I'm embarrassed, the chapter name of the previous chapter was written wrong again, and the content is correct.

……

What was the reason for the fact that the legation had so many armed men in the first place? It's a very complicated process.

At the beginning, the escort force of the envoy regiment was originally planned to be only 7,000, and then didn't flintlock pistols and artillery need to be tested? The emperor transferred 5,000 firearms to Han Xin.

It stands to reason that firearms soldiers who are extremely dependent on logistical supplies should not appear in the envoy group that is about to travel tens of thousands of miles away, but the emperor has never thought of letting firearms troops go tens of thousands of miles away!

The 5,000 firearms troops will reach the Western Regions as far as they go, and when the envoys are about to leave the Western Regions and continue westward, the firearms troops will be allocated to the Western Expeditionary Corps. At present, the firearms soldiers still belong to Han Xin's command sequence, isn't that because the envoys have not left the Western Regions yet!

With the addition of 5,000 firearms troops, the escort force of the Legation increased from 7,000 to 12,000, and mercenary armed men were not strictly considered an official order.

There were really too many merchants accompanying them, and each caravan would hire its own accompanying armed men, as few as a caravan hired dozens of people, and as many as a caravan hired thousands, and the number of armed men became nearly forty thousand.

The legalization of the armed group organized by the empire began with the march to Lingnan, at first to purge the Baiyue ethnic group in Lingnan, and later when the slave hunting industry flourished, in order to liberate the army from the purge and slave hunting, mercenary and free formation became a substitute armed group.

The existence of mercenaries is really not a big deal in the empire, in fact, there have been similar organizations before, but they are not called the name mercenary group, they can be private soldiers of what school (such as the Mo family swordsman), they can be the disciples of a certain nobleman (such as the four sons of the Warring States who do not have tens of thousands of doormen), anyway, it is real and exists.

Lu Zhe allowed the legitimacy of the mercenary group to only shine a light on the surface of the armed groups that would have been hidden in the shadows. This has proven to be quite effective, as every group of mercenaries, large or small, needs to be vouched.

Possession of private armies used to be the only thing that could be done by big clans, big merchants, and big nobles, but now there is a different situation, and veterans who have retired from the army can unite to form mercenary groups.

"Our Majesty is preparing for disarmament." The expression on Chen Yu's face was rather strange, and he said: "In the future, only the establishment of the National Defense Force of twenty legions will be retained, and then there will be a forbidden army of four legions. Besides. The Empire will build a public security force of no more than 500,000 people. ”

Maintaining the size of twenty legions was a national policy that had been set at the beginning of the country's founding. In order to adapt to this national policy, the military has been carrying out the "slimming" of non-combatants of the corps several years ago. In the past, a legion had 50,000 soldiers, but the auxiliaries serving the soldiers ranged from 50,000 to 100,000, and the cavalry corps even had more than 100,000 auxiliaries in many cases.

Auxiliaries have always been auxiliaries who serve the soldiers, and they also need to fight hard when necessary. On this basis, the continuous expansion of the empire was to select auxiliaries and turn them into regular soldiers, and at one time it expanded four legions within half a year.

At present, the empire not only maintains twenty legions, but also second-line troops and county soldiers. Combined, the size is definitely over three million. Seeing the Steppe Wars...... At least after capturing Junji Mountain and hitting Wolf Juxu Mountain, the empire will not break out into large-scale wars, so disarmament is definitely inevitable.

Disarmament will leave quite a lot of after-effects, and the planned conversion of some personnel to local policing can only absorb 500,000 of them. In fact, these 500,000 police officers will replace the original county and county military establishment, and no longer exist as an army, and their command will be transferred from the military to the local official system, and the other layer is also intended to let the civilian system have a violent team, which is nothing more than a fragile balance consideration.

Then to maintain twenty Wehrmacht is to maintain a strength of one million soldiers. The forbidden army also accommodated at least 200,000 soldiers, and another 500,000 were removed from the public security force. This means that at least 1.3 million more people will be demobilized and demobilized.

Soldiers are a very strange profession, especially in the war years, there will be some soldiers who have become accustomed to licking blood with knives, and are no longer suitable for a peaceful life. So what to do?

