Yan joined the army is Yan Jiuling, the left chief of the Taiyuan military government joined the army, when the city of Taiyuan was broken, Yan Jiuling and other nineteen people followed Han Shizhong's defeated army to withdraw to Jingzhao Mansion, they are also the old subordinates of the division road, when the division road rebuilt the Shaanxi Road defense envoy military office, they all enabled them, Yan Jiuling is now the military secretary to join the army.

Hearing that Li Taibao was coming, everyone walked out of the military office to greet Li Yanqing.

This is also a happy thing, Li Yanqing was very worried that something would happen to them in Taiyuan, but in the end they met again in Jingzhao.

Yan Jiuling was promoted to the record secretary to join the army, and the other two old acquaintances, Zhang Qu and Zhou Yan, served as the left and right chiefs to join the army, and the three of them were in charge of military affairs and controlled the logistics of the 25,000 troops on the Shaanxi Road.

Everyone warmly greeted Li Yanqing, and then surrounded Li Yanqing into the military office, Ma Shan had nothing to do with military affairs, but he hesitated for a moment and still followed.

Li Yanqing handed over military power to the Seed Master Dao in Lin'an Mansion, and he sat directly in the chair of the commander, and let several major civilian officials sit down.

"Yan joins the army, I want to ask about the military spending, can you briefly talk about it?"

Yan Jiuling nodded, he knew the military expenditure of Shaanxi Road well, he got up and said: "There are 25,000 people in Shaanxi Road Army, plus 20,000 Jingzhao Army guarding Tongguan and 5,000 Xiang Army in various counties to maintain public order, a total of 50,000 people, according to the monthly salary of 10 yuan per person and the cost of food and clothing, it will cost 500,000 guan a month, 6 million guan a year, and the tax on Shaanxi Road is equivalent to 5 million guan, all of which are used to pay for military expenses. ”

Li Yanqing finally understood, and he asked again: "How do you spend the military expenses of 2 million guan in addition to the military expenses of 6 million soldiers?" ”

"There are a lot of contents in this, such as the preparation of military materials such as civilian soldiers, military horses, knives and spears, tents, armor, firearms, trebuchets and other military materials, in fact, the biggest piece is spent on the maintenance and reconstruction of more than 100 military villages on the northern border, and last year this alone used up nearly 800,000 yuan, plus other expenses, there is really no money left."

Li Yanqing also recruited soldiers, knowing that the cost of soldiers was huge, the Song Dynasty was not like the Tang Dynasty and there was a government military system, the Song Dynasty was completely a professional soldier, and he had to pay Yulu every month, raising soldiers and soldiers' families, and doubling Yulu during the war, so the military expenditure of the Song Dynasty began to be extremely heavy, and Song Xiaozong also sighed and said to the prince when he abdicated: "When today's wealth is endowed, at the rate of ten points, more than eight points to raise soldiers." ”

Most of the financial revenue of the Song Dynasty was used to raise soldiers, and the soldiers were paid eight yuan per month, which was about 6,000 yuan per month, and 200 yuan per day, which belonged to the middle income in the Song Dynasty.

An additional 10,000 troops will increase the monthly expenditure of 100,000 yuan, as well as miscellaneous expenses such as tents, military horses, etc., and 100,000 yuan is not enough.

This time, Li Yanqing passed through the northwest, and Zhao Gou, the son of heaven, promised to subsidize all the taxes of Bashu to him, but most of the taxes of Bashu were originally subsidized to the three roads in the northwest, and all of them did not increase much to him, and Li Yanqing calculated that he could increase the army by 40,000 to 50,000 at most.

"I already know the situation, how much military rations are there on Shaanxi Road now?" Li Yanqing asked again.

"Qiqi Taibao, there are about 400,000 stones."

"It's only 400,000 stones!" Li Yanqing frowned and paced back and forth.

He knew very well that 400,000 stone military rations sounded like a lot, but in fact, after removing the loss, it could only be eaten by soldiers for half a year at most, and the northwest region was no longer as warm and humid as the Tang Dynasty, with two harvests a year, and the northwest of the Song Dynasty was only a little better in the central region, which could be harvested three times in two years, and only one harvest a year in other places, and the yield was not high, and more than 200 catties of wheat could be harvested at most per acre.

Fortunately, it is now August, and the autumn harvest will be in a few months, Li Yanqing has a big head for a while, so don't think too much about these things for the time being.

"Let's talk about Yan'an Mansion and Suizhou, did the Western Xia army have any border invasion?"

Yan Jiuling nodded, "Yes!" It's just a small-scale harassment, but if you don't take precautions, a small harassment will immediately turn into a large-scale invasion, and the Western Xia has 20,000 troops on the border, and the marshal is very troubled by this. ”

Li Yanqing knew in his heart that the Western Xia army harassed the Shaanxi Road in order to drag down the army of the Seed Master Road, and did not let him lead the army to Qin Wang, nor let him support the Xihe Road, but he may not really want to invade the Shaanxi Road, otherwise the other party would not only deploy an army of 20,000 people, feint to attack the Shaanxi Road, and actually occupy the Xihe Road, this is the strategy of the Western Xia.

On the way to the west, Li Yanqing repeatedly considered the way to break the situation in the northwest, and the main reason for the repeated defeats of the Song army in the northwest was not the lack of troops, but the Song army's defensive strategy, allowing the Western Xia army to attack as it pleased, which was very passive, and the best way to break the situation was to take the initiative to attack.

