Guangzhou, inside the Shengwangfu. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Feng Yunshan looked at the report handed by Zuo Zongtang, deputy chief of the General Staff, and sighed.

The report was a response to Feng Yunshan, asking for a proposal to expand the army.

"Ji Gao, does the General Staff know that the Nanyang Company and the royal palace have recently made some money from the trade business with the foreigners, so they are anxious to help the king spend it?" Feng Yunshan joked.

Although it has only just entered summer, Guangzhou's raw silk and tea business is already booming.

In this month alone, in Guangzhou alone, the Nanyang Company sold the tea and raw silk purchased from Liangguang, Huguang, and Zhuxi Fujian at a low price to foreigners at a high price, making a net profit of more than 2 million taels of silver.

Due to the war in Shanghai and the blockade of the Yangtze River by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Manchu Qing Dynasty, trade in the Shanghai area was greatly affected. Although there has not been a war in Ningbo, the entire Zhejiang has been surrounded by the captive army, and it is inconvenient for merchants to transport goods.

As a result, foreigners from Europe, mainly Americans and Prussians, followed by the British, French, Italians, and Dutch, abandoned Shanghai and Ningbo, and flocked to Guangzhou and Xiamen to compete for supplies. Among them, Guangzhou is the main trading place.

The customs tariffs in Guangzhou and Xiamen have also increased on a large scale, especially in Guangzhou, where the royal government has received tariffs of more than one million taels of silver in less than half a year. Coupled with the tariffs on tea and porcelain in Xiamen and Fuzhou, Zhou Shengkun, deputy minister of finance and taxation of the royal government, smiled so hard that he couldn't close his mouth.

Zuo Zongtang knew that the Holy King was joking, he shook his head and said, "Holy King, money is something outside the body, and the army is the foundation of everything. Now that the territory of the Holy Kingdom is getting wider and wider, the strength of the Chinese captives has been stretched. If you want more troops to attack the Manchus in an all-out way, and take advantage of the lack of troops to overthrow the Manchus in one fell swoop, it is time for the Holy Kingdom to expand its army. ”

Feng Yunshan nodded and motioned for Zuo Zongtang to continue.

"Holy King, the current strength of our captive army is as follows: there are 10 first-class divisions, with a total of 105,000 people, due to the attrition of the war and the fact that it was not fully staffed in the first place, according to the full number, it should reach 115,000 people, and there is still a shortage of nearly 10,000 people; There are 7 divisions of the second class, with a total of 74,000 people, and 4,000 people are overnumbered. A total of 179,000 people in the field army of Division A and Division B. ”

"The garrison originally consisted of 28 brigades, but later increased to 32 brigades, namely, the standing mobile units of the 1st Brigade A (B) to the 4th Brigade A (B), and the 9th Brigade of A (B) to the 20th Brigade of A (B). A total of 168,000 people. ”

"Now, although all fronts are opened, the division-level field army is not enough, fortunately, the combat effectiveness of the Qing Demon is low, and it will be defeated in a battle, otherwise, if it encounters a siege battle of tens of thousands of people, the soldiers will be extremely insufficient. The Holy King, the most critical thing is the local garrison, which is seriously insufficient. According to the configuration of the Manchu Qing Dynasty's small soldiers, they were all one state capital, with a strength of three or four thousand people. And now our holy country, the state capitals occupied by nearly 100 state capitals, can be according to the allocation of the garrison troops of our holy country, the average strength of a brigade has to be stationed in three or four state capitals, which is already far beyond the scope of garrison. Moreover, there is not much difference between the first-class brigade and the second-class brigade, but only the difference in numbers, and the General Staff believes that it is better to combine the troops, regardless of the number of troops and the places where they are stationed. ”

When Feng Yunshan heard this, he became a little interested, according to what Zuo Zongtang said, isn't this the local garrison in later generations, called a certain military region? Then he said: "Oh, Ji Gao will give an example. After this A and B brigade is not divided, how to name it, and how to divide the labor? ”

Zuo Zongtang saw Feng Yunshan asking, and his spirit perked up: "Holy King, take Guangdong as an example." Because of the large number of minerals and the main transportation route, Shaozhou Mansion is garrisoned by the 18th Brigade; The adjacent Lianzhou and Lianshan halls are located in the middle of nowhere, and only two regiments of the B15th Brigade are stationed. In this way, it is better to integrate them together. The 18th Brigade, the 15th Brigade B15, and the other five brigades in Guangdong were merged into one brigade and named the Guangdong Brigade, which was under the jurisdiction of the first brigade and the second brigade...... Seventh Brigade. In this way, it is easy to mobilize and support each other. ”

Feng Yunshan nodded, this idea was really good, and said, "Very good!" This king agrees with this view. However, the name of this brigade is not very much liked by this king, so if you change the name, it will be called the military district, which means the area of this army. ”

