Chapter 2585: Expansion of 700,000 troops, the boiling military
For Da Qin, the victory in the second outing was not actually such a brilliant victory.
After all, this battle only defeated a total of 120,000 Yuan Meng troops. Although Yuan Meng's arrogance was severely damaged and it was unable to harass Northern Xinjiang, it did not shake Yuan Meng's foundation.
In the war history of more than ten years before and after the founding of the Qin Dynasty, there were many more brilliant achievements than this battle.
The reason why this battle is celebrated separately is not because of how brilliant the performance of this battle is, but because this battle is the first time that Great Qin takes the initiative to attack the grassland, which is of great significance to Great Qin.
As for the first battle out of the fortress, it was a helpless move to repel Temujin's invasion and was forced to counterattack. Naturally, it cannot be compared with the second active attack.
For Da Qin, the second battle out of the fortress was only a small victory, but for the four kingdoms of Wei, Song, Wu and Sui, it showed that they were about to enter the countdown to their country's subjugation, and it was naturally impossible for them to not react at all.
"My Lord, according to the secret report from Heibingtai, Shu Prime Minister Su Qin secretly sent an envoy to Shouchun three days ago to visit the King of Song Dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin.
Zhao Kuangyin avoided meeting, but sent Song Prime Minister Zhao Pu to meet Su Qin. After the meeting, the two parties talked for a full hour, the specific content of which is unknown.
And next, Su Qin will send envoys to Wu, Wei and Ming Dynasties one by one. "Guo Jia sneered.
Ying Hao laughed when he heard this: "Haha, Zhao Da's situation is too low. He attracted Su Qin here, but then avoided him. Are you deceiving yourself and others?
And Liu Yu, it’s just now that he wants to restart the alliance to fight against Qin. Don’t you think it’s a little late? "
Naturally, Liu Yu had long wanted to tie the three kingdoms of Wei, Song, and Wu into his chariot, but the interests between these three kingdoms and Da Qin were too deeply entangled.
The three kingdoms of Wei, Song and Wu were all related by marriage to Da Qin. Coupled with cooperation in commerce, trade, colonization of Yingzhou, etc., their national power developed extremely rapidly.
As a result, even if the Three Kingdoms knew that Great Qin wanted to unify, they did not dare to take the initiative to tear up the treaty before Great Qin turned its back. After all, the first one to break the treaty would surely suffer mad revenge from Great Qin.
But after the second victory in the fortress, Da Qin's rear was no longer constrained, and it would only launch troops against the Central Plains and Liangzhou.
It's okay for the Wu State. After all, it is located in the south of the Yangtze River and is separated from the Great Qin by the entire Central Plains. It will not be the target of the Great Qin in the short term.
But the two countries of Wei and Song were different. They were both in the Central Plains, so naturally they couldn't sit still, so they took the initiative to release their peace to Shu. This is how Su Qin went to various countries as envoys.
"Where is Zhang Yi?"
"Wei Chen is here."
Zhang Yi stepped forward.
Ying Hao said: "Ai Qing will be sent as an envoy to the Song, Wei and Wu Three Kingdoms. While comforting him, he will give you a beating at the same time. I can't tolerate sand in my eyes."
"promise."
Zhang Yi responded with a smile. When he learned that Su Qin was forming an anti-Qin alliance, he was determined to fight with Su Qin and destroy Shu's alliance against Qin.
"Your Majesty, the Sui State has recently expelled a large number of Qin merchants from the Sui State for murder, violation of public security regulations, etc. In short, they have expelled a large number of Qin merchants from the Sui State. They should be preparing for war in advance." Guo Jia added.
Although the wars continued between the Qin and Sui dynasties, business that needed to be done still had to be done.
The Sui State occupied the Hexi Corridor and the eastern part of the Western Regions, which was the only way to enter the Western Regions and Central Asia. If Qin merchants and Western Region merchants wanted to do business, they had to pass through the Sui State's territory.
The Sui State had a large number of troops, and Liangzhou and Haizhou were extremely poor. It was obviously difficult to support such a large army. In addition to selling war horses, collecting commercial taxes from passing caravans was also a major financial revenue for the Sui State.
It is precisely because of this that the Sui State not only did not stop them, but also welcomed Qin merchants to do business in the Western Regions. After all, this was also good for the Sui State.
But now the Sui State took the initiative to expel Qin Shang. It was obviously stimulated by the news of Qin's second victory in the fortress. Knowing that Great Qin was likely to attack the Sui State next, it naturally did not dare to keep Qin Shang in the country.
