Han Zhang had recruited so few people only because Suzhou was now under the control of the Guiyi Army. Most of the Han Chinese there had already enlisted, and very few beggars were unwilling to join the army.
Still, Wang Yue didn't mind the small numbers. Just as he had in Ganzhou, he quietly arrived in Suzhou while on the march. After Han Zhang and his men put on armor and took up weapons, they silently opened the eastern gate.
Not long after the gates of Suzhou opened, Wang Yue led twenty thousand troops into the city and easily captured the Guiyi Army's leader.
Suzhou had originally been defended by only a little over two thousand Guiyi Army soldiers. Faced with an army of more than twenty thousand suddenly pouring into the city, the leader surrendered outright.
As mentioned earlier, the Guiyi Army and the Uyghurs had surrendered to each other many times, usually just swapping out their leaders. Whoever had the greater force called the shots.
After taking the city, Wang Yue had Han Zhang lead more than a thousand Beggars' Sect disciples and drew another two thousand men from the army to stay behind and guard Suzhou, as well as the prisoners. Then he took the rest of his forces and headed for Guazhou.
Lu Fang was in charge of the Beggars' Sect branch in Guazhou. He was a little more capable than Han Zhang, and Guazhou was close to Shazhou, where there were many Han Chinese. As a result, he had recruited more than three thousand people into the Beggars' Sect.
Of course, just like their other brothers, many of these new Beggars' Sect disciples weren't so poor that they had to become beggars. They simply wanted somewhere that would provide them with food and wages.
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