Lin Tian quickly learned about the situation in the Chu Kingdom.
Without any hesitation, he descended upon the Chu border.
The border region did not have many Chu guards, but there were a large number of Chu civilians.
Because of this, Lin Tian led his army and directly challenged the Chu border.
"Open the city gates and release our Qin citizens!"
Upon hearing this, the Chu soldiers were stunned.
With apprehension, they asked:
"This is Chu territory, there are no Qin citizens here. If you are looking for Qin citizens, you should search within your Qin nation!"
"Hmm?"
"What you say is not without reason. Then we shall go and rescue our Qin citizens!"
"All soldiers, receive my order, attack the city! Rescue our Qin citizens!"
"Yes!"
The location where Lin Tian was was not where Chu's main forces were stationed.
Xiang Yan, leading the main army, was currently confronting Meng Tian.
They never anticipated the arrival of Lin Tian's army.
In terms of troop numbers, Chu did not have enough forces to resist Lin Tian's army, which was one of the reasons they were conscripting soldiers.
Furthermore, Chu had far too few generals capable of independent command.
Although Lin Tian's army did not catch the Chu forces completely off guard, they were utterly incapable of resisting.
Therefore, when Lin Tian gave the order to charge to his army, the Chu forces were completely bewildered.
Faced with this situation, they had no idea how to respond.
"General, we, what do we do now? Qin's army is too numerous!"
Lin Tian had a formidable force of 150,000 troops.
However, this particular Chu border region only had ten to twenty thousand soldiers.
Such a massive disparity in numbers was something Chu soldiers could not possibly withstand.
Thus, the Chu commander merely glanced at the enemy, then spoke in exasperation.
"What do we do? Of course, we retreat. With such numbers, how can we possibly defend?"
"Go, let's leave now, we can't die here!"
With almost no hesitation, they left immediately.
In their haste, they disregarded everything, be it the provisions or the civilians in the area.
Their flight was utterly ignominious.
It was a stark contrast to their previous arrogant oppression of the populace.
After they left, Lin Tian's army naturally occupied the area.
Upon entering, Lin Tian found that the civilians here, though frightened, had not fled.
They huddled together, cautiously observing Lin Tian and his men.
Clearly, compared to Lin Tian's army, they feared the current Chu regime even more.
They felt that continuing to live under Chu, they might not survive.
Therefore, they preferred to remain here, become citizens of Qin, and gamble for themselves and their families.
Fortunately, Lin Tian did not disappoint them.
"Go, distribute grain to these civilians, arrange for them to enter our Qin nation, and settle them properly!"
"Yes!"
Lin Tian harbored no ill will towards the civilians.
He knew that these people were unfortunate souls.
If they were not truly desperate, they would not have appeared here, seeking to escape to Qin.
Since Lin Tian was here, he naturally had to make arrangements for them and provide them with a way to live.
Because of this, Lin Tian not only gave them food but also some money.
The money was obtained from confiscating the assets of old aristocrats.
Of course, Lin Tian did not give a large sum, only a hundred coins per family for immediate needs.
However, this act was truly a life-saving grace for the Chu civilians.
Countless civilians knelt on the ground at this moment, kowtowing to Lin Tian for his life-saving grace.
"Thank you, General Lin, for letting us live. Thank you, General, for this life-saving grace!"
"Thank you, General, for this life-saving grace!"
"Thank you, General, for this life-saving grace!"
These words, falling into Lin Tian's ears, merely prompted him to nod.
His heart was not greatly moved.
However, when these words reached Chu, the situation changed entirely.
Originally, the Chu civilians were considering going to Qin, becoming Qin citizens, and thus ensuring their safety.
But this thought, at first, was merely a conjecture in the minds of the Chu civilians.
Even they themselves did not know if they could truly be safe in Qin.
Therefore, although many harbored this thought, they also suppressed the impulse.
But now it was different. When they learned that they could truly survive in Qin, it stirred up a tremendous wave.
"To Qin! We must go to Qin! We must survive!"
"Chu dare not act against Qin. Once we reach Qin, we will be Qin citizens!"
"Everyone knows, right? Once we reach Qin, General Lin will not only give us food but also money for emergencies. In Qin, we can survive!"
The words "survive" seemed to carry an infinite power.
It caused many civilians to surge towards Lin Tian's army.
The momentum and trend of this movement were such that even the Chu army could not stop them.
More importantly, the Chu army did not dare to stop them.
With Xiang Yan's main army absent, they had no one who dared to fight Lin Tian's army.
They even feared that if they obstructed the Chu civilians, Lin Tian's army would become enraged and attack, annihilating their entire force.
Therefore, they could only watch as their Chu citizens entered Qin.
While this action might not have had any immediate impact or loss on their army, it was undoubtedly an immensely significant blow to the entire Chu nation.
The hearts of the entire Chu populace were shaken.
Even though many among them still chose to remain in Chu and not go to Qin, they felt that Chu was not as good as Qin.
Living in Chu did not offer the same hopeful future as living in Qin.
This also made more Chu civilians unwilling to enlist in the army.
In their hearts, they even harbored a faint hope, a hope that Qin would conquer Chu. That way, they, the Chu civilians, would not have to flee their homeland and could become Qin citizens.
In a way, the Chu nation had completely lost the hearts of its people.
The popular sentiment, the hearts of the people, all turned towards Qin.
...