Yang Cunzhong immediately replied: "What does Qin Xiang mean? If you have something to say, please say it clearly. ”

Qin Hui said slowly: "A few days ago, I received a document sent from Fujian to Lin'an, which euphemistically revealed some things related to the local garrison, saying that the local garrison is generally doing business, competing with the people for profit, and disrupting the normal business of the merchants. This phenomenon is not an isolated case, Lord Yang has been in charge of the front division of the palace for many years, so he won't know it! ”

Yang Cunzhong said: "Fujian is thousands of miles away from Lin'an, and it faces the vast and boundless sea, and there are few border troubles, and it has never been a key place for the palace to be watched, how do I know what the problem is over there." ”

Zhao Gou said: "It is understandable that the army raised its own grain and grass during wartime, and occasionally engaged in business turnover. There has been no war in the Great Song Dynasty for many years, and the imperial court has always allocated supplies for the food and salary required by the army, and a few years ago the imperial court issued a strict order prohibiting the army from doing business. Yang Aiqing, although the coastal area of Fujian is not an important border defense area, the garrison there is also under the jurisdiction of the former division of the palace, you should also take care of it, if it spreads, how to clean it up? ”

Yang Cunzhong immediately nodded and said, "Yes, Your Majesty." ”

Zhao Gou continued: "The army must not do business, and this ban cannot be broken at any time. Another edict was issued to the armies reaffirming the prohibition. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty." Qin Hui, Yu Yaobi, and Yang Cunzhong responded in unison.

Subsequently, Zhao Gou said: "Qin Aiqing, the imperial court still has to pay attention to the border defense, the money and grain should be allocated in full, and there is no discount or deduction if there is a special purpose, if the household treasury is not abundant, the inner treasury can also give a part as appropriate, but say it in advance, don't ask for millions of dollars, and the inner treasury is not abundant." ”

The emperor spoke and moved out of the inner treasury, where would Qin Hui resist hard, and immediately replied: "Yes, the minister must approve it as appropriate, coordinate the local treasury and the household treasury, and allocate money and grain in full, and never reach out to the inner treasury unless it is absolutely necessary." ”

Zhao Gou chuckled and said, "Okay, this matter is settled, today's discussion is here, you Aiqing go back." When he had said this, he did not get up and leave, but sat there in peace.

Qin Hui, Yu Yaobi, and Yang Cunzhong stood up and saluted, and said, "Minister, retire!" ”

If the emperor doesn't go, they can only go first.

"Yang Aiqing will stay for the time being." Zhao Gou seemed to suddenly remember something, and when the three of them were leaving, they stopped Yang Cunzhong.

Qin Hui and Yu Yaobi's footsteps stagnated slightly, and after finding that there was nothing to do with them, they left quickly.

Yang Cunzhong turned around and saluted back to his seat, Zhao Gou said "sit", and he sat down.

I only heard Zhao Gou ask: "In the middle of the store, I just heard you say that the army is full of old, weak, sick and disabled people now, but the truth?" ”

Yang Cunzhong replied: "Yes, Your Majesty." Several forbidden armies guarding Lin'an will be drawn from the garrisons in various places every year, and there is not much problem, but in recent years, the elite of the various armies transferred from the army, the quality of the soldiers is not as good as before, which shows how the local garrisons look. Although the ministers have not left Lin'an in recent years, the front division of the palace will go to the various armies every year to inspect, and from their feedback, the situation of the forbidden army stationed in the place is not optimistic. ”

Zhao Gou's eyebrows shrank slightly, and his eyes said: "What kind of feedback has you received, let's talk about it specifically." ”

Yang Cunzhong thought for a moment and replied: "The minister only said two issues, one is the commanders of each army, and the other is the situation of the soldiers. ”

"Well, let's talk about these two questions." Zhao Gou responded.

Yang Congyi said: "The forbidden army under the command of the front division of the palace does not look at the number of establishments, there are sixty-seven in total, and there are sixty-seven commanders or commanders in the sixty-seven forbidden armies, and the youngest of these commanders is thirty-six years old, and there are only three under the age of forty, less than ten under the age of fifty, and the rest are over fifty years old, and many are already in their sixties. Now there is no war, if the war comes suddenly, the commander in his fifties and sixties can still charge into battle with his soldiers? I don't have that energy. The minister is also fifty years old this year, although he insists on practicing swords and guns every day, but his energy is much worse than ten years ago, if the minister now breaks into the enemy formation single-handedly, he will not be able to retreat as he was young, and he is likely to die in the enemy formation. They are all too old to charge, and it is impossible to lead the army. ”

"What are you doing with them if you can't charge into battle, why don't you replace them?" Zhao was puzzled.

