In the past year, the population of the Tang Dynasty has skyrocketed, from a few hundred at the beginning to nearly a thousand, from more than 2,000 at the end of the year to more than 3,000 now.

The increase in population not only made the strength of the Tang Dynasty increase rapidly, but also constantly caused changes in the power of civil and military officials in the court.

For example, before the annexation of Shuilongzhai, the Tang Dynasty could be said to be Fang Dongquan's sole power, and Fang Dongquan at that time could even directly control and threaten Li Xuan's life.

After the annexation of Shuilongzhai, Huang Xueren relied on the people of the original Shuilongzhai, coupled with Li Xuan's deliberate support, so that Huang Xueren's power in the Tang Dynasty was second only to Fang Dongquan.

For a long time after that, the pattern of the Tang Dynasty was that Fang Dongquan and Huang Xueren were competing, and in this process, although Butcher Chen gradually rose by relying on his own strong strength, he still could not threaten the power of Fang Dongquan and Huang Xueren.

Later, after defeating the Ming army in Luohu Valley and capturing more than 60 Ming prisoners, Li Xuan and Empress Dowager Bai joined forces to support Bai Yunqi, allowing Bai Yunqi to form a standing army with more than 60 Ming prisoners.

After recovering Jiguan Mountain, Black Tiger Village, and Huanggui Mountain, Cai Erhu entered the power core of the Tang Dynasty again.

Coupled with Wang Danxu of the Guards, before the Ming army entered the mountains on a large scale, the main power of the Tang Dynasty, that is, the military power, formed a situation of two superpowers and many powers.

That is, Fang Dongquan and Huang Xueren are the biggest strength on the surface, and below these two people, there are four people who are weaker in strength and influence, Chen Butcher, Bai Yunqi, Wang Danxu, and Cai Erhu

The above six people jointly controlled the military power of the Tang Dynasty and formed a relatively stable pattern.

But after a month of fighting with the Ming army, with the shining of the Guards, this situation has changed greatly, Wang Danxu relied on the strong combat power of the Guards, and his voice in the entire Tang Dynasty has increased significantly.

Now it can be said that it is almost the same as Fang Dongquan and Huang Xueren, and even at some critical moment, Wang Danxu's words are even more important.

And this, simply because he is the commander-in-chief of the Guards!

Before, Fang Dongquan and the others thought about whether to snatch the guards from Wang Danxu's hands, but they didn't dare to act because they had too many scruples, because everyone knew that the guards were actually not made by Wang Danxu, but trained by their emperor 'Li Xuan', and the commanders of the guards and even the officers of each team were all personally selected by Li Xuan.

If Fang Dongquan and the others dare to act without authorization and snatch the military power of the Guards, then I am afraid that the end will be very bad.

So they put their hope on this opportunity to build a full-time professional army, everyone knows that it will definitely be dominated by the Guards, as for the standing army, the big guys, including Fang Dongquan, they all know that the standing army is not vulnerable at all in front of the guards.

And after the Guards complete the professionalization, the scale will definitely expand, and even become the only backbone armed force of the Tang Dynasty, in this case, is Your Majesty still relieved to let Wang Danxu command the entire Guards alone?

Your Majesty, he is not afraid that Wang Shan Xu will have any rebellion, and he will take the guards into the palace late at night?

It's impossible, any person in power, whether it is a bandit leader or a ravine emperor, they will always need to consider the balance between their subordinates.

Fang Dongquan thought so, and they were not wrong, in fact, Li Xuan really planned so.

The Guards will definitely complete the professionalization of production, and the scale will definitely continue to expand, but Wang Danxu can't control all the Guards as before.

When Bai Yunqi said that he was preparing to build a full-time professional army, everyone looked solemn!

At this time, Wang Danxu took the lead in stepping forward and said: "Your Majesty, if our guards can train day and night, and not be dragged down by agricultural work, their combat power can be raised to a higher level, and they will be invincible in the battle for Your Majesty at that time!" ”

But at this time, Fang Dongquan spoke: "The Guards are strong, but the scale is only more than ninety people, which is not enough to support the needs of my Tang Dynasty's conquest, and I think that when the Guards are expanded, there must be at least three hundred and fifty people!" ”

Hearing Fang Dongquan say three hundred and fifty people, his personal reactions were mixed, the thick eyebrows of Wang Danxu, the commander of the Guards, frowned, and the size of the Guards Army expanded, which seemed to be a good thing for him on the surface, but the expansion of the Guards meant that he could not control all the Guards as before, and this was not a good thing.

