After the New Year, Takahara received several heavy messages in a row, which also indicated that the comfortable and peaceful life in Daigun would not be too long.

The first is that Qin and Chu have reached an agreement, and Chu has promised that it will not aid Wei in any form, and Qin has also agreed to make peace with Chu and cede the three cities of Yan, Deng, and Xiping on the Chu-Qin border to Chu.

It turned out that before the New Year, Xiang Yan, who was facing the Qin army at the border, suddenly dispatched a large army, crossed the Chu-Qin border, launched an attack on the Qin army, and divided his troops to attack, captured the two cities of Yan and Deng in one fell swoop, and surrounded Xiping County.

During the envoy of the state of Chu Jingtai to the Qin state, although he reached a peace agreement with the Qin state, it caused the dissatisfaction of the Xiang family, because the success of the peace negotiation in this way was bound to greatly increase the power of the Jing, Qu, and Zhao families in the Chu state, thus striking at the power of the Xiang family. Therefore, Xiang Yan stubbornly grasped in the court that this time it was the Qin State that sent troops to attack the Chu State first, if he made peace like this, wouldn't he admit to the world that the Chu State was afraid of the Qin State? Attack Jingtai's peace agreement.

Sure enough, Xiang's opinion also aroused the response of many ministers of Chu and small and medium-sized clans, who wrote to the king of Chu one after another, believing that peace must not be made like this. Moreover, Xiang Yan swore that he took the initiative to ask the king of Chu to fight, and he would personally lead the army to attack the Qin state.

Under strong pressure, the king of Chu was powerless to resist, and the Jing, Qu, and Zhao families could not resist, so they had to order Xiang Yan to lead the army to attack the Qin army. Of course, Jing, Qu, and Zhao also estimated that Xiang Yan would definitely not be able to defeat the Qin army, and after Xiang Yan's defeat was completed, he would settle the ledger with Xiang Yanxi.

In fact, Xiang Yan had already calculated, at this time, the Qin State did not dare to start a full-scale war with the Chu State. Because now the main opponent of the Qin State is the Wei State, before the complete destruction of the Wei State, the Qin State will never establish a strong rebellion, in addition, before the New Year, the Korean bereaved family had sent people to the rescue of the Chu State, although it was rejected by the Han court of the Chu State, but Xiang Yan listened to the construction of the son Xiang Dong, and still studied the practice of aiding Wei, and discussed in the private name of the Xiang family, to give the Korean bereaved family a certain amount of funding, if they can really make a little trouble in Korea, it will naturally be beneficial to the Chu State, so Xiang Yan sent Xiang Dong with a thousand Yi gold to sneak into the Korean landand get in touch with the deceased in Korea. In addition, it is possible to invite Daijun to send troops from the north.

It is precisely because of these reasons that Xiang Yan also firmly believes that as long as the Chu State puts on a tough attitude and does not hesitate to fight a big war with the Qin State, then the Qin State will definitely give in, so Xiang Yan sent troops to attack the Qin State at this time and captured two cities in a row.

Just ten days later, the Qin State sent Yao Jia as an envoy to the Chu State, and after some verbal battles and bargaining, Yao Jia finally agreed on behalf of the Qin State to cede the Yan and Deng Ercheng occupied by the Chu army, plus Xiping County, to the Chu State, in order to show the sincerity of the Qin State and the Chu State to make peace.

After Yao Jia left Yingshou and returned to China, Xiang Yan also gained a great reputation in Chu because of his efforts to expand the territory, and the three families of Jing, Qu and Zhao were made peace because of grievances, and their reputation fell greatly, and Jingtai was forced to resign from Ling Yin's position, although Jing, Qu, and Zhao were anxious and angry, and scolded Qin in the mansion every day for being useless, why didn't they dare to fight with the Chu army? But now that the wood is in the boat, no matter how angry they are, it won't help.

However, although the Qin State gave up a little benefit, but in exchange for the peace of the Qin-Chu border, he could concentrate all his strength to attack the Wei State, so after Yao Jia made Chu, Qin Wangzheng immediately ordered that the Qin army stationed in Yingchuan County should withdraw to Nanyang County, ostensibly as a peace agreement reached between Zunshou and the Chu State, and the withdrawal of troops from the Qin-Chu border was actually in preparation for another attack on Wei.

Therefore, after Gao Yuan received this news, he estimated that he would not stay in Daijun for too long.

Another piece of news is that the Qin general Meng Shi led 50,000 Qin troops into Zhongshan, approaching the Qin-Yan border, less than 100 miles away from Yishui. And Yan has just made peace with Daijun, and now the Qin army is here again, and the whole country is nervous again, there used to be Daijun as Yan's ally and the barrier to the west, and now Yan has turned against Daijun, and Yan can only resist Qin's army alone. But the Qin army is not a substitute army, and now that the Qin State has destroyed the two countries in a row, expecting the Qin State to let the Yan State go is tantamount to seeking skin with the tiger. Therefore, Yan Wangxi hurriedly sent envoys to Xianyang to ask Qin about the intention of marching into Zhongshan.

In fact, Gao Yuan knew that before conquering Daliang and destroying Wei, the Qin army would not launch any more military operations against other countries, which can be proved from Qin's tolerance of Chu. The Qin army stationed in Zhongshan was actually afraid that he would take advantage of the situation to attack Yan State, so he decided to make peace with Yan State and withdraw the army with a sum of money and food from Yan State, which was absolutely correct, otherwise he would not be able to attack Jijing now, and the Qin army was approaching behind him, so he could only retreat to Daijun empty-handed.

