Hearing Li Yuan's intention to expand the army again, not to mention Dugu Quan, Dou Wei, Liu Wenjing, Pei Lian, Chen Shuda, Xiao Yu, these "political affairs hall" six phases, even the crown prince Li Jiancheng and the gambling Jin King Li Shimin were also frightened.

The above eight people all have heavy and solemn faces! Because Li Yuan's decision was completely an earth-shattering gamble that would become a beneficiary if it was unsuccessful.

"The money and grain in the inventory, adding the commercial taxes of the southern counties that have been sold in advance, and recruiting 100,000 troops are more than enough, the key is that we can't last long!" Li Jiancheng said very cautiously and hard, and he said in a heavy tone: "The army's normal armament and daily training expenses are very large! In wartime, it is necessary not only to consume military rations, but also to replenish damaged armaments, and after the war, it also involves rewards and pensions, all of which we cannot afford for a long time. ”

Li Yuan frowned and said: "The Sui army nourishes the war with war, and the more it fights, the richer it becomes, can't we get rich from the war?" ”

Li Jiancheng glanced at the defeated general Li Shimin resentfully, and stopped talking! But I said in my heart: The premise of the Sui army getting richer and richer is to win many battles, but what about us? Defeat after defeat! The spirit of repeated defeats and battles is commendable, but all this comes at the cost of an empty treasury.

Li Shimin clenched his fists, and finally lowered his head helplessly, embarrassed, helpless, and ashamed, but also depressed, unwilling, dissatisfied, angry and other emotions.

He felt that his strategic vision was correct, but when it was applied to specific tactics, he repeatedly failed, and in his memory, he seemed to have never won a game, and the defeat of Xue Ju in Shallow Water Plains was not a military victory. And when he was fighting with the Sui Dynasty, he had always been pressed to the ground by the Sui army and was beaten to the ground.

But Li Shimin does not think that he is incompetent, he believes that a series of failures are all caused by the court of the Li Tang Dynasty.

Maybe he has experienced too many failures, Li Shimin has also become calm, and through continuous reflection, he has understood the difference between himself and Yang Tong.

There are many, many reasons why Yang Tong won repeatedly and the Sui Dynasty became bigger and bigger.

First of all, Yang Tong is above the military and politics, and he never needs to be a child of a family who has a false reputation, and his civil and military officials are very pure and pragmatic. In terms of military affairs, Li Jing, Li Jing, Pei Renji, Yang Shanhui, Qin Qiong, Luo Shixin, Pei Xingyan, Niu Jinda, Su Dingfang, Wei Chigong, Xue Wanjun, Xue Wanche, Wang Fubao, Duan Decao, Zhang Zhenzhou, etc. are all small and medium-sized wealthy families and from poor families, but they can all stand alone. In addition to reusing these people, Yang Tong held a heart of complete trust, so that the generals could give full play to their talents without any worries.

Yang Tong even threw the defense of the 'national capital' Yecheng to his general Shen Guang, and his unreserved trust made his subordinates talented, bright stars, and united efforts.

However, his father never handed over military power to generals outside the clan, and even himself, who was his son, he sent a prison army. It was the narrow-mindedness, narrowness, and suspicion of his father that made the Tang Army deeply fetters when fighting! Such an army may be able to defeat Xiao Miao, Xue Ju, Liang Shidu, Lin Shihong, Du Fuwei, Shen Faxing, Li Zitong and other small forces with shallow vision and shallow foundation, but in the face of the vigorous Sui Dynasty, they will be defeated repeatedly, and in the end, even the palace will be burned down, so that the military and civilian spirit will be completely lost. If this continues, let alone defeat the Sui Dynasty, Wang Shichong, Li Mi, and Dou Jiande, who vigorously reorganized the army, can suppress the Tang army.

Looking farther, this is actually the victory of the cold family with pure interests over the old aristocracy with entanglement of interests and selfishness. It is not easy for the Han people in the world to get fair and just treatment, and they are all striving to forge ahead, and it is a matter of course that the new Sui, who has this mainstream trend of thought, is becoming stronger and stronger. And the Guanlong nobles, the Kwantung scholars, and the southern scholars were narrow-minded, all staring at their own acres and threes of land, and it was only natural that the Tang Dynasty they supported was declining day by day.

