Returning to Taiyuan, Zhao Ta ordered a five-day rest, and he took this opportunity to return to Taiyuan Mansion to meet with officials from various prefectures and departments and listen to their reports. After dealing with the official business, it was the day of the annual leave, and the prince and Xu Zongheng, the deputy envoy of the Xuanfu Division, and others had a secret conversation for two days behind closed doors, and agreed on what to do next; He summoned the treasurers and stewards of all the caravans gathered in Taiyuan, reviewed the accounts of the past year, listened to their opinions, decided to set up a cabinet shop, and found silver tickets, salt quotations and other matters in the name of each hall, and formulated principled rules and regulations, which were handed over to each hall for implementation. And he turned his focus entirely to the military

In order to 'respond' to the major decision of the Holy Shang to invade Liao, and to be ready to send troops to Liao, Zhao Ta decided to expand the army again! There are three reasons for this: first, in order to recapture Yanjing, the Western Army was transferred to the north on a large scale, and Tong Guan almost transferred the elite forbidden army on the Shaanxi Road, so to prevent the Liao army from jumping over the wall and violating the border from Hedong, strengthening the Hedong Army at the junction of the Liao and Song Dynasty became the top priority; The second is that Hedong is now short of troops, because some time ago Zhao Ta large-scale reduction of the old and weak in the Hedong army, the original 13 generals stationed in Hedong were reorganized into eight generals, and five generals became empty shelves with only numbers and no soldiers, and now the war is about to urgently need to replenish the vacancies; The third is the large-scale northward transfer of the Western Army to Hebei, which is only a few days away from Kaifeng in Henan, and there is almost no danger to defend except for the Yellow River in the middle, Zhao Ji is worried that Tong Guanwei will not be lost, and the loyal army is his son's pro-army, this can make him rest assured, after all, even if his son rebels, the person who will sit on the throne in the future is still surnamed Zhao.

In view of the experience gained in the war against the Western Xia, as well as the tactical study of the Jurchens, Zhao Ta, after careful consideration, planned to maintain the size of the hussars in their original size, not to expand for the time being, but in order to make them independent into an army, they were still used as fist troops. In addition to completing the usual tasks of light and heavy cavalry such as pursuit, reconnaissance, covering communication lines, and attacking enemy formations, dragoons often dismounted to fight in war, and served as blocking and attacking fortified positions. Embodying the 'multi-purpose' of a branch of the army, and combining the mobility of the cavalry and the firepower of the infantry, Zhao Ta took the dragoon as the goal of vigorous development!

Another 'new class' that needs to be formed is the infantry army, which is actually the oldest type of army, and it is the main force of an army at the beginning of the war. It has always been because it is easy to train. The maintenance cost is low, and it has been favored by the rulers of successive dynasties. But in the loyal army, it is a newborn, because Zhao Ta considers that the current enemy is mainly nomadic enemies, in order to improve mobility, so he takes the cavalry as his own development direction.

After experiencing the battle with Western Xia. Zhao Ta found that he still couldn't break away from the infantry army, so that in the large-scale battle, he had to rely on friendly infantry to protect the battle formation and provide cover for the Chinese army. At the same time, the cavalry had to dismount and fight during the storm, taking on the task of attacking and defending the city. It's a bit of a waste. The battlefield where battles may take place in the future will no longer be just vast plains, but will face complex terrain such as mountains and jungles, and the mobility of the cavalry will be greatly limited.

In particular, the land of Yanyun has been an important line of defense for the Central Plains Dynasty to resist the attack of the northern nomads, not only built the Great Wall, but also fortified cities and passes, and there must be a good infantry army to undertake this important task. Zhao thought that they could consider allowing them to maneuver in a car, so that they could keep up with the pace of the cavalry and increase their mobility, just like the motorized infantry that accompanies the actions of armored troops in modern times.

Another thing that needs to be strengthened is artillery. Needless to say, its lethality and deterrent power are not to be mentioned, even the light artillery that accompanies the cavalry in combat only needs one or two rounds of artillery fire to throw the enemy into confusion through fire strikes, and the cavalry takes the opportunity to rush and kill. Significant results are often achieved. At the same time, artillery is an indispensable weapon in resisting the enemy's infantry and cavalry attack, defense, and attacking fortifications, and must be developed as a priority

Zhao Ta and several senior generals of the Loyal and Brave Army hid in the Jiugong Village and discussed behind closed doors for five days, and every day these people did not even go out, and the food and drink were sent into the house by the internal guards. On the fifteenth day of the lunar month, the reorganization plan was finally 'suffocated'. But they were not in a hurry to implement it, the New Year was approaching, some relatives had already come to the team, and some veterans were also taking turns to visit their homes, but everyone received an order that they must return to the camp on the seventeenth day of the first lunar month, otherwise military law will be involved.

According to the reorganization plan, the loyal army will be reorganized into five generals, plus the total number of troops directly under the army will reach more than 40,000 people, which is the result of Zhao Ta's consideration of his own financial resources and weapons production, as well as the consumption of war and training, which can enable them to independently complete a campaign in one aspect without the support of other friendly forces.

