Linjiang City.
Half a month had passed since the last battle against the southern coalition.
Two hundred thousand Qing Army troops rested and recuperated here.
Since the southern coalition was so numerous, with five or six hundred thousand Beggar Gang disciples alone, and over a million troops once the White Lotus Sect, Heaven and Earth Society, Taiping Sect, Divine Dragon Sect, and other major sects were included, the Qing Imperial Court had also dispatched substantial forces to the south-a full four hundred thousand soldiers.
Of those four hundred thousand troops, three hundred thousand had been brought by Zheng Keshuang, the Prince of Yanping, who had originally been responsible for the southern campaign.
The remaining hundred thousand had been brought by E’erdou, the Commander of the Nine Gates, to reinforce Zheng Keshuang.
But after dozens of major battles, only two hundred thousand of those four hundred thousand Qing troops remained.
Although their numbers could not compare with the southern coalition's, there was still an enormous difference between regular soldiers and mud-legged peasants. This was especially true of the coalition's several hundred thousand Beggar Gang members, most of whom were ordinary people who could not even get enough to eat.
Sending people like that onto a battlefield was essentially sending them to their deaths.
Thus, the Qing Imperial Court's two hundred thousand troops still held an absolute advantage over the southern coalition.
The only problem they needed to resolve now was the White Lotus Sect's old Heavenly Being.
As long as they eliminated him—or merely kept the White Lotus Sect's old Celestial—occupied—the two hundred thousand Qing troops could sweep forward, win the battle, and utterly scatter the southern rebel coalition.
Zheng Keshuang and the others clearly understood this as well.
Thus, after half a month of recuperation, the generals gathered again to