Chen Lin handed a few pieces to Li Buqi, and Li Buqi became angry after a cursory glance.

Zhang Fangping of the Zhiyuan said: "The cavalry on the edge of the border, counting the animals, can support five people. Xirong out of good horses, the terrain is dangerous, I ride Cheng can not be compared with the set also. Staying more than the horse army is not enough, and it is useless. He also said, "The border city is given a horse, and when there are three foot soldiers, they are not allowed to gallop to the enemy. If the border garrison army in the future is enough to patrol, it will be replaced by a little foot and the dispatch will be reduced. ”

The cavalry was disbanded because of the wrong method of using the cavalry and poor management, and Li Buqi had never seen such a fool.

Song Qi, who knew Chenzhou, suggested "losing horses and gaining steps", that is, reducing cavalry and increasing reinforcements. And the reason is that "the courtiers and the captives will attack each other, and they will not go deep into the pursuit, and they will be beaten away, and the situation will be stopped." However, it is not necessary to wait for the horse to be used. ”

This is not ready to fight with Xixia at all, it is to make Da Song put on a special passive appearance. I didn't expect such a stupid person to exist.

There is also a belief that "the Khitan, the northwest, born of horses, and the people practice riding and fighting, the product of this heaven and earth", and the Great Song Dynasty "strong crossbow", so "give up my long skills, barely can't, with the enemy of its natural products, unheard of can win people", he believes that the Song people use bows and arrows to promote their strengths and avoid weaknesses, and do not advocate learning and training riding and archery skills.

Zhao Zhen saw that Li Buqi was almost abandoned, and said: "I also remember the tea and horse trade, so I want to reduce the tea given to the Xia people. It's just that all the ministers think that raising horses is no different from my combat strength, so it is better to rest the soldiers and the people as soon as possible. ”

It seems that the emperor still has ideas, and that's good. Li Buqi thought for a while and said: "Your Majesty, can you know that if the Great Song Dynasty has no cavalry, it is like a person who can only be beaten and cannot fight back. The Xia thief soldiers are outnumbered, and the kid estimates that whether it is Sanchuankou or Haoshuichuan, Yuan Hao is the one who mobilizes the country's troops. The reason why he dared to do this was because he didn't have to worry about my Great Song army attacking other places. If there was a strong cavalry at that time, Yuan Hao would definitely have to divide his troops to defend himself, and he would definitely not be able to gather all his troops to attack our Great Song Dynasty. Your Majesty, please ponder. ”

Although Zhao Zhen didn't understand military affairs, he knew that since his ancestors attached great importance to cavalry, it must be reasonable to set up a pastoral supervisor to raise horses, so he also wanted not to give tea to Xixia, and exchanged tea and horses for some horses to enrich the cavalry. However, the ministers were anxious to stop the war and could not immediately agree to the conditions of the Tanguts, so they wrote to say that the war horses were a drag. I have heard this kind of argument a lot, and Zhao Zhen's soft ears have been committed again.

But fortunately, there is not a Li Buqi by his side now, and he advocates the tea and horse trade, so the emperor summoned Li Buqi.

Seeing Li Buqi's resolute attitude, the balance in Zhao Zhen's heart tilted back to Li Buqi's side: "Is that the case?" ”

Li Buqi continued: "Several officials only see that the cost of raising a horse can raise several infantry, but they don't know the role of a cavalry, and sometimes several infantry are not comparable. Moreover, horses do not need to be paid, and they do not need to be paid when they die. Dying a horse won't have much of an effect on morale, but the death of two infantrymen will make their companions frightened. None of these officials thought about it. ”

"That's just as well. It's just that if you don't give the summer thief tea, I'm afraid that the war will continue. Alas, now that the treasury is empty and the people are in misery, if there is another major war, it will be difficult for the imperial court to support it. ”

Looking at this indecisive emperor, Li Buqi was also speechless.

