Master Yuan, start!

The 10 provinces have a total population of more than 2 million. If we use the standard of selecting one out of every 50 foreigners, that would be 400 million people.

Even if only one out of a hundred people is selected, there will still be no less than 200 million people.

Just imagine, with a million troops at hand, with a single command, what vassal state can't be conquered?"

Duan Qirui studied the conscription systems of Germany and France and found that they both armed an army of more than 50 with a population of less than million.

"Zhiquan, that's not what I meant." Seeing Duan Qirui talking about "a million troops" right away, Yuan Xiangcheng was a little amused for a moment.

"Being invincible means that we hold the great cause of resisting Russia and represent the current central government, so we are naturally more relaxed than the local vassal states.

But now that the foreign enemies have been eliminated, Li Hongzhang also telegraphed that he wanted to join the central government.

If we start a war first when people are calm, wouldn't we be destroying our righteousness?"

Seeing this, Xu Shichang also said, "Zhiquan, I understand your intentions.

Let alone 200 million troops, considering the current annual income of the three northeastern provinces and North Korea, it would be a great achievement to be able to raise an army of 50, let alone 200 million.

Several provinces in the Central Plains have just been brought under control, and the major taxes such as agriculture, commerce, and salt have not yet been clarified. If the army is expanded rashly, the logistics will not be able to keep up.

Besides, if we expand the army, where can we find so many reliable officers?

You know, the Beiyang Military Academy only graduates about 500 people each year, barely enough to fill the ranks of the 20 junior officers in the National Defense Army.

"Brother Juren's analysis makes sense." Yuan Xiangcheng nodded to Xu Shichang, but then turned to Duan Qirui and said:

"But what you said, Zhiquan, does make sense. We must start expanding our military.

Although peace is what people desire, there will inevitably be a war in the future, and we must be prepared.

Therefore, we cannot expand our military on the surface, and at the same time we must limit the expansion of the military by local vassal states as much as possible.

"What do you mean, Weiting?" Duan Qirui asked.

Yuan Xiangcheng picked up his baton, pointed at the vast northern border on the map and said:

"Now that the external enemies have been eliminated, there is no need for so many troops at home. We should take the lead in disarmament."

"Disarmament?" Duan Qirui was stunned, then stood up immediately: "This is not possible!"

"Don't worry, it's just a secret plank road."

Yuan Xiangcheng motioned Duan Qirui to sit down, and then continued:

"I intend to reform the military system and change the names of the Zhenxiebiao, Battalion, and Sentry Post used during the Qing Dynasty to the names of the division, brigade, regiment, battalion, company, platoon, etc. used during the Zhou Dynasty, to show that the Republican Army is different from the Qing Dynasty."

"Restrain yourself, return to propriety, and restore the Zhou system."

Xu Shichang nodded and agreed, "This is also the philosophy that Confucius has always upheld. We, the Red Confucian Society, will inherit Confucius's system. This move can be regarded as respecting Confucianism and honoring our ancestors."

Xu Shichang agreed, and Duan Qirui naturally had no objection.

In his opinion, one town is equal to one division, and 20 towns become 20 divisions. It is nothing more than a change of name, and the specific organization will not change.

Seeing that the two did not object, Yuan Xiangcheng continued:

"At the same time, the country was divided into eight major military regions: Northeast, North China, Central China, Jiangnan, Northwest, Southwest, South China, and Southeast.

Each military region has 4 divisions under its jurisdiction, each division has 2 brigades under its jurisdiction, each brigade has 2 regiments under its jurisdiction, and each regiment has a strength of about 1500 people. In addition to independent artillery regiments, cavalry regiments, baggage companies, engineering companies, balloon companies, etc., a single division has a total of more than 1 people.

Pouring 9$ paint 58725+

From now on, the reorganization and adjustment of the national army will only allow the existence of troops within the military region, and private troops are not allowed."

"Weiting, I have no problem with the suppression divisions. In my opinion, having four divisions under each military region doesn't constitute a dispersal of forces."

Duan Qirui first confirmed it, then asked: "But isn't the division of military regions a bit too restrictive for us?

If the whole country is divided into eight military regions, we now only have four in our hands: Northeast China, North China, Central Plains, and Jiangnan, which can accommodate a maximum of 8 divisions.

If this happens, won't we be at a disadvantage? How will we accommodate the extra four divisions?"

"Although we have suffered a little loss, Li Hongzhang will suffer a greater loss." Yuan Xiangcheng poked his baton on the map and said:

"We went from 20 to 16, but Li Hongzhang went from 15 to 8."

"What if he doesn't want to?" Duan Qirui asked back.

"If he doesn't want to, then he will be alienating himself from the people of the world. Does he dare to take such a risk?" Yuan Xiangcheng said with a smile:

"Besides, we are publicly disbanding the 4th Division, but secretly we can completely disband the division without withdrawing the personnel."

Yuan Xiangcheng looked at Xu Shichang and said, "Brother Juren, I heard that the security associations in various places have been sending telegrams frequently recently, requesting military support, is that correct?"

"It is true." Xu Shichang sighed and said, "After the army marched north, although security associations were established in various parts of the Central Plains, the garrison forces were too few.

There are still cases of crimes and even banditry looting in various places.

But at that time, the army was facing the Russian army in the north and could not spare any manpower to move south."

Yuan Xiangcheng listened to Xu Shichang's speech and said to Duan Qirui with a smile:

"Zhiquan, you see, the north is in ruins right now, with bandits aplenty, and there's an urgent need to maintain law and order.

I think there are not enough police officers.