Yang Cunzhong said: "It's not that the ministers don't change, but that no one can change." The Great Song Dynasty has not fought for ten years, and those who have military merits have been appointed ten years ago, and this batch of commanders and commanders was appointed almost ten years ago. So the first problem is actually the lack of young commanders in the army who dare to fight. ”

Zhao said: "It's really a problem. I remember that when you were appointed as the commander of the Imperial Army, you were not yet thirty years old, right? ”

Yang Cunzhong said: "Yes, the minister was twenty-seven years old when he was promoted by the emperor to the commander of the imperial army. ”

"Time flies so fast, it's been more than 20 years." Zhao Gou sighed, and then said: "In the middle of the existence, the problem of the army being too old to control the army, if you want to solve it immediately, you might as well promote some young people who are loyal to the imperial court and have martial arts and strategies, first put them in a place where you can see them to temper and temper, and then entrust them with important tasks, promote them to commander or commander, lead the armies, and revitalize the military prestige, in case of emergency!" ”

"Yes, Your Majesty." Yang Cunzhong replied, with the emperor's words, he can let go of it, but it is still a question of who to promote, so he can only wait for a way to choose slowly.

"What do you have one more question?" Zhao Gou asked.

At this time, he was very concerned about the affairs of the army, and heard that the Great Song Dynasty had no usable army, which made him very uneasy.

Yang Cunzhong said: "The second is the issue of the establishment of the forbidden army, from the feedback after inspecting the various armies, the commanders of the various armies are almost almost full, many are full of rosters, and there is no one in the battalion, and there is a general shortage of about half of the personnel, the establishment of a command is ten teams of 500 people, and the actual number of troops in the army is often only about 250 people, and some are only more than 100 people, and in extreme cases less than 100 people. The palace front division claims to be in charge of 600,000 forbidden troops, but these 600,000 are on paper, and the actual estimate is less than 300,000. Once a war starts, there are no generals and no soldiers, and every time the minister thinks of this, he is anxious and unable to sleep. ”

"Such a big shortfall?" Zhao Gou couldn't believe it, if it was really the truth, the million forbidden army of the Great Song Dynasty might actually be less than 500,000?

Yang Cunzhong said: "Yes, not only is there a serious shortage, but even many of the soldiers in the formation are wounded and sick, and they can no longer go to the battlefield, and some are old but still in the army, and some are recruited victims and displaced people, such an army can hardly be said to be effective." This situation is also common in the army, where new recruits cannot be recruited and veterans cannot be withdrawn. The minister has been thinking, fortunately, Song Jin negotiated peace, there has been no war in these years, otherwise what will we use to fight, and who will fight. But now that the Jin people have changed their gold owners, and they are building Yanjing, it is impossible to avoid a war in the future, so we can only prepare early. ”

After Zhao Gou heard this, he was speechless for a long time.

The shortage of the forbidden army has been reduced and the scale has been halved, which he can still accept, but the remaining half is also made up of numbers, and there is no combat effectiveness, which makes it difficult for him to accept.

How did it come to this? He couldn't help but ask, is the army of the Great Song Dynasty still there?

In the end, he didn't ask, he was afraid that the upright Yang Cunzhong would tell him that the Great Song Dynasty really didn't have any army.

"Cunzhong, how do you think we should solve the problem of the forbidden soldiers?" Zhao Gou was very anxious, and he wanted to solve the problem immediately.

Yang Cunzhong thought for a while and replied: "The minister said before, except for the disaster victims and displaced people, almost no one is in the army at present, the reason is that joining the army now is not a good way out, one is that there is no war, there is no war to fight, there is no war exploits, there is no promotion, there is no future, the other is not to make money, at most you can only eat enough, and there are many ways out to eat a full meal, you can farm at home, you can help people, you can also do some small business yourself, there is no need to enter the military camp to suffer." ”

Zhao Gou said: "There is no war now. Then only give money? ”

Yang Cunzhong replied: "Yes, you can only recruit the people that the forbidden army wants by giving more money." As long as you put the money to good use, you can't spend too much money every year. Now that the world is peaceful and the treasury is abundant, what can be solved with money is actually not a problem. ”

Zhao thought about it and felt reasonable, and then asked, "How much do you think it costs to recruit a qualified forbidden soldier?" ”

Yang Cunzhong said: "When recruiting, give two guan settling-in allowance, and then pay the salary every month, if you recruit 100,000 forbidden army recruits, only 300,000 guan in the first month, and then 100,000 guan every month, the cost of the newly recruited 100,000 forbidden army in a year is only 1.5 million guan more than before." With the extra 1.5 million yuan to train a few elite forbidden troops, the minister thought it was worth it. ”

"100,000 people, 1.5 million more per year, 1 million more per year, 15 million more per year, 30 million more in two years, and 60 million more in four years. It's a bit expensive, isn't it? Zhao Gou frowned, it was a huge amount of money to spend.

Yang Cunzhong said: "Your Majesty, there are not many soldiers in the elite, the elite forbidden army does not need one million, 200,000 is enough to fight a vicious battle, recruit 200,000 new soldiers, and use less than three million guan a year, now that the treasury is abundant, where can it not allocate three million guan?" ”

Zhao thought for a moment and said, "Let me think about it, I need to be cautious, recruiting recruits has given a high salary, what about those veterans?" You also think and think. ”

"Yes, Your Majesty." Yang Cunzhong was a little helpless, there is so much money in the household treasury every year, what is wrong with allocating more money to build the army.