"Haha, Yang Guang is restless. He really cares about food but not about fighting."
Ying Hao chuckled lightly, but did not pay attention to Yang Guang's small movements. After all, Sui Guo's body was only that big. No matter how hard he struggled, he was destined to be unable to block the iron fist of Da Qin's father.
Ying Hao read all the information about various countries and found that the surrounding countries except Wei were not peaceful.
It's not that Cao Cao doesn't want to resist, but he really doesn't have much confidence.
Although the strength of the Wei State was stronger than that of the Sui State, its geographical location was too poor. Not only was it surrounded by the Qin on three sides, all walks of life were penetrated. Although many of them had been solved, there were still hidden dangers.
Once the Wei State goes to war with Da Qin, its performance in the war may not be as good as that of the Sui State, so naturally it will not dare to show its teeth at Da Qin unless it is absolutely necessary.
"Your Majesty, the Ming and Sui dynasties have prepared their armies for war, and the Song, Wei, and Qin dynasties have been preparing for war. If the Shu Kingdom succeeds in forming an anti-Qin alliance again, our Qin Dynasty will inevitably be passive with its current military strength. Therefore, I believe that we can expand our army in advance." Prime Minister Wang Meng Jin Yan said.
As soon as this statement came out, everyone present was shocked, especially the military representatives. After all, it was Wang Meng who promoted disarmament before.
After the founding of the Qin Dynasty, all the generals were gearing up and preparing for a big war, but as the prime minister, Wang Meng pushed for a major disarmament.
Even though Wang Meng's move was beneficial to the Qin Dynasty, it also harmed the interests of many generals in the military, and naturally offended many people in the military.
Although Ying Hao nodded for the great disarmament, he naturally could not do such offending things, so Ying Hao took the benefits, while Wang Meng and Bai Qi took the blame.
In the past two years, the military has been clamoring to expand its army. After all, Daqin's finances are already abundant, but the civil servants headed by Wang Meng have always been opposed.
Many people in the military had malicious speculations, thinking that Wang Meng was relying on the power of the prime minister to suppress all military attaches and improve the status of civilian officials. However, they did not expect that Wang Meng would now take the initiative to expand the army.
Those who spread rumors and attacked Wang Meng couldn't help but feel a little ashamed. After all, the Prime Minister was really dedicated to the country, but they maliciously attacked him for their own selfish purposes. It was really inappropriate.
As the leader of a hundred officials, Wang Meng took the initiative to expand the army. Naturally, no one in the civilian group opposed it, let alone the military attachés. The two major civil and military groups simply combined and supported the expansion of the army.
Ying Hao saw that the two major civil and military groups of Qin Dynasty had reached an agreement without even needing his own guidance. He couldn't help but smile and said: "What Prime Minister Wang said is reasonable, but how much should the army be expanded?"
Jia Fu stood up with excitement on his face and said loudly: "With the great strength of our country, Qin, we will naturally expand our army to one million."
Li Cunxiao stood up and retorted: "There is no hope. The war for unification is destined to fight multiple countries at the same time. The four kingdoms of Wei, Song, Ming, and Sui alone can reach one million troops after extreme expansion. If our Qin Dynasty only has one million troops, how can it be enough?" .”
Jia Fu suddenly realized it. He held his chin and said to himself, "That's right. How about one million and one million?"
"Jun Wen, can't your plan be bigger? You need at least one hundred and twenty troops."
Hearing Li Cunxiao's words, Jia Fu was frightened. He took a breath and said, "Hey, 1.2 million, how many troops and military expenditures does this cost?"
The generals only know how to fight, but they don't know how far Great Qin has developed. They only think that expanding the army to 1.2 million is almost the limit of Great Qin. After all, the cost of raising an army in Great Qin is much higher than that of other countries, so they are very Agree with Li Cunxiao's proposal to expand the army to 1.2 million.
When the civil servants saw this, they all looked like they wanted to laugh but were afraid to laugh. After all, these military generals clamored to expand the army every day. If they did expand the army, they would not dare to report it to the big army.
"Your Majesty, what do you think about expanding the army to 1.2 million?"
Li Cunxiao used a negotiating tone and said to Ying Hao flatteringly: "I really can't leave him any longer."
"Hahaha……"
Ying Hao was amused by Li Cunxiao. He looked at Wang Meng below and asked, "Prime Minister Wang, what do you think about expanding the army to 120?"
Wang Meng cupped his fists and said, "Your Majesty, I believe that what Marquis Wu said is inappropriate."
