Guiyi Fei Tang

Chapter 313 Showing Strength
"When encountering a large battle, the archers are in the front. The crossbowmen should shoot arrows when they are 150 steps away from the enemy, and the archers should shoot arrows when they are 60 steps away from the enemy."

"If the enemy is within twenty steps, all archers and crossbowmen should abandon their bows and crossbows and order the stationed troops to collect them."

"The archers and crossbowmen first tied their arms, brought their swords and clubs with them, and then joined the front lines in the battle. The cavalry and the jumping troops..."

"Kill, kill, kill—"

In early August, when the sound of killing was resounding all around, in the military camp more than ten miles north of Didao City, the shouting of killing was deafening.

As a fully staffed military town under the system, Linzhou Town had 4,050 combat soldiers and 450 auxiliary soldiers, totaling 4,500 people.

The 4,500 men were divided into three armies, namely the Didao Army, the Changle Army and the Daxia Army, with 1,500 men in each army.

The city defense of the three counties of Linzhou was mainly carried out by the three armies in turns.

The remaining two armies that were not on duty were training in the Linzhou Town military camp north of Didao City.

At this moment, Liu Jilong was standing on the school platform, in front of him was a wide school ground covering an area of nearly a thousand acres.

On the parade ground, the two armies formed a large battle formation for training, with more than 200 elite cavalry deployed on each side of the army. The elite cavalry wore armor, iron helmets, and pheasant feathers. There were hard bows, soft bows, quivers and arrows on both sides of the saddles.

On one side of the saddle was hung a victory hook, on which was placed a three-foot-long spear, and on the other side were hung two golden hammers.

If we count the halberds and broadswords on the waists of the elite cavalry, each elite cavalryman has at least six or seven kinds of weapons.

If it were an ordinary horse, it would definitely not be able to bear the weight of more than 200 kilograms including the person and armor.

Even the military horses of the various feudal lords of the same period found it difficult to carry out a raid with so many things on their backs, even a short-distance raid was very difficult.

But the Helong horse is different. The tall and strong Helong horse is mainly a breed bred from the large draft horse, Hequ horse and Turkic horse of the past.

This was originally a breed of horse developed by the Tibetans for their elite cavalry. However, before the breed began to spread, Tibet was plunged into internal strife.

After Liu Jilian emerged as a rising star, all these horse breeds were collected by Liu Jilian and subsequently developed into the current Helong horse.

"The ability of a general in commanding an army is unmatched in the world!"

Suddenly, he heard voices of praise behind him. Liu Jilong glanced back and immediately saw Yang Fuguang, the military supervisor of Xichuan.

After Yang Fuguang and Liu Jilong had agreed on the deal, they did not leave in a hurry. Instead, they sent someone back to tell Cui Xuan the good news, while he himself stayed.

However, he was frank and spoke directly to Liu Jilong, wanting to see the might of the Longyou Army.

Liu Jilian knew that this man probably wanted to find out the strength of the Longyou Army, but he did not hide his shortcomings either.

Letting Tang Ting know a little about his own strength at the right time will help him develop with peace of mind.

If Yang Fuguang could be used to make the current supreme ruler understand his own strength, he would probably understand why the late emperor was so reluctant to take action against Longyou.

Because of this, Liu Jilian arrived at Linzhou camp the next day, and Yang Fuguang was among the entourage.

Seeing the military training in Longyou, Yang Fuguang was indeed enlightened.

Although the Linzhou town had few soldiers and horses, the momentum of the 3,000 men training against each other was even more shocking than the 30,000 new Xichuan troops trained by Cui Xuan in Jiazhou.

Yang Fuguang was not ignorant of military affairs, so he understood the situation of the Longyou Army at a glance.

Judging from the scale he saw, there were probably more than 4,000 people in one town in Longyou, with more than 1,000 people in each army.

Among each army of 1,500 people, there are about 400 elite cavalry, and the rest are nearly 1,000 infantry.

The equipment of these infantrymen was not much different from that of the elite cavalry. They were equipped with bows and crossbows, two-meter-long spears, a golden hammer, a halberd and a horizontal sword, as well as a pot for crossbow arrows and a pot for arrows.

Looking at the equipment of the Longyou Army's infantry, Yang Fuguang couldn't help but gasp.

Logically speaking, the equipment of the soldiers under Liu Jilian's command was actually the standard equipment that the Tang army should have according to "Tang Hui Dian".

But the problem is that the Tang Dynasty today is no longer the Tang Dynasty of the past.

The Tang Dynasty had limited financial resources, and so did its vassal states.

If the soldiers were to be armed according to the standard, the investment in each soldier would be at least fifty strings of cash.

