On January 15, 136 New Calendar, in the chamber of the Chosen Pavilion, the Blue Stone Palace, Maier and the cabinet ministers were finalizing the final plan for the Royal Bank with Kazuki Kazuki. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

“…… In the early stage, we will accept short-term investment from the rich and businessmen, and once the bank is recognized by the people, we will change our business strategy and divide the investment into small shares, and each person can only buy one share. In this way, the monopoly of bank investment by the rich can be restricted to a certain extent, so that the people can benefit to the greatest extent. You may not like to hear this, but it is still necessary to say that this measure can also bind the interests of the people to the interests of the kingdom, and thus increase the people's recognition of the kingdom. ”

The words of Heyan Ruizhi caused everyone to nod their heads again and again, and after thinking for a few seconds, Salin asked questions.

"Mr. Ruizhi, I know that you take the security of the bank very seriously, but do you need too many fighters? In the expansion plan, which will only start in early July, the regular army will only be expanded by 10 regiments, and you will need 10,000 fighters at once, which will put a lot of pressure on the Ministry of Defense. ”

In the expansion plan, which will begin in early July, the Kingdom of Byron will expand the regular army by ten regiments, and at the end of December this year, the city defense garrison except for the city of Rimi will be reorganized. After the expansion plan is over, the Kingdom of Byron will have 20 regiments of regular army and about 50,000 city defense troops, with a total strength of more than 70,000.

Today, the total population of the Kingdom of Byron is more than 1.2 million, which further reduces the ratio of military to civilian populations in the Kingdom of Byrons. The standing army system is a military system that requires high national production capacity, and the vast majority of people who join the army are strong men and are valuable labor. Leaving these able-bodied men completely out of production will definitely affect the country's production capacity.

At present, there are only two races in the New World that can achieve the separation of military and civilian, one is the Dugu people, and the other is the Leting people. The slavery system of the Tugu people was the foundation that supported their separation of military and civilian, and once the slavery system collapsed, there was no one to support the professional soldiers. Although the Leiding people did not have a slavery system on the surface, the exploitation of the civilian class by the ruling class and the aristocratic class was obvious to all, and their standing army system was built on the exploitation of the civilian class, otherwise they would not have been able to separate the military and the people.

The financial pressure on the Kingdom of Byron was largely due to the separation of military and civilian. Today, the kingdom of Byron has a population of 1.2 million, and if exactly half of them are male, the number of males is 600,000. Of these 600,000 men, about half were old people and children, and could not do heavy physical labor, so that there were only 300,000 men left in the kingdom of Byrons.

If 70,000 of these 300,000 people are professional soldiers, it means that the Kingdom of Byron has lost nearly a quarter of its male labor force at once, which greatly affects the production capacity of the Kingdom of Byrons. While losing production capacity, the Kingdom of Byron still had to feed these 70,000 people. If it weren't for the fact that the Kingdom of Byron had a large reserve of weapons and equipment, the Ministry of Defense would have suffered a pain in the flesh every time the Ministry of Defense expanded its army by one regiment.

In order to solve this problem, Salin proposed a measure to separate the regular army from civilian population, and to change the city defense force to a "military service system", allowing male citizens to serve in the military on a regular basis to guard the cities to which they belong. In this way, the city defense army is "semi-full-time", and can save some production capacity for the Kingdom of Byrons.

Even so, the kingdom of Byron still had to bear considerable economic pressure. Now that he knows that the Ministry of Defense wants 10,000 fighters and professional soldiers, this will not only put great pressure on the Ministry of Defense, but also put even more pressure on the economy of the Kingdom of Byrons.

"Lord Salin, for the Kingdom Bank to be opened in various town-level territories at the same time, we need a large number of security personnel, and at the same time, the Kingdom Chamber of Commerce also needs a large number of guards."

"If it's just a guard, can't it be hired?" Nanyi asked suspiciously.

"Hired guards are not reliable enough in terms of loyalty, and there can be problems. The Royal Bank must not be discredited by the people, so the soldiers trained by the Ministry of Defense must be more reliable. And in the long run, it will cost more to hire an escort, so it is better to use the kingdom's army in the first place. ”

He Yanrui's words made sense, but Maier shook his head slightly.

"But 10,000 is too many."

"I know that 10,000 people are a lot, so I dare to ask Your Majesty to suspend the army expansion plan and hand over the trained 10,000 people to the Royal Bank and the Kingdom Chamber of Commerce."

