After feeling a little sad about his future immortal fate, Lu Yuan quickly collected his mood and began to think about what would happen to the South China Sea Kingdom without the founding monarch after Yan Wangqiu's death.

And in the midst of this change, how should the Chu State maintain its own interests?

After thinking about it quietly, he quickly passed on his will.

Ordered the country to transfer a forbidden army stationed in Baling City, the national capital, to Yangshan Fucheng to monitor the South China Sea nearby, and by the way prevent the movement of Ningguo in Yuzhang County.

I have to say that Yan Wangqiu's death was very inappropriate.

His death suddenly upset the balance of power in the southern region.

Originally, the Chu State, the South China Sea State, the Ning State, and the Su State checked and balanced each other, and the four-legged situation suddenly appeared to be missing.

The South China Sea Country has no innate grandmaster, the top-level combat power is missing, and the country's perennial abandonment of armaments can be said to be the weakest of the four countries.

Even the Soviet Union, which has gone through domestic turmoil, is not much stronger than him.

And when there were tigers, leopards and jackals all around, a weak, fat and oily lamb suddenly appeared, and I asked the predator next to him how he was willing to give up such a piece of fat.

There is no need to think about it at all, after the news spreads, it is estimated that there will be new moves on the side of Ning Guo and Su Guo soon, and they will tentatively extend their claws to the South China Sea Kingdom.

And no matter which of these two countries annexed the South China Sea State, this is bad news for the Chu State, which will directly increase the border pressure in the south.

Therefore, in order to prevent this matter, or to prevent the other two countries from monopolizing the benefits, whether they want to or not, the state of Chu must follow closely and get involved in the affairs of the South China Sea together.

Whether it is to divide it up directly, maintain the status quo, or help the South China Sea State resist the invasion of the other two countries, anyway, the Chu State must not be absent.

The worst thing is that the Chu State at this time has no strength left to meddle in this matter.

At present, the state of Chu is in the southwest war, and there is a threat from the Nanzhao army on the side of Xichuan County, which can be said to be a two-front war.

In order to cope with these two wars, four of the nine forbidden armies of Chu State were nailed to Qianzhong County, and two were sent to Xichuan County, with 120,000 elites unable to move.

Now in the country, a forbidden army of 20,000 people in Xichuan County has to guard against Zhou, Liang, and Ning, and the pressure is no less than that of Qianzhong and Xichuan.

If it weren't even for Zhou Qing, a newly promoted grandmaster, who was in the town over there, the surrounding countries would have been impatient and would have started to act against the Chu State.

The four counties of Chu State, three counties are all in flames of war, or may be in flames of war, and the situation of Dongting County, where one national capital is located, is not much better.

Because in the north of Dongting County, on the three mansions of Xiangyang County, which is controlled by Ning State, there are 50,000 troops stationed in Ning State, led by Yang Jing, Marquis of Wuxuan.

In the east of Dongting County, on the edge of Yueyang Mansion, where the national capital Baling City is located, in the camp of the sailors of Chaisang Mansion in Yuzhang County, Ningguo, there are also 50,000 sailors led by Shangguan Ming, Marquis of Wucheng.

In the north and east directions, the two congenital and land and water armies of the Ning State can be said to be a mortal threat to the safety of Baling City, the capital of the Chu State.

In response to this threat, there was only Lan Cai'er in Baling City, and there were two forbidden armies and Jin Wuwei garrisons, all of which added up to only 44,000 people.

This meager strength is only half of Ning Guo's.

However, outside Baling City, in Dongting Lake, the Chu State Water Division, which had been handed over to Chu Wei for training, had a scale of 30,000 people at this time after nearly six years of training and expansion.

Counting this force, after mobilizing some prefecture and county soldiers, the troops that Dongting County can mobilize can almost compete with Ning Guo.

But all of the above is based on the premise that Ning Guo does not add troops and horses to the front line, so that the balance of power can be maintained.

In recent years, the state of Chu has been developing, and the state of Ning, which occupies the four counties of Jiangdong and has a thicker foundation than the state of Chu, is not inferior in development, and even more rapid.

Since replacing Qianyue, after six years of recuperation, the wounds caused by the nine-year war have almost healed Ningguo.

Not only has local agricultural production recovered substantially, but grain production has approached or even surpassed the Taiping New Year Festival in the former Yue Longqing.

The place is tranquil and the products are abundant, and the business travelers from all over the world naturally come to the country, bringing a lot of wealth to Ningguo.

There is no shortage of money, no shortage of food, and stability, and the men who were lost due to the previous large number of conscriptions in Jiangdong have also quickly recovered with the growth of the new generation.

Even because of the post-war peace, a wave of baby booms broke out in Ningguo, and the population grew even faster.

After the accumulation of this kind, the standing soldiers and horses of the Ning State have recovered to 500,000 people, and once again have the strong military strength of the overlord of the world.

