Vol 10 Chapter 24 (1/2)
Chapter 24
VOLUME 10 CHAPTER 24: DON’T TELL ME THIS IS FAN CITY (11)
Liu Bei POV
“Of course, this battle was won thanks to you after all.” I shrugged and then turned to everyone, “By the way, after we fully establish control over Fan city, how many troops can we expect to draft?”
“Un, we don’t have a specific figure as yet but based on the total population, I’d say that we can get 30,000 at the most.” Wen Yuan replied.
“About the same number I had in mind.” Zi Long nodded but her expression darkened, “But in reality…”
“Yes, even if we are able to follow through with all of the improvements in the city, that does not mean we can attain that number.” Yun Chang continued after Zi Long, “It’s not like we can seize all the able-bodied after all but there are a significant number who have expressed some interest in joining us after hearing that we were Liu Bei’s army.”
“But it’ll be difficult for the people of Fan city to make the resolve to join us.” Feng Xian added, “For them, it is difficult to see how we might end up after all and they were under the rule of Cao Cao not too long ago as well.”
Un… We have quite a number of issues huh?
“Then let’s leave aside the number that we can draft for now.” Yuan Zhi spoke up and asked, “And think about the number we need based on your experience.”
Yun Chang exchanged glances with Wen Yuan and Feng Xian before replying, “We currently have in total 10,000 troops, 4,000 here and 6,000 in Xinye. Both cities are severely lacking troops. Based on the standard garrison sizes, I would say that we need at least 50,000 troops to be able to defend both cities.”
“50,000?!” I frowned, “Do we need that many people?”
“Even this is a conservative estimate.”
“Based on my experience, it’s better if we have 50,000 troops to a city.” Zi Long chimed in and knocked the nail into the coffin, “Look at this battle. In the very last skirmish, we ended up using all 11,000 troops that we had back then. If we have 50,000 troops, we can attack and defend. Even if we leave the city to attack and fail, we can still fall back and defend the city. It will also allow for a wider range of strategies.”
Everyone else nodded in response.
“So the issue here is a lack of able-bodied individuals to draft huh…” Yuan Zhi said as she looked up and sank into thought, “But Jing state is not like the north where there are more commandery towns so…”
“Has Yuan Zhi thought of any solutions to raise the number of troops in a short amount of time?”
“Un… But it will not be easy.” Yuan Zhi said as she looked at us, “I’m rather familiar with Jing state. Though the cities are prosperous and populous, that is just the main cities and outside of them, most people live in small villages or village towns. Most of these tend to have less than 100 households in total and less than 1,000 troops.”
“What about it?” Zi Long asked, “Do we then go to each village and recruit troops?”
“That’s too difficult.” Wen Yuan said as she shook her head, “Small villages like that can’t lose too many able-bodied workers so the most we can take from each village like that is about 1-200 individuals.”
“Additionally, city denizens are smarter than village denizens so it will take more time to train recruits from villages.” Feng Xian added.
“Nonsense, how could people from villages be stupid~” Zhou Cang immediately said when Fen
g Xian finished and all of us looked at each other. Zhou Cang really did prove Feng Xian’s point.
“Yes, that is indeed an issue.”
“Oi!”
“But this doesn’t affect recruitment numbers. We’ll deal with training issues when we get there.” Yuan Zhi continued, ignoring Zhou Cang’s protests, “I also understand what Lord Zhang Liao and Lord Guan Yu have said and my method will deal with those issues.”
I looked at Yuan Zhi and saw that she was as confident as she seemed during the first pre-battle briefing. Unlike then, her confidence this time was genuine.
Yuan Zhi looked around at everyone when she finished and took a deep breath when she saw that everyone was waiting for her to continue before she explained her solution, “What I propose is to move all of the surrounding villages into Xinye and Fan city.”
“Eh? Move… The villages?”
Yuan Zhi nodded.