I feel that it is basically impossible to prevent the passage of this peace negotiation condition, and Li Buqi can only retreat to the second: "Your Majesty, the minister has a suggestion." Since Yuan Hao needs tea, then give it to him this time. Because the minister estimates that there will be more and more people drinking tea, and the summer thief may have to buy tea again in the future.

As long as the people buy tea, the imperial court can always trade tea and horses. However, if you want to trade tea and horses, you must control the circulation of tea by the imperial court to ensure that no unscrupulous people sell tea to Yuan Hao for profit. Therefore, the boy suggested that His Majesty set up a lifting department, the Tea and Horse Division, to be in charge of the sale of tea to Liao, Xia, Tubo and other places. Since this promotion division is acting on the border, it can find out internal and external news, and it can also serve as the eyes and ears of His Majesty. ”

In the Ming Dynasty, there was a "tea department" that specialized in inspecting the tea trade and collecting local intelligence on a part-time basis, but in Li Buqi's view, the Great Song Dynasty needed such an organization to collect information, otherwise everyone would be blind to the situation on the border, and everything they said would depend on one mouth, and all decisions would be made blindly.

Zhao Zhen has always been very curious about the world outside the palace, and has never refused multiple channels for understanding information, especially the "internal and external news" must include the situation of the border generals, which is conducive to monitoring the generals with troops. So the emperor stroked his palm and said, "This method is good." Walking horses are only supervision officials, but they have no power to know about the following things and the affairs of the summer thief, and it would be much more convenient to have such a tea and horse division. ”

Speaking of this, Zhao Zhen remembered something, rolled his eyes and asked, "How is your training strategy?" ”

Li Buqi said: "It's basically finished, but the minister still wants to polish it again." ”

Zhao Zhen said, "Show it to me first." If you are right, then the commander can be placed under the tea division. It is not an exaggeration to appoint a lieutenant to be promoted in this way, and I can personally intervene. ”

This emperor is a little clever. Li Buqi hurriedly said: "Yes, the minister will send it after copying the manuscript." ”

"No, let Wang Zhongzheng take it with you."

——————————————————————

Zhao Zhen got the strategy written by Li Buqi and was immediately attracted. After selecting good families from all over the country and breaking them up and joining the army, then it will be difficult to encourage rebellion for the sake of the region.

Each group of soldiers serves for four years, and each unit has a quarter of its soldiers retired and a quarter of its recruits added each year. Moreover, Li Buqi's long-term plan was that the recruits would first train in the new barracks for one year and then join the troops, so that the contact between the soldiers and the officers would be short, and it would be more difficult for the officers to rebel with a group of soldiers of different origins and unfamiliar backgrounds. In the emperor's opinion, this is a "change of style".

Every year, a quarter of the ten generals retire, which means that even the leaders of the small army are replaced, and this army will not be able to rebel together.

Li Buqi also had to set up an edict for every one to two thousand people in the barracks, and civilian officials would serve as them. The duty of this edict is to educate the sergeants with loyalty and patriotism.

The literati have always boasted that they are educated, understand the truth, and are therefore reliable. Then it must not be easy to rebel if you let the sons of good families learn some loyal and patriotic truths! In addition, letting literati into the barracks is equivalent to installing the emperor's eyes and ears in the army. The emperor thought that Li Buqi's design was very good.

The emperor thought that it would be economically cost-effective to form an army that had always been like this. In addition to taking care of food, the conscripted soldiers were paid very low salaries, and as compensation, only one soldier's family was exempted from hard labor during the four-year service period, and the soldier was exempted from hard labor for eight years after retirement. The death benefit for a soldier is not high, and only needs to be exempted from 16 years of hard labor for the soldier's family.

It's so cheap. The emperor couldn't help but be thrilled.

Note: The Northern Song Dynasty used the forbidden army to be stationed in Beijing and other counties, rotated inside and outside, and regularly returned to the Beijing division, so it was called the change of military method, but the generals were not transferred with it, so that "the soldiers were impermanent and handsome, and the handsome division was impermanent", so as to ensure that there would not be any more Song Taizu's yellow robe.