The financial supply of the township soldiers was very controversial at first.

Eight million people, food, clothing, weapons and ammunition alone is a very large expenditure. It is impossible for a traditional agrarian society to support such a huge expenditure. The government soldier system in the Tang Dynasty can run for a long time, relying on the relatively sufficient land reserve in the early Tang Dynasty, who serves, who owns the land, under this policy, can greatly stimulate the fighting spirit of the soldiers, and the Tang soldiers have a great sense of honor, they are a group of propertied class composed of the army, they are the most basic vested interests of the country. And because of the service, coupled with the policy of light taxation, their income can be kicked into their pockets. Correspondingly, the weapons and equipment of the auxiliary troops must be provided by themselves.

The principle of the Tang Dynasty's government soldiers was the military system of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, and Mulan during this period described in his speech, "The east market buys horses, the west market buys saddle sheaths, the south city buys bridles, and the north market buys long whips".

This principle was not appropriate for the Chinese village soldiers, who were to bear these expenses, which would increase the pressure on them, which might not be affordable for everyone, and which would affect their enthusiasm for joining the army. This is barely a solution, but in this way, people will see serving the country as a kind of hard labor, which will have to pay for it and contribute effort, which will affect the morale of the soldiers. Zhou Lang has always believed that it is necessary to cultivate a sense of honor among soldiers, and regards it as a characteristic of the modern army.

Therefore, this money has to be paid by the state, but even according to the monthly salary of five taels a month for auxiliary soldiers, 8 million people is a huge expenditure, and there is no way to allocate it at all. But Zhou Lang still insisted that the state pay the money, which was not a problem of money, but a problem of dignity that money could not buy. You forcibly enlist them into the army, and you have to force them to spend money on weapons and equipment, and you are naturally unhappy with your human nature. For the state, where can it make money, and to force the expenditure of the army, which is the pillar of the country, is digging its own grave.

The Ming Dynasty is a lesson from the past, Zhu Yuanzhang invented the military household system with peasant shrewdness, thinking that he could raise soldiers without paying military salaries. It is too strict with military households, not only performing military service, but also paying taxes, resulting in widespread poverty among military households, even to the point of selling their sons and daughters, and in the end, military households are even discriminated against by civilian households. Of course, such an army cannot fight, let alone fight the Eight Banners, and the peasant army cannot defeat it.

Zhou Lang would rather increase taxes from other people and pay full military salaries, which makes sense. The so-called rich people pay money, and they make powerful contributions.

And after a prudent budget, in fact, this expenditure is not so large that the state can not support it, the township soldiers are different from the auxiliary soldiers, the auxiliary soldiers are standing soldiers, the township soldiers are reserve soldiers, do not need to serve all year round, only need to carry out a short period of training during the agricultural slack period. If their salaries are calculated only on the basis of their training time and their period of service, they only need to pay their salaries for more than two months in the winter every year.

The families of the young and strong rural children who were selected to enlist in the army were not only exempt from taxes, but also received a military salary equivalent to 5,000 yuan per month for auxiliary soldiers during their training. This is a lot of money for the average price of a part-time job in rural areas of 700 to 800 yuan. The exemption from taxes, coupled with this additional income, could easily move up the income level of the families who selected the village soldiers.

Therefore, the common people easily accepted and even welcomed this system of village soldiers participating in training during the slack period, and it was implemented very smoothly. The standard training time is three months, but there is no fixed date, but each locality can be divided into three cycles according to local agricultural products, and each time it is a month.

As the old saying goes, spring planting, summer growth, autumn harvest, and winter storage refer to the four seasons of agriculture, but that is the traditional farming technology, planting single-season crops, in fact, China has long begun to rotate the model, the northern region is a season of wheat, a season of corn, and the south has a double crop of rice. After the autumn harvest, it is planted directly in autumn, and it is not possible to wait for spring.

As a result, it is rare to have three consecutive months of slack time, and in most places there is a month between planting and harvesting, and two months in winter. The day-to-day maintenance of the farmland between harvests is carried out by other laborers in the family, such as weeding and ploughing, which can also be done by women and the elderly, and manual labor such as irrigation is not difficult for most families with more than one man. And one of the principles of the recruitment of township soldiers is not to recruit only children. Therefore, all the drawbacks that affect farming are avoided as much as possible, and it is basically impossible to have the kind of bloody plot of letting the only son stay behind to keep the seeds for the family before the battle.

For the government, supporting 8 million people to pay three months a year, an average of 15,000 wen per person, is still a heavy burden, so in order to establish this reserve military service system, some taxes have been increased, and it is calculated according to the capitation, both men and women have to pay taxes, it is called military service tax, why even women have to pay taxes, the reason is very simple, because Zhou Lang believes that women also have the obligation to serve, but there are female soldiers in his army, female soldiers are also tax-free, and they are also paid military salaries, the purpose is to encourage more families to send women into the army, This is because the chronic shortage of female soldiers has not been resolved.

