Zhao Kai has always been worried about the various humiliations caused by the Song Army in the past and Wanyan Zongwang's ridicule of the Song Army. In fact, he has long wanted to reform the military system, but the problem is that reforming the military system is no child's play and cannot be accomplished in one bite.
Fatty, this also involves the throne of the Zhao family, so Zhao Kai has been thinking about it and has not yet made a decision.{3w.
However, now that the economy has stabilized, the people live and work in peace and contentment, and all internal problems have been solved, he has made up his mind to reform the military system. After a long conversation with Li Qi, he was full of confidence that the reform of the military system was inevitable.
OK.
Of course, he also has his own thoughts. After all, the emperor's considerations cannot be exactly the same as those of his ministers. This has nothing to do with talent, but only different positions.
Zhao Kai's first step in reforming the military system was to increase military expenditures and raise soldiers' salaries. This was also the promise he made to the Western Army when he promulgated the three major resolutions.
In fact, the welfare of soldiers in the Song Dynasty is already the best. It is very perfect. It is also the same in history. No dynasty can compare with it. There is no way. Having money means being willful. You must know that the GDP of the Song Dynasty at its peak accounted for 100%.
Sixty percent of the world's per capita income has not been surpassed even by China in the 21st century. It is still the highest in Chinese history. What kind of concept is this?
But is Zhao Kai just trying to improve welfare?
of course not.
Everything the emperor did had a political purpose.
Increasing military spending is a reform of the military system, but it is by no means as simple as raising wages.
Wage increases will no longer be a blind increase, and the current court will not pay such unjust amounts of money, so the first step is to count the number of soldiers.
Zhao Kai used this as an excuse to declare that all the armies of the Song Dynasty were collectively called the Forbidden Army, and only the Forbidden Army could receive salaries. Those who were not on this list would not be paid salaries.
Before that, the military structure of the Song Dynasty included the imperial army, the rural soldiers, the Xiang soldiers, and several ace armies in the Western Army.
Now there are none, only the Forbidden Army, which is the collective name of the Song Dynasty’s army.
Then the Zhe Family Army, Zhong Family Army and other Western armies will be merged into the Forbidden Army.
Obviously, Zhao Kai went for the Western Army. He did not allow troops outside the military system to appear as before, but he did not dare to be too radical. He was afraid of causing dissatisfaction with the Western Army, so this time he just
By changing the collective name on the grounds of improving salaries, no matter what you call them privately, they are the Forbidden Army in name.
In addition, Zhao Kai also established five major military regions: east, west, south, north and middle. The military regions are divided by "roads". For example, the army on Fengxiang Road is called Fengxiang Army. Another example is the Hedong East Road where Taiyuan Prefecture and Fuzhou are located.
Hedong Army, but they all belong to the Western Military Region.
Salaries will be distributed by a new department jointly established by the three departments, the three yamen, the Privy Council, and the Ministry of War. This new department is called the Military Affairs Department.
Zhao Kai did this for two main reasons. First, because there were too many embezzlements of military pay in the past years, he had to let multiple departments check each other. The money came from the Third Division. The person who received the money came from the Sanya, and the list was
Coming from the Ministry of War, the Privy Council is responsible for the deployment of some salaries. After all, the salaries of each military region are different. The Western Army has been in the flames of war for many years, so the salary is of course higher, while the Eastern Military Region has relatively less.
The four departments are restraining each other, and the Judicial Yuan and the Legislative Yuan are watching. Anyone who wants to pay attention to the military must open up the three fronts of heaven, earth, and people, otherwise he is seeking death.
Secondly, Zhao Kai wanted to use the collective name of the Forbidden Army and the payment of salaries to strengthen control over the local armies, especially the Western Army. Zhao Kai's meaning is also very obvious. Although the army is in your hands, the money and food are in your hands.
I have it in my hands, and there will be no good consequences for you if you go against me.
But on the surface, Zhao Kai only wanted to improve the welfare of soldiers, and the generals of the Western Army had no reason to object.
As for the rural soldiers and Xiang soldiers, they were all abolished and returned to agriculture or business.
This heralded the beginning of a new round of disarmament in the military. During the Xining period, the Song Dynasty once boasted a million forbidden troops, and there were indeed so many at that time. However, during the Huizong period of the Song Dynasty, with the addition of the Western Army, rural soldiers, and Xiang soldiers,
The local troops such as soldiers barely reached one million. By the time Zhao Kai came to the throne, this number had reached 800,000, but there were only 400,000 regular troops, that is, the Western Army plus the Central Forbidden Army. These troops were capable of fighting.
In recent years, with the rapid economic growth, the military strength has begun to shrink further. Now that life is better, who is still willing to go to war? However, this shrinkage is only a real situation. On the surface, there are still many people who hold the title of soldier.
Busy with personal work.
In this regard, Zhao Kai released the first white paper on military matters. Of course, it is not called a white paper now, but the meaning is the same.
In this written report, Zhao Kai clearly stated that he would reduce the number of troops by 300,000. Most of these 300,000 were from irregular troops, mainly men over forty years old. In addition, he also recruited 400,000 from irregular troops.
One hundred thousand young people are mobilized from the Central Military Commission as reserve forces and also serve as grain and grass troops. They have a formal establishment. Most of these 100,000 young people are from the Western Army, which is considered a benefit to the Western Army. However, within three years, the Forbidden Army must reach
600,000, which heralds the beginning of a new wave of recruiting troops.