And Liu Bagou on the other side of the civil official queue frowned slightly when he heard this number, he didn't have many scruples like others, but directly stepped forward and said: "The minister thinks that the full-time professional army can be trained, and it must be trained, but three hundred and fifty people are too many." ”

"There are only more than 3,700 people in my Datang Dynasty, and if 350 people are selected as professional soldiers, it will be a full 10% of the population who cannot farm, which is unbearable for our Datang!"

After all, they all know that if the army wants to be able to fight, it still depends on training, and if the army wants to maintain daily training for a long time, it must be a professional army that has been out of production, not a semi-professional army like the current one.

However, the number of professional armies that are completely out of production is also very particular, and it cannot be said that you can train as many people as you want.

If it were a normal ancient agrarian country, in order not to affect normal agricultural production, the proportion of professional soldiers who were completely out of production in peacetime was usually less than 1 percent, and rarely more than 1 percent.

For example, at the end of the Qing Dynasty, the population was about 450 million, and the country's professional army was about 1 million, and the proportion of professional troops in the total population was only a little more than 0.2 percent.

For the feudal countries of the medieval West, this proportion will be further reduced, only 0.1% or even lower in peacetime, and even after mobilization in wartime, it is difficult to exceed 1%.

Based on the current population of the Tang Dynasty, the number of its professional soldiers can only be controlled at about 100 people, and if it is higher, it will affect normal agricultural production.

However, the above figures are all based on a normal country, but is the Tang Dynasty a normal country?

Definitely not, although they also grow their own food, but most of the ordnance is looted, and a lot of food is also looted.

The Tang Dynasty is still a group of bandits in essence, and it doesn't make sense for you to talk to a group of bandits about whether the professional army is one percent or three percent.

Because the Tang Dynasty didn't live by farming at all!

As a result, if the Tang Dynasty wants to establish a completely disengaged professional army, its proportion will definitely be much larger than that of normal countries, but even if it is large, there must be a bottom line.

And this bottom line is limited to 300 people by Li Xuan, that is to say, in normal times, the Tang Dynasty will have 300 professional soldiers who train and think about how to fight all day long.

If there is a large-scale war, these 300 people will be the core, and the temporarily mobilized young and strong bandits will be brought to fight, as for how many people will be temporarily mobilized, there is no specific data on this, because when the time comes, all healthy young and strong men will have to participate in the war, and there will be about six or seven hundred people.

Liu Bagou opposed 350 people, and even said that 200 people were enough, while the military insisted on more than 300 people, and Chen Butcher even said that he wanted 400 people.

But Li Xuan wondered, where are you Butcher Chen going to find four hundred people?

You must know that this time to prepare for the establishment of a full-time professional army, Li Xuan did not plan to continue to retain people in the standing army on a large scale.

The source of the soldiers of the expected full-time professional army will be composed of people from four aspects, first of all, it is naturally more than 90 people in the Guards, and the soldiers in the Guards are originally trained by professional soldiers, and it is natural to transform them into professional troops.

The second is the more than 60 archers in the standing army, the reason why they are chosen is not because of their quality, but because there are only these archers in the Tang Dynasty Division.

If you don't use them, you can only find a group of half-hangers to bend bows and shoot arrows, as for training new archers, it will take many years, Li Xuan said that he can't afford to wait.

By the time he trained the archers, either his Tang Dynasty had been wiped out by the Ming army, or his musket had already produced energy, and he would have eliminated bows and arrows and equipped them with muskets in batches.

In his plan, archers and spearmen were just as much a product of transition, and now they were used first, and later when the production of muskets increased, they were thrown away.

The third is the officers at all levels and above in the standing army, these people are all people who have achieved better results in the previous training process, and Li Xuan trained them as professional soldiers at that time.

The fourth is more than 20 bandits under the command of Butcher Chen, these bandits are not good-looking, but they are ruthless enough, not only to the enemy, but also to themselves, who dare to wear armor and attack the enemy's formation, there is only such a person in the standing army.

In this way, the expected number of professional soldiers is a little more than two hundred, and as for the rest, Li Xuan plans to recruit from those newly captured villagers!

The reason is simple, these people are honest enough!

The best soldier is not the most valiant one, nor the one who is sinner-wise, but the most honest one!

In this way, three hundred people should be able to make up enough, as for the vast majority of the old fritter bandits, how far and how far to roll!

After determining the approximate number of people, everyone began to discuss the organization again.

This is a multi-class mixed army that will have archers, heavy armor sword and shield soldiers, spearmen, cavalry, musketeers, and baggage soldiers.

In addition, Fang Dongquan and Wang Danxu are more concerned about how many senior generals will be in this newly established professional army, and who will these positions be?