The legalization of the mercenary group was partly due to the fact that some soldiers could not adapt to peaceful life, and more importantly, Lu Zhe laid the groundwork for the country to be unable to take the initiative to launch a war of aggression in the future, and to do a civilian execution of plunder.

To be sure, the cost of war is too high for most countries, and the rewards are likely to be extremely limited. And then there is. At present, it is 206 BC, and there are many alien races around the empire, but there are really few countries, and the frequent wars against a small tribe and alien race with the state feel a bit out of place, and it is better to encourage civilian armed forces to plunder.

"That is also part of hiding soldiers from the people, and it is one of the shortcuts for the people to quickly accumulate wealth." Xu Zhi said with a smile: "When soldiers are fighting abroad, they can keep forty percent of the spoils, which seems to be a loss, but in fact they take a big advantage, after all, the soldiers eat and drink all provided by the state." Not only did they eat and drink, but even a piece of cloth on their bodies was provided by the state, and in this way, they could keep forty percent of the spoils, and no one would say that they didn't take advantage of it. ”

Of course, that is also based on the premise that the Imperial army as a whole shows its strength, using collective force to defeat the enemy, and then the spoils of war are produced.

"Mercenaries go out to fight, and their degree of freedom is much higher than that of the soldiers on the formation." Xu Zhi didn't know what it meant, and a cold smile appeared on his face: "It is the mercenary group that pays the taxes on their behalf, and any personal seizures are also sold by the mercenary group." ”

The people present thought about what the mercenaries did after they poured into the Western Regions, and they could almost understand why Xu Zhi was smiling like that.

The army is disciplined and cannot do many things. The mercenary group may have discipline, but don't expect the mercenary group to have the self-discipline of the country~family~violence~ force, what they will do if they lack restraint mostly depends on their own psychological and moral bottom line.

Most of the mercenaries who go out of the country, they don't go out to do good deeds, whether it's for profit or excitement. I don't know how many people who don't belong to the empire have suffered.

In the southern part of the South Asian subcontinent in the south of the empire, various mercenary groups have so far sent no less than 50,000 slaves to the mainland every year. Most of the slaves came from the continental peninsula region...... That is, Vietnam, Burma, Laos, and Cambodia in later generations. There are no less than 50,000 people who have been captured, so how many people should the mercenary group kill in the local area?

In addition to slaves, the civilian mercenary group will continue to transport some resources to the mainland in the southern part of the subcontinent, and to tell the truth, those resources are extremely valuable.

What is abundant in the southern part of the subcontinent? Fragrant wood, jade, jade, tortoiseshell, pearl...... Luxury goods can be found in the southern part of the subcontinent.

Of course. The civilian mercenary group actually eats some leftovers left by the state, and the large-scale resource points have long been mastered by the military, but they can't stand the resources that the state thinks are leftovers, and it is a wealth that can make a fortune for individuals.

The empire was developing industry, and the emperor was the leader, and the nobles and big clans were the second echelon to keep up, and the subsequent echelons were precisely the groups that made their fortunes by relying on foreign bloody plunder. This part of the group that amassed wealth through bloody plunder, and they gained wealth by believing in government propaganda and participating in foreign plunder. With previous experience, they are the group of people who are most willing to follow the government's policies.

What kind of class is most likely to be born in the development of industry? Except for the workers. In fact, the merchant group will definitely come into being, which is a combination of wealth and wealth, and once enough wealth is accumulated, it will form a behemoth such as a consortium.

"Actually......" Liu Bang blinked his lips and said, "Most of the benefits are earned by some large consortia. ”

"Behind the large business conglomerates are the big clans or nobles." Xu Zhi didn't have anything to shy away from, and said clearly: "It is precisely because of this that if you don't know what a reasonable transaction is, maybe many people will eventually be backfired." ”

Liu Bang couldn't help but shrink his neck, the emperor of the empire was actually at the helm of the largest consortium. Among the remaining consortiums, the nobles accounted for forty percent, and the alliance between the big clans and the big merchants accounted for another twenty percent. Only 10 percent are consortia raised by a large number of small businessmen.

In fact, Liu Bang's wealth could not participate in the game of the consortium at all, he just formed a caravan and purchased a lot of mercenary trophies through some convenient channels, and purchased them at a low price.

