"Officials, those who arrived at Kaifeng Mansion yesterday were the soldiers from Xingzhou Prefecture who were farthest away. A total of 240,000 soldiers and utility men recruited and recruited by the 240 military offices under the jurisdiction of Yingtian 4th Road have now all arrived. Qi. All military offices have completed the recruitment and recruitment tasks in accordance with the requirements of the military register..."
Zhang Xian, who was reporting to Zhao Kai, who was presiding over the military meeting, about the gathering of soldiers in the Gen Yuetai Palace of Kaifeng Prefecture, was marching to join the army. He is Yue Fei's fellow Xiangzhou fellow and Yue Fei's old subordinate, but he cannot be considered a member of the "Yue Family Army".
Because he was recruited by Zhao Kai when he was recruiting troops in Xiangzhou, and later, together with Wang Gui, Xu Qing and others, he followed Zhao Kai to quell the Ding army to "save the soldier Yue Fei"!
Not long after that battle, Zhang Xian became an official. Moreover, his official position was not recommended by Yue Fei, but was awarded privately by Zhao Kai based on his merits. Therefore, Zhang Xian's benefactor can only be Zhao Kai, not Yue Fei or anyone else.
Later, although Zhang Xian's official career was not as good as that of Yue Fei, he still served as Yue Fei's subordinate, and he could be regarded as a member of the "Xiangzhou faction" headed by Yue Fei.
But his seniority under Zhao Kai was older than that of Yue Fei, and he became an official no later than Yue Fei. Therefore, his relationship with Yue Fei is far from as close as it was in history, and certainly not as close as Yue Fei and Zhao Kai.
The place where the military meeting was held today was called Genyue Terrace, and it was located in the Genyue Palace of Emperor Zhuangzong of the Song Dynasty.
Under the auspices of Zong Lin, the official of Kaifeng Prefecture, the military and civilians of Kaifeng Prefecture carried out a reconstruction project that lasted for several years. Genyue City was transformed from a "valley" into a real Taicheng - with a bottom made of soil. The stones were used to build a high base, and a castle was built on the base.
After completion, Genyue Terrace is not only the commanding height of the entire Kaifeng city, but also the location of Kaifeng government office and Zhao Kai's palace.
Although Kaifeng Mansion, a fortress located in the center of the Central Plains, surrounded by plains and without danger, is not suitable as a defensive base camp, it is still very suitable as a stronghold for launching attacks.
From Kaifeng Prefecture, you can cross the Yellow River from Huazhou more than a hundred miles north, then go north to attack the famous names, and go east to attack Puzhou. As long as Damingfu and Puzhou are captured, Hebei and Jingdong under the control of the Jin Kingdom will be under Zhao Kai's military front.
If we wait until the Yellow River area is frozen in winter before sending troops from Kaifeng Prefecture, then Songzhou and Xuzhou will be under the sword of Zhao Kai's army.
As long as you are strong enough, it would be very convenient to fight for hegemony in the Central Plains with Kaifeng Mansion as your base camp. You can attack wherever you want!
"Two hundred and forty thousand soldiers will be organized into twelve armies. Each army will have two infantry divisions (six infantry generals), a cavalry general, an artillery general, an engineer general, and a baggage general. Soldier generals and a commanding general, a total of eleven generals..."
Zhang Xian continued to report on the formation of the twelve armies under the jurisdiction of the Kaifeng camp. Now is the era when artillery dominates the battlefield, and the organization of the army must of course be adjusted accordingly.
First of all, the size of the "army" has further expanded, from the original more than 10,000 people to a full 20,000 people. There are as many as eleven generals under his jurisdiction - among them, the number of artillery generals and commanding generals is relatively small, only 2,000 people plus one. The nine generals in the region are all large establishments of 2,000 people.
Secondly, the "military" has more arms under its jurisdiction, including not only infantry, artillery, and cavalry, but also two new arms, engineers and baggage troops.
The reason why these two arms appeared was not only Zhao Kai's request, but also related to the fact that after the emergence of cannon, the army needed to carry out more construction and carry more supplies during combat and marching.
Although Zhao Kai did not equip his artillery with a large number of heavy artillery of 10 kilograms (bullet weight) and above, he chose 5 kilograms of 18 times the caliber bronze long cannon as the main force (a corps equipped with six teams with a total of 24 guns), with 10 kilograms of 18 Double-caliber bronze long cannons and 25-pound hot pot cannons were used as supplements (one army artillery unit had two 10-pound cannon teams and two 25-pound artillery teams, a total of 8 10-pound cannons and 8 25-pound cannons). However, the artillery convoy, which consists of a total of 40 artillery carriages and 160 large vehicles, still encounters difficult roads from time to time. At this time, engineers are needed.
In addition, in order to build positions for these cannons and to build anti-cannon barriers, Zhao Kai's army also needed more professional engineers.
As for the emergence of professional baggage troops, it is related to the more complex logistics management and more difficult transportation tasks in the age of gunpowder weapons - just transporting and storing gunpowder, artillery, and various shells without any professional knowledge. Local officials and civil servants cannot do this.
What's more, in this era, heavy troops sometimes have to undertake military procurement tasks, which is beyond the capabilities of laymen.
Therefore, after the imperial examination competition in the fifth year of Hongwu, Zhao Kai established two "arms headquarters", namely, the Engineer and Soldier Command and the Supply and Transport Command, which were fully responsible for training engineers and transport officers, and assembling engineers and transport troops.
