Chapter One Thousand Self-Reliance: Farming and Raising Pigs
As the First Cavalry Brigade of the Datang Army with independent combat capabilities and organization, it is naturally different from the other cavalry detachments currently in the Datang Army, because the other cavalry detachments are actually from various infantry divisions.
The cavalry regiment is temporarily formed and has no fixed organization.
When counting the strength of the Tang Army, you can count the 1st Cavalry Brigade, but you cannot count the cavalry detachments, because those cavalry all belong to the infantry divisions, and counting them separately will be repeated.
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In addition, there are now eighteen heavy howitzer battalions, several independent garrison battalions, regiments, several independent baggage trains, and engineer battalions accompanying the main infantry divisions and mixed regiment operations. If you add in the command structures at all levels, the Privy Council and other personnel.
The total strength of the main front-line troops is approximately 300,000!
In addition to the main front-line troops, the Tang Army also has more than 30 reserve divisions. Each reserve division has different numbers. Some have only five or six thousand men, while others can reach more than 10,000 men. Basically,
Each preparatory division is different, and it depends on the area where it is deployed and the amount of pressure it endures.
But one thing is certain, that is, all preparatory divisions are dissatisfied!
There are more than 30 reserve divisions, and the current total strength of all of them is about 200,000.
In other words, the current total strength of the Tang Army should actually be said to be 500,000!
However, those reserve divisions with more than 200,000 people are used to suppress reserve forces in various places. Although the expenditure is very low and the equipment cost is even lower, the combat effectiveness is not very good.
After all, the total cost of the reserve divisions with a total of more than 200,000 people is only more than 5 million taels of silver per year. On average, the annual military expenditure per 10,000 people is more than 400,000 taels of silver, which is only half of that of the main front-line troops.
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You get what you pay for, and the combat effectiveness of the reserve force, which costs less, is naturally not very good. On weekdays, it just suppresses ordinary rebellions, defends a city, and so on.
In a head-to-head confrontation, not even Supervisor Biao could defeat him. The Tang Army in the Xiangyang area has more than 10,000 people, but there are only about 2,000 regular troops. The remaining nearly 10,000 people are reserve divisions. However, the Ming Dynasty defending Xiangyang
The army only has more than 10,000 supervisory standards.
With the strength of both sides being equal, if the reserve division could defeat the supervisory standard, they would have captured Xiangyang long ago, why did they wait until now?
To fight against the enemy's main force, we have to rely on the front-line main force, and the current reserve divisions are not good enough.
However, except for the Sixth Army, almost all of the main front-line troops of the Tang Army were deployed on the front line, making it difficult to deploy them, let alone move them around as mobile forces.
The First Army is in the west of Huguang and is preparing to enter Sichuan. The Second Army is in the northwest of Huguang and is currently advancing towards Xiangyang. The Third Army is in Hebei and northern Shanxi, confronting the Tatars and the Liaodong Ming Army. The Fourth Army is in Shaanxi.
Confronted with the Tatars, Oaras and people from the Western Regions; the Fifth Army, together with the First Army, was in the west of Huguang, preparing to enter Sichuan; the Sixth Army was deployed on the fourth road of Zhili.
There are only six armies in total, so we can divide them all in one point.
In addition to these six armies, the Tang Army also has an independent infantry division. This is the Fourth Infantry Division that has been in Yunnan and southeastern Sichuan for a long time. The Fourth Infantry Division has been in this quagmire for many years. It has always been
It could not be pulled out, which also led to the long-term weak presence of this infantry division within the Tang Dynasty.
However, without the Fourth Infantry Division struggling in the quagmire of the southwest, Guangxi and Guizhou would not be able to guarantee their safety.
As for the three mixed regiments that operate independently, they are deployed in strategic locations in several southern provinces, serving as the core strategic support force for the local area and also the main force for local border and coastal defense.
The second mixed regiment, deployed in the Pearl River Delta, is responsible for guarding the Pearl River Delta and guarding the strategic city of Guangzhou.
The Eighth Mixed Regiment is mainly deployed in Lianzhou Prefecture, Guangxi near the Annan border line, and controls the Beibu Gulf.
The Sixth Mixed Regiment was deployed in western Guizhou, fighting against the Sichuan Dubiao opposite.
As for the original mixed regiments with the eleventh mixed regiment and above, all of them have been reorganized into reserve divisions.
So judging from the surface figures, the Tang Dynasty actually had a lot of troops. Not counting the Guards and the Navy, the army alone had more than 500,000 troops. However, the Tang Army also faced the Ming Army of King Hui of Liaodong and the Tatar Army.
In the face of many threats such as the Tatar people, the Walas people, the Western Regions, and the kings and Ming armies of Southwest Jing, this small number of troops is really not enough.
The deployment of troops affects the whole body. It is very difficult to allocate a large number of troops to fight in a certain direction!
But there is no way out if there are not enough. Now these troops are already making it difficult for Datang's finances to support. The army's military expenditure of more than 20 million a year cannot be maintained for long.
Although the Army still received 26 million taels of silver in the military budget of Xuanping's seven years, it is worth noting that the fiscal revenue budget of Xuanping's seven years reached 65 million taels, which was lower than that of Xuanping's six years.
Many years.
