My father Liu Xuande

Chapter 407 Military Expansion Plan
The main reason was that Liu Feng's strategy and tactics were always very clear: to fight annihilation battles to the best of his ability and avoid rout battles. In addition, the improvement and innovation of siege equipment made the enemy stationed in the fortified city a sitting duck.

After a series of brilliant victories, it was quite normal to capture hundreds of thousands of prisoners.

Yuan Shu captured 60,000 to 70,000 prisoners in one go, nearly 20,000 of Sun's army in Liyang surrendered, and more than 10,000 reinforcements from Lujiang arrived. After crossing the river, Liu Yao's more than 20,000 troops all surrendered, and Xue Li and Ze Rong contributed more than 10,000 troops as well as 40,000 to 50,000 able-bodied men and women.

This part alone already exceeds 200,000 able-bodied men, not counting Sun Ce's army of 70,000 to 80,000, the local forces of Wu Commandery of 40,000 to 50,000, and the tens of thousands of local rebel gentry, powerful clans and Yue tribes of Kuaiji.

Through this series of events, Liu Feng captured at least 400,000 prisoners, all of whom were young and strong, with men making up the vast majority.

If Liu Feng hadn't continuously sent manpower to Jiangbei, the water conservancy projects in Jiujiang and Lujiang wouldn't have been completed so quickly.

Fortunately, Jiujiang and Lujiang undertook large-scale construction projects; otherwise, settling these prisoners would have been quite troublesome.

Fortunately, things are different now. Liu Feng has acquired a large amount of land in Wu Commandery and northern Kuaiji Commandery, and the able-bodied men and women remaining from this military expansion can be settled in these areas to cultivate land. If there are any more, they can be sent to Yuzhang and Danyang.

Liu Feng now only complains about having too few people, not too many.

Even if the number were doubled, once Jingzhou was captured, the currently devastated Nanyang Commandery alone could house over a million people. And that doesn't even include the farmland in Jingzhou that could be seized.

Putting aside everything else, Huang Zu of Jiangxia would never surrender. Once Jiangxia County is captured, Huang Zu's family's land holdings alone would be no less than several hundred thousand mu, and could even be over a million mu.

It should be noted that Huang Zu single-handedly raised 20,000 retainers in Jiangxia. These retainers, along with their families, numbered over 100,000, and their annual food and drink consumption alone exceeded 1.5 million shi (a unit of dry measure).

Without enough land, it would be impossible to support so many troops.

This time, Liu Feng and Liu Bei agreed to prioritize the selection of experienced prisoners of war from Sun Jiajun's army and Yuan Shu's army. The first batch of 30,000 men has already set off, all of whom are carefully selected strong and brave.

Yang Xiu, unaware of these things, looked shocked and asked in surprise, "May I ask how many soldiers you currently command?"

Liu Feng glanced at him and solemnly replied, "Seventy to eighty thousand soldiers."

Even if the army is expanded to at least 150,000, that's still double the number.

This made Yang Xiu secretly gasp in amazement, thinking it was an extraordinary feat.

Those around the emperor had become accustomed to seeing military men running rampant and committing all sorts of evil deeds.

The Western Liang warriors numbered only seventy to eighty thousand, and Li Jue alone had only twenty thousand men, yet they dared to bully the emperor and command the court. Who would have thought that the unassuming Liu Feng already commanded seventy to eighty thousand ever-victorious troops, and now intended to expand them to one hundred and fifty thousand.

It seems that the current emperor is indeed being unreasonable. He was as docile as a rabbit in front of Li Jue, and even knew how to pretend to be obedient and appease him. But when it comes to Liu Feng, he has the audacity to play tricks.

It was a pity that he had chosen the wrong person. Yang Xiu sighed inwardly, and felt that he was being disrespectful to the emperor, so he quickly dismissed the idea.

Since the topic of expanding the army had come up, Liu Feng happened to have some things he wanted to sound out.

Liu Feng wanted to try three things out for this expansion of the army, but he lacked confidence and hesitated.

Now is the perfect time to hear the opinions of everyone present.

"Gentlemen, in this expansion of the army, I intend to gather the best of the entire army and train them into a Class A army, called the Vanguard Army, which will be temporarily set up as ten battalions with 20,000 men, to be the elite of the entire army."

Looking at the reactions of everyone in the hall, Liu Feng slowly said, "What do you all think?"

The people in the hall exchanged glances, lost in thought.

In fact, Liu Feng's idea was not the first of its kind; the central army established by Emperor Guangwu was based on the same approach.

However, Liu Feng's current vision differs somewhat from Emperor Guangwu's central army. In Emperor Guangwu's central army, the Northern Army, besides being an elite field army, also served as an officer corps and a non-commissioned officer corps.

