With 100,000 elite soldiers at the start, what should you call me?

……

Jianning Prefecture was besieged, and Jie Chongxi, who was sent to provide support, could not be seen.

The King of Yunxi personally came to Fuzhou, and Zheng Cai unexpectedly agreed to send troops.

The memorial requesting the dispatch of troops to support Jianning Prefecture was quickly approved.

With permission from the imperial court, Zheng Cai began preparations to send troops.

However, as the saying goes, an army marches on its stomach. This time, Zheng Cai has deployed 50,000 troops and is expected to mobilize 100,000 laborers.

Such a large group requires astronomical amounts of food and supplies.

"Where should the regent obtain these provisions?"

Qian Sule still brought up this serious issue.

The time it took for the regime of Prince Lu, Zhu Yihai, to return to the mainland and begin a wave of anti-Qing sentiment in Fujian was only a little over a year.

Nowadays, the rebel armies in various places are using the banner of Prince Lu, but in reality they are no different from local bandits.

Moreover, they are difficult to mobilize. They only control a few cities, and it is simply impossible to mobilize hundreds of thousands of people.

"Then why not reduce the number of troops sent, from the original 50,000 to 20,000? With the support of the local militias, we should be able to gather an army of 100,000."

The Pingxi Earl Dynasty was the first to step forward and express its opinion.

"Absolutely not! That bandit army numbers no less than 100,000, all of them strongmen. We only have 20,000 combat-ready soldiers. What if we can't defeat them?"

Zhu Changhu quickly stopped and rejected the plan.

"Haha, King of Yunxi, you're overthinking it. I have General Wu Hui, and 20,000 warriors are more than enough to quell the rebellion." Zheng Cai laughed loudly, glancing at Zhu Changhu with displeasure in his eyes.

The other party is underestimating me.

"These are mere country bandits, without swords or armor. Twenty thousand soldiers are too many. I only need ten thousand soldiers to rescue Wang Qi and defeat Chen Jin."

Wu Hui stepped forward, his attitude extremely arrogant; "Your subject is willing to volunteer for battle."

Prince Lu, Zhu Yihai, stood in the superior position, his gaze fixed on the civil officials standing to his left.

No one stood up to object, and the decision was made immediately.

"Since General Wu is willing to volunteer for the battle, I will draft a memorial to dispatch a large army to immediately support Jianning Prefecture."

"As for the issue of food supplies, let all the rebel armies provide support and let the people suffer a little more."

After the court session ended, Zheng Cai immediately found Wu Hui and gave him some instructions.

"It will take at least ten to fifteen days for the army to set off. During these two weeks, I will arrange manpower for you to ensure that our people have control over food and weapons."

"You've worked hard, Duke." Wu Hui said respectfully, obeying Zheng Cai's every command.

"This is a trivial matter and not worth mentioning. However, after the troops are dispatched, you should take a trip to Fuzhou and deal with Liu Zhongzao. We can't let that guy get away with it."

Intelligence from the front lines indicates that after stabilizing Fuzhou, Liu Zhongzao is leading his troops to attack Fu'an, and should succeed soon if all goes as expected.

If Liu Zhongzao were to completely take over Fuzhou, Zheng Cai's position in the court would be in jeopardy.

So many people want him dead.

"Don't worry, Duke Jianguo, I will definitely not let Liu Zhongzao get away with this." Wu Hui and Zheng Cai shared the same interests.

He once forced Marquis Yixing, Zheng Zunqian, to commit suicide, and many people wanted him dead as well.

The two of them shared the same pair of pants and were determined to go all the way to the end.

~

~

Qing army camp.

Qi Wan, the spy sent by Chen Jin, finally delivered the first letter.

After reading the letter in his hand, Chen Jin fell into deep thought.

"This new army is very strange; I've never seen its organizational structure before."

"But none of that matters. This new army has far too many combat-ready soldiers—a full 100,000! But where will their supplies come from? Where are they from? And who is supporting them?"

