Zheng Shuang thanked the emperor, watched Xue Shisan, Qin Shihuang, Wei Yan, Leng Bingshuang, Wei Bi, Yu'er, Shui'er, Ying'er, and Xing'er leave, and turned to Kou Zhun and asked: "Kou Xiangye is the prime minister and has also been a privy envoy, do you know how many forbidden troops there are in the capital now?" ”

Kou Zhun said without hesitation: "The imperial court has 400,000 forbidden troops, 130,000 on the Hebei front, 100,000 on the Shaanxi front, 70,000 on the Shanxi front, and 100,000 guarding the capital!" ”

Zheng Shuang asked how many of the 100,000 forbidden troops guarding the capital were horse soldiers, and Kou Zhun replied that it was five or six thousand.

Zheng Shuang exclaimed: "There are only five or six thousand cavalry in the 100,000 forbidden army, how can this be explained!" ”

Kou Zhun sighed and said: "Most of the Ma troops in the forbidden army are on the front lines of Hebei, Shanxi, and Shaanxi, and the 100,000 forbidden troops left in the capital are mainly infantry!" ”

Kou Zhun said with emotion: "After the imperial court lost the sixteen states of Yanyun, it lost the base for raising horses, and the Central Plains was crowded and narrow; If you open up a horse farm, it will not be worth the loss! ”

After a pause, he said thoughtfully: "Xue Sanmao purchased a batch of horses from the Western Regions from the Huanghu Kingdom of Ganzhou back then, and developed a horse farm in Tianzhu Ridge; But at best, it can only raise 2,000 horses, like the Khitan Liao Kingdom; Several horse farms can raise 950,000 horses at the same time, so we still rely on infantry to deal with Liaokou! ”

Zheng Shuang heard Kou Zhun say this, and repeated the previous words: "One hundred thousand forbidden troops and five or six thousand pima troops, this ratio is too disparity!" ”

Zheng Shuang said and said: "Xiangye Kou, Xiao Ke wants to form an army of 10,000 horses as soon as possible, I don't know if the forbidden army in Bianjing can be taken out!" ”

"It's not a big problem!" Bi Shi'an, who didn't speak, replied: "Kou Xianggong's five or six thousand horse army is a bit conservative, and the old minister thinks that it will not be a problem for the 100,000 forbidden army to gather 10,000 horses!" ”

Bi Shi'an raised his arm as he spoke: "There are four armies in the capital, including Zhuri, Tianwei, Longwei, and Shenwei, and the strength of each army is close to 20,000; There should be more than 2,000 cavalry in a team of more than 20,000 people, and there is not much problem in bringing together the cavalry of the four upper armies to form 10,000 cavalry! ”

Kou Zhun agreed with Bi Shi'an's statement and said: "Lao Kou has a pessimistic attitude towards the Ma Army, but Bi Da is an optimist; How many Ma troops are still going to the four armies for actual investigation! ”

Kou Zhun cleared his throat as he spoke, "Does Zheng Zi know the cost of supporting a cavalry in the Great Song Dynasty?" ”

Zheng Shuang was stunned, frowned and said, "I know a little bit about it, and please talk about it in detail!" ”

Kou Zhun fixed the divine dao: "We will calculate according to the cost of equipping a cavalry - a cavalry should be a high-class forbidden army, and the annual salary of each person is 50 yuan, an ordinary bow is 800 yuan, a divine arm bow is 1500 yuan, 40 iron armor, 40 horse armor, 60 horses, and 100 good horses, so that the annual cost of a horse army is 192.3 copper coins; ”

Kou Zhun said and scratched his head and said: "If you equip a cavalry corps of 10,000 iron cavalry, according to the highest standard of 1 person and 3 horses, you need 30,000 war horses, 30,000 pairs of horse armor, and 10,000 cavalry armor, and the cost will be 5 million; It takes 50 million to equip 100,000 iron horses, and related supporting facilities such as stables, training grounds, pastures, saddles, stirrups, sabers and other related supporting facilities and equipment have not been counted! ”

Zheng Shuang was so shocked that his brows jumped, he had not seriously calculated the cost of building a 10,000-strong iron cavalry before, Kou Zhun calculated it so that he silently thought in his heart: 50 million copper coins is 50 million taels of silver, according to the market purchasing power of Song Zhenzong, one tael of silver is about equal to 800 yuan in the 21st century in later generations; Then 50 million is 40 billion.

In the 21st century, 8 million RMB can buy a Type 99 tank, so the price of equipping 100,000 elite iron cavalry in the Song Dynasty can equip 5,000 of the latest main battle tanks in the 21st century.

If an army is equipped with 500 tanks, an army is calculated according to the establishment of 50,000 people; The cost of equipping 100,000 elite iron cavalry in the Song Dynasty is comparable to equipping 500,000 armored troops in the 21st century.

Zheng Shuang was thinking in his heart, Zhang Di announced his retirement from the dynasty; The ministers of civil and military affairs dispersed one after another; Song Zhenzong did not leave, and he and Zheng Shuang continued to discuss the matter of repelling the Liao army.

