The changes of the Song State, from the official system to the law, from the land to the education, were all aimed at making the whole country strong. And the ultimate goal of a strong country is to build a strong army!

No matter how developed a country's economy, culture, and education is, as long as its military strength is insufficient to preserve its territory and people, then all the glory it has will be lost!

In real history, the best example of Chinese civilization is the Qi State; And the best example of Greek civilization in the West is Athens. These two historically existent countries, in their glory, were extremely commercially and culturally developed, and to some extent even reached the pinnacle of classical civilization! However, their military strength is the biggest shortcoming, and it is this shortcoming that has caused these two civilized countries to encounter the invasion of powerful enemies, and after their defeat and annihilation, their glory at their peak has not reappeared!

Dai Yan knew very well that the apparent prosperity of the Song Kingdom, no matter how brilliant it was, was nothing more than a gorgeous flower. And the real foundation of the Song State still lies in the strong military strength at home! If the military strength is not enough, everything else will disappear in an instant!

Moreover, the strength of the Song State's military also determines the size of his power to a certain extent, as well as his status in the whole world! In today's Warring States Period, everything is spoken of by strength! Therefore, he is extremely interested in building a strong military system and even training a strong army!

When Dai Yan was first in charge of the Song Kingdom, in order to maintain the change of regime, he did not rashly change the military system. And when he straightened out many things in the country, he began to use the knife against the most important part of the Song Kingdom!

Before the military reform of the Song State, the entire army of the Song State was disorganized. Among them, the core army in Dai Yan's hands is an army of nearly 100,000 from Taoqiu and Fengyi. And among these 100,000 troops, there are almost 20,000 standing troops similar to Wei Wushu, and the remaining 80,000 troops are all temporarily mobilized troops from Taoqiu!

Outside of the Taoqiu army, it was divided into two major systems. One of them was the local troops located in the Song Dynasty, which were partly the armies of the previous Suiyang forces, including the clan soldiers controlled by the Le clan and the Huang nobles, and the remaining part was mostly mobilized by the local troops of the Song Dynasty.

Another system that is different from the Suiyang system is the troops from the nobles of the East China Sea. These troops are completely owned by the nobles of the East China Sea, but the composition of these troops is very interesting, including the clan soldiers from the East China Sea nobles, the immigrants from Taoqiu, and the Dongyi clan soldiers recruited by the East China Sea nobles from the local area!

Such a chaotic military system greatly reduced the combat effectiveness of the entire Song State. During the battle of Song and Chu, Dai Yan was able to clearly notice that the command was not smooth!

Moreover, in addition to these armies, the Song State also had the cavalry of Taoqiu, as well as the sailors composed of multiple parts!

Not to mention the cavalry, just talking about the sailors of the Song Kingdom, there are sailors and Taoqiu sailors who originally belonged to Suiyang, and there are also Taoqiu fleets temporarily recruited by Dai Yan. In addition to this, the truly powerful sailors are not in the inland rivers, but in the "navy" that sails on the sea and intends to conquer the sea.

Dai Yan first began the restructuring of the infantry in the Song Kingdom.

For example, today's conquests of the following countries are, in the final analysis, land conquests, so the strength of infantry is the key to a country!

And the strength of an army is nothing more than two parts, the number of soldiers, and the specific qualities of the army!

An army of 100,000 men will surely outperform an army of 50,000 men in a face-to-face battle. And the number of troops that a country can mobilize is the most important factor in the strength of the country. For example, the State of Qi, which can mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops, is inevitably stronger than the State of Lu, which can only mobilize tens of thousands of troops!

In Dai Yan's view, for example, the best thing that all countries have done in terms of the number of troops today is still the Qin State. After the Shang Dynasty reformed the law, the Qin state was able to send the royal power to the countryside, and the government's control over the country reached the limit, so that in the event of a war in the Qin state, it was able to mobilize as many troops as possible. And the strictness of the Qin law also guaranteed the combat effectiveness of the Qin army. It was the unique military system of the Shang Dynasty that made the Qin State a powerful country with a small territory and a sparse population!

The Shang Dynasty reforms, especially at the military level, were undoubtedly the most critical reason for the Qin State to change from a weak country to a strong country!

And the specific quality of the army, the best in this regard, is the Wei State. The Wei state established a standing military system, with carefully selected Wei warriors as the country's most important military force. Wei Wushu has extremely high requirements for the age of the soldiers, and even the specific physical fitness, and it takes a long time for the soldiers to form combat effectiveness. Such an army can be described as a "special forces" in today's Warring States era.

In Dai Yan's opinion, if it comes to the combat effectiveness of individual soldiers, or even the team battles of small-scale troops, I am afraid that the Ruishi of the Qin State will not be the opponent of Wei Wushu, after all, no matter how strict and appealing the Qin Law is, it is impossible to improve the physical fitness of the soldiers. However, it was precisely the selection of Wei Wushu that was too strict, and in order for it to form a combat effectiveness, it would cost Wei a huge amount of wealth, and its accumulation could not be completed overnight. Once Wei encountered a major defeat abroad, and a large number of Wei Wushu, who were the backbone of Wei's military, died, Wei would fall into decline.

