"The officials arrived at Kaifeng Prefecture yesterday with the farthest distance from Xingzhou Prefecture soldiers. A total of 240 military prefectures and utilities recruited and recruited by the 240 military prefectures under the jurisdiction of Yingtian Fourth Route have now arrived. All military prefectures have completed the recruitment and recruitment tasks in accordance with the requirements of the military list..."

The person who reported the convening of the military convening to Zhao Kai, who was in charge of the military discussion in the Genyuetai Palace of Kaifeng Prefecture, was Zhang Xian, the army officer of the camp. He was Yue Fei's fellow villager in Xiangzhou and his old subordinate, but he could not be considered a member of the "Yue Family Army".

Because he joined the army when Zhao Kai was recruiting troops in Xiangzhou, he later followed Zhao Kai to pacify the army and "save the army Yue Fei"!

Not long after that battle, Zhang Xian became an official, and his official position was not recommended by Yue Fei, but by Zhao Kai's private title of merit. Therefore, Zhang Xian's benefactor could only be Zhao Kai, not Yue Fei or someone else.

Later, although Zhang Xian's official fortune was not as good as Yue Fei, he always served as a subordinate to Yue Fei, and was also regarded as a figure in the "Xiangzhou School" led by Yue Fei.

But his qualifications under Zhao Kai are older than Yue Fei, and he is no longer an official than Yue Fei. Therefore, his relationship with Yue Fei is far less close than that in history, and of course he is not as close as Yue Fei and Zhao Kai.

The place where the camp military convention was held today is Genyuetai, which is located in Genyue Palace of Emperor Zhuangzong of Song Dynasty.

Under the leadership of Quan Zhizhi, the military and civilians of Kaifeng Prefecture carried out several years of reconstruction project, from Genyue City to a real Taicheng - a tall base built with stones from soil at the bottom and built a castle on the base.

After completion, the Genyuetai is not only the commanding height of the entire Kaifeng Prefecture City, but also the Kaifeng Palace of Kaifeng Prefecture and Zhao Kaikai.

Although Kaifeng Prefecture, a fortress located in the central area of ​​the Central Plains, is surrounded by flat horses and has no dangers to defend, it is still very suitable as a base for defense, as a large base for launching an attack.

Sending troops from Kaifeng Prefecture, you can cross the Yellow River from Huazhou for more than a hundred miles north, and then you can make Daming to the north and Puzhou to the east. As long as you take down Daming Prefecture and Puzhou, Hebei and Jingdong under the control of the Jin Dynasty will be under Zhao Kai's military front.

If the Yellow Flood Zone is frozen in winter and then send troops from Kaifeng Prefecture, then Songzhou and Xuzhou are all under the knife of Zhao Kai's army.

As long as you have strong strength and use Kaifeng Prefecture as the base camp to compete for the Central Plains, it will be very convenient. You can fight wherever you want!

"Twenty-four thousand government soldiers, the utility will be organized into twelve armies. Each army will have two infantry divisions (six infantry generals), one cavalry general, one artillery general, one engineer general, one baggage general and one commander general, a total of eleven generals..."

Zhang Xian continued to report on the organization of the twelve armies under the Kaifeng camp. Now is the era when artillery dominates the battlefield, and the organization of the army must of course be adjusted accordingly.

First of all, the scale of the "army" has been further expanded, from the original more than 10,000 people to a full 20,000 people. There are also as many as eleven generals under their jurisdiction - among which the number of artillery generals and command generals is relatively small, with only 2,000 people added to one. The nine generals in the area are all large-scale 2,000 people.

Secondly, there are more troops under the jurisdiction of the "army", not only infantry, cannon, cavalry, but also two new troops: engineers and baggage soldiers.

The reason why these two arms appeared was not only Zhao Kai’s request, but also related to the fact that after the emergence of cannons, the army needed to carry more construction and carry more materials during combat and marching.

Although Zhao Kai did not equip his artillery with a large amount of heavy artillery of 10 kilograms (ammunition weight) or above, he chose a bronze long cannon with a caliber of 5 kilograms and 18 times the caliber as the main force (a army equipped with six teams with a total of 24 pieces), and was assisted by a bronze long cannon with a caliber of 10 kilograms and 25 kilograms of hot pot cannons (a army artillery has two 10 kilograms and two 25 kilograms of artillery, a total of 8 10 kilograms and 8 25 kilograms of cannons). However, an artillery convoy consisting of a total of 40 artillery trucks and 160 large chariots still often encounter difficult roads, and at this time, engineers need to take action.

In addition, in order to build positions for these cannons and to build barriers to anti-aircraft artillery, Zhao Kai's army also needed more professional engineers.

As for the emergence of professional baggage troops, it is related to the more complex logistics management in the era of gunpowder weapons and more difficult transportation tasks - just the work of transporting and preserving gunpowder, artillery, and various shells, local officials and civilians without any professional knowledge cannot do it.

What's more, the baggage troops in this era sometimes have to undertake military procurement tasks, which laymen can't do at all.

Therefore, after the end of the imperial examination competition in the fifth year of Hongwu, Zhao Kai added two "army headquarters": the commander of the engineer and the commander of the logistics army, which was fully responsible for training engineers, baggage officers, component engineers, and baggage army units.

Zhang Xian continued: "After the twelve armies are completed, they will conduct at least eight to ten months of long-term training. The training will start from individual soldiers and advance step by step to the five levels of the team, battalion, general, division, army, etc.... Until next summer, these twelve armies will be considered completely formed!"

