Unable to do anything, this is not only the feeling of Zhang Yue and even Wang Yue, but also the feeling of many civil and military officials of the Ming Dynasty who are fighting against the puppet Tang thief army on the front line.

The puppet Tang thief army is fierce, and the ordinary guards can't resist it at all, and the army of the Ming Dynasty, especially the local guards, can only cower in the city, and it is difficult to protect themselves, let alone exterminate the rebels.

However, in this environment, there is still a steady stream of 'good news' sent to Jingshi.

What's the good news?

Many officials of the Ming Dynasty have found that although the puppet Tang thief army opposite them is still strong, the number is much less, especially after learning through some public information that the puppet Tang Dynasty has eliminated a large number of garrisons and robbery camps, many officials of the Ming Dynasty think that this is the puppet Tang Dynasty self-digging grave, and the number of fake thieves with more than 100,000 people was eliminated at once.

They are unwilling to delve into the fact that some of the backbone of these eliminated garrisons and thieves' camps have been selected and reorganized into regular armies, and they ignore these eliminated garrisons and thieves' camps, which will become laborers after returning to the locality, whether it is farming or working in workshops and factories in major cities, they will bring more food and industrial products to the Tang Dynasty.

They just saw that the Tang Dynasty had laid off nearly 100,000 people at once, and the number of puppet Tang thieves had rapidly dropped from more than 100,000 to less than 100,000 at a scale of more than 200,000.

Therefore, many people conclude that the puppet Tang Dynasty must not be able to support so much military spending, so it was forced to be eliminated, and if so many troops are eliminated at once, there will definitely be turmoil, and the decline in military strength will also make the puppet Tang Dynasty look at the tail.

From this, it can be judged that the puppet Tang Dynasty has come to an end, and the Ming Dynasty and the complete eradication of the Tang thieves are not far away.

But what about the actual situation?

The actual situation is that while the garrison brigade and the thief hunting camp have been eliminated, the number of regular troops of the puppet Tang thief army has continued to rise, from the previous 40,000 to 50,000 to nearly 100,000.

The combat effectiveness of the regular army is incomparable with the previous bands and garrisons.

At the same time, the saved military expenses have also greatly improved the equipment level of the regular army, and the equipment of artillery, muskets and even armor is fully loaded.

This also greatly increased the combat effectiveness of the regular army.

And such a change makes the pressure on the Ming army even greater!

Just 20,000 or 30,000 regular troops of the puppet Tang Thief Army have already turned the situation in the entire southern part of Huguang upside down, making Zhang Yue anxious!

And now Zhang Yue doesn't know that the Tang Dynasty is further improving the equipment level of the existing regular army!

After recovering the mirror and repelling the Franc man, the navy did not suffer any losses, well, this is mainly about artillery!

This means that the Navy will not compete with the Army for the predetermined share of artillery, and the Army's artillery regiment plan can be carried out smoothly.

To this end, the Privy Council officially submitted to Li Xuan a plan for the expansion of the army's artillery units!

This plan was under Li Xuan's instructions, and the army had been planning for a long time, and all preparations were already complete, just waiting for the artillery to be in place, so Li Xuan did not hesitate to formally approve this plan.

At the end of the first month, the army officially began the expansion plan of the artillery unit, because the units were scattered all over the place, and the troops on the front line were also busy fighting, so it was impossible to rest and expand, so the first round of expansion was still in the rear, and the units without combat tasks, the first batch of expanded troops started with the Sixth Infantry Division, just like the original brigade to division!

The Sixth Artillery Battalion under the Sixth Infantry Division was expanded into the Sixth Artillery Regiment, which temporarily consists of three artillery battalions, including one seven-pound artillery battalion and two five-pound artillery battalions, with a total of 18 seven-pound artillery pieces and 36 five-pound artillery pieces!

At the same time, thanks to the success of the imitation work of the nine-pound artillery led by the Zhaoqing Arsenal under the Ministry of Industry, and the technological process and imitation technology were delivered to the arsenals for production, the large-scale production of the nine-pound artillery is about to be realized, so the army is also taking precautions, preparing to establish a nine-pound artillery battalion of experimental nature and directly belonging to the Privy Council, which will have eighteen nine-pound artillery pieces!

And the above is the artillery expansion plan of the army, and does not include the Guards!

Li Xuan's positioning of the Guards is a small, well-equipped, and powerful force, so the artillery strength naturally cannot be weak, and the army has begun to expand its artillery units, and the Guards naturally cannot be left behind.

The Guards Artillery Battalion was also renamed the Guards Artillery Regiment, and the artillery establishment was roughly the same as that of the Artillery Regiment of the Army Infantry Division, both of which were three battalions and three teams, but it is worth noting that the Guards Artillery Regiment was directly under the jurisdiction of an artillery battalion with a nine-pound artillery, and then under the jurisdiction of two five-pound artillery battalions.

