Chapter 1968: The Three Great Kings of North America
But whether it is the Guards or the Navy, their total strength is dwarfed by the Army's 1.4 million people.
But even with a huge force of 1.7 million, the Tang Empire still felt that it did not have enough troops to control its huge domestic and overseas territories.
Otherwise, we wouldn’t be thinking about expanding our army to more than two million.
According to the estimates of the Tang Army, in order to maintain the stability of the mainland and ensure that no accidents occur.
The army must station a sufficient number of troops on the mainland, and they must be regular elite troops.
Why?
Because for a traditional imperial dynasty like the Tang Empire, especially for a huge empire that occupies an absolute advantage on a global scale, its enemy is not the indigenous people or the Tatars, but only the
The enemy within.
Why did the Tang Empire have an institution like Hantong, and why did the Imperial Guard have an army that was completely independent and only obeyed the orders of the Holy Emperor?
It was because of the uniqueness of the Tang Empire itself.
No one can guarantee that civil strife will not occur in Datang!
Therefore, whether it is the army or the navy, most of their attention is actually focused on preventing local unrest.
Among the 1.4 million regular army troops, about 400,000 are elite front-line combat-ready troops, and of these 400,000 combat-ready troops, more than 300,000 are stationed in the mainland, and are concentrated in the eastern and central provinces.
The other 100,000 elite combat-ready troops are rotational troops. In order to maintain the combat effectiveness and war experience of these combat-ready troops, the Army will rotate them and send them to West Asia and other overseas territories to fight against Tatars and other indigenous peoples.
Sending them overseas to fight the natives is not the purpose, but training the troops is.
The other one million people belong to the regular army, and most of the troops are dissatisfied troops.
In combat-ready units, an infantry division usually has a full strength of 18,000 troops, and very few combat-ready infantry divisions even maintain a strength of more than 20,000 troops all year round.
For example, the famous 3rd Infantry Division, the ace force of the Imperial Army, which is stationed in Zhengzhou, the core railway hub of the Central Plains, maintains a strength of more than 20,000 people all year round, including combat soldiers, auxiliary soldiers, and even civilian personnel.
Maintain a state of combat readiness all year round.
However, an ordinary infantry division often only has a size of just over 10,000 people, and basically only maintains officers, front-line combatants and technical backbones.
For example, combat infantry, artillerymen, and cavalry in the artillery, but other auxiliary units such as cooks, baggage troops, ammunition transporters, grooms, etc., basically only retain the technical backbone, and ordinary auxiliary troops will not be retained.
This kind of conventional force with only front-line combatants can usually be mobilized in an emergency. However, in order to exert its full combat effectiveness, especially its mobility and sustained combat capabilities, it needs to be mobilized to complete the auxiliary personnel.
And once the replenishment is complete, it can instantly become a main force with a full strength of more than 18,000 people!
Most of these nearly one million ordinary regular troops are actually stationed in mainland China.
Relatively speaking, in fact, the Tang Empire did not have many troops stationed overseas. There were many troops stationed in North America, with tens of thousands of troops.
Next is the Nanyang region, with 50,000 to 60,000 people stationed respectively.
Next, there are tens of thousands of people in India.
There are not many in areas such as West Asia and North Africa, with a total number of more than 10,000.
There are not many in Africa either, the total number is only over 10,000.
Then there are more than 10,000 people in Europe.
South America has fewer people, with less than 10,000 people.
The regular military forces deployed by the Tang Empire in overseas areas were actually seriously insufficient. For example, in India, there were tens of millions of local indigenous people. It would be difficult to control the local area with just tens of thousands of people.
Not to mention North America, which has a population of several million and has a very heavy task of maintaining stability. In fact, even tens of thousands of people are not enough.
The military has always wanted to maintain sufficient troops at home and have a certain amount of spare power to station more troops in overseas areas, especially North America, an overseas territory that the empire focuses on developing. The empire attaches great importance to it, and
To maintain the stability of such a huge place, enough troops are needed.
After all, no matter how good the Tang army was at fighting, it would be difficult to sustain itself if its numbers did not increase.
This is an important reason why the military has been striving for continued military expansion.
However, military expansion is also a matter of the future.
Now, the empire only has so many troops stationed in North America, and many tasks require reliance on local militia forces.
However, in the view of some senior officials in Jinling, the local militia is also a destabilizing factor, and a more dangerous destabilizing factor than the indigenous people.
Because the militia units are stationed locally for a long time and are composed of local immigrants. Over time, the centripetal force of these immigrants towards the mainland of the empire will inevitably weaken, and the militia units composed of local immigrants will also weaken their centripetal force towards the mainland of the empire.
.
This is also the reason why Chen Guangqing has repeatedly investigated militia forces in North America and sent back secret investigation reports.
It was not him who was worried, but the superiors who were worried and asked him to investigate.
Of course, ordinary people, even militia troops, are ordinary people, and they will not be disgusted with the empire for no reason.
To fight against Jinling and rebel, it must be led by local dignitaries. Otherwise, a group of ordinary people would not gather to resist, and there would be no need to resist.
Today's North American immigrants live a leisurely life. After arriving in North America, these immigrants are generally able to obtain a certain amount of land. A family can have at least dozens of acres of land or as many as hundreds of acres of land, which is enough for them to become a family.
Small landowner.
The main group of immigrants are farmers, who can basically maintain stability if they have land.
The unstable factors are the groups of businessmen, dignitaries and other groups who immigrated to North America to engage in industry and commerce.
Because they did not come to North America to gain access to important land, they came to make a fortune, but they were unable to establish factories there to make more profits.
This is why for so many years, there have been calls for localization in North America.
Because only by localization can they build factories and earn more profits.
This is the fundamental contradiction between the business class and even the powerful class who immigrated to North America and the local people.
But even they will have leaders.
Who is their leader?
Chen Guangqing could guess it with his toes. On the surface, it might be some officials, such as the former Supervisor of American Affairs and other officials, as well as a few nobles and businessmen.
However, behind them are definitely the three major vassal kings in North America!