It would be better to recruit more good men to serve as armed police to fight against bandits and return a stable and peaceful environment to the people in the countryside."

"Brother Weiting, so this is what you were thinking."

Duan Qirui finally figured out what Yuan Xiangcheng meant by "openly repairing the plank road and secretly passing through Chencang".

But soon, he had another doubt.

"Brother Weiting, aren't you afraid that Li Hongzhang will follow suit?"

"No, no, the above are just confusing moves." Yuan Xiangcheng shook his head and smiled.

The news of the establishment of the armed police force would certainly not be concealed from Li Hongzhang, so Yuan Shikai did not intend to rely on this measure to expand the army.

In Yuan Xiangcheng's view, this was just a flaw he sold to Li Hongzhang.

The 16th Army Division + the 4th Armed Police Division made Li Hongzhang seem to have discovered his own methods.

But in fact, the real plan for military expansion still needs to be solved from the organizational perspective.

Today, the northern and southern armies all use the structure of 1 division, 2 brigades and 4 regiments. What Yuan Shikai has to do is to reorganize and fill them with people.

The people of a division are stuffed into the organization of a brigade, and the people of a brigade are stuffed into the organization of a regiment.

In name it was the 1st Division, but in reality it became the 1st Army.

The plan was not brilliant, but Yuan Xiangcheng was not worried that it would be discovered in a short time.

Because throughout the Chinese dynasties, there has only been people who exaggerated the number of troops, and no one has deliberately underestimated it.

Zeng Guofan claimed that 20 Hunan troops surrounded Tianjing, but in reality there were only 12.

This time, Yuan Xiangcheng did the opposite.

After all, Li Hongzhang had never experienced the intrigues of the Kuomintang and the Communist Party during the Anti-Japanese War, so how could he see through this trick?

During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Chiang Kai-shek did not figure out how many people there were in the Eighth Route Army, which nominally consisted of only one army, until the Japanese surrendered.

By the time the truth comes out in the future, it will be too late for Li Hongzhang to expand his army.

Chapter 354: Borrowing money from XX country!

"So what's next? How do we deal with the money issue?" Xu Shichang spread his hands and said:

"If you don't manage the household, you don't know how expensive firewood and rice are. We occupy the central government's name, and we must also bear the central government's burden."

Upon hearing this, Yuan Xiangcheng turned around, put down his baton, and said, "Oh? Brother Juren, you've been in the Ministry of Revenue for so long. Could it be that you've been sorting out the annual revenue and expenditure of the Qing Dynasty?"

“The logic is clear.”

Xu Shichang let out a long sigh and said, "Including the account books sent over from Jiangning, last year's annual revenue for North China, Northeast China, and Jiangnan regions totaled over 4200 million taels."

"More than 4200 million taels?"

Duan Qirui's eyes lit up when he heard this: "This is not a small amount. The current salary of the 1st Division of the National Revolutionary Army is about 50 taels per year.

4300 million, even if only half of it is used, it is enough to mobilize more than 40 divisions.

Brother Juren, why were you crying poor just now? Is your annual income not enough?"

"Zhiquan, please listen to me first." Xu Shichang smiled bitterly and took out an account book from his arms. He slowly opened it and said:

“Before I came to Beijing, I never imagined that before the Qing Dynasty split into North and South, it could earn more than 8000 million taels of silver every year.

Even after the division between the North and the South, the North still had nearly 4000 million taels.

But what I didn’t expect was that the Qing Dynasty spent nearly 3500 million taels of silver every year.”

"what?"

Duan Qirui was somewhat incredulous: "Of the more than 4000 million taels of silver spent annually on naval and land forces, only 1000 million taels are spent. What happened to the remaining 3000 million taels?"

"But the indemnity has drained the treasury's reserves?" Yuan Xiangcheng also asked.

"Yes, but not entirely. In short, the Qing Dynasty's annual expenditure is a mess."

Xu Shichang sighed, placed a thick stack of account books on the table, and counted the annual financial expenditure of the Qing Dynasty in detail.

After the division between the North and the South, Northwest China, Sichuan, Lingnan, Jiangnan and other areas initially paid their treasuries to Beijing, but soon they stopped paying them into the national treasury and kept all of them for their own use.

So what Xu Shichang took out was the data that had just been sorted out for the North China, Northeast China, Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas.

"Look, this is last year's revenue.

The total amount of tax in North China, Jiangsu and Zhejiang was 4312 million taels, of which land tax accounted for 4%, salt tax accounted for about 1%, commercial tax and customs duty accounted for 1%, and customs duty accounted for 5%.

Compared with the period before the fall of the Qing Dynasty, there was no significant increase in annual revenue. The reason was that a large number of customs offices were abolished due to the policy of abolishing lijin and switching to commercial business, and the likin revenue was significantly reduced.

Although commercial taxes were used to make up for the shortfall, they ultimately failed to fully compensate for the shortfall in customs duties.

Fortunately, the establishment of bonded areas in Northeast China, Korea, and Shandong has stimulated foreigners and merchants from all over the country to set up factories and trade there, and the share of commercial taxes and customs duties has increased slightly."

Xu Shichang spoke very clearly about the financial revenue of the Qing Dynasty.

However, it wasn't long before he started to look worried when the topic of expenses came up.

"The Qing dynasty spent at least several million taels of silver on the imperial family each year, and before the fall of the Qing dynasty, the annual expenditure was nearly eight million taels.

It was only after Guangxu came to power that the amount began to decrease, but it was only reduced to 400 million taels.

The rest was the salaries of the royal family and the banner pay. Although the banner affairs had been reformed, at least 500 million taels were still needed every year.