The military expenditure of more than 40 million taels a year is a terrifying figure.

After all, the Chu Empire's fiscal revenue budget for the eight years of Chengshun is only more than 80 million taels.

Military expenditure accounts for more than half of the fiscal revenue, which is abnormal for a normal country.

After all, in addition to raising troops, a country also needs to spend a considerable amount of money to maintain the operation of administrative agencies, as well as education, supporting industry and commerce, agriculture, flood control and disaster relief, etc., which all require money.

And military spending is so high that it must be reduced.

The military, especially the Army, has been mentally prepared for this. In the past few years, it has begun to colonize various areas, raising chickens, ducks, pigs, etc., in an effort to be partially self-sufficient in military food.

The Third Army was fighting in the Northeast, and was still farming during the break...

But I am afraid that in addition to reducing military expenditures, we will also conduct large-scale disarmament. This is very fatal.

Because only with enough troops can there be enough establishment, and only with enough establishment can there be enough positions of senior generals.

You can't have tens of thousands of officers with only a few hundred thousand troops...

Once the army is dismantled, officer positions will inevitably be reduced. At that time, many people, ranging from lieutenants to generals, may have to retire from active service.

He is doing a good job as a general, and if you transfer him to reserve service... this will naturally cause concern and even dissatisfaction.

Now Luo Zhixue is saying that a war is necessary in the northwest, which means that there will still be wars in the future. Since there are wars, naturally there will be no large-scale disarmament.

These generals don’t have to worry too much about being asked to retire from active duty on a large scale!

Looking at the joy on Xu Zhixian's face, Luo Zhixue naturally knew what he was thinking. They are all smart people, and everyone knows the saying "the rabbit will die and the dog will cook."

Luo Zhixue knew it, and so did his generals.

Even if it was for the sake of stabilizing the situation, Luo Zhixue could not possibly say that he would drive out the founding generals and let them go home to farm when they just killed the Dongji people.

These people, even the incompetent Luo Zhixue, will make appropriate arrangements and not chill people's hearts.

As for disarmament, that's for sure, because the Chu army's military strength is now huge!

This summer alone, when we fought against the Japanese and Mongols, more than 400,000 troops were mobilized.

This is only the front-line troops participating in the battle in Northeast China and Southern Mongolia. It does not include the large number of troops stationed in the northern region and the troops stationed in the Central Plains, South, and Southwest.

Not counting the Guards and Navy.

The army of the Dachu Empire is divided into three parts: the army, the navy, and the guards!

The Guards are very simple. Currently there are only three infantry divisions and several independent cavalry regiments, artillery regiments, and a Guards regiment that guards the palace. They are scattered to protect other official institutions in Jinling City, and are dispatched to important ministers of the empire to act as security personnel. They are called

Soldiers, but actually more similar to a security regiment of armed patrols.

The total strength of the Guards is more than 60,000. With the exception of the garrison regiment, these Guards troops are all units in a state of combat readiness. They are all established as Class A divisions and are fully staffed.

The navy has many ships but not many actual personnel. The current total strength is only more than 80,000, of which more than 30,000 are marines or coastal defense fortresses and naval base garrison troops.

The real leader is the Army.

The Army has A-class divisions and B-class divisions, among which the cavalry corps, field artillery, and heavy artillery units also belong to the A-class division sequence. The total number is quite considerable.

There are currently twenty-seven first-class divisions in the army, which are basically full with about 350,000 personnel. The equipment is not very complete. After all, most of the military expenditures of the Chu army in the past few years were actually spent on the north and east.

In the war of captivity, the sound of a cannon was worth thousands of taels of gold. The North invested so much military expenditure that the troops stationed in various places in the South, even the first-class divisions, had to move back.

The number of cavalry divisions has reached 30, most of them are full, and some are short of personnel. In addition to the four cavalry regiments, these cavalry divisions are also equipped with cavalry artillery troops, cavalry baggage troops and other cavalry division-affiliated units. The total number of cavalry divisions is 30.

The troop strength is about 130,000, but the number of mules and horses attached to it is extremely large. The 130,000 cavalry alone is attached to more than 300,000 mules and horses.

The cost of mules and horses is much greater than that of people, so the actual cost of these thirty cavalry divisions and 130,000 cavalry is more than the twenty-seven first-class infantry divisions!

There are many second-class divisions, currently more than ninety. They are dispersed and stationed in various places, and a large number of them have participated in the war in the north. The sizes of these second-class divisions vary, with as few as five or six.

Thousands of people, with a medium range of seven or eight thousand, and as many as 12,300. For example, the several second-class divisions that fought with the main force in Liaodong seemed to have the designation of second-class divisions, but in fact they had the strength and the artillery attached to them.

Not much less than a first-class division.

The total strength of these second-class divisions totals 600,000.

