To achieve immortality, I cultivate using Qi Luck

Chapter 816: Chapter 351 A High-Stakes Gamble_3

Although the number of people was still somewhat low, and their quality somewhat lacking, the sheer numbers meant that they could hold out for a month or two even against an Inborn Grandmaster or a great army of a hundred thousand.

With this time to buffer, they could also calmly dispatch troops within the country, ready to rush to aid at any moment,”

Lu Yuan gazed at the undulating waves, pondering silently in his heart and couldn’t help but sigh.

The forces at his disposal were still too few.

The current Chu State, when all divisions of the standing troops were combined, amounted to approximately seven hundred and twenty thousand.

The composition of these troops could roughly be divided into six parts.

The first part was, naturally, the most numerous and the most elite, the Forbidden Army.

Chu State now had twenty-five divisions of the Forbidden Army, totaling five hundred thousand soldiers.

Among them, ten divisions of two hundred thousand were stationed in Dongting Prefecture, five divisions of one hundred thousand in Hanzhong County, four divisions of eighty thousand in Xiangyang Prefecture, two divisions of forty thousand in Qianzhong County, and one division of twenty thousand in Xichuan Prefecture.

Additionally, three divisions of the Forbidden Army, sixty thousand strong, accompanied Qingyunzi on the Southern Expedition to Nanhai Country.

The above were Chu State’s main mobile forces and its main army, classified as Soldier.

Besides, each of the six prefectures of Chu State also had ten thousand county soldiers as permanent garrison forces responsible for suppressing internal rebellions and defending against external enemies.

Even when the troops of a prefecture were lacking, they could temporarily draw on county soldiers from elsewhere to come and support.

Overall, there wasn’t much difference between the county soldiers and the Forbidden Army, the only distinction being that county soldiers were mainly responsible for military affairs within a prefecture and had a fixed defensive region, equivalent to a local military district.

Whereas the Forbidden Army was a mobile force, often running around the country.

They went wherever they were needed, and thus were considered the central military.

But whether it was county soldiers or the Forbidden Army, both were part of the Soldier sequence, and the disparity in their combat strength was not too great, being on the same level.

With six prefectures, Chu State had a total of sixty thousand county soldiers, constituting the second strongest military force within the country.

Apart from the county soldiers, there were also the Prefectures and Counties’ troops.

According to the prevailing regulations in the Nine Provinces, beneath the imperial central court there were prefectures; beneath the prefectures were counties; and beneath the counties were towns.

Depending on their size, prefectures varied in number, more or less.

Some had as many as ten, like the complete large prefectures of Dongting and Xichuan, which were divided this way.

Others, like Xiangyang Prefecture, which was occupied by Chu, Zhou, and Ning Countries and divided into three parts, Chu Country possessed four prefectures while the other two countries each possessed three.

This was the division at the prefecture level.

Below the prefecture level, the division into Prefectures and Counties was more uniform.

Basically, each prefecture controlled ten counties, and the number of counties didn’t vary much, all following this figure. @@novelbin@@

Therefore, according to this planning of Prefectures and Counties, the size of Prefectures and Counties’ troops was also basically fixed.

Each prefecture could raise one thousand Prefecture soldiers, and each county could raise a hundred County soldiers.

In this way, a prefectural unit, with all its troops combined, would have one thousand Prefecture soldiers and one thousand County soldiers, totaling two thousand.

These two thousand Prefecture and County soldiers belonged to the true local forces and were basically not transferred outside. They only handled local security and suppressed bandits and other small-scale, low-intensity conflicts.

For national wars or foreign conquests and the like, Prefecture and County soldiers were rarely enlisted.

The specific reason was not that they didn’t want to use these troops, but rather that the combat strength of Prefecture and County soldiers, compared to real Soldiers, was indeed quite lacking.

Both considered regular troops, the prefecture and county soldiers received a monthly salary of three silver taels, while the combat soldiers received five silver taels.

On occasions like New Year’s and Dragon Boat Festival, prefecture and county soldiers could receive two instances of holiday bonus. However, combat soldiers received additional bonuses for Mid-Autumn Festival and Cold Food Festival on top of those two.

Moreover, the bonuses and the silver taels given to the prefecture and county soldiers and the combat soldiers greatly differed.

In extreme cases, the difference could be more than double.

Therefore, when compared, the annual income of an ordinary combat soldier could be more than double that of the prefecture and county soldiers.

If they took part in battles, there was a wartime allowance; those hiding as troops could even receive double or one-and-a-half salary, which made the income gap with the prefecture and county soldiers even larger.

Let’s take another example.

Prefecture and county soldiers with a monthly salary of three silver taels compared to ordinary city laborers who could earn two silver taels a month if they worked hard enough. Those with some skills, such as chefs, blacksmiths, and carpenters, earning three to four silver taels was not out of the question.

Even counting holiday bonuses, the annual income of a prefecture and county soldier was just about on par with an ordinary chef, blacksmith, or carpenter, only slightly better than the lowest-level laborers.

Therefore, even if the salary of the prefecture and county soldiers was enough to support the family, life was still scrappy, far from affluent.

Alternatively, combat soldiers could maintain their entire family’s wellbeing and still have resources to spare for their own upkeeping.

With enough money, naturally, they could indulge in food and drink freely, train their martial skills freely, and even afford some herbs for nourishment, leading a life of sheer bliss.

Such a significant income disparity inevitably created a gap in the fighting ability of the prefecture and county soldiers and the combat soldiers, forming two distinct levels of combat effectiveness.

One could only suppress bandits and civil unrest internally and maintain a semblance of public safety.

The other could compete against other nations externally and quell large-scale rebellions internally without fear.

It was these differences that made countries reluctant to deploy prefecture and county soldiers to the front lines for offensive operations, if not necessary.

If cannon fodder was needed, it was cheaper to conscript more civilian workers.

If they needed to crack tough nuts, prefecture and county soldiers lacked the capability.

This neither-here-nor-there status led to a consensus among various nations.

Prefecture and county soldiers were just for maintaining local law and order; they were not needed for other tasks.

And with their combat ability being only slightly better than the militia, they found it difficult to take on significant responsibilities and were fundamentally ineffective.

Chu State currently had fifty prefectures, amounting to about one hundred thousand prefecture and county soldiers, which constituted the third part of the combat power.

Within Baling, there were about five thousand Jinwu Guards, specifically responsible for the city’s internal security. Additionally, there were about five thousand palace guards responsible for the safety of the royal palace.

These two groups of troops, totaling ten thousand men, represented the weakest part of the army sequence.

Apart from the five sequences of the land army mentioned above, there remained fifty thousand naval troops.

The Forbidden Army, regional soldiers, prefecture and county soldiers, Jinwu Guard, palace guards, and the navy—all six sequences together formed Chu State’s military might, a grand total of seven hundred and twenty thousand troops.

Although this seems like a large number, the framework Chu State had set up was expansive, and once spread thin for various uses, dividing a bit here and a bit there, there wasn’t much left over.

Just like now.

Once split among three peripheral battlefields, divided for local law enforcement, and part set aside for border defense, what eventually fell into Lu Yuan’s hands was just two hundred and ten thousand troops.

Facing Ning Country’s army, which outnumbered his by more than twofold, the situation was extremely tight, riddled with loopholes.

“For now, let’s hold our ground. If it really comes to it, we’ll just have to pay a higher price,” Lu Yuan muttered to himself, his eyes revealing a twinge of agony at the last word “price,” obviously reluctant to bear such a cost.