These fifty strings of cash are just equipment and do not include the training of soldiers.

You should know that the standard equipment of the Tang army weighed about 60 kilograms, so the soldiers needed to obey military orders and fight the enemy while carrying 60 kilograms of weight themselves.

Such a heavy load also brings about great consumption, so after recruiting soldiers, they must be kept strong and muscular.

Even when the Tang army was at its strongest, it only had a population of over 50 million and could only support 570,000 soldiers. Of the 570,000, only 60% met the standards, and the remaining 40% were basically substandard garrison troops and light cavalry.

Of the 30,000 new soldiers from Xichuan recruited by Cui Xuan, only 70% are now wearing armor, and the remaining 30% most likely will not.

In addition, these soldiers all held ten-foot-long spears, and were only equipped with a horizontal sword, a seven-dou bow or a crossbow, and only one blunt weapon.

Even so, the weight the soldiers carried was still around 50 kilograms.

Even after half a year of training, tens of thousands of Xichuan recruits were only able to form some not-too-complicated military formations. They were still relatively strong, but not as strong as the strong and muscular men in Longyou.

If Yang Fuguang had not seen the Longyou troops from Wuzhou, Minzhou and other places, he might have thought that the soldiers here were all Liu Jilian's guards.

Thinking of this, Yang Fuguang smiled tentatively and said, "The army under the command of the general is so powerful, I think there should be 20,000 soldiers..."

Liu Jilong chuckled and looked at Cao Mao, motioning him to take over.

"Twenty thousand?" Cao Mao understood and said in a mocking tone:
"If we only have this few soldiers and horses, how can Longyou deter the others?"

"I don't know..." Yang Fuguang asked tentatively. Cao Mao snorted coldly: "I have more than 40,000 tiger warriors in Longyou."

"Forty thousand?!" Yang Fuguang took a breath of cold air.

He knew clearly what the Shen Ce Army and the eight towns in the northwest of Beijing were like, and this time he was sent to supervise the troops in the towns, which gave him an idea of what the elite troops in each town looked like.

In his opinion, based on the standards of the troops in Longyou, the Shence Army could only muster 6,000 to 7,000 men, and the eight towns northwest of Beijing could have no more than 20,000 to 30,000 men.

The number of troops in the vassal states such as Jiannan, Shannan, Hedong, Henan, Huainan and Jiangnan was no more than 70,000 to 80,000.

Thinking of this, Yang Fuguang couldn't help but think of the emperor's recent remarks and felt uneasy.

In his opinion, if the imperial court really wanted to go to war with Longyou, Qinzhou and Wenfu states would probably be lost as soon as the war started.

There was not even enough time to mobilize the troops from various towns, and it was estimated that Liu Jilian could reach Fengxiang by then.

"We have to tell Aye about Longyou..."

Yang Fuguang had a plan in mind, and he was also curious about how Longyou managed to support 40,000 fully armored elite soldiers.

There were millions of people in Xichuan, but in order to collect taxes, the people were turned into refugees everywhere, and as a result, the country could only support 50,000 soldiers.

In his opinion, the people in Longyou were no more than four or five hundred thousand at most. How did they select 40,000 elite troops when only one in ten men was selected?
Yang Fuguang was very curious, but if Liu Jilong knew about his curiosity, he would definitely laugh at him mercilessly.

Longyou collects 40% tax, which means it is a real 40% tax. All 40% goes into the government treasury, not to mention that there are also brokers and the Silk Road that make money for Longyou.

In contrast, in Xichuan and even the entire Tang Dynasty, no matter what taxes were collected, the clerks would first extort one tax, then the officials would extort another, and finally the tax would be deposited into the national treasury.

On the surface, the taxes collected by the Tang Dynasty from the people were only 17 or 18 million strings of cash, but in reality the people paid 40 to 50 million strings of cash, or even more.

Without the determination to break down and then rebuild, the Tang Dynasty could only collapse due to corrupt bureaucracy, which was also the situation faced by most dynasties in the middle and late stages.

Not to mention anything else, the current rulers and ministers of the Tang Dynasty probably don’t even know how many people and how much land the Tang Dynasty has.

All they knew were the old almanacs recorded in documents. Even the officials who exploited the local people did not understand the actual situation.

No one dared to count this stuff, so many places just copied old ones, added and subtracted, and finally made a map to fool the court.

Some things weigh only four ounces if they are not weighed, but if they are weighed, they weigh more than a thousand pounds.

In this turbid world, Longyou is the one that does things according to the rules, but only for now.

Corruption is usually silent, so there is no stopping, only continuation and continuation.

