The drums thundered and the shouts shook the sky.

In the barracks outside Baling City, soldiers and horses roared, flags were like clouds, and groups of soldiers obeyed orders, and under the command of Shangguan, they constantly changed their formations.

"Yes, these soldiers and horses have only been in the camp for more than a month, and they are so grandiose, Li Liang, your ability to train troops is worthy of being the head of my Chu country."

On the platform, Lu Yuan looked at the army that was practicing below, couldn't help but turn around, and said to the disciple beside him with great satisfaction.

Among his many true disciples, Li Liang's martial arts talent is actually not very outstanding, and even belongs to the middle and lower levels.

But the other party was able to stand out and become a disciple alongside Chu Wei and second only to Zhou Qing, so he naturally had something to rely on.

Although Li Liang can't practice martial arts, if you talk about the ability to train soldiers, all disciples should be headed by him.

When Lu Yuan promoted the other party, he also valued this.

In fact, over the years, the reason why the Chu army has been able to fight in the south and the north has been invincible and undefeated.

In addition to the reason for Lu Yuan, a commander who is good at leading troops, Li Liang also has the credit of continuously training soldiers and horses in the rear and cultivating a qualified army for the Chu State.

On this point alone, the other party's credit is no less than Chu Wei, who single-handedly created a naval army for the Chu State.

"The disciples are not in martial arts, and the commander of the army is even more mediocre, so he can barely master the only skill of military training."

Hearing the praise of his master and king, Li Liang smiled humbly, then looked at the army below, and said: "Now that the army has undergone a month of training, it has initially built up its strength and learned some military methods.

But that's just the beginning.

Later, more meat will be needed, accompanied by fist and foot exercises in the army, so that these new soldiers can practice martial arts and become familiar with the sword and marksmanship used in the army.

During this period, he was taught to use drums, trumpets, and flags, and to train military law regulations, so that they would know awe, and know how to respect and inferiority.

After three years of tempering and teaching in this way, and then going into battle to see blood, and experiencing life and death, it will be a strong army in the world. ”

After more than ten years of military training experience, as well as learning from the military training methods of all countries in the world, the state of Chu has now explored a perfect method of military training, summarized it into a system, and completely standardized it.

The method of military training mentioned by Li Liang is the general outline of the induction.

Over the years, all the recruits recruited by the Chu State have been trained according to this method.

The end result is also quite good.

In the first two years, Lu Yuan led the army to conquer the southwestern Zhuyi, and finally broke it, which shows the ability of this method to train troops.

Li Liang is confident that the elite soldiers he has trained are not inferior to the strong armies of other countries, and they are enough to compete with the powerful countries in the world.

"Training these new pawns, with you in charge, rest assured."

When Lu Yuan heard Li Liang's words, he nodded with a smile: "This is my Chu State cultivation for several years, and I have enough time to train recruits." However, in addition to the 80,000 troops newly trained this time, you also have to control the soldiers and horses recruited last year.

Now that the countries are in turmoil, it is rare for my Chu country to have a respite, so we must seize the time and enhance our strength as much as possible.

Those veterans in the army, I don't worry.

But the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses recruited last year and this year are indeed too immature to be of great use at all.

In a few years, you will have to be assisted by a strong army, and it will depend on you. ”

Lu Yuan looked at Li Liang with burning eyes.

And the latter was eagerly instructed by this: "The king can rest assured, in a few years, the minister will hand over a strong army to the king, and he will never live up to the trust." ”

"Hmm."

Lu Yuan nodded with satisfaction, and then soothed: "As long as you handle this matter well, you will never be stingy with your honor." ”

Like today's countries, the storm is changing.

Especially with the rise of the Liang Kingdom in the north, it intensified the struggle between the countries, making it more fierce and cruel.

At this time, the scale of soldiers and horses used in a major war between countries has generally increased to hundreds of thousands, millions, and I don't know how much more than before.

Lu Yuanke still remembered that when the Liang State went south, the soldiers and horses used by the Yue State were only to send 300,000 troops to the north and attack them across the river.

Later, during the Northern Expedition to the Zhou State, there were only more than 100,000 soldiers and horses directly under the Yue State, and not more than 500,000 vassals such as Changsha State and Nanhai State, and there were also a large number of soldiers and horses of the nature of the people.

In terms of soldiers, the four countries combined, did not exceed 200,000.

can fight two major wars, and it is already a big country like Yue that has unified Yangzhou, and it has done its best to maintain the soldiers and horses.

