be let go?

When they are gone, how should they adjust the strength of each camp?

After the number of troops and horses in the hands of the various camps and fronts is reduced, should they take an offensive or a defensive position against each country?

These problems need to be dealt with urgently.

It's not that Lu Yuan can fix it with a pat on the head and a mouth.

Therefore, when he was in a sit-in confrontation with the defenders of Daliang City, he summoned the generals in the camp and the ministers and officials who accompanied the army to begin to coordinate and discuss the matter.

There are too many aspects that need to be planned and supplemented by the transfer of tens of millions of people, and it is not destined to be easy to formulate and implement them by the end of this year.

Therefore, Lu Yuan could only discuss and plan with many civil and military officers who worked overtime every day.

Time is also in such a hectic way, and it begins to pass rapidly.

At the end of March of the 42nd year of Shenwu, the Chu army arrived in Daliang.

At the beginning of April, the Chu army repaired the camp and blocked the four-way passage, and the city of Daliang was besieged, officially cutting off contact with the outside world.

In mid-April, after the two armies sat quietly for half a month, news came back from Ningling Mansion in the south that after a half-moon siege, the Chu army finally broke through the city and captured this important town in the south of Daliang.

Of the 100,000 Liang troops entrenched in the city, 70,000 were killed and 30,000 surrendered. In addition, during this period, he was forcibly conscripted to Liang people's husband, and he also lost 100,000 and surrendered 100,000.

The Liang army was wiped out by 300,000 people, and the two congenital guards of Ningling were also killed in battle and buried in the city.

On the Chu army's side, although there was no loss in the first place, the army lost 150,000 people, although most of them were just cannon fodder, but it was enough to make people feel painful.

In this regard, Lu Yuan regretted slightly, but he could only order that the Liang people who would be surrendered, together with the Mengshan Pass, a total of 240,000 people, would all be escorted to the side of Daliang City.

The battle of Ningling has made him realize once again the horror of siege warfare.

This is simply a meat grinder for the consumption of human life, and it is not enough to fill it.

Even if the Chu army has already gained the advantage, if you want to lay the big beam, you may really have to die a million people in the end.

In any case, it is also the capital of the world's first hegemonic country, and in the past few decades, it has always had the reputation of the world's first male city.

The Chu army wants to capture this kind of world-famous city, without paying some flesh and blood, to pave the way into the city, how can it be said.

Since they all want to die, of course they are dead Liang people, which is better than dead Chu people.

Previously, Lu Yuan cared about his reputation, and it was not good to forcibly recruit the local Liang people as cannon fodder and drive them to join the siege of the city.

But now the Liang people themselves helped him gather people, and turned the original Liang people into the Liang army, from a production unit to a military unit.

With this identity shift, everything is fine.

It is inhumane and a tyrant to drive the people to attack the city, and it is contrary to the name of one's own righteousness.

You can drive the captives to attack the city, that's all right, right?

Even if they are released, no one can say anything.

There are 240,000 Liang prisoners here, send them to the front line to fill the trenches, and the Chu side will be able to kill 240,000 fewer people.

If this is the case, then among the 10 million Chu people's husbands, there may be one more than one million people who can finally return to China.

This is a great virtue for the Chu people.

For the state of Chu, being able to keep more of these people who support him means that his basic plate is stronger, which is also a great thing.

Therefore, after figuring this out, Lu Yuan sent an order to the counties and counties in Zhongzhou in the rear, so that the large number of Liang troops captured last year should not be allowed to do some new water conservancy work, and they were all transferred and prepared to fill the trenches.

Last year, the Chu army achieved a series of brilliant victories, and during this period, there were many soldiers from various countries captured.

Among them, the Liang State was the largest, with about 2.3 million people taken prisoner, including soldiers and civilians.

Wei was the second, with about 1.5 million prisoners.

Zhao again, there are about 700,000 people.

Zheng Guo is the least, probably around 200,000 people.

All of these people add up to 4.7 million people, which is a huge scale.

For these captives, the state of Chu did not let them go, but directly treated them as coolies, and arranged for them to do some errands such as building roads and transporting grain, building cities and water conservancy, and mining and digging mountains.

In the past, it was necessary to forcibly conscript the people to serve in forced labor, and many people had to die every time, causing a lot of complaints among the people.

Now that there is free coolie, of course, there is no need to labor the people and add to the suffering.

This year, the Chu army was able to start the second Northern Expedition without any care, but in fact, it was reluctant to take the credit of these free coolies.

Late April.

