Iron Dynasty

September 27th is a good day for Qingzhou with high autumn air.

In the city, scholars, merchants, and ordinary people live and live as usual, and there is no smell of war here.

It's just that there is another scene in the Hall of State Council at this time. The battle report from Yizhou will take at least ten days. When the battle report arrived in Qingzhou, the current Yizhou has been besieged by barbarians for ten days. It is unknown whether the city is broken now. number.

After receiving the battle report, Xiao Ming immediately summoned the Minister of Civil and Military Affairs to prepare for this barbarian invasion.

Your Majesty, this time the barbarians conquered Songzhou must be a traitor with the Tibetans, otherwise the barbarian army would not be able to appear outside the city of Songzhou.

Zhan Xingchang first came out and said after hearing the news.

Xiao Ming frowned. Tubo was the most unstable factor in the southwestern border of the Great Yu Kingdom. Since the founding of the Great Yu Kingdom, it had fought against the Tubo on the border three times, two of which won and one lost. The most recent war was ten years ago.

At that time, Luo Quan personally led the army to go there, attacked the Tibetan army camp at night, beheaded 15,000 Tibetan soldiers, and scared the Tibetan army away.

Fiji sighed at this time and said: Your Majesty, what the great ancestor made in Chang'an was to intimidate the barbarians of Tubo, the Golden Horde and other Fan states. Now Qingzhou is thousands of miles away from Tubo, and the intimidation of Tubo is far less than before. Now, it is reasonable that Tubo was bought by the Golden Horde.

Niu Ben was a little impatient, he said: You civil servants are mother-in-law and mother. Now that the barbarian army has hit the city of Yizhou, for today's plan, we can only send a large army to destroy the barbarian army under the city of Yizhou.

Pang Yukun said: I think that the purpose of this barbarian is to loot, and winter is coming soon. The barbarians who suffered a few years ago must plunder enough materials before the winter comes, and the war report says that the barbarians are mainly cavalry. Specializing in plundering is enough to see its intentions.

Ministers, you said every word, all of them looked excited and made generous statements. Compared with the Chengqing Hall in Chang'an five years ago, the ministers were discussing how to deal with the enemy, rather than being overwhelmed by fright.

Xiao Ming was secretly satisfied with this change. Under his rule, the Great Yu Kingdom was very different from when Xiao Wenxuan was in power. The victories achieved in several battles with the barbarians made the ministers change their fear of the barbarians.

Looking at the ministers in the Hall of State Council, Xiao Ming said, Regardless of whether the barbarians are in trouble with the Tubos for the time being, the most important thing now is to drive the barbarians out of the land of Bashu, so as to prevent the thirteen prefectures of Yizhou from being sacked by the barbarians.

The fact that the barbarians made their way through Tubo was a surprise to everyone in the court. At this time, Xiao Ming recalled that Kublai Khan had used Tubo to bypass the heavily guarded northern defense line of the Song army to attack Dali in contemporary history. The events are quite similar.

After pondering for a while, he continued: I will immediately pass on my will, order Lu Fei to lead 20,000 troops to aid Yizhou, and Qi Guangyi to lead 30,000 cavalry troops to go there together, and we must annihilate the enemy in the future.

Yes, Your Majesty. Niu Ben said solemnly.

After deciding on this matter, Xiao Ming continued: Although the matter of Yizhou Mansion is under the jurisdiction of the Military Aircraft Department, all Aiqings should fully assist and not delay the war.

Civil servants such as Fiji and Pang Yukun immediately bowed their heads. They knew in their hearts that the current court was no longer the previous court.

Now the ministers in the court are performing their duties, those who are in charge of government affairs are only in charge of government affairs, those who are in charge of war are only in charge of wars, and those who are in charge of law are only in charge of the law.

Therefore, the war in Yizhou this time is ultimately the responsibility of the Military Aircraft Department. All they need is to cooperate with the Military Aircraft Department to provide food and grass and recruit civilians.

The war was urgent, and Xiao Ming didn't say anything anymore. He assigned the ministers their own tasks. He asked Niu Ben to stay and the other ministers to disperse.

After everyone left, he said to Niu Ben: This time you will transfer 10,000 musketeers equipped with new firearms to Yizhou to kill the spirit of the barbarians.

Niu Ben's expression moved slightly. The 6,000 musket soldiers Xiao Ming said were all equipped with conscripted muskets. In the past six months, the military workshop delivered a total of 15,000 conscripted muskets to the army.

There are still a large number of muskets in the army that are being transformed in the military workshops, and they are planning to gradually equip all the troops of the Great Yu Kingdom with such long-range rifled guns.

Yes, Your Majesty. Niu Ben nodded heavily.

From Xiao Ming's tone, he could tell how angry he was at this time. This Yizhou Prefecture was already known as the Land of Abundance, and it was an important source of raw silk, grain, and tea in the Great Yu Kingdom.

Moreover, the autumn harvest is coming soon, and the barbarians' tossing this time will drag down the recovery of the Great Yu Kingdom, and will also affect the foreign trade of the Great Yu Kingdom.

Also, taking advantage of this war to allocate 20,000 troops to Huajue Island, I want to let the barbarians know that they are not the only ones who will burn, kill, and loot. Xiao Ming gritted his teeth.

He was caught off guard by this barbarian raid. Although he had always been prepared for the Tibetans and stationed 30,000 cold weapon troops in Songzhou, the barbarian 60,000 cavalry and 80,000 slave soldiers attacked him. Down, these 30,000 cold weapon troops are vulnerable.

Niu Ben's eyes were sharp and he said, Your Majesty, the old minister thinks it's time to expand the army. An army of more than 100,000 cannot guard against the vast territory of the Great Yu Kingdom. Even if these troops cannot be equipped with firearms, it is good to use armor and swords. What happened in Songzhou will keep repeating itself.”

Xiao Ming frowned deeply. At this time, he deeply realized how easy it is to conquer the Great Yu State, but how difficult it is to hold the Great Yu State.

In the world, Da Yu is undoubtedly in the worst strategic geographical environment. Compared with the United Kingdom, the island countries of Japan do not border any country. There are many neighboring countries in Da Yu. The most important thing is that none of these countries are Good stubble.

In order to prevent the surrounding barbarians from running in and looting and leaving, he must build a circle of fortresses on the vast land of the Great Yu Kingdom to prevent invasion.

Therefore, just the defense of the homeland will consume a lot of military expenditures of the Great Yu Kingdom, which is one of the reasons why the dynasties of the past dynasties rarely go on expeditions. Decline faster.

In contrast, Britain and Japan had no such concerns. They did not need to defend their homeland at all. The army only needed to attack, and most of their attacks were looting.

To put it simply, it is beneficial for them to fight wars.

Then how many troops do you think the Great Yu Kingdom should maintain at present? Xiao Ming asked.

If there were no firearms, the Great Yu Kingdom would need at least 1,200,000 troops. Now, from the perspective of the old ministers, it needs at least 500,000 troops, more than 300,000 for defending the territory, and more than 100,000 for expedition. Niu Ben slowly said.