Among them, Zhao Kai made it clear that the central government had stockpiled 100,000 forbidden troops.
The Southern Military Region has 80,000 troops stationed in it, and Dali and Jiaozhi counties have 40,000 troops each.
The Eastern Military Region has stockpiled 70,000 troops, including 40,000 land troops and 30,000 naval troops, stationed in Fuzhou and Laizhou respectively.
The Western Military Region has a stockpile of 150,000, which are stored in Taiyuan and Chengdu respectively, and are responsible for military activities against Tubo and Xixia.
The Northern Military Region has a stockpile of 200,000 troops spread across the Yanyun area. Needless to say, it goes without saying that it is specifically targeting the Jin Army.
In terms of weapons, the Ordnance Supervision will set up three branches in Sanjing outside Tokyo, and one branch in Hangzhou, plus a shipyard in Fuzhou, and a total of six large weapons manufacturing plants in Tokyo, which will be responsible for the supply of weapons to the five major military regions.
And the types and quantities of weapons supplied to each military region are detailed.
Zhao Kai did not set up a weapons depot where the military region was located. The largest weapons depots were all in the Sijing. The purpose was to allow the court to fully control the weapons and prevent generals from overestimating their troops. Furthermore, the weapons depot was not responsible for one-to-one responsibility.
Yes, the weapons inspector does not know where the weapons he made will be transported. This is also to prevent the emergence of inferior weapons, because if you don’t know where they are transported, you cannot open the line between heaven and earth. When soldiers in the military region get this weapon, they will not find it.
If it meets the requirements, it will definitely be reported.
In addition, military discipline is contained in written notices. To put it simply, it means formulating a complete training process, just like taking a class. Each military region must train troops according to the process.
Among them, the five major military regions must conduct a military exercise every year. As an assessment, the imperial court will send people to monitor it.
Every three years, major military regions will conduct a joint military exercise. However, who the opponent is is randomly arranged, and the dispatch of troops is still the responsibility of the Privy Council. For example, which battalions are dispatched from the Fengxiang Army, and which battalions are dispatched from the Fengxiang Army.
Which battalions the Hedong Army will dispatch to form the Western Army to participate in military exercises is to prevent some people from being lazy. You must make sure that every soldier has combat capabilities, because you don't know which battalion the Privy Council will designate to participate in the joint military exercises.
However, Zhao Kai established the General Staff Headquarters on the grounds of military exercises. The Privy Council was only responsible for dispatching, but the content of the military exercises would be the responsibility of the General Staff Headquarters, and the marshals in the General Staff Headquarters would directly participate in the military exercises.
Li Qi has gloriously become the first person in the General Staff Department, and he will be appointed as the Deputy Minister of the General Staff Department, because so far, the entire strategic framework of the Song Dynasty has been agreed upon by him and Zhao Kai, and the General Staff Department
This undoubtedly weakened the power of the Privy Council, so Zhao Kai simply made Li Qi the second in command of the General Staff as a balance of power.
In addition, Zhao Kai also selected ten highly respected veteran generals to join the General Staff. Five of them were promoted to the third rank, and five were promoted to the fourth rank. Among the masters, Zhang Shuye, Zongze and other veteran generals were all here.
Among other things, this is the highest honor for military commanders. In the past, the highest military commander could be was the deputy privy envoy, but now the General Staff is the military commander's highest affiliation.
Looking at the list of personnel of the general staff, all of them are marshals. They will definitely be sent when there is a war. Although Zhao Kai said on the surface that this general staff was set up for military exercises, don’t think too much about it, but who
Everyone knows that this will become the highest military organization in the Song Dynasty, but it does not have any power in peacetime, because the General Staff does not have the power to send troops or command troops, but once there is a war, the General Staff will not tolerate it.
Underestimated.
In this way, civil and military affairs were completely separated. In terms of war, the emperor could ignore civil servants and directly discuss strategies with the General Staff. This also indicated that civil servants would not interfere in this war, but this did not change the use of civil servants to control the war.
Wu's situation, because no matter what, whether to fight or not is decided by civil servants based on the country's political interests. Once the emperor and civil servants discuss who to go to war with, the General Staff begins to discuss strategy.
To put it simply, the General Staff only decides how to fight, but whether to fight or not is still controlled by civil servants, and the military attache has no right to decide. It can be seen that the civilian system still overrides the military attache system, because if you don’t fight, your strategy will be
It's useless no matter how good it is.
This arrangement is very reasonable, because war is just a continuation of politics, and politics must of course be above war. If it were the other way around, it would be putting the cart before the horse. The Tang Dynasty's Jiedu envoys were so awesome that they ended up destroying the Tang Dynasty.
Therefore, military attaches cannot hold power, because military attaches definitely want to fight, and they usually do not consider the political interests of a country. This is not acceptable. Sometimes the war is won, but the overall situation is lost, and in this situation
Commonly seen.
Of course, the civil servants were dissatisfied, and their status was threatened step by step by the generals. But when they knew that Zhao Kai would serve as the chief of the general staff, and that the emperor was the head of the general staff, how could they dare to oppose it? Isn't this against the emperor?
, can only swallow it, this is also a method for the emperor to control military power.
At the same time, the emergence of the General Staff also caused considerable obstacles to the Prime Minister and the Third Division's desire to intervene in military affairs.
A new military system based on the original military system of the Song Dynasty has quietly arrived. (To be continued...)