Local warehouses have also stockpiled enough grain for the entire population to eat for two years, which can be used for the army to fight for ten years.

There were also 40,000,000 taels of silver in the treasury, enough to support the needs of an army of 500,000 for several years.

It can be said that after six years of development, although Ningguo has not yet recovered to the peak of national strength at this time, there is still a lot of potential to be tapped.

But if you want, Ning Guo can also pull out 300,000 soldiers and horses at any time to wage war with foreign countries.

300,000 soldiers and horses.

Just thinking about this number makes people breathe a little sluggish.

Now all the soldiers and horses in the entire Chu State, including the soldiers of the prefecture and county, are only 220,000, far less than the other party.

Not to mention, the 220,000 soldiers and horses of the Chu State have also been divided into four counties, and the only ones who can deal with the Ning State alone are the 44,000 soldiers in Dongting and the 20,000 local soldiers in the prefecture and county.

64,000 to 300,000, the disparity in strength is 5 to 1, which has to be said to be a desperate thing.

But now this matter has become a reality, and it has become a difficulty that the Chu State has to face.

The only thing that is still thankful is that on the side of Ning State, there are only four Grandmasters so far, and there is only one more number compared to Chu State......

No, now that Ji Hui has taken refuge in the Chu State, and Lu Yuan is about to refine the Yellow Turban Warriors, counting these two innate combat powers, the Chu State already has five innate combat powers.

"Therefore, in terms of quantity, in terms of innate level combat power, my Great Chu is one more than Ning Guo, and this is the only advantage at the moment."

Thinking of this, Lu Yuan's face was a little better, but his brows still did not slacken, and he still frowned: "It's just a slight advantage in the top-level combat power, and in the face of the huge gap in national strength between the current and Ning Kingdom, it is still nothing." ”

Although an innate grandmaster is strong, as long as the other party is willing to pay the price, he will attack at the risk of huge casualties, and even if the innate grandmaster sneaks up day and night, he can only kill 30,000 or 50,000 opponents at most.

This number of people is nothing at all for the huge number of 300,000 troops in Ning Kingdom.

Even if he dies, he can send additional troops and horses from the rear to make up for it at any time.

"So to smooth out these gaps, there is really only one way left, to expand the army......"

Lu Yuan took a deep breath and made a decision in his heart.

Originally, when the Chu State only had three counties and seventeen prefectures, it maintained the number of 240,000 troops, which could protect the land inside and defend against strong enemies outside, which was indeed just enough.

However, with the expansion of the territory of the Chu State to the current four counties and twenty-five prefectures, it may even be possible to take over the land of the five prefectures that originally belonged to the Xichuan State after sending troops to repel the Nanzhao army, so that the territory will expand to the breadth of four counties and thirty prefectures.

Then, after almost doubling the territory, it is still maintained at 240,000, no, after successive losses, only 220,000 troops remain, which is far from being able to meet the current needs of the Chu State.

At present, the expansion of the army is no longer a demand, but a necessity.

"On the side of Xiangyang County and Dongting County, there is no war breaking out, and there are no losses of soldiers and horses, so you can leave it alone for the time being.

But on the Xichuan County side, when he was in Jianchuan Country before, he lost 7,000 county soldiers. When the Nanzhao army reached the territory of Xichuan, the two sides tried to fight, and lost more than 2,000 forbidden troops transferred from it.

All these losses add up, and it is almost 10,000 people.

Although in the past few months, the county soldiers and forbidden army over there have also absorbed some good hands from the prefecture and county soldiers and militia groups, and supplemented some people, but this is still far from enough.

Today, Xichuan County is still short of 5,000 county soldiers, and there is a shortage of 2,000 county soldiers. The two forbidden armies over there also have a shortage of 1,000 posts.

These 8,000 people need to be replenished.

On the Qianzhong County side, after more than a year of continuous recruitment, as well as the transformation of some from the forbidden army, 10,000 county soldiers have been recruited. Of the 16,000 local soldiers, 10,000 were also recruited.

Now there is only a gap of 6,000 county soldiers left.

As for the four forbidden armies here, after the losses of the previous wars and the loss of the transformation soldiers, there are only about 50,000 people left.

There is a gap of 30,000 here.

In this way, the two counties of central Guizhou and Xichuan, all the soldiers and horses of each department are combined, and there is a shortage of 44,000 people.

And if you count the recovery of the five prefectures of Xichuan State, as well as the side of Qianzhong County, after seizing the land of the two prefectures of Huichuan Kingdom, these seven prefectures also need to be supplemented with prefecture and county soldiers.

Fourteen thousand more, and that would be a shortfall of fifty-eight thousand.