And now only more than ten years have passed, and between the countries of the world, the scale of 120,000 or 230,000 soldiers and horses at the beginning can no longer be called a battle of the country, at most it can only be regarded as a local battle.

On the battlefield of the western front of the Zhou State, 400,000 soldiers were mobilized, 600,000 people and townsmen were brave, and the scale of the army was worth more than one million.

On the Eastern Front, 400,000 soldiers were also mobilized, and there were about 200,000 struggling people, with a total of 600,000 troops.

On the northern front, in order to guard against the Wei State, 100,000 soldiers were stationed there for a long time, as well as about 300,000 people and townsmen, and the number of soldiers and horses also reached 400,000.

Even in Hanzhong County on the southern front, there were 50,000 soldiers and 100,000 villagers, with a full 150,000 troops.

Coupled with the 50,000 soldiers in Jinggi of the Zhou State, and the soldiers and horses left behind in the county capitals and counties, these internal security forces are about 200,000 soldiers and horses.

It's just a Zhou country, and now the number of troops that can be used in the whole country is more than 2.35 million.

I don't know if it's it.

Ningguo in Yangzhou had already trained an army of 600,000, and after hearing about the incident of Liang State a few days ago, the Jianwu emperor in Jinling was even more stimulated. It also expanded the army by 200,000 in the country, increasing the country's military strength to 800,000.

In order to prevent the Liang State from going north, the Xu State in Xuzhou is now also stationed in the south of the Xu State, with 600,000 soldiers.

The Zhao State of Jizhou has always established the country by force, and the military strength is even stronger, before the Liang State originally unified Qingzhou, the Zhao State heard that there were millions of troops in the country.

Now that the unification of the Liang State is a state, it has already threatened the safety of the Zhao State, and I don't know how much the Zhao State has expanded to now?

If you want to come to 1.2 million, there should be one.

As for the Liang State, after the unification of Qingzhou, it had fifteen counties and a population of more than 70 million.

With such a vast territory and such a rich population, it is naturally even more difficult to count the army that can be supported.

According to the report of the Qingzhou Imperial City Foreign Division, after the unification of Qingzhou, the Liang State began to expand its army. Moreover, the scale of the expansion of the army is to recruit a million new troops in one go.

That's a million new troops!

It's a hopeless amount to think about.

Among the countries in the world, there is probably only one that can recruit a million soldiers in one go.

And the Liang State originally had a million soldiers, and counting the newly recruited new army, this Qingzhou overlord only had more than two million soldiers.

If some people are being requisitioned, the scale and number of soldiers and horses are even more unimaginable.

According to conservative estimates, it should be easy for the whole country to use 5 million troops.

All of these countries are just soldiers, and they can easily number 800,000 or 1 million.

If you count the auxiliary soldiers such as Minfu Xiangyong, the scale of soldiers and horses is even more millions.

Lu Yuan has the ambition to compete for the world, and he has long regarded these Kyushu countries as opponents, and at this time, seeing that they have all begun to expand their troops and horses and enhance their strength, he naturally feels anxious.

Moreover, the current turbulent and changing situation and the ever-expanding scale of the war have all made the Chu State have to follow the general trend and expand its troops together.

Therefore, following the expansion of the army last year, Lu Yuan changed his conservative defense strategy and chose to add four forbidden armies of 80,000 soldiers on the basis of the original eleven forbidden armies, so as to enhance the strength of the soldiers and horses of the Chu State.

In this way, there are a total of fifteen forbidden armies, and the state of Chu has 300,000 soldiers, which can be called upon at any time.

Counting the local 30,000 county soldiers, 68,000 county soldiers, and the Jingshi side expanded to 5,000 Jin Wuwei, who was responsible for the security and defense of the national capital. There are also 5,000 court guards newly established to guard the palace confinement.

Finally, add 50,000 sailors.

After a series of army expansions, these soldiers and horses added up, and the Chu State already had a total of 458,000 soldiers and horses on land and water.

All of the above are standing armies.

In addition, on the side of Qianzhong County, there are more than 100,000 Yi prisoners, which can barely be regarded as a servant army.

With all the soldiers and horses combined, Lu Yuan can also claim to have 600,000 troops to the outside world.

And this is also the limit of the Chu State.

This expansion of the army was 86,000 people, all of whom were soldiers, and in order to support them, the annual expenditure of the state of Chu had to increase by 6 million taels of silver.

If it weren't for the gold, silver and copper mines opened in Qianzhong County, the three vassal states such as Kunhai in the southwest would also be under the edict to pay taxes and make offerings. At the same time, the Su State also started the grain trade, which gave the Chu State another amount of input.