And Yan Ruizhi's words surprised everyone. When they saw that He Yan Ruizhi's eyes were firm, they knew that he didn't say such things on a temporary basis, so they didn't make a sound, so that He Yan Ruizhi could continue to speak.

"Your Majesty's retention of these 10,000 men in the Ministry of Defense is only an increase of 10,000 troops that the kingdom can mobilize, and the role of 10,000 men in the role of all-out war for the race is very limited. But if these 10,000 people are handed over to the Royal Bank and the Kingdom Chamber of Commerce, in a year His Majesty will have the full support of the people of the whole country, as well as a steady supply of resources. If the war is to continue two years from now, this long-term investment is clearly more cost-effective than an outright military expansion. ”

Maier and his cabinet ministers carefully savored and weighed the importance of this investment, which was indeed more appropriate than a direct expansion of the army. Of course, this is on the premise that the Kingdom of Byron will not go to war for two years.

Will the Kingdom of Byron go to war in two years?

This matter is not for Mair to decide, nor for the cabinet ministers, nor for Tengyuan, who is far away from the front line, to decide, it all depends on the attitude of the Tayrong nobles towards the Tayrong Kingdom and the performance of the Ilibi Alliance in the war. At present, the Taeyong nobles are on the defensive on the frontal battlefield, and the two sides have not engaged in large-scale battles.

The Taeyong nobles did this not because they were afraid of the Ilibi League, but because they were trying to convince the Ira to wage a racial all-out war against the Ilibi, while also convincing other forces to declare war on the Ilibi League. Due to the great ideological differences between the races, the Ilibi have many enemies in the New World, and the other races are more willing to side with the Tairong when both sides are in charge.

That being said, in politics, interests have always been the most important. Now that the war has just begun, the two sides have not yet faced each other head-on, and the other races are basically in a wait-and-see mode, ready to bet when the two sides are about to decide the winner. Some had prepared to join the Tayons against the Ilibians, but after the Tayyongs sent emissaries, they instead regarded the Tayjungs as enemies - the King of Yongsan was one of them.

As early as November 135 of the new calendar, the Yongshan Kingdom sent envoys to negotiate peace with the Republic of Sarres. This was due to the fact that the Ilibi Alliance, while fighting on two fronts, was still able to suppress Nagayama and its allies. However, at such a time, the Tayonites sent messengers to persuade the King of Yongsan to launch an offensive against the Ilibians. The King of Yongshan is not a fool, how can he not know that the Taiyong people are trying to use him to attract the firepower of the Ilibi people?

King Yongshan often calculates others, and is the type of "I can calculate you, and I will be shameless if you calculate". Therefore, the Tayon people were very dissatisfied with the behavior of the Tayonsan, and he ostensibly promised the Tayongs that they would launch an offensive next year, but after sending the envoy away, he immediately sent the envoy to the Republic of Sarres to negotiate peace with the Elibi Alliance.

Once the war between the Nagayama Kingdom and the Republic of Zarùs was armisted, the biggest point of conflict between the Ira and the Ilibi disappeared. In this way, the Tairongs would have to fight against the Ilibi League alone. In this case, they must fight a decisive battle with the Ilibi as soon as possible. If they win, they will gain the support of other races, and if they lose, they can also find a reason for themselves to completely abandon the Xiaohu family and let the Tairong Kingdom become independent.

Now there is no truce between the country of Yongshan and the Republic of Sarles, and no one knows when they will cease fighting. After their truce, no one knew when the Tayyong nobles would fight the Ilibi League. Things in politics are always fast-moving, and no one knows what will happen in the next second.

In this case, Maier and his cabinet ministers preferred to expand the army first, because it was the safest thing to do so. In the unlikely event that the Kingdom of Byron had to enter the war within two years, 20,000 regular troops would certainly be more reliable than 10,000 regular troops. They discussed for a while, and when He Yan Rui saw that they seemed to want to expand the army, he hurriedly persuaded them.

"Your Majesty, in the battle of Yaolin City, you defeated 150,000 enemy troops head-on with 50,000 troops, and then broke through the enemy's camp and killed countless prisoners. As far as I know, the key to the battle of Yaolin City was the decisive battle between His Majesty and the main force of the 110,000 Xiaohu Army, and His Majesty only had 30,000 men in his hands at that time. I don't know anything about military affairs, but I've also heard of the truth that 'there are not many soldiers but they are fine' and 'the army is strong'. Even if the kingdom had to go to war within two years, with His Majesty's talents, 10,000 regular troops would be enough to fight the enemy. As long as he wins another victory like the Battle of Yaolin City, the enemy army will definitely be frightened and dare not fight our army again! ”

And Yan Ruizhi's words made Maier look ashamed and sighed heavily.

