Chapter 1096: Great Disarmament

After the end of the Anshi Rebellion, there were six years to cause the situation of the division of the feudal towns, which made the people of the Tang Dynasty suffer deeply, and now the rebellion was finally completely pacified, but the places were not very calm, because the rebellion had a great impact on the production of the entire Tang Dynasty and the lives of the people, and the government's handling of public security was also inadequate, resulting in bandits and bandits everywhere in the Tang Dynasty occupying the mountains as kings, and the existence of these bandits and bandits caused great harm to the business travelers and pedestrians who traveled from south to north. It also hindered the economic and material circulation of the Tang Dynasty, especially in the original feudal towns of Hebei, Henan, and Shandong, where there were a large number of routs and deserters, who fled into the mountains and forests to survive by robbing their homes and houses, causing serious harm to public security in various places. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 infoFor this reason, Zhao Ziliang specially issued an edict for local governments to severely crack down on and encircle and suppress these bandits and bandits, so that the role of the local garrison will be brought into play, and the command of all provinces will make this position particularly important.

In the context of the entire Datang Dynasty, bandits and bandits in various places are simply unable to resist the attack and encirclement of the official army, and they want to flee to other states and counties, and the officers and soldiers of the surrounding states and counties are also on alert, ready to intercept at any time.

After just half a year, by October, the bandits and bandits in Datang were basically wiped out, and some bandits knew that they could not escape and could not resist the attack and encirclement of the official army, so they could only go down the mountain and surrender.

The rebellion was pacified, the bandits and bandits all over the country were also wiped out, all parts of the country were calmed down, and there were few wars, the army meant that the military expenditure was huge, and the huge military expenditure brought a huge burden to the imperial court finances, and the wealth and heritage accumulated in the prosperous era of the Tang Dynasty have basically been consumed cleanly, if Zhao Ziliang had not copied the family property of so corrupt officials and families, he would not have been able to support the huge military expenditure of so many armies, in order to alleviate the financial pressure, the focus of the imperial court's governance was on the development of the economy, Therefore, there is no need for as many troops as there are now, so disarmament has become inevitable.

Disarmament is not a casual and easy thing, if it is not done well, it will lead to incidents, these days many people rely on the army to support their families, disarmament means that many people can no longer eat the bowl of rice in the army, lose their source of income, and many soldiers and generals in the army will not do anything but fight, and if they are dismissed and let them return to their hometowns, it is possible that they will fall into the grass when they are unable to make a living, and this will undoubtedly bring huge hidden dangers to local public order.

"In the past, there was no way, the feudal towns in various places were divided, they did not obey the control and dispatch of the imperial court, they conscripted each other, appointed officials on their own, withheld taxes, and the imperial court had to recruit a large number of soldiers and horses in order to quell the rebellion, which was no way. But now we don't need so many soldiers and horses, not only do we not need to, but also because there are too many troops, the military expenditure required is also too much, and the huge military expenditure has brought huge pressure to the finances of the imperial court. Today, the generals of the imperial court and the military of various regions, the garrison generals of the military districts, and the commanders of various provinces are here, and I would like to take this opportunity to share your opinions on how to ensure that this matter can be carried out smoothly without causing incidents! ”

After Zhao Ziliang finished speaking, he leaned back on the throne and handed over this kind of brain-wrenching matter to the civil and military ministers in the main hall. The reform of the military system has already been completed in an all-round way, and the garrison generals and commanders of various provinces in more than 20 military regions across the country have already been in office for four or five months; this time, for the sake of disarmament, Zhao Ziliang specially issued an edict to recall them all to Chang'an, and another purpose was to let them go to Beijing to report on their work, and he also wanted to learn from them how the officers and men of the various armies felt about this after the implementation of the new military system.

Li Yi, the head of the household department, stood up first, the army's military expenditure must be spent from the household treasury, and his pressure is the greatest, so he was also the first to stand up and say his opinion, "King, according to the old minister's understanding, now my army in the Tang Dynasty is divided into three parts: the first is the forbidden army in the capital, which is almost 300,000; The second is the garrisons of each military region, which is almost 600,000, and there are also local garrisons under the command of each provincial commander, which is also about 300,000, that is to say, the total strength of our Datang has reached 1.2 million. Now the total population of my Datang is only more than 22 million people, that is to say, twenty people have to raise one soldier, which is terrible, even if it is thirty people to raise a soldier, it is very difficult, and the imperial court taxes can't only be used to raise soldiers, right? The officials need money, the royal family needs to spend money, the retired officials need pensions, the soldiers killed and wounded in the war need pensions, if natural disasters occur, the imperial court also has to allocate money and grain for disaster relief, and the embankments on both sides of the Yellow River and the Yangtze River need to be strengthened every year, etc., Wechen will not list them one by one here! Since the reign of the king from last year to the present, if it were not for the seizure of a large number of corrupt officials and corrupt officials to enrich the treasury, I am afraid that the imperial court would not have succeeded in quelling the rebellion at all, and the finances of the imperial court would have gone bankrupt long ago! Weichen believes that the current situation in our dynasty can only raise 300,000 troops at most! ”

"Fart, the old man doesn't agree!" Zhang Shouyu shouted and stood up.

