The army has always been the largest spender in the Tang Dynasty system. Strictly speaking, everything from Li Ze's establishment to the Wuwei era, and now, is based on the army. It is not an exaggeration to describe all Li Ze's previous policy strategies using the policy of first military affairs.

This is nothing to do.

In a warlord's separatist era, in an era of internal and external troubles, no matter what you want to do, first you must ensure your survival, and then you must ensure that you can defeat your enemies. And to do this, there is no doubt that you need a strong army.

Only when your fists are hard enough will someone pay attention to what you say and will someone dance to your flag. All your ideals will have a stage to fully display.

The Tang Dynasty's 12 Guards' Army, plus Rangers, Navy and other troops directly under the Military Commission, exceeded 500,000. In order to ensure the combat effectiveness of the army, Li Ze adopted a high-paying policy from the very beginning.

The income of soldiers in the Tang Dynasty was extremely high. In addition to their high salary, there were countless other welfare policies that benefited their families. In the past, these policies ensured that the soldiers could sacrifice their lives on the battlefield without any worries.

But as Li Ze has now controlled most of the territory of the Tang Dynasty, the nomadic peoples around him who were worried about either traveling far away or surrendering and being gradually assimilated, while Tubo was destroyed, and its territory became a province of the Tang Dynasty. Looking around, Li Ze could no longer find a decent opponent.

As for the Southern Alliance, in Li Ze's eyes, it is no longer a powerful opponent. The so-called Guangzhou small court is more like a joke in Li Ze's eyes. On the contrary, Zhu Youzhen from Yizhou will make Li Ze feel more concerned.

Li Ze felt that it was completely unnecessary to maintain such a huge army. The huge military expenditure every year was the heavy burden on the court, which made the government often have the will but not enough to do something else.

But you don’t think about reducing military spending and reducing the income of soldiers. You can’t even think about the benefits. You can get better, but you can’t get them. Otherwise, everything you have worked hard to manage before will be ruined.

But reorganizing the army and reducing the army is completely possible.

"The 12 guards of the Tang Dynasty have a total force of more than 500,000 people. The specific numbers are included in the reports before you. They also include military academies and other personnel in service." You Yong looked up at everyone: "Your Majesty means that within five years, our army will be reduced to less than 300,000."

As soon as You Yong finished speaking, a buzzing discussion suddenly sounded in the conference room. This number surprised everyone.

"Your Majesty, the actual population of my Tang Dynasty now exceeds 10,000 people and 500,000 troops. In other words, it is only 200 people to raise one soldier. I think this ratio is not high. Compared with the past, this number has been greatly reduced." Not long after returning from Qinghai-Tibet, Li Cunzhong, as a member of the Military Commission, involuntarily stood on the standpoint of the army and began to safeguard the interests of the army. "In the past, when the Tang Dynasty was at its peak, there were only 50 people to raise one soldier, and when the drama was cut, even ten people had to raise one soldier."

"So, the people are not living a life!" Li Ze said lightly. "And what were the treatments of those soldiers at that time? What equipment were they? Can we compare with our current soldiers? At that time, many soldiers could not eat enough so they went to join the army to make a full meal, and some were even forcibly arrested to join the army. Those troops were not much better than bandits."

Li Cunzhong was choked and lowered his head awkwardly.

Li Ze is right. Even the Hedong Army where Li Cunzhong was located at that time was called the most powerful army in the Tang Dynasty. The only ones who can fight were actually just personal soldiers of the generals.

All the generals at that time were all fed by their relatives. Their personal soldiers were treated very well, with complete armor and stomach weapons, while other troops were just given a bite of food. The one who maintained the stability of the army was that the full meal was because in other places, they could not even have enough food.

And the current army is a world of difference from the army at that time.