That is to say, just to maintain the normal establishment of soldiers and horses in the current Chu State, I will recruit another 58,000 soldiers and horses, and finally make up for the scale of 278,000 soldiers and horses. ”

When Lu Yuan calculated this, his heart sank, and he felt a strong financial pressure.

Although the tax revenue of the Chu State has increased greatly, it is enough to maintain the financial expenditure of the 240,000 army every year, and there can still be a balance of more than one million taels of silver.

But there were 38,000 more troops all of a sudden, especially 10,000 county soldiers who received the salaries of the soldiers, which was equivalent to an increase in the annual expenditure of two million taels of silver for the Chu State.

Despite the above money, today's Chu State is not unaffordable.

Even as production slowly resumes in Qianzhong County, Chu State's control here gradually deepens, and it is expected that the tax revenue of several million taels of silver will be increased in the future.

But the problem is that the above soldiers and horses are just the financial expenses of the Chu State not to expand the army.

But in today's complicated situation, it is impossible for Chu not to expand its army.

Just like the current Qianzhong County, the west is Dachanghe and Nanzhao, and the south is Dali, bordering these three strong enemies, close to the 30,000 county soldiers of Qianzhong County, how can they hold this territory?

Therefore, here, at least two forbidden armies must be left, stationed in the west and south directions.

Leaving another innate grandmaster, leading these 70,000 soldiers and horses, and joining forces with Kunhai, a vassal country, as well as the Su and Song countries in the United Alliance, can barely withstand the harsh environmental pressure around and keep the foundation of Qianzhong County.

The same reason is placed in Xichuan County, after recovering the old land of Xichuan Kingdom, the new Xichuan County is directly bordered by the great enemy of Nanzhao in the south.

With the national strength of Nanzhao, 100,000 troops can be mobilized at any time to fight foreign wars for a long time. If you work hard, you can get an army of 300,000.

This great enemy cannot be left unguarded.

To the north of Xichuan County, although it is Han China, there is not much of a threat.

But to the north of Han China is the behemoth of the Zhou State. In order to prevent the Zhou State from attacking Han China and going directly south, in the north of Xichuan County, it is necessary to leave enough defensive forces anyway.

Therefore, in Xichuan County, there must be at least two, or even three forbidden armies, and a congenital grandmaster to guard it.

Combined, these two counties are gone, and the five forbidden armies are gone.

Then in Xiangyang County, there were originally two forbidden armies guarding it, and with Zhou Qing, the innate grandmaster, he was barely able to withstand the pressure of the three surrounding powers.

But now, a forbidden army over there has been transferred to Xichuan County, resulting in a direct reduction of one-third of Xiangyang County's military strength, and there is a huge gap in defense, which seriously affects the security environment of Xiangyang County.

Therefore, it is urgent to replenish a forbidden army over there.

The last remaining Dongting County, as the capital of the country, after more than ten years of operation, the entire Dongting territory is prosperous, and agriculture and commerce are prosperous, which can be said to be the real foundation of the Chu State.

One Dongting County is equivalent to half of the Chu State.

And in such an important foundation place, now there are only two forbidden armies and 20,000 county soldiers stationed there, and the defense is not empty.

In order to ensure the stability of this place, Dongting County must at least ensure the strength of four forbidden armies, plus 20,000 local county soldiers, and make up the size of 100,000 standing armies, so that they can barely resist external pressure and resist the threat of Ningguo's 300,000 army.

Finally, in terms of water divisions, the originally scheduled 50,000 water divisions should also be established as soon as possible.

Therefore, after all calculations, the state of Chu must maintain eleven forbidden armies, as well as 50,000 naval divisions, a total of 270,000 soldiers, in order to barely ensure the most basic self-defense force.

In total, the state of Chu also lacked three forbidden armies, 20,000 water divisions, and a total of 80,000 vacancies.

The military salary of 80,000 people, especially the expensive military type of sailor, is an expenditure of 7 million taels of silver a year.

And if Lu Yuan wants to ensure a certain foreign war capability in addition to self-defense, then on the basis of the above, there will actually be four more forbidden armies of 80,000 people.

In this way, as in the previous attack on the Great Changhe Kingdom, 100,000 soldiers and horses can be dispatched at any time to wage war against foreign countries.

If this arrangement is made, it will increase the cost of five and a half million taels of silver every year.

To sum up, in order to meet the benchmark of self-defense, the state of Chu still needs to recruit 138,000 soldiers and horses, and increase the expenditure of 9 million taels of silver.

In order to meet the standard of maintaining a certain foreign war capability, the state of Chu also needs to recruit 218,000 soldiers and horses, and increase the cost of 14.5 million taels of silver.

The above two, no matter which benchmark it is, are extremely financial pressure on the Chu State.

"Now that I have opened up Qianzhong County, I will recover the old land of Xichuan Kingdom, increase the territory of fifteen prefectures at once, and double the territory of Chu State.