It was precisely because of his involvement in unreasonable exploitation (or fraud) that he had to think about what Xu Zhi's attitude meant. Obviously, Xu Zhi was dissatisfied with a situation similar to him's "sucking the blood of soldiers". But isn't that a deal you're willing to make? Why do you say that it will eventually be eaten back?

Not only did Liu Bang's face change instantly, but in fact, most of the civil officials of Chen Yu and the rest of the envoys changed, and only those military attachés had more natural expressions.

"After Han Xin obtained his consent, he was able to integrate a group of mercenary groups that were not subordinate to each other into a group to fight in two days, because most of the mercenaries were actually from the military." Xu Zhi's eyes kept scanning the civilian officials, including Liu Bang: "Last time, the mercenaries were willing to accept the command. Waiting to be exploited so hard ......"

At this moment, I don't know how many people showed embarrassed expressions, but it was not that no one disagreed.

The hustle and bustle of the world is for profit, and the hustle and bustle of the world is for profit, in addition to the pursuit of merit and fame, isn't it still for profit?

Those who didn't think so, most of them looked at Xu Zhi relatively calmly, probably thinking in their hearts, such as "A lieutenant general corps commander said this, is it to support those soldiers?" Or "I eat my mouth full of oil, let's touch it and we won't be happy?" And so on.

Xu Zhi stood up directly after speaking. As soon as he stood up, the officers accompanying him also stood up, and then Yukan walked out.

"This ......" Chen Yu muttered, "Just come here to talk about this?" ”

Liu Bang glanced at Chen Yu, and then hurriedly stood up and chased out.

However, if the envoys wanted to continue to the west, Liu Bang had to ask about the situation on the side of Maodun and Wanguo, and if he thought it was not suitable to go west, he had to retreat to the territory of Wusun first.

"Wei Han has already moved this way with his headquarters." Xu Zhi was riding on a war horse and looked at Liu Bang from high to low. "It is expected to arrive tomorrow afternoon, so you can decide for yourself whether to stay where you are," he said. ”

Liu Bang asked eagerly: "Is it the Fifth Cavalry Regiment that arrived first, or the enemy army arrived first?" ”

Xu Zhi chuckled and said, "Ask Han Xin, it's impossible for him not to send scouts." After speaking, he bowed, and without waiting for Liu Bang's next reaction, he drank "Drive!" The war horse stepped on all four hooves and ran out.

Liu Bang watched Xu Zhiyuan in a daze, and standing next to him were Chen Yu and the civil officials of the rest of the envoys.

"Baron?" A young man who looked young, he said with a little concern: "It seems that the military ......"

"Shut up!" Liu Bang glanced at the young man sideways, then looked back at the direction where Xu Zhi was going, and thought to himself: "That's not like a warning, it's more like a kind of schadenfreude, what is the reason?" ”

Chen Yu on the side was also looking at the direction of Xu Zhi's departure, but at this moment he was thinking: "Xu Zhi is one of the few generals who can drink privately with the emperor, he will not simply come here to gloat, there must be something here that affects the very important arrangement, so he will come here." It's just that Xu Zhi doesn't seem to be so reluctant, so he uses this way to warn? ”

Liu Bang was also simply, he couldn't think of it, so he didn't think about it himself, he first asked Han Xin to understand the distribution of scouts, and then there was a series of tentative tones.

"The emergence of the mercenary group is related to the long-term layout of the empire." Han Xin looked directly at Liu Bang with a blank face, he himself looked like a wandering soul, and said very casually: "Master thinks that it is impossible for the empire to conduct wars for a long time, especially it is impossible to start wars repeatedly. This situation will not change for the next ten or even fifteen years, because the empire needs to complete the strides from the small peasant economy to the beginning of industry. Relying on the external plunder of the state, no matter how much wealth is obtained outside, it is concentrated in the state, and the master believes that the people need to have their own wealth accumulation in order to be able to participate in the initial stage of industrialization. ”

I have to tell the truth, Liu Bang is listening very seriously, but he finds that he doesn't understand what Han Xin is saying at all.

Later, Liu Bang had to seek advice from Chen Yu, who had never been able to deal with him.

"Looks like I'm right!" Chen Yu's face was full of deep thought, and he slowly said to Liu Bang: "In the future, non-state armed groups will be the main force in foreign development, and the country's army will only be dispatched when civilian armed groups cannot cope with it." (To be continued.) )