Otherwise, with the financial resources of the Chu State, it really can't withstand this expenditure.

However, although there are many soldiers and horses, what Lu Yuan can use is actually not much.

Although the security environment around the two counties of Qianzhong and Xichuan has been greatly alleviated because of the three vassal states in the southwest, the soldiers and horses stationed in the local area can be reduced a lot.

But even so, Qianzhong County had to leave one forbidden army to guard it, and Xichuan County had to leave two forbidden armies to guard it, so that it could barely ensure safety.

On the side of Xiangyang County, Hanzhong County is in the west, Xiangyang and Nanyang Counties of Zhou State are in the north, and Xiangyang County of Ningguo is in the south, which can be said to be surrounded by enemies on three sides.

Each of these three directions needs to be guarded by soldiers and horses, which uses three forbidden armies.

On the side of Dongting County, where the Jingshi is located, it is an important place, and a large number of soldiers and horses are needed to stay behind.

Moreover, to the south of Dongting County, there are the Su State and the Nanhai State, and the relationship between these two countries and the Chu State is not good at all, and it is possible to suddenly send troops at any time to attack the Chu State.

To the east of Dongting County is Ningguo.

The relationship between Chu and Ning, not to mention, has always been an enemy country, and they are also competing with each other for the position of overlord of Yangzhou.

As long as there is an opportunity, Ning Guo will definitely choose to attack Chu State.

Now Ningguo has trained 800,000 soldiers, and this male soldier has sent 300,000 people to Guangling County to guard against Jiangbei.

The remaining 500,000 people are all staying in Jinling, ready to go up the Shuojiang River at any time, eyeing the Chu State.

In the face of this powerful enemy, Lu Yuan naturally had to be more vigilant.

Therefore, in Dongting County, there is pressure on both the south and east, and he must leave at least five forbidden armies, that is, 100,000 soldiers.

Coupled with the local government and county soldiers, the Jin Wuwei and palace guards in Baling City, the 50,000 sailors in Dongting Lake, and the recruited militia Xiangyong, they were barely able to resist attacks from all sides.

In this way, after arranging the guards and horses in various places, the mobile force that Lu Yuan can mobilize is actually only four forbidden armies and 80,000 soldiers.

Of course.

When Lu Yuan really sent troops in a certain direction, in addition to the mobile soldiers and horses that could be mobilized, the local soldiers and horses in that direction and the forbidden army guarding the town were naturally within the forces that could be mobilized.

For example, if Lu Yuan is in Xichuan County and is ready to mobilize troops and horses to attack Hanzhong County, then the 40,000 forbidden troops of Xichuan County and the 30,000 soldiers of the county government can naturally be mobilized with him to attack Hanzhong County together.

Even on the side of Xiangyang County, one or two forbidden armies can be divided to help send troops from the flanks.

In this way, he can use no less than 200,000 soldiers and horses.

And if it is the side of Dongting County, ready to attack Ningguo, or Nanhai State and Su State, then the 180,000 soldiers and horses left behind in Dongting County, and even the soldiers and horses on the side of Xiangyang County, can be mobilized.

With troops here, the standing soldiers that Lu Yuan can mobilize will be able to reach more than 300,000.

In addition, the Yiren prisoners of war on the side of Qianzhong County, except for the people who arranged the mining, there are still 1120,000 left.

These prisoners can also be called up at any time to be used as cannon fodder for the army.

This method has been used since Lu Yuan started his army, and it can be described as an old skill.

Therefore, if Lu Yuan really wants to use troops in the future, then the four counties of Great Chu, no matter which direction, he can guarantee that he can use more than 150,000 soldiers and more than 100,000 servant soldiers.

In this way, some militia townsmen and soldiers will be requisitioned, and there will be at least more than 300,000 soldiers and horses along the way.

If it is changed to Dongting County and other areas, the scale of soldiers and horses is close to more than 500,000.

This kind of strength can barely compete with those hegemons who have hundreds of thousands of troops at every turn.

But even so, with the reality of the Chu State, it can only maintain soldiers and horses of this scale in one direction at most.

If I were like Zhou and fought on two or even three fronts at the same time, I would not be able to guarantee that there would be more than 500,000 soldiers and horses in two or three directions at the same time.

Compared with those one-state overlords, although the Chu State has barely reached the threshold of a little overlord, it is still far behind. ’

Lu Yuan thought about his family background in his heart, and finally couldn't help but sigh secretly.

Although the forces he established have developed rapidly since he started his army, in the past 16 years, it has grown from hundreds of soldiers and horses in one county to more than 400,000 soldiers and horses in four counties now.

