To achieve immortality, I cultivate using Qi Luck

Although the rebellion that was incited by the Divine Palace in the rear had been quelled within half a month due to his quick reaction, the result still caused unimaginable destruction in the area around the Stone City, which had not yet recovered from the war.

Not only were six county towns captured, but nearly four thousand immigrants were killed, causing a massive loss to the already scarce population of Yang people in the county and seriously exhausting its vitality.

Even the Yi people in these areas suffered heavy losses, with tens of thousands dead and wounded.

All of these could have been the cornerstone for Chu State to take root in its rule, but now they were squandered away.

How could Lu Yuan be happy about this?

What’s more important is that such rebellions were not isolated cases.

As long as the Divine Palace still exists, as long as the Da Changhe Country still exists, and as long as they have experts in their hands, they can be sent to the rear of Qianzhong County at any time to incite one rebellion after another.

Although this time they have successfully annihilated more than 20,000 rebel troops and completely wiped out the Chilih remnants scattered throughout Qianzhong County, it will not be possible for future rebellions to reach the scale of tens of thousands like they do now.

However, even small-scale rebellions with hundreds or thousands of people, coming from time to time, can cause serious damage to the local area, and, more importantly, are very disgusting.

After all, Qianzhong County spans four thousand miles and has eight prefectures and eighty counties; Lu Yuan cannot possibly defend and monitor every location, perfectly preventing any hidden dangers of rebellion.

There has always been a saying, “the thief works for a thousand days, but the guard can’t guard for a thousand days.”

However, to completely eliminate this hidden danger, he has no good solution.

After all, while the Da Changhe Country is currently retreating on the front line, it still holds significant power in its hands.

Especially in the field of martial arts masters, there are two Inborn Grandmasters, dozens of first-rate experts, and even more second and third-rate experts, all of which are the foundation accumulated by the entire Chilih Clan for thousands of years.

At this level, the newly established Chu State of less than ten years is indeed difficult to catch up and compete with.

What’s even more annoying is this:

While the enemy can send people to Qianzhong County to incite rebellion among local Yi people, Lu Yuan cannot employ the same tactic to curb them.

After all, there are no large numbers of Chu people living in the Da Changhe Country that he can manipulate. Moreover, the martial arts masters that Chu State can send may not be able to withstand the multiple times greater reserve pool of masters that the enemy possesses.

Comparing these two aspects, in the face of the Divine Palace’s stealth attacks, Chu State can only passively endure and defend itself.

“It seems that we can only strengthen the local defense,” said Lu Yuan helplessly as he left the battlefield and entered the newly tidied county government office.

Upon arriving in the government office, he didn’t rush to rest but went to his study, sat in a chair, and began to quietly contemplate.

Limited by the lack of strength and poor local governance foundation, in the next few years, Chu State will have to adopt a strategy of passive endurance and defensive counterattack when facing the stealth attacks of the Divine Palace.

However, even a defensive counterattack has its own approach.

How to defend well and firmly? How to counterattack, to what extent, and how to deter the hearts and minds of those with ulterior motives in the locality through counterattacks?

All of these questions are worth pondering over.

As for these questions that need to be pondered over, no one can help him solve them, and it can only be decided by Lu Yuan, the King of Chu.

“Now, after several months of recruitment, the nation has enlisted five thousand county soldiers, who have been distributed to various parts of Qianzhong County.

In addition, five thousand more county soldiers have been recruited from the two hundred thousand immigrants from Yulin County.

So now, the whole county barely has a force of ten thousand county soldiers.

But this force is still too small. Ten thousand county soldiers, divided among the various counties in the whole county, can only provide just over a hundred soldiers per county.

It is simply a dream to control the local Yi people with such a small number of troops.”

Lu Yuan couldn’t help but feel a headache as he thought about this problem.

The recruitment of county soldiers in Qianzhong County has been going on for half a year.

However, in half a year’s time, only five thousand county soldiers have been recruited, reflecting how difficult it is.

It’s not that there aren’t people willing to join the army in Chu State.

On the contrary, there are quite many people in Chu State who are willing to enlist, quite a lot indeed.

After all, over the years, Chu State has been expanding outward, continuously achieving countless victories. These glorious victories can be said to be quite encouraging.

Moreover, this is an era of transcendent sages; there is a martial spirit among the people, and there is no shortage of hot-blooded men.

Under these conditions, it is relatively easy for Chu State to recruit soldiers.

Not to mention that with a population of nearly six million in its heartland, there are enough qualified soldier sources for the Military Department to choose from and recruit.

So, there is no real problem in terms of recruitment.

What really makes it difficult for the Military Department to recruit is the dire situation in Qianzhong County itself.

The county soldiers are local troops whose duty is to maintain local public security while also dealing with bandits and suppressing rebellions.

These purely security-oriented troops are not likely to be relocated once they are placed in the local area.

In other words,

After a county soldier arrives at his designated area, he will have to settle down there for the rest of his life unless there are any surprises.