The festival lasts from early morning to noon, with a pause for necessary eating, a two-hour break, and a resumption of the festival in the afternoon.

Eating is naturally not in the main hall of the council hall, the flow of people goes to the side hall in batches, the imperial officials are led to different side halls by the palace maids at different levels, the envoys of various countries are arranged in one place, and Lu Zhe and a few high-ranking officials stay in the council hall.

King Qin, King Zhao, and King Wei, the three of them were not left in the council hall, but because the three of them were princes, they must be treated differently from others, so they naturally had to make special arrangements. They are led to dine with their daughters or sisters. Girl, naturally it is Wei Shuang's daughter, Zhao Xie's daughter, Zhao Xin. The sister is Fusu's sister Yangzi.

It will not only be Lu Zhe's harem concubines who will accompany the three kings, but also the heirs born to the concubines will also be present, and after the noon meal, the three kings will come back to participate in the court meeting, and in the evening, they will participate in the family banquet held by Lu Zhe.

Because of the need for dinner, the seats in the council hall naturally had to be rearranged, and the seat cushions of the court class were removed, the table tables and new futons were moved, and some stoves for warm food and wine were also moved.

The civil officials who remained in the council hall were the chiefs of each department, and the military attachés were the commanders of each department and the lieutenant generals of each legion. In fact, it can also be seen from here that the current empire attaches more importance to ...... Or it should be said that Lu Zhe still attaches great importance to the military, otherwise it is rare for the county guards of each county to come to Nanling, and the county guards are not lower than the lieutenant generals of each legion, but the county guards have not been given the opportunity to stay and eat with the king.

At the beginning of the establishment of each new empire, the military will be the most powerful stage, generally with the reduction of the war initiated by the country and the king's intention to suppress the military, so that the status of the warrior from the beginning of the intentional suppression of the gradual loss of the right to speak, to the military generals in the end really do not have much right to speak, the dynasties are no more than this.

If the existing law of development is followed, at this stage, Lu Zhe should also gradually suppress the military. began to raise the head of the civilian clique, and some of the civilian officials have been waiting for the arrival of their own rise, but Lu Zhe did not play his cards according to common sense, the territory of the empire is already quite vast, and the military has repeatedly swelled to more than three million active troops, but the suppression of the military has not been carried out for a long time.

Some people have already seen that with the war in the northwest subsidence, most of the empire has entered the necessary stage of reconstruction, and the next cut for the military will definitely be carried out, but it is not clear how big the reduction will be.

Those county guards who turned back step by step, most of them had envy on their faces. However, for all the Zhonglang generals who returned to Nanling to be left in the council hall, many people had a meaningful look.

Some people have speculated about the next strategic development of the empire, the current stage of the threat to the empire is the Hu people in the north and northeast, if you want to eradicate the threat of the two sides is not a while, the extremely mobile grassland Hu people can hardly use a military strike to give fatal losses, can only repeatedly send troops against the grassland Hu people to bleed, with a long military campaign to achieve the goal of removing the threat of the Hu people. So how long will such a military operation last? A conservative estimate is at least a decade or more.

A war that lasted for ten years was not a long time, but ten years of the empire's establishment of three million was too long, and whether the threat of the steppe Hu people was solved at that time was not discussed. The empire should be dragged down by the military spending required by a huge army.

"Therefore, it is necessary to establish a standing army of professional soldiers, but the size of the army should be gradually reduced in order to achieve a healthy and balanced development."

The person who suggested a gradual reduction in the size of the army was Kuaitong, that is, it was appropriate for him to say such things. If someone on the civilian side said something like that, the generals would probably jump out and wave their fists.

"After calculation, in the future, we need to gradually reduce the army, and the regular establishment should be maintained at 800,000. Among them, 300,000 can be used as first-class army corps, that is, six full-strength field corps, and the remaining 500,000 can be diverted to form another fourteen corps. Fourteen legions. What kind of legion is a second-class legion or a third-class legion can be selected according to actual needs. ”

The A, B, C, and so on are recent concepts, just like Kuaitong said, the first-class corps is the full-fledged field corps, and the second and third grades are the garrison corps and the "shelf" corps.

