The Second Army currently responsible for the war in Anqing is somewhat lacking in strength. It only has 40,000 people. It is impossible for all of these 40,000 people to be used to conquer Anqing. Some of the troops must be left to suppress the western areas of Jiangxi and Jiangnan.
It is also necessary to allocate some troops to fight in Fengyang Prefecture. The troops used to besiege Anqing will only be about 20,000 in full.
Not only is the Anqing front line insufficient in strength, but Huguang and Sichuan are also under strength. After the strength of the First Army has been weakened many times, it can only maintain a balance of power on the Hunan front line. The total strength is only more than 40,000 people.
Zhang Yue's troops on the opposite side were worth at least 100,000 people.
Moreover, Zhang Yue's Supervisor and the Huguang Training Army are almost all new-style armies. They are directly copied from the Tang Army in all aspects. They have fought against the Tang Army for many years. Although they have always lost most of the battles, they have lost too many battles.
Yes, that is also a reflection.
This Ming army has always been a serious concern for the Tang Dynasty. If they want to attack Huguang in the future, their strength will definitely be strengthened.
In addition, with the expansion of the Tang Dynasty's ruling area, especially the occupation of Jiangnan and now part of Jiangbei, if nothing unexpected happens in the later period, the entire Jiangbei and even Huguang will be under the rule of the Tang Dynasty.
To maintain rule, the army is indispensable. Without the suppression of the army, those careerists will rebel in minutes and you will see!
But now there are only so many troops in the Tang Army. What should we do if we can't squeeze out the extra troops?
What else can we do? Expand the army!
It is now November of the fifth year of Xuanping, and it will not be long until the sixth year of Xuanping. According to estimates from the Ministry of Taxation, fiscal revenue in the sixth year of Xuanping will double.
The Ministry of Taxation estimates that next year's fiscal revenue will reach 40 million taels of silver!
Among them, agricultural taxes and commercial taxes will still account for the absolute majority, reaching nearly 30 million, and the remaining 5 million are special taxes such as customs duties, salt taxes, and tea taxes.
As for invisible income, that is, income from confiscating trophies and ransacking homes, this part of the income cannot be determined, so it has never been included in the fiscal budget. Basically, it can be spent flexibly after it is obtained.
According to the financial budget of 40 million taels of silver, Li Xuan plans to set the Ming army's military budget at 30 million taels!
And among these 30 million li, the army will occupy the absolute majority. The navy will get at most two to three million taels, and the Guards will get even less. The army will monopolize at least 25 million taels of military expenditure!
Planning so much military expenditure is naturally used to expand the army and fight!
The largest expenditure of the army is combat expenses, while the maintenance expenses of the troops are quite small.
The same infantry division can spend one million or even two million taels of silver fighting on the front line for a month, and there is no upper limit. It depends on how frequent the war is and how much ammunition and ordnance are consumed.
But if you are only stationed in the rear, the cost is fixed and relatively small, mainly including personnel salaries, food costs, training, ordnance replenishment, etc. Basically, an infantry division costs about 100,000 taels of silver a month.
.
In a year's time, including common expenses such as daily exercises, small-scale counter-insurgency, and relocation of defenses, the annual cost is about 1.5 million taels of silver!
If it is a mixed regiment, the expenditure will be about one-third of that of an infantry division, about five hundred thousand taels of silver per year.
Of course, the above-mentioned expenses do not include the settlement expenses for soldiers and the purchase of ordnance during the founding period of the army, and this part of the expenses is relatively large, basically equivalent to one year's maintenance expenses.
Theoretically speaking, even if the army has a budget of 25 million next year, it can only maintain about 16 infantry divisions without fighting. And now the Tang Army already has nine infantry divisions.
, twelve mixed regiments, if converted, are roughly equivalent to thirteen infantry divisions. In addition to maintenance costs, the annual military expenditure is almost the same if you add combat costs.
However, the military expenditures of the Imperial Army of the Tang Dynasty were always more than the military budget set at the beginning of the year. Additional temporary military expenditures were often increased. For example, in the fifth year of Xuanping, Li Xuan gave the army about 500 yuan in addition to the rated military expenditures.
War expenses of ten thousand taels of silver.
Next year, it will probably be at about the same pace!
And even if we really don’t have enough money, we can’t expand the army. What a joke!
If you have money, you should expand your army. If you don't have money, you should expand your army. If you don't expand your army, what will Li Xuan use to conquer cities and expand his territory? If he doesn't have any territory, he will use the money to support his army!
So, after the 9th Infantry Division, Li Xuan issued the latest order, ordering the Army to prepare four new infantry divisions, the 10th Infantry Division, the 11th Infantry Division, the 13th Mixed Regiment, and the 134th Mixed Regiment.
force.
At the same time, the size of the Guards was expanded, and three new Guards infantry battalions were added, bringing the number of Infantry battalions of the Guards to nine. On this basis, the establishment of the Guards Infantry Regiment was formally organized. Each Guards Infantry Battalion was
The Guards Infantry Regiment will have three infantry battalions, in addition to an artillery battalion, a reconnaissance cavalry team, and a baggage battalion, with a total strength of 4,000 people.
Together they became the 1st Guards Infantry Regiment, the 2nd Guards Infantry Regiment, the 3rd Guards Infantry Regiment, the Guards Artillery Regiment, the Guards Baggage Regiment, the Guards Engineer Battalion, and the Guards Cavalry Battalion.
