Chapter 520: Chapter 253: Difficult to Decide on Deploying Troops

The hall was still empty, with a few cold winds blowing outside. The people inside were talking, but their hearts were filled with a touch of desolation.

“Since last June when Wu Savage Country rebelled, my Shizong Kingdom was forced to send five thousand troops and one hundred thousand stones of food and fodder to them.

However, the war has become increasingly fierce, with hundreds of thousands of people fighting on both sides of the front line, and every day hundreds to thousands of people are dying.”

In addition to intentionally consuming our resources, my Shizong Kingdom’s five thousand troops had suffered more than half of the casualties within half a year since they arrived at the front line, causing a huge loss.

Yet, even with such painstaking effort, Wu Savage Country is still not satisfied.

At the beginning of this year, they sent a messenger to ask my country for another ten thousand soldiers and two hundred thousand stones of grain.

My soldiers at the front line have yet to return, and Wu Savage Country has sent another messenger asking for twice the amount as before.

How could a small country like ours bear such a demand?

In the end, our country’s ruler was forced to spend a huge amount of money bribing the important officials of Wu Savage Country, to persuade their ruler to reduce the tributary load to last year’s level, only five thousand soldiers and one hundred thousand stones of food and fodder are needed.”

But even so, through these two contributions, my Shizong Kingdom has already dispatched ten thousand soldiers and two hundred thousand stones of food and fodder, and the cost has been too high.”

Up to now, the war at the front line is still ongoing, and many of the five thousand soldiers sent by my country this time have died. There are only four thousand soldiers left in the two batches of service.”

As a small kingdom, my Shizong Kingdom only has eighty thousand citizens. With six thousand dead, almost every family in the country has lost someone.

Furthermore, the absence of ten thousand young men has significantly impacted our agriculture over the past two years. Our harvest has been reduced by half, if not more.”

And from our country’s storage, we have sent away two hundred thousand stones of grain, which has completely depleted the reserves of our citizens.”

Now, as a year has passed and it’s the beginning of this year, the messenger of Wu Savage Country will inevitably come to collect more services soon. But can my country still bear the pressure of further levies?

If we were to pay this tribute again, I’m afraid that the Shizong Kingdom would be destroyed.”

At this point in his speech, the Shizong Kingdom’s messenger was already in tears, his expression filled with grief and anger. With red eyes, he continued, “In desperation, my country had no choice but to seek other solutions.

At that time, we happened to hear of Your Majesty’s great reputation.

Furthermore, my Shizong Kingdom has always been adjacent to the Chu State, and we have long had exchanges, not like those tribes that have no aspirations for civilization.

So we sent a humble servant to request to be accepted into the Great Chu Kingdom.

If Your Majesty is willing to accept us, My Shizong Kingdom will forever be loyal to the Great Chu, offering tributes year after year and never dare to rebel.”

With that, the man bowed down.

The messenger from the Milu Kingdom beside him also bowed and said, “The Milu Kingdom is in a similar situation. We only ask Your Majesty to save us from this misery. We shall never forget this great kindness.”

Looking at the two messengers prostrating themselves before him, Lu Yuan fell silent.

Although the stories told by the two messengers were pitiful and touching, whether to save them or not was no small matter.

First of all, the messenger from the Shizong Kingdom has already made it clear.

Even though the Great Changhe Country is in turmoil, both the ruling Great Changhe Country that controls the Kunhai region and the Wuman Country that has coerced Lingdong’s seven countries and Nongdong Kingdom into rebellion have considerable strength.

Both sides have more than a hundred thousand troops, and tens of thousands of elite soldiers. More importantly, both countries have Inborn Grandmasters, so their top-level combat power is not lacking.

As a result, it will not be easy to defeat them since there are no apparent weaknesses in their top-level or bottom-level forces.

The Great Chu Country is adjacent to the Great Changhe Country, so it would be easy to intervene in their civil strife.

However, once involved, it will not be easy for the Great Chu Country to retract its forces or stop the war as they wish.

Given the strength of both sides, the Chu Country has the ability to defeat either. However, it is difficult to say what the cost of defeating the enemy would be.

To fight a war of this scale, at least a hundred thousand troops would have to be mobilized, right?

Moreover, since the enemy has Inborn Grandmasters, the Chu Country’s army must also be well-equipped with them.

If the troops were sent unprepared in this way, it would be like repeating the mistakes of the Great Changhe Country.

Due to negligence, the Great Changhe Country’s army was completely defeated without an Inborn Grandmaster guarding them, and they lost everything.

That was a loss of one hundred thousand soldiers, a loss the Great Chu Country could not afford.”

If they really want to intervene, an Inborn Grandmaster is essential.

But if they do so, there would only be one Inborn Grandmaster left in the Great Chu Country.

With only one Inborn Grandmaster to watch over the nearly ten thousand miles of the Jiangnan and Jiangbei regions, it is somewhat of a stretch.”

Moreover, at this time, if another one hundred thousand soldiers were to be transferred from the country, there would only be one hundred and forty thousand left.

This expedition would deplete nearly half of the Chu Country’s strength.

Situated dangerously within the Great Chu Country, which has just changed its name and established its era and has a tense relationship with the Ning Country while being watched closely by the surrounding countries, is simply too risky.”

This is only the risk in terms of domestic defense.

As for the expedition, even if the Great Chu could mobilize one hundred thousand troops, it would not necessarily mean the defeat of the Great Changhe Country.”

Considering the strength of the Great Changhe Country and the Wu Savage Country, they might not be a match for the Lu Yuan’s army on the battlefield.

However, if they decided to focus on defense or take advantage of the vast mountains in the southwest and play a guerrilla game with him, things might not go so smoothly.