This was using a sledgehammer to kill a chicken!
Li Wan felt distressed just looking at it. "With Zhen Country's military strength, where would they need so many troops? They can't even recruit more than a handful of soldiers right now. We could take them down within a month with just over ten thousand troops..."
Do you know how much military provisions thirty thousand troops consume every day?
Li Wan dared not imagine how great the logistical strain on Kang Country was. Supplying thirty thousand people could leave a country severely weakened, let alone when Kang Country had been at war both last year and this year. In her view, saving even a little was worthwhile. Making a living was not easy.
Qian Yong gnawed on dried meat. "What? You still want a month?"
Li Wan said, "That's the optimistic estimate."
Qian Yong chewed and swallowed the meat in two or three bites, then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
"Supplying ten thousand or so people for a campaign against Zhen Country lasting a month would have the Imperial Censorate accusing us of embezzling military pay. Rather than delay and give them time to react, we might as well be ruthless and bring more troops to resolve the battle in one fell swoop. Feeding tens of thousands for a few days is far cheaper than feeding ten thousand for a month. We have to know how to do the math. What they teach at the academy is dead knowledge, after all. When fighting a war, we need to be a little more flexible."
Li Wan looked fairly clever. How could she not even know how to calculate this?
"How many days?"
Qian Yong formed a fine needle from martial aura and casually picked his teeth with it.