Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, a month later.

"My lord, this is the investigation report on the military strength of Pingzhou submitted by the generals, and this is the plan for the rectification of the military strength of Pingzhou discussed between the last general and the generals, and I invite the lord to take a look!"

Still in the study of the City Lord's Mansion, Liu Yi put the two documents in front of Shang Ji.

Shang Ji took it and opened it, and flipped through the document of the military power report slightly, and anger swelled up on his face.

Although it has long ceased to have any expectations from the county soldiers in various places, the current situation in Pingzhou still makes Shang Ji angry.

Pingzhou (except Lelang) nominally has 6.3 million troops, but according to the actual investigation of Zhao Yun and several people, the total number of troops is less than 5 million, and 1.4 million troops have become a number on paper.

What's even more terrifying is that the combat effectiveness of the existing county soldiers is so low that it is impossible to look at it directly! More than half of the second-order soldiers are numerous, and there are even a small number of first-order bastards who are indiscriminately filling the numbers. Morale was low, the morale of the army was weakened, and the only part of the elite soldiers was also controlled by the local family.

The generals were all full of fat intestines, and in the face of the assessment of Zhao Yun and a few people, they either left Gu Yan or directly abandoned the official and fled. The treasury was empty, and the weapons and equipment, food, grass, and salaries that should have been stolen were all stolen.

"No wonder! No wonder this Xianbei person can enter the prison year after year! No wonder the Wuhuan people can show off their might! No wonder the Yellow Turban Army can look at it! With such a group of moths to guard against the northern Hu tribe, it is really the blessing of Gaozu that the Han was not killed! Shang Ji slammed the paperwork on the table and said sneeringly.

Liu Yi stood beside him expressionlessly, unresponsive to Shang Ji's disrespectful words. He had long been desperate for the Han Dynasty!

"Lord, Zilong, please tell me what to do next!"

"Go as planned! The opening of the reform, the demotion of the degraded! The people have great grievances and bad style, pull them out and cut off their heads to show the public, and dare to cut off all the claws of the wealthy families who put their hands into the army! Give them orders, don't be afraid, they have me behind them! In addition, let them pay attention to see if there are any buried materials that can be made, and they can't neglect the real talents! ”

Liu Yi didn't speak, just nodded.

Shang Ji picked up another military rectification plan, thought about it, threw the document back, and said to Liu Yi: "Since my brother is here, then I won't read it, and my brother will just say it!" ”

Liu Yi was not polite, and said directly: "According to the joint discussion between Brother Yu and several generals, combined with the current general trend of the world, and with reference to the opinions of the third brother, we agree that the number of troops in Pingzhou should not exceed four million!" ”

"Why?"

"First of all, according to the requirements of the lord, even ordinary guards are the elite main force when placed elsewhere, not to mention the main battle army. Under the condition that the quality of the army is superior, we can carry out the elite army policy to the end, and four million troops are enough to ensure the safety of Pingzhou! ”

"According to our estimates, the most dangerous situation in Pingzhou is nothing more than the siege of Xianbei, Ding Yuan, Gongsun Zhan, and Gongsun Du. There is Lulong Fortress, and the 500,000 troops are enough to block Gongsun Zhan and Ding Yuan to the west of Liaoxi. And our army occupies the advantage of the naval division, many important cities in Lelang County are built by the sea, relying on the naval division we can contain most of the troops of Gongsun Du.

Each division of 500,000 troops was stationed in the eastern part of Liaodong and the southern part of Xuansu, which was enough to firmly press Gongsun Du in Lelang.

And our army can gather the main force of cavalry and fight a decisive battle with Xianbei. Large-scale cavalry decisive battle, even if it is Xianbei, it is not our opponent! ”

Finally, Liu Yi also added: "Of course, this is the worst strategic situation, and based on the current intelligence, it is almost impossible for this to happen." At least the chance of Gongsun Chan colluding with Ding Yuan is infinitely close to zero. And we also have Lu Bu in Bingzhou as a quasi-ally. ”

"No, we have to plan according to the worst situation, which is very good!"

Shang Ji shook his head and said to Liu Yi: "The future strategic plan must first defeat and then win, and you can't be arrogant!" ”

"The teachings of the Lord will be remembered in the end!"

Shang Ji smiled: "There are no outsiders here, just talk to the two of us, brother doesn't have to be so serious!" ”

"Don't waste your courtesy!"

Shang Ji shook his head helplessly and motioned for Liu Yi to continue.

In addition, the four-million-strong army limit also fully took into account the opinions of the third brother. According to estimates, to complete the goal of building an army of four million in the eyes of the princess, it is estimated that 150 million gold will be required to invest funds, and the annual military expenditure in the future shall not be less than 60 million gold! The huge military expenditure is very detrimental to Pingzhou's development plan. The four million army is the result of repeated negotiations between me and my third brother. ”

Listening to Liu Yi's words, Shang Ji also frowned, not counting the windfall, Pingzhou's taxes in a year are only more than 60 million, and the maintenance cost of the army in a year is basically the same as all taxes. And that's not even counting the salaries of officials at all levels, as well as a host of other inputs for disaster relief, immigration, childbearing encouragement, education, and so on.

According to this standard, Pingzhou's annual tax payment must exceed 100 million yuan to barely be financially healthy.

Now Shang Ji is extremely glad that there are Wuhuan people who have sent a batch of windfall to Shang Ji, otherwise Shang Ji would have to stay in Pingzhou for at least five years and not move.

"What is the ratio of soldiers to guards, how many special types of troops are in the army?"

This is different from the past, the last system update increased the combat power of special troops, but also increased the cost of special troops. Even with the financial resources of Shang Ji, he did not dare to convert all the war troops into special troops.

