If Chidao is the bloodline of an empire, then the inns are the nodes of this blood vessel network, and its most important role is to allow Chidao to play its maximum role.
In peacetime, it mainly provides convenience for officials passing by, allowing local news to be quickly spread to other places. It is also the most rudimentary letter transmission system.
When there is a war, the post station also has the function of transmitting military information, so the post station will be stationed with post soldiers, and there must be fast horses in the stables, so as to transmit military news to the corresponding location as quickly as possible.
In addition, letters home from military sergeants had to be sent via post stations.
Therefore, the role of post stations is self-evident. In the pre-Sui period, the post stations were well built. However, during the Daye period, with the rapid decline of the pre-Sui national power, many post stations could not afford the expenses and were abolished.
It was almost like no one was taking care of them anymore. Like the soldiers in the post station, they had no source of livelihood and had no choice but to disperse.
By the time of Yang Guang's third expedition to Goguryeo, the post system of the former Sui Dynasty had actually collapsed, and many people were forcibly drawn into the army that conquered Liaodong.
The civilians who provided logistics for the army destroyed countless stations along the way.
Now that Datang wanted to rebuild the post system, there was no other way but to start all over again.
This is actually part of the basic project carried out by the imperial court.
…………
Another issue is the establishment of Zhechong Prefecture. It has been three or four years since the imperial court established Zhechong Prefecture. In the seventh year of Yuanzhen, a phased result was achieved.
This year, when I reported to the court, there were 324 Zhechong mansions built throughout the Tang Dynasty, and more than 600,000 soldiers were built in these mansions. Most of them were soldiers from the princes who surrendered when the Tang Dynasty pacified the world.
There are still many standing armies in the Tang Dynasty. If they are added to one place, the war mobilization capabilities of the Tang Dynasty will be completely different from those in previous years.
As long as you have enough food and grass, and if you really need it, Datang can recruit more than a million people to fight the enemy at any time.
In the current world, it is no exaggeration to say that in terms of military capabilities, there is no longer any opponent, and even the Turks in the north have to be defeated.
This was the Tang Empire that rose from the ruins of the war in the late Sui Dynasty. It was huge and warlike, and the only thing that could restrain it was the rugged and cruel geographical environment around it.
That was also the shackles on the heads and necks of the Central Plains empires of past dynasties, and it was difficult to break free.
What the DPRK has to do at this time is very simple, which is to send officials and generals to inspect various Zhechong mansions to see if there are any lies or concealment of reports.
The number of 600,000 made Li Po a little dizzy. The number was too large, which meant that maintaining the operation of Zhechong Mansion would require a lot of financial and material resources.
One of the great advantages of the government army system is that there is no need to bear the logistical support of these reserve soldiers. It is nothing more than hiding the troops among the people.
If the government soldiers are treated the same as the standing army, and their food and grass have to be provided by the court, no matter how much wealth they have, it will not be enough.
Considering the current national strength of the Tang Dynasty, Li Po felt that more than one million people were too many.
As for the standing army, it is necessary to maintain it at the current four to five million people, because the Turks, a major threat, are still active in the north. In order to prevent the Turks from recurring, a strong military strength must be maintained as a deterrent.
The number of soldiers in Zhechong Mansion can be reduced, and 300,000 is a more appropriate number.
Don't think that the imperial court doesn't have to do anything because it doesn't have to feed the soldiers. Although the money allocated by the government every year is only a drop in the bucket for the national treasury, the tax reduction for the soldiers and their families is a big deal.
The 600,000 government soldiers are calculated only based on the current minimum family size. A family of three means that 1.8 million people need tax reduction.
It was almost one-seventh of the current population of the Tang Dynasty, and coupled with the aristocratic families owning a lot of land, the tax was lighter than that of the soldiers.
Calculated like this, a few years is an astronomical number.
The loss of the national treasury is one thing. In recent years, it has been difficult to see the kind of war that requires the recruitment of government soldiers to participate in the war. Therefore, gradually reducing the scale of the government troops is one of the things that the court must do now.
When Li Podong visited Luoyang in the sixth year of Yuanzhen, he sent Li Xiuning to conduct a general inspection of the various Zhechong prefectures set up in Guanxi and Henan.
Li Xiuning also killed some people in Zhengzhou, mainly because he was greedy for food and grass, falsely reported the number of soldiers in the government, etc. When he came back, he told Li Po that the situation was not good and that there were many people below who were acting randomly.
Some people still have a lot of military exploits, and once they take office in the local area, they can easily run rampant.
And the Zhechong Mansion was not under local jurisdiction. Some people became local emperors, and the local officials had nothing to do with them. The Ministry of War and the Guards Mansion were both in Chang'an, which was far away from each other. Therefore, Li Xiuning thought that setting up the Zhechong Mansion was unnecessary and might not be possible in the future.
Hidden danger.
Li Po only agreed with half of it. As an emperor, he definitely didn't see the problem from the same perspective as Li Xiuning.
The reason why Zhechong Mansion was set up was firstly to facilitate the management of the government soldiers. During the war in the late Sui Dynasty, the government soldiers were the main force of the major rebel armies.
The former Sui Dynasty only wanted to use Fu Bing, but was unwilling to bear the corresponding responsibilities. As a result, Fu Bing's family lived in poverty, so they joined forces with the rebels one after another. People like Dou Jiande and others were all from Fu Bing family.
In the former Sui Dynasty, the management of the government soldiers was also very loose. In the usual suppression of bandits, there were county lieutenants and the county lieutenants led the government soldiers to do it. When the war came, the marching generals, general guards, and generals of the government were all responsible for the government.
All soldiers have jurisdiction.
With their powers and responsibilities unclear, Fu Bings became chamber pots. They took them out when they were in use, and ignored them when they were not in use. As a result, the Fu Bing families went bankrupt one after another, and they became a chamber pot.
One of the scourges in troubled times.
xiashuba.com
The Tang Dynasty established Zhechong Mansion, which was the nerve endings of the imperial court extending to local areas. By the way, it also deprived county officials of the power to mobilize troops without authorization.
This was another function of the Zhechong Mansion, which restricted local officials from coveting military power. It was also an important measure for the centralization of power in the Tang Dynasty.
With the power of local officials weakened, they naturally have to listen to the central government's deployment.
Thirdly, with the link of Zhe Chongfu, it will be very convenient to mobilize the soldiers to participate in the war. It is rare that the transfer order reaches the place, but it takes a long time to summon the soldiers.
The soldiers trained by Silai Zhechong Mansion will have stronger combat effectiveness. After training, the soldiers will be able to quickly integrate into the army during wartime, even if their combat strength is not up to the level of the regular army, instead of just doing their own thing.
.
In addition, the imperial court could use the Zhechong Mansion to instill the idea of loyalty to the emperor and patriotism into the soldiers from various places. This is also another very important function of the Zhechong Mansion, ensuring the loyalty of the soldiers.
Compared with the great political affairs of these countries, some of the shortcomings shown now are completely tolerable...
This chapter has been completed!