That is, the Guards directly replaced the seven-pound artillery with a nine-pound artillery!

At the same time as the expansion of the Guards Artillery Regiment, the expansion of the infantry unit is also continuing, and it is planned to expand the number of infantry battalions of the Guards from the current four battalions to five battalions.

Nearly half of the infantry battalions of the Guards are musketeers, which means that the musket production of the Tang Dynasty is enough to support the further expansion and reorganization of the existing troops of the Tang Dynasty.

The Guards are expanding their musketeers, and the army naturally has similar plans, and their plans are even bigger!

The core plan is to increase the proportion of musketeers in the existing troops!

Specifically, the reserve battalions and spear regiments of the existing infantry divisions were reorganized into musket battalions, and the provisional regiments were reorganized into mixed regiments.

At present, although the regular armies of the Tang Army are fully manned, the proportion of cold weapons troops is still too large, and there are five battalions in a regular infantry regiment, but only three are musket battalions, and the other two are reserve battalions. And an infantry division with three infantry regiments, and then only two of them were musket regiments and one spear regiment.

Even in the musket battalion, there are only two musket teams!

In other words, there are only more than 600 musketeers in a regiment, and even the 100-man grenadiers of the grenadier team directly under the regimental headquarters are only more than 700.

For this situation, the army has long wanted to make changes!

The establishment of reserve battalions and spear regiments before did not mean that the Tang Dynasty needed these cold weapon troops, but that it was limited by the serious shortage of musket production at that time, but it was necessary to maintain a certain number of troops, so it was such a helpless move.

Now that the production of muskets has increased, and there is no need for a large-scale expansion of new troops, the first thing the army is preparing to completely change these cold weapons units that were prepared during the transitional period into firearms units.

In this way, the number of musketeers in the entire infantry division could be significantly increased to three thousand musketeers, plus three hundred grenadiers!

Well, this does not include the muskets that belong to the baggage, engineers, and artillery!

Even if the production of muskets in the Tang Dynasty increased, it was not the turn of the baggage, engineering and artillery to carry out large-scale replacement of muskets, so the expansion plan of the army did not greatly increase the proportion of muskets in these auxiliary units.

Although the plan for reorganizing the six infantry divisions and increasing the proportion of musketeers has been formulated, it has not yet begun to be implemented, because the army feels that with the combat effectiveness of the current infantry divisions, it is enough to deal with the current Ming army.

At present, the expansion plan being carried out by the army is to reorganize the existing five provisional regiments, by raising all the infantry battalions under the provisional regiments to the level of regular infantry battalions, and then reorganizing all five provisional regiments into mixed regiments.

Moreover, in order to avoid the second reorganization, it is necessary to prepare for the first batch of five provisional regiments, that is, the first batch of five temporary regiments to be reorganized, and they will no longer have the excessive establishment of reserve battalions, but will be organized into regular musket battalions, and then combined with baggage, artillery, cavalry and other troops, they will be reorganized into mixed regiments.

Coupled with the plan of infantry divisions, the overall plan of the army is to establish a main force of the army with six infantry divisions and eight mixed regiments

Although the army's reorganization of the five provisional regiments now has a large demand for muskets, the current production of muskets in the Datang Ministry of Industry is also increasing, which is completely capable of supporting the reorganization of the existing five provisional regiments under the condition of satisfying the army's daily combat and training losses.

It was even possible to divert some of the rifle production to the Guards to expand an infantry battalion.

Three years after entering Xuanping, the Ministry of Industry expects that the output of all kinds of muskets will reach a new peak this month, that is, in the first month, with a total of 1,500 pieces!

This is not a small number, the number of muskets equipped by an infantry regiment is less than 800, 1,500, which can equip two infantry regiments, but if the reorganization of each infantry division is also increased schedule, these outputs will still be difficult to meet the reorganization of each infantry division in a short time.

Therefore, the army's plan for expanding its muskets, like its artillery expansion plan, is to take it slowly, step by step, change one unit at a time, and finally complete the change of all troops; it is impossible to complete the work of reducing 100,000 garrison brigades and reorganizing six infantry divisions in just a few months, as was the case in the second half of last year.

Li Xuan, who was in Zhaoqing, couldn't help but feel very relieved when he looked at the plan submitted by the Ministry of Industry to expand the arsenal and increase output, and when he looked at the expansion and reorganization plans drawn up by the army and navy.

After several years of construction, the Tang Dynasty Division has finally changed from the previous bandit army to a regular army, and it will be a typical modern army.

The Tang Dynasty has also changed from a child's play dynasty to a dynasty that truly divides several provinces.

How difficult it is to get to where we are today!

And the self who led the Tang Dynasty to this point, even if it is still a little short of the eternal saint that Liu Bagou and they say every day, it should not be far behind!