"Yuan Benchu was in Hebei, with a population of more than four million, enough to raise an army of four or five hundred thousand. This battle is the battle of the national fortune of our Great Chu and Northern Zhao, and it will go all out, except for leaving the necessary soldiers and horses to garrison, the rest of the soldiers will inevitably all participate in the battle. I am afraid that the Zhao army we will face in the future will be about 350,000, and the scale is not huge! Tian Feng said in a deep voice.

"No, Yuan Hao, you still missed at least 200,000." Guo Jia's eyes narrowed slightly.

"Two hundred thousand? Where did the 200,000 come from? Tian Feng frowned and asked.

"The Maison." Jia Xu said in a cold tone: "There are many families in Hebei, and there are countless private soldiers and black households, if they help Yuan Benchu, it is not easy to have 200,000 more soldiers." ”

"Hebei family? Now that the situation in the world is so clear, will they still do their best to help Yuan Benchu? Tian Feng said in disbelief.

"Then it depends on what kind of price Yuan Benchu can come up with. As long as the benefits are rich enough, the Hebei family will not be stingy with these young people. After all, if we rule the world in the future, these private soldiers and black households of theirs will not be able to keep it. If Yuan Benchu really made a bloody investment, he would probably not fail to make a move with the greedy character of these families. Guo Jia chuckled disdainfully.

"But even if the family helps, these 200,000 are all new soldiers, even if they join the battlefield, I'm afraid it would be good not to add to the chaos, how can they form combat power?" Tian Feng said.

The number of soldiers is important, but a certain degree of training is also essential, at least to become qualified soldiers and be able to form combat power. Otherwise, it will be disadvantageous to the army to disobey orders or to be afraid on the battlefield. If the momentum is snatched first, it can easily lead to a rout.

Especially for an army of hundreds of thousands like this, the minimum level of elite of non-commissioned soldiers is even more demanding. Otherwise, the defeat of 100 people can easily form the defeat of 10,000 people, resulting in the defeat of the army.

"The words are like this, but who knows what Yuan Benchu is hiding. You must know that the power of Yuan Benchu's monarchical talent has not yet been revealed. You must know that even in the difficult situation of the decisive battle of Gongsun Zhan, Yuan Shao did not play his hole cards, so he must have kept it for us. Just think of Cao Cao during the Battle of Qingzhou. What's more, there is also a high view. It's really not good, as long as these soldiers have a little training and cooperate with the talent of the legion of the high ranks, they are enough to form a lot of combat power in the Chinese army. Xun Yu said.

"We cannot pin our hopes of victory on the weakness of the enemy. This battle is crucial and must be carried out with great caution. Yuan said solemnly.

"Although there has been no large-scale expansion of recruitment in the past few years since the founding of the country, the total number of soldiers and horses has also been recruited, and now there are about 900,000 soldiers, including 250,000 naval troops and 650,000 army troops. In order to ensure safety and prevent Yuan Shao from taking the opportunity to go south to the Central Plains after the defeat, 100,000 elites were needed to cooperate with the naval army to blockade the Yellow River, and Liaodong also needed 50,000 elites to sit in charge. Although other states and counties are relatively stable, they also need a certain amount of troops and horses to cooperate with the local security forces and reserves. In order to be safe, at least 450,000 troops cannot be moved. There were no more than 200,000 troops available. After taking stock of the situation of all parties in Dachu, Tian Feng said a series of data while trying to be safe.

"But if it is the battle of Hebei, Yuan Benchu's command has nearly 600,000 soldiers as Fengxiao and Wen He said, and the army we lead should not be under 400,000, and there is a vacancy of about 200,000 soldiers."

"Now that the Central Plains is about to fall into the hands, it's time to expand the recruitment of soldiers on a large scale." Yuan Shu heard what Tian Feng said, and said directly.