"The letter said that the new army provided food and that the commander was very generous. However, considering the new army's practice of robbing local strongmen to collect grain, this generosity was just a bluff, and the grain probably wouldn't last more than a few days."

"Judging from the soldiers of the New Army killed in the battle, the people of this army came from all over the country and had very different backgrounds, with very few from Fujian."

"They probably don't have any powerful backers, otherwise they wouldn't have attacked Jianning Prefecture. But that's not necessarily true; it could be an internal power struggle within the Ming regime."

After a moment's thought, Chen Jin decided not to retreat, but to use the terrain to his advantage and build a defense.

He concluded that the enemy's supplies were limited, and that if he could stall for time, the enemy would naturally collapse without a fight.

"If we drag this out, we'll win."

"Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to explain the current situation, and I wouldn't be able to hold my position as Governor-General of Zhejiang and Fujian."

Chen Jin has invested too much; if he doesn't take Jianning Prefecture, he will lose everything.

~

~

Jianning Prefecture.

Represented by the local prominent families Zhu and You, the remaining local prominent families took the initiative to meet with Li Tian.

The aristocratic families made it clear that they would fully support Li Tian as long as he could drive away the Qing troops outside the city.

Currently, their support is limited; they will only send some family members to join the army and contribute their share.

Li Tian's answer was vague: everything would be discussed after the Qing troops outside the city were driven away.

The first meeting was rushed, and both sides only gave each other a vague answer.

"Commander, once we defeat the Qing army outside the city, these powerful families will probably try every means to place people in our army." After Zhu Wen and the others left, Zhang Yonghao voiced his uneasy speculation.

Li Tian tapped his fingers lightly on the table, when suddenly a sentence popped into his mind.

"Unite all those who can be united; if you can't be friends, don't make an enemy."

"I understand this principle, Commander, but they are like cancer cells. Once they infiltrate our ranks, they will absorb our nutrients and grow stronger step by step, spreading throughout our bodies and eventually becoming difficult to eradicate, leading the entire country to its death. But they will not. They will wait for the next host."

Zhang Yonghao was thinking far ahead; he didn't want the team's composition to become impure, and at the same time, he was very wary of these powerful families.

"You have a point, but you can't look at things from only one perspective, nor can you view people in a one-dimensional way. Good people can turn bad, and bad people can also come to their senses."

"However, I believe that as long as we develop fast enough, we will definitely be able to use technology and systems to limit or even eliminate the cancer cells you mentioned to the greatest extent possible."

Li Tian is not a great thinker, but he believes that future technology and systems will definitely be able to achieve this.

During a brief encounter with a powerful family, Li Tian only felt that they were adept at using "righteousness" for opportunistic purposes.

However, these are not things he should be considering right now.

There will be another battle in a couple of days, and he must check on the formation of the First Army of the Dragon Cavalry.

"commander!"

Upon arriving at the Longxiang First Army's garrison, Yan Naichao was already waiting for them.

The Longxiang First Army was an army formed by Li Tian using a mix of prisoners of war, new recruits, and suicide soldiers. Future armies will also be reformed in the same way as the Longxiang First Army.

His elite guards didn't need to be the first to charge forward.

Yan Naichao was promoted from the former commander of the 1st Regiment of the 8th Army to the commander of the 1st Army of the Longxiang Army.

"How is the reorganization of the First Army of the Dragon Cavalry going?"

"Reporting to the Commander, the reorganization of the Longxiang First Army is progressing smoothly."

"We recruited over 400 new soldiers today, bringing the total number of prisoners to over 4,000."

"These four thousand men were reorganized into four battalions, each with one thousand men. They were reorganized into the Divine Machine Battalion, the Cavalry Battalion, the Vanguard Battalion, and the Rear Guard Battalion."

"Very good. Tonight, send someone to find out where the Qing army is storing supplies. Tomorrow, we will launch a surprise attack on the Qing army." Li Tian didn't have much time and had no time to train new recruits. He could only let the blood and fire on the battlefield temper them and help them grow quickly.