.......

Li Yanqing rested in Jingzhao Mansion for two days, and then led 15,000 troops to leave Jingzhao and go north to Yan'an Mansion.

Seed Master Dao deployed 25,000 troops on the front line of Yan'an, Suizhou, and Baozhou, under the unified command of Zhang Jun, the deputy commander, who concurrently served as the prefect of Yan'an, and personally led 15,000 troops to Yan'an Mansion, and the other two commanders, Wu Jie, and Wu Phosphorus brothers, led 5,000 troops to garrison Suizhou and Baozhou respectively.

The Song army guarding the first line in northern Shaanxi is not gathered in the barracks, but scattered in the dangerous passes, each pass is stationed in three to five hundred people, these passes are located in the precipitous place, easy to defend and difficult to attack, usually with pigeon letters, the master road spent more than 800,000 yuan to repair these dangerous passes, in addition, Yan'an Mansion also has a support army of 5,000 people, as long as the Western Xia army goes south, the support army will set off at any time.

Of course, this defensive method also had a certain effect, but the Western Xia army often adopted the method of attacking the west from the east, so that the supporting army ran from place to place, exhausted for its life.

On the morning of that day, Li Yanqing led 2,000 troops to Yan'an Mansion, and soldiers had already informed the northern Shaanxi military.

When Li Yanqing's army arrived in Yan'an Mansion, Zhang Jun personally went out of the city to greet Li Yanqing's arrival, Zhang Jun knelt down on one knee and saluted, "Humble Zhang Jun see Taibao!" ”

Li Yanqing's Taibao is only his rank and official position, but his real power official position is the envoy of the Northwest Third Route Economic and Strategic System, which means that the military and political power of the Northwest Third Route is grasped.

"General Zhang, please get up!"

The famous generals of the Southern Song Dynasty in history, Zhang Jun, Han Shizhong, Liu Guangshi, Wu Jie, Liu Jian and others are all from the Western Army, Li Yanqing looked at the list of generals, this 25,000-strong army in northern Shaanxi has Zhang Jun, Wu Jie, Wu Phosphorus, Liu Ziyu, Yang Zaixing and other famous generals, if these famous generals are used properly, they will become their right-hand men to resist the Jin soldiers and recover the rivers and mountains.

"Thank you Taipo!"

Zhang Jun stood up and introduced several generals behind him to Li Yanqing, "This is General Wu Jie, the military envoy of Suizhou!" ”

Wu Jie, about thirty years old, medium stature, calm eyes, a long beard on his chin, wearing a mountain pattern armor, wearing a phoenix winged hood, a trace of elegance in his heroic martial arts, he did not hurry to salute Li Yanqing, "Humble Wu Jie, see Li Taibao." ”

Li Yanqing smiled slightly, "I have heard of the name of the Wu brothers of the Western Army for a long time, so can I make my brother here?" ”

"Humble Wu Phosphorus!"

Another person came out from behind Wu Jie, he looked very similar to Wu Jie, but his body shape and temperament were very different, he was tall and mighty, half a head taller than his brother Wu Jie, and his physique was very strong.

"He is worthy of being a fierce general of the Western Army, and his name is well deserved!"

Li Yanqing praised it, and smiled at another general with an elegant temperament next to him: "If I guessed correctly, this is General Liu Ziyu!" ”

Liu Ziyu is the eldest son of Liu Tao, the Xuanfu envoy of Qin Fenglu, about thirty-five or sixteen years old, both civil and military, he looks quite similar to his father, Li Yanqing recognized it at a glance.

"Under Liu Ziyu, see Taibao!"

Li Yanqing met with Yang Zaixing and other generals one by one, and then entered Yan'an City accompanied by the generals.

In the military office, Li Yanqing first communicated with Zhang Jun about his plan to send troops, regardless of Li Yanqing's identity or combat experience in the Western Xia, Li Yanqing has the right to speak in the Western Xia campaign, and the reason why he communicated with Zhang Jun is to give Zhang Jun a face, which Zhang Jun knows.

However, Zhang Jun still hesitated a little, "Taibao wants to take the initiative to attack Western Xia, and the lowly position has no opinion, and the lowly position is worried that the Jin soldiers will take the opportunity to attack the Shaanxi Road?" ”

Li Yanqing smiled slightly: "It's August now, there are still three or four months before the Yellow River freezes, I will fight this battle for two months at most, and the time can be returned before the Yellow River freezes, and I have deployed heavy troops on the front line of Tongguan and Pujin Pass, and after my army goes north, I hope that General Zhang will release a part of the army along the Yellow River to prevent the enemy from crossing the river on a raft to attack the Shaanxi Road, as long as it is properly deployed, it should not be a big problem." ”

Now that Li Yanqing was sure, Zhang Jun no longer worried about the Jin soldiers, and he asked again: "How many troops is Taibao going to lead north?" ”

"About 30,000 people are enough, this time I came to Yan'an Mansion, one is to visit the generals on the border of northern Shaanxi, and the other purpose is to borrow 7,000 troops from General Zhang."

Li Yanqing said very politely, Zhang Jun of course had his own consciousness, he hurriedly said: "The transfer of troops will be the power of the Taibao, and the Shaanxi army will be dispatched by the Taibao." ”

Li Yanqing was more satisfied with Zhang Jun's attitude, he nodded and smiled: "Then let Liu Ziyu and Yang Zaixing lead seven thousand troops to follow me north!" ”