This year's fiscal revenue has increased, but military expenditures have not increased accordingly. What does this mean? It means that the proportion of military expenditures in fiscal expenditures has dropped significantly.
And everyone with a discerning eye knows that this decline in proportion will continue!
Now the generals on the army side have begun to take precautions and prepare for the hard days this year and even next year.
Disarmament? This is impossible. The Tang dynasty was so big, with a total of only 300,000 main troops and more than 200,000 reserve troops. This was already very reluctant. Disarmament was unimaginable.
How can we save military expenditures without disarmament?
On the one hand, it is to adjust personnel, such as turning too many messy civilian and auxiliary soldiers into backbone combat soldiers. There are already calls within the army to increase the proportion of non-commissioned officers in the army.
If officers are the main stream to the army, then non-commissioned officers are the many tributaries, and soldiers are the countless creeks.
If the proportion of non-commissioned officers is high enough, it will be much easier to expand the army in an emergency. Just add recruits who have been trained for three months, and match them with a certain proportion of non-commissioned officers, and you will have a completely new army.
As for officers, there is no need to worry about this, because officers at all levels in the Tang Dynasty Royal Division basically have deputy positions.
There are positions such as deputy division commander, deputy chief of staff, deputy regiment commander, deputy regiment chief of staff, deputy battalion commander, and deputy captain. In an emergency, all the deputy positions of an infantry division can be directly transferred, and a brand new infantry division can be formed.
Officer command system.
Moreover, officers at all levels are still familiar with each other, and even the training process is saved!
Nowadays, the Army also wants to expand the number of non-commissioned officers, so that when large-scale wars require mobilization, they can directly pull out the deputies and form another team of non-commissioned officers, just like officers.
Li Xuan also supported this, but he also cautiously pointed out that by increasing the proportion of non-commissioned officers, the salary expenses of the existing army will definitely increase, because the salaries of non-commissioned officers are relatively high. How to maintain the current size of the army and salary
As long as the overall expenditure does not change much, your army will have to find a way to increase the proportion of non-commissioned officers. Anyway, I will not pay military expenses.
The Army said that this is not a problem at all. Who said non-commissioned officers should be paid high salaries!
The war of unification in this country is almost over. Many soldiers who served in the early years and have reached the end of their service period express their unwillingness to retire and want to continue to stay in the army. They even expressed that they would rather stay with a slightly lower salary.
With.
The salary in the military has always been relatively high. Even if the salary is voluntarily reduced, it is still much better than farming in my hometown!
Finally, the Army came up with a solution. The solution was very simple. It was to increase the levels of non-commissioned officers. In the past, there were only three levels: sergeant, sergeant, and corporal. Now, on top of the sergeant, there are two additional levels: sergeant and sergeant major.
level.
The existing three levels of non-commissioned officers will be directly adjusted upwards, and the original staff sergeant will become a sergeant major!
The vacated corporals and sergeants were re-recruited from soldiers who had completed their service period, and the existing salary standards for corporals, sergeants, and staff sergeants were appropriately adjusted. Basically, the previous standards for staff sergeants were the existing ones.
Sergeant Major.
The salary level of a corporal is only slightly higher than that of a first-class soldier!
After this operation, a considerable number of low-level non-commissioned officers can be added, and the salary expenditure will not be much higher than that of ordinary soldiers in the past!
In addition, a more important point is to allow the troops stationed in the areas to be self-reliant, especially the reserve division troops stationed in the rear, allowing them to cultivate their own land, raise pigs and chickens and ducks.
However, in order to avoid evolving into the local garrison of the Ming Dynasty, the soldiers in these reserve divisions were also mobile and retired after serving, and the land was not directly allocated to the soldiers.
Farming and breeding are just to meet part of the military food needs!
The Army has prepared numerous measures to prepare for the difficult days ahead. Farming and breeding is the focus, followed by replacing a large number of civilian and auxiliary arms with combat arms.
At the same time, use deputy officers and increase the proportion of low-level non-commissioned officers to maintain the ability to mobilize and expand the army in an emergency!
Of course, what is more important is that after the unification war is over and no more wars are fought, the cost of this war will also drop rapidly. The main follow-up support will be maintenance costs, instead of being like now, where any battle can cost a lot of money.
Hundreds of thousands or even millions of military expenditures.
Military expenditures have not increased with the increase in finances, which is a disguised reduction of military expenditures. This is very stressful for the military. It has to support so many troops and at the same time maintain war in some directions. It also wants to
To expand some strength.
Nowadays, the pressure on military expenditures has increased for many senior generals in the army, but there is no way. Li Xuan made it very clear when he finalized Xuanping's seven-year fiscal budget at the end of last year.
However, the army's military expenditure for the seven years of Xuanping was only 26 million, and no additional expenditures would be made in the name of temporary war expenses in the future.
There is only so much money, you Army have to figure out how to live your life!
Against this background, and with the Southwest Campaign not yet over, the Army, like squeezing out toothpaste, transferred two thousand people from various departments of the Sixth Army, and then transferred some guns, ammunition, and other supplies.
Prepare to reinforce Port Arthur in Liaodong Peninsula!
At the same time, in Lushun Port, several Army officers from the Tang Dynasty were circulating a document. Everyone frowned after reading it!