"Military District?!" Zuo Zongtang said in his mouth, "Well, this formulation is indeed much more clever than the name of the brigade. 'Guangdong Military Region' means the area under the jurisdiction of the army stationed in Guangdong. Simple and intuitive, at a glance, the Holy King is really clever! ”

Zuo Zongtang flashed a hint of cunning and said with a smile: "That is the case, Holy King, it is better than this: Guangdong Province is the first to occupy, it is the No. 1 Military Region, and all the troops are numbered 101 Brigade to 107 Brigade; Guangxi was the second to be mostly occupied, numbered as the 201st Brigade to the 206th Brigade. However, in this way, even if Guangxi wants to increase local garrison units in the future, it will not affect the army numbers of other military regions, and it will be enough to directly name the 207 Brigade and the 210 Brigade. ”

"Okay, you are Ji Gao, before you know it, this king has fallen into your trap. Anyway, the king will agree to your proposal to expand his army. However, each provincial-level military district has, in principle, about 7 to 8 local garrison units at the brigade level, and no more than 10 brigades at most, and each brigade is set to include three main infantry regiments, an artillery battalion, and an engineer battalion, plus a guard company and a reconnaissance company directly under it, for a total establishment of about 5,000 people. Feng Yunshan smiled and agreed, but the number of local garrisons in each province was also limited, limited to 40,000 or 50,000 people, so as to avoid too many soldiers and the salary of the soldiers in the future could not be afforded.

If the railways are unblocked, the transportation is developed, and the troops are transported quickly, in fact, there is no need for so many garrisons, but it is not possible now.

"As for the first and second divisions of the field troops, they are still in use. At present, even the guns and artillery of the first-class division have not been fully equipped, and it is still necessary to divide the main battle units into first-class and second-class troops. The 10th Division A will not expand the army for the time being, but will first expand the second division and then 3 divisions, form the 8th and 9th divisions and infantry divisions, and expand Peng Yulin's inland water division into the 10th Division. In this way, the Holy Kingdom has 4 water divisions, including A, B, 50, and A, B, and 10. ”

"The Holy King is wise! Zong Tang asked the General Staff to order the formation. Zuo Zongtang was overjoyed.

"The matter of military salaries is not prominent at present, but in a few years, there will be a large-scale need for silver taels! The logistics department of your General Staff Headquarters still needs to make a good plan with the Ministry of Finance and Taxation. As for the issue of weapons, it is also necessary to contact the Ministry of Public Works, the arsenals, machine factories, and the Krupp Iron and Steel Company, and urge them to produce more firearms to supply the troops. Of course, this king will also tell Wu Chongyao to ask him to purchase more guns from foreigners. Feng Yunshan reminded Zuo Zongtang that now the General Staff of the Chinese Capture Army has basically been handed over to Zuo Zongtang, but occasionally he still has to remind him.

The problem of firearms is mainly limited by production, and with the accumulation of time, the new muskets in the hands of soldiers will become more and more popular. Feng Yunshan's main concern was the soldiers' salaries.

Although, in Feng Yunshan's design, with reference to later generations, the Chinese captivity army was also divided into compulsory soldiers and volunteer soldiers. In the name of compulsory soldiers, Feng Yunshan stipulated that he would not be paid military salaries, but when he was newly enlisted, he would give his family a subsidy of three taels of silver, and the family's land tax would be halved, and one more person per mu of land would be used to encourage his family's support for joining the army.

And in order to plan for the future, ensure the stability of the veterans of the hundred battles, retain the veterans, and at the same time draw a pie for the current compulsory recruits to attract them: Feng Yunshan stipulated that after four years of compulsory service, he could be converted into a volunteer soldier, and he could enjoy at least one or two silver salaries per month.

In this way, at least during the four-year compulsory military period, the palace will not have to pay military salaries.

In this way, at least nearly 4 million taels of military salaries can be saved in a year. This was undoubtedly much easier than the burden of the Manchu court. Of course, it cannot be compared with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, not only did they not have any salaries for the army, but they also did not have to pay for officials.

However, with the big picture cake of at least one tael of soldiers' salary per month, plus the 3 taels of silver settlement allowance when enlisting in the army, the soldiers of the captured army did not feel a loss at all, but used their lives one by one, in fact, not for anything else, but for the family's field tax reduction by half, and the benefit of being able to share an extra share of the field.

Zuo Zongtang and Feng Yunshan chatted about preparing to use troops against Zhejiang and pacify Zhejiang as soon as possible.

Feng Yunshan also instructed Zuo Zongtang to lead the General Staff Headquarters to do a good job in the reorganization and integration of the local garrison brigades.

The two talked for more than an hour, and Zuo Zongtang left.