The Eastern Han Dynasty had a fixed mobilization system, but it was limited to the Sili region.

In the event of a large-scale war, if the tens of thousands of central troops under the central government's control are insufficient, an emergency conscription will be initiated from the entire Sili region to expand the army. At the same time, officers and non-commissioned officers from the Northern and Southern armies will be used to fill the expanded army. The Sanhe cavalry of Sili, whose infantry are all from good families, have combat skills and military experience, and have the advantages of the system, can be put into actual combat after only a short period of training under the leadership of officers and non-commissioned officers.

The Vanguard Army established by Liu Feng was not like that; rather, it was more like an elite field army, closer to the expanded Northern and Southern armies.

However, even with these differences, the people in the hall were all knowledgeable, intelligent, and talented, so they could naturally distinguish and understand them clearly.

Yang Xiu, however, became more enthusiastic at this moment and was the first to speak, saying, "This strategy is feasible. The Northern and Southern armies established by Emperor Guangwu were based on this and expanded upon it. However..."

Liu Feng was quite tolerant of Yang Xiu, not because he was a pushover, nor because he liked Yang Xiu, but because there was something to gain from Yang Xiu.

Despite the Yang family's current decline and vulnerability to suppression and oppression by Liu Feng and Cao Cao, their reputation still holds considerable value when facing Yuan Shao, particularly in vying for prestige among the gentry.

Yang Xiu was not originally involved in the Jingzhou strategy, but Liu Feng still brought him into the game, which was actually a test of Yang Xiu's abilities.

"Duke Dezu speaks frankly."

Liu Feng waved his hand magnanimously, signaling Yang Xiu to continue: "You will know in the future that we never speak ill of anyone. You may speak boldly and frankly."

Yang Xiu was somewhat surprised, but he suppressed the admiration that welled up in his heart and continued, "Reporting to the general, at the beginning of the founding of the country, the Northern and Southern armies established by Emperor Guangwu were very well paid. Their monthly salary included five zhu coins, grain, cloth, and salt. They also received rewards during festivals. Even the lowest-ranking soldiers had a total income of at least eighty to one hundred and twenty shi of grain per year."

The income of 120 shi of grain mentioned by Yang Xiu was the soldiers' net income, which was the income they could take back to support their families after deducting their personal food, drink, and clothing expenses. Of course, this income would not be entirely in grain; it was generally half cash and half in kind, with the latter including cloth, salt, and grain.

Furthermore, the income Yang Xiu mentioned was actually twice that of a county clerk, the lowest-ranking official in the county government. Those who could earn such a high income must have been regular soldiers in the Northern and Southern armies, that is, professional soldiers.

Soldiers drawn from all over the country do not receive such high salaries; they receive only about half to a third of what professional soldiers earn.

Even so, it's still quite generous, considering it includes food and lodging.

With the collapse of the central government of the Eastern Han Dynasty, local forces expanded their armies at an alarming rate. Coupled with natural disasters and man-made calamities, this led to a continuous influx of displaced people across the country.

At this point in time, many of the various warlords either did not pay their troops or only paid their elite troops, while ordinary soldiers barely managed to get enough to eat.

By the time of the Battle of Guandu between Yuan Shao and Cao Cao, soldiers began to receive military pay, but it was still not much. Even later, during the reign of Cao Rui, when the central army of Cao Wei was the best in the north, its pay was still less than one-third of that of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

It is easy to imagine how poorly the soldiers under the various forces lived at that time. On the contrary, the soldiers under the command of early warlords like Liu Zhang were treated better because their territories had not been destroyed by large-scale wars and they could collect a lot of grain and taxes to support their troops.

Even so, the treatment they offered was quite low, at most slightly better than that in the Central Plains. Yang Xiu had answered this question thoroughly, after all, the Yang family had been high-ranking officials for generations, with four of their ancestors serving as Grand Commandants.

Yang Xiu had some knowledge of military systems, and he quickly realized that if Liu Feng wanted to select elite troops to form a separate army, the next step would inevitably be to pay them military salaries.

Otherwise, how are the elite any different from the masses?
However, he was worried that Liu Feng's financial resources were insufficient to support such an operation, so he quickly reminded Liu Feng.

At this time, Liu Feng faced difficulties in paying the Cui Feng Army, mainly in three aspects. The first aspect was the financial pressure that Yang Xiu had pointed out.

Without money, everything is meaningless.

Fortunately, Liu Feng had money. Yangzhou's revenue was higher than Xuzhou's, and the previous battle had also resulted in the sealing of the treasuries of various counties and prefectures, yielding a very large harvest. At the same time, Liu Bei had promised to provide aid next year. In addition, Liu Feng's own businesses and the military farms in Xuzhou and Yuzhou could probably afford to support 20,000 elite troops, and perhaps even more.

