Two months later.
Southern Wasteland, Heaven-Answering City.
Zhao Cheng stood atop the lofty city walls. On the open ground beyond the city, several hundred thousand troops stood arrayed.
In three years, the army under his command had swelled to six hundred thousand. That was after rigorous selection; if he accepted everyone regardless of quality, his army could likely have surpassed two million outright.
It was not that the people of the Southern Wasteland failed to understand the perils of war. Rather, the Heaven-Answering Army had given them the impression of being invincible in every battle. This had already been proven during the pacification of the Southern Wasteland—the danger had seemed minimal. Besides, enlisting brought immense benefits. If one person joined the army, their entire family benefited.
Under such circumstances, in families with many children, even if the children themselves were unwilling, their elders wanted to stuff them into the army.
But the Heaven-Answering Army was now unlike the powerful clans beyond its borders. Elsewhere, they forcibly conscripted able-bodied men; in the Heaven-Answering Army, you might desperately want to squeeze in, but without some skill, you could not get in at all.
And these six hundred thousand were only the regular army. Under the Southern Wasteland's current system, there was also a militia apart from the regular forces. The militia did not need to go to war; it was used to safeguard local security. Now that they had chemical fertilizer, and had begun crop breeding again over the past year or two, grain yields were climbing ever higher, enough to support more people leaving agricultural work.
Of course, the militia normally still worked and farmed. They simply received an additional share of merit, underwent more training, and had to take turns standing duty for a day or two each month.
But