"Some legions can be stationed in important places as garrisons, and this kind of corps can cope with garrison tasks without having to be fully staffed. The corps of the reserve nature only retains a framework, and when necessary, the source of troops can be quickly replenished, because the officer framework exists, and only a certain amount of training is needed in a short period of time before it can be put on the battlefield. ”

This kind of army level construction did not come from Lu Zhe's opinion, but from the joint research of the Taiwei Administration and the General's Office.

As a matter of fact, this kind of army building has moved infinitely closer to the modern concept of army building, which is the kind of training of officers in peacetime and the conscription of soldiers after the outbreak of war, which can effectively reduce military expenditures and reserve a sufficient number of qualified officers for the country.

It is not so difficult to understand that there would be such a concept, Lu Zhe had already implemented the compulsory military system, and that all men and women who had reached the age of eighteen and were physically qualified in the empire should be trained in summer and winter, and it was on the basis of the compulsory military system that the Imperial Lieutenant and the General's Office conceived that set of ideas.

"Because we carry out necessary drills for young people in winter and summer, no less than four million young people will participate in the training every winter and summer, which means that when war breaks out, there must be a sufficient number of qualified soldiers who can quickly replenish the under-formed corps, and they only need to run in for a short time to form combat effectiveness immediately."

At the beginning, Kuaitong was introducing the envisaged plan, Lu Zhe did not make any statement, and some generals who had just learned of such a plan would definitely have ideas in their hearts, but because Lu Zhe did not express his position, they did not know Lu Zhe's attitude and it was not good to speak immediately.

As long as it is a military general, in fact, no one will want the army to be reduced, the current Imperial Defense Force is twenty regular corps, these corps are in some ways field troops, in the future I don't know that in a few years the twenty field corps will be reduced to six, then there will be fourteen legions into the so-called second-class corps and C-class corps, at that time, although they were all the commanders of the Zhonglang Generals, but there is obviously a difference between the three corps levels of the first-class, second-class, and third-class Zhonglang generals.

The short language introduction is finished. With no one talking, the atmosphere became a little silent for a while.

In the silence, some people sat motionless in a daze, and some people picked up dishes at a very fast frequency, so that only the sound of the tableware during the meal was left in the hall.

"Let's talk about it." Lu Zhe couldn't let the oppressive atmosphere continue.

The civil servants all quietly glanced at the people nearby, and then lowered their heads. They can't show any attitude now, otherwise they may become a punching bag for a group of generals.

The lieutenant generals and corps commanders on the military attaché's side looked at each other, they already knew that the disarmament was carried out by the Taiwei Administration and the General's Mansion, and it was not clear for the time being whether the plan of the Taiwei Administration and the General's Mansion on disarmament was from Lu Zhe's instructions, and they were depressed or annoyed that the Taiwei Administration and the General's Mansion did not disclose the news in advance. I couldn't help but be caught off guard by this news.

"Wang Shang......" Ji Bu's face was full of puzzlement: "The twenty legions of the Wehrmacht have been reducing the number of auxiliaries with the army before, and at present, the number of regular soldiers and auxiliaries of the Wehrmacht seems to be more than 1.6 million?" ”

Lu Zhe knew these things well and nodded: "There are discrepancies in numbers, but they are not big." ”

Ji Bu was a little cautious: "Next, the auxiliaries of each legion will be gradually reduced, right?" ”

Lu Zhe smiled dumbly, of course he understood what Ji Bu wanted to express, that is, he resisted the reduction of the military, and would rather completely reduce the number of auxiliaries to retain the soldiers of each legion, rather than the regular soldiers being reduced.

In fact, Lu Zhe was not so willing to reduce the number of soldiers of the various legions within ten years. However, he must take into account the reality that if there is no downsizing now, it will inevitably be downsizing in the future.

The empire will expand endlessly, but there will also be a phase of expansion. It's not that it's constantly expanding, but you always have to be able to use it effectively, not just occupy it.

"Future...... It only takes about eight legions to mobilize the forces of the northern steppes," Kuaitong laughed to stop Ji Bu's interjection. Then he continued: "About five legions will also need to be mobilized against the Donghu side.