Yucheng and Gushu two mansions, one after another came good news, and the two mansions conquered.

It took a month for the barriers around the girder to be uprooted by the Chu army one by one.

The two partial armies killed 300,000 Liang troops, captured 200,000, and lost 230,000 themselves, with the same casualties.

According to the usual practice, Lu Yuan also ordered these prisoners to be escorted to the front-line camp with them.

In the Qingzhou counties in the rear, there were also 600,000 Liang prisoners, and they were also escorted to the front line one after another during this time.

At the beginning of May, soldiers and horses from all walks of life gathered here, and the size of the army in Lu Yuan's hands exceeded two million again.

In the same way, there were also millions of Liang prisoners who followed.

These cannon fodder will be the first person to start the offensive and defensive battle of Daliang, and pave a flesh-and-blood road to Daliang for the Chu army behind.

However, Lu Yuan was not in a hurry to make a move.

It's only May, and there are still five months to go until winter.

Such a long time was enough for him to lay down Daliang City.

However, the troops from all walks of life had experienced three difficult siege battles before, and each of them suffered a lot of losses, and the morale of the army was quite low.

This is especially true for those who have been used as cannon fodder to fill trenches.

In this state, it is obviously impossible to fight a big war immediately.

Therefore, Lu Yuan planned to let the soldiers and horses from all walks of life take care of themselves first, rest for ten days and a half months, and restore their morale.

At the same time, there is a new cannon fodder here, and this time there is a high probability that the people of Chu will rarely be used.

This can also be talked about with the low-level people.

I believe that with this exciting news, their mood and morale will be greatly reversed.

This work also needs to be arranged as soon as possible.

Therefore, after the army gathered, the Chu army camp continued to rest and wait.

It's in the city of Daliang.

With the arrival of the Chu army from all walks of life, almost everyone knew that the three prefectures of Ningling, Yucheng, and Gushu near Daliang should have all been lost.

This is much faster than they originally expected, and the time for the Chu army to conquer Sanfu is not much faster.

The combat power of the Chu army is even stronger than they imagined.

And the opportunities left for the girder are also less than imagined.

Originally, it was expected that only two or three months would be guarded, but now it will be guarded for four or five months.

Directly doubled the time, can Daliang City really hold on?

This question appeared in the hearts of many people, and the panic that was originally suppressed spread in the city again with the arrival of the Chu army.

The people in the city were panicked.

At this time, in the Chu camp, there was a celebration.

Because there is news from Yongzhou.

The Wei army, which had held out in Nanyang for more than a year, finally couldn't hold on after eating all the stored grain, and even eating each other's parents and brothers.

Hungry and dizzy, they were surrounded by the Chu army several times, and were finally defeated neatly.

I couldn't bear it anymore and chose to surrender directly.

The remnants of the 300,000 Wei army handed over the last four cities they had mastered, and in a sea of blood and rancid, they went to ruin.

Nanyang was pacified.

The news reached Henan, and the Wei army that was holding here, although with some assistance from the Zhao State of Hebei, was in much better condition than the Wei army in Nanyang, at least they did not eat people.

However, as the offensive of the Chu State in Dongjun became more and more fierce, the Zhao army used more and more soldiers and horses there, and the consumption of its own money, food and materials also increased greatly.

In the end, there are fewer and fewer things that can be given to Wei Jun.

After the tragic situation of the Wei army in Nanyang reached Henan, the Henan Wei army, which was deeply touched by this, was all apprehensive.

No one wants to be a beast that leads beasts and cannibals, and they don't want their own families to fall into the fate of Nanyang.

So after seeing that the general trend had gone, the more than 600,000 Wei troops who were holding on here also chose to surrender in Kaecheng.

Wei's last land in Zhongzhou fell.

And the 300,000 Wei beast army in Nanyang, Lu Yuan gave only one instruction after learning that they had surrendered.

Sent to Dongjun and sent to the Chu-Zhao front.

These cannibals have completely annihilated their humanity, and they haven't even let go of their own children.

This kind of person, this kind of army, no matter how fierce it is, the state of Chu will not want it.

Although he pinched his nose and accepted their surrender at the moment, it did not mean that he let them go.

It's better to send them to the most brutal front line, use them as cannon fodder, and use their lives to atone for the sins of the past.

Coincidentally, there are also many big cities in Dongjun, and there is an imperial capital, which also needs a lot of cannon fodder to fill.

If these 300,000 people can survive after the battle against Dongjun.

Relying on these merits, it is not impossible to let them go.