With the growing strength of the Great Song Dynasty, the need for the army became more and more, and the core combat strength of the Great Song Dynasty was only 100,000 central forbidden troops and 100,000 border forbidden troops, even if there were the later formed Beiwei Army and Tabai Army, the total was only 260,000.

A standing army of 260,000 people in total, which is not a lot for a feudal dynasty, not to mention that the Great Song Dynasty is surrounded by tigers and wolves.

An army of 100,000 people can be falsely claimed to be an army of 200,000, after all, the addition of farmer miscellaneous labor and the like is almost the same, but now the forbidden army of the Great Song Dynasty does not need so many miscellaneous servants to transport military rations, and the weapons and armor are also transported by chariots that can be put into battle at any time.

The number of troops is generally related to the population of the country, the larger the population, the larger the base of the army, a country with a population of one million, 100,000 soldiers is already a lot, which means that one out of ten people, regardless of men, women, old and young, is a soldier.

What is the population of the Great Song Dynasty?

The population statistics sent by the state capitals obtained by Zhao Zhen were astonishing, and there were 208.88 million and 2,258 households and 126 million people in the whole country of the Great Song Dynasty! It has indeed broken through the 100 million mark, and the most obvious thing is that there are significantly more children born in their birth years.

The Year of the Heavenly Sage is the year when Zhao Zhen began to govern himself.

Now it is the fifth year of the Ming Dao, and a full thirteen years have passed, and the children born in the Year of the Heavenly Saint are afraid that they have been shaking their heads and reading for a long time.

Since the Battle of Tanyuan, the Great Song Dynasty has basically not experienced a large-scale war, even if it is the Western Expedition, the southern destruction of Dali is just an ordinary small-scale battle for the Great Song Dynasty, and the loss of population is completely negligible compared to the stable birth rate.

Now the court and the people have an extremely excited mood, this is a kind of strong country, the pride of a big country is at work, the Great Song Dynasty's foreign use of troops Lian Zhan Lian Jie made people see hope, what is even more surprising is that Zhao Zhen has improved the treatment of soldiers, how many conscripts are going to the recruits who were left to recruit after four years.

The treatment of recruiting soldiers is high, there are many lulu, and the benefits are comparable to those of officials, the Great Song Dynasty is the idea of the official standard, and everyone in the world wants to be an official, but the imperial examination is more difficult than the other, and those who can go to high school are among the best, and the only opportunity to go up is to join the army.

Originally, if you said that you would join the army in the Great Song Dynasty, many neighbors would look down on you, and only those who couldn't survive would go to be thieves with the army, but now who dares to say that thieves are with the army?

The attitude of civilian officials towards the military is also gradually changing, and even if they still look down on the warriors, they are now inseparable from the warriors.

The 14th Mansion of the Great Song Dynasty, 240 Prefectures, 37th Army, 4 Prisons. The 37th Army here is a military state, but the number of troops is very small, and the main box army has been sent by Zhao Zhen to open up wasteland and farm, and the number of troops has plummeted.

The reason why the officials of the court asked to increase the number of troops was because of the reduction of the Xiang army, although the forbidden army was more elite than the Xiang army in the eyes of the civil officials, the Hunan army was still the military strength of the Great Song Dynasty, so it was a pity that it was reduced, although a large amount of financial expenses were saved, but the state capital in the hinterland had little combat power, and the rogue and mountain bandits basically had to ask the court for help.

Zhao Zhen also discovered this problem, he continued to reduce the army and take the route of elite soldiers, but he forgot the problem of bandits in this era, with the continuous increase of merchants, the number of gangsters who killed people and sold goods also increased......

In the Daqing Palace, the officials of the local state government were presented by the officials of the two governments, and the more prosperous the place, the more looting occurred.

Ouyang Xiu played in the class: "Your Majesty, there have been more than 20 robberies and robberies in Henan Mansion, and there were as many as eight in March this year alone!" In addition, there are hundreds of cases in Yingchangfu, Tangzhou, and Junzhou, and there are more in Bazhou, Lizhou, and Dazhou on the fourth road of Sichuan and Shaanxi, and there are more than hundreds. The armaments from all over the country were already difficult to help, and some state capitals even paid to send bandits around the city. ”

The first time Zhao Zhen encountered this kind of crisis, he didn't expect that the living standards of the people of the Great Song Dynasty had improved, but the problem of public security was highlighted, and there were always some people who liked to get something for nothing.

Fan Zhongyan walked out of the class and said: "Your Majesty, the elite of my forbidden army of the Great Song Dynasty, but they can only stick to Tokyo City and the border state capital, but there are no soldiers to fight in the belly, please make a quick decision!" Otherwise, the troubled times will be revealed! ”

Fan Zhongyan and Ouyang Xiu have been promoted to the deputy minister's political affairs, and what they say is very important in the court, although Pang Ji, as the prime minister, promoted them single-handedly, but he didn't expect them to dare to say and do so.

The Manchu Dynasty civil and military knew a little about the affairs of the local state capital, but they did not play, only Fan Zhongyan and Ouyang Xiu broke the original and harmonious scene of the Great Song Dynasty, in order to maintain the harmony of the Great Song Dynasty, Pang Ji went out and said: "Your Majesty, Fan Zhongyan and Ouyang Xiu's words are too serious, and the governors of all state capitals can recruit villagers to resist bandits......"

Zhao Zhen waved his hand, interrupted Pang Ji's words and said: "I don't have such a good face, what the two of you have said is that the local bandits have reached the point where they have to deal with it, and my Great Song Dynasty is now paying a huge amount of money and taxes, can't I afford to raise government soldiers?" ”

As soon as the term government soldiers appeared, all the courtiers were surprised, did the official family plan to reopen the government military system?

"Your Majesty must not reopen the old rules of the government soldiers! This is a tyranny that oppresses the people! ”

Lu Zongdao, who was already dying, bowed to Zhao Zhen on the throne, and he said that many civil officials wanted to say but did not dare to say their hearts, and the government military system required one person to serve as a government soldier, and the whole family was incorporated into the military and did not belong to the state and county.

In addition, the government soldiers themselves are exempt from military service, but they must bring their own military supplies, clothing, light weapons, bows and arrows, horizontal knives, and food on the way to the service. Each of the ten men had to prepare a total of six horses for transportation, the so-called "six pack horses." Self-provided equipment is a heavy burden on the peasants, and this kind of behavior is basically a squeeze of the people's power by fishing for all their resources, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is tyranny.

Zhao Zhen saw that Lu Zongdao was full of gorgeous hair and was still so upright, and sighed slightly: "Sure enough, it is worthy of being the auxiliary minister left by the first emperor to me, and the palace bricks are damp and cold, and the three talents quickly support Lu Shi for me." ”

Sancai hurriedly stepped forward and helped Lu Zongdao, who fell to the ground, to help him up: "Your Majesty is sympathetic to your old age and frailty, and Lu will participate in politics quickly." ”

Lu Zongdao grabbed the floor tiles and said: "Your Majesty must not reopen the old system of government soldiers!" ”

Zhao Zhen said with a smile: "I haven't finished my words yet, even if I reopen the old system of government soldiers, I will not squeeze the people's power, all military funds will be distributed and burdened by the imperial court, and they will never ask the people for a son, and they enjoy all the treatment of the original government soldiers, and they will be exempted from taxes in summer and autumn, and they can also get subsidies for cattle farming." ”

The exemption of summer and autumn taxes is a good thing for ordinary farmers, but the government soldiers have to be trained, which will naturally delay the farming, so Zhao Zhen will give subsidies for cattle farming.