In addition, the Army, Navy and Guards all have Gyeonggi organizations, military academies, various group armies, corps, and provincial garrison headquarters, personnel directly under the headquarters of various organizations in local recruit training camps, etc.

Calculating this, the total strength of the three armies of the Chu Empire exceeds 1.3 million people.

This force is somewhat insufficient for the Chu Empire, which has no large-scale war and is still in the early stages of industrial development.

Moreover, more than half of these troops are second-class divisions with poor combat effectiveness and poor equipment.

Luo Zhixue is already preparing to reorganize the existing troops, and the focus of the reorganization is the second-class division.

There is no need to change the first-class divisions and cavalry divisions for the time being. They are the core combat forces of the empire and are indispensable whether it is internal suppression or external wars.

However, from the perspective of controlling military expenditures, it is still necessary to change some Class A divisions that do not have combat readiness tasks from combat readiness status to standing readiness status, thereby reducing expenditures on auxiliary troops and personnel.

The second-class division is the focus of rectification!

At present, the second-class divisions in the Dachu Empire have a large number of people and consume a lot of personnel, but their equipment is relatively poor, resulting in a relatively low combat effectiveness.

Except for a very small number of second-class divisions that cooperate with the main forces on the northern front, most of these second-class divisions are still equipped with matchlocks, spears, old-style cotton armor, and not even many artillery pieces. Some of them use

Some iron-cast artillery captured from the Ming army in early years.

Not to mention other things, at least the matchlocks must be changed to flintlock muskets. After replacing the flintlock muskets, they can be changed to the same organization as the first-class division, and they can also cooperate better with the first-class division.

.

The production of flintlock guns has already increased. At the same time, due to continuous production, production costs have been diluted. At the same time, the technology has continued to improve, especially the bullet production technology of core components has achieved a relatively large breakthrough, and the cost has dropped significantly.
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At present, the ex-factory price of a 2-year-old Type A-3 flintlock gun with the latest signal has been reduced to eighty-two-five yuan a piece. This price has dropped by half compared to the past.

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As most of the first-class divisions have been equipped with flintlock muskets, the subsequent production capacity of flintlock muskets can also be used to re-equip the second-class divisions.

For this reason, in mid-September, Luo Zhixue convened a group of senior generals from the Military Academy to discuss the issue of reorganizing the second-class division.

At the meeting, Luo Zhixue did not say much as usual in imperial meetings and just listened to the debates of the ministers. Instead, he explained his thoughts and opinions at the beginning.

"The focus of the reorganization of the second-class division is to replace the flintlock muskets and change the organization to the same organization as the first-class division."

"It is necessary to clarify the mission of the second-class division. The mission of the second-class division is to garrison the place, protect the territory and the people, and resist foreign enemies. When necessary, it can supplement the troops, mules, horses, and equipment to cooperate with the first-class division in mobile operations."

"In the local garrison of the B Division, we must comprehensively consider the various conditions of the garrison area. Places with a larger population, places with important strategic positions, and places with local turmoil should be more deployed. However, if the population is small and the strategic location is not important, more arrangements should be made.

If the place is peaceful, you can arrange less arrangements."

"In principle, the designations of each division of the B-class division will not be revoked for the time being. At that time, the number of personnel in each division will be appropriately increased or decreased!"

"We must not only control the number of troops and reduce expenditures, but also ensure that combat effectiveness does not decrease but increases!"

"The task is very heavy, but I still hope that you will use your full energy to do this well!"

Luo Zhixue was the first to express his position. Everything else was a common opinion, but the fact that the number was not revoked was special.

As for the fact that the designation is not revoked, it actually has nothing to do with disarmament or anything like that. Not revoking the designation does not mean that the military strength will not be reduced...

The strength of a second-class division is inherently very humane. A division with 12,300 troops is a second-class division, and a division with 4,000 or 5,000 troops is also a first-class division.

These second-class divisions were originally used to place generals and officers with insufficient abilities in the early stage. Without so many establishments, they could not be arranged. According to Luo Zhixue's plan, they should work in the second-class divisions for a few years to make a transition, and then retire from active service as normal.

Reserve service will avoid causing unrest in people's hearts.

When this group of people has almost retired, then we can reduce the number of second-class divisions through mergers, downsizing, etc. There are too many numbers in the eighty-plus second-class divisions, so we have to cut out twenty or thirty second-class divisions.

Just wait for the division number.

Luo Zhixue finalized the general direction, and the Military Affairs Council quickly came up with a detailed reorganization plan for the second-class divisions, preparing to gradually reorganize the second-class divisions.

The theoretical organization of the reorganized Class B Division will be consistent with that of Class A Division, but in actual organization, it will be downsized, retaining only part of the infantry and the backbone of technical arms and a small number of mules and horses.
Chapter completed!