"You may as well say what you think, I hope to hear what you really think. Wang Yanyan, as the governor of the righteous army, let me tell you your opinion first, don't have any worries. Yang Wu glanced at the ministers, and finally looked at Wang Yanyan.

Wang Yan said cautiously: "My lord, regarding this matter, the minister is resolutely in favor of merging the righteous army into the forbidden army. The reason why the Xiaoyi Army was established was to give Liang a chance to contribute to the country, and now that Liang and Wu have become one, there is naturally no reason for Xiaoyi Army to continue to be independent. Immediate existence. ”

Yang Wu nodded, knowing that Wang Yanyan still had some concerns, worried that he would be suspicious as the governor of the Righteous Army, so he didn't dare to say too much, but it was enough to have his statement.

After all, as a surrendered army, the status of its generals is naturally not comparable with the original meritorious generals of Wu State, and in addition to Kang Huaizhen at the beginning, there are no generals with strong ability and high prestige in the Xiaoyi Army.

As for the recently surrendered generals such as Huo Yanwei, Dai Siyuan, Wang Yanqiu, Kang Yanxiao, and Lu Siduo, although they are stronger than Wang Yanyan in terms of prestige and qualifications, after all, they are only newly surrendered, and they are not yet qualified to speak out on these major issues.

Therefore, if Wang Yanyan expressed his position, basically there will not be much problem with the generals within the righteous army.

However, for the sake of safety, Yang Wu still asked: "Wang Aiqing thinks that if Lone is to merge the Righteous Army into the forbidden army, will other generals and ordinary soldiers oppose it?" ”

"The king is aware that for ordinary soldiers, they are more concerned about the issue of military salaries. The treatment of the righteous army is not as good as that of the soldiers of the forbidden army, and the salary they usually receive is only half of that of the soldiers of the forbidden army, and the officers and men of the army have some complaints about this. If the king merges the rebels into the forbidden army and pays the same salary as the soldiers of the forbidden army, then they will only cheer and never complain. Wang Yan said.

Yang Wu's eyes lit up, and he said in his heart: "It seems that it is really beneficial to set the treatment of the righteous army lower." ”

The first reason why he set the treatment of the righteous army was lower than that of the forbidden army, and the first reason was to appease the soldiers of the forbidden army and let them know that the imperial court valued them more than those who surrendered; As for the second reason, it was purely to save money, after all, after a large-scale expansion of the army at that time, Wu's finances were not rich, and it was worth saving some.

I didn't expect that there is a third benefit now.

Wang Yanyan continued: "As for the other generals, they must have been uneasy in their hearts as subordinate generals, and if the king joins them into the forbidden army, it means that they will not be looked at differently. So these generals will also cheer the king's decision. ”

Yang Wu nodded, since there is no problem within the Volunteer Army, then things will be much easier.

He slowly spoke: "Gu has thought carefully these days, the strength of the Righteous Army plus the surrendered troops that have recently surrendered, if all of them are incorporated into the Forbidden Army, the number is too many. Therefore, Lone's decision was to first select some soldiers from the surrendered troops and incorporate them into the various armies of the forbidden army to supplement the soldiers lost by each army in this Northern Expedition. ”

"As for the soldiers of the Righteous Army and the remaining soldiers, a total of 60,000 people were selected from them to form six divisions, and they were given the treatment of the forbidden army and incorporated into the forbidden army. In this way, the total strength of the forbidden army will increase to 360,000, plus the navy army, the Xiao cavalry army and the lone Yulin army, the total strength should be about 400,000. ”

The scale of the 360,000 forbidden army is actually not large, but you must know that the size of the forbidden army in the early years of the Song Dynasty was only 180,000, and it doubled in the Song Taizong period, but it was less than 400,000.

Generally speaking, the combat power of the forbidden army in the early years of the Song Dynasty was still very strong, and the 360,000 forbidden troops of Wu State, if they could maintain the combat power of the forbidden army in the early years of the Song Dynasty, it would be enough to unify the world.

And even after the unification of the world, Yang Wu felt that the scale of the forbidden army could not be too large, at most not more than 500,000, like the Song Dynasty in history to maintain a forbidden army with a maximum of nearly one million people, not only the financial expenditure was too huge, but also easy to lead to problems such as uneven soldiers, corrupt military discipline, and low combat effectiveness.

Instead of constantly expanding the size of the army, it is better to use the limited financial resources on a small number of elite soldiers in order to improve the combat effectiveness of the army.

