Prosperous Tang Dynasty

Chapter 187 Military Development
real or fake?

Unknown pies falling from the sky can often kill people. It's not that the people have never been tricked, and doubts are inevitable.

"Don't worry everyone, this is recruited directly by Mr. Jiedu Envoy Anton, and most of the wages are paid by Mr. Jiedu Envoy. Mr. Jiedu Envoy is the righteous son of the imperial concubine, the majestic Duke of Yuhang, in order to let Anton have something. This is only the case with development. It is definitely not to deceive everyone. The adults have drawn up a "contract" for all applicants, listing some precautions, and settlement of everyone's labor wages, etc., as long as the applicants report their names and addresses , and then press a fingerprint, and the first month's wages can be directly paid in advance!" This is explained by the yamen servant sent by Li Fei, in order to attract people's trust and recruit enough workers as soon as possible.

"I can advance the first month's wages! And since Mr. Anton Jiedushi is the adoptive son of the imperial concubine, and news of him has been heard from Chang'an City in the past few years, and his reputation is very good, then it shouldn't be too late. It's a lie." The people finally let go of the doubts in their hearts.In addition, Li Fei recruited workers on such a large scale. They also have their own confidence. Anyway, the first month's salary can be paid in advance, so they should get it first. You can't punish so many people at once.

The common people responded with peace of mind, said their names and addresses, and pressed their fingerprints on the 'contract'.At the same time, the money also flowed out, and Li Fei had to bring his own family property to withstand his tossing.

"Master Jiedu, if you release so much money at once, aren't you afraid that you won't be able to get it back?" Seeing that a lot of copper coins were spent like this, although Li Fei was almost all paid by himself, Lu Xin also felt distressed.

Anton is the border guard house, and it is a place of bitter cold. The annual income is not much, so not only has it not been necessary to pay taxes to the court, but it needs additional supplies from the court every year.

Of course, that was before, since An Lushan served as Fan Yang and Pinlu Jiedu envoy, and after years of wars with the Xi and Khitan tribes, the money and food that were originally supplied to Anton were basically 'robbed' by An Lushan. It made Anton very aggrieved, worse than his stepmother.

In the past few years, Lu Xin has been relying on "squeezing" from other places, even to allow the Duhufu to have a little "deposit". Many officials, soldiers, and military salaries in the Duhufu are not as much as a few years ago. Only then did Lu Xin develop the habit of 'Ba Qian'.

"No problem, 1000 workers only cost 30 million yuan a month, which is equivalent to less than [-] yuan. Including the construction of those workshops, large kilns, etc., the total cost is less than [-] yuan, which is affordable." Li Fei He smiled lightly.

Lu Xin's face twitched. Can he say that Anton's annual income is worth less than 70 yuan?There is also a need to raise soldiers and a bunch of officials and servants. Without the supplies from the court, it is almost impossible to "live" on its own.

However, after all, Li Fei is the Jiedushi, and almost all the money spent is Li Fei's own money, Li Fei doesn't mind, and Lu Xin doesn't want to say much.

Lu Xin didn't know Li Fei's family background. He didn't know how much money this guy who had monopolized blue and white porcelain, Linglong porcelain, glass mirrors, telescopes and many other "high-end best-selling products" made in the past few years.

In fact, before Li Fei came to Anton, he got another 30 guan from Zhangjiayao, and he has not even used up the 30 guan in the current initial development.

For Li Fei, this level of investment development is only preliminary, and he will have more and larger-scale investments in the future. After all, Anton is such a large place, and I believe the potential is huge.What's more, he doesn't have so much time to follow a step-by-step approach, so he can only use a more radical method, that is, rough investment, a large amount of investment.

At the same time as economic construction, military construction must also develop simultaneously, otherwise without a strong enough guarantee, a turmoil may completely destroy all development.

"How many troops does Anton have, and what is the actual number now?" Li Fei summoned all the generals to the Jiedu Ambassador's Mansion to discuss, looked at Lu Xin and asked, in fact, Li Fei already knew something about it earlier.

"Master Huijiedushi, Anton originally had 500 troops, but the actual number was more than 1. However, he was attacked by the Khitans some time ago and lost nearly 400. Now there are only [-]. There are more than [-] people." Lu Xin said with a face of shame.

Andong, as the border, not only has to deter the Silla Kingdom in the east, the Bohai Kingdom and the Shiwei tribes in the north, but also faces the threat of the Khitan people and other grassland tribes in the west. With this remaining force, it is really not enough to take No wonder Lu Xin felt ashamed when he said it.

"It's because Anton's income is limited. If there is no supply from the court, he can't support more soldiers." Lu Xin sighed helplessly.

In terms of Anton's scale, counting the ethnic minorities, at least there are nearly 200 million people, which is not enough to support more than [-] soldiers.In fact, the frontier troops of the Tang Dynasty are all elite soldiers, and the foreign enemies are counted as one enemy. They use the best armor and weapons, equip some war horses, pay attention to food, and have military pay, etc. It is indeed very expensive to maintain combat effectiveness. of.

During the period of Emperor Gaozong, the Tang Dynasty destroyed Goguryeo, and the Andong Protectorate was first established. In order to guard against the Bohai Kingdom, the Shiwei tribes, and the survivors of Goguryeo, etc., there was always a total force of 500 at its peak, and then it was gradually reduced. However, the actual number of [-] people was maintained at one time.

Later, the focus of the Tang Dynasty shifted to Longyou, and the Western Regions and the Tubo Kingdom struggled for hegemony. Although Anton's superficial military strength did not decrease, it was still not satisfied.

Since An Lushan concurrently served as Fan Yang and Pinlu Jiedu envoy, and fought against the Xi and Khitan tribes, Anton's actual military strength has been reduced again and again, mainly because Anlu Mountain was rebelled by the Xi and Khitan tribes, and supplies were not transported well. On the grounds of Anton, Tang Xuanzong persuaded Tang Xuanzong to withhold the money, grain and grass supplies originally given to Anton to increase Anlushan's own strength, thinking that this would help Anlushan quickly pacify the Xi and Khitan tribes, and later even withheld The supplies of the soldiers were released.

In the end, it turned out that Anton could only support himself, and life couldn't be more miserable.

In fact, Lu Xin knew that this was just An Lushan's way of forcing him to submit, so that he would obey An Lushan's orders from now on.Lu Xin was not sure if An Lushan had any ambitions, but he would never compromise with this barbarian An Lushan.

Ever since Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty was persuaded by Li Linfu to use Hu people, in recent years, Lu Xin has almost become the only Han Chinese in power in various border areas, and he feels quite aggrieved in his heart.

"No matter what happened in the past, from now on, the military salary will be increased from the original one-and-a-half to three times. Recruit all the soldiers for me, and only young and strong soldiers!" A sharp light flashed in Li Fei's eyes.

The so-called 'government grows out of the barrel of a gun', without the protection of sufficient force, talking about anything is an extravagant hope!
"Master Jiedushi, this——" Lu Xin was taken aback. Originally, in order to save money, the military salary was reduced from two rounds to one and a half rounds. Now Li Fei has been directly promoted to three rounds, and he has to recruit all the soldiers. The cost is terrible. It's not something Anton can afford, so could it be that Li Fei paid for it himself?Is this appropriate?
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(End of this chapter)