Of course, it was not all bad news, but there was also a lot of good news, first of all, the people who had migrated from Wei had been basically settled, and they had been sent to the cattle to be cultivated, and the fields were demarcated, and spring plowing was about to begin.

With this group of people, the population of Daijun has now exceeded two million, although it is not a big country, but it is definitely not small. In addition, the materials accumulated by Daijun were further enriched, only the grain reserves reached 5 million stones, the gold outside the country reached more than 20,000 eridium, and various other materials were very sufficient, plus the trade routes with Qi were reopened, so it was enough to support Daijun to fight a full-scale war.

The increase in population and the abundance of materials also laid the foundation for the further expansion of the army in Daijun, which now has a total of four legions and 16 armies, with a total army of more than 100,000 people, of which there are about 76,000 combat troops. And according to Gao Yuan's estimate, at the end of this year, at the latest at the beginning of next year, Daijun will conduct a full-scale war in order to seize the land of Yan, and it is likely to face a decisive battle with the Qin army. In order to cope with this war, at least about 300,000 troops are needed, although it is possible to temporarily recruit troops from the people, but the temporarily recruited troops are obviously not comparable with the professional army, so with the current size of the army, it is certainly not enough, at least the professional army must be raised to about 150,000, of which the combat army must reach more than 120,000.

With a population of 2 million, maintaining a professional army of about 150,000 is obviously too large, and if we stay in the usual calculations, the number of professional troops must not exceed one-twentieth of the total population, because excluding women, the elderly, and young children, the population that is really suitable for serving in the army is about 25 to 30 percent, and this group of people is the main labor force of the people, and if it exceeds one-twentieth of the total population, it will affect social production. With the population of the Qin State exceeding 10 million, but the current military strength does not exceed 300,000, the number of professional troops can never exceed 100,000 at the current population size of Daijun.

But now there is no way for Daijun to do it, because if there are no two or three hundred thousand troops, it is impossible to occupy the Yan country between Qin and Yan. In fact, the number of troops in Daijun has always been above the normal ratio. It's just that in the past few years, the Dai army has seized a lot of grain and grass materials from Yan and Xiongnu, and has opened a trade route with Qi State, and used Daijun paper to trade with Qi, so that it has been able to support.

And this is also the only chance for Daijun. If you can't seize the land of Yan State, relying only on the current local population of Daijun, you will not be able to fight against Qin State for a long time.

Although Ning Qi, Shen Shen, Geng Zhong and others knew that the proportion of the Daijun army was too high now, and it was not at all affordable for the existing population, but in this war-torn situation, if the number of troops in the group was not maintained, it would be difficult to survive at all, just like this time, although the Qin State attacked the Wei State with all its might, it was still possible to draw out more than 80,000 Qin troops to be stationed on the front line of Jingcheng Quyang, plus the later Yan State betrayed the alliance, if it were not for the fact that Daijun had enough troops, he could garrison Hongshangsai on the one hand, resist the Qin army, and send troops to counterattack the Yan army on the other, but it's really dangerous.

Fortunately, the materials of Daijun are extremely abundant now, even after the expansion of the army, it is enough to support three or five years, and although Gao Yuan did not tell them that Prince Dan was planning to assassinate Qin Wangzheng, he also assured them that at most at the beginning of next year, the battle to attack Yan will be carried out, of course, if the Qin army can be defeated and Yan land can be occupied, then the problem of Yiqiē can be solved. Because after occupying Yandi, his population will more than double, reaching about four or five million, so that he can completely raise 150,000, or even 200,000 professional troops. Therefore, they are also very supportive of the expansion of the army on the plateau.

After obtaining the consent of Ning Qi, Shen Shen, and Geng Zhong, Gao Yuan immediately recruited the commanders of the other three legions to Daijun to negotiate the expansion of the army, because at this time, Yuan Xuan, the chief general of the Yanmen Legion, was stationed in Wei, so the Yanmen Legion was represented by the deputy general Li Jin. And the commander of the Wu'an Army is still Zhao Xuan, although Gao Yuan has always wanted to replace Zhao Xuan with Jiang Huanwu, but considering that he is about to go to Wei again, Jiang Huanwu will also send troops with him, so he can only wait until the war in Wei is completely over, and then replace and change.

According to the plan of the plateau, the three corps of Yanmen, Shanggu, and Yunzhong will be expanded to five corps, and the full quota of each corps will still be 5,000 men, and the establishment of a full cavalry corps will be maintained, and each cavalry will be equipped with two war horses; An all-infantry army, unequipped with horses, was two thousand spear and shield men, two thousand sword and shield men, and one thousand crossbow men; The other three armies are all mixed with infantry and cavalry, with 2,000 cavalry, 3,000 infantry, cavalry equipped with two war horses, and infantry troops equipped with one war horse, respectively 1,000 spear and shield soldiers, 1,000 sword and shield soldiers, and 1,000 bow and crossbow soldiers. One of the infantry and cavalry armies was the army that stayed in the area, and each corps was equipped with a thousand-man logistics soldier and sixty chariots.

In this way, the total strength of this legion reached 30,000, the number of cavalry reached 9,000, the number of chariots was 300, and the total number of war horses was 30,000, which could basically cope with the battle on a battlefield alone.

Naturally, all the generals had no opinion on the army expansion plan on the plateau, after all, in this way, the strength of each army corps had been greatly strengthened, and they all had the ability to deal with a battlefield on their own.