Chapter 483 The Tang Dynasty never repaid the borrowed grain
For the Tang Dynasty, which had a weak national power and was extremely short of various resources, including population, it needed to expand externally to obtain more resources and population.
However, external expansion requires maintaining a strong army!
Of course, the army is not only used for expansion, but more importantly, it is also used to resist the Ming Dynasty's encirclement and suppression!
Therefore, the Tang Dynasty needed a strong army!
However, a conflict arose, because the Tang Dynasty was weak and could not maintain a large army with its own resources.
Even the current size of the Tang Dynasty's royal division is an extremely heavy burden for the Tang Dynasty. Although the Tang Dynasty has not yet established a complete budget system, judging from the various expenditures of the Tax Department
Look, the current various incomes of the Tang Dynasty, including taxes, the seizure of the properties of Ming Dynasty officials, clans and government officials, and the properties of various groups such as gentry, landlords and merchants who openly opposed or even faced armed confrontations, these various incomes account for almost 90%
The above are all turned into military salaries, weapons and ammunition and other military supplies.
The Tang Dynasty, which spanned two provinces and actually controlled many state capitals, used less than 10% of its fiscal revenue to maintain the operation of government agencies and improve people's livelihood.
This is almost impossible for a traditional dynasty. For a traditional feudal dynasty, its administrative expenses usually account for about 30% to 40% of its fiscal revenue. For a few regimes with low administrative efficiency, their administration may even account for 30% of their fiscal revenue.
more than half of income.
However, the Tang Dynasty was in its infancy. To put it bluntly, the administrative organization itself served the army. In addition to the various people who joined the Tang Dynasty in the early days, in addition to the lowest-level administrators and soldiers, middle- and upper-level officials and military officers
Most of them come with the goal of glory and wealth. To put it bluntly, these people are a group of careerists.
Most careerists see things further than ordinary people, so they can endure the current hardships and even work without salary.
All they want is power and future glory and wealth!
At present, the mid-level and senior officers and officials in the Tang Dynasty all have high salaries on the surface, but very few people can actually receive full salaries. Even if they do, they only get a small part, no more than half.
The rest is either in arrears or returned directly to the tax department in the name of donation.
His Majesty Li Xuan, the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty, has said in public more than once that the Tang Dynasty is currently in the most difficult period of starting a business, and he hopes that all of you, dear friends, can share the joys and sorrows together.
Of course, no money will be given, but superficial honors such as official hats and titles will still be given, and Li Xuan is particularly generous about this.
Basically, every time the army won a big victory, several titles would be awarded to them, not only from the generals, but also from some civilian officials.
However, even though the Tang Dynasty had tried every means to increase revenue and reduce expenditure in order to free up more military expenditures to maintain the expansion of the army and fight, it was still not enough for the Tang Dynasty's royal division, which had grown to tens of thousands.
And this is also the reason why the Tang Dynasty Army still advocates "eating from the enemy". Although the logistics supply line is too far, the more important reason is that the Tang Dynasty simply does not have so much surplus food to supply the army.
If food is not sent from behind, the army will have to eat, so it will have to eat at the enemy's expense.
Its main source is various trophies, including the trophies of the Ming army, the grain, gold and silver stored by the local Ming Dynasty government after conquering a city.
In addition, if there is really no other way, we will directly send troops to rural areas to collect food!
Of course, today's Tang Dynasty has gradually got on the right track. It cannot directly 'collect grain' as before, but will be more civilized, and the method used is to buy or borrow.
However, no matter whether they bought or borrowed, they just left a note, which said: A certain department of the Army of the Tang Dynasty borrowed a certain amount of grain and a certain amount of livestock from a certain person, and it was agreed that one year later or ten years later.
repay.
Or maybe a certain department of the Army of the Tang Dynasty purchased grain and livestock from so-and-so, and so-and-so could go to the relevant yamen of the Tang Dynasty with a melon document in hand to pick up chairs.
But can these people really go to relevant institutions of the Tang Dynasty to receive money?
Just kidding, can you find the relevant yamen of the Tang Dynasty? What specific institutions are they?
Then you got anxious and went directly to the tax department to ask for money, but what did you think of the tax department of the Tang Dynasty? A cash machine? Who knows whether the note in your hand is real or fake, if you want to get money
?What a big bitch, he actually tricked us into coming to the Tang Dynasty government office. Come on, please beat me out with a stick!
If you say that your note has the official seal of a certain army and the private seal of a certain general and officer, it is not easy to deny, but so what?
Want to get silver? Simply go to the person who took your grain or gold and silver and take it from you?