Yang Yanzhao and Wang Jiying came to the Vertical Arch Hall after the delivery, Zheng Shuang asked the emperor for orders: "Your Majesty, Weichen plans to go to the four elite tours of the Great Song Dynasty Forbidden Army to take a walk among the Japanese, Tianwei, Longwei, and Shenwei armies, and form a 10,000-strong iron cavalry to attack the Liao army, and I hope that the saint will give permission!" ”

Song Zhenzong agreed: "Zheng Qing is very happy to be loyal, what to do; I hope you will discuss with General Kou Xianggong Yang! ”

Zheng Shuang, Kou Zhun, and Yang Yanzhao knelt down to thank Song Zhenzong, and Zheng Shuang asked Kou Zhun again: "Kou Xiangye just said that it is not easy for the imperial court to support an iron cavalry of 100,000 people, but how did the Liao State equip so many iron cavalry!" ”

Kou Zhun raised his voice and laughed: "The Liao people are completely different from the Great Song Dynasty!" Their iron horsemen had no food, and relied entirely on threshing grass and grain, that is, robbing; Da Song is different, we also need money to buy each horse nail! The old man will give you an account. ”

Kou Zhun said, comparing the iron horse offerings of the Great Song Dynasty and the Liao Kingdom.

The financial consumption of the Song Dynasty to raise troops was ridiculously higher than that of the Liao Dynasty.

1. The Song Dynasty needed to provide food, clothing, and military salaries to the soldiers to raise the army, and the imperial court provided and distributed weapons and military supplies to the soldiers; The supplies used in the war had to be transported to the front line by the people in carts.

The Liao Dynasty not only did not pay the soldiers for raising the army, but let the army get the food and salary by "beating the grass grain"; Even the horses and weapons needed by the army were provided by the soldiers.

There are many meanings of self-preparedness, which can be self-preparation or robbery; The savage habits of the steppe peoples were vividly displayed in the preparation of the horse team.

2. The Song Dynasty had proper arrangements for soldiers who were disabled and retired; The Liao Dynasty disabled soldiers with minor injuries regardless of serious injuries, and retired without placement; Naturally, don't pay for pensions for retired soldiers, and even let the soldiers prepare their weapons and horses in advance.

3. The soldiers of the Song Dynasty died in battle, and the imperial court took care of the families of the deceased, or gave them food and wages; Maybe tax relief, or arranging for a child to take over the title.

The soldiers of the Liao Dynasty died in battle without pension, and did not take care of the families of the deceased; Even soldiers who were seriously injured on the battlefield would be abandoned by the Liao Dynasty to avoid becoming a "burden" in the army.

When the Song Dynasty raised an army humanely, it not only solved the worries of the army officers; But it also comes at a high financial cost.

During the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty, military spending accounted for 40%-50% of the state's fiscal revenue; The annual income of 70 million to 80 million taels is half of the military expenditure.

Kou Zhun introduced the high cost of the horse army to Zheng Shuang, and sighed and empathized: "Now the imperial court has 400,000 forbidden troops, plus the total strength of the Xiang army is about 660,000; Coupled with the 100,000 troops in the northwest, the forbidden army and the army of the imperial court, the total strength of the box army reached about 760,000; At this time, the Liao Dynasty supported a larger army than the Great Song Dynasty due to the low cost of raising troops; There are more than 500,000 palace tent troops in the Liao Dynasty and more than 100,000 Jingzhou soldiers! ”

Zheng Shuang was secretly surprised, thinking that the palace tent soldiers of the Liao Dynasty were equivalent to the forbidden army of the Song Dynasty; The Jingzhou soldiers were equivalent to the box army of the Song Dynasty, and the Liao Dynasty was basically a horse army; The horse army of the Song Dynasty was difficult to reach tens of thousands......

No wonder Empress Dowager Xiao organized an army of 200,000 cavalry, and it turned out that Yidi did not invest much in the horse team.

Zheng Shuang knew in later generations that the huge force of the Liao Dynasty was far from that of the Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu, and the Tang Dynasty and the Turks could be compared.

The Liao Dynasty bordered Sakhalin Island (today's Russian Far East) in the east and Altai (present-day Kazakhstan in Central Asia) in the west, with a distance of 10,000 miles from east to west and 5,000 miles from north to south.

The vast steppe had millions of war horses, and the subject country was 59 years old, making it the world's number one military power worthy of the name of the world at that time.

The Song Dynasty bought all the folk horses, but only 200,000; 200,000 war horses needed post, heralds, communications, transportation, officers with horses, officials with horses, etc.

The remaining war horses formed a limited cavalry, which was greatly consumed in the military conflict with the Liao Dynasty in the north.

The Song Dynasty had a difficult time with war horse resources, and neither the Western Xia nor the Liao Dynasty traded horses with the Song Dynasty; Before 1004 in the Song Dynasty, the only thing that could enter the horses in bulk was the Liugu Tubo in the northwest......

Thinking about the comparison of the military strength of Song and Liao, Zheng Shuang is more confident that the next battle of annihilation in Huazhou will be greater......