Zhang Xian continued: "After the twelve armies are organized, long-term training will be carried out for at least eight to ten months. The training will start from individual soldiers and advance step by step to teams, battalions, generals, divisions, corps, etc. Level 5...these twelve armies will not be fully formed until next summer!"
This time is a "long march". According to the plan, it will take as long as two years and six months!
Ten months of it are "service without pay", and the remaining twenty months have to be paid military pay (the utility soldiers are not granted land, so they are all paid)... 240,000 people have to be paid Pay!
Although the military salary of the Luoyang court is not high, it is not a small amount of money if there are so many people who are paid. The average monthly expenditure will never be less than 500,000 yuan (horse), and it will cost 10 million in 20 months!
Coupled with the extra four months of military pay for servicemen, eleven million would have to be spent.
Before people are allowed to serve in the "Long March", they have to pay a settling-in allowance and a sum of money for armor and weapons, which costs several million pieces (horses).
In addition, there were more than 240,000 troops participating in the Northern Expedition.
All the soldiers under the jurisdiction of the Luoyang imperial court, as well as the Xiang troops on both sides of the transport, have tasks! It's just that the troops other than the 240,000 "main force" may not necessarily serve that long, and the cost is not that high.
If you also include the cost of building artillery, engineers, and heavy equipment, producing explosive pots, gunpowder, ammunition, and artillery, purchasing mules and horses, and raising military rations... this war will cost at least 30 million. Through (horse)!
This is still the case when Zhao Kai can use part of the recovered land in Jingdong, Hebei, Yanshan, and Datong to distribute merit rewards.
If you really want him to be like Zhao Huan in providing sufficient wages and food and generous rewards (money) and thick shirts (money), even 100 million may not be enough!
Therefore, without touching the "stock wealth" of land, it is difficult for a "reopening master" like Zhao Kai and the blessing of gunpowder and golden fingers to defeat opponents like the Jurchens - because the Jurchens are not a small group. , and they can exploit existing wealth, that is, land, unscrupulously.
No matter how chaotic the world is, the stock of hundreds of millions of acres of land will always be there.
It is almost impossible to increase tax revenue greatly... This is why Zhao Kai and the Jin Kingdom regard their opponents as the main threat, and at the same time despise the population, cultivated land, and tax revenue. The reason is that there were many children in the Southern Song Dynasty.
However, even the cost of 30 million guans (horses) was still an expense that was unbearable for the Northern Song Dynasty court whose annual income was less than 15 million.
Fortunately, Zhao Huan gave Zhao Kai, the "emperor's younger brother," an annual salary of six million...Zhao Kai did not dare to spend this money indiscriminately. He saved it for three consecutive years and finally saved more than one thousand six hundred. Ten thousand. Coupled with the money that the imperial court had extracted from its annual income of less than 15 million, we finally collected more than 20 million to fight this war.
However, Zhao Kai still had to avoid the Northern Expedition from becoming protracted...
Zhao Kai crossed his arms and stood in front of a large map table. Looking at the large map of Hebei, Hedong, and Yanyun spread on it, he frowned and said, "I have an idea, let me tell you about it." Listen... I want to divide the twelve armies into two groups, with Kaifeng as the base, and first go north to attack Damingfu, Kaidefu and Puzhou, and form a formation against the Jinthiers' Weibo and Ziqing towns. Deterrence, and strive to attract the main force of gold thieves to Damingfu, Kaidefu and Puzhou areas for decisive battles.
The other route secretly entered Hedong Road, sneaked all the way north, exited Yanmen Mountain and Kelan Mountain in the area of Daizhou and Ninghua Army, and attacked the Hedong and Datong armies of the gold thieves in the north!
At the same time, Yelu Dashi and Xiao Heda were ordered to march eastward from Yangshan to the Yinshan area to join our army.
After joining forces with the Liao army and defeating the golden thieves Hedong and Datong armies, the Northern Expedition army marched eastward through the Monan Grassland, reached Fengsheng Prefecture, and then headed south to Juyong Pass! "
Zhao Kai's Northern Expedition route was almost exactly the same as Li Zicheng's later Northern Expedition to Beijing... Surprise was definitely a factor, but Zhao Kai's idea was not to launch surprise troops, but to hunt down rabbits and use that Hedong Jiedu envoy. Hebu Le took care of it.
In Zhao Kai's opinion, that was a serious problem. Hebule couldn't be allowed to run back to Mobei!
After taking care of Hebule and defeating the gold thieves' Datong Town, Wanyan Zongqian had to lead his troops out of Yanshan to fight Zhao Kai... If he dared not come, Yelu Dashi would have to go to Lin. The Huang Mansion has restored the Liao Kingdom!
After Zhao Kai finished talking about his plan, there was only silence in the main hall of Gen Yuetai Palace.
Everyone looked at the map blankly, frowning, and seemed to be thinking hard - it seemed too difficult to gather an army of 240,000 and fight all the way to Yanjing!
But dividing the troops into two groups is not a big problem... As long as the army is capable of fighting, we can fight in any way!
"Brother," Han Shizhong asked with a smile, "Who do you want to command the Southern Route Army?"
"Pengju!" Zhao Kai smiled and said to Han Shizhong, "Good minister, how about we go for a walk on the grassland together?"
Han Shizhong smiled and nodded, "Okay, with the Sa family here, the gold thief will have to be defeated outside Juyong Pass!"
"Outside Juyongguan?" Zhao Kai asked with a smile, "Where will the decisive battle between good ministers be fought?"
"Yehu Ridge!" Han Shizhong stretched out his finger and pointed at a place called "Yehu Ridge" outside Juyong Pass, "We are waiting for Wanyan Zongqian there!"