Hearing Wang Meng's words, Li Cunxiao suddenly became anxious and said quickly: "Prime Minister, what do you want to do? It's you who proposed the expansion of the army, and now it's you who oppose it. You can't be so capricious.
In short, I will put my words here. The minimum expansion of the army this time should not be less than 1.15 million. "
Wang Meng ignored Li Cunxiao and said to Ying Hao above him: "Your Majesty, I believe that with the current king of our country, Da Qin, we can expand our army by 600,000."
As soon as these words came out, Ying Hao had not yet spoken, but Li Cunxiao jumped up excitedly.
"Expand the army to 600,000? Did I hear it wrong, or did you, Prime Minister Wang, say it wrong?"
"The general heard it right, the truth is six hundred thousand."
"This is the first time in my life that I, Li Cunxiao, have heard that the more we expand the army, the smaller the army will be..."
The more Li Cunxiao talked, the more excited he became, and even Jia Fula couldn't pull him back.
"The total strength of our Daqin army is only 850,000, which is already stretched thin, but you want to reduce the army to 600,000? Instead of increasing the army, you will reduce the army by 250,000?
Is there any heavenly principle? Is there any royal law?
Your Majesty, you can't listen to Wang Meng. Our military's life is hard. The worst we can do is not expand the army, but we must not disarm. "
Seeing that Jia Fu couldn't hold Li Cunxiao, Jiang Song stepped forward and pulled him together, and persuaded: "Ahem, Old Li, you heard wrong. The prime minister did not say to expand the army to 600,000, but to expand the army to 600,000. "
"Expand the army by 600,000?"
Li Cunxiao was startled, then shook his head decisively and said: "Impossible, absolutely impossible. I, the Qin Dynasty, have so much money and food to support so many troops."
"Why is it impossible?"
Xun Yu opened his mouth and said that as the Secretary of the Ministry of Household Affairs, he was responsible for national taxes, salaries and all financial matters, and he had the most say in financial matters.
"You warriors only know how to train and fight, but you don't know what earth-shaking changes have taken place in our country, Qin, in the past three years..."
Before Xun Yu could finish his words, Li Cunxiao simply ignored him.
Li Cunxiao rushed forward and grabbed Wang Meng's hand. His eyes were blazing and he said, "Prime Minister, are you really talking about expanding the army to 600,000, not to 600,000?"
Looking at Li Cunxiao who was so close, Wang Meng couldn't help but twitch the corners of his mouth. He wanted to take his hand out, but he couldn't. He could only nod helplessly and said: "It's an expansion of the army by 600,000."
As soon as this statement came out, the military generals who were used to the hard life of digging and searching collectively exploded.
After the disarmament of the Qin Dynasty, the total number of troops was 850,000. In many battles such as conquering the Japanese, destroying the Tang Dynasty, attacking the Sui Dynasty, and marching out of the fortress, although the Qin Dynasty suffered nearly 890,000 casualties, they were all replaced by surrendering troops and reorganizing prisoners of war. .
Today, Great Qin's military strength is still at 850,000. If it expands its army by 600,000 at once, the total military strength of Great Qin after the expansion will reach a terrifying 1.45 million, which is comparable to the seven kingdoms of Shu, Chu, Wu, Wei, Song, Ming, Sui, etc. The total number of troops.
Li Cunxiao was completely stunned, and said to himself with a happy face: "Is our Daqin already so wealthy?"
“Thanks to His Majesty’s self-cultivation policy, all the extra military expenditures from disarmament have been invested in infrastructure construction such as people’s livelihood, resulting in a substantial increase in tax revenue across the country.
In addition, the maritime trade with the Nanyang countries, the gold and silver mines in Yingzhou, and the trade with the three kingdoms of Wei, Song, and Wu have also brought great financial revenue to our country, Great Qin. "
Wang Meng explained patiently, but Li Cunxiao didn't even listen to a word. He was still immersed in the good news with a happy face that the army was about to expand by 700,000.
Seeing Li Cunxiao's posture, but still not letting go, Wang Meng smiled bitterly and said: "General Li, can you let go? Although the Prime Minister proposed to expand the army by 600,000, His Majesty has not agreed yet."
Only then did Li Cunxiao react and asked quickly: "Your Majesty, do you agree to expand the army by 600,000?"
"Of course I don't agree."
Li Cunxiao felt as if he had been poured cold water on him, and he instantly withered, but he became even more excited when he heard what Ying Hao said.
"Six hundred thousand is not enough, and it is too petty. If you want to expand the army, expand it by 700,000."
hiss……
Everyone present took a breath, especially the generals of the military attache group, who were so happy that they didn't know what to say.
