"Young Master, I have failed in my duty and have not been able to purchase enough horses. They... they have sold out of their warhorses in the north this year, so they have no need to come to the south to sell them."

The subordinate Qin Mo sent to Hangzhou to procure horses brought him less than good news. He had searched all over Hangzhou, Suzhou, and even Nanjing, but had only managed to buy a little over a thousand warhorses. This was far short of the five thousand Qin Mo had requested.

"Go back and buy some draft horses to make do for now. If we make the soldiers carry their own weapons and armor on foot, then we might as well give up on the battle and they'll all die of exhaustion on the road." All the soldiers in the army were now fully armored, which reduced their mobility. Without enough warhorses, Qin Mo's troops would be like tortoises—defense was sufficient, but mobility was lacking. They could only wait for others to attack them, while they couldn't catch up with those hairy orcs.

"Uncle Lin, let those new recruits who have never seen blood travel to the capital by land first. Make sure they learn to ride horses along the way. We don't expect them to be as skilled as those barbarians from the grasslands, but at least they shouldn't fall off their horses while riding." Qin Mo's troops this time include more than a thousand new recruits. Although they may have ridden horses a few times in Daguan, they are far from meeting the standard of riding freely.

"These greedy merchants always do this. We were caught off guard this time, and they're going to make a killing again." Uncle Lin gritted his teeth, veins bulging on his forehead. His other uncles also cursed the greedy merchants for ruining the country and the government for its inaction.

Every time the imperial court summoned lords from various fiefdoms to go on campaign, it was a grand feast for merchants dealing in military equipment, horses, and grain. They would gather at the departure point, hoard large quantities of supplies, and sell them at high prices to make exorbitant profits.

The lords' private armies were not the imperial guards or border troops of the Great Xia Dynasty. They had to provide their own military equipment and supplies. Whenever the court was about to go on an expedition, wealthy merchants who received advance notice would start hoarding and hoarding, waiting for fat sheep like Qin Mo to come to them on their own.