The navy is so poor that everyone is calling for savings to free up military expenditures to build ships and expand the fleet. However, saving alone is not enough. There are only a few million taels of silver in military expenditures a year, but it is necessary to maintain such
A big stall.
Therefore, the Navy is now starting to think about taking some evil ways.
What should I do if the military expenditure provided by the government is not enough?
Then they can only make war fortune. In recent years, they have frequently expanded in Nanyang. In fact, they also have this plan. It is indispensable to conquer an indigenous place and collect gold, silver and other trophies. Although these
The spoils of war are still nominally vested in the treasury, and are included in the fiscal revenue of the tax department.
But this is only in name. In actual operation, Shengtianzi will also compare the size of the military. In the end, part of these trophies will often be returned directly to the army or navy.
In addition, when searching for loot, not everything needs to be turned over. Soldiers' personal seizures can be retained. For the military, this can also be regarded as a measure to subsidize soldiers.
After all, salary cuts have continued in recent years, and the overall salary drop has reached 20%. This is still talking about ordinary soldiers. If they are officers, they are often called upon to make donations. Some families have big businesses and do not rely on salary to support their families.
Officers who live hand to mouth will even donate all their salary income.
Therefore, providing certain compensation in terms of spoils of war is also a measure that the military has long-term defaulted to.
Although there is also loot income from fighting in Nanyang, it is still not much in general. Although this poor place is big, the islands are actually just like that. The main wealth is various spices, and spices need to be cultivated and then cultivated.
Value can only be generated after trade, and the military cannot directly obtain much trophy income.
If it's America, then the chances are great.
The Spaniards can get a lot of gold and silver in the Americas, but there is no reason why their Tang Empire, or to be more precise, their Tang Navy can't do it.
Those are two continents, and from the mouths of those foreigners, I learned that that area is rich in gold and silver, and you can exchange the cheapest glass beads for a piece of nugget gold.
This kind of place is much better than the Australia occupied by the Tang Empire today.
Although Australia is also large, the Tang Empire has been conducting secret explorations in recent years without telling other countries. However, the main development is mainly concentrated in the northwest region of Australia, where a gold mine was discovered, and immigrants have also migrated there two years ago.
More than a thousand people.
But just digging for gold by yourself is not as fast as grabbing it directly from others!
What's more, no matter how much gold is mined in Australia, it still belongs to the national treasury and has nothing to do with their navy. But if it is robbed in the Americas, then a considerable part of it will become navy military expenses.
In this way, only after receiving the report from the Luzon Squadron did the navy become so interested in America.
They are already preparing to send an exploratory fleet to the Pacific this year. After first finding a safe route, it will be time to cross the Pacific and head for America.
The Navy was not interested in the war in the north and was focused on its strategy of going south and colonizing America. The same was true for the Army. They were not interested in overseas affairs. They were only interested in conquering the grasslands.
If you want to conquer the grassland, you have to defeat the Tatars. If you want to defeat the Tatars, then you need to seize the Hetao and severely damage the Ordos tribe. First, cut off one of Anda Khan's arms.
A full-scale march into the grasslands is unlikely in a short time, because although the current Tang Empire's cavalry is not small, there is still a big gap in numbers compared to nomadic peoples like the Tatars.
At this time, Army Cavalry Director Lu Yuzhi was briefly explaining to everyone the current cavalry strength of the Tang Empire!
As one of the earliest cavalrymen in the Tang Empire, this man was already the main cavalry general in his early years. At the end of the Unification War, he served as the commander of the First Cavalry Division with the rank of Army Major General. In the tenth year of the Ping Dynasty, he was promoted to Army Lieutenant General.
He has been serving as the Cavalry Director of the Army Privy Council and has been responsible for cavalry development, tactical strategy and other matters.
To a certain extent, this person was the cavalry commander of the Tang Army. Of course, he had no command authority.
His judgment on the imperial cavalry is the most authoritative.
I just heard him say to everyone: "To implement the Hetao strategy, cavalry is the top priority!" After saying that, he looked around, and the others also showed approval.
When fighting in the north, cavalry is definitely the core combat force. No one can object to this. Therefore, even those artillery generals who think highly of themselves have to pinch their noses and admit that when fighting in the north, especially when fighting in the field.
, the cavalry is the core force. Even their artillerymen have to mount their horses and transform into cavalry artillerymen to accompany the cavalry in combat.
Lu Yuzhi continued at this time: "In order to deal with the situation in the Hetao, our army has concentrated four cavalry divisions and two cuirassier regiments in the surrounding areas of the Hetao. We have been able to gather 15,000 troops on the eastern front line of the Hetao.
Elite cavalry!"
