What is missing?" Zhao Zhen asked again when he heard Li Zhang's words.

"People! To be precise, they are loyal to the people of our Song Dynasty. This is the basis for rule over the land!" Li Zhang said firmly.

"This... I also know this, but Xingzhou is not the territory of our Song Dynasty and has been ruled by Dangxiang for many years. If we want people to submit, it may take more than ten years of education. Cousin, you might as well not say this." Zhao Zhen said a little amused when he heard Li Zhang's answer. He thought Li Zhang had some ideas, but he didn't expect that what he wanted to say was something that everyone knew about.

"Who said that it takes more than ten years to support people's hearts? I will teach you a way to support people's hearts quickly!" Li Zhang said with a smile again at this time.

"Is there really such a way?" Zhao Zhen asked at this time, feeling that he believed Li Zhang would not lie to him, but reason told him that unless there are really gods in this world, it would be impossible to create so many people loyal to the Song Dynasty out of nothing.

"Of course there is a way. For example, the capital has a population of millions. If you move half of them to Xingzhou, wouldn't you immediately add 500,000 people loyal to the Song Dynasty?" Li Zhang blinked at this time.

"Cousin, don't joke. Although the capital has a large population, it cannot be moved casually. Not to mention whether the court has the ability to relocate so many people, even if it really has this ability, the people may not be willing. Maybe it will cause chaos in the people. The capital is the center of our Song Dynasty. If there is chaos in the capital at that time, it will be more than worth the loss." Zhao Zhen said amused and crying when he heard Li Zhang's words, and even suspected that Li Zhang was really joking.

"I just took the capital city as an example, but I didn't let you really move the people in the capital city. I saw a document from the Ministry of Revenue before, saying that our Song Dynasty currently has more than 16 million households, and the average family has five people, which is more than 80 million. When the former Tang Dynasty was at its peak, the population was only so large, but the territory of the former Tang Dynasty was several times that of our Song Dynasty. So many people live in such a small country. Don't Your Majesty feel a little crowded?"

Only Li Zhang dared to say these words. After all, not everyone dared to belittle the dynasty. However, what Li Zhang said was also true. Among all dynasties, the Song Dynasty had almost the smallest territory, and even the Great Wall defense line was lost. It was a bit embarrassing to say it, but the Song Dynasty had a large population at all. In terms of population density, only the Qing Dynasty in later generations could compare with it.

"This..." Zhao Zhen also showed an awkward look on his face when he heard Li Zhang compare the territory of the Song Dynasty with the former Tang Dynasty, but then he smiled bitterly again, "But even if we are many people and small in places, our Song Dynasty is still very rich compared to other places. Even if the court wants to move the people to Xingzhou, no one will respond. If it is forced to move, it will eventually cause chaos in the people."

"It is definitely not possible to migrate the people, but who said that we must migrate the people?" Li Zhang looked at Zhao Zhen with a smile and said again.

"If the people are not moved, why should they move? Should they move officials? But there are only more than 10,000 officials in the court. We can't move all these people over, right?" Zhao Zhen said laughing and crying again.

However, when Li Zhang heard this, he secretly complained. When talking about the number of officials, it is probably only Zhao Zhen would use "only" these two people. You should know that during the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin once cut off the central government from more than 2,000 to only more than 600, while the central government and outside officials in the Song Dynasty reached an astonishingly more than 17,000, which is one of the three famous redundant officials in history.

"In addition to the people and officials, our Song Dynasty also has a huge population. Why did Your Majesty forget?" Li Zhang did not say it explicitly this time, but spoke again and guided him.

Zhao Zhen was stunned again when he heard this, then frowned and pondered: "Apart from the people and officials, there is only the army left. Do you mean cousin, you want to..."

Zhao Zhen was shocked at the end, and then looked at Li Zhang with an incredible expression. Li Zhang smiled calmly and said, "Yes, I'm talking about the army. Don't your Majesty think there are too many troops in our Song Dynasty?"

The army of the Song Dynasty was mainly divided into two types, namely the imperial guards, the wing army, and the township army and the foreign army, but it was not among the main military forces of the Song Dynasty, so it will not be discussed for the time being.

The Imperial Guard was a regular army of the Song Dynasty. During the reign of Zhao Kuangyin, he collected 120,000 elite troops from all over the country as the Imperial Guard, mainly responsible for guarding the capital and going out for battle or garrison. However, the scale of the Imperial Guard continued to expand. When Zhao Heng was in power, the Imperial Guard had reached an astonishing 480,000.

However, after the Chanyuan Alliance, Zhao Heng once abolished some of the imperial guards. However, after Liu E came to power, it may be because of Liu E's nature that felt a little insecurity. In addition, with the promotion of potatoes at that time, the Song Dynasty did not lack food, so Liu E also tried hard to expand the scale of the imperial guards, resulting in the number of imperial guards now reaching more than 700,000.

Among these more than 700,000 imperial guards, most of them are stationed near the capital, which is the so-called imperial guards in the capital. The other is divided into two parts, stationed in the northwest and Hebei, which are the border troops in these two places.

Of course, the border troops are not static. Sometimes they will transfer the imperial guards from the capital to rotate to prevent the imperial guards from losing their combat effectiveness. However, as time goes by, the best system will gradually deteriorate. Now the imperial guards in the capital are not familiar with war for many years and their combat effectiveness is very low. On the contrary, the border troops in the northwest and Hebei have become the main force of the Song Dynasty. Although the rotation system is still there, the effect is not great.

In addition to the imperial guards, the Song Dynasty also retained a large-scale wing army. The wing army can be regarded as an auxiliary force of the regular army. It usually maintains public order and transports food and grass and other miscellaneous tasks. Of course, the wing army's reward is also very low, usually less than half of the imperial guards. Some wing army are directly converted from refugees, and they do not have much training in normal times and basically have no combat effectiveness, so the wing army is also called "servicemen".

Originally, the policies of the Imperial Army and the Xiang Army were complementary, and there was no big problem. However, the Song Dynasty also had a very deceptive policy, that is, as long as you become a military member, you have to be a soldier for life and have to be covered with words on your face. If you are a deserter, the punishment will be extremely serious and may even affect the village. Even if you are old or die in battle, you must select adult men from the children and grandchildren of the soldiers to join the army. This also led to the increase in the number of troops in the Song Dynasty and not decrease.
Chapter completed!