In the field artillery unit of the Chu army, on average, a nine-pound field artillery must be equipped with more than 25 people and more than 25 mules and horses.
But in fact, the standard gun crew of the Jiujin field artillery is eight people, and once casualties occur during combat, three or four people, or even the last two people, can operate the artillery and continue fighting.
The remaining personnel were transporting ammunition and spare members of the gun crew, um, grooms and the like.
Likewise, the number of mules and horses is similar.
In order to ensure the mobility of the artillery and its continuous combat capability, the number of manpower, mules and horses required was larger than ordinary people imagined.
This does not include the logistics troops providing logistical support from the rear.
These troops, which have reduced their mobility and auxiliary personnel, are usually organized into battalions ranging from a hundred to several hundred people, and are deployed in strategic locations such as cities and passes.
The cost of this kind of troops is also very low. The consumption of the same force is only about 40% of that of a main division. However, in internal pressure, the area it can actually control is not much less than that of a main division. , and at the same time, its performance in low-intensity tasks will not be much worse than that of the main force.
After all, the soldiers in these troops are also regular troops, and all kinds of training are strictly carried out in accordance with the regular troops.
Moreover, the emergence of this kind of army has another advantage, that is, a new group of officers have emerged with new positions.
With more new positions, that means more people can be promoted.
As for promotion, everyone likes it.
These two newly formed divisions, whose main task is to garrison local areas, are called Class B divisions within the Army in order to distinguish them from the existing main field forces, while the original main forces are called Class A divisions. division.
However, although they are divided into A and B, both are regular troops belonging to the army, and officers and soldiers are treated uniformly.
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The establishment of the second-class division is a change made by the Army to reduce costs and expand the army to increase local control. There are many similar changes.
When the construction of the second-class division was finalized, the time had entered the fourth year of Chengshun.
This year's Spring Festival, in addition to celebrating the Spring Festival in the Chu Empire, there was also great good news that inspired many civil and military officials.
On the fifth day of the first lunar month in the fourth year of Chengshun, in the palace of Jinling City in the Great Chu Empire, Songzhuang concubine successfully gave birth to a prince, named Luo Xie (qiū) by Luo Zhixue.
The word "恿" in this name has no special meaning. It is just a rare and uncommon word. This word is not used for items in ordinary places, and it is rarely used even for people's names.
The reason why this word was chosen as the name of the emperor's eldest son was purely for the convenience of avoiding taboos among the people in the future!
Luo Zhixue has a deep understanding of taboo avoidance.
According to tradition, people need to avoid the names of local emperors, and this avoidance is not limited to personal names, but also includes place names, item names, etc.
For example, Kangxi's name was Xuan Ye, so the Xuanwu Sect became the Shenwu Sect... Even when people wrote books about a historical figure, Li Xuanba, he changed his name to Li Yuanba... The medicinal material Scrophulariaceae was renamed Yuanshen...
This kind of thing seems ridiculous at first glance, but in fact it has been like this for thousands of years. Every time an emperor ascends the throne, there will always be a large-scale wave of name changes. The names of people, places, and objects are all changed...
That's why there are so many fake characters in history...
Luo Zhixue didn't know much about this before, but even if he did, it would be useless. This name cannot be changed randomly. It was given to him by his father, and his father Rhodes obviously did not expect that his son would become the emperor in the future...
Because of his common name, there were many people with the same name as him or even the same name among the people. At that time, among the many civil and military officials in the Chu Empire, there were hundreds of people named "Zhixue", and Luo Zhixue had them all. many……
When Luo Zhixue ascended the throne as emperor, there was a wave of taboo name changes within the empire, and many ministers were forced to change their names.
Later, as the Chu Empire actually took control of the southern provinces, even ordinary people among the people gradually changed their names to avoid taboos, especially people with the same name. Many people with the same name would also change one character.
The wave of name changes caused by taboo avoidance is very large, and it has created certain confusion and difficulties in documentary records.
This time Luo Zhixue was clever and specially found a rare character as the name of the emperor's eldest son. Not only this emperor's eldest son, but other sons in the future will also use at least one uncommon character as their name.
In this way, no matter who ascends the throne as emperor in the future, there will be no need for large-scale name changes among the people in the future.
In order to avoid having to worry about it in the future, it is better to just choose an uncommon word as the prince's name.
The birth of the emperor's eldest son Luo Kai made Luo Zhixue very happy, and even made a large number of courtiers in the Chu Empire ecstatic.
This is Luo Zhixue’s first son!
Even if this is not the legitimate son of a queen, Luo Zhixue didn't even have a son in the past few years, so having a bastard now is already very good.
The foundation of this country is finally there.
There are successors to the empire, so they don't have to worry every day that one day after Luo Zhixue suddenly dies, this huge empire will split and collapse.
On the sixth day of the first lunar month, Luo Zhixue decreed that the concubine of Songzhuang should be canonized as the concubine of Songzhuang. The concubine should be canonized first, and the formal canonization ceremony would be held after she was out of confinement.
Three days later, a general amnesty was officially issued, granting amnesty to some ordinary minor illegal criminals. As for murder, rape, tax resistance and other important criminals, they were not included in the amnesty.
The amnesty granted to ordinary prisoners is enough to show that Luo Zhixue is also very happy.
I can't be unhappy. A few years ago, Luo Zhixue actually didn't care whether he had a son or not. He felt that he was still young and would have a son sooner or later.
He was even dissatisfied with the idea that his ministers always asked him to take more concubines in order to give birth to a son as soon as possible. He thought that he was only a teenager, but these ministers were thinking about his successor after his death.
