To achieve immortality, I cultivate using Qi Luck

Chapter 622: Chapter 287 Arrange Xichuan

Silence, followed by more silence.

Within the spacious hall, Lu Yuan stared at the map raised high by Hui An, and his heart involuntarily pounded twice.

Are they really going for it?

Could Xichuan actually be planning to submit to us?

With these thoughts, a wave of surprise and disbelief swept over him.

“Messenger, please rise,” he said.

Lu Yuan took a deep breath to suppress his excitement, watched the man rise to his feet, then spoke, “You say you represent the king of Xichuan and wish to submit to us. But there must be a reason for such action. I once went on a northern expedition with the king of Xichuan, and that’s how he got where he is now, wresting land from Pre-Yue.

A land achieved through fierce battles, and now he gave up just like that.

I still have my doubts. Can you clear them for me?

Otherwise, unable to dispel this question, I will find it hard to simply accept the submission of the king of Xichuan.”

Now that he was calm, Lu Yuan had a pretty good idea why Jihui chose to submit to the Chu State.

But as he said earlier,

Unless he could hear the explanation from the messenger himself, he would not feel at ease taking on the responsibilities of Xichuan.

After all, even though Xichuan is in a dilapidated state now and possibly on its way to extinction within a few months,

No matter what, it’s still a country. Especially with the Grandmaster Jihui and the millennia-old Innate Sect, the White Phoenix Temple, within its borders.

Given this foundation, annexing it would not be an easy task.

Without showing sincerity that he could trust, he would not accept this request for submission.

Hui An also understood the difficulty, so when Lu Yuan asked, he answered truthfully, “King, since last June, taking advantage of the Sage King leading troops out of the city, a hundred thousand Nanzhao soldiers launched an unexpected attack on our country.

Our nation was weak and, despite our desperate resistance, we still suffered heavy losses and lost our capital.

Up to now, we have lost several prefectures.

The Sage King, though resisting in Panshi Prefecture, eventually could not defend against them and fled, heavily wounded, to Nanchong Prefecture.”

Now, with the help of Hanzhong, he is barely able to stabilize his foothold in Nanchong.

Just at this time, Zhou Country of Hanzhong is mobilizing troops, seemingly intending to take advantage of the instability in Xichuan to march south.

With the enemy at the northern border, Hanzhong must withdraw its relief troops to defend against Zhou Country.

And the tens of thousands of Nanzhao troops are also catching up, besieging Nanchong.

Without the aid of Hanzhong, at present, the Sage King only has eight thousand soldiers and controls four counties. With few troops and scant land, our forces are too weak to fend off the attacks.”

In the face of such a catastrophe, we have already realized that the fight for supremacy in the world is not something outsiders like us can intervene.

We previously didn’t believe in this, rashly broke our precepts, and eventually brought upon us this disaster.

Now that we’ve come to our senses, all monks in our temple, including the Sage King, have given up this idea.

The only thing we wish for now is to protect the heritage in the temple and safeguard the remaining tens of thousands of civilians in the four counties of Xichuan.”

There was originally an alliance between Your Majesty and Xichuan. This invasion of Xichuan by Nanzhao was also due to the Sage King responding to Your Majesty’s request to attack Nanzhao.”

The outcome of war depends on strength. We can’t complain about our defeat to Nanzhao.

We only hope Your Majesty can remember the alliance and take us in.”

As he was saying this, Hui An prostrated on the ground, his voice filled with sorrow.

Seeing this, Hui Ming followed suit and knelt down.

Witnessing the two monks in such a condition, Lu Yuan himself was silenced, feeling some guilt stirring in his heart.

Hui An was correct. The current plight of Xichuan was indeed partly his responsibility.

Although it was Xichuan’s own decision to respond to the United Alliance treaty and join the alliance in attacking the southwestern tribes, this was purely their own will.

But, there was one aspect that could not be denied.

That was, if Lu Yuan had not brought up this alliance, with the capacity of Xichuan, they wouldn’t have had the audacity to attack Nanzhao, given ten times their courage.

Moreover, up to now, the United Alliance of the Four Countries still existed, and Xichuan was still a vassal of the Chu State.

Under these circumstances, it was Chu State’s duty to assist Xichuan in their troubles.

Given the circumstances, Xichuan not asking Chu State to send troops to help them recover their country, but instead asking Chu State to accept their remaining soldiers and civilians, can be said to be quite humble.

Humbled to the point that upon hearing this, Lu Yuan couldn’t help but feel some guilt and pity.

So after some thought, he finally relaxed a bit and asked,