Therefore, when Yang Wu made the decision to expand the army, he also announced a major news: "Another point, starting from the second half of this year, the treatment of soldiers in the forbidden army will be increased by one-third on the original basis." That is to say, the monthly salary of an ordinary soldier will be increased from the previous consistent money to the usual 300 yuan, and other soldiers at all levels will also be promoted according to this standard. ”

In the few years after the unification of the south by Wu, with the gradual development of the country's economy and the increase of financial revenue, the treatment of soldiers of the forbidden army has also been significantly improved, even the treatment of the most ordinary soldiers can barely support a family of four.

Generally speaking, the higher the treatment of soldiers, the higher the morale, and the stronger the combat power.

Like the strong combat power of the forbidden army in the early Song Dynasty, an important reason is that the treatment is good; In the later period, the forbidden army was completely reduced to mud, which was related to the reduction of the actual treatment of the forbidden army.

From the beginning of the Song Dynasty to the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, prices rose several times, and the monthly military salary was still so much, and the actual treatment was several times lower, coupled with the phenomenon of corruption and deduction of military salary in the army, which further reduced the treatment of soldiers, and as a result, in the early years of the Song Dynasty, the forbidden army with strong combat strength became desperate and fled.

Yang Wu was extremely concerned about this problem, and there was no way to do it when Huainan's finances were tight in the past, but when the finances were more abundant, he began to improve the treatment of the soldiers; Now that it has been further improved, it will surely make the morale of the soldiers even higher.

All the generals had no opinion on Yang Wu's decision, but Luo Zhixiang, who was the head of the household, did not look very good.

These days, Yang Wu has spent too much money rewarding meritorious soldiers and compensating the families of those who have been killed and wounded, but fortunately, with the savings of Wu Guo over the past many years, this money and food can still be sustained.

However, now that Yang Wu is expanding the scale of the forbidden army, and improving the treatment of the soldiers of the forbidden army, this cost is large, plus Yang Wu has exempted the old land of Liang from paying taxes this year and half of the taxes next year, so it is no wonder that Luo Zhixiang, the big housekeeper in charge of finance, is not worried.

Seeing his face, Yang Wu smiled and said, "Isn't the money and grain in the treasury still sufficient?" The savings of the past years were used for the Northern Expedition, and now that the Liang State has been successfully destroyed, it is worth spending more money. ”

"King, now it seems that the reserves in the treasury are sufficient, but the problem is that the war has not yet ended, and the attitude of the Jin State has not yet been clarified. Won't the king have to spend more money then? If this continues, the treasury will eventually be empty. Luo Zhixiang said.

"What's this? This time, our army occupied more than 50 prefectures in the Central Plains in one fell swoop, and as long as it can survive the next three years, when the Central Plains are completely integrated, there will be a financial surplus. During this period, if there is a shortage, it can be solved by issuing government bonds. Yang Wu didn't care.

There are more than 50 prefectures in the Central Plains, although the people are tired and impoverished because of the long-term war, but after all, they are the most deeply developed areas, and the prosperity of many places is no worse than that of Jiangnan, and the overall level is much more developed than the two Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian, Hunan, Lingnan and other places annexed by Wu before the state; As long as these areas can be completely digested, there will inevitably be a great increase in finances.

The size of the forbidden army has only increased by 60,000 men, and even if the impact of the increase in treatment is added, the overall burden is not large.

Moreover, Wu is currently in a period of rapid expansion, and after just annexing the Central Plains, Wu's territory will be further expanded in the next few years, and there is no pressure to raise 360,000 forbidden troops.

What's more, even if there is a shortage, he can still raise funds by issuing treasury bonds.

Yang Wu's reputation has always been good, and every time the treasury bonds issued are matured, he will pay off the principal with interest, and even if he sometimes has financial difficulties, he will not default.

This makes the people in China have great trust in him, and as long as he issues government bonds, the people will enthusiastically buy them.

After dealing with Luo Zhixiang's dissatisfaction in a few words, Yang Wu continued: "To merge the Xiaoyi Army into the forbidden army, there are two ways to organize and train, one is to form three new armies, and the other is to integrate these 60,000 people into the previous ten armies. Lone means the second kind, what do you think? After speaking, he looked at the generals with a solemn expression.

Today, the forbidden army is the establishment of ten armies, each with 30,000 men; This kind of establishment is enough for ordinary wars, most of which are 30,000 people enough to deal with, and separating the military power into ten armies can also reduce the problem of the generals' self-respect.

However, if the expanded 60,000 people were to be reorganized into two armies, those Liang troops might be grouped together, which was not conducive to the integration with the forbidden army.

