"How can the army be relocated if it is stationed in a place or is subjected to labor?" Zhao Zhen still couldn't believe it at this time, after all, he had just taken power, and his understanding of some aspects was only superficial, such as the situation in the army, he didn't know much, otherwise he wouldn't have said such a thing.

"Your Majesty, do you know how many forbidden troops there are in the Great Song Dynasty, and how many Xiang troops there are?" Li Zhang suddenly stared at Zhao Zhen's eyes and asked.

"This ......" Zhao Zhen was dumbfounded when he heard Li Zhang's inquiry, and hesitated for a long time before he spoke, "There should probably be a few hundred thousand, right?" ”

"So far, there are 720,000 people in the forbidden army, and when the Queen Mother was in power alone, the forbidden army was nearly doubled, and the number of the box army was less, but there were nearly 500,000, of which there were more than 200 of the box army alone, and whether it was the forbidden army or the box army, as long as they entered the army, they could only serve as soldiers for generations in the future, in other words, it is almost impossible for our army of the Great Song Dynasty to decrease, it will only increase!" When Li Zhang said the end, he also showed a sad look on his face.

Three redundancy is the biggest drawback of the Zhao and Song dynasties, which is also recognized by later generations, in which redundant soldiers and redundant officials are the direct cause, these two reasons are combined, and lead to the problem of redundancy, so if the problem of redundant soldiers and redundant officials can be solved, the problem of redundant expenses will be solved by half.

"There are so many!" Zhao Zhen couldn't help but exclaim when he heard Li Zhang's words, he only knew that the army of the Great Song Dynasty was huge, but he didn't expect that the forbidden army and the box army together would reach an astonishing 1.2 million or so, such a huge army is simply a bottomless pit, and no matter how much military salary is afraid it will not be able to fill.

"It's not terrible to have a large number, if this million army can really have the combat effectiveness of a million army, it's actually not a bad thing, but our Great Song Dynasty has raised so many soldiers, but it is at a military disadvantage, not only the Liao State often blackmails by force, but even the small party items, Tubo and other tribes also raise troops from time to time to commit crimes, in my opinion, our Great Song Dynasty is like a fat lamb, anyone can run over and take a bite, but we don't even have the strength to resist!" Li Zhang said heartbroken again at this time.

Hearing Li Zhang's words, Zhao Zhen also fell silent at this time, although Li Zhang's words were a bit harsh to him, the emperor, but it was also the truth, not to mention anything else, although the alliance of the Yuan Yuan was called the Alliance, but the Great Song Dynasty wanted to send the New Year's coin to the Liao State every year for peace, although the burden of the New Year's coin on the Great Song Dynasty was very small, and even the peace on the border could bring more benefits to the Great Song Dynasty, but this kind of humiliation in the national character could not deceive people.

Seeing that Zhao Zhen was silent, Li Zhang spoke again at this time: "Instead of spending a huge amount of money every year to raise such a huge army, it is better to reduce the number of soldiers, so as to concentrate more property and use it to cultivate real elite soldiers. ”

When Li Zhang said the end, he also bowed to Zhao Zhen very solemnly, when the Great Song Dynasty arrived at Zhao Zhen's accession to the throne, all kinds of ills were actually very serious, and the three redundancies almost reached their peak during Zhao Zhen's reign, which was also the reason why Fan Zhongyan later launched the "Qingli New Deal".

Although Qingli's pro-government failed, it also eased some contradictions, until later when Shenzong, all kinds of contradictions reached their peak again, which led to a more thorough "Wang Anshi Reform", but unfortunately it failed in the end, which also made the Great Song Dynasty lose the last opportunity for reform, and laid the groundwork for the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty in the future.

