After annexing Dongping Prefecture and Yanzhou, Su Yonglin's military strength and influence expanded to varying degrees.
His next plan to expand the army is to reach a scale of 30,000 people.
At least the core legion Victory Army should be maintained at a size of 30,000, and this should be used as the seed for further military expansion in the future, and provide military education and political and ideological education.
Judging from the current situation where there is no basis for large-scale military expansion, with an army of this size and the armed landlords who follow him, Su Yonglin is more confident in his next move.
Of course, the premise is that at this stage, Zhao Kaishan doesn't do anything behind his back.
Otherwise, it would not be an easy task to deal with Jin Guo and Zhao Kaishan at the same time.
Unless you create some trouble for him internally, divert his attention a little, and make him busy with internal rectification and struggle and have no time to take action against him.
If this is really the case, then maybe we can kill two birds with one stone.
Thinking of Zhao Kaishan's fragile and sensitive character and narrow mind, Su Yonglin rolled his eyes and thought about it.
Early the next morning, Su Yonglin got up refreshed. At that time, he felt hungry and wanted to eat. As soon as he finished washing, Zhao Yucheng came with breakfast.
"I heard that Uncle Yuting was awake. I thought you might be craving for something to eat, so I brought you some food."
Zhao Yucheng smiled naively.
Su Yonglin laughed, very happy.
"I'm really hungry. You came just in time. I really want to eat now!"
Zhao Yucheng brought a plate with several flat cakes, a plate of dark sauce, and a large clay pot.
Su Yonglin rubbed his hands and opened the clay pot, and a strong aroma of meat wafted out.
"Okay, meat porridge!"
Su Yonglin couldn't help the desire to eat immediately. He immediately took a big bowl and started drinking it. After drinking one bowl, he felt very comfortable and his appetite was completely opened.
"There was a lot left over from yesterday's banquet. My uncle said not to waste it, so he picked out all the remaining meat and cooked porridge together. We cooked a lot of it, and the troops outside drank it."
"Well, not bad, not bad."
Su Yonglin picked up a piece of flatbread and dipped it in the sauce. Then he started biting and swallowing, eating two large pancakes in one go, and drank a bowl of porridge, which was enough to fill his empty stomach.
Su Yonglin has practiced martial arts since he was a child and has been able to eat well since he was a child. Now that marching and fighting consume a lot of food, he can eat even more.
When I usually eat with soldiers, I start with at least three bowls of porridge and three bowls of dry rice. They are all as big as a face. Unless there are some hearty side dishes, if you only eat grains, you will eat a lot.
But Shengjie's army had enough food.
It’s just that in this era of insufficient productivity, of course, non-staple food is also insufficient. If non-staple food is insufficient, people will eat more grain, and the grain yield per mu at this time is several times lower than in modern times.
If you produce less, you will eat more. If you really want to eat with an open belly, you will not be rich in food.
But this is not the main reason for starvation.
As long as the food grown on Chinese soil does not encounter some rare natural disasters, it will be enough to eat, and food production can generally keep up with the growth of the population.
The reason why famine has always accompanied China's history is that it is obviously unfair to evaluate it solely by the lack of productivity.
Both people and the land have tried their best. The output of the people's efforts and the land's efforts has not been large, and the total production will not be reduced to the point of starvation every year.
Blaming all problems on productivity obviously ignores human subjective initiative.
Exploitation, oppression, and land annexation may also be one of the important reasons why farmers cannot get the food they deserve.
Keeping the peasants between hunger and food and clothing, and letting them wander up and down here, is the most conducive to rule. At that time, the peasants were the most obedient and gentle. As long as they had a bite to eat, they would not cause trouble.
If you are too hungry, you will rebel; if you are too full, you will pursue more, which is not a good thing for imperial rule.
Therefore, it is the natural consensus of the imperial ruling class to allow the peasants to maintain a living standard that is neither starving nor full.
If farmers can get the land and grain they deserve, it will not be difficult to keep their bellies full, at least they won't starve to death easily.
However, such a delicate balance is not always easy to achieve, and greed will always cause chaos in imperial policies.
Think about Xu Jie, one of the chief ministers of the Ming Dynasty. His family owned 200,000 to 300,000 acres of fertile land in his hometown of Huating County. The annexation of land reached an outrageous level. You can probably feel that exploitation and land annexation caused farmers to starve to death frequently. How much more possibilities does this phenomenon increase.