"That's thirteen legions!" Ji Bu didn't care so much: "Since the northern grasslands and Liaodong still need to use huge military forces, why disarm? ”

Several lieutenant generals and corps commanders are also nodding their heads, to say that they are downsizing the military. Some of the Legionnaires who don't perform well are the ones who need to be most worried. If the army is reduced on a large scale, some legions that have not been given a chance to perform will inevitably be the first to be attacked, and they are absolutely unwilling to become the target of disarmament before they have achieved performance.

"That's just an estimate, it's a consideration." Kuaitong seems to be under some pressure under the pressing gaze of many Zhonglang generals? He glanced at Lu Zhe, who still didn't say anything, and tried to use a relaxed tone as much as possible: "The second-line troops of the army currently occupy too much young and strong, and there is a shortage of civilian labor. It is unimaginable that it will cost money and materials to maintain a large number of troops, and civilian production cannot keep up, so there is no need for such a huge establishment for the time being......"

"Don't we have a tuntian army?" The lieutenant said suddenly.

The empire has the establishment of tuntian soldiers, and from the stage when Lu Zhe established the army, the tuntian soldiers have always been one of the main forces to supply the army with food and grass. At present, there are 300,000 tuntian soldiers who have been fighting on the Lingnan side, and they have carved out one acre after another, and the result of several years is to add at least 1.3 million hectares of arable land to the desolate land of Lingnan for the empire.

"Except for the twenty corps of the Wehrmacht, there is really no need to keep the establishment of second-line troops so large, too many second-line troops are already bloated." The lieutenant has always been a moderate, but that doesn't mean he doesn't value the interests of the military. Although his words were vague, his attitude was quite obvious: the second-line troops can be reorganized or tossed around, but when it comes to the Wehrmacht, they will inevitably argue on the basis of reason.

Later, some lieutenant generals expressed their opinions one after another, and without exception, they all defended the interests of the National Defense Forces. They saw that Lu Zhe had not made up his mind at the moment, and perhaps Lu Zhe was also in the stage of hesitation, so he should stand up and express his opinion.

There was no change in expression on Kuaitong's face, and he always kept a smile on his face. He glanced at Lu Zhe without leaving a trace, and no longer talked about the topic of disarmament.

The empire has always been formulating development plans according to actual needs, and at this stage it is true that there is no need for such a large number of troops, and it will be suddenly expanded again and again, on the one hand, because of the development needs of the war situation, and on the other hand, it is also to concentrate the youth and the strong of the people to facilitate management.

What now? Whether it is the Central Plains, Yandi, or Qindi, as time goes by, the newly occupied or recovered areas have stabilized, officials at all levels have taken office, garrisoned troops have been in place, and control has reached a certain level, then the plan for reconstruction has a basis for implementation.

It is always inseparable from manpower to allow the private sector to rebuild production destroyed by war, so it is necessary for the young and strong people who were previously centrally managed to return to the private sector, so that these people can become the labor force for local reconstruction.

The army has always been easy to expand and difficult to downsize, and once it involves disarmament, there will always be a stronger or weaker rebound. Military generals who think that they have retained the interests of the regular army will subconsciously rejoice that the second-line troops that have been cut down instead of the regular army, and the opposition will naturally not be so strong.

Maybe the previous topic was too sudden and dull, and the atmosphere during the meal was not quite right, and a few Zhonglang generals who were too engaged in thinking even lost their minds and touched the food that should have been sent to their mouths to their noses, and it is conceivable that although they did not act too excited, it was difficult to calm down what they said in their hearts.

"Where's Sima Xin?" Lu Zhe seemed to ask, and when he got the answer, he said to Xiao He: "After they come back, it's time to start the knighthood ceremony." ”

"It's already underway," Xiao He knew that Lu Zhe was going to adjust the atmosphere, with joy: "The triumph ceremony and the prisoner sacrifice ceremony will also be carried out at the same time." ”

In fact, there should be a ceremony to comfort the temple, but to put it bluntly, Lu Zhe crossed over and did not have the relatives of the previous generation at all, and he was not happy that some people would climb to find those illustrious ancestors who could not be beaten by eight poles, so even if there was a temple, it should be Lu Zhe who became the first tablet to be placed.

When it comes to knighthood, the atmosphere at the scene is finally lively, from dull to talking and laughing, many people also have the courage to ask Lu Zhe what kind of title they will get, to which Lu Zhe's response is to laugh and scold. (To be continued......)