TO ACHIEVE IMMORTALITY, I CULTIVATE USING QI LUCK

Chapter 1003: Chapter 414 Iron Fist Operation_2 Chapter 1003: Chapter 414 Iron Fist Operation_2 At the end of July, due to a lack of food supplies, Lu Yuan, who had already led his troops to arrival in Liang County and was besieging the city of Daliang, had no choice but to temporarily cease military operations and withdraw his forces back to East Sea County.

To shorten the supply lines and reduce logistical pressure.

…

Upon returning to East Sea, Lu Yuan felt somewhat depressed.

This campaign against Liang County had ended abruptly.

Hardly had he laid siege to Daliang when he was forced to withdraw his troops.

Millions of soldiers had marched back and forth to no avail, leaving no one contented with the outcome.

Yet discontent as he was, he had to accept the situation.

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With so many issues locally and major flooding occurring behind the lines, along with a succession of natural disasters and man-made calamities, the joy over the victories of the Northern Expedition had been considerably diminished.

Just then, bad news arrived from Xingyang County—another aristocratic family had rebelled.

At the same time, within the jurisdiction of that county, thirty-seven officials had been assassinated by Liang people this month alone, dying in the line of duty.

Moreover, three immigrant villages of Chu people had been massacred by bandits, with over a thousand dead.

Reading the news, Lu Yuan, already infuriated by the need to withdraw from the Northern Expedition, could no longer contain his anger.

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He immediately used his spiritual sense to contact the avatars stationed in the counties north of the river and issued orders.

“Effective immediately, if local officials are assassinated, and county-level officials die, regardless of the cause, all aristocratic families in that county will be exterminated, along with any Jianghu sects or factions.

If a prefectural level official dies, regardless of the cause, all aristocratic families within that prefecture and the surrounding areas will be exterminated, including those in Fu City, factions, and sects.

If any immigrant villages are attacked and massacred, then within ten miles surrounding the village, all landlords and strongmen shall be killed.

If immigrants from Chu in any town are massacred, then in that town, all mercantile clans shall be eliminated.”

Lu Yuan issued a merciless order of collective punishment.

He had had enough of these incessant assassination attempts over the past few months.

In just four or five months since crossing the river, over three hundred Chu officials sent to the north had been assassinated, with more than two hundred fatalities.

More than a hundred immigrant villages had been attacked, with the immigrants in various towns being victims of attacks numbering in the thousands, and fatalities exceeding a hundred thousand.

These assassinations and massacres had seriously impacted Chu State’s rule over its occupied territories in the north.

The immigrants were somewhat oblivious to all this, being out of the loop and unclear about their current situation in the north.

Therefore, they were rather willing to relocate to the plains of Central State and did not resist the idea.

But the officials dispatched to Central State by Chu were utterly terrified.

Everyone knew that in Central State, many were out to assassinate Chu officials.

And the chances and rates of assassination among officials were exceptionally high, as much as three percent, which is almost one in thirty.

A death rate of one in thirty might not seem alarming since on the battlefield, death rates often exceed ten percent, even reaching as high as twenty percent, which is far higher.

However, on the battlefield, those are soldiers; those in local offices are officials.

One serves on the front line; the other at the rear.

Can the two be equated?

For officials, a death rate of three percent is quite terrifying and enough to frighten many.

Assuming office in the north carries the prospect of wealth amidst danger, but it also means staking one’s life.

Many officials, hearing the horrors of the north and learning they were selected to serve there, would rather resign and face never being employed again than take their chances as officials in the north.

Even some who had already arrived in the north abandoned their posts and fled.

This shows how great the terror and impact of this assassination trend on Chu officials have been.

These days, Sun Siwen has been constantly writing to Lu Yuan, lamenting that officials at home blanch at the mention of the north, making it increasingly difficult to mobilize scholars with credentials to come to the north.

If this continues, it will be harder and harder to select enough officials to serve there, eventually leading to no one willing to go to the north.

So the situation had become very dire.

That’s why, upon seeing the reports of officials assassinated and immigrants massacred yet again, Lu Yuan was so enraged.

He knew that the only ones with the ability to assassinate Chu officials in the counties occupied by Chu forces in the north were the local aristocratic families and Jianghu sects.

The soldiers of the Chu army were not weak.

Platoon leaders who commanded fifty men were usually seasoned fighters of the third tier, or experts of the second tier.

And within the platoon, the team deputies and some capable company commanders were generally skilled fighters of the third tier.

The security details for officials in the occupied areas of the north were usually comprised of one or two platoons dedicated to the protection of county-level head and deputy officials, such as the county magistrate, county captain, and chief clerk.

Other officials such as chief clerks, instructors, and catch officers were protected by a single company.

Logically speaking, such security arrangements were already very strict.

Yet even so, a large number of officials still met their deaths by assassination.

To kill an official sent by Chu amidst the heavy guard of its soldiers, among tight defenses, would require an expert, and not just any, but one above the second tier.

Or it would take the cooperation of several skilled fighters of the third tier to accomplish such a feat.

Aside from the local aristocratic families and Jianghu sects, Lu Yuan could not think of anyone else capable of conducting such acts.

And to these local powers, Chu was an outright invader, an enemy.

Moreover, a large influx of immigrants from Jiangnan was continuously eroding and impacting their current interests.

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