Chapter 1645: Urgent expansion of the army by 100,000
Qin Hao has made so many transfers, but he has not transferred a single super general. The main reason is that the war in Hebei has reached the final moment to determine the outcome.
Other generals, even the God of War level Zhao Yun, will not have much impact on the Qin army after being transferred from the Hebei battlefield. However, once the super general is transferred, it will directly affect the Qin army's strategy for Hebei.
The main reason why the Southern Han Dynasty attacked was to prevent the Qin army from occupying Hebei. If the war in Hebei could be ended, the Southern Han Dynasty would not be an example.
Therefore, Qin Hao would rather make it more difficult at the base camp than drag down the progress of the Hebei war.
"With an army of 150,000 from Si and Jing to fight against an army of 230,000 from Tang and Shu, it was still too risky after all. In order to be more secure..."
Qin Hao couldn't help but flash a hint of physical pain in his eyes, and then said in a deep voice: "Send an order to Qin Zheng, the governor of Jingzhou, and Han Fei of Sizhou, and the two states immediately expanded their troops, including 70,000 in Jingzhou and 30,000 in Sizhou, a total of ten Ten thousand troops."
Zhuge Liang and Liu Bowen were both stunned, and then they simultaneously opposed Qin Hao's decision.
"My lord, we are not at the end of our rope yet. Expanding the army at this time is just a waste of money and food." Zhuge Liang advised.
"It's just money and food, our army can't afford it." Qin Hao replied.
"But my lord, if we expand the army at this time, the troops we recruit are just new troops that have never seen blood. Their help to our army is really limited." Liu Bowen advised.
"It is limited, which means it is still helpful. Since it is helpful, it must be implemented." Qin Hao said.
"Lord, let alone one hundred thousand, even two hundred thousand may not be able to match the fifty thousand elites of Shutang."
"Yes, once the new army suffers too many casualties, the pensions alone will cause a heavy blow to our army's finances."
"My lord, after we capture Hebei, there will be more money to spend. It is not cost-effective to waste all the money and food on pensions."
The main reason why Zhuge Liang and Liu Bowen opposed the expansion of the army was the pension system of the Qin army.
The Qin army is different from other princes in that it not only pays military salaries, but also provides pensions, and the amount of pensions is not small.
This is also the main reason why all Qin generals want to minimize casualties when fighting, because once the casualties are too large, the battle cannot be considered won.
The New Army is also an army within the establishment. Once it dies in battle, it will also enjoy pensions. Moreover, the death rate of the New Army participating in the war is extremely high, so the Qin Army never has any reason for the New Army to participate in the war.
However, there are always exceptions to everything. During the Battle of Hetao, Qin Hao's father Qin Wen was forced by Temujin and urgently expanded his army to fight against Yuanmeng's invasion. In the end, a total of 190,000 new soldiers were killed.
The pensions of these 190,000 recruits alone can directly bankrupt the Qin and Jin armies.
At that time, if Qin Hao had not taken out the Tiangong treasure, the Qin army would have been in financial crisis for more than ten years and could not breathe.
With the huge supply of funds from Tiangong's treasure, Qin Jun's fiscal revenue and expenditure were still much larger than his income in the first year of his two-year training. It was not until the second year that the revenue-expenditure ratio gradually became balanced, until now the income exceeds his expenditure. Sound development.
The remaining funds in the Tiangong Treasure are now less than one-third, and the governance after the conquest of Hebei will also require a large amount of investment.
Therefore, if the Qin Army recruits new soldiers at this time, and once the casualties of the new soldiers are too large, the post-war pensions will become a huge financial burden for the Qin Army, and even slow down the development and unification of the Qin Army.
Of course Qin Hao also knew this, but as a monarch, from his own perspective, he also had his own considerations.
"What the two military advisors said, and I naturally know that the newly recruited army cannot really help much, but it is still possible to participate in the defense of the city.
After the army expansion, Sizhou has 50,000 elite recruits and 30,000 recruits, and Jingzhou has 90,000 elite recruits and 70,000 recruits. It will definitely not be a problem to resist the Shu and Tang army of 300,000 for a month."
Seeing that Qin Hao refused to listen, Zhuge Liang and Liu Bowen were still preparing to persuade, but they were interrupted by Qin Hao before they could say anything.
"Okay, there is no need to say anything more, two military advisors. I have made up my mind. The matter of the urgent situation of the two states of Si and Jing has been settled." Qin Hao said without any doubt.
When Zhuge Liang and Liu Bowen saw this, a trace of helplessness flashed in their eyes. It could be solved at a smaller price, but their lord chose to spend money on it. He was really rich and willful.
Seeing that the two men no longer objected, Qin Hao was secretly relieved. In his opinion, the lives of soldiers were more important than money.
If Qin Hao was asked to choose between veterans and recruits, he would rather pay the recruits to die instead of the veterans.
It's cruel and ruthless, but this is the king.
"The key to this battle now is whether our army defeats the Northern Han Dynasty first, or whether the Southern Han Dynasty breaks through our army's defense first."
Qin Hao's eyes were full of fighting spirit and he said in a deep voice: "Two military advisors, I can no longer stay in Huguan. I decided to go to Yecheng in person to boost morale so that Bai Qi can break through Yecheng as soon as possible. .”
The reason why Qin Hao didn't mention going to Julu and Daijun was because Li Jing was about to arrive in Julu, and Daijun involved a plan to join forces with Gongsun Xuanyuan.
Therefore, it makes no difference whether Qin Hao goes to Daijun or Julu. Only to Yecheng, Qin Hao's personal visit has the greatest impact.
After hearing this, Zhuge Liang and Liu Bowen looked at each other and said in unison: "Thank you for your hard work, my lord."
"What's so hard about this? After staying in Huguan for these few months, I'm almost getting rusty."
The reason why Qin Hao stayed in Huguan was to use himself as bait to lure Han Xin over. He set up an ambush here in Huguan and captured and severely injured him in one fell swoop.
But Qin Hao underestimated Han Xin's caution. Faced with such a big temptation from King Qin Hao, Han Xin could still remain indifferent, which also caused the ambush to abort.
In this way, Qin Hao took more than a thousand guards, as well as Sun Lingming and other generals, and rushed to the battlefield of Yecheng.
At the same time, Li Jing, who led the army to Julu, finally entered Jizhou as quickly as possible after rushing non-stop.
After receiving the news that Li Jing was coming to kill him, Yuan Shao was immediately frightened. He had always thought that the person who was attacking Qingbei was Li Jing, but he never expected that Li Jing would actually hit him right in front of him.
It turns out that when Zhou Yu attacked the counties in Qingbei, he always fought under the banner of Li Jing.
What Zhou Yu did was mainly because Li Jing had a higher prestige in Qingzhou. Using Li Jing's banner to conquer Qingbei, most cities would basically spread the word. A small number of people would be frightened after seeing Li Jing's banner. Kaicheng surrendered directly.
If Zhou Yu had used his own banner, it would obviously be impossible to achieve this effect. After all, who in Qingzhou would know who Zhou Yu is, and this would save Zhou Yu time in conquering the city.
In addition, under the banner of Li Jing, Zhou Yu can also confuse Yuan Shao and play a role in protecting Li Jing.
