Datang: What's wrong with my fief being a billion points larger?

Chapter 182: Unprecedented military expansion, and the power that is about to surge

Li Yuanji, who was far away in Haikang, Lingnan, knew nothing about what was happening in Chang'an. Now Li Yuanji was summoning everyone to discuss the largest-scale military expansion.

"Your Majesty, I suggest that we expand the army. This time the number of troops can reach at least 50,000. This year's arable land is five times that of last year, and the population increase has reached more than 100 times. Now the population around Haikang has reached 950,000.

In addition, I have also looked at the development of Guangzhou Prefecture, Nanzhou Prefecture, Liuzhou Prefecture, and Jiaozhou Prefecture. The development of Jiaozhou Prefecture has now begun. The conditions of Liuzhou Prefecture and Nanzhou Prefecture are relatively good, especially Guangzhou Prefecture.

The population of Panyu in Guangzhou Prefecture has now reached nearly two million, and the population of Qingyuan has also reached nearly one million. In addition, the populations of Shaozhou, Xunzhou and Chaozhou have increased by at least ten times compared with the previous year.

In addition to the population, Guangzhou Prefecture has the most arable land in the entire Lingnan. According to the military system standards set by the king, Guangzhou Prefecture alone can provide the needs of 80,000 troops.

This is just Guangzhou Prefecture, because it has to continue to support the development of other places. Otherwise, Guangzhou Prefecture can supply the needs of an army of 100,000. If it is replaced with the previous army, it can directly supply the needs of an army of about 200,000.

In addition to the existing five prefectures, a new Yuezhou Prefecture will be established this year. The foundation of Yuezhou Prefecture is also not bad. In one or two years, its development will be able to catch up.

In addition, there is trade with the Tang Dynasty and overseas countries, as well as sources of money, food, and materials from Funan and Tang Ming.

Now it is imperative to expand the army. Zhenla is ready to make a move, with 600,000 troops and 100,000 war elephants.

How can we allow others to sleep beside our bed? This Zhenla is now our biggest threat and must be eliminated as soon as possible! We must expand the army to ensure that when the war breaks out, we will have enough troops to destroy it!"

Cen Wenben's passionate words made everyone's blood boil. Now Li Yuanji summoned everyone to discuss the expansion of the army because of the aggressive approach of Zhenla.

Since Xi Junmai and Tan Dian still led their troops to stay in Yuezhou Prefecture, it put great pressure on the Zhenla King Bafavarman. As a result, this man seemed to be irritated and mobilized a large army to approach the border of Yuezhou Prefecture. At the same time, intelligence about Zhenla kept coming, and Li Yuanji was really shocked.

Zhenla had at least 600,000 troops and at least 100,000 war elephants. When Li Yuanji heard the news, he was extremely uneasy. Not only Li Yuanji, but everyone was extremely uneasy. They all understood one thing very well.

When the neighbors around them are strong, equal to or even stronger than them, and they are already wealthy, this will inevitably make the neighbors have bad intentions. Even if they do not have bad intentions, they will never allow a strong neighbor to appear around them.

Just as Cen Wenben said, I will not allow others to sleep beside my bed. If anyone dares to become strong, I must fight him! Otherwise, I will be the one being beaten. Li Yuanji also saw this very clearly, and this was the basis for him to expand his army.

Fortunately, what Li Yuanji didn't know was that in history, Zhenla, after annexing Funan and Tang Ming, became a powerful country with an army of over one million and more than 200,000 war elephants. Although this strength was only short-lived and then split, Zhenla still had some strength in its peak period.

Although Zhenla has not reached that peak yet, it is almost there. Although it still cannot defeat the Tang Dynasty, defeating Li Yuanji is another matter.

After Cen Wenben finished speaking, Wang Xuance spoke immediately afterwards.

"Your Majesty, I suggest that since we are going to expand the army in order to destroy the powerful enemy, it is better to expand the army by 100,000! Although it will be a bit tight now, we must ensure victory in the war. If the war does not go smoothly, no matter how well it develops here, it will eventually be short-lived.

Just as the king said before, if a place wants to develop, it must rely on strong military force. The army is the foundation of development, and strength is the basis of development. They complement each other.

Moreover, expanding the army by 100,000 will only slow down development slightly, but development is still showing an upward trend. There will be some impact, but it is definitely not a big one!"

Wang Xuance's words made everyone else agree. Ning Chun, Wei Ye, Feng Ang, Xie Shufang and others all agreed. They all understood that war was inevitable, so they had to do their best to destroy the enemy.

