Chapter 485 Estimating Strength
After Qin Yan and Qin Zhao led their troops to set off, it was already completely dark.
Lu Desheng knew that they were destined to stay in the wild all night.
This situation fits into one of the three scenarios they had previously deduced, so they were mentally prepared.
After the army led by Qin Yan and Qin Zhao set off with dry food, the Pingzhou soldiers who remained in Pinggang at this time all obeyed the orders of Qin Heng and were under his command.
Qin Heng gave the order, and all the soldiers began to divide the work in an orderly manner, guarding against the enemy, setting up camp, and cooking.
The other two armies also began to follow suit, and the three parties restrained and guarded against each other.
At this time, both the imperial court and the Xianbei were silently evaluating Pingzhou's strength.
Apart from the more than 20,000 soldiers in front of them and the 15,000 soldiers and horses taken away by Qin Yan and Qin Zhao, how many more soldiers and generals can Pingzhou mobilize?
General Sun said, "Conservatively speaking, the total number of soldiers in Pingzhou should be around 100,000."
The real number should be around 60,000 or 70,000. But is there anything wrong with 60,000 or 70,000 soldiers and horses, claiming to be an army of 100,000?
Prince Gong was shocked. How could Pingzhou support an army of 100,000 with just the power of a single state? Was Lü Desheng really that capable?
Honestly, the imperial court didn't give much support to local garrisons. Take Youzhou, for example. Each prefecture had 4,000 to 5,000 soldiers, and the three prefectures combined had less than 20,000. This was considered normal for Youzhou. Pingzhou was simply too different.
After hearing Sun Ming's assessment of Pingzhou's military strength, Prince Gong no longer had any idea of defeating him in one battle. His current idea was to leave everything to the emperor to decide.
At this moment, the aroma of food wafted from the Pingzhou camp.
After a while, Lu Desheng brought the rice bowls and invited his subordinates to eat together.
Then the Pingzhou soldiers began to take turns to eat in an orderly manner.
Sun Ming shook his head in his heart. These soldiers were as carefree as their superior Lu Desheng. They looked like they should eat and drink as they pleased and not take their troubles to heart.
Sun Ming noticed that not long after, three hundred soldiers were dispatched from Pingzhou to load the boxes of gold, silver and jewelry that had just been obtained from the Xianbei negotiation delegation onto the carriages one by one.
He thought, is Lu Desheng going to send them back to their old nest in Pingzhou?
He had just estimated in his mind that Pingzhou currently needed to leave enough troops to guard the counties of Pingzhou, and had also allocated 15,000 troops to take over Youzhou. Now the troops they could mobilize should be limited.
Now he suddenly felt a little unsure. If Pingzhou's troops were stretched thin at this moment, it wouldn't be appropriate to split them up, but they did this...
To the north, the Xianbei temporary military camp
"Alianu, who is stronger between you and the archer from Pingzhou?" Tuoba Xun asked their Xianbei archer.
Alianu was silent for a while and replied, "The opponent is stronger." For archers like them, killing the target is not difficult, but accuracy is difficult.
The opponent attacked twice, and the arrows he shot were extremely accurate, especially the last one. The opponent was just warning the prince of Dali and did not want his life, so the arrow passed by just past his eyebrows, carrying a strong sense of warning.
"Then can you estimate the location of the archer in Pingzhou?"
Alenu shook his head. "The opponent attacked twice, both times at different positions. I can only estimate the approximate range, but I can't grasp the exact position." The most important thing is that neither of them dared to step into the other's shooting range.
Tuoba Xun had no choice but to abandon his original plan and said, "Uncle, I want to send a team of 500 people to rob and kill the Pingzhou silver transport team."
He wanted to let everyone in Dali know that the things of their Xianbei royal court were not so easy to get.
He noticed that Lü Desheng had only sent 300 men to escort the gold, silver, and jewels back. They had selected 500 excellent Xianbei soldiers, which was enough to deal with the enemy.
"The seventh prince is still in the hands of the other party." This is Tuoba Yu's worry. What if Lu Desheng finds out that the batch of gold and silver he ordered to be transported back to Liaoxi County has been robbed, and he gets angry and attacks Tuoba Lian?
"Uncle, rest assured. This time, no one will be left alive. Tomorrow morning, the general Lu Desheng sent to take over Youzhou should send someone back to inform him of the results. I will ensure that he does not notice that the gold and silver have been robbed."
Tuoba Yu thought about it and agreed, thinking that this was feasible.
Tuoba Jin pleaded, "Brother, leave this to me!"
At this time, Tuoba Jin was furious because of him. Their Xianbei royal court was extorted of one million dan of grain and gold and silver by Lu Desheng. Although the gold and silver were paid by his seventh brother, he was still furious.
Tuoba Yu looked at his two nephews with satisfaction. No matter how they argued, it was good that the two brothers worked together when faced with big things.
Tuoba Xun: "Okay, I'll leave it to you. The distance from Pinggang to Wencheng County is not long. Remember, we must fight quickly and decisively."
Tuoba Jin agreed.
"Alianu, you go too."
"promise!"
"Pay attention to the direction of Wencheng County. Pingzhou may send someone to pick them up."
"Don't worry, big brother."
Tuoba Xun was very cautious. He ordered his men to pay attention to the movements of the Pingzhou army diagonally opposite. If the other side made any movement, he would immediately send troops to support Tuoba Jin.
Tuoba Xun was already very cautious, but he never expected that there was a Pingzhou army hiding nearby.
Qin Sheng and his men were currently munching on dry food. They could only drink raw water, and for the sake of concealment, they couldn't light a fire.
Chen Jinlong lowered his voice and urged everyone, "Everyone, eat quickly so that you can get back to work." His voice was full of excitement.
The others nodded their heads in agreement and ate with big mouthfuls, fearing they would fall behind.
Oh my god, they followed Master Liu out to work, thinking it was just an ordinary job, but they never expected that Pingzhou would actually rebel so strongly?!
They were bandit leaders and had no good feelings towards the Dali court. When Lord Lu rebelled and established his own regime in Pingzhou, they were only excited, not afraid.
At this moment, they were all extremely excited, as if pie had fallen from the sky.
"Have you finished eating?" Qin Sheng asked.
"I'm done eating!"
"After eating, get ready to work." He stood up.
Chen Jinlong, Gao Lei, Ding Hansheng, Yan Tianqing and others also stood up.
Work, work, they love to work! Working will earn them military merits, and they may even be granted a title of nobility or prime minister in the future!
Suddenly, Chen Jinlong, Gao Lei and others felt that the future was bright.
Pinggang was on his way to Wencheng County. The weather was nice tonight and a crescent moon was hanging in the sky.
Ma Jin, accompanied by three hundred soldiers, escorted the gold and silver at a normal pace, occasionally chatting with his deputy.
He thought, if they went any further, they would be in their ambush. It would be best if no one from the Xianbei came tonight. If someone came to rob and kill them, this team, in coordination with Sixth Master, would ensure they had no chance of escape!
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