Chaos of the Three Kingdoms Summons

Chapter 2695 Land Progress, Invasion of South Asia

Shortly after Qi Jiguang launched his first battle against the Kushan Empire by water, Bai Qi's 180,000 troops also officially began their land attack.

In this major battle, a total of 330,000 troops were mobilized from the entire south, along with 100,000 Yangtze River naval forces under Qi Jiguang and 50,000 infantry and cavalry who landed, totaling 150,000 troops.

Bai Qi, on the other hand, had gathered 150,000 infantry and cavalry, plus 30,000 troops from the Qiongzhou princes, totaling 180,000 troops, and launched an attack from the land.

The princes of Qiongzhou certainly didn't want to participate in this war. They only had so much wealth at their disposal, and if they accidentally squandered it, they would have nowhere to turn for help.

After all, even if they made some contributions, the emperor wouldn't expand their fiefdoms! As for a few words of verbal reward, do they really care about a few words of praise?

In particular, most of the princes were sons of the emperor, and they knew their fathers' personalities—they were incredibly stingy! They were finally given fiefdoms, and even if they weren't from the richest regions of the Central Plains, they had to at least have something decent to offer!

But they were all sent to the backward and barren land of Southeast Asia. And that wasn't all; the military and political authorities imposed a whole host of restrictions on them.

In terms of military power, they strictly limited the number of their troops.

In terms of political power, the officials in their fiefdoms not only had to report to the imperial court, but also had to undergo regular assessments by the court. Only after receiving the court's approval were they qualified to take office.

They didn't want to get involved, but in this great battle, Bai Qi could control all the troops in the southern states, including the troops of the Qiongzhou prince.

Therefore, 30,000 troops were drawn from their forces to assist Bai Qi in this southern campaign. After all, the southwest is still the south!
In addition, Bai Qi's thousand-man killing squad, as well as the beast army and elephant army formed after conquering the Nanman, were all deployed in this battle.

Although Bai Qi could mobilize more troops, after Guan Zhong temporarily brought the Yizhou forces into an alliance, their only threat in the south was eliminated, so they could naturally mobilize troops with maximum efficiency.

The troops in Yizhou numbered only thirty to forty thousand. After the enemy's navy was transferred away, they no longer posed any threat to Yangzhou.

If all forces were mobilized from the south, even an additional 100,000 troops could be transferred.

However, the more troops are deployed, the greater the logistical pressure will be.

Before they could establish a sufficient base in the Indus River Plain of South Asia and get that base in order, their logistics would all depend on support from the rear.

If we need logistics for 400,000 to 500,000 people, then we'll have to ask Guan Zhong if he'd agree.

For the sake of these 330,000 people alone, Guan Zhong had already used every method at his disposal, not only bringing in pirates but also temporarily utilizing Yizhou.

In fact, Bai Qi brought that beast army with him not only because he thought that if there were any problems with food supplies, this beast army could at least help his brothers hold out for a few more days.
As for how to solve the problem of food supplies for this beast army?

After all, these are mostly carnivores!

This wasn't a big problem for Bai Qi; people always die in war!
Once a war breaks out, won't there be so many enemy corpses?
Since it wasn't for the troops to eat, but rather to feed these wild beasts, Bai Qi didn't feel any psychological pressure!
Or rather, how could someone like Bai Qi possibly experience psychological pressure?
Even Cheng Yu, a skilled grain producer, served as Bai Qi's strategist in this battle, just as he had in Southeast Asia.

In Southeast Asia, those with political foresight, regardless of their own temperament, even someone like Cheng Yu, would not be willing to take action against the local people unless absolutely necessary.

However, if this were the Kushan Empire, and a real food shortage were to occur, Cheng Yu could definitely demonstrate his ability to produce food on the spot. In Southeast Asia, they couldn't afford to engage in widespread slaughter; they didn't want to cause a bloodbath. The population was there; if they were all killed, who would farm for them?
They simply abandoned those islands because there were almost no people on them. They merely established a nominal rule, nominally claiming those islands as the territory of their Great Jin Dynasty.

In reality, not only were officials not sent, but not even a single soldier was sent up.

With so many islands, if no locals develop them, simply sending people up there will be a huge burden, like a bottomless pit!

This isn't just one or two islands, but countless islands!

As for immigration, it might be worth considering if it's small-scale, but for large-scale immigration, it's simply a pipe dream.

The costs of this immigration process alone are countless.

The Great Jin Dynasty once relocated tens of thousands of people to Japan, but that was under the special circumstances of the pandemic.

It was done because agricultural production in the Great Jin Dynasty had been severely damaged by the epidemic, and the idea was to send some people to that area to help develop agriculture.

To put it bluntly, this immigration program doesn't need to consider the costs and expenses incurred en route.

Given the damage to agricultural production in the Great Jin Dynasty at that time, and the enormous pressure on food supplies, the depletion of some of the population could, in a way, alleviate the pressure.

Therefore, it was possible to relocate several groups of people regardless of the cost.

However, compared to Southeast Asia, the population density in South Asia means there is no fear that excessive killing will affect subsequent agricultural production.

The Kushan Empire also controlled a small area in Southeast Asia, which later became part of Burma.

During the Southeast Asian wars, Bai Qi once led 30,000 troops to fight against the Kushan Empire here.

However, the pressure faced by the Kushan Empire in the north and west at that time was vastly different from what it is now. Therefore, the number of troops stationed in these regions was also significantly less than it is now.

But looking at the Jin army, Bai Qi has gone from leading 3 troops to leading 18 troops to "visit" the region again.

With 180,000 troops against 40,000, Bai Qi once again launched an attack on the region, demonstrating his overwhelming numerical advantage.

It took four months for Bai Qi to eliminate all the Kushan Empire's troops in what would later become Burma and occupy that region. As June approached, his forces officially reached the Kushan Empire's homeland.

From then on, with the two armies of the Great Jin Dynasty, totaling 330,000 troops, they successively brought the flames of war to the homeland of the Kushan Empire.

This also means that the southern part of the Kushan Empire is about to fall.

(End of this chapter)