Chapter 598: Chapter 279: Stalemate with the Bandits

“Right now, my direct central army, the Forbidden army still has around 51,000 soldiers.”

Lu Yuan was taking stock of his assets.

Fifty-one thousand men, this size was about nine thousand less than the sixty thousand at the start of the war.

A large scale war involving over 100,000 people, lasted for half a year, and only this much was lost – this was rather incredible considering the significant achievements now.

But if you look closely, the loss ratio seems quite reasonable.

Ever since defeating the Da Changhe army in Stone City, Lu Yuan’s army, for the last few months has been constantly engaging the enemy without any rest.

However, the main force of Chu fighting the Da Changhe army were all surrendered Yi soldiers.

Whether it was the continuous sieges of the camp below Stone City, forcing the opposition to retreat, or the recent battle beneath Dragon City where Li Xiong took control disregarding his casualties.

In these two key battles, the primary attackers were surrendered and captured Yi People. Chu’s Forbidden army only acted as the supervising team and a final elite force.

These two roles were positioned at the back, rarely stepping into the battlefield, therefore, the number of casualties was minimal, which was expected.

So, from another perspective, it was the blood and sacrifice of over ten thousand Chilih Yi people that won Chu these two battles, and that wouldn’t be incorrect.

This was something that even Lu Yuan wouldn’t deny.

“Now that Li Xiong has taken Dragon City, he has been pursuing victory all the way. He has already captured Qin Cang Chuan and Chiyang City in the south of Kunhai, seizing over ten cities.

According to the previous agreement, all the cities and lands conquered east of Lu River in the Kun Pond area, will belong to Li Xiong alone. I will not interfere.

Therefore, in this newly conquered area, I do not have to send troops to garrison nor continue the war against the Long He Army with Li Xiong.

In this respect, I don’t need to provide additional troops.”

Lu Yuan was considering.

Ever since Dragon City was taken by Li Xiong, this former Emperor of Xi Shu seemed to have regained some of his previous domineering demeanor as the master of Xichuan. On the battlefield of Kunhai, he seemed to be invincible.

After breaking through Dragon City, he first absorbed some surrendered soldiers in the city, reorganized the remnants outside the city, and finally gathered an army of thirty thousand.

Then, without giving his men a chance to rest, he followed the direction of the escaping Divine Palace Great Witch Priest and marched all the way into Kunhai.

Several small scale battles broke out with the Da Changhe army, all of which were quickly crushed by Li Xiong.

If it hadn’t been for the Li River returning to the country for repairs in a hurry, leading twenty thousand troops to block Li Xiong, he could have been chased all the way to the capital city in one breath.

But even so, after fighting for more than half a month, Li Xiong had successfully seized the southern parts of Qin Cang Chuan and Chiyang City in Kunhai and taken over several cities.

Keep in mind, this is the most prosperous and rich area of the entire Southwest region, Kunhai. Especially the few years of war before, which did not affect this area, made it retain a lot of vitality.

Although Li Xiong only occupied a small part of the Kunhai region, the population he currently controlled was over two hundred thousand.

Although this population may not look much, to Li Xiong, it was another piece of territory that could provide stable taxation and military sources after seven years of drifting.

The previous Wu Barbarian Country doesn’t count.

At that time, although he controlled the Wu Barbarian Country, when he issued various decrees to the Wu Barbarian Country, he still had to rely on the original Master of Wu Barbarian Country and nobles at all levels, while he himself could only manipulate them behind the scenes.

In contrast, now he was openly coming to the forefront, truly acting as the lord of a region, and becoming the leader of a place.

The difference between these two was quite large.

The most obvious point was that even without becoming a fiefdom yet, Li Xiong was already legitimately using the status of the master of Kunhai, taxing the Chilih people under his control, and recruiting soldiers.

Although it’s just started, according to the most recent reports from Li Xiong at the front,

The regions of Qin Cang Chuan and Chiyang City he controls have sufficient supplies that can support an army of fifty thousand for a year. Moreover, the population is prospering. He has enlisted more than twenty thousand men, expanding his army to fifty thousand in total.

Well, although all these still don’t amount to much,

The fact that Li Xiong’s side could maintain initial self-sufficiency has greatly relieved the logistical pressure on my end.

To be honest…

Although the war has only lasted for half a year, the short period has already put a strain on Chu’s logistics.

After all, transporting food and fodder from Chu’s main territory to the front line of the Lu River, a land distance alone was over 1,300 miles.

Such a long logistics line, especially for a one hundred thousand-strong army, is not easy to maintain in abundance.

In order to ensure sufficient supplies for the front line, I enlisted two hundred thousand civilian workers for food and fodder transportation at the beginning of the war.

It was only after winning the Battle of Stone City and capturing several places east of the Lu River that I seized a large amount of food and supplies discarded by the Da Changhe army and local warehouses, which greatly relieved the pressure on logistics and gradually reduced the number of civilian workers transporting food and fodder to about one hundred thousand.

Moreover, many of them were immigrants who had just migrated and local Yi people, who were paid for their work, which also served as a form of relief work in some way.