"Everyone, General Cunzhong just said that we have two hundred people raising a soldier now. Statistical figures are good, but if we go deep into reality, it is not the same thing!" Li Ze continued: "The surge in the population of the Tang Dynasty is just a matter of recent years. To be precise, it has been in the past five years. So a considerable number of these two hundred people are just newborn babies, children who are still learning to speak, and teenagers who have not yet grown up. They themselves still need to spend money to raise them. In addition to these two hundred people, the statistics also include elderly people, patients, etc. who have lost their ability to work. Therefore, after deducting these water numbers, one of our soldiers is actually only about fifty people who are raising them."

"Last year, our Tang Dynasty's entire fiscal revenue was 150 million taels. Does it sound like a lot? But do you know how much the army spent? All the military expenditures were 50 million taels, accounting for one-third. This is undoubtedly too large. Of course, it contains the cost of war. But overall, it is still relatively high. After careful calculations, the current situation we are facing, the proportion of military expenditure must be reduced to about 10%. After we completely defeat the South, the military expenditure war ratio will continue to be reduced."

Having said this, Li Ze looked at You Yong and said, "You continue talking!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!" You Yong nodded: "Everyone, our future army in the Tang Dynasty will develop in a small but refined direction. To be precise, the equipment will be further optimized, the selection of soldiers will be stricter, and the treatment will be further improved. However, the number of troops will be greatly reduced. In order to ensure stability, we must also ensure the combat effectiveness of our army."

"First, in the next five years, except for graduates from military academies, we will no longer recruit new recruits. That is to say, in the next five years, there will only be retired and no new recruits. Since the beginning of Wuweijie Town ten years ago, we have begun to implement a retirement mechanism, so the average age of our army is quite young. Now the average age of our army is twenty-three. Not recruiting new recruits for five years will increase the average age of our army to twenty-five years, so it will not affect the combat effectiveness of our army."

"Secondly, increase technical troops, increase naval forces, and reduce the number of ordinary army."

"Third, the entire Tang army will be newly organized into five war zones and five brand new corpses. It is the Northwest War Zone, the Northeast War Zone, the Southwest War Zone, the Southeast War Zone and the Central Theater. The Twelve Guards Field Army of the Tang Dynasty will be organized into these five major military zones. The navy will be temporarily included in the management of the Southeast War Zone."

"The organization of each war zone is 60,000. Please note that these 60,000 people, including non-combatants in the army. The military equipment of each war zone will be determined based on the actual situation of each war zone."

The conference room was extremely quiet. Everyone understood that such a big move involved all aspects of the interests. Not to mention anything else, the original generals of the Twelve Guards held real power, and after this reorganization, there were only five people left at once. Whoever went to stayed, the knowledge here would be great.

Who doesn’t have any friends or friends in the sitting area? Who doesn’t have a good friend?

After this reorganization is completed, I am afraid that a large number of senior generals will face retirement and unemployment. As for ordinary soldiers and middle- and low-level officers, it is not worth mentioning at this time.

"The field troops in the five major war zones are not allowed to participate in other domestic affairs except for defending the security of the Tang Dynasty. Of course, except for major natural disasters, local public security will be responsible for the order of the Jing'an Army. The military expenditure of the Jing'an Army will no longer be paid by the Military Commission, but will be borne by local local governments. In other words, the Jing'an Army will accept dual leadership in the future, one is the top-down management system of the Jing'an Army, and the other is the local government. Everyone, that is, what I want to say is all."

Everyone's eyes turned to Li Ze.

Li Ze nodded and said, "Everyone, the large-scale reduction of the army is also to echo the center of our next five-year plan, namely, the development of the economy. The retired soldiers from the army are all young and strong, and when they return to the local area, they are all hard laborers. More importantly, these soldiers have received systematic education in the army, and they have a stronger sense of responsibility for the country and the family. These people traveled around the world and had a wide range of knowledge. They returned to the local area and could effectively drive the local economic development. It may be that you may not believe that in our Tang Dynasty, more than 70% of the people have never walked out of a place fifty miles away from home in their lifetime. With just a little range of activities, how much knowledge can they have and how great can they have? These retired soldiers are also the seeds we sow and the seeds that lead everyone to wealth."
Chapter completed!