A total of 12,000 thousand Wen expenditure, evenly distributed to 400 million people, no one is only more than 300 Wen money, in fact, it is not heavy, but it still began to appear hidden population phenomenon, this is the first time Zhou Lang began to directly collect direct taxes from people, the power of investment is very large, serious blow to this hidden population phenomenon, once found out, the consequences are very serious, the father does not report the household registration to his daughter, can be exiled.

On the one hand, the high-pressure crackdown on hidden tax evasion, and on the other hand, the attraction of high income, the problem of female soldiers has been solved.

Of course, for those families who are really poor enough to come up with 300 yuan, they can also be exempted from taxes, and such families do have, except for a few reasons caused by their own laziness, those who are due to accidents, such as the accidental death or death of the main labor force, and only the families with lonely old women and children at home, are not only exempt from these taxes, but even have relief. However, in the current level of social management, it is impossible to take care of everyone, and there are always reasons of one kind or another, so that those who should be given relief cannot be given relief, and those who should not be taken care of enjoy care, which is a problem of social equity and an issue at the administrative level.

Nearly 10 years have passed since the establishment of this system of township soldiers, and the township soldiers have been training, but they have never really been mobilized.

Therefore, the strength of this system has not yet been tested, and Zhou Lang has always pressed the general mobilization without order, but only for the northwest region, including Ili and Kazakhstan. The soldiers Chen Bing border and auxiliary troops were stationed in the border fortresses, and the township soldiers were armed in the rear, and the five places of Shaanxi, Gansu, Mongolia, Ili, and Kazakhstan alone, the mobilized township soldiers were as high as 500,000 people, plus the soldiers and auxiliaries, which were enough to meet the challenge of the Russians.

There had been no greater mobilization, partly because it was not needed and partly because it did not want to provoke the Russians.

But a recent incident made Zhou Lang know that the wild horse of Russia could no longer be pulled.

Russia was not a Manchu, the Russians made short-term calculations in their political minds, and, like the West, did not count their feelings in political calculations, and by virtue of a simple balance of interests and forces, they thought that they had a hope of victory, and that Russia's entry into the war was a foregone conclusion under the persuasion of the British.

He first demanded that China return the railways and minerals in Russia to Russia, and the Chinese diplomats agreed, but offered to pay compensation after the war, or Russia, but Russia forcibly seized these assets, and China began to carry out diplomatic protests and other procedures. The Russians then continued their advance, sending troops to take control of the Odessa and Sevastopol railway stations, declaring that they feared that the British navy would invade the area because of the war between Britain and China.

These two railway stations are located near the port, it is indeed Russian territory, but it has always been operated by the Chinese railway company, and it is the railway police who are responsible for public security, not the Russian army, and now the Russian army controls this place, and the railway transportation has not been interrupted for the time being, but whether they are to prevent the British attack, or to facilitate the landing of the British army, Zhou Lang has his own judgment.

The Russians' actions have already shown their attitude, and they are just one step away from declaring war, and the reason why they do not declare war is simply that they do not want to take responsibility for provoking war.

"Let's mobilize!"

Zhou Lang's decision was heavy, because it meant that millions of troops would be drafted and thousands of young people would be spilled on the battlefield in the future.

The general mobilization order, drafted by the cabinet, approved by the Ministry of War, signed by the emperor, and quickly transmitted to all localities.

Countless messengers set out from Nanjing, along the post station, non-stop, holding arrows, people do not leave the saddle, through the state and county, as soon as they enter the city gate, the messenger first shouted: "The Son of Heaven is a big soldier!" ”

Go straight to the county office, cast the official document, pull the horse and leave!

The county officials immediately turned their focus to recruitment, and according to the imperial decree of the highest administrative level, they had to assemble the township soldiers of the whole county within a month.

Then the county and township soldiers gathered in the prefecture city, and the prefecture city in turn assembled in the provincial capital, and then gathered to be trained, so that their military skills could meet the needs of the war as soon as possible.

The general mobilization of China immediately made the Russians nervous, and their diplomats immediately came to ask who the Chinese mobilization was aimed at.

The Russians asked knowingly, but they could control the railway station and other places managed by the China Railway Company in the name of preventing the British from invading their ports.

Tell the Russians that the purpose of moving troops westward is to prevent the British from attacking from the direction of the Black Sea, and Russia is also worried about this, so it sent troops to control the railway stations in Odessa and Sevastopol?

At the same time, China's foreign affairs department took advantage of the situation to ask Russia to open its borders, and China will fight to the death with the British in order to protect its railway assets!

The Russians were dumbfounded, they were looking for all kinds of excuses to advance step by step, not because they were afraid of war, but because they did not want to take the responsibility of taking the lead in provoking a war. So the Russians said they could protect their territory, as well as the Chinese commercial assets on it, and reassured China that Russia would not allow a British soldier to set foot on Russian soil.

But the Chinese troops forced their way across the border.

Russia finally found a reason to issue an ultimatum to China in the name of this, and as soon as the time limit of the ultimatum expired, Russia declared war on China!

At this point, China's enemy countries increased to four, Britain, the United States, Russia, and the West.

The war caused by the gold mines of the Americas is one step closer to world war!