Liu Feng's private assets now amount to hundreds of millions annually, making him truly wealthy enough to rival the wealth of an entire state.

The grain trade between us and Liu Biao over the past two years has relied on the continuous flow of money and supplies from Liu Feng.

However, given the current situation, trade with Liu Biao is likely to decline significantly starting in the second half of the year.

Liu Biao would certainly not cut off trade. Firstly, he was reluctant to give up the huge profits; secondly, he did not want to break ties with Liu Bei; and thirdly, he was already finding it difficult to suppress the trade desires of the local gentry and powerful families in Jingzhou.

The official trade between Liu Biao and Liu Bei was almost entirely monopolized by Liu Biao's family.

But those below were also eyeing the enormous profits. Not to mention, the Kuai and Cai families alone had enough resources for smuggling, while the Huang family, practically a regional warlord, openly used the Jiangxia navy and Liu Feng to conduct smuggling. Last year alone, Jiangxia imported over 100,000 shi of grain, all of which was exchanged for salt, sugar, and sesame oil.

However, Liu Feng did not intend to tell Yang Xiu about these things for the time being, but only affirmed: "The state's finances can squeeze out 250 million coins every year for payroll."

Two hundred and fifty million coins, that means you can get a share of about twenty million coins every month.

Yang Xiu finished his calculations in a few breaths and immediately replied, "In that case, I think selecting the elite is the best course of action!"

Liu Feng nodded and looked at the others.

As expected, everyone in the hall agreed, which meant that two of the three things Liu Feng had in mind had been resolved: selecting elite troops, forming an army, and paying them wages.

Liu Feng was pleased that two things had been resolved so quickly, and then he brought up the third matter: "Gentlemen, my purpose in selecting elite troops this time is not just to pay the Cui Feng Army."

Yang Xiu and the others were shocked upon hearing this and all looked at Liu Feng.

Liu Feng just said that he wants to expand the army to more than 150,000.

If we take 150,000 as an example, and everyone receives a military salary, how much money would it cost each month?

If we calculate based on a monthly military expenditure of 20 million coins, each soldier would receive only 133 coins. Moreover, officers' salaries and benefits are much higher than those of soldiers; even the lowest-ranking officers receive twice the soldiers' pay. Mid-level officers receive at least five times the soldiers' pay, and senior officers receive dozens of times more.

We can't expect officers to receive the same pay as soldiers, can we?
Liu Feng could see that everyone wanted to dissuade him, but he raised his hand to stop them in time.

Immediately, Liu Feng stood up and paced back and forth in thought.

He knew that saying this would inevitably provoke opposition from the crowd, but he couldn't remain silent either.

Liu Feng needs to make adjustments based on these objections, while also avoiding making mistakes.

If adjustments can gain the approval of advisors for one's plans, then many hidden problems and dangers will be eliminated, which is of great importance.

As for why a military proposal was discussed with scholars first, the reason is quite simple.

What military man doesn't want to expand his army?

When discussing it with them, apart from a very few like Zhao Yun who are extremely sensible and have a great strategic vision, the others naturally believe that the more troops the better.

"Does the lord intend to distribute military pay to the entire army?"

Zhuge Liang asked in a low voice from the side.

Liu Feng nodded emphatically: "That's exactly right."

"This matter is probably..."

Pang Tong hesitated and said, "The resistance is enormous."

Liu Feng nodded again, indicating that this matter was not limited to the Left General's system.

Now that all of Liu Feng's troops have received their pay, what about the troops under Liu Bei's command?
Should we follow or not?

In fact, distributing military pay to the entire army in Liu Bei's territory now wouldn't be difficult. After all, the rich have their own way of paying, and the poor have theirs. Even if each soldier only received a hundred coins a month, or even just a few dozen coins, the soldiers would only be happy and not dissatisfied.

However, this puts enormous pressure on the finances. With an army of 250,000 to 300,000, even if each person is only given 20 coins, it would still cost at least 60 million coins a year.

Xuzhou's annual revenue is only 200 million yuan, which is equivalent to one-third of Xuzhou's total fiscal revenue.

Most importantly, this expenditure was not originally included, and its sudden increase is bound to provoke considerable opposition.

Zhuge Liang and others, with their intelligence, could not possibly have failed to see this point, which is why they hesitated.

But Liu Feng knew very well that this matter was imperative.

It should be understood that people are not worried about scarcity but about inequality. Elite troops can receive more pay and rewards because of their strength, but other troops should not be left out.

When everyone receives a salary, the difference in salary can actually motivate soldiers to be more courageous and willing to fight. However, if salaries are distributed differently, the morale of ordinary troops will collapse.

We can't rely on this 20,000-strong army to conquer the world in the future, can we?

It would be better not to reorganize at all.

(End of this chapter)