Li Yi heard Zhang Shouyu's foul words, and his face immediately turned red, and he pointed at Zhang Shouyu and said, "You ??????"

Zhao Ziliang sat on the throne and frowned, looked at Zhang Shouyu and said: "King Mobei, no obscenity, no loud noise, no beating on the court, this king reads that you are the first time to go to the court, and you are not familiar with the rules of the court, there are extenuating circumstances, and you will not be held accountable, but there must not be a next time, understand?" ”

Zhang Shouyu also realized that he was reckless, and hurriedly clasped his fists and bowed and saluted: "The minister understands!" ”

"Okay, since you don't agree, then tell me your opinion!"

"Yes!" Zhang Shouyu agreed, and immediately said: "King, the minister thinks that the rebellions in various places have just been quelled, and the bandits and bandits have just been wiped out, but the people's hearts have not been completely stabilized, and the minister agrees to disarm, but does not agree to keep only the number of 300,000 troops, which is too little, at least 800,000!" ”

Yan Zhenqing, who used to be the secretary of the military department and is now one of the prime ministers, stood up and bowed to the arch hand: "King, it can be said that there are no enemies around the Tang Dynasty now, and it is useless to maintain a huge number of troops, at least the minister thinks so, it is just a waste of military expenses!" Now the role of the imperial army is basically only used to maintain internal stability, and there is not much need for troops! Wechen thinks that 300,000 troops is enough, and if someone thinks that this number is too small, then it can't exceed 400,000 at most! ”

Li Baoyu, who was appointed as the general of the Mobei garrison, stood up and hugged his fists and said: "King, the minister thinks that 400,000 is still too little, now there are twenty-two Dao in Datang, and on average, the strength of each Dao is less than 20,000, not to mention that there are two capitals that need to be stationed with heavy troops, in case of a foreign enemy coming in, wouldn't we not have any extra troops to keep the enemy out of the country?" The minister believes that the minimum number of troops to be retained after disarmament should not be less than 600,000! ”

Zhao Ziliang looked at it for a while and saw the clue, the civil servants wanted to minimize the number of troops and use most of the fiscal taxes for other purposes, while the generals wanted to keep as many troops as possible, so that the number of their commanders was large, and the military expenditure was also large.

In the end, the number of disarmament still needs Zhao Ziliang to make a decision, and Zhao Ziliang made a decision after careful consideration: "In this way, the total number of troops will be retained 500,000, and 600,000 will be temporarily reduced, and it will be increased or decreased according to the situation in the future!" This number has been set in this way, and the next thing to discuss is how much the forbidden army should be retained, how much the garrison army should be retained, and how much the local army should be retained. ”

The question is actually how to dismiss the 600,000 people, and now there is nothing for the civilian officials to do, and it is the turn of the military generals of the forbidden army system, the garrison system, and the local army system to compete with each other, and the onlookers stand on the sidelines and sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight.

As the head representative of the garrison, Zhang Shouyu first stood up and said: "King, the garrison undertakes the garrison tasks of each military region, if there is a war, the garrison should be the first to arrive, and undertakes the most important combat mission, the minister thinks that the number of the garrison should be maintained at about 400,000!" ”

As the leader and representative of the forbidden army, Zang Xiyan was of course unhappy, "King Mobei, your garrison's appetite is too big, right?" The forbidden army is the main mobile military force in the entire Tang Dynasty, how many people are you going to leave behind for our forbidden army? If you snatch away the 400,000 places, there will only be 100,000 left in the forbidden army and the local garrison, and if it is divided in half, there will only be 50,000 each, and the local army will be responsible for local security, and the number of people cannot be too small, and 50,000 people will be divided into 22 provinces, and each province will have less than 3,000 people, what is the use? And our forbidden army is not only responsible for the safety of the capital Chang'an, but also as a mobile force to be transferred to various places at any time to reinforce or fight as the main army, how can 50,000 people be enough? ”

As the representative of the commander of the local garrison, Han Youzhen, the commander of the Hedong Province, stood up and said: "That's it! King Mobei, although you have a high title and are old, you can't bully people like this, according to your division, we only have less than a hundred troops in each county of Hedong Province, how can we guard the city and maintain local law and order with only such a small number of men? ”

For the distribution of troops, the forbidden army, the garrison and the local garrison fought for three points, and both sides refused to give in to each other, and finally Zhao Ziliang made a decision, the forbidden army retained 100,000 people, and reduced 200,000 people; The garrison retained 300,000 and reduced 300,000, and the local garrison retained 100,000 and reduced 200,000, for a total of 700,000.

The dismantled soldiers and generals, a part of the elite soldiers are assigned to the counties, prefectures, and provinces to serve as government officers and catch fast, and the dismissed officers and generals are assigned to be county lieutenants and head catchers, and at the same time, the original officials and generals who have become old fritters are abolished, and only those who are willing to do things and have the ability to do things are left, and the places vacated by them are reserved for some of the elite soldiers and officers who have been dismissed. However, these require the cooperation of the local government.