troops, or possibly 'numbers' was some kind of delicious snack back then.

I think I'll stick with troops. Thanks a bunch guys. :)

I went and read that part of the chronicles. It refers to Mongol census-takers. If you read it, you can see that they ride around, counting houses, while people tried to rise up against them. "Numbers" refers to a census, that would be a basis for how much tax was owed to the Khan. The prince of Novgorod, Alexander Nevsky, cooperated with the Mongols, he wanted peaceful relations with them, and the anti-Mongol uprising was put down.

Obviously referring to their measurements

IIRC from an unreliable source, as the Mongol horde conquered their enemies, it conscripted fighting-age men to become part of the horde. This reached a point where people fighting off "the Mongolians" weren't even fighting Mongolians, but rather a mixed force largely stocked with recently-conquered foes.

In this case though, they probably mean MegaMillions lottery tickets.

THM: That was certainly true when the Mongols were fighting other steppe nomads in their early days. Conquered tribes were reorganized and conscripts levied (IIRC, it was one in ten from each tribe). By and large, however, farmers and urbanites from conquered areas were militarily useless to the Mongols aside from specialties like engineering and translation services and were generally left alone so long as they acknowledged Mongol suzerainty (and didn't complain about their wives and daughters being raped). This changed in the later Empire as the Mongols 'settled down' - especially in China under Kublai. But for the mid 13th century, your typical Polish or Persian dirt farmer would be fairly safe from conscription if they managed to survive the initial invasion.

As for the OP's question, the translation could be a lot more clear, but I think Vaftrudner is on the right track.