Banners billowed across the countryside, the surnames of the feudal lords embroidered upon them, as camp after camp of soldiers advanced toward Gong County along three routes.
The first armies to arrive already numbered a hundred thousand, with countless more following behind.
For this great battle, the Han Court had assembled two hundred thousand elite troops, while the combat-ready armies from all quarters totaled over five hundred thousand. Counting the troops escorting supplies, it truly was a million-strong host, vast and surging, capable of smashing any resistance.
Usually, however, these armies were levied in batches and entered the battlefield in batches.
The vanguard might already be fighting while the rearmost armies had only just sworn their oaths and set out.
Take Bingzhou Inspector Ding Yuan, for instance. Though he had already arrived, he claimed to command thirty thousand troops.
But Bingzhou was so far away that raising thirty thousand troops at such short notice was impossible. He had brought his elite soldiers ahead, leaving his subordinates in Bingzhou to keep recruiting village militia and sending them over as logistical troops.
In great clashes involving hundreds of thousands, there were usually secondary battlefields besides the main one. The outcome of a single local engagement could not decide the entire campaign.
Both sides kept pouring in troops, their strategists contending to improve their chances, while commanding generals charged into battle to alter every local situation that might affect victory or defeat.
Unless the disparity between their strategists and commanding generals was too great, both sides would inevitably win some engagements and lose others. They would fight to the very last moment, exhaust their hidden cards, and play almost entirely with their hands exposed. In the end, whoever had deeper reserves, dared to stake their lives, and could hold out would win. That