Secondly, the Tang Dynasty could not even implement the unfair insider operation of the imperial examination and the Juntian system, which was still the world of the old aristocracy, and the interests of the Guanlong aristocracy were not only not touched, but were in a big battle. The pitiful official fields were all occupied by the fiefs of the emperor's relatives and founding achievements. If the soldiers have made meritorious contributions, the people who are rewarded are always the children of the backbone of the army, and the ordinary meritorious soldiers receive pitiful rewards. The Tang Dynasty, where rewards and punishments were unknown, did not get the support of the people and soldiers at the bottom of the country.

The officials of the Sui Dynasty controlled by Yang Tong ruled the Qing Dynasty, and the officials did not dare to seize profits and invade the people, even if there were illegal officials, killing them would not touch others, and there was no game and compromise between the high-level. The officials in political affairs are clear and clear, and they are supported by the people. The Sui Dynasty had clear rewards and punishments in military affairs, and clear rewards for promotion, all of which made soldiers use their lives.

Li Shimin saw that Li Jiancheng had led the topic to himself, and he didn't even bother to argue. Because he knew that if his father and emperor did not change, he and Li Xiaogong, Chai Shao, Zhang Shigui, Changsun Shunde, Hou Junji, Liu Hongji, Wang Junlang, Li Zhongwen, Dou Kang, Duan Lun and others who were controlled everywhere in the war would still fail.

The two dynasties of the Sui and Tang dynasties were clear and muddy, long and long, all of which worried Li Shimin, and also made him gradually lose confidence and patience in the court atmosphere of the Li and Tang dynasties.

"King Jin, you are a captain, what do you think about the expansion of the army?" Li Shimin didn't want to speak, but Li Yuan couldn't get around him after all.

The Tang Dynasty's system of three provinces and six ministries was not perfect, and because it involved the interests of too many people, after the founding of the country, the official system of the old Sui Dynasty has been followed, and the official positions are quite chaotic. In addition to the king of Jin, Li Shimin also has Taiwei, Situ, Longxi Dao Daxing Taishang Shuling, Yongzhou Mu, General Zuowei, Shangzhuguo and so on. He is the same as Yang Tong during Yang Guang's lifetime, and he has so many titles that he can't even remember himself.

Hearing this, Li Shimin, who had not spoken, said helplessly: "Erchen thinks that the eldest brother is right, my Tang national strength to support 200,000 troops is the extreme. The high proportion of taxes generated by the 350,000 army has made the people of the Tang Dynasty complain. If the army is expanded again, within three months, the entire Guanzhong and even the entire army of Datang will have no food available. This does not take into account harvest failures and natural disasters. ”

Li Shimin's implication is that it is not impossible to expand the army, but in order to maintain the number of the army for a long time, it is necessary to build a military cantonment, so that the army can be self-sufficient in food, so as to reduce the pressure on the court and the people.

He opened his words, and simply said his thoughts: "At least for now, we can't afford to raise an army of 350,000, according to the will of the ministers, my Datang should cut 150,000 soldiers and horses, and let him be a military camp in Tianshui, Longxi, Lintao, Jincheng, and Caohan!" Farming when farming is busy, and organizing training during farming slack. If there is a good year, I think the army of 350,000 can barely sustain it. But the days leading up to the autumn harvest are still quite a severe test. ”

His words also revealed a ruthless fact, although Li Yuan owns several counties of Guanzhong, Bashu and Jingzhou, and Bashu is an important grain-producing area, but still cannot maintain an army of 400,000, under this national condition, the Tang Dynasty has only two options, either disarmament or tax increases, otherwise Li Tang will collapse without a fight.

Therefore, Li Shimin put forward a plan for the military tun, so that the army is self-sufficient, then it can feed the army of three or four hundred thousand to compete with the Sui army, this is indeed a mature plan, if the army self-sufficiency rate is increased to thirty percent, then Li Tang can reduce taxes to calm the people's grievances.

"Father, what the second brother said is right, what our army should do now is to recuperate, and the 200,000 army is the limit that my Tang can bear." Li Jiancheng took the lead in agreeing, and when it comes to the interests of Datang, the two brothers maintain a considerable tacit understanding.

The population of the Tang Dynasty was more than 7 million, which seemed to be a huge number, but the fields of the common people were all thin fields with low production capacity, and even if all their grain was collected, it would not be able to feed an army of 400,000.