With the productivity of the Song Dynasty, it was only the thirteen states of the traditional Han Dynasty. It was not difficult to feed a population of 100 million, and it was not impossible to keep them full. The difficulty was distribution.
The ruling class elites enjoy themselves wantonly and waste a lot of money, so the remaining farmers will not have enough to eat and often starve to death.
Is China's land very barren?
Why are tens of millions of farmers still starving to death when there is no free land everywhere?
This is a question worth discussing.
Thinking about this problem, Su Yonglin ate up the breakfast in a hurry. Even the sauce on the plate was wiped clean by Su Yonglin with a flatbread.
Seeing Su Yonglin eating so fiercely, Zhao Yucheng thought he hadn't eaten enough.
"Uncle Yuting, if you are not full, there is some at Huotou Camp. I will get it for you."
"Huh? Oh! I'm full, I'm full. I'm full."
Su Yonglin quickly patted his belly.
I thought about something while eating, and unknowingly ate all the food. Normally, this was indeed the limit of my food intake.
"I was thinking about something just now and finished eating without realizing it. Thank you, Ziying."
Zhao Yucheng nodded and touched his head happily.
"I'll be very happy if Uncle Yuting can have enough to eat. Anyway, I'm just a soldier captain now. If Uncle Yuting needs anything, just tell me and I can help you with it!"
Su Yonglin suddenly remembered Zhao Yucheng's defeat.
"Come on, sit down."
Su Yonglin patted the chair next to him and asked Zhao Yucheng to sit down.
Zhao Yucheng nodded and sat down obediently.
"Tell me, how did you win that battle?"
Zhao Yucheng's face darkened, he lowered his head, and slowly told the story of his defeat by the Jin Army.
After listening, Su Yonglin sighed.
"Even if I were to fight such a battle, I wouldn't be able to win it. There is a big gap between us and the Golden Thieves in terms of cavalry, especially their cavalry. At this time, we have to fight offensive and defensive battles. How can we fight in the field? What? My brother did something wrong."
"I tried to dissuade her many times, but my father didn't listen."
Zhao Yuxiang vomited his bitterness as if he had finally found someone to talk to: "I told my father many times that I couldn't fight the gold thieves head-on in the field, in case the gold thieves used cavalry to cut off my retreat. I should lead the gold thieves to the military camp and use the terrain. Fighting, but my father didn't want to.
He was willing to listen to other people's opinions and sent people out to fight with the gold thieves. I was really worried, so I ordered a group of soldiers and horses to block the army's retreat. Unexpectedly, there were too many gold thieves cavalry, and they came directly towards me. I was surrounded with no way to retreat, and the military formation soon collapsed..."
Saying this, Zhao Yucheng's tone became even lower, obviously very frustrated.
Su Yonglin patted his shoulder.
"First, the army is poorly trained and not tough enough. Second, there is no cavalry support. The infantry cannot compete with the cavalry in terms of speed. Combining the two, defeat is inevitable. I really can't blame you. It would be just as dangerous for me." .”
Zhao Yucheng raised his head and looked at Su Yonglin.
"What would you do if it were you?"
"Without the cavalry cover, there is really not much the infantry can do. The only thing is that the battlefield is very close to the military camp. They can move closer to the military camp, attract reinforcements to assist, and force the cavalry to retreat."
"I want to, but..."
Zhao Yucheng shook his head: "The army was in chaos. It was rushed into chaos. It could not maintain its formation and obey my orders. I ordered them not to move. They just stayed where they were. I could do nothing. I could only watch the army collapse. Then run away..."
Zhao Yucheng covered his face with his hands, as if he still couldn't forget that scene.
Su Yonglin could only pat his shoulder gently.
"I know it must be hard to lose a battle, but for a general, losing a battle is also a valuable experience. As the saying goes, victory or defeat is a common thing for military officers. As long as you can continue to fight, winning or losing is not important. Whether you can learn from it and grow your talents More important."
Zhao Yucheng raised his head.
"Really?"
"Of course, when have I ever lied to you? Defeating a battle is of course a valuable experience."
"Uncle Yuting, have you ever been defeated?"
"No."
"…………"
Zhao Yucheng's expression suddenly felt a little off, and his eyes looked a little resentful.
