To achieve immortality, I cultivate using Qi Luck

Chapter 697: Chapter 312: Unification of Qingzhou

The war between Liang and Lai States began five years ago, in the second year of Shenwu.

At the beginning of this war, only Liang and Lai States were involved.

However, as the war intensified, especially after Liang State deployed 500,000 troops and increased the number of Inborn Grandmasters to five.

With Lai State’s strength, they were unable to resist Liang State any longer.

Lai State was merely a small country of two prefectures. After Liang State’s invasion, it lost half of its territory, leaving only one prefecture.

Even if they used all their strength, together with civilian workers, they could only muster an army of more than a hundred thousand, far inferior to Liang State.

Lai State did have more Inborn Grandmasters, two of them, to be exact. Their foundation was not bad, but still far worse than Liang State.

Therefore, to protect themselves, Lai State sought assistance from Xu State, bringing this overlord of Xuzhou into the war.

With Xu State’s involvement, Lai State indeed managed to resist Liang State’s invasion.

Xu State sent 300,000 troops and two Inborn Grandmasters to aid Lai State. With this support combined with Lai State’s own strength, their power was not much weaker than Liang State’s.

And that was indeed the case.

After Xu and Lai States joined forces, not only did they stop the previous trend of continuous retreat on the battlefield, they even seized the opportunity to defeat the Liang army and achieve several small victories, recapturing some lost cities.

Although Liang State launched a counterattack, they were powerless against the defensive alliance of Lai and Xu States, unable to break through the frontlines.

Eventually, the war between Liang State and the Lai and Xu States reached a stalemate.

No one could defeat the other; no one was willing to give in, and everyone believed that they could win if they persevered…

As a result, the war became a pure contest of national strength, with both sides waiting for the other to give in first.

In fact, the neighboring countries were all happy to see this situation, except for the three warring states themselves.

After all, Liang State was a dominant power with eleven prefectures, and even twelve prefectures after occupying a prefecture from Lai State.

Moreover, they had more than ten Inborn Grandmasters, over a million standing army, a population of over forty to fifty million, and strong expansionist ambitions…

Having such a threatening giant just next door not causing trouble would make anyone feel uneasy.

And now things were much better.

This fearsome wild beast had set its sights on its prey.

Fittingly, this prey was not without the power to fight back, and it even had a strong ally that could stand together to resist the terrifying predator.

The two sides clashed, neither able to overcome the other, and the war dragged on indefinitely.

Until victory was determined, none of the neighboring countries had to worry about the predatory Liang State turning its sights on them to cause trouble.

Because of this, Ning State could focus on developing its domestic affairs and gradually restoring its strength, accumulating power for its ambition to reunite Yangzhou once again.

On Chu State’s side, they could focus on their Western Expedition without worrying about pressure from the northern borders.

Even Zhou State could take advantage of the stability on the eastern borders to send troops for the Southern Expedition and break through the Hanzhong barrier in one fell swoop, recovering their lost territory in Hanzhong’s three prefectures.

Even Zhao State, the overlord of Jizhou to the north of Liang State, took advantage of the situation to launch a war against the small countries within their borders, eventually reaping substantial rewards.

In short, with Liang State’s hands and feet bound, the surrounding countries all breathed a sigh of relief and took advantage of the rare opportunity to develop themselves.

But now, the Lai State that had tied up Liang State’s hands and feet had been destroyed.

The enemy annexed another country, expanding their territory shockingly to thirteen prefectures.

After Lai State was destroyed, within Qingzhou, only a few small countries in the northeastern region remained outside of Liang State’s control.

These small countries had a territory of only a few prefectures or even just a few counties, just like the small southwestern states that had been swept away by Lu Yuan’s western expedition. Their military strength was weak, and they were no match for Liang State.

Without expending much effort, Liang State could conquer them and expand their territory by another two prefectures, consolidating the entire Qingzhou.

If this were to happen, Liang State would become the first country in all of Nine Provinces to unify a major state.

Unifying a major state is something that every monarch in the world dreams of and wants to achieve since the time of the Ancient Three Emperors.

Just like himself.

He had driven out Zhou State to the north, launched the Southern Expedition to conquer the barbarians, and annexed Hanzhong and Xichuan in the west. After nearly a decade of warfare, he had only conquered three prefectures in Yangzhou. Including the Xiangyang Prefecture in Yong State to the north, they only possessed three and a half prefectures.

In all of Yangzhou, there were about seventeen prefectures, including the unconquered Yi countries. Chu State only occupied three of them, which was less than one-fifth of the total. The prospect of unifying Yangzhou was still far off.

Not only Chu State.

In the rest of the Nine Provinces, other countries, apart from Liang State, occupied eight or nine prefectures at most, like Zhou State, or only three or four prefectures, like Ning State and Chu State.