I am Emperor Shizu of Song

Chapter 65: Expanding the Army Under the Pretext of Repairing the River

Zhao Zi said that he originally thought he needed to lie low for a few more months, slowly spend time making money, and win the trust of local wealthy families, so that they would be willing to contribute money and grain to support his business.

However, the Murong family's decisive financial support allowed Zhao Zicheng to quickly skip the initial step of primitive accumulation and jump directly from the seed round to the angel round, greatly accelerating the progress.

Since they were planning to cooperate, Zhao Zicheng would not be polite, so after talking with Duan Yuyan, he withdrew 20,000 strings of cash the next day, and then fabricated a pretext to prepare for trouble.

Didn't County Magistrate Li give him the authority to manage all the corvée and construction work in the county? Zhao Zi said that he only spent one day riding on horseback to all the towns and villages in the county, and then "snap out of his mind" decided on the project that the corvée in the county should do this winter - repairing embankments.

Of course, this wasn't a full-scale, large-scale effort to build dikes. It was just an excuse to mobilize troops and spend money and grain.

In the Suzhou and Lake Tai regions, there were only a few government projects that could be undertaken annually: canal improvements, expansion of polder fields, or damming water storage. Jiangnan, a land of abundance, boasted a network of rivers and proximity to Lake Tai, ensuring an abundance of irrigation resources.

Even in years of drought, as long as the lakes and ponds are well dredged and the dams and paddy fields are maintained in good condition, the Suzhou and Lake areas will not suffer from crop failures. Floods are more detrimental, while typhoons are completely unpreventable.

Zhao Zi said he didn't want to use the canal construction as an excuse. That was too big a task to be managed by a single county. It would require dealing with the prefect Zhao Lin and the magistrate Wei Xian, and it would also be easy for Zhu Jie to interfere. Building embankments would be more convenient, something that could be handled within the county, with no room for outsiders to interfere.

After selecting the target, Zhao Zicheng hastily drew up a plan a day later, which included the scope of construction, the number of workers, the source of labor, the procurement of tools and materials, etc.

You can imagine how rough a plan made in one day is.

According to his plan, the government projects in the county this year will not require the people to perform unpaid labor. As long as some rich households contribute money, the government will naturally use the money to hire surplus labor from the public to do the work, or simply hire the county's military forces in an organized manner to do the work.

This practice itself was not unusual, nor would it raise eyebrows. Commerce was highly developed in the Northern Song Dynasty, and it was common for people in wealthy areas to pay exemption money instead of performing corvee labor. Especially after Wang Anshi's reforms, those who should pay paid, and those who should contribute labor contributed labor, and the division of labor was very clear.

In Suzhou, one of the richest places in the world, local people rarely perform labor service. They mainly pay money, and the government uses the money to hire outsiders or refugees.

The Song Dynasty's wing troops did not have any military combat missions, and it was very common for them to be diverted to "engineering troops" in peacetime.

Not to mention the wing troops, even the imperial guards did not train all year round. They were usually treated as private slaves by their own commanders-in-chief and commanders, working and doing business to make private money for the generals, while on the other hand they continued to receive military rations and salaries from the court.

Zhao Zi said that after the plan was announced, the local wealthy families did not react strongly, and County Magistrate Li also had no response for the time being and took a wait-and-see attitude.

On the third day, Zhao Zicheng followed the procedure and found Yang Zhi, as well as his confidants such as Lu Da and Lin Chong, and explained some things to them.

"Brother Yang, your battalion has a full complement of 500 people, but the court only allocated you 200 people." Zhao Zicheng went straight to the point.

Yang Zhi replied casually, "Initially, there were only fifty or sixty men. These two hundred were brought here by the county lord, who surrendered from Mount Mangdang. I am ashamed to say this."

Zhao Zicheng raised his hand to stop Yang Zhi from continuing to modestly claim credit: "How you got it is not important. I only want to ask, according to the court's laws, how many people can you actually support with the money and food you receive?
Tell the truth, don't worry about any empty salary deductions, and don't treat the soldiers harshly. If we want to fill the 500-man establishment, how much more money and food will we need to allocate to you?"

Yang Zhi had been on the job for two or three days, and since he was used to doing this, he blurted out, "According to the imperial court's law, the annual expenses for a soldier in the imperial guards are 50 strings of cash, and for a soldier in the auxiliary guards 30 strings of cash. Of course, this isn't just the soldiers' salaries; we also have to consider their daily rations, the manufacture and wear and tear of their weapons, their tents, clothing, bedding, carriages, and baggage. All of this is taken into account."

The soldiers were supposed to receive about 30% of this amount, or 15 strings of cash for the imperial guards and 10 strings of cash for the garrison troops. But in reality, with so much money being deducted from the soldiers, they only received a few strings of cash a year.

Zhao Zi said, "Fifteen strings of cash a year, a little over one string of cash a month. I'll round it up to one and a half strings of cash a month, which makes eighteen strings of cash a year, twenty percent higher than the court's quota. Based on this standard, recruit five hundred men to your battalion."

After the recruitment was completed, they were nominally employed by the county to help repair dikes and build embankments when the rivers and lakes were dry in winter. In reality, they did less work and focused more on drills in military discipline and battle formations.

You are all family, and I will not hide it from you. This time, I have come back and observed the extent of Zhu Jie's exploitation. I am afraid that Jiangnan is already on fire, and it could burst into flames at any moment. I will criticize this corrupt official and persuade His Majesty to revoke his order, but this process may cause some chaos, so I need you to prepare for war as soon as possible."