But as time gradually passed, especially when the first few pregnant concubines gave birth to a son, and when many ministers began to seriously worry about the country's national issues, Luo Zhixue himself became a little anxious.
Before Songzhuang Concubine, five women had actually become pregnant one after another, including Queen Wang and Luo Zhixue's former favorites Shu Fei, Li Fei and De Concubine.
However, Queen Wang gave birth to a daughter, Concubine Shu and Li Zhaoyi both had miscarriages, Concubine De gave birth to a daughter, and Concubine Li also gave birth to a daughter.
Five women were pregnant, two had miscarriages, and three gave birth to daughters. In the past two years, not a single son was born, and a group of people were eagerly waiting for him to give birth to an heir. Luo Zhixue himself was a little anxious. .
"The Ronin Begins with Douluo"
Now that Songzhuang's concubine finally gave birth to a son, Luo Zhixue was naturally very happy and thought about it.
It's not because Luo Zhixue likes Concubine Song Zhuang personally. To be honest, Luo Zhixue doesn't have much special feelings towards Concubine Zhuang, and he doesn't even visit her in bed.
Otherwise, she would not have been just a concubine before. Even this concubine was consecrated after she became pregnant to appease her heart.
Before that, the Song family was just Zhaoyi... one of the hundreds of ordinary Zhaoyi and other low-level concubines in the harem of the Great Chu Empire.
But Luo Zhixue still canonized him as a concubine as soon as possible, and if nothing unexpected happens, in a few years when the child grows up, Luo Zhixue will further canonize her as a noble concubine.
All this is because she is the biological mother of the emperor's eldest son.
For him, Luo Zhixue, and even for the entire Chu Empire, the eldest son of the emperor came very timely and was very important.
To a certain extent, Concubine Songzhuang stabilized the country and made great contributions to the country. She deserved the title of a concubine or even a noble concubine.
Concubine Songzhuang successfully gave birth to the emperor's eldest son, which also caused quite a stir in the royal harem.
Whether it is the king or empress, the concubine Shu, the concubine De, or the concubine Li, a large number of women in the harem are all in a bad mood...
Especially Queen Wang was so worried that she couldn't eat or sleep well for several days!
But on the surface, she still had to act like a good wife and mother. She had to show a cheerful expression in front of others, especially in front of Luo Zhixue, and she also had to greet Concubine Songzhuang with various greetings and rewards...
But in their hearts... they probably cursed Concubine Songzhuang and her son and wished they could go to hell.
This is the first prince of the empire, the true eldest son of the emperor, and a good contender for the future throne.
This is not a good thing for Queen Wang. She still wants to adjust her body well and give birth to a prince after giving birth to her daughter, so that her son can become a true eldest son.
But it is too late, which will inevitably have negative consequences in the future.
Luo Zhixue could actually see some of the depression, pain and even worry in Queen Wang's heart, but he pretended not to see it.
This is an established fact that has already happened. It is impossible for him to do anything extreme to satisfy the Queen's wishes.
This is not a personal matter, but a political matter.
He might even coax her about small things in daily life and worry a little about Queen Wang's thoughts, but when it came to such political events, Luo Zhixue never cared about what women thought.
In the conscience of heaven and earth, he did not fall in love and get married with the Queen...
As for the thoughts of women like Concubine Li and Concubine Shu, Luo Zhixue actually paid even less attention to them.
It is true that he used to dote on these two women who were more in line with his own aesthetics, but this kind of liking has nothing to do with love.
It was just a very pure love for beautiful women.
And with the continuous expansion of the harem team in the past two years, and after the people below learned about Luo Zhixue's aesthetic preferences, the women selected into the harem are basically women who conform to Luo Zhixue's aesthetic preferences.
Then Luo Zhixue was inevitably attracted by other women... In the past six months, Luo Zhixue had actually rarely called Concubine Li and Concubine Shu to sleep with him.
Luo Zhixue is still very simple and conservative emotionally. At least so far, he can still proudly say that he has never been in love, not even his first love...
What, you mean those women in the harem? They are just concubines, not lovers. The two are not the same concept.
Among the many women in the harem nowadays, Queen Wang is a bit special. She is special because of her status as queen, so Luo Zhixue pays more attention to her and respects her opinions on small matters.
There is also Concubine Songzhuang who just gave birth to the emperor's eldest son. She is special because she is the biological mother of the emperor's eldest son, so these days, Luo Zhixue still plays the role of a good husband in front of her, making Songzhuang The concubine was deeply moved.
She had been in the palace for nearly two years, and she had never seen such a gentle Luo Zhixue, who even came to her with nourishing soup to feed her.
Don't talk about her, there is no other woman in the entire palace who has enjoyed this kind of treatment.
Therefore, when she drank the soup, she cried while drinking it. Her big teardrops fell into the bowl, and Luo Zhixue was speechless.
But she didn't say anything, she just got up and the maid next to her handed her a handkerchief and wiped it gently with her.
After Concubine Zhuang finished drinking the soup, Luo Zhixue stood up and said, "Concubine, take a good rest and have a good confinement period. The days ahead will be long!"
Concubine Zhuang nodded: "Yes!"
After getting up, Luo Zhixue looked at his son held by the nanny next to him, and finally got up and left.
The harem affairs are now finished, but there are still a lot of military and political affairs ahead.
The year has changed now. The Spring Festival has passed and the Beginning of Spring has passed. This is already considered spring.
The arrival of spring also means that the Northern Expedition is about to begin, and as the Northern Expedition approaches, more and more various matters are waiting for Luo Zhixue to deal with.
On the 13th of the first lunar month, Luo Zhixue held an imperial military affairs meeting. This meeting discussed the first half of the Northern Expedition, that is, the plan for the Jiangbei Campaign!
