Although the navy has so many dissatisfactions, 200,000 cavalry is really not much, for the vast north, there are not so many cavalry, let alone fighting, even if you occupy it, you can't occupy it.

Of course, most of the admirals were unaware of Zhang San's plan for the Mongolian steppe, and now there was a steady stream of war horses for Zhang San, so the army's cavalry plan did not cost as much as expected.

Moreover, Zhang San has an even more crazy plan in his heart, that is, to set up a rapid reaction infantry of 100,000 to 200,000 people in five to eight years, that is, infantry on horseback.

This kind of infantry was not Zhang San's first creation, but Zhang San really wanted to make this kind of infantry go further, one person with three horses, faster than the cavalry, relying on horses to maneuver, and then go to the place to fight in the way of infantry.

Such a plan consumes more war horses than cavalry, so Zhang San can only think about it now, after all, the total number of Qi troops is 600,000, and in order to serve the next war, the Road Bureau plans to expand the army to one million.

Moreover, in the future, the army's operations will mainly be in the inland areas, and the extension of the supply line in the later period will require the army to increase mules and horses, artillery, and other supporting facilities on the basis of the current one, and the army has put forward a large number of equipment requirements for this.

This expansion plan of the army was acquiesced by Zhang San, this number is not much, and in the era of low mobility of the army, Zhang San must ensure that the strategic position has an overwhelming superior force, that is, an army of more than 100,000 people.

For example, in order to suppress Goryeo and the two Wa Kingdoms, Zhenwai Island maintained a garrison of 100,000 troops all year round to ensure that possible resistance could be extinguished at any time, and Ryukyu Island, as the former core of Ryukyu, has always had more than 150,000 troops stationed in the past, and even now it maintains at least 100,000 standing troops.

There is also the island of Sri Lanka, which faces a continent, so the standing army needs at least 150,000, while the southern side of the Song defense requires 50,000 troops, and the western defense line needs to be garrisoned by 100,000 troops.

There are also some strategically important garrisons, such as Malacca, Dengzhou, Luzon, Borneo, etc., so now Qi seems to have a lot of troops, but the war together will be insufficient.

Just like this war against the Song Dynasty, almost all the troops were exhausted, and 500,000 troops were sent, and there was instability in various places because of the reduction of garrisons, including slave rebellions.

So seeing that the war was going well, Zhang San kept transferring troops back to defense, otherwise there would really be big troubles in various places, so in order to accept this lesson, Zhang San decided not to transfer more than two-thirds of the garrisons in various places unless necessary.

The new war not only needs to be fought down, but also needs to be occupied, so it is imperative to expand the army, but in order to appease the emotions of the navy, Zhang San needs to draw a big pie for them to calm down.

So Zhang San took out the ironclad ship plan, and when Zhang San hung the drawings of the new battleship on the wall of the conference room, this was the blueprint of the ironclad steam battleship that Zhang San specially asked Zhang Zeduan to draw.

That's right, it's Zhang Zeduan, this person who is very close to Zhang San, the person who is hand-picked by Zhang San, is doomed to his bumpy fate in the Great Song Dynasty, so he has no choice but to defect to Zhang San, and now serves as the dean of the Academy of Fine Arts of Tamsui University.

As soon as the drawings were hung out, everyone took a breath of cold air, the black steel giant beast was on the sea, the dense cannon muzzle stretched out, showing its fangs in all directions, and the three big chimneys in the middle of the ship emitted black smoke like a fire, yes, why did this ship smoke without sails? Not a defeated battleship, right?

For people of this era, this kind of battleship is too far ahead of its time, how can a ship without sails run? No oars and no yo wheel, is this a boat? It's still smoking, obviously burning.

Zhang San didn't know what the people below thought, otherwise he would have to be angry, of course, not everyone is a fool, some officers thought of the steam engine report that Zhang San had been paying attention to just now, and secretly communicated below, this is a steam ship.

Zhang San listened to the discussion below and began to speak with satisfaction: "Okay, let's not discuss, now it's my turn to say, everyone is right, this is our Ryukyu next-generation warship, the steam ironclad!" ”

Zhang San looked at the sound below to stop before continuing: "This ship is made of steel as a shell, and the power is a steam engine, such a ship will span an era, and all the wooden sailing gunboats will lag behind overnight. ”

Zhang San continued to introduce proudly: "The standard of the navy is that the new generation of warships must be able to comprehensively suppress the previous generation, or even crush it, so this one can do it, let's look at his defense first." ”

Zhang San pointed to the hull of the ship and said: "The hull is fixed with steel armor willow nails, and the thickness of each piece of steel armor is more than twenty millimeters. ”

Zhang San pointed to the chimney and said: "And the steam engine technology will make a breakthrough in five to eight years, when the steam engine will drive the shipwright to make the battleship run at a speed of more than fifteen knots per hour, far exceeding all the current sail battleships." ”

Zhang San pointed to the muzzle of the cannon again: "The artillery will use a high-magnification mirror gun in the back hall, and use a mechanical aiming system, after the successful research of fire cap technology and new gunpowder, the firing range of this kind of artillery will be more than twenty miles, and the accurate standard distance will be true or false to four miles." ”

Zhang San said proudly: "Such a ship, whether in defense, speed or firepower, will be an improvement across the era, each ironclad ship can challenge at least five to ten sail battleships of the same tonnage." ”

Zhang San tempted: "So now it's not that I don't build more ships for you, but I want to build you better ships, you can imagine that when people are driving ironclad ships with the wind and headwind, you are still shaking the sails and twisting to find the direction of the wind."

Don't say that other people's speed is faster than you, even if the speed is the same, people walk in a straight line, and you walk in a zigzag, you can't catch up with others at the same speed, and then fight, people can accurately hit you four miles away, and you have to wait until 500 meters before you can exert firepower.

You want to chase, you can't catch up, you want to run, you can't run away, even if you walk four miles of shit luck and hit someone's boat, the result is that people's boat boards are all iron, no shit, even if you go 500 meters, it's useless, you can't break other people's boat boards, you can't carry other people's guns, tell me what else you play?

Even if they are all their own ships now, but people drive new warships, you drive old sail warships, people have hot water on their ships, you don't have them on board, people don't have to operate sails, you have to control the sails day and night, what do you think in your heart?

I went to the Admiralty to ask for a new ship, and the Admiralty told you that we have built too many sail battleships, and they have not yet been scrapped, and now we don't need so many ironclad ships, you have to wait, how long will you wait? A sail battleship can serve for at least thirty years, so you wait for the next life! ”

When Zhang San said the next life, the officers and soldiers below all laughed, yes, why use bad ones if there are good ones, although it takes a while to wait for a while, it is better than waiting for a lifetime. Zhang San used a painting to stabilize the restlessness of the navy.