In the Tang Dynasty, the military and political affairs were separated. Our tax department does not care about military matters and cannot control them!
What, since you have the guts to find the troops and ask for the borrowed food?
Sorry, the army has been transferred. Our battalion commander has been transferred a long time ago. That was done by the previous battalion commander. You asked me, the current battalion commander, to pay the bill. Are you kidding me, guards, kick them out!
When it was over, the battalion commander did not forget to sneer: You are kidding, our Emperor of the Tang Dynasty borrowed food and never paid it back!
In order to collect food, the troops of the Tang Dynasty King's Division basically used all means. Although the detailed routines used by each army may be different, they all have one thing in common: they bought or borrowed them and never planned to pay them back.
Money for food!
The king of the Tang Dynasty had already done such shameless things in order to have enough food, but he still couldn't support such a large army!
Therefore, many generals of the Tang Dynasty Army are trying their best to improve the combat effectiveness of the existing troops. If they cannot support ten people, then I will raise one person and use this person as ten people.
So you often see that the Tang Army uses less to fight more. This is not because the generals of the Datang Army are overconfident, but because they really don’t have that many troops!
Therefore, if Chen Keqiao can solve the shortcomings of the current regiment-level square formation tactics, the combat effectiveness of the Tang Army will be greatly improved.
Therefore, everyone is very interested in Chen Keqiao's suggestion that he has a way to solve the shortcomings of regimental-level square formation tactics.
At this time, I only heard Chen Keqiao say: "There is only one solution to the problem of too high quality requirements for the troops, and it can be done, and that is to strengthen the training of the troops. As long as the training is sufficient, the quality of the troops will naturally improve.
, and it doesn’t take all five battalions in an infantry regiment to achieve this quality. In an infantry regiment, it only needs one infantry battalion to be able to achieve the quality required for this kind of square formation!"
Chen Keqiao continued: "As for the problem of too shallow defense depth, Chen believes that one or two battalions can be appropriately added to these assault troops to strengthen the defense depth of the assault troops. In this way, the defense power will be greatly improved."
The problem of being too weak has been solved!”
After Chen Keqiao finished speaking, everyone had different reactions. Many people felt that Chen Keqiao's method could effectively solve the shortcomings of the current regiment-level phalanx, while protecting the advantages of the current regiment-level phalanx. In this way,
In the future, the combat effectiveness of the Tang Army will be greatly increased!
But some people think that both of Chen Keqiao's solutions are unrealistic. Strengthen training?
To put it simply, the Royal Division of the Tang Dynasty currently lacks the most time, and strengthening training requires a lot of time. In the past, the soldiers of the Royal Division of the Tang Dynasty, especially the musketeers and musketeers, could go to the battlefield after three months of training.
After fighting a battle, you can become a backbone veteran.
But in order to train them into soldiers who can successfully execute this kind of tactics, at least more than half a year of specialized training is required. Half a year of doing nothing but training? This is not suitable for the Tang Dynasty King Division who is currently experiencing frequent wars and is extremely nervous about the use of troops.
It's unrealistic to say that.
Increasing the number of troops in the assault force is also putting the cart before the horse. The original intention of building this regiment-level phalanx was because their own troops were small and they wanted to expand the width of the battlefield and increase the front line with as few troops as possible.
It is precisely because of this that the depth is too shallow and the defense power is reduced.
If they continue to increase their troops in regiment-level phalanxes, what is the point of having these regiment-level phalanxes?
Might as well use the original battalion-level square formation tactics!
Chen Keqiao's solution sounds like it can be implemented, and after everyone discussed it in detail, it can really solve the shortcomings of the current regiment-level square formation tactics.
But these two solutions proposed by Chen Keqiao have flaws that are almost impossible to solve!
It is impossible to strengthen training. The Tang Dynasty King's Division is now using troops everywhere. It is impossible for an army to do nothing and just train in the training camp for the first half of a year or even more than a year. Otherwise, most of the current
The Tang Army's recruit training will not only be one month, but will be a full three months.
Isn’t this because time is tight?
In addition, there is also a cost issue. A unit does nothing and trains for half a year or even more than a year before it can be sent to the battlefield. How much cost will this cost? The soldiers need to eat, and this food is still expensive.
At the same time, these soldiers also need to receive their salaries.
Otherwise, do you think these soldiers would endure such arduous training and cruel military discipline, and then work hard for Li Xuan to take the bullet?
Although they are just cannon fodder soldiers, they are not stupid. If they are not attractive enough, they will not come over to serve as soldiers for you in the Tang Dynasty!