Yang Zhi, Lu Da, and Lin Chong were all his die-hard supporters, so there was nothing wrong with saying this bluntly. Even if they thought Zhao Zicheng had rebellious intentions, they probably wouldn't mind. They would just think, "Young Master Zhao is also surnamed Zhao, so why can't he storm Tokyo and seize the throne?"

After hearing the order, Yang Zhi immediately agreed to do it. All of this was within his authority, and no one above him, whether it was the militia commander in the civil service system or the commander-in-chief or the commander-in-chief in the army, could control him.

Yang Zhi is not expanding the army excessively, he is just not collecting empty salaries, which is a good thing.

However, Yang Zhi was still a little worried about the confusion surrounding unclear responsibilities, so he cautiously added, "Just now, the county lord said that once the staff is replenished, they will be nominally employed by the county and will have to do some work. I'm not sure how the work and training will be divided up. I'd like to have a clearer idea of ​​what's going on."

Zhao Zi said, "Don't worry, I won't let the soldiers do the dirty work, and I'm not relying solely on your five hundred men. In addition to the full complement of five hundred men per battalion, I will also recruit an additional five hundred men. They will be civilians in name only, but in reality you can also take charge of them."

This adds up to 500 regular soldiers of the imperial guards and 500 corvée laborers, totaling 1,000 people. The 500 laborers were mobile; if they didn't perform well or didn't want to work anymore, they could leave after paying. The 500 regular soldiers had to be fully equipped, stationed, and strictly bound by military discipline.

Even repairing the dikes had to be done in a pretense of repairing them, because if I didn't, I'd be accused of using corvée labor to raise money and grain while actually recruiting soldiers. When it came to the actual work, I assigned the regular soldiers to the heavy and strenuous labor, while the civilian laborers did the dirty and miscellaneous work. This served as a way to train the regular soldiers' physical fitness and build their strength.

But you can rest assured, I will provide the regular soldiers who do the heavy physical work with enough food, and they can also eat fish and eggs occasionally, so they won't be left wanting."

Zhao Zi said he had read many time-travel novels before traveling through time, and the protagonists all liked to follow the elite soldier route, giving a small number of death warriors direct meat to eat, and then undergoing strict military drills without any work. Zhao Zi said that firstly, he did not have the conditions, and secondly, he felt it was not suitable for the current situation and unnecessary. It would be better to "replace physical training with some heavy physical labor."

In ancient times, money and grain were scarce, and human labor was valuable. Wouldn't it be a waste to specifically lift stone locks to build strength? How is that different from modern people driving to the gym to run on a treadmill?
It would be better to let them carry stones directly to the construction site of the polder and dam.

However, Yang Zhi's soldiers were not allowed to do jobs like digging in the mud, or other dirty work that could easily lead to parasitic diseases, which was not scientific and reasonable in terms of hygiene.

Zhao Zicheng believes that labor and fitness can be organically unified as long as they are scientifically planned and reasonably designed.

When several trusted officers heard that the county lord would allow the soldiers to eat as much as they wanted, they immediately stopped complaining. Soldiers in the Song Dynasty had never been allowed to eat as much as they wanted.

Yang Zhi, out of caution, added a reminder: "If we really want to feed the soldiers, the cost of food and money will have to increase significantly. Each person may have to spend an extra one or two strings of cash on food each month, which will offset the money they have already paid."

"You don't need to worry about this. You mentioned earlier that the court's standard for the Imperial Guards is 50 strings of cash per person per year, which is 25 strings of cash for half a year. I'll give you 40 strings of cash per person for half a year, which means 20,000 strings of cash for 500 people in half a year. The laborers don't need to worry about equipment; they only need to provide the tools for the labor service, which will be half the cost. For 500 people in half a year, that's 10,000 strings of cash.

I'll give you 30,000 strings of cash to support these 1,000 people for half a year, and provide them with everything they need. Can you do it?"

The first 30,000 strings of cash Zhao Zicheng received from the Murong family a few days ago was enough to cover his budget. He could gather a thousand men loyal to Zhao Zicheng, equivalent to 500 imperial guards and 500 auxiliary troops. After six months of maintenance and equipment replenishment, the 30,000 strings of cash would be spent.

It is said that the army is a money-eating beast. No matter how much money you have, it will be spent quickly once you have soldiers to support them.

During the Song Dynasty, before Wang Anshi's reforms, annual fiscal revenue generally ranged from 60 to 70 million guan (approximately 100 million guan/s), two-thirds of which went to the military. The Song maintained a standing army of 800,000 men, spending 40 million guan/s in taxes annually.

The concept of the so-called "800,000 Imperial Guards" actually comes from this. It does not mean that there are actually 800,000 Imperial Guards, but simply means that "the money the court spends on the military each year, according to military expenditure standards, should be able to support 800,000 Imperial Guards, or 1.4 million auxiliary troops."

The three of them were shocked when they heard Zhao Zicheng's plan, but without any doubt, they just did it.

The source of recruits can be considered from those fellow warriors who have not been conquered before, and those who are really willing to join and have reliable character.

They could also look for good families who had lost their land and were willing to be employed. Zhao Zi said that it would not be a problem to not have them tattooed on their faces or to temporarily assign them to other positions under false pretenses.

(End of this chapter)