Together to form the Guards, the total strength will increase to 15,000 people, which is equivalent to an infantry division of the army.
The expansion of the Guards is reasonable, because in the future, the Guards will not only guard Jinling City, but also be the main force guarding Jiangnan.
Among the other new units, the 10th Infantry Division, the 11th Infantry Division, and the 9th Infantry Division will form the Fourth Army of the Datang Army, becoming a new mobile force of the Datang Army and also serving as a reserve force.
The 13th Mixed Regiment, like most mixed regiments, will become a garrison unit and is scheduled to be stationed in Yangzhou and Tongzhou.
The 14th Mixed Regiment is intended to be used to strengthen the Second Army, but it is expected to be stationed in the Jiangxi area in the future.
After this expansion, the Tang Dynasty will have tens of thousands more troops. Although it will put great pressure on the finances, without pressure, there will be no motivation.
Li Xuan was expanding his army and training in the rear. The war in the north has not stopped, and he is still preparing for the battles of Anqing and Huguang. The situation seems to be great, but money is also being spent like water. The entire Tang Dynasty is under extreme financial pressure.
big!
As a tax inspector, Chen Lifu felt the financial pressure more deeply than outsiders, because his superiors constantly urged him to end the affairs of Ningguo Mansion as soon as possible, and then prepare to go to Songjiang Mansion, a tax-heavy place.
Chen Lifu has been in Ningguo Mansion for a few months. The situation here is the same as other counties in Jiangnan. The situation is not optimistic and tax evasion is serious. Of course, what makes Chen Lifu even more difficult is that the local tax system is simply
It was terrible, full of all kinds of scum, and this kind of thing was something Chen Lifu couldn't bear.
After arriving at Ningguo Mansion, he did not immediately start to strictly investigate tax evasion. Instead, he immediately rectified the local tax system. After killing more than a dozen tax officials, he also launched a tax revolution. In the early chaotic period, he sneaked into the tax revolution team.
Some green-skinned hooligans and other scum.
After initially rectifying the tax system, he began to strictly investigate tax evasion.
The result was not surprising. Under his leadership, more than a dozen gentry in Ningguo Mansion who were the most serious in tax evasion were confiscated and exterminated!
And this also made Chen Lifu's reputation rise sharply. Not to mention the three places where he led Chizhou Prefecture, Dezhou, and Ningguo Prefecture, even in other places in the south of the Yangtze River, his name Chen Lifu has begun to spread.
Of course, most of them are not good things. Some say he is an executioner, and some say he is a collaborator. Among the Jiangnan gentry and scholars, he is basically equated with a traitor.
Nowadays, many of the sons of the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River have entered the Tang Dynasty as officials, so there are many attempts to impeach him. However, this kind of impeachment is of no use. Within the Ministry of Taxation, the upper-level adults are not satisfied with Chen Lifu's work performance.
They are quite satisfied. It is said that even the ministers and ministers of the tax department have expressed satisfaction with Chen Lifu, a young tax official, saying that they should give full play to the enthusiasm of young officials who dare to work hard and give them a broader scope.
room for performance!
This is almost a direct statement that Chen Lifu will be promoted!
Chen Lifu is well aware of all this!
When Shilin insulted him, he pretended not to hear it and did not refute it, because he really had no way to refute it, because even he himself despised his current behavior in his heart. Sometimes he would stay up all night, and he would cry as soon as he closed his eyes.
You will see those gentry who died tragically at your own hands!
Whenever this happens, he can only keep telling himself that he is enduring the humiliation and one day, people in the world will know his good intentions!
Although he strictly investigates tax evasion, this is to win the appreciation of his superiors, so that he can climb to a higher position, and then he can better display his ambitions and bring the Tang Dynasty, which has seriously deviated from the direction, back to the right path.
Come up!
And during this process, he also tried his best to do what he could, such as rectifying the tax system!
If he only strictly investigates tax evasion, he won't have to rectify the local tax system. Those scum will collect taxes more efficiently. But why does he still do this? It's not for the local people.
Official documents urged by his superiors continued to be sent, and Chen Lifu also cut through the mess quickly. After handling the affairs of Ningguo Mansion, he returned to Jinling City to report on his work. When leaving Ningguo Mansion, the local gentry celebrated with joy. This scum of the scholarly world, Jiangnan
The shame of the gentry is finally out of Ningguo Mansion!
When he left Jinling City for Songjiang Mansion again, although Chen Lifu was still a tax inspector, his rank was promoted to the sixth rank!
In less than a year, he was promoted two levels in a row. Among the many former Ming Dynasty officials who had just entered the officialdom of the Tang Dynasty and were demoted, it was an anomaly!
Chen Lifu took a government ship from Jinling City down the river to Songjiang Prefecture. On the boat, he had already begun to study the tax situation of Songjiang Prefecture. After looking at it, he stood on the bow of the boat with a sad face. Songjiang Prefecture
The situation was more serious than he expected, and he didn't know how many heads of gentry he had to cut off in order to complete the task assigned by his superiors!
Even before Chen Lifu's ship docked at the Shanghai pier, people in Songjiang Prefecture were already panicking. With the shadow of the famous tree, Chen Lifu made heads turn among the local gentry wherever he went, setting records in two prefectures and one state.
His great reputation has already spread throughout the gentry class in Songjiang Prefecture!