"Crusades?" Li Shimin was stunned by these words, "Really?"
He looked at Li Ke with some suspicion, Pope? Crusades? Is there such a powerful empire in the West? Doesn't that mean it's more powerful than Persia? After all, if the other party has this ambition to conduct an Eastern expedition, it means that it has absolute confidence that it can defeat these countries in the East.
Judging from the information Li Shimin currently knows, although Persia, a country that has existed for hundreds of years, has a population smaller than that of the Tang Dynasty, its overall strength cannot be underestimated. Not to mention that Arabia can fight back and forth with Persia. I heard that there is Byzantium in the west.
The other party is definitely closer to these three countries. Do they want to fight all the way to Datang?
"Of course it's true." Li Ke said directly without changing his expression or heartbeat.
"No wonder you are so anxious to push Datang's defense line near the West Kunlun Mountains." Li Shimin suddenly realized, and he probably understood why Li Ke was anxious.
"You sent Pei Xingjian to China to get the latest news, right?"
"But in my opinion, their possibility is not high. Regardless of the fact that the three countries in the middle are not small countries, the distance from the west to the current border of the Tang Dynasty is at least five or six thousand miles. Such a long distance In an expedition, not everyone is a champion." Li Shimin shook his head, "Without sufficient logistics, reasonable war mobilization, and a strong national system, if you want to launch such an expedition, the possibility of success is infinitely close to zero."
"And you are talking about the Pope, which means it is religious in nature? I admit that some fanatics can burst out with very strong fighting power, but since it is a large-scale war, then all soldiers cannot be fanatics, all It is unlikely that any of the officers are fanatics."
"They are just believers. The casualties, suffering, and life and death during the battle are enough to make them start to think about why they are fighting. There is no actual benefit and sufficient feelings for their family and country. They are just for an unreasonable god. I'm afraid it wouldn't be this army all the way. They are all deserters.”
I have to say that none of the famous emperors in history was simple. My father had already said too many things accurately.
Li Ke looked at his father and said with a smile: "No matter what, we must be on guard."
"Well, I understand, so you can start the reform of the military department of the Tang Dynasty. Some of the military academies you mentioned before can be built, starting with the Sixteenth Guards of Chang'an." Li Shimin said.
The Sixteenth Guards of Chang'an, in fact, one guard is almost equivalent to an army. The number of people in each guard is different. In the past, it ranged from 25,000 to 4,000. However, the Sixteenth Guards of Chang'an are currently being reorganized as a whole, and the Sixteenth Guards of Chang'an will not appear in the future. This is an unequal situation.
In addition, according to Li Ke's idea, there are actually no sixteen guards near Chang'an. Three guards are enough. In addition, the soldiers of other guards can be transferred from outside.
Of course, the prerequisite for this is that the security forces must be fully replenished.
Speaking of which, Qin Qiong is now the general with the most troops in the entire Tang Dynasty, and the total number of the entire security army is close to 500,000.
The current total strength of Datang's imperial troops is less than 700,000. Of course, this is also because the security army recruits retired soldiers locally and then trains them, so the security army is only responsible for dealing with local situations.
In other words, the armor they wear is not as protective as the Mingguang Armor and the armor currently in service in the Tang Dynasty, but in fact compared with any other country in the world, it is considered heavy armor.
Such a unit, without missing any weapons and equipment, would be enough to defend the city!
In other words, the army before the Tang Dynasty seemed to have more than 600,000 soldiers, but these soldiers still needed to guard local areas, and only a few hundred thousand were actually used for external operations.
But now, it is no exaggeration to say that the current 700,000 troops of the Tang Dynasty can be used for foreign wars! The available troops are not at the same level at all!
The most important thing is that the current military system of the Tang Dynasty is not a government military system, but a compulsory military service system. In other words, all soldiers must undergo continuous training for at least one year, and then they will enter actual combat.
The Tang Dynasty did not understand future generations, so actual combat must be actual combat. How can actual combat be carried out if there are no enemies? Sweep away the bandits! Throughout the entire Tang Dynasty, as long as they heard that there were bandits or mountain bandits robbing places, regardless of whether there were many people or few, the local soldiers would directly pull people over to do it.
If we don’t train for actual combat at this time, when will we train for actual combat?
Therefore, this year, I don’t know how many bandits, large and small, have been wiped out throughout Datang. At least four to five hundred bandit gangs have been killed.
The killing of these bandits and bandits had another benefit: at least more than 300,000 people had re-registered their household registrations in Datang.
There was no other way. At the end of the Sui Dynasty and the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the world was in chaos. I don't know how many people fled into the mountains and forests to avoid the disaster. Many even entire villages fled.
Although the Tang Dynasty had conquered the world, it was impossible for him to distract himself from searching for these people in the vast mountains and forests.
But now, anyway, the Tang Dynasty court has money, well... mainly because His Highness the King of Qin has money. If there is no shortage of food, all the soldiers who need training can be mobilized are just a little monthly money.
To be honest...it's not much, mainly because the profits are high! And if the monthly money of these soldiers is taken back, it will all be consumed in the end! The people are short of iron tools now! Li Ke has many ways to make the economy prosper, and he is not afraid of people making money.
When you make money, invent new things to buy for them.
After buying the plowshare, there is also a columbine. After buying the columbine, there is also an iron pot. After buying the iron pot, there is also a kitchen knife. After buying the kitchen knife, there will be various iron daily utensils in the future. When these are replenished, In the future, there will also be horse-drawn carriages with iron wheels, and even some sewing machines, etc.
Finally, there are various kinds of cloth, houses, glass, etc.
All in all, common people care about basic necessities, food, clothing, housing and transportation, and Li Ke started from these aspects.
Therefore, in the name of military training, Li Ke asked these government soldiers to go into the deep mountains and old forests for no reason. At worst, they would use them as training, large-scale cross-country trails, mountain operations, mountain adaptability training, etc., and at the same time, they could also train army doctors. Treatment methods for various common diseases.
All good things!
So this is how these people came. Some villages hidden in the mountains and forests were discovered. They were a little nervous at first, but they found that their soldiers did not take action. They just sent out political commissars to reason with them and explain policies.
Especially in the new Tang Dynasty, the village chiefs in these villages are also very abiding by the rules. They all said that they should contact the nearest township to register for household registration.
At the same time, these political commissars also said that if they were willing to move out into the mountains and forests, the Tang government would still allocate one hundred acres of land to each of their households. How could these villagers be unwilling?
