By then, the Bandit Eradication Captain's forces had more than twelve thousand able-bodied men. Guan Yinping had incorporated them all into the Anti-Bandit Army: four thousand elite troops and eight thousand auxiliaries. The common people in the entire captaincy, however, numbered more than a hundred thousand.
Of course, not all the newcomers were bandits. Some landless people from Jiangxia and Nanjun had heard that the Bandit Eradication Captain's forces had successfully grown rice in the swamps and reaped a bumper harvest, so they had come to join them of their own accord.
And it was precisely because they had harvested that rice that the Bandit Eradication Captain's forces could afford to feed so many people and soldiers.
In Wang Yue's eyes, there was no distinction between elite troops and auxiliaries. He believed that war was all about money, so as long as the weapons were good, auxiliaries could be used as elite troops. Thus, apart from the two thousand stationed at Huarong, he assigned eight thousand of the remaining ten thousand soldiers to the Three Forts, leaving the other two thousand in Sanhu City.
These soldiers also led the common people in transporting the weapons made in Sanhu City to the Three Forts.
Another month passed in the blink of an eye. The Three Forts grew larger and their defenses more complete. The road to Sanhu City had not only been opened, but more and more of the improved land had also been made suitable for cultivation.
But the fish they sold for grain couldn't keep pace with their consumption, and their stores were running low. Even with the common people eating only half their fill, the grain was nearly gone.
The eleventh month of Jian'an 24,
The northern winds were bitterly cold.
North of Dongting Lake,
Fifty li east