First of all, the dragon will be reorganized into a hussar army, with three brigades and direct teams, with a total of 7,000 people. Each brigade consists of three command and personal units, a scout team and a baggage team, and a light cavalry artillery team and a wheel team. The four generals of the original eight hussar battalions were all merged into the dragon generals.

Individual weapons have also been adjusted to meet the needs of combat, and their armor has been changed to iron cuirass to increase protection. Revolvers are equipped with individual soldiers, as it has been found that the combination of a pistol and a saber is the best match for engaging the enemy in close combat. When the two armies charge about 20 paces apart, this is also the best range of the pistol, which can ensure that each person shoots two to three shots, eliminating the enemy who poses the greatest threat to them, and can be used as a hidden weapon in hand-to-hand combat, which can save lives.

The lion generals, tiger generals, and leopard generals were reorganized into the dragoon army, and the establishment was like dragon generals, who would be the main force of the loyal and brave army, undertaking most of the combat missions, and the number of the three generals totaled 21,000. Except for the original dragoon battalion, all of them need to be supplemented by new soldiers, so it will take time to form combat effectiveness.

The newly organized infantry army is called the wolf general, and there are four brigades under it, the first brigade is expanded from the original mountain battalion, mainly responsible for mountain and jungle combat missions; The second brigade was expanded from the desert battalion, and the other two brigades were expanded from the other two experimental battalions into light infantry brigades, with a total strength of 10,000 people, making it the largest general in the loyal and brave army. In fact, they were infantry troops, but their mobility was no worse, and each team had two reinforced four-wheeled wagons to transport soldiers, which could also serve as fences and horses when camping and arranging, and as shelter in case of attack.

The infantry army is equipped with a long-barreled repeater gun, a self-defense straight knife, a cartridge carrying 50 rounds, a set of fortification tools, and a light backpack, which can hold sleeping bags, clothing, food and other daily necessities for three days, and the individual soldier carries a weight of about 20 to 30 catties, and can be increased or decreased according to the different tasks undertaken.

The clothing of the infantry army was different from that of the cavalry, the large crotch breeches were appropriately reduced, the long boots were changed to short boots, which was convenient for marching, and the armor strengthened the cuirass of the iron mesh for important parts, increasing the protective power. Although the weight of the gun has increased, the lethality and range have also increased. Zhao Tan also considered equipping the rifle with a bayonet, but considering that the opponents were using cold weapons, a ruler-long bayonet was like a chicken rib in the face of a long spear and a big knife that was often counted at every turn, and it was better to have a straight knife to make people feel at ease, so he decisively canceled it. In order to ensure firepower, each infantry brigade was organized into a machine gun battalion, each commander had a machine gun team, and each infantry detachment had a machine gun squad, which could provide them with strong fire support.

Artillery is also the focus of the army expansion, and the original two independent artillery battalions have been expanded into artillery brigades, with mortar artillery battalions, rapid-fire artillery battalions, and a new heavy artillery battalion under its jurisdiction. Zhao Ta considered that he would face more fortified cities and dangers in the future, and that the destructive and shocking power of today's artillery on the fortified city defense was still insufficient, so he ordered the workshop to try out the production of large-caliber heavy artillery of more than 2,000 catties. In this way, each artillery brigade has an establishment of 1,500 men, and each brigade has 30 mortar guns, 50 rapid-fire guns, and 5 heavy guns.

In addition to the original scout battalion, machine gun battalion, pro-soldier battalion, and law enforcement team, the baggage battalion was expanded into a baggage brigade. The subordinate medical corps has been expanded into a medical brigade, with 300 medical personnel, to undertake the work of treating the critically wounded, and the Loyal and Brave Army has been organized with medical personnel since the beginning of its establishment, and now after the expansion, each commander must have three professional medical personnel, and each brigade will have a medical squadron of 30 people, and a medical squadron composed of 100 medical personnel. Zhao Ta attaches so much importance to medical work, not only because the ancient medical methods are backward and the epidemic is easy to spread, but also because the complete medical system can eliminate the worry that there will be no one to treat them after they are injured, improve the morale of the sergeants, and reduce the battle losses!

In order to cope with the transfer of the grassroots officers of the Loyal and Brave Army and strengthen the construction of the Kryu Army and the Navy Guard, the prince 'contributed' almost all of his guard battalions, and the number was sharply reduced to 300 people, which posed a huge threat to the safety of the prince who liked to walk around, so without waiting for Zhao Ta to propose it himself, everyone had proposed to rebuild the guard battalion and expand the establishment so that it could adapt to the current scale.

After several discussions, it was decided that the Guards Battalion would be expanded into a Guards Brigade, consisting of an internal guard brigade, a special operations brigade, two combat service brigades, and a logistics support brigade, with an establishment of 2,000 personnel. Soldiers will be selected throughout the Loyal Warriors and the various armed systems under the Royal Palace, and the Guards Brigade will remain the first brigade in the Loyal Warriors when completed

However, the problem that Zhao Tan is most worried about now is the establishment of command organs at all levels, and none of the commanders and deputy commanders of the original four generals have been transferred, and there will be a big gap in the grass-roots commanders after the expansion, which requires them to seize the time for training, and because of Zhao Zhong's transfer and running around, the establishment of military academies has been forced to run aground, and the generals can only set up teaching and training brigades to train grass-roots officers

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