Grossly, insanely different PD strengths

[Lord_Bob]

I conquered T'ien Ch'i's capital a few turns ago. I'm still scared to send my main army into any of the provinces, because if I guess wrong and he has pumped the PD up, my main army, after the losses taking the capital, can't beat 50-60 T'ien Ch'i PD. In case you're wondering, that's:
50 Footmen
50 Composite Bow Archers
50 Light Horse with Composite Bow and Light Lance
30 Heavy Calvary with Composite Bow and Lance

I finally decided I have to rebuild my army and send mages into battle.... to take every single province. Either that or I risk the loss of my main army for no reason.

Note how I said I have to send my MAIN ARMY into every province.

And I need most of that main army guarding the provinces that he could raid, since my PD can't reliably stop four archers.

[Sombre]

Or you could use a single scout to attack the provinces with orders to retreat and find out which he's put PD in. You don't have to go "Oh a guessing game, I lose by default" - he has to guess where your army is going, so actually he's at a disadvantage in this particular guessing game because PD can't move.