The army of Qinghe County set out as scheduled.
In a report to the Ministry of War, Lin Hai admitted that he had trained as many as 10,000 elite soldiers. Together with the civilian laborers, the entire Qinghe County had formed a force of 30,000 people, claiming to have 100,000 men, which was quite overwhelming in the southwest.
However, according to the Ministry of War's analysis, since there was no shortage of iron, Lin Hai only equipped a few thousand strong men with weapons, perhaps some rudimentary armor, and recruited a few elderly, weak, and disabled men as laborers, totaling around 10,000 men. As for the so-called 10,000 elite soldiers, it was likely a ploy to inflate the number of troops and collect empty salaries from the empire. This tactic was used by countless others, and Lin Hai was not the first, and it would have been impossible to hide from the discerning eyes of the Ministry of War.
Of course, Gao Bin was more rational than the officials of the Ministry of War and understood Qinghe's strength better. He initially judged that Lin Hai must have told the truth. He must have 10,000 well-equipped soldiers, otherwise Lin Hai would not have the courage to attack Qitian Village.
Only a few people knew the true situation, but Gao Bin and the officials from the Ministry of War were not among them.
There are indeed 30,000 people in the establishment of Qinghe County, and there are indeed 30,000 people on the roster of the Fenghuang Mountain Military Camp, but the 30,000 people here not only include Qinghe’s armed forces in various places, but also include those in Qitian Village who can be considered their own people.
The large-scale military training that seemed to be going on vigorously some time ago was actually just a way for Lin Hai to review and examine his armed forces. Simply put, it was impossible for Lin Hai to not even leave a doorman at home and pull all those who could fight to the front line, let alone order one part of Qitian Village to kill another part.
Therefore, although he tried his best, he actually only mobilized 10,000 combat soldiers, and the proportion of new recruits among them was as high as 60%. However, Lin Hai believed that as long as he fought one or two battles, his well-trained recruits would quickly become veterans. As for the possible casualties, he could not take them into consideration at this time.
In Lin Hai's words, now wasn't the best time to integrate Qitian Village, but it was the only time. In order to quickly swallow up Xiangyun Province and establish Qitian Village's control over it, Qitian Village had incorporated too many uncontrollable forces. Now, the aftereffects of this excessive consumption were setting in. Severe indigestion would undoubtedly weaken Lin Hai's combat effectiveness. This was determined by objective laws, not by anyone's will.
In order to avoid unnecessary trouble, Lin Hai even submitted a memorial to the Ministry of War so honestly for the first time. Unfortunately, no one believed it except Gao Bin. After making such a judgment, Gao Bin also began to doubt himself. After all, if Qinghe County was really so strong, why was he still alive?
Facing Lin Hai's blatant attack, Lu You delivered an impassioned speech on behalf of Qitian Village. If you removed the inappropriate words from his speech, you would probably only have one sentence left: "We will send our best warriors to defeat Qinghe County in one fell swoop. The warriors will take all the spoils."
When Lu You said this as King Zhentian and swore an oath with many of his leaders, this sentence became very credible.
After a whole night of bargaining, Cao Dadangjia, the bandit leader who usually liked to contradict Lu You but was later recruited, was recommended as the vanguard of Qitian Village. He would lead all the people willing to follow him to "easily kill those farmers who just dropped their hoes."
Of course, Cao Da Dangjia was unwilling to work for nothing. He even thought that all the spoils were his, which was not enough. Moreover, he had to share the spoils with others. So Cao Da Dangjia secretly gathered the other seven big bosses who were usually oppressed by Lu You and jointly proposed a new distribution plan to Lu You.
If the eight allied forces put together all their soldiers, they could gather 20,000 to 30,000 men. Well, yes, there is no exact number. After all, the leaders are not so idle as to count their own troops, so 20,000 to 30,000 is the most accurate number they can give.
The eight great leaders would lead these twenty to thirty thousand soldiers to confront Lin Hai's army of a few thousand newly converted farmers and refugees, while Lu You would only need to provide logistics for the coalition forces and help care for the elderly, weak, and sick left behind. If the coalition forces won, they would then advance into Xichuan and from then on, divide the province and govern it with Lu You. As for what to do if they lost, everyone had considered it, but no one dared to raise it. After all, if twenty to thirty thousand men were unable to defeat a few thousand, the consequences for their future would certainly not be theirs.
Lu You repeatedly rejected such conditions, and instead proposed that he would personally lead the old members of Qitian Village, including the most capable ones, as the vanguard, and after taking Qinghe County, he would discuss the merits with the leaders and reward them.
The eight big bosses were very disgusted with Lu You's obvious act of taking advantage.
After they repeatedly requested and even threatened that "If King Zhentian doesn't agree, we will take the team and go alone", Lu Youcai sighed helplessly and agreed reluctantly, but he also insisted on taking his own troops to follow behind the coalition forces to help the coalition forces watch the retreat "in case of any emergency."
The leaders of the coalition forces consciously did not expose "King Zhentian's little tricks", but instead led their troops to the battle with unprecedented efficiency. After all, the area where Xichuan and Xiangyun meet is mountainous and densely forested, and there are not many places left for the army to fight. They must give priority to seizing favorable terrain.
Suijiu County was once a prosperous place during the last war. Located on the border of two provinces, the frequent caravans brought population and wealth to this small, mountainous county, which lacked any local specialties. But now, with its walls completely stripped away, Suijiu County is merely a farming settlement on the outermost edge of Qitian Village. A single, unnamed leader, along with dozens of elderly and vulnerable refugees, has built a few barely-there huts amidst the ruins of the county town, subsisting on gathering and hunting. This is because, after a vote by the Qitian Village's chieftains, the vast majority agreed to implement a rationing system within their sphere of influence. Simply put, these unprofitable farming settlements must hand over their entire output to Qitian Village, which in turn guarantees their safety.
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