By mid-May, Qingyunzi finally led sixty thousand elite soldiers back to Baling.
Lu Yuan immediately ordered these sixty thousand men who had been on campaign for half a year to take a leave of absence. They were each given a month off to go home and reunite with their families.
Upon their return from leave, they were to rotate through various placements in Baling and join the local defense forces within the jurisdiction.
This force had been on campaign for a long time, falling under the category of tired veteran soldiers. For this southern expedition, Lu Yuan did not plan to use them.
After all, there were still ten legions remaining in Dongting jurisdiction. If he wanted to select three from among them, it would be extremely simple.
He certainly wouldn't need to use a single force to the point of exhaustion.
Moreover, among the ten legions originally stationed in Dongting, most were new recruits. The longest serving among them had only just completed a year of training.