This time it is a "Long March". According to the plan, the last round will last for two years and six months!

Ten months were "serving without pay", and the remaining twenty months were paid military salaries (the utilitarians did not grant land, so they all had pay)... 240,000 people had to pay wages!

Although the military pay of the Luoyang court is not high, it is not a small amount of money to add so much money to the salary. The average monthly expenses will not be less than 500,000 jin (pit), and 10 million will have to be spent in twenty months!

In addition, the utility man pays four months of military pay, and all 11 million has to be used.

Before someone can serve the "Long March", he has to pay a deposit and a deposit of armor and machinery money, which has to be millions of qian (public).

In addition, there were more than 240,000 troops participating in this Northern Expedition.

All the government soldiers under the Luoyang court and the two wing troops who transported the troops have tasks! However, the army outside the 240,000 "main force" may not serve that long, and the cost is not that great.

If we count the cost of building artillery, engineers, baggage troops, production of explosive pots, gunpowder, ammunition, artillery, purchase of mules and horses, and raising military rations... this war will cost at least 30 million guan (male)!

This is still the case where Zhao Kai can use some land in Jingdong, Hebei, Yanshan, Datong and other places to pay rewards.

If he was really asked to pay enough wages, food, and heavy rewards, heavy gifts, and a hundred million were not necessarily enough!

Therefore, without touching the "invested wealth" of land, even if it is a "reopening master" like Zhao Kai, and with the blessing of gunpowder and golden fingers, it is difficult to defeat opponents like the Jurchens - because the Jurchens have a large ethnic group, and they can unscrupulously make existing wealth, that is, the idea of ​​land.

No matter how chaotic the world is, hundreds of millions of mu of existing land will always be there.

It is almost impossible to increase tax revenues greatly... This is also the reason why Zhao Kai and the Great Jin Dynasty both regarded their opponents as the main threat, and at the same time despised the population, arable land, and tax revenues were greater than those of the Northern Song Dynasty and the Great Jin Dynasty.

However, even the expenses of 30 million yuan (pit) were still an unbearable expense for the Northern Song Dynasty court, whose annual income was less than 15 million yuan.

Fortunately, Zhao Huan paid Zhao Kai, the "Crown Brother" with a salary of 6 million yuan... Zhao Kai didn't dare to spend this money indiscriminately. After saving for three consecutive years, he finally saved more than 16 million yuan. In addition, the money that the court had snatched out of less than 15 million yuan a year, and finally raised more than 20 million yuan to fight this battle.

However, Zhao Kai still has to avoid the long-term progress of the Northern Expedition...

Zhao Kai held his arms and stood in front of a wide map platform. Looking at the large map of Hebei, Hedong and Yanyun on it, he frowned and said, "I have an idea, let me tell you... I want to divide the twelve armies into two routes, taking Kaifeng as a stronghold, first to attack Daming Prefecture, Kaide Prefecture and Puzhou, and form a deterrent to the two towns of Wei Bo and Ziqing of the Jin thieves, and strive to attract the main force of the Jin thieves to Daming Prefecture, Kaide Prefecture and Puzhou to fight a decisive battle.

The other route secretly entered Hedong Road, sneaked north all the way, and in Daizhou, Ninghua Army left Yanmen Mountain and Kelan Mountain, attacked the Jin bandits' Hedong, and the two armies of Datong!

At the same time, he ordered Yelu Dashi and Xiao Heda to go out of Yangshan and advance to the Yinshan area to meet with our army.

After meeting with the Liao army and defeating the Jin bandit Hedong, the two armies of Datong, the northern expedition army advanced eastward through the grasslands in the south of the Mo, and then headed south to Juyongguan!"

Zhao Kai's Northern Expedition route was almost the same as Li Zicheng's later Northern Expedition to Beijing... It was a sure thing, but Zhao Kai's idea was not to send out surprise troops, but to grab a rabbit and give the Hedong Jiedushi Hebule to the cooking.

In Zhao Kai's opinion, that is a big problem. Hebule cannot be allowed to run back to Mobei!

After the Hebuleans defeated the Datong Town, which had defeated the Jin thieves, Wanyan Zonggan had to lead his troops out of Yanshan to fight Zhao Kai to a decisive battle... If he dared not come, Yelu Dashi would go to Linhuang Prefecture to restore the Daliao Kingdom!

After Zhao Kai finished talking about his plan, there was only silence left in the Genyuetai Palace Hall.

Everyone was staring at the map in a daze, frowning, as if thinking hard - it seemed too difficult to concentrate a 240,000 army to Yanjing!

However, it is not a big problem to divide troops into two groups... As long as the army is enough to fight, it can be done no matter how you fight!

"Brother," Han Shizhong asked with a smile, "Who do you want to command the Southern Route Army?"

"Pengju!" Zhao Kai smiled and said to Han Shizhong, "Good minister, how about we go shopping on the grassland together?"

Han Shizhong nodded with a smile, "Okay, if you have a family here, you will be defeated outside Juyong Pass!"

"Outside Juyong Pass?" Zhao Kai asked with a smile, "Where will the Liangchen fight to fight?"

"Wild Fox Ridge!" Han Shizhong stretched out his finger and pointed at a place called "Wild Fox Ridge" outside Juyong Pass. "We're waiting for Wanyan Zong to do it there!"
Chapter completed!