Chapter 629: Chapter 289: Border Defense Pressure – Part 2

Needless to say, among the 220,000 soldiers in Chu State, they were divided into four prefectures. Only the 44,000 Soldiers in Dongting and the 20,000 county soldiers from the local area could be used to deal with Ning Country separately.

The disparity in the number of troops was desperate, with a ratio of 5 to 1 between 64,000 and 300,000. This had to be acknowledged as a desperate fact.

However, this matter has now become a reality and has turned into a difficult situation that Chu State must face.

The only thing worth celebrating is that there are only four Grandmasters in Ning Country so far, only one more than Chu State…

No, now that Jihui has defected to Chu State, and Lu Yuan is about to refine the Yellow Turban Strongman, Chu State now has five Inborn Grandmasters.

“So, in terms of quantity, our Great Chu currently has one more Inborn Grandmaster than Ning Country. This is the only advantage we have now.”

With this in mind, Lu Yuan’s face improved slightly, but his brows did not relax. He was still frowning, “But this slight advantage in top-level power is nothing compared to the huge gap in national strength between us and Ning Country.”

Although a single Inborn Grandmaster is powerful, if the opposition is willing to pay the price and launch an attack at the risk of heavy casualties, the Inborn Grandmaster can kill at most 30,000 to 50,000 people even with day and night raids.

This number of casualties is nothing for Ning Country’s large army of 300,000.

Even if they die, reinforcements can be sent from the rear at any time.

“So to bridge these gaps, there is only one way left, to expand the army…”

Lu Yuan took a deep breath and made up his mind.

Previously, when Chu State had only seventeen prefectures in three regions, the 240,000-strong army was just enough to protect the country and defend against powerful enemies.

However, as Chu State’s territory has expanded to four regions and twenty-five prefectures and may even absorb the five prefectures that previously belonged to Xichuan State and the two prefectures in Qianzhong County after repelling the Nanzhao Army, the territory will expand to thirty prefectures in four regions.

So after increasing the territory by almost double, the current 240,000-strong army, which has now been reduced to 220,000 due to successive losses, is far from sufficient to meet Chu State’s current needs.

It is not just a demand, but a necessity to expand the military now.

“There is no need to worry about Xiangyang Prefecture and Dongting Prefecture for the time being, as there are no wars breaking out and no military losses.

However, in Xichuan Prefecture, 7,000 Soldiers were previously lost during Jianchuan’s time. When the Nanzhao Army attacked Xichuan, they lost more than 2,000 forbidden army soldiers in the confrontation.

All these losses add up to nearly 10,000 people.

Although some county soldiers and militia have been recruited from the prefectures and counties in recent months, it is still far from enough.

At present, Xichuan Prefecture is still short of 5,000 Soldiers and 2,000 county soldiers. There is also a vacancy of 1,000 soldiers in the two Forbidden Armies there.

These 8,000 people need to be replenished.

As for Qianzhong County, after more than a year of continuous recruitment and some conversions from the Forbidden Army, a 10,000-strong Soldier force has been raised. One thousand of the 16,000 county soldiers in the local area have also been recruited.

Now there are only 6,000 county soldiers left to be filled.

As for the four Forbidden Armies here, after previous losses in successive battles and the conversion of soldiers, there are only about 50,000 soldiers left.

There is a gap of 30,000 here.

Adding up all the soldiers in both Qianzhong and Xichuan, there is a shortage of 44,000 soldiers in total.

If we also count the five prefectures to be taken back from Xichuan State and the two prefectures in Qianzhong County after taking Hui Chuan, these seven prefectures also require additional county soldiers.

This will add another 14,000, making a total shortage of 58,000.

In other words, to maintain Chu State’s normal military setup, we still need an additional 58,000 soldiers to fill the final quota of 278,000.”

As Lu Yuan calculated these numbers, he felt a heavy financial burden.

Although Chu State’s tax revenue has increased significantly, it can maintain the financial expenses of the 240,000-strong army each year and still save over a million silver tales.”

However, the addition of 38,000 troops, especially the 10,000 Soldiers with military salaries, means an additional annual expenditure of two million silver tales for Chu State.

Although all these expenses can still be borne by Chu State at present.

Moreover, as production in Qianzhong County gradually recovers and Chu State’s control deepens, it is expected to increase tax revenue by several million silver tales in the future.

But the problem is that the above-mentioned troops are just the financial expenses of Chu State without expanding the army.

But under the current complex situation, Chu State cannot afford not to expand the army.

For example, in Qianzhong County, there are Da Changhe and Nanzhao to the west and Dali to the south. With only 30,000 Soldiers, how can Chu State defend this territory?

Therefore, at least two Forbidden Armies must be stationed here, each guarding the west and south directions.

Then, with one Inborn Grandmaster leading the 70,000 troops and working together with the affiliated country of Kunhai and the Su and Song countries in the United Alliance, they can barely withstand the harsh environmental pressures and preserve the foundation of Qianzhong County.