After listening to Li Zhang's words, Zhao Zhen finally woke up from his contemplation, only to see him look at Li Zhang with a complicated face at this time, and then he spoke: "I didn't expect that the ills in the army have become so serious, the imperial court spends so much money every year to raise soldiers, but it has not met the expectations of the imperial court at all, it seems that I am really careless, and I even turn a blind eye to such a big problem!" ”

Zhao Zhen also showed a look of self-reproach in the end, and Li Zhang hurriedly persuaded a few words at this time, but Zhao Zhen also recovered quickly, and then asked Li Zhang again: "Cousin, in your opinion, how to deal with this matter?" ”

Li Zhang had already considered this matter, so he saw that he also said confidently at this time: "This matter is difficult to say, easy to say, although the imperial court has raised so many mediocre soldiers, but it can't be moved lightly, but this time if we can really take Xingzhou, Your Majesty can use the name of Tuntian to transfer some of the box soldiers, except for some craftsmen, most of these box soldiers are composed of homeless people or prisoners, let them fight definitely not work, but send them to farming is definitely no problem!" ”

"Tuntian? Isn't Xingzhou the nest of the Dangxiang people, who live by herding, and can they really farm there? Zhao Zhen asked again with some puzzlement when he heard this, his understanding of the outside world is really limited, and it is not like Li Zhang who has been to the northwest in person, so he really doesn't know much about the situation abroad.

"Your Majesty doesn't know, Xingzhou originally belonged to the Hetao Plain, where not only wheat can be grown, but even rice can be grown, but since the end of the Tang Dynasty lost there, it has gradually become a grassland pasture for the grassland people, but as long as it can be recaptured, it is not a problem to plant grain, in fact, Li Yuanhao has been arresting Han people, in order to grow grain in Xingzhou, it is said that the grain production there has been quite large." Li Zhang explained with a smile at the moment.

Zhao Zhen also showed a look of sudden realization when he heard this, and at this time, he only heard Li Zhang speak again: "Originally, Xingzhou was very suitable for planting potatoes, but before the situation in Xingzhou stabilized, it was still not suitable to promote potatoes to Xingzhou, it can be said that it is counted in one fell swoop! ”

"I understand, cousin, I'm afraid your intentions are not only in Xingzhou, if the imperial court can conquer other places in the future, can you also follow the example of Xingzhou?" Zhao Zhen suddenly came to his senses at this time, and looked at Li Zhangdao with some shock at the moment.

"Yes, I do plan to use Xingzhou as a place to experiment, if this method can really work, then not only can it quickly stabilize the newly beaten territory, but also solve the problem of too many domestic soldiers, after all, this world is very big, in addition to Xingzhou in the northwest, there are also Xiliang, Ganzhou, Longyou and other places, those are the homeland of the former Tang Dynasty, since the former Tang Dynasty can be defeated, why can't we have the Great Song Dynasty?" Li Zhang was also ambitious at this time.

"Cousin, can what you said really come true?" Zhao Zhen was also a little excited at this time, as an emperor, the greatest achievement is naturally to expand the territory, think about the great emperors in history, which one is not a thousand miles of land? Although Zhao Zhen is a good person, he is a young man after all, and the dreams and ambitions of young people are still there, so he is more susceptible to Li Zhang's words.

"Whether it can be realized is not up to me, but to you, after all, you are the emperor of the Great Song Dynasty and control the direction of the entire empire, so don't underestimate the power in your hands!" Li Zhang patted Zhao Zhen on the shoulder at this time and smiled again, future generations will live in an era without an emperor, and they may not be able to imagine the emperor's influence on the country in their lives, and this is also the most important lesson that Li Zhang learned after coming to the Great Song Dynasty.

Zhao Zhen immediately felt a heavy weight on his shoulders when he heard this, but he was more excited, if he could really expand the territory of the Great Song Dynasty outward again after Emperor Taizu and Emperor Taizong, then his merits would probably not be worse than those of Taizu and Taizong, and even if he could destroy the Liao State one day, I am afraid he would be the greatest emperor in the history of the Great Song Dynasty.

Thinking of the above, Zhao Zhen also felt the power that ambition brought to him for the first time, but Li Zhang next to him smiled calmly, what he wanted was this effect, if an emperor didn't even have ambition, I'm afraid it would not be a good thing for the empire, but if you want Zhao Zhen's ambition to grow, the most important thing is whether Zhao Zhen and others can achieve the original military goal this time?

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