Military generals like Xie Shufang were especially excited. They reported the small number of troops under Li Yuanji's command to him more than once or twice. However, because he wanted to recruit elite troops, Li Yuanji never responded and they did not make any strong demands.

This time, Zhenla's strength made all of them extremely vigilant. They were extremely eager to expand the army, because the current army was really beginning to be insufficient.

In fact, with this elite route, they don't know whether 10,000 people can defeat 100,000 people, but if they have 50,000 people, they believe they can definitely defeat 100,000 people.

Cen Wenben listened to what everyone said and did not raise any objection. What he proposed was the most prudent one, and it was based on the data given on the basis that expanding the army by 50,000 would not have any impact on development.

If it weren't for the fact that his current job is to consider the overall situation, he would have agreed to the current radicalism. Everyone is very clear about the current situation. Although development is important, the powerful enemy that has appeared beside him is more important. As long as this powerful enemy is not destroyed, development cannot be assured.

Li Yuanji looked at the crowd and did not speak at the first time. Instead, he looked serious. He already had the answer to this question. He called everyone here to let them know the current difficulties and no one should slack off.

Another purpose was that he really wanted to hear what these people thought. Now that he had heard everything, Li Yuanji spoke slowly after a while.

"Zhenla, originally we planned to gradually consume Funan and Tangming in order to better control Funan and Tangming. Now that King Bafavarman of Zhenla wants to fight with us, I will satisfy him.

Although Zhenla is not as strong as the Tang Dynasty, it is indeed very strong compared to us, far from being a small country like Linyi. But even if Zhenla is strong, it is an indisputable fact that Zhenla lags behind us in all aspects. It is just supported by some elephant soldiers.

If we are frightened by Zhenla this time, it will only encourage Zhenla's arrogance. Not only will Funan and Tang Ming be in danger, but even the newly established Yuezhou Prefecture of the king may be in danger from Zhenla.

Therefore, for this military expansion, I have decided not to expand the army by 50,000 or 100,000, but to directly expand it by 150,000!
Since Zhenla is provoking us, then we should fight them! If we are going to fight them, then we should fight them hard and beat them to death!
This time, by destroying Zhenla, I will let all the surrounding small countries see that if they dare to provoke me, no matter how strong they are, they will face a thundering blow and be quickly destroyed!

This time, once we start fighting, we must show our momentum and make those people feel scared and terrified. Only in this way can we deter all the villains! "Li Yuanji originally wanted to expand the army by 200,000, but he also knew that the current situation did not allow it. If it was just a simple expansion of the army, young and strong would be enough, but expanding the army requires more than just considering whether there are enough young and strong.

The goal of expanding the army by 105,000 was also a decision that Li Yuanji made with gritted teeth. The incident in Zhenla made him realize that for him now, these small countries really cannot be underestimated. Although they are backward in all aspects, their armies are real.

This gave him a great sense of crisis. Although this military expansion would be painful for a short period of time, he firmly believed that as long as he got through this period, everything would be fine. He was already thinking of ways to develop the most important food. Now that he had corn, he could exchange it for another one later and completely solve these problems.

The reason for expanding the army by 150,000 was not only because of Zhenla, but also because of the pressure from the Tang Dynasty. He really didn't know what the situation was like in Chang'an, but he was clear about one thing, that is, the current number of troops was scattered and stationed in various prefectures. If there was a conflict with the Tang Dynasty in the future, how could they fight against the Tang Dynasty with such a small army?

If he wants to avoid fighting with the Tang Dynasty, he must at least have the capital to prevent Li Jiancheng or Li Shimin from easily starting a war, and that capital is the army under his command. Only with a certain number of troops can Li Jiancheng or Li Shimin feel fearful, and he can have more time to develop.

He did not tell anyone the reason, nor could he tell anyone. Now that Li Yuan was still alive, he could not ask this question. Moreover, he was still worried about some people and wondered where they would stand.

Even though all these people are loyal to him, it is because he is still the King of Qi, and some of them have no choice. Once the person in charge of the Tang Dynasty is replaced in the future, the situation will change drastically, and an imperial decree will be issued for him to return to Chang'an. If he does not go back, he will not be sure of the stance of this group of people.

In Li Yuanji's heart, the people he trusted most were still the group of people he brought from Chang'an. Only that group of people were his most loyal people no matter how the situation changed.

