After seeing off the departing army, Li Qin returned to his residence in the capital.
This is now the largest existing mansion in the capital, and Li Qin moved in directly to make it his Duke's residence.
Looking at the letter from her younger brother, Li Wenqi, in her hand.
In the letter, Li Wenqi told himself that after receiving his reinforcements, he immediately began to eliminate Zhao Shuaizhen and You Chu.
They achieved some results, but they did not inflict any significant damage on either of them.
They kept retreating whenever they saw them advancing, never engaging in direct confrontation.
Especially after the news of the fall of the capital came.
They simply vanished without a trace.
Zhao Shuaizhen should have fled to the Yanshan Mountains in the north. As for where You Chu went, they were even less certain. It was very likely that he went to the grasslands.
In short, they've all gone into hiding, and it would take a lot of manpower and resources to hunt them down.
For them, who had just captured the capital and were exhausted from continuous bloody battles, this was neither realistic nor worthwhile.
Of course, he did not forget the other tasks Li Qin had given him, which was to send his family to the capital.
He had already organized an army and was escorting his generals and his own family to the capital.
After reading his letter, Li Qin wrote him another letter.
He was instructed to send men to Liaodong, where there are now about two million people. He was to select 50,000 able-bodied men from the local militia and send them to the capital.
His troops in Liaodong had suffered heavy casualties during this period, and he needed to replenish them.
Now, including those in Xuanfu, Liaodong, and the large army that Li Xuanshang took south, etc.
He still has 80,000 infantry and 30,000 cavalrymen at his disposal, the force he had since the beginning of his rebellion.
There are currently 58,000 infantrymen and about 21,000 cavalrymen remaining.
This was the result even after he had cherished his Liaodong headquarters immensely.
However, the losses were still so great, including those suffered while following Li Xuanshang to hold back the Xuanfu army, and those who choked to death while digging tunnels.
The one with the most casualties was when Yu Gan burned down the capital, and a large number of his soldiers from Liaodong headquarters who had not escaped were burned to death inside.
However, even with these 79,000 people, they are scattered in various places.
His brother had about 8,000 men, Wang Taihe had 10,000 elite infantrymen in Xuanfu, and Dugu Yu had more than 4,000 cavalry.
In Zhuozhou, he also has his own three thousand cavalry.
This time, his nephew Li Xuanshang led a large army south, taking with him 30,000 elite troops from Liaodong headquarters and 10,000 cavalry.
Currently, he only has 10,000 elite troops from Liaodong and about 4,000 cavalry in the capital, plus his own 7,000 elite personal guards.
He only had 21,000 elite troops in the capital.
Even with the addition of the Green Standard Army, which had expanded to 30,000 men during this period by incorporating a large number of surrendered and captured soldiers from the Beijing garrison and Henan, the Green Standard Army was still in operation.
His own forces in the capital numbered only around 51,000.
Although after the army's purge, there were no more powerful enemies in or around the capital.
However, his core troops have been greatly reduced.
He must expand his elite army as quickly as possible.
During this period, he went through a series of major battles and captured a large number of armor and weapons.
It is entirely possible for him to build an army of more than 100,000 men.
He had previously tried to recruit the dozen or so prisoners of war he had captured from the capital.
After all, they were all elite soldiers; once they picked up a weapon, they were elite soldiers.
His original plan was to take control of their families after capturing the capital, and then incorporate them into his own forces.
However, due to Yu Gan's staunch defense, the capital was repeatedly attacked during this period, and the entire capital was reduced to ruins, with extremely heavy casualties among the people of the capital.
Many of their relatives died at his hands.
Therefore, Li Qin knew that many of these people harbored hatred towards him.
So Li Qin gave up on reorganizing them all. After all, you killed their relatives, how could you expect them to fight for you?
Li Qin was not at ease with him, after all, the most frightening thing on the battlefield is defection.
So after some further screening, he simply gathered a few people to join the Green Flag Camp.
As for the remaining people, there's no way they'll be released.
They were all reduced to slavery and distributed among their own Liaodong army soldiers.
After all, they had acquired a considerable amount of land during the continuous battles.
Those lands all need people to cultivate them, so it's a good opportunity to break them up and disperse them across the vast area from Liaodong to the capital, making it impossible for them to stick together.
As for the location where he recruited soldiers, Li Qin actually only had Liaodong as a choice.
After all, Hebei has not yet been conquered, and Youyan has just been conquered, so the hearts of the people have not yet been won over.
Liaodong is the most suitable.
He originally planned to recruit 100,000 men directly, since his spoils during this period were more than enough to arm an army of 100,000. However, considering his current situation, he decided to reconsider.
Li Qin halved the number, conscripting 50,000 men initially.
After all, if 100,000 people were to be conscripted, the demand for supplies and other necessities would be enormous.
After all, he now commands hundreds of thousands of troops, and maintaining this force is already extremely difficult.
If they were to conscript 100,000 troops, it would be impossible to sustain the situation.
My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
