To achieve immortality, I cultivate using Qi Luck Chapter 1006 - 415: Surrounding Tigers and Wolves2

Even so, on the battlefield of Dongjun, Zhao only had 1.2 million soldiers and horses.

anwhile, the Chu army’s western military expedition, with the assistance of Cang Long Way, had successively pacified Xingyang and Jiying counties in the sumr and autumn of this year, successfully completing the original set tasks.

Therefore, the western military expedition, aside from leaving 300,000 soldiers and an Inborn to defend each of the three commanderies of Jiangxia, Xingyang, and Jiying, invested the extra two million soldiers into the warfare in Dongjun.

With two million against 1.2 million, even though the Chu army included a large number of civilian workers and was thus of mixed quality,

the sheer numbers had made up for it, and their actual strength was no longer inferior to that of the Zhao army.

Not to ntion, within the 1.2 million-strong Zhao army, there were also a large number of civilian workers and new soldiers, which was pretty much on par with the situation on the Chu side.

When it ca to the gap in Innate Combat Power, the difference between the two countries beca even greater.

After the western military expedition gained the support of seven Inborns from Cang Long Way, the number of Inborn Grandmasters directly reached twenty-seven, even after leaving three to fortify the expedition’s jurisdiction.

There were still twenty-four who could be deployed to the front lines of Dongjun.

On the other hand, the Zhao.

After years of war depletion, the number of Inborn Grandmasters in Zhao had dwindled to only twenty-one.

Previously, during the battle with Chu’s army in Xingyang County, the Zhao army suffered a crushing defeat. The leading Inborn Grandmasters were besieged by Chu’s Inborn, resulting in the imdiate fall of one of them.

Inside Zhao, at least six Inborns were also needed to be retained in Hebei to secure the Northern Border and the hinterland.

Therefore, the number of Inborn Grandmasters that could finally be deployed to the front lines of Dongjun was rely fourteen.

With twenty-four against fourteen, and Chu’s side having nurous Lu Yuan Avatars, equivalent to second-tier Inborn experts,

the huge disparity and gap ant that the disadvantage of the Zhao army in combat was painfully obvious.

After the initial skirmishes left three people seriously wounded,

the Zhao no longer dared to engage in reckless warfare with the Chu army, avoiding direct confrontation.

To resist Chu’s aggressive invasion, Zhaojun was even forced to adopt a completely defensive stance.

Centered on several key cities in Dongjun, all their troops were divided into three parts, ensuring each city could gather 300,000 to 400,000 soldiers and four or five Inborn.

With large forces garrisoned in strong cities, they defended against Chu’s onslaught.

It must be said that facing such turtle shell tactics, the Chu army really had no good strategy.

Huang Lin, leading the western military expedition, tried to attack for a while, but aside from losing over 100,000 soldiers, they didn’t even manage to breach the outer defenses of Zhao’s three key cities in Dongjun, which testified to their formidable defense.

Seeing this, Huang Lin did not continue the assault and switched to besiegent, or building moats and strongholds, consolidating the territory already occupied in Dongjun, and began a standoff with the Zhao army.

Zhao was indeed a dominant state controlling one of the Nine Provinces and one of the powerhouses amongst them.

To defeat and subjugate such a formidable enemy by relying solely on the western military expedition was sowhat of a stretch.

To deal with such a dominant state, the full strength of Chu was needed.

Moreover, Chu hadn’t initially planned to deal with Zhao, whose territory was not even part of their target.

Being able to seize half of Zhao’s Dongjun by opportunity was already an unexpected pleasure.

Not being able to take the remaining half now was not a disappointnt but rather an experience to be accumulated.

Anyway, the ultimate fate of Zhao, which wished to take advantage of Liang’s misfortune, was tragic.

However, compared to Zhao’s tragic situation,

other hungry wolves that had not made direct contact with the Chu army were reaping great benefits from the downfall of Liang.

Xu State, upon reinforcing Le’an Prefecture and bringing its garrison to 600,000,

turned to see that Dongping County next door, which should have had a border army of 300,000, had dropped to less than 50,000 after several withdrawals.

Having 50,000 soldiers defending a county was sufficient for areas far from the warfront and central to the state’s peace and stability.

But if placed on the border with another country during this era of escalating wars and enlarging military scale, it proved extrely unreasonable, practically tantamount to being undefended.

In Xu’s eyes, Dongping County now seed like a shy girl who had voluntarily undressed and opened her arms, casting flirtatious glances.

Incredibly enticing, unbearably tempting.

Tell , faced with such temptation, to take action or not?

Xu State took action.

Without much effort, they mobilized an army of 200,000 from within the state and marched grandly towards Dongping County.

They encountered little resistance along the way and took the county with ease.

The Liang army in the county, as if anticipated,

voluntarily withdrew upon seeing the Xu army’s approach, retreating with the last 50,000 soldiers towards Dai Liang.

Through such peaceful handover, Xu State easily captured its second prefecture in the Central State area, becoming the second biggest winner of the war after Chu.

However, after taking Dongping County, Xu did not continue to expand southward.

Even though the prefectures of Shanyang and Jiaoxi to the south of their controlled Dongping and Le’an were in a similarly vulnerable state,

Xu had the opportunity to take them if they wished to.

Yet now, the situation in Liang’s Qingzhou was truly perilous.

Facing the assault from Chu, although Liang managed to fend off the first wave of Chu’s attack using the strong fortifications of Dai Liang and a series of defenses centered around the city, thereby barely maintaining their regi,