If you want to digest these territories, with the size of the Chu State, it will take at least ten years.

Therefore, before digesting these territories, the state of Chu was unable to expand externally.

Therefore, in 10 years, there is no need to think about the ability to fight foreign wars for the time being, as long as the basic self-defense situation is guaranteed.

In this way, the state of Chu only needs to maintain eleven forbidden armies, 50,000 water divisions, and 104,000 local county government and county soldiers, as well as 4,000 Jinwuwei in the national capital, a total of 378,000 soldiers and horses.

As for military spending, it is about 25 million taels of silver.

According to last year's statistics, the original three counties of Dachu now have 17 volts, and the annual income is about 21 million taels of silver.

According to the estimation of the Ministry of Households, after the initial governance of Qianzhong County and the tax holiday period has passed, this side should also be able to provide about two million taels of silver in taxes every year.

There is also Xichuan County, if the land of the five prefectures of Xichuan is recovered, and the people are relocated to operate in the past, with the strong foundation of this place, it will soon become an important production area of money and grain.

The five prefectures of the Xichuan Kingdom do not need to be many, and there are one million people, and they can provide five million taels of silver in taxes a year.

However, if the people were to be relocated from the country to the Xichuan country, the local fiscal revenue would also be reduced due to the decrease in population.

However, these reductions should be controlled within three million taels of silver. Therefore, if you move the population to Xichuan County, you can eventually earn about two million taels of silver. ”

Lu Yuan calculated the gains and losses in his heart, and finally came to a conclusion: "In this way, when the two counties of Qianzhong and Xichuan are developed, and the three counties and thirty-two prefectures of the Chu State are developed, they should be able to maintain an annual income of 25 million taels of silver."

If the situation is good, it may be possible to add another one or two million taels of silver.

In terms of military spending, domestic fiscal revenues are barely equal.

However, in addition to military spending, there are also various administrative expenditures for a country, and officials also have to pay a stipend.

These administrative expenses are estimated to be about five million taels of silver a year.

So in the end, does the state of Chu still have a fiscal deficit of five million taels of silver a year? ”

Regarding the shortfall of five million taels of silver, Lu Yuan was not too worried.

Since this expedition to the southwest, what he has gained is not only the territorial expansion of Qianzhong County, but also the accumulation of wealth over the years in the large and small Yi countries in Qianzhong, including the Wuban State.

With Li Xiong's cooperation, not only the treasury of various countries was looted.

Even the local Yi tribes and rich Yi people, and their family assets were all laughed at by the Chu State.

You must know that in the territory of Qianzhong County, there were originally millions of Yi people living there.

Now the wealth accumulated by these millions of Yi people over the past generations has all been received by the Chu State, which directly makes Lu Yuan rich in waves.

Previously, Li Xiong ransacked the entire Xichuan and finally got a wealth worth hundreds of millions of taels.

Now Lu Yuan has sacked the people of Qianzhong County, and although the harvest is not as rich as that of Xichuan, he has also obtained a wealth worth about 50 million taels of silver.

These harvests have been slowly turned into silver taels through various channels and entered the treasury of the Chu State.

The Chu army was able to maintain hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses in Qianzhong and Xichuan, and the credit for these riches was indispensable.

And in addition to these, Li Xiong was also constantly looting the wealth of the Yi people in the Kunhai region, and then used the looted money to exchange the grain, grass and ordnance he urgently needed from the Chu State to maintain the increasingly fierce war with the Great Changhe State.

According to Lu Yuan's estimates, this transaction of the Kunhai State alone can earn at least more than 30 million taels of silver for the Chu State.

Therefore, with these 80 million taels of silver, plus the original savings of the Chu State, there will be no financial crisis within ten years.

"There is also the South China Sea country, which also has three million taels of silver every year. But now that Yan Wangqiu is dead, I don't know if there will be any variables in this aid. ”

Lu Yuan frowned, but he was also quickly relieved.

Regardless of whether there will be problems with the assistance of the South China Sea State, for the time being, the Chu State will not have any impact on it.

It won't be a problem to give it over there or not?

The only thing that has an impact is the relationship between the two countries.

Yan Wangqiu's sons, the absurd things that have happened in the past two years have made a lot of fun for all the countries in the world, and they are regarded as laughing stocks.

For these heirs, Lu Yuan didn't expect too much, and the other party could maintain a good relationship with the Chu State like Yan Wangqiu.

It's just that in that case, the heirs of him and that old friend will inevitably have a war.

The only hope, that is, Yan Wangqiu made arrangements in advance before he died.

"What the hell are you going to choose?"

After Lu Yuan wrote the various wills on the transfer of troops and the expansion of the army, he sent them to Baling City as quickly as possible.

Slowly walked outside the main hall, looking at the south, his eyes were contemplative.