"Kill, kill, kill..."

The shouting and screaming on the parade ground continued. Yang Fuguang came to his senses and asked:
"The training ground of this military camp seems to be quite large. Could it be that they hold large-scale drills at certain times?"

"Of course." Liu Jilong did not hide it. Since he wanted to show his strength, he had to show it well, otherwise he would end up with something less than what he had hoped.

He walked towards the audience, saying as he walked: "The big drills are held at irregular times, at least twice a year, and at least 20,000 people will drill at the same time each time."

Yang Fuguang followed behind Liu Jilong and sniffed his nose.

Seeing his action, Liu Jilong also said: "It's almost time for lunch. General Yang, come with me to taste the food of the army's chef." "The commander-in-chief has invited me, and I dare not disobey." Yang Fuguang greeted him with a smile and a kind tone.

Soon, they arrived in front of a row of brick houses.

The doors of these brick and tile houses were all open. At the door were stoves and large iron pots, and inside were dozens of cooks wearing war jackets.

There are twelve long brick houses, each with three large pots and three rice buckets half a person's height.

Yang Fuguang followed Liu Jilong to one of the rooms. Since the party had not yet been dismissed, there was no one queuing there.

Yang Fuguang followed Liu Jilong and took out a wooden bowl and chopsticks the size of a human face from the wooden barrel.

After scooping some corn rice from the wooden barrel, he then saw three large pots of food.

The first pot contained fried spinach, the second pot contained stewed lamb with radish, and the third pot contained fried fish fillets.

"Is this lunch for the soldiers?"

Yang Fuguang was stunned, but the chef had already poured the dishes from each pot into his bowl.

Although the portion is not much, it is nice to have meat to eat.

Although three meals a day appeared in this era, lunch was usually called "snacks", and only the children of noble families and commoners could have three meals a day. Ordinary people could not enjoy three meals a day.

Even though soldiers in the late Tang Dynasty were treated well, they basically only had two meals a day, morning and night, and only breakfast had meat.

If you want to have meat for both meals, it’s during training.

So when Yang Fuguang heard that the Longyou Army had lunch, he was already surprised. And when he saw that there was mutton and fish in the lunch, he knew why the soldiers of the Longyou Army were all so strong and muscular.

If you eat like this every day, it would be strange if you don't have a big body...

"Military Supervisor, please do not misunderstand. Although our army has three meals a day, only during the big drill can we guarantee two pieces of meat for lunch and dinner that day."

"Although we have three meals a day, we usually only have one piece of meat."

Cao Mao was explaining for Liu Jilong, but Yang Fuguang was stunned after hearing it.

It would be fine if it were just three meals a day, but there is meat in lunch and dinner?

Although there was not much meat, only two or three taels, it was enough for all the towns to admire.

Thinking of this, Yang Fuguang sat down with Liu Jilong and the others in a pergola not far away and slowly finished the food in his bowl.

The taste of the food was no different from what he ate at home, which meant that a lot of oil, salt and spices were used in it.

Although he knew that this was a treatment only available during the Great Exercise, Yang Fuguang still couldn't help shaking his head in his heart.

How could Liu Jilian not fight to the death for his loyalty when he treated his soldiers like this?
If they really got on the battlefield, based on what he knew about the temperament of those guards, he estimated that few of them would be able to fight against the Longyou Army.

Even if they could fight, given the current financial situation of the imperial court, as long as Liu Jilian held on to Longyou, it would be enough for the imperial court to increase taxes several times.

"Everything here must be told to Aye without any loss!"

Yang Fuguang thought to himself, then finished his lunch with Liu Jilong and rode back to Didao City.

Shortly after he returned to Didao City, he sent someone to deliver his handwritten letter to Chang'an.

When the cavalry he sent left Didao City, the sound of hurried footsteps was heard in a courtyard not far from the Protectorate.

This courtyard covers an area of nearly ten acres. Not only is it a structure with four entrances and exits, but there is also a garden of less than half an acre in the courtyard.

At this moment, Liu Jilian was playing chess with an old man in the garden. In Didao city, the only one who could be called an old man and own such a large courtyard was Feng Ao, who moved his entire family to Longyou.

The seventy-four-year-old Feng Ao was still energetic, his mind immersed in the chess game, and although Liu Jilong was distracted, he was still able to suppress Feng Ao steadily.

"General Jie, Yang Fuguang did send someone to Chang'an to deliver the message."

Cao Mao appeared in the garden. Liu Jilong nodded and said, "Don't worry about him."