Moreover, although the establishment of 30,000 troops was enough to deal with most of the war, some wars required more soldiers, so Yang Wu preferred to expand six of the ten armies into a large army of 40,000 men to cope with the larger wars.

In addition, Yang Wu's plan was to expand the size of the forbidden army to 400,000 in the future, so that exactly 40,000 people would be an army, and the establishment of ten armies would still be maintained; Coupled with the Navy Army, the Yulin Army, and the Xiao Cavalry Army, the total strength does not exceed 500,000.

After listening to Yang Wu's words, the generals were a little speechless, and said in their hearts: "Your lord, you have said that you are inclined to the second way, so who will I wait for to object." ”

Moreover, the people present were all governors, and if two new armies were formed, there would be more people of the same rank as them, which would be detrimental to them; If they were to be incorporated into the existing ten armies, they would be able to command more troops, and they would naturally be happy.

Seeing that all the generals had no intention of objecting, Yang Wu looked at Wang Yan and said: "General Wang, you were the governor of the Righteous Army before, if you incorporate the Righteous Army into the forbidden army, you may have to be demoted to the commander of the forbidden army." But don't worry, you have worked for Lone for many years, and you have been working hard, and Lone will not treat you badly. ”

Wang Yanyu hurriedly stood up and said: "The minister's ability is shallow, and he can only serve as the governor of the righteous army because of the trust of the king, but he is actually not qualified enough; So since taking office, I have been trembling and uneasy. Now the king has asked his ministers to serve as the commanders of the forbidden army, and the ministers are grateful. ”

If it is said that according to the second method, the most damaged interests may be Wang Yanyan, after all, if it is organized according to the first method, he will definitely be able to become the governor of one of the armies; Now he can only be a commander.

However, he originally knew that his ability, qualifications, etc. were not enough, and he was born as a general, so he had always kept to himself and had no ambitions; In addition, although he is the governor of the Xiaoyi Army, the Xiaoyi Army is scattered and under the command of several forbidden army governors such as Zhou Ben and Liu Xin, and the actual army under the command of Wang Yanyan every time he fights is no more than 10,000 people, which is almost the same as the command of the forbidden army.

After appeasing Wang Yanyu, Yang Wu then said solemnly: "After these 60,000 newly formed forbidden troops are dispersed into the original forbidden army, each governor must also make internal adjustments, try to mix the original generals with the original generals of our army, and eliminate the estrangement as soon as possible, do you understand?" ”

"Wait for you to understand!"

Integrating the Righteous Army with the Forbidden Army as soon as possible and eliminating the estrangement is the biggest task of this expansion of the Forbidden Army.

"Now Gu announced that the six armies that will be expanded are: Zuo Zhenwu Army, Right Zhenguo Army, Zuo Tianwu Army, Zuo Wuxiang Army, Zuo Tengxiang Army, and ......" Yang Wu glanced at Mi Zhicheng, and then said: "Right Tengxiang Army." ”

The governors of these six armies were Zhou Ben, Li Chengding, Liu Xin, Li Jian, Zhu Siqing and Mi Zhicheng.

Except for Zhu Siqing's garrison in Jinling, the other five armies all participated in the Northern Expedition, and it was natural for Yang Wu to expand them.

As for the two governors who participated in the Northern Expedition but did not get the expansion, Zhu Qianyou and Zhu Qianyou, among them, Zhu Qianyou's problem is that he lacks qualifications and does not show excellence; And the problem of Chai Zayong is actually very simple, that is, his son Chai Kehong is now the governor of the Xiao cavalry army, in charge of the cavalry of Wu State; If it is expanded, then there will be too many troops in charge of his father and son, and Yang Wu will always have to take precautions.

After hearing this result, everyone present will show joy, obviously extremely satisfied with the result; As for Zhu Qianyou and Wang Yanyan, they had no ambitions, and their faces were as usual at this time, without the slightest dissatisfaction.

After arranging the issue of expanding the army, Yang Wu continued: "It is not appropriate to disband the remaining soldiers who have surrendered and failed to pass the selection of the forbidden army. Lone means to organize them into the Tuntian Army. ”

"Tuntian Army? Did the king plan to let the soldiers settle the fields? The generals were a little surprised.

The army Tuntian was available in the Han Dynasty, and it was especially popular in the Three Kingdoms period, and Cao Cao relied on the means of Tuntian to solve the problem of military rations, so as to become stronger and stronger the more wars, and finally unify the north; Later generations also attached great importance to Tuntian.

However, in the late Tang Dynasty, the armies of all forces were supported by the state and were responsible for fighting full-time wars, and there were few tuntians.

Yang Wu's decision surprised them a little.