And the Wei State is in the hands of King Wei Hui, and the specific decline process is like this! It was defeated twice by the Qi State in the Battle of Guiling and the Battle of Maling, and lost a large number of Wei soldiers, which damaged the national strength of the Wei State. Before that, Wei, as the overlord of the world, needed a strong army to suppress the Quartet, and now that its strength was insufficient, the countries located in the Quartet immediately jumped out to attack Wei. When Wei was once again defeated by Qin in the Battle of Hexi, losing a large number of elite soldiers, its hegemony came to an end.

Without the support of the original hegemony, the ability of Wei to obtain wealth will decline sharply, and the number of military soldiers that the entire country can raise will decrease, so that its country will naturally weaken! Wei Wushu was called "the soldier of the dangerous country" by Xunzi, which is indeed appropriate.

In Dai Yan's view, the continuous victories of the Qin State in the later period were not so much the strong combat effectiveness of the Qin army, but the victory of the Qin army in the system. The war between Qin and other countries is not without failure, but because of its excellent military system, it can get up quickly every time it fails, and it will not collapse like Wei, which is the most terrifying thing about Qin!

Dai Yan is also extremely envious of the excellent military system of the Qin State! However, Dai Yan knew very well that the harsh changes of the Qin State could be implemented thanks to the bitterness and poverty of the Qin people, which enabled them to endure such a high-pressure military system! Although the people of the Song State are also honest, it is absolutely impossible to implement a military system like the Qin State in the Song State and squeeze the soldiers in such a cruel way!

A harsh law like the Qin Law will definitely force the originally honest Song Min to rebel! At this point, you don't need to look at anything else, just look at the abundant soldiers who came out of the hometown of the Song State at the end of Qin and established the Han Dynasty, one of the most powerful armies in the world at that time!

In the case of not being able to use the harsh laws of the Qin State, Dai Yan still absorbed the most valuable factor of the Qin military system - all the people are soldiers. Now that the Song State has undergone the reform of the law, the official system can also be extended to all the people of the Song State like the Qin State! Therefore, the Song State has the basis for the implementation of all the people as soldiers!

In this way, Dai Yan referred to the military systems of various countries today, and selected them with the eyes of his travelers, and finally settled on a military system that matched today's Song State: universal compulsory military service!

The basis of this military service system is actually divided into two parts, that is, the universal military service system and the compulsory military service system.

The universal military service system is well understood, that is, all male nationals of the Song State were required to serve in the military. The compulsory military service system means that this kind of service is completely the obligation of every Song person, and it is mandatory, not voluntary!

And such a military service system is built on the basis of compulsory education in the Song Kingdom!

In Dai Yan's plan, children in the Song Kingdom should go to primary school from the age of six, and primary school lasts for four years; This is followed by four years of secondary school, and by the end of secondary school, an ordinary child has reached the age of fourteen, and by the time he is fifteen years old, he can just meet the conditions for military service!

The compulsory military service system was established in the Song Dynasty, and it was mandatory for children to graduate from middle school. Of course, in order to ensure that the future elites of the Song Kingdom will not fall all at once, children who are admitted to university can be exempted from military service during college! After finishing college, they still need to serve in the army, and Dai Yan has certain preferential treatment for these future elites of the Song Kingdom, which can allow them to be quickly promoted to officers and have a good upward channel!

Every Song person needs to serve in the military for ten years without compensation, that is, ordinary people will generally retire after the age of twenty-five. And after these people retire, it is not that they have nothing to do with the army at all, they just transfer to the reserves. Once the Great War of the Song Kingdom comes, these retired soldiers still need to take up arms and fight for the Song Kingdom again!

In this way, Dai Yan completed the whole army in the entire Song Kingdom! Under this military service system, if necessary, the military strength of the entire Song State can be brought into full play!

Of course, when the compulsory education of the entire Song State had just begun to be implemented, Dai Yan naturally needed a transition in the military system of the entire country. He was also unambiguous, and soon implemented a transitional program of universal compulsory military service!

This plan, in general, means that from now on, anyone who has reached the age of fifteen to twenty-five in the entire Song State will need to report to the military camp designated by the Song State during the winter slack time, and perform compulsory military service! And this process will last for ten years, and after ten years, the Song State will completely transition to universal compulsory military service!

Dai Yan can have the confidence to implement the universal compulsory military service system, and the most important thing is that he can make the agricultural productivity of the Song State increase rapidly, and have the material foundation to support such a powerful army. At the same time, he was also able to ensure that after all the young and middle-aged people of the entire Song Kingdom joined the army, the agricultural production among the Song people could be completed by women and middle-aged soldiers after retirement (the average life expectancy in the agricultural era was 36 years, and 25 years old was already middle-aged)!

In this way, the general framework of the reform of the military system of the entire Song Dynasty was completed!