The arrival of Xu Huang's letter interrupted the topic they had just discussed, and Liu Xin took the opportunity to divert the topic and said: "If today, Cao Ying hijacked the puppet emperor Liu Xie, occupying Qing, Yan'er Prefecture and part of Yuzhou, Yuan Shao occupied Jizhou and Bingzhou, not to mention that he would defeat Gongsun Zhan and annex the entire Youzhou, and the rest of the princes such as Tao Qian, Yuan Shu, Liu Xuan and others each dominated one side, although the war against Dong Zhuo was won, but it was also a huge loss, now it is only appropriate to appease the people, eliminate the remnants of the bandits, and recuperate, I want to make Gongming temporarily withdraw his troops, What do you think? ”

Guo Jia, Cheng Yu, and Kuai Yue all nodded again and again, and they did not have the slightest objection to the strategy of temporarily withdrawing the troops.

Liu Xin raised the letter in his hand, and said in a deep voice: "This war has taught us a very profound lesson, take the army as an example, in the past, I have always emphasized the strategy of elite troops, paid too much attention to the quality of the army and ignored the number of troops, so that the use of troops often falls into a situation of being stretched, if we have enough troops, we can take advantage of Cao Ying's new defeat, take Yuzhou in one fell swoop, and even attack Yanzhou, but we can't do this now, the battle line is too long, and many places say that there will be an empty force, Taking advantage of the enemy, even Xiangyang was twice attacked by the enemy, although Xiangyang was finally defended, but the people along the way inevitably suffered from the scourge of swords, and people's hearts inevitably had to be turbulent. ”

In the era of cold weapons, the combat effectiveness between the same arms is actually almost the same, and the decision to win or lose the war mainly depends on the martial arts and wisdom of the generals, Liu Xin's elite army policy actually did make his army's combat effectiveness to a new level, but under the premise of lack of effective information transmission and strong mobility, this improvement in combat effectiveness still cannot guarantee that they are invincible, and there is an element of luck in holding Xiangyang twice, seeing that Liu Xin can take the initiative to recognize his mistakes, Cheng Yu and others are secretly gratified, They have long wanted to propose to expand the size of the army, and with the strength of Xiangyang, they can fully afford the huge military spending.

Cheng Yu is currently the secretary of the Ministry of War, and the recruitment and organization of the army is his part, and when he heard Liu Xin's words with the meaning of expanding the army, he quickly got up and said: "Qi Yu Lord, his subordinates think that the area under the jurisdiction of the Lord is now getting wider and wider, and the strength is indeed insufficient, so it is necessary to recruit new soldiers in time. ”

Liu Xin waved his hand and said categorically: "No, this time I can hold Xiangyang, that new army not only performed well, but also paid a great price, the rest are bloody warriors, I want to form a new legion of them separately, temporarily organized as the sixth legion, these battles against Dong Zhuo, captured a lot of war horses, the sixth legion will be composed of cavalry, with a strength of 50,000 people, and the excellent riders from the major legions can be selected to supplement the ranks." ”

A group of recruits formed a legion alone, and they were all cavalry, which is enough to see that Liu Xin was very satisfied with their performance in the defense of Xiangyang, and it was also the greatest affirmation of their contribution.

Kuai Yue has lived in Xiangyang for a long time, and has followed Liu Xin for many years, knowing that war horses are a scarce resource in the south, and he never thought that one day he could also form a cavalry corps of reading power, so he couldn't help but get excited, and said: "If the lord has such a cavalry corps to help, why worry about the hegemony, but I don't know who the lord wants to appoint as the commander of this cavalry corps." ”

Liu Xin muttered: "If you talk about rushing and galloping, Yide and Zilong can take on this heavy responsibility, this cavalry will come in handy in the future, Zilong is a careful person, and it is more appropriate to hand it over to Zilong." ”

Cheng Yu said with a smile: "I'm afraid that in this case, General Yide will have an opinion." ”

Liu Xin said disapprerovingly: "Back then, I formed a rebellion with Gongming and Yide, Zilong was the youngest, and it was a matter of course for me to let my younger brother be the elder brother, besides, I am also ready to strengthen the five major legions, and the strength will all increase to 100,000 people, the first and second legions will each have 20,000 cavalry, and the third, fourth, and fifth legions will each have 10,000 cavalry. ”

Everyone laughed, and Guo Jia arched his hand and asked, "General Zilong was transferred to the commander of the Sixth Legion, and his subordinates elected Zhang Liao as the commander of the Fourth Legion. ”

Liu Xin nodded and said: "Wen Yuan is loyal and righteous, and his talent is enough to take on this position, but he has other important tasks in Xuzhou, and I am afraid that he will not be able to do it for a while." ”

Cheng Yu got up and said: "What's so difficult about this, we must take Zhang Liao as the commander of the Fourth Legion, and appoint Gao Shun as the deputy commander to temporarily lead his army." ”

According to the division of labor that set up the six ministries at the beginning, the rest of the officials, including the county guards, were appointed and dismissed by Shangshu Tianfeng of the Ministry of Officials, but the army generals had to be appointed by Liu Xin himself, so he would discuss the matters of the major army commanders with everyone here.

