The initial firm embargo on peace negotiations gradually showed signs of softening.
If peace could be achieved, perhaps eighty or ninety thousand of the one hundred and fifty thousand soldiers of the Guangling Prefecture could be extracted.
Then, from the fifty thousand forbidden soldiers in the capital, twenty to thirty thousand could be drawn out, possibly forming another army of a hundred thousand and deploying them to Dongting Prefecture.
But this final army of one hundred thousand was already the limit.
By such calculations, the troops that the imperial court could muster were around only one hundred and fifty thousand.
Struggling to increase their troops further would merely resemble Lu Yuan and his allies forcibly conscripting civilian workers.
This might enhance their forces, and even with the capabilities of the imperial court, amassing an army of one million might not be impossible.