The civil servants on the side who didn't know much about military affairs were a little confused. Your army has been working on it for so many years and spent millions of dollars on military expenditures, but you have just produced more than 10,000 cavalry?
They don't know about military affairs, so they naturally don't know that although the Tang Army has more cavalry than this, the Tang Army also has many places to guard. The northern border alone is tens of thousands of kilometers long. How can it be possible to gather all the cavalry?
stand up.
What's more, Lu Yuzhi was only talking about independent cavalry units, not divisional cavalry units.
The total number of cavalry in the Army of the Tang Dynasty is naturally more than the fifteen thousand cavalry. In fact, if we only talk about cavalry, the number of cavalry in the Tang Dynasty is still relatively large.
After so many years of development, the number of cavalry in the Tang Army has been greatly expanded. Independent cavalry and division-affiliated cavalry have developed together.
Division-affiliated cavalry is the cavalry unit attached to each infantry division and even each reserve division. Each main infantry division has a cavalry regiment, and the reserve division has a cavalry battalion.
The divisional cavalry regiment of the main infantry division has a standard establishment of 650 light cavalry, equipped with sabers, flintlock lances, flintlock pistols and other weapons. They are mainly responsible for reconnaissance, flank cover, pursuit, cover-up and other tasks.
The reserve division cavalry battalion has three hundred cavalry!
However, this is just a standard establishment, and in fact there are widespread shortages. For example, the cavalry battalions of reserve divisions generally only have a few hundred cavalry, and some even have only a few dozen cavalry. It is not a cavalry battalion, let alone a cavalry battalion.
It's the cavalry.
Even the cavalry regiments of the main infantry divisions are often understaffed. Except for the main infantry divisions guarding the northern border, the situation is better, the cavalry regiments under the jurisdiction of the infantry divisions in the hinterland of the Central Plains and the southwest, south and other regions are generally short of personnel.
, as few as two or three hundred, and as many as four or five hundred.
At the same time, the cavalry units in these infantry divisions and reserve divisions are considered second-class cavalry units within the army, and most of the war horses used are Mongolian horses of poor quality.
The total number of these divisional cavalry is about 15,000!
But the elite cavalry of the Tang Army were mainly concentrated in several independent cavalry units!
At present, the Tang Army has a total of five cavalry divisions and 12 cavalry regiments, with a total of about 30,000 independent cavalry.
These five cavalry divisions are actually the previous cavalry brigades. They just changed their names. Their commanders still have the rank of major general.
Each cavalry division has two cavalry brigades, and each cavalry brigade has three cavalry regiments. The cavalry regiment's establishment is a standard 650 cavalry, small regiment organization, six cavalry regiments plus the division directly under the headquarters.
Cavalry Battalion.
The number of combat cavalry can reach 4,000. In addition, there is a cavalry artillery battalion and a cavalry transport battalion.
The twelve cavalry regiments are not uniform in type and organization. They are all established according to local conditions, and generally have relatively obvious characteristics. There are various types of cavalry.
For example, take the famous 1st Lancer Regiment. This cavalry regiment can almost be said to be the most proud and dazzling business card of the Army Cavalry Force.
But Fang Dongquan, a retired former army veteran, said: The First Lancer Regiment is an expensive vase created by some people!
Because in his opinion, this First Lancer Regiment has no use except showing off, and it is also extremely expensive. It is just a precious vase!
This regiment is a standard heavy cavalry. The whole regiment has 850 heavily armored knights. These heavy cavalry wear special full-body plate armor and use Suifa pistols, sabers, Suifa lances and other weapons to fight, which costs several times.
Compared with ordinary light cavalry, but the actual combat value is a matter of opinion. Some people think that this first lancer regiment can sweep the world, and some people think that as long as it is given an infantry battalion, this lancer regiment can be wiped out.
In short, the First Lancer Regiment is the most divisive force within the empire. Even the civil servants in the cabinet occasionally use it to criticize, saying that the Army spends so much military expenditure every year and does nothing but show off.
thing.
Many people think that this kind of iron can heavy cavalry was of some use a few decades ago. Now that guns are in power, this kind of iron can is still useless!
The full-body plate armor they wear is different from the mass-produced plate armor. First of all, they generally use personal customization. After each knight of the First Lancer Regiment is selected, this kind of full-body plate armor will be tailor-made for him.
Secondly, this kind of plate armor uses the best steel that Datang can produce at present. This kind of steel is expensive and has a low output. It is basically not used to produce ordinary plate armor, let alone export-oriented plate armor.
Well, plate armor made of this high-quality steel is lighter in weight with the same defensive performance.
According to the Army's vision, this unit shoulders the important task of directly confronting the enemy's cavalry charge, as well as attacking the enemy's infantry phalanx, and tearing open the enemy's defense line for its own army.