After Li Yuanji finished speaking, except for one person who seemed to be thinking about something, the rest were all extremely shocked. Xie Shufang also stared at Li Yuanji with wide eyes. He really wanted to ask Li Yuanji whether he was joking or serious. To be honest, he had never thought that Li Yuanji would be so proactive.

At this time, Li Yuanji's voice continued to be heard.

"The last time we expanded the army by 50,000, 30,000 of which belonged to the navy. The navy already has 70,000 people. Of the 100,000 Fifth Army, 30,000 of them were also incorporated into the navy, bringing the navy to 100,000. The rest were all incorporated into the army.

In this way, in addition to the navy, the army we can mobilize at any time will reach 180,000. If we abandon part of the defense and make an all-out effort, the army we can mobilize will reach 220,000.

The number of this army is already completely sufficient, and with the new weapons now, it is enough to rival an army of 500,000. After this expansion, there will be no further expansion for a certain period of time in the future, so all of you must be prepared.

This time, we will also select outstanding young men for the expansion, and conduct strict training to form an army as soon as possible!"

After Li Yuanji's affirmative words fell, all the generals were excited. No matter whether it was Xie Shufang or Feng Ang, they could not help but get excited at this moment. The expansion of such a large army made it very clear that the day the new army was formed would be the day to conquer Zhenla.

With so many armies joining the battle this time, almost all of these generals should be able to go. How can they not be excited?

Wang Xuance, Ning Chun and others had solemn expressions on their faces. They thought they were already very radical, but they didn't expect Li Yuanji to be more radical than them. At this moment, they could already think that this year would definitely be a very difficult year. With the sudden increase of 150,000 troops, the consumption of money, food and supplies would nearly double that of the past.

Wang Xuance and his companions were under tremendous pressure because this military expenditure had to be raised by all the governments together and would ultimately fall on their shoulders. Especially Wang Xuance, Wei Ye, and Feng Zhixun. The three of them were extremely worried.

There is no need to say much about Leizhou. With Li Yuanji here, everything revolves around the development of Haikang and Leizhou, followed by Guangzhou Prefecture. Guangzhou Prefecture has the best innate foundation among the prefectures, and its development can be said to be the smoothest.

In addition to population and arable land, trade relations with the Tang Dynasty are also the most profound. In addition to sea routes, there are also land routes. It is difficult to travel to the Tang Dynasty from other places, but Guangzhou, Shaozhou, Xunzhou, and Chaozhou have natural geographical advantages.

Most importantly, the output of grain and snow salt is the highest. Today, the textile industry and some other industries are gradually developing in Guangzhou Prefecture. One prefecture can definitely beat several other prefectures.

However, even so, Ning Chun was still full of headaches. Guangzhou Prefecture was indeed good in all aspects, but there was still a problem. The better it developed, the greater the responsibility it shouldered. Ning Chun was very clear about this, and that was why he was worried.

He knew without thinking that Guangzhou would definitely take up the lion's share of this military expenditure. In addition to military expenditure, it would also be responsible for supporting the development of other places. Ning Chun felt very troubled just thinking about it.

Although several people had a headache, they did not dissuade Li Yuanji. Now Li Yuanji had almost made up his mind. They also knew Li Yuanji's character very well. Once he had made up his mind, it was almost impossible to change it.

Moreover, they also wanted to eliminate the hidden danger of Zhenla as soon as possible. They all knew that even if they did not expand the army so much now, they would have to expand it later. There was no other way, especially after the destruction of Zhenla, the shortage of troops had become a big problem.

This time the problem can be solved once and for all.

On the other hand, Cen Wenben didn't think about these things at all. He was thinking about the purpose of Li Yuanji's doing this. Because he came from Chang'an, he talked a lot with Li Yuan and knew some of the situation in Chang'an at that time.

In addition, he had a basic understanding of Li Yuanji's character. He knew that Li Yuanji actually attached great importance to the development of Lingnan. Even if he had to use troops against Zhenla, even with 50,000 fewer troops, the effect of attacking Zhenla would be almost the same.

But now Li Yuanji proposed 150,000 people, and Cen Wenben was wondering what Li Yuanji's purpose was.

After Li Yuanji and others had settled the matter, he looked at Cen Wenben, ready to let Cen Wenben make the overall arrangements. However, seeing Cen Wenben still in deep thought, Li Yuanji also became curious.

"Jingren, what are you thinking about so seriously? If you have any doubts, tell us and we can think about it together. Maybe we can figure it out in just a few words, right?"

(End of this chapter)