Three Waters Stronghold was merely a very small stronghold, with a population of less than a hundred.
Lin Yi had brought a full fifty armored soldiers. They all wore thick leather armor, and each carried eighty jin of sweet potatoes on his back.
With the Constitution of these veteran soldiers, even doubling their loads would have been manageable. But the mountain paths were difficult, and the journey long, so it was unsuitable to push them too far.
Lin Yi had brought fifty armored men, partly to transport food by manpower, and partly to display military might to the mountain folk.
The mountain folk might be simple and honest, but simplicity and ferocity often did not conflict.
If you were strong, the mountain folk would be simple, hospitable, skilled in song and dance. If you were weak, however, they would easily entertain other thoughts, becoming vicious and savage, valiant and warlike.
History had long proven this point. It was so in this world, and it was just the same in the real world.
In reality, many people became skilled in song and dance not through patient guidance and enlightenment, but through airplanes, tanks, and machine guns. When even the most skilled archers and horsemen could not withstand a single missile, the world became peaceful.
As for this world, it required numbers and a fierce army.
Otherwise, one could not suppress the evil thoughts in people's hearts.
On the narrow trail, Lin Yi looked at the low houses on the higher slope, considering how many men Three Waters Stronghold might recruit this time.
Small strongholds like this occupied an awkward position in the mountains. Though they had a high proportion of young and able-bodied people, their total population was too small to support large-scale land reclamation, leaving them confined to the vicinity