But this kind of strength is still far behind those big countries that have accumulated hundreds of thousands of years.

Not to mention anything else, let's just talk about the population, the Chu State, which has a household registration of only 8 million, can maintain the current standing army of 4560,000 soldiers and horses, which is already the limit.

The ratio of nearly twenty to one population to strength has exhausted the limit of the Chu State's heritage.

Even if Lu Yuan wanted to recruit soldiers, it would be difficult to pick out more qualified soldiers from the people under his rule.

And even if it can be singled out, with the national strength of the Chu State, it will be difficult to raise more.

After all, if there are not enough young and strong laborers in the local area, and there is no one to produce and cultivate, who will pay taxes and provide grain and grass to the Chu State?

Without these, what would the state of Chu do to feed the army?

"So in the final analysis, there is still not enough strength and insufficient foundation.

If the territory is large enough and the population is large enough, I will not be able to use it like now, and I will have to plan carefully to expand the troops and horses, for fear that I will not be able to support it. ”

Lu Yuan thought of those old hegemonic countries that had expanded their army by 3.5 million at every turn, and then thought that he gritted his teeth and increased the movement of 86,000 people, and he couldn't help but be unwilling.

Not enough, far from enough.

The current state of Chu is still too weak.

There is still a considerable distance to grow to the level of Zhou, Liang, Zhao and other countries, and even to the level comparable to Ningguo.

Now is the time for all countries to take the lead.

All people, all countries, are seizing the time to improve themselves.

If Chu State doesn't step up its catch-up now, if it is one step behind, others will take a step forward.

Slowly opening up like this, the gap will get bigger and bigger.

Now there is the Liang State, a behemoth with millions of soldiers.

After other countries are stimulated to step up the annexation of small countries in their respective states, it is estimated that the second and third overlords who unify one state will also appear soon.

At that time, in the face of a powerful force that can send a million troops at will, if the Chu State still only has the strength it has now, then even if Lu Yuan is now the grandmaster of the Immortal Dao Condensation Qi and the Second Realm of the Martial Dao, he will not be able to protect the foundation of the Chu State.

Now after all, it is the world of the end of the law, the immortal road is not prosperous, although the personal extraordinary power is important, but if you want to say that the general trend of the world is reversed, there is still some strength and infallibility.

And this phenomenon, with the further depletion of aura, the further aggravation of the end of the law, and the further decline of personal strength, will be more obvious.

When the aura is completely depleted and the transcendent is all extinct, the power of the group will completely override the individual.

At that time, gathering people was the right way, and walking alone was the way.

Although Lu Yuan had already expected the day ahead, he had actually experienced it a little now.

Just like in mythology, or in the classic records, push forward a thousand years, and the immortal masters at that time, and even the great masters of martial arts, it is rumored that one person can reach a million troops, and the power of the gods is incomparable.

And a thousand years later, in this era.

Lu Yuan has almost reached the level of the first person in the world, but he can think to himself, although his strength is strong, but if he can break through a million troops alone, he can't do it.

An army of 100,000, he tried his best, and he could still cope with it.

But at the million level, even if Lu Yuan exhausted his mana and used his true qi, he would definitely not be an opponent.

If you really want to attack the million-strong army, and finally die of exhaustion, this is his end.

In the era of the end of the law, it is not a world in which individual power suppresses everything.

"Therefore, for the sake of the future, let's set a small goal now, raise the population of Chu to the level of 10 million, completely enter the threshold of hegemony, and sit firmly in the current position."

A population of 10 million is the threshold of today's recognized hegemon.

Because only such a population can maintain more than 500,000 soldiers and mobilize a million-sized army.

In this world of great contention, if you can't send a million troops, how can you be hegemonic?

Now Lu Yuan's Chu State is only eight million people, and there is still a distance from this class.

The reason why it was recognized as a hegemonic country before was only because of its strong military power, and it barely touched this level.

In terms of true heritage and national strength, it is actually a bit unqualified.

Sitting in this position now, it is somewhat vain and unstable.

Therefore, Lu Yuan's current goal is to cultivate his internal strength, and then continue to develop externally, so that the Chu State can completely sit in this position.

"Hanzhong County...... Su Guo ......"

Lu Yuan chanted these two names, and a trace of heat flashed in his heart.

Around the Chu State, these two directions are the most suitable for development.

And these two territories, no matter which one they are, as long as they can be swallowed, they can make the population of Chu State jump to tens of millions in one fell swoop.

The next round of expansion is one of these two goals.