In the eyes of everyone, this corruption scandal is a continuation of the previous Huainan grain case, and it is also a spur to all officials. Although the emperor has been absent for half a year, the imperial power is still supreme and sacrosanct.

As for the weakening of the power of the prime minister, ordinary officials will naturally not feel it. After all, in these troubled times, the emperor with military power in his hands has too much to do as he pleases. What does it mean to slightly break the political bottom line?

Why did Liu Yuan also castrate hundreds of officials? No one dared to object and could only endure it silently. Except for the prime minister, all the powerful people joined the silkworm room.

At present, Li Jia has no idea of ​​reducing the power of the prime minister, but only strengthens the imperial power. He does not want to be restrained by civil servants during the campaign, nor does he want the dozens of states he has worked hard to conquer to be corrupted by bureaucrats.

In order to encourage himself not to be greedy for pleasure, Li Jia asked people to place many weapons in the study, including swords, crossbows, guns, etc. No one dared to object, and they did as they pleased.

"It seems that Yushitai really needs to be tougher and let the officials see the power of God from time to time before they are willing to work hard!"

By the end of May, the time of summer harvest, in just three or four months, the census of Dingkou households in all prefectures and counties across the country had basically been completed.

Including Chengtian Mansion, the entire Lingnan has 280,000 households (including the people who migrated to Huainan), Dingkou has 1,533,200 people, Lingdong has 1.1 million, and Lingxi has 430,000.

The difference is more than double.

To the east of Lingdong, Chengtian Mansion alone occupies nearly 500,000 people, and there are even more to the west of Lingnan. It is true that whoever wins Guangzhou will win Lingnan.

If he follows the standard of one out of fifteen, Li Jia can recruit 100,000 soldiers, but the damage to the civilian population is too great, so under normal circumstances this is not done.

If we add the 700,000 people in Nanping, the 600,000 people in Hunan, and the 1.5 million people in Lingnan, the total population of the entire Tang Dynasty is almost 2.8 million, which is about the same as that of Hou Shu and only a few meters away from the Southern Tang Dynasty.

Some distance away.

"It's a pity that the fourteen prefectures of Huainan have a population of nearly one million, and I can only get two to three hundred thousand in a hurry!" Li Jia sighed.

There are still a lot of books on his bookshelf, basically historical books such as "Hanshu" and "Historical Records". It is true that reading history makes people wise. The political methods of the previous dynasties can be used for reference, regardless of

Whether it is military or political, it is of great benefit.

China's history has been constantly moving forward, constantly centralizing power, and constantly strengthening imperial power. This is an inherent tradition in the feudal era.

After the Anshi period and the development of the Five Dynasties and several dynasties, the entire world was moving towards centralization of power, with vassal towns and separate regimes, and the country had no royal power. By 961 AD, there was no country left.

Therefore, Li Jia can pat his chest and say: "I am also following the general trend, and there is no reason to reverse it."

Moreover, he read history books and found that since the Anshi period, the quality of military personnel has become lower and lower, and there are fewer and fewer Confucian commanders like Li Jing who are both civilized and military. The army also increasingly respects bravery and treats literati as nothing.

Because the literati were insulted by the warriors, they also hated the warriors more and more. The warriors who had little education naturally looked down on the scholars, so they disliked each other and went to extremes.

Having been an emperor for such a long time, most of the memorials are basically handled by the prime ministers. Only those of fifth rank and above submit them and give their own suggestions, which are judged by the emperor.

Within a few months, the political aftermath was dealt with, and Li Jia concentrated on the army.

At present, the Tang Dynasty has almost 100,000 soldiers and horses, about 40,000 imperial troops guarding Panyu, plus thousands of Yuan Congjun guarding the palace, 15,000 people in Changsha Prefecture, 15,000 people in Jingnan Prefecture, and 10,000 people in Xiangxi Prefecture.

In addition to the more than 10,000 people training in Changsha Mansion, the number of people on foot and riding alone has reached 100,000.

Of course, in terms of army numbers, Datang was still at a disadvantage.

Later Shu had 200,000 soldiers and horses. In the Central Plains, there were only 200,000 forbidden troops. The rest of the local armies were useless. The Southern Tang also had 300,000 troops. In the New Tang Dynasty, only the navy was powerful and could surpass one wave. The rest could only

It's crushing.

In a short period of time, if the quantity cannot be surpassed, it can only be surpassed in terms of quality, especially military armor equipment, which is a bonus.

The armor has full body armor. Although it is a bit rough, it is enough for ordinary soldiers. The survival rate of new soldiers wearing armor on the battlefield is almost the same as that of ordinary veterans.

Weapons, iron swords, catapults, and bronze cannons are really invincible. No matter how powerful the Northern Song Dynasty Forbidden Army is, they are still mortal.

This dimensionality reduction attack reminded Li Jia of the later Manchu Qing Dynasty.

Most people understand that the Manchu cavalry were basically tough, brave and invincible, but this kind of invincibility was built on huge ordnance and equipment.

After all, in terms of riding skills, the Manchus could not compare with the Mongols, but with the blessing of equipment, they could crush the Mongols.

Moreover, compared to the rags of the Ming army, the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty wore at least three layers of armor. Ordinary bows and arrows were basically unable to do anything to them. This was based on exploiting millions of Han people in Liaodong and constantly entering the country to plunder Han people.

On a basic basis.

Of course, the Shanxi merchants also had a share of credit. They exported iron tools and grain, allowing the Manchu Qing to export the gold and silver they plundered from the pass.

What is even more exaggerated is that the Manchu Qing Dynasty had the most advanced artillery troops in East Asia. Kong Youde defected to Houjin with the most advanced artillery troops of the Ming Dynasty, allowing Houjin to begin to become the first-class artillery troops in East Asia.

During the Songjin War in 1641, the Qing army gathered more than forty heavy red cannons and launched an artillery battle of unprecedented scale with the Ming army's artillery.

I'm going too far. In short, the invincibility of the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty was only partly due to their bravery. In fact, most of it was due to the overwhelming equipment.

Of course, heavy firepower is in a suppressive position, but when fighting hand to hand, it also needs to be suppressed.

Li Jia immediately thought of muskets. No, the skills are not up to par. Bows and arrows? The training time is too long and it is not cost-effective.

"Then we just have to play with crossbows?"

Although operating a crossbow requires a lot of strength, the technical content is very low, there are basically no technical requirements, the quality of the soldiers is not high, and it is simple and easy to understand.

Moreover, Lingnan's crossbow-making technology has always been leading, and it even set up a divine crossbow army to concentrate its firepower.

However, the crossbow also has many shortcomings. First, the manufacturing cost is very high and requires skilled craftsmen; second, it is heavy and easy to damage. The string made of animal skin glue is also very resistant to moisture, and the small brown rope is not afraid of moisture and has less power; it consumes

Crossbow arrows also require a large number of craftsmen to make.

To put it simply, if you don’t have money, don’t play with this kind of high technology.

"However, these difficulties are the easiest to solve for me. I have a lot of money, at least I have money in it!"
Chapter completed!