Although the population of today's Chu State is only more than 30 million, which is not as good as that of the Han Dynasty at its peak, it is several times higher in terms of productivity, taxation and annual grain harvest. At its peak, the Han Dynasty was able to maintain nearly 800,000 soldiers, and Yuan Shu did not have much economic pressure to recruit millions of people.

In fact, if it weren't for Yuan Shu's constant line of elite soldiers, like the soldiers with combat power and equipment under Yuan Shao's command, Yuan Shu would not have had any pressure at all to recruit two or three million.

Although it took Yuan Shu a lot of energy and time to go against the family, the benefits after success are also extremely obvious. The state-owned ownership of land can be said to have completely liberated the productive forces of the peasants, and in this era when agriculture was most important, this meant that Yuan Shu could maintain millions of elite teachers without any pressure.

"How much does Your Majesty want to expand the army?"

"In terms of the water army, due to Gong Jin's sake, a new army was established earlier, and it is now enough, so we will not be recruited for the time being. As for the army, this time the army will be expanded by another 300,000 troops, replaced by the defenders of each county, and the elite will be transferred to the Central Plains to prepare for the battle of Hebei. ”

Although the shortage of soldiers is only 200,000, thinking that now that the Central Plains has been included in the mastery and Hebei is about to be in sight, Yuan Shu simply recruited 100,000 more elites in order to guard these two places in the future.

"In this way, the standing combat strength that our army needs to maintain is 1.2 million. With so many troops, once the world is pacified and the swords and guns are returned to the warehouse, I am afraid it will not be a good thing. Zhang Zhao, who was in charge of internal affairs, couldn't help but speak up.

With Da Chu's current tax grain, it is nothing to maintain such an army. But Zhang Zhao was still a little reluctant to spend money and food in vain on these soldiers who had no battle to fight.

"Although the world is peaceful, it is dangerous to forget the war. Have you forgotten what I just said before? Yuan Shu looked at Zhang Zhao with a smile: "If you only want to develop and not raise swordsmen, over time, Da Chu will become a fat sheep with no power to resist, and if the surrounding alien races rise, what is the use of the country being rich?" It's just meat from other countries. Neither of them can relax in developing and strengthening the army, but must go hand in hand. ”

"What's more, who said that after the world is calm, these soldiers will be useless? You know, there is an empire not far from us, and there is no room for others to sleep on the side of the couch. Since the ancient Great Xia Dynasty, the territory of each dynasty and each generation of our Han people has to expand by a few points. My Da Chu is naturally no exception, and Guishan is the first step in our expansion. If you want to annex such a huge empire, 1.2 million soldiers still feel that it is not enough! Yuan Shu said.

Zhang Zhao's internal affairs ability is top-notch, but his temperament and overall view are a little worse. The people present were basically the top thinkers in Da Chu, and they all had a favorable attitude towards Yuan Shu's decision in their hearts, and Zhang Zhao, a slightly pedantic old-fashioned man, actually spoke out against it.

For example, Tian Feng, who is also a minister of internal affairs, also affirmed Yuan Shu's decision, and he proposed this army expansion. Yuan Shu had already extended their gaze to the entire world rather than these projectile lands around the Great Han, and they naturally did not worry that these armies would be useless.

And military strategists like Guo Jia are even more supportive of this. Da Chu has so much money and food, and he can't use it up, so wouldn't it be a waste to recruit more soldiers? Anyway, I already know that there are so many powerful enemies in this world, it's a big deal to fight them one by one, how many soldiers and horses are too many?

And even if there is a surplus of soldiers, at most, there are hundreds of thousands of young farmers who are missing! At present, the domestic grain output has seriously exceeded the standard, even if the country continues to maintain grain prices or fall all the way. Yuan Shu is already planning some plans to encourage farmers to switch to cash crops or transform into industry and commerce. The disappearance of these hundreds of thousands of young farmers will not affect agriculture in the slightest.

Expanding the army, as long as it is not too much, it is completely proneficial, so everyone present is basically supportive.