Chu State took the initiative and started the war.
Its army crossed the Yellow River and joined the somewhat recovered Yan State army in attacking Wei State's lands in Hebei.
This time, Chu State mobilized military forces on an unprecedented scale. Apart from the troops needed for defense, the first wave entering the Jizhou battlefield alone numbered a full thirty thousand combat troops!
Another thirty thousand combat troops were still assembling and would head for the Jizhou battlefield once their assembly was complete.
Sixty thousand infantry and cavalry!
Auxiliary troops and logistical personnel numbered nearly three hundred thousand. Although this ratio had not reached the extreme of conscripting one man in ten, it was approaching the limit.
Chu State, which held only Qingzhou and Xuzhou, had been almost completely hollowed out by this mobilization. With little strategic depth, it was all but staking its national destiny on this battle.
Either it would win a sweeping victory and break out of its cage, free thereafter as birds soaring through boundless skies and fish leaping in vast seas, or it would suffer utter defeat and die a slow death after its military strength was crippled.
The Chu Army had two main operational directions. On the first, Liu Bei and Guan Yu led Chu State's main force into Jizhou, seeking a decisive battle with Cao Cao.
This force was a constellation of brilliant generals, with Guan, Zhang, and Zhao all present. Strategists such as Fa Zheng and Liu Ye were with this force as well.
The other force guarded the rear. With the Chu Army crossing the river into Jizhou, someone had to prevent Cao Cao from attacking Qingzhou through Yanzhou. Lü Shen and Taishi Ci held this front, bearing an extremely heavy and difficult task.
Fortunately, Lü Shen was already used to