"Mr. Ruizhi praised it falsely. The victory in the Battle of Yaolin City is not due to me. Lord Salin and Lord Yanhe were stationed around, pinning down a large number of cavalry of the Xiaohu Army, allowing us to survive the enemy's cavalry charge; The officers and men of the Chinese army fought bloodily and fought to the death, and it was their courage and killing intent that made the enemy fearful, so that our army could win; The most important thing is that I had a musket unit of 4,000 men in my hands at that time, as well as sufficient ammunition, and I also occupied favorable terrain to continuously fire on the enemy army, which greatly damaged the morale of the enemy army. Without any of these three conditions, our army will be defeated. It's not easy to get another big victory like the Battle of Yaolin City. ”

In fact, there are two other reasons why Maier was able to win the battle of Yaolin City, one is that the Xiaohu army did not dare to waste time with the coalition army because of its excessive consumption; The second is that the Xiaohu Army has the intention of underestimating the enemy because of the small number of coalition troops. Without either of these two conditions, the Xiaohu Army would not have fought this battle seriously with the coalition forces at all. If the Xiaohu Army can't hold out, the coalition forces can only watch the Xiaohu Army's battalion stare dryly, and fight with them head-on, and it will not be certain who will win and who will lose at that time.

Mel's words shook Kazuyan, and just as he was about to postpone the construction of the Royal Bank and the Kingdom Chamber of Commerce, Salin opened up.

"Your Majesty, what Mr. Ruizhi said has a point."

Everyone was stunned when they heard this, and immediately focused their eyes on Salin. Salin smiled indifferently and continued.

"As Your Majesty said, it is very difficult to achieve another great victory like the Battle of Yaolin City. But His Majesty's name has already spread, and if His Majesty takes the expedition again, it will definitely make the enemy army vigilant. Even if His Majesty only has 10,000 troops, the enemy army may not dare to act rashly. Moreover, the kingdom is bordered by the Republic of Bujin to the north and the Kingdom of Egus to the west, so it can be supported by allies at any time, and there are 50,000 city defense troops in the country, so defense will definitely not be a problem. ”

"What if you have to send troops?" Mel asked.

"When the time comes, we can send the city defense army to participate in the battle, and we can also temporarily form a few regiments as we did when we used troops against Shangjin County. Although the combat effectiveness is certainly inferior to that of the regular army, the enemy army does not know this, and will still be afraid of His Majesty and dare not act rashly. ”

"Uh...... What does Lord Salin mean...... Bravado? ”

"That's right, it's a bluff." Salin nodded solemnly, "Soldiers are not tired of deceit, and when we have to send troops, the situation must be very critical." What we have to do is not to fight the enemy in a decisive battle, but to buy time for the Allies to recuperate, so that we can build up enough strength to fight back as soon as possible, because only then can we fight back. ”

Salin was one of the most politically astute of the cabinet ministers, and his words carried a lot of weight. After thinking about it carefully, everyone decided to trust Salin's judgment and handed over the 10,000 people needed to expand the army to He Yan Ruizhi. As a result, the expansion plan of the Kingdom of Byron had to start in advance in order to establish the Royal Bank and the Kingdom Chamber of Commerce as soon as possible.

To be on the safe side, the reintegration of the city defence forces also began at the end of January. The town-level settlements began to reduce their garrisons, reserving a mobile force for the Kingdom of Byron that could be mobilized at any time. The only exception is Limicheng, and after Wei Xu learned about Maier's reorganization of the city's defense forces, he also wrote a letter to Maier, wondering if he needed to reserve a mobile force that he could deploy at any time.

According to Maier, the city of Rimi is located on the eastern border of the kingdom, next to the kingdom of Elt. The Kingdom of Elt and the Kingdom of Byron have not yet established diplomatic relations, and their attitude towards the Kingdom of Byron is not clear, so the Kingdom of Byron will not draw troops from Limi City during the war, so as not to make the Kingdom of Elt have different intentions.

Mayer's words were not intended to appease Wei Xu, but he was really worried that the Kingdom of Elt would have a different heart for the Kingdom of Byrons. Although there is Mt. Rimi as a barrier, if the Elt Kingdom really attacks the Byron Kingdom, things will become very troublesome.