"Yes!" Cao Mao agreed, but Feng Ao, who was playing chess with Liu Jilong, said:

"Are you planning to use Yang Fuguang to tell the imperial court about your strength and make the imperial court fear you?"

"Aweng guessed right." Facing Feng Ao, Liu Jilong was the junior after all, so no matter what Feng Ao asked, he would answer it if he could.

After receiving Liu Jilong's answer, Feng Ao stroked his foot-long white beard and continued:

"Yang Fuguang's adoptive father, Yang Xuanjie, is the deputy envoy of the Left Shence Army. I believe that within two years, he will be able to climb up to the position of lieutenant of the Left Shence Army and be ranked as one of the four nobles of the Northern Division."

"You made the right choice to send the message through him."

"But the current Supreme is immature after all. He can't compare with someone like you."

"If the Supreme One hasn't figured out the situation of the Shen Ce Army, he might think you are provoking the court..."

Feng Ao was not optimistic about Li Yi. After all, Li Yi's methods in dealing with the southern barbarians, refugees, Longyou and other issues were too immature.

But this is not a problem. After all, many emperors were mediocre and aging. When they were in their twenties or thirties, their methods were indeed not mature enough, but they would be fine when they were in their forties.

Li Yi and Liu Jilong were born in the same year, but the difference in their abilities was obvious at a glance.

"Although the current Supreme is not very capable, he should not be stupid."

"Both the Southern Court and the Northern Court have stopped him from using his troops against me. He should have sensed something was wrong."

"As long as he understands the problem, he won't be so reckless again."

Liu Jilian did not look down on Li Yi like Feng Ao did. After all, many of the problems Li Yi was facing now were left behind by Li Chen.

It is not surprising that Li Yi adopted a tough and even arrogant attitude after ascending the throne.

It would be strange for a 26-year-old young man not to be proud and arrogant when he suddenly inherited the most powerful dynasty in the world.

What's more, the Southern Barbarians were already intending to start a war, so it would be useless even if Li Yi surrendered.

What Li Yu needed to solve was the problem of refugees in the Kanto region, but he did not solve it well.

However, Liu Jilong was very skeptical. Did Li Yu know how serious the refugee problem was in the Kanto region?
Historically, he seemed to have no special means of disaster relief. It was not until Pang Xun's uprising caused hundreds of thousands of refugees in Huainan that Li Yi realized how serious the problem of starvation in Guandong was.

As a result, less than two years after suppressing the uprising, he seemed to have implicated all the officials because of the death of a princess. He began to worship Buddhism, and then died within two years.

In the end, the problem of refugees in Kanto was not solved, but became more serious.

Thinking of this, Liu Jilong could not help but ask Feng Ao: "Aunt, have the refugee problems in Henan, Hebei, Huainan, Jiangnan and other provinces been resolved?"

Feng Ao didn't expect Liu Jilong to care about the refugees, so he paused, thought for a moment, and then spoke:
"I have never heard of any relief measures taken by the imperial court. Only before entering the capital, Bi Zhen opened the granaries in Xuanwu to distribute grain and comforted hundreds of thousands of hungry people."

"However, after Bi Zhen arrived in Beijing, he did not propose any relief for the famine victims in Guandong. I guess the court did not have enough money and grain to solve this problem."

"In fact, the court doesn't have that many problems. It's a pity that there is a shortage of money and food. Otherwise, all the problems would not be problems."

Feng Ao said this, and many people knew this truth, and even knew how to solve the problem of money and food, but no one dared to do it.

After all, the last person who did this ended up in exile and death from illness, so no one wants to follow in his footsteps.

"The world will probably be in turmoil for only 20 to 30 years."

Feng Ao suddenly changed the subject, looked at Liu Jilong and said, "I can't wait for that day, but you definitely can."

Liu Jilong narrowed his eyes. He wanted to tell Feng Ao that the turmoil in the world would not last that long.

After all, because of his sudden rise, the Tang Dynasty suffered many more disasters.

The imperial court not only needed to deploy heavy troops in the northwest, but also continuously increased taxes because of Wang Shouwen's rebellion, so that the originally peaceful Henan Province had hundreds of thousands of refugees twenty years earlier.

Although the Wuning Army in Xuzhou has not yet been suppressed and Pang Xun is very likely not to cause chaos, the millions of refugees in Henan, Huainan, Jiangnan and other places still need to vent.

As long as ambitious people raise their arms and shout, the peasant uprising to overthrow the Tang Dynasty will only accelerate.

Liu Jilong could wait for twenty or thirty years, but he couldn't afford to.

To pacify the world is just one thing he needs to do. The more important things are those things that come after pacifying the world.

"In this world, the surname should be Liu..."

(End of this chapter)