Although the troop mobilization was not scheduled until dawn the next morning, Chu Yueli had not rested for a moment since her arrival, save for a single bowl of hot soup.
Under normal marching conditions for infantry, the journey from Qinyang to Dingzhou would take at least half a month. While it was possible to condense the schedule to thirteen or fifteen days by pushing the pace, the soldiers would be forced to march for over fourteen hours a day, which would be an exhausting and unsustainable ordeal. It was an approach that pushed them to the absolute limit and was therefore ill-advised.
One could shorten the trip to six or seven days by having the cavalry move ahead, but the army only possessed three thousand horsemen. Sending them to Nanmeng alone would be of little strategic value. Moreover, these three thousand riders were essential for handling unforeseen emergencies along the way. If they were all deployed elsewhere, the main body of the army would be left in an extremely vulnerable position.
Chapter 799