Looking at his father with a reluctant expression, Li Jiancheng smiled and comforted: "There are not many soldiers, not to mention that the 150,000 troops that have been laid off are not completely dispersed, and we will have enough family funds in the future, and it will not be too late to incorporate these troops into the regular army." ”

"Alright! As you will. ”

Li Yuan's two sons were in lockstep, both a little relieved and a little complicated, feeling that their sons had joined forces to persecute and let themselves lose the majesty of the king. Seeing Liuxiang's expression again, his heart was very gloomy.

"Holy!" At this time, Xiao Yu said on the side: "King Jin's military tun is indeed a good prescription. The minister has been an official in Hechi County for several years and has a good understanding of the Hehuang area. Although the land is relatively barren and the grain production capacity is low, it is rare to hear of the famine, and the root cause is that Hexi can get meat supplies from Tuyuhun. ”

Everyone understood what Xiao Yu meant, and Li Yuan said, "Xiao Aiqing is saying that we can trade with the grassland to get meat, right?" ”

Xiao Yu nodded and said: "If you can get meat supplements, it will also greatly improve the soldier's physique, and the food consumption will be reduced accordingly, I once made statistics, if there is meat supplement, a soldier's consumption of food will be halved, and his physique and strength will increase, so meat is very important to soldiers." ”

Li Yuan said: "An army of hundreds of thousands needs millions or even tens of millions of cattle and sheep every year. But the grassland has little demand for silk, cloth, ceramics, and tea, and what do we exchange for so many cattle and sheep. ”

"Salt, pig iron, weapons, armor are all they need."

As soon as Xiao Yu's words fell, everyone immediately objected, "Pig iron, weapons and armor are definitely not good. ”

Xiao Yu didn't tell the difference, just looked at Li Yuan. For a moment, the hall was quiet.

Li Yuan glanced at everyone and said: "I understand what Xiao Aiqing means, Tuyuhun's strength is not what it used to be, even if he has salt, pig iron, weapons, and armor, the threat to my Datang is not great, after trading with them, we will not only get meat, but also reduce their support for the Xue Liang coalition army, which can be regarded as creating conditions for the recovery of Hexi!" Xiao Aiqing, I take you as my envoy and reach an agreement with Tuyuhun as soon as possible. ”

"Whoa!" Xiao Yu responded.

Seeing that Li Yuan had made up his mind, everyone stopped talking.

Li Yuan continued: "Then, let's talk about the attack. ”

"Father!" Li Shimin stood up and said solemnly: "Blocking Tuyuhun's support for the Xue Liang coalition army with trade has greatly reduced the pressure on the Hexi side, and Erchen only needs 80,000 troops to recover the Hexi and Hehuang regions, and it is more than enough to annihilate Li Liang." Under this premise, we can increase the southern strategy, and this time the focus of the attack is not Xiao Miao, but Zhu Cang. ”

"Zhu Wei has an army of 100,000 people, but he uses human flesh as military food, which is brutal and unpopular, and will not involve the interests of Xiao Mi, Wang Shichong, Li Mi, Lin Shihong and others. We can completely conform to the will of the people and take the three counties of Nanyang, Xiangyang, and Chunling that he occupies! ”

"No way!" Li Yuan unceremoniously and categorically refused: "We have suffered too many big losses because of the division of troops. This time, I will concentrate all my efforts on annihilating the Xue Liang coalition army and Li Liang, so as to ensure the safety of the west. Zhu Cang is a bandit, and it's not too late to clean it up later. ”

Cleaning up later?

Li Shimin is very dissatisfied in his heart, will there be a chance in the future? Wang Shichong has been rectified, will he miss the opportunity?

Seeing that Li Shimin was dissatisfied, Li Yuan simply said to Li Jiancheng: "Prince, you come and tell King Jin!" ”

"The retainers obey!" Li Jiancheng bowed, and then said to Li Shimin: "Although Yang Dong went on an expedition to Goguryeo, the Sui army has 150,000 good warriors in the Guan, but they have never moved, and it is difficult to guarantee that they will not take the opportunity to send troops, so not only should the necessary elite garrison be retained in Guanzhong, but when the second brother goes out, he must also bring enough troops, so as not to be taken advantage of by the Sui army!" Moreover, the contract between my Tang Dynasty and the Sui Dynasty has expired, and they have no worries about sending troops at this time. ”

Li Shimin frowned, feeling that this style of play was too conservative, but he didn't say anything more, he also knew that not only was his father afraid of being beaten by Yang Tong, but his thoughts were not unreasonable. After thinking about it, he simply led the mission of attacking the Xue Liang coalition army and Li Liang.

Book Keju Reading Website: