TO ACHIEVE IMMORTALITY, I CULTIVATE USING QI LUCK

Chapter 1098: Chapter 446 Yangzhou Raiders Chapter 1098: Chapter 446 Yangzhou Raiders Dongting, Baling City.

The crowd surged like a stream, carrying large and small bundles, traveling by carts and horses, or staggering along with troops, heading north.

The Emperor’s commands had already been relayed back, the north had triumphed, capturing the Liang’s Imperial Capital, Daliang.

His Majesty had already moved the capital to Daliang and had re-established it there.

And although Baling City still retained the name of Imperial Capital, it had become the South Capital, and its political, economic, and cultural centers had long since begun to migrate northward.

This glorious Imperial Capital of several decades had now entered decline, beyond anyone’s ability to salvage.

The residents of the city, too, at this time, were bound by a migration edict to abandon their properties and head north.

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To this, naturally, there were those in the city who were reluctant and did not wish to leave their homeland.

But now, the disasters of the Nine Provinces and the Four Extremes, with the passing of years, had long been known throughout the world.

Everyone understood that although Yangzhou was desirable, sooner or later, it would be engulfed by that boundless poisonous fire.

By then, those remaining would be burned alive by the flames and turned to ashes.

With such natural disasters pressing down on them, no matter how unwilling they were in their hearts, for the sake of their own lives, the commoners had no choice but to agree to migrate.

Even to the point that, in order to migrate quicker, there were squabbles.

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Just like in Jiuzhen County of Lingnan, according to the news from the defenders there, the southern part of Jiuzhen could already see traces of the Southern Polar Poisonous Fire.

This indicated that the dreadful natural disaster had appeared on the lands of Chu State, just like it had in the northern countries.

Under such circumstances, who would dare to continue staying in Yangzhou?

As for the Northern Expedition, the people of Chu State supported it without exception, preferring to endure hardship rather than daring to give up on the campaign.

Because everyone knew that His Majesty, vying for control of Central State, was doing so for the sake of securing a land for the people of the nation to survive.

If the Emperor could not conquer more of Central State’s territory, then when the people of Chu migrated there, there would not be sufficient land for their survival.

This was in everyone’s interest.

From the Royal Nobles to the low-level commoners, no one was exempt.

It was precisely this unanimous will that enabled Chu State to launch large-scale Northern Expeditions, mobilizing millions of people, for three consecutive years.

Without uniting the interest of everyone, it would have been impossible to achieve this.

“How many people have left the city by now?”

Atop the city walls of Baling, watching the long procession of migrants heading north, Sun Siwen turned his head and looked towards the official behind him.

“Reporting to Minister Sun, a million people have migrated.

There is still another million residents being mobilized for migration,” the official from the Immigration Bureau, who had prepared for such questions, replied promptly.

“Hmm, to be able to migrate so many people in one month’s time is commendable.

You’ve done your work well, I will report your merits to His Majesty,” Sun Siwen said, nodding in satisfaction when he heard the reply.

This year, Lu Yuan had set a migrant quota for them at ten million people.

The source of the migrant population was from South Capital Baling, as well as from Jianan and Qianzhong prefectures.

Originally, Lu Yuan had planned to migrate all three million residents of Baling in one go.

But upon receiving the message, Sun Siwen presented a memorial, requesting some modifications to this order.

To change the migration of three million people from Baling to two million, and to keep one million people in the city.

The reason was that Baling, as the South Capital, served as the real hub for the economic, political, cultural, and military affairs of the southern regions of Yangzhou.

How could such a crucial place be allowed to become a ghost town?

Moreover, although migration from Yangzhou had already begun gradually, the entire process was to continue for over a decade.

Even after the initial phase of migration, some people on Yangzhou’s main territory would still be left to continue living and working there.

After all, the four major grain-producing plains of Xichuan, Jianghan, Dongting, and Pengli were crucial sources of grain for Chu State, and with the current widespread use of grain, these areas could not be easily abandoned.

Therefore, unless the Southern Polar Poisonous Fire swept through,

as long as these four areas remained stable for a day, Chu State would continue to farm there for a day.

Using Yangzhou’s funds and grain to subsidize the expenditures of Central State was a national policy already set by Lu Yuan and Sun Siwen.

As long as this policy was in effect, Baling, as the center of the south, would continue to be the South Capital of Chu State, and could not be abandoned for even a day.

In such a situation, it was necessary to retain a population of a million in the city to maintain the operations of the entire southern Yangzhou.

Therefore, this migration directive had to be amended.

Once Lu Yuan received this memorial, he also realized the key point and knew that he had been somewhat rash.

He readily accepted the suggestion of his friend,

agreeing to preserve a million people in Baling, while the shortfall of a million migrants would be made up by the local population of the southern mountainous areas of Dongting Prefecture.

In the four prefectures south of Dongting, everywhere was mountainous, the local people barely had land to farm, and life was very hard.

Especially after several decades of prosperity, with a population explosion, the resources per capita had decreased, making life even harder.

Now, with pirates in the south becoming increasingly rampant and beginning to infiltrate the Lingnan Region, enemy presence was even approaching Dongting Prefecture.

The southern part of Dongting Prefecture had started to become dangerous and unstable.

And with the Chu army now campaigning in the north, far removed from Yangzhou by thousands of miles, they could not attend to this side at all.

Within Yangzhou’s own territory, only the county soldiers, newly formed over the past two years, totaling two million, were stationed for defense.

There might be many, but when spread across the vast expanse of Yangzhou, it actually wasn’t much.

Each prefecture could only be allocated around one or two hundred thousand soldiers at most.

With such a limited force, they naturally couldn’t cover everything comprehensively, but could only choose key areas for defense on a limited basis.

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