"The ratio of the guards to three to two is more appropriate, the strength of the guards has increased, and they can also shoulder some heavy responsibilities. Many passes can be called to be defended by the guards. The war army is only used as a field mobile force, and the number of 1.6 million is enough! ”

Shang Ji thought about it for a while, and felt that what Liu Yi said was very reasonable, the guards in Pingzhou were not easy to mess with, they were all regular troops, and they could even be compared to the main elite elsewhere, and it was a bit overkill to simply use them for defense. Appropriately handing over some military tasks to the guards can also be regarded as making the best use of things.

"What my brother said is reasonable, so I don't know how my brother thinks the soldiers are best formed"

"The last general thinks that the best composition of the soldiers is 100,000 black armor Xuan cavalry, greedy wolf cavalry, silver dragon iron cavalry, scorching sun cavalry, dragon bow cavalry, Yan Tiger cavalry, Xingyao strong bow, sun shooting warrior, hundred battle phantom pawn, heavy armor mad knife, giant axe soldier, northern power crossbow, giant shield soldier, heavy armor sharp spear 50,000 each, a number of armed soldiers (this depends on the situation, there is no fixed number) The rest is selected to be supplemented by regular troops!"

Shang Ji closed his eyes and pondered for a while, and then spoke: "Why didn't my brother say that the Shadow Ghost Riding Shadow Ghost Ride is a special situation and is not suitable for large-scale training. In this way, let's train 20,000 ghost riders first, and also hand them over to my brother's management. ”

"This, this is not appropriate!"

Liu Yi said with some hesitation.

The number of this special class is obviously linked to status, Shang Ji is the main prince, and the black armor Xuanqi directly under him is 100,000, and the others are 50,000. If Liu Yi adds another 20,000 Shadow Ghost Riders, then the special troops directly under him will be as high as 70,000, although they are only 20,000 more than others, but their status is obviously different.

"What is suitable or not, I think it is appropriate!"

Shang Ji waved his hand and directly interrupted Liu Yi's excuse, he intended to train Liu Yi to become the number two person in the army!

If you don't discuss the issue of power, it is very advantageous to have an obvious number two person in the military or in the government system. It can help merchants share a lot of things, and they can quickly stabilize the overall situation when there is an accident, and they can even try to fight on multiple fronts that are more taboo.

Shang Ji is not worried that there will be a situation where the tail will not be able to get rid of, not to mention whether Liu Yi has this ambition, even the situation in the army does not allow this situation to happen!

The Pingzhou Army was brought up by Shang Ji, and the backbone generals were all trained by Shang Ji. Shang Ji has absolute control of the army. Although the generals under his command respect Liu Yi, the premise of this respect is that Liu Yi is Shang Ji's brother, wife and brother, and Shang Ji's trusted subordinates.

Once this premise does not exist, the generals will abandon Liu Yi one after another.

"Okay, let's make a plan according to this standard, in addition, Guo Biao's bloodthirsty tiger ben, Dian Wei's evil god guard, Chen Guan's thousand illusions, and my shadow clothes and secret weapons should not be counted in the army system, I will personally control these."

"Yes!" Liu Yi nodded and said.

Guo Biao originally had a thousand tiger troops, all of whom were seventh-order soldiers, and their combat strength was fierce. However, after he accepted Geng Gong's inheritance, the Tiger Ben Army also evolved, expanding its maximum number to 10,000, adding several superb legion traits such as tenacity, madness, bloodthirstiness, rage, and lonely loyalty, and its combat power soared. However, there is now a serious shortage of personnel, only 1,000 people.

And the maximum number of Dian Wei's evil god guards is three hundred, but the attributes are very perverted!

Under normal conditions, the Evil God Guardian is a seventh-order class, but he has a very unique trait - the closer you are to the evil god, the stronger the melee combat power is!

And the upper limit of the increase is 20% of Dian Wei's personal combat power!

Shang Ji has already done the test, these three hundred evil god guards are fighting normally under the leadership of Dian Wei, and they can basically exert the strength of the first-class generals or above, and the closest few people can even burst out with the peak combat power of the super-first-class generals!

Dian Wei led three hundred evil gods to guard, and it was no problem to kill eight in and eight out of tens of thousands of elite troops!

And Thousand Illusions is a special class of troops promoted by the secret agent of cloth clothes after Chen Guan absorbed Zhang Liang's inheritance.

This class is really as his name suggests, ever-changing. You can adjust your appearance at any time, and at the same time, you can automatically obtain some corresponding skills according to the identity of the disguised object! Of course, this skill has a lot of moisture, and it can only fool the layman.

For example, disguised as a fourth-order soldier, although he also has some combat skills, his actual combat power is only at the third-order level at most, and in the event of a conflict, it is easy to show his feet.

In addition, low-level Thousand Illusions can at most disguise themselves as ordinary soldiers, low-level blacksmiths, servants and other characters who are not very popular. Those Qianhuan who can disguise themselves as military generals, scribes, and even officials are also the elite of the elite within Qianhuan, and the number is pitiful!

But even so, after the secret agent Buyi was promoted to Thousand Illusions, Shang Ji's intelligence network progressed rapidly, and a large amount of hidden information continued to be sent to Shang Ji's desk.

After Chen Guan was promoted, there was another benefit, that is, the number of Thousand Illusions had increased significantly, originally there could only be a maximum of 1,000 secret agents, but now the number has directly increased tenfold, up to 10,000.

Of course, the corresponding training cost has also surged, and it costs a thousand gold to cultivate a thousand illusions, and the requirements for soldiers are very strict, requiring an intelligence value of more than sixty.

This super high cost and terrifying requirements even Shang Ji scratched his head, with his strong support, the number of thousands of illusions has just broken a thousand, and you can't reach it in the short term when it is full.