There are no longer twenty thousand men, there's not even ten thousand.
After Fu Zhongshu brought back twenty thousand men, Prince East Sea withheld their military rations, and with various threats and temptations, many people ran away.
Fu Zhongshu was intent on training and disciplining the troops, but the national treasury was controlled by Prince East Sea, and they couldn't get a single cent from him.
So these twenty thousand troops had to sustain themselves.
Fu Zhi sold off a lot of family property for this, even the emperor had to cut back on food and expenses to support them, but how easy is it to support twenty thousand men?
Neither of them was skilled in management, and in less than half a year, many of these twenty thousand men had already run away. With the small conflicts that occasionally broke out with Prince East Sea, the losses were even greater.
Now, they have less than ten thousand men left.
