Steel Dynasty - Chapter 768

[Chapter 767 Expanding the Army]

September 27th was a beautiful day in Qingzhou.

In the city, scholars, merchants, and ordinary people lived their lives as usual, and there was no smell of war here.

But at this time, there was another scene in the political hall. It would take at least ten days for the battle report to arrive from Yizhou. By the time the battle report arrived in Qingzhou, Yizhou had been besieged by barbarians for ten days. It was still unknown whether the city was broken. number.

After receiving the battle report, Xiao Ming immediately summoned the civil and military ministers to prepare for the barbarian invasion.

“Your Majesty, this time the barbarians conquered Songzhou in collusion with Tubo, otherwise the barbarian army would not have appeared openly outside Songzhou City.”

Zhan Xingchang was the first to go out and say after learning the news.

Xiao Ming frowned. Tubo was the most unstable factor in the southwestern border of Great Chongqing. Since the founding of Great Chongqing, it had fought three wars with Tubo on the border, winning two of them and losing one. The most recent war was ten years ago.

At that time, Luo Quan personally led his army and attacked the Tibetan military camp at night. He killed 15,000 Tibetan soldiers before scaring off the Tibetan army.

Fiji sighed at this time and said: “Your Majesty, when Emperor Gaozu established his capital in Chang’an, he wanted to intimidate Tubo, the Golden Horde and other foreign barbarians. Now Qingzhou is thousands of miles away from Tubo, and the threat to Tubo is far less than before. , Now it is reasonable for Tubo to be bribed by the Golden Horde.”

Niu Ben was already a little impatient. He said: “You civil servants are the mother-in-law and the mother-in-law. Now the barbarian army has reached the city of Yizhou. For this plan, We can only send a large army to destroy the barbarian army under Yizhou City,”

Pang Yukun said: “I think the purpose of the barbarians this time is to plunder. Winter is coming soon, and the barbarians who have suffered in the past few years will definitely come in winter. They had plundered enough supplies before, and the battle report said that the barbarians were mainly cavalry and specialized in plundering, which is enough to see their intentions. “

The ministers all said something to me, and they all looked excited and made impassioned speeches. Compared to the past five years. At this time, the ministers in the Chengqing Palace of former Chang’an were more discussing how to deal with the enemy, rather than being frightened and overwhelmed.

Xiao Ming was secretly satisfied with this change. Today’s Chongqing Kingdom under his rule was very different from when Xiao Wenxuan was in power. The victory in several battles with the barbarians made the ministers change their fear of the barbarians.

Looking at the ministers in the government hall, Xiao Ming said: “For now, regardless of whether the barbarians are colluding with Tubo, the most important thing now is to drive the barbarians out of the Bashu land to prevent the thirteen states of Yizhou Prefecture from being plundered by the barbarians.”

Regarding the barbarians .

The incident of taking advantage of Tubo was a surprise to everyone in the court. At this time, Xiao Ming remembered that in contemporary history, Kublai Khan once used Tubo to bypass the Song Army’s heavily guarded northern defense line and attack Dali. This incident was quite interesting. There are similarities.

After pondering for a while, he continued: “Immediately pass on my decree, order Lu Fei to lead 20,000 troops to help Yizhou, and Qi Guangyi to lead 30,000 cavalry to go together. We must annihilate the invading enemy.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Niu Ben said solemnly.

After deciding on the matter, Xiao Ming continued: “Although the affairs of Yizhou Prefecture are under the jurisdiction of the Military Aircraft Department, all my beloved ministers must provide full assistance and not delay the war.”

Fiji, Pang Yukun and other civil servants immediately bowed to respond. In their hearts It is clear that the current court is no longer the previous court.

Nowadays, the ministers in the court perform their respective duties. Those in charge of government affairs only care about government affairs, those in charge of war only care about fighting, and those in charge of law only care about the law.

Therefore, this war in Yizhou Prefecture is ultimately the responsibility of the Military Aircraft Department. All they need is to cooperate with the Military Aircraft Department to provide food and grass and recruit civilians.

The war was urgent, so Xiao Ming said nothing and assigned the ministers their respective tasks. He asked Niu Ben to stay and let the other ministers disperse.

After everyone left, he said to Niu Ben: “This time you will transfer 10,000 musketeers equipped with new firearms to Yizhou to kill the barbarians.”

Niu Ben’s expression changed slightly. What Xiao Ming said was The thousands of musketeers are all equipped with muskets. In the past six months, the Chinese Military Workshop has delivered a total of 15,000 muskets to the army.

There are still a large number of muskets in the army being modified in military workshops, and they are preparing to slowly equip all the armies of the Great Chongqing with such long-range rifled guns.

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Niu Ben nodded heavily.

He could tell from Xiao Ming’s tone how angry he was at this moment. Yizhou Prefecture was known as the Land of Abundance and was an important producer of raw silk, grain, and tea in the Chongqing Kingdom.

Moreover, the autumn harvest is about to begin at this time. The barbarians’ troubles this time will drag down the recovery of Dayu and also affect Dayu’s foreign trade.

“Also, taking advantage of this war to mobilize 20,000 troops to garrison Huajue Island, I want to let the barbarians know that they are not the only ones who will burn, kill and loot.” Xiao Ming gritted his teeth and said fiercely.

This barbarian raid caught him off guard. Although he had always been on guard against Tibet and stationed 30,000 cold weapon troops in Songzhou, the barbarian attack of 60,000 cavalry and 80,000 slave soldiers Under this situation, these 30,000 cold weapon troops are vulnerable to a single blow.

Niu Ben’s eyes were sharp and he said: “Your Majesty, I think it’s time to expand the army. An army of more than 100,000 people cannot defend the vast territory of the Great Chongqing. Even if these armies cannot be equipped with firearms, it is still good to use armor and swords, otherwise What happened in Songzhou will continue to happen again. “

Xiao Ming frowned deeply. At this time, he deeply realized that it was easy to conquer Dayu, but how difficult it was to hold on to Dayu.

Da Yu is undoubtedly in the worst strategic and geographical environment in the world. Compared with the United Kingdom, the island countries of Japan and Japan do not border on any country. Da Yu has many neighboring countries. The most important thing is that none of these countries is Good stubble.

In order to prevent the surrounding barbarians from running in and robbing him, he had to build a circle of fortresses in the vast land of Chongqing to guard against invasion.

Therefore, just the defense of the mainland will consume a lot of military expenditures of the Great Chongqing Kingdom. This is one of the reasons why dynasties in the past rarely went on expeditions. In a farming-based environment, there is no money to do domestic work, and expeditions will only lead to Decline faster.

In contrast, the British and Japanese had no such worries. They did not need to defend their homeland at all. Their troops only needed to be used for offense, and most of their attacks were looting.

Simply put, fighting is beneficial to them. The more they fight, the richer they become, and the richer they get, the more they fight.

“Then how many troops do you think Da Yu should maintain at present?” Xiao Ming asked.

“If there were no firearms, the country of Chongqing would need at least 1.2 million troops. Now according to veterans, it needs at least 500,000 troops, more than 300,000 for defense, and more than 100,000 for conquest.” Niu Ben slowly said said.

(End of chapter)