After this expansion, the total number of troops of Liu Xin's regular army will exceed 500,000, after two or three years, if they can be trained into the original elite soldiers, sweeping the world can be said to be just around the corner, thinking that it will not be long before they can dominate the world, Cheng Yu and others are excited, because everyone understands that if there is really such a day, the four seas are calm, and the emperor's throne belongs to Liu Xin, and these people will become great contributors to the revival of the Han family.

Liu Xin saw that an expansion of the army made their mood difficult to calm down, couldn't help but shake his head, smiled indifferently, and said: "Not only that, I also plan to expand the navy, now the Jiangling shipyard has built a lot of large warships, some warships, one can carry more than 3,000 soldiers, plus sailors, archers, the number can exceed 5,000, and the size of the navy has always been maintained at 30,000, obviously a little insufficient, so I plan to expand the navy together, divide the navy into two fleets, each with 50,000 people, The first fleet is still under the command of Gan Ning, and the second fleet will be handed over to Sun Ce. ”

Guo Jia asked puzzledly: "Lord Qi, there is something unknown under the subordinates, as far as the subordinates know, my Han originally had two naval armies, namely the Yangzhou Naval Army and the Jingzhou Naval Army, each with a number of about 10,000 people, and now the Yangzhou Naval Army has existed in name only, and the Jingzhou Naval Army has grown to 30,000 people under the leadership of the Lord, and the number of warships has also expanded many times, looking at the entire river, there is no opponent, and the government is harmonious under the rule of the Lord, and even the bandits have disappeared, not to mention the Shui Gong, the Lord has to form such a huge naval army, But why? ”

Liu Xin said with a smile: "Fengxiao, you have traveled all over the world, but you have never seen the sea. ”

Guo Jia replied without hesitation: "The sea subordinates have naturally seen it, vast and boundless, a piece of blue, beautiful and magnificent, when the monstrous waves hit, it is shocking and inexplicable, why did the lord ask about the sea." ”

Suddenly, Guo Jia's face changed greatly, and he asked in surprise: "The lord wants to learn the story of Emperor Qin, and he also wants to send boys and girls to visit overseas immortal mountains and ask for the art of immortality. ”

Liu Xin was stunned when he heard this, but he didn't expect Guo Jia to think of it, and couldn't help laughing at himself: "Where do I dare to ask for immortality, if I can live to the age of antiquity, I will be content, do you know, near the shore is the sea, and then go far for the ocean, this ocean contains infinite wealth, is the hope of the future of my Han nation, I want to build the Han navy into a real navy, able to sail on the boundless ocean." ”

Cheng Yu said worriedly: "My subordinates heard that the sea is changing rapidly, the wind and waves are ruthless, even the fishermen near the sea do not dare to sail far, to let the ships of the navy be able to sail on the sea, I am afraid that a huge amount of money will be invested, the lord has just expanded the five major armies, and now he wants to expand the navy, and he will also go on an expedition to the sea, I am afraid that the burden of the people is heavy, please think twice." ”

Liu Xin said undoubtedly: "Life in the world, grass and trees in autumn, if you can't do a few big things in your lifetime, wouldn't it be in vain to come to the world to go this way, don't worry, I will do what I can, I will not do anything reckless, whether it is to expand the army, or to form a naval army, at present, it is only to increase personnel, strengthen training, as for the equipment can be slowly deployed, it must always be within the scope of financial resources." ”

Guo Jia and the others breathed a sigh of relief at the same time, and said in unison: "The lord is wise. ”

Liu Xin waved his hand and said: "This time I am determined to carry out a major reorganization of the army, the barbarian army is brave and good at fighting in resisting the attack of the four counties in central and southern China this time, and they should be given a correct name, I am ready to reorganize them into the seventh army corps, specializing in mountain and jungle operations, the number is tentatively 20,000, and in the defense of Xiangyang, the engineering team has also played a great role, this engineering team has been implementing semi-military management, I want to reorganize them into a regular army, just call it the engineering corps, Military salaries are the same as those of regular legions. ”

Every year when recruiting soldiers, there are many people who are enthusiastic to enlist, they are not completely for the salary to go, after all, in Jing, Yi Erzhou people have no difficulty in supporting their families, of course, it is not because the soldiers can often eat meat, although everyone is used to frugality, but now is not the era when only the New Year can eat a piece of meat, in the past, the four classes of farmers and businessmen, these four classes belong to the class of good people, and the peddlers and pawns are often looked down upon, but under the rule of Liu Xin, Soldiers can enter the class of good people in the open, and it is a very respectable profession,

Not only that, whenever the farming season is busy, the soldiers will also go into the fields in an organized or spontaneous way to help the people plough the land, sow seeds, and harvest crops, just because the soldiers often help the people to work voluntarily, so the people also regard the soldiers as their relatives, and the soldiers are respected, the more moved and proud, and more people are willing to join the army. The history of good men not being soldiers is here a thing of the past,

Most of this engineering corps is composed of prisoners from previous wars, and now they can even enter the ranks of the regular army, and if they can learn this news, they will be overjoyed; at the same time, after such a reorganization, the engineering corps can also be completely on top when necessary, undertake some combat tasks, and make up for the lack of troops.

Kuai Yue understood Liu Xin's intentions after a little thought, and said in a loud voice: "The lord's move can be described as adding 100,000 new troops, and it can play a big role at a critical time. ”

Liu Xin waved his hand and said, "That's not all. ”