All the generals on the front line implied that the General Staff had been in a sufficient number of breastplate cavalry at present, and if there were extra horses, they should be supplemented with the Dragoons or Hunters as much as possible.

If there are more war horses, please form a new light cavalry unit.

Qi State does have horses.

The generals who did not contact the Ministry of Revenue were not very clear about this, but in the past he liked to interfere in other departments as the prince, and now he is a legitimate prime minister, Xu Shiyang has a clear data list:

By the beginning of August of the fifth year of Longdao, the number of horses in Qi State was 62,000, of which the total number of war horses and pack horses used by the military was 12,000, the total number of horses and pack horses was 5,000, and the number of horses in government departments was 22,000, the total number of horses in civilian horses was 39,000.

Among the remaining horses, there are 15,000 ponies and old horses that are not suitable for service. There are about 8,000 horses that can be used. There is no problem in more than double the current light cavalry of the Qi army.

However, Xu Shiyang did not want to expand the cavalry troops so brainlessly.

In his eyes, the most important main body of the Qi army is still infantry and artillery. The focus of expansion after unifying the world in the future should be the navy and militia systems. The cavalry in the standing army does not need to be too large in scale.

What's more, Xu Shiyang has already planned a new war plan, which requires the infantry to equip a large number of horses to enhance mobility.

Originally, this plan was just Xu Shiyang's sudden idea, but when the representatives of Shanshan and Shaanxi Marquis gradually arrived, the plan was completely lingering in Xu Shiyang's mind.

At the end of August of the fifth year of Longdao, Xu Shiyang submitted the general framework of his plan to the General Staff for comment.

According to the process, the strategic plan proposed by the Commander-in-Chief or the Chief of General Staff needs to be reviewed by the General Staff Department. The first is the feasibility. If the General Staff believes that it is feasible, the General Staff Department will issue instructions to the subordinate departments to formulate specific implementation plans. Finally, the senior staff are responsible for finding and repairing loopholes in the plan.

This process is not complicated, especially since the current staff still has not learned how to reasonably overturn the strategic framework proposed by Xu Shiyang.

Therefore, Xu Shiyang's plan was quickly passed: this year's routine autumn offensive will no longer be carried out, and it will be a large-scale winter general offensive!

Moreover, the main target of the attack is no longer a secondary city like Haizhou, but the core of the Jin Dynasty's rule, Liaoshen!

According to Xu Shiyang's request, the main purpose of this battle is:

First: Through one or several strategic decisive battles, the main force of the Jurchen army was completely and irreversibly destroyed.

Second: Occupy Liaoyang and Shenzhou and drive the remaining Jurchens out of the Liaozhong Plain.

Third: The Jurchens no longer exist as a major strategic threat, allowing Qi to gain the honor of pacifying Liaodong, and have the reputation of recreating the Central Plains.

Non-strategic purpose: to allow all field troops to be trained in practice.

Xu Shiyang's plan actually overturned the three-year plan to pacify Liao, and directly fought the Jurchens this winter, and then the Liaodong War in Longdao sixth year was about to enter the final stage.

This plan looks ambitious, but it's a bit too radical.

But in fact, after careful calculation and thinking, the staff found that the goals of the plan actually have great possibilities to achieve.

The General Staff believes that the Qi army has advantages in the following aspects:

First of all, the Qi army's standing army has exceeded 100,000. If it enters the strategic general offensive, then the Qi, Hebei and Liao provinces can mobilize 800,000 reserve troops and men and women militias!

To face the 900,000 Jurchen Tatars, there are no more than 40,000 soldiers who can fight, and 10,000 of them are newly formed and unreliable Aha Firearms Force.

Others who can only act as auxiliary soldiers and have no combat power at all have no more than 60,000.

And these 100,000 were already the limit of the Jurchen Tartars.

Then, the development of Qi's textile industry has enabled the Qi army to launch an offensive battle in the daunting winter in Liaodong.

Unlike most Tartars who could only use a rag to wrap urla grass in the house to survive the winter, the Ministry of Industry of Qi can provide each front line troops with a set of woolen coats, a set of sweaters and a set of cotton clothes.

With small things like ear protection and a lot of whale oil applied to exposed skin, the colder the weather, the more advantage Qi Jun has.

Secondly, the combat effectiveness of the Qi army's standing army has surpassed the Jurchen Tatars in all directions. Then the Qi army still has the ability to win the strategic decisive battle under the same troop conditions, not to mention the situation where the military strength is so huge.

Finally, the three Spring and Autumn offensives in the past two years may give the Jurchen Tartars an illusion: the Qi army would also adopt a conservative but safe approach and spend a lot of time step by step to advance towards Liaoshen, which may cause the Jin army to be strategically careless.

Be prepared to fight but not, the strategic advantage appears to be even greater.

Therefore, the General Staff spent five days to improve the details of Xu Shiyang's winter general offensive plan, and then Xu Shiyang informed the entire report to Xu Muhe, King of Qi.

When submitting the plan report, Xu Shiyang said this to his father:

"The sooner we destroy the Jurchens, the sooner we will gain the hearts of the people of the world, and the sooner we will have the opportunity to unify the world and become the real master of the country."

So the plan was successfully endorsed by King Qi and officially entered the preparation stage.

It was already September of the fifth year of Long Road. According to the original plan, it should be the time to launch a routine autumn offensive.

However, the Qi Army General Staff Headquarters only issued a series of mobilization plans, but did not order the prepared cavalry troops to attack.

According to the orders of the General Staff Headquarters, all the Qi army's regular troops, except for some fortress garrisons and the Qi Prince's Guards, began to gather in southern Liaoning. The actual troops in place in the plan were 90,000 navy and army.

In addition, Hebei Province mobilized 32,000 reserve personnel and 110,000 militiamen.

Qi Province mobilized 55,000 reserve personnel and 150,000 militiamen.

Liao Province mobilized 20,000 reserve personnel and 70,000 militiamen.

The Kingdom of Goryeo mobilized 10,000 new troops and 30,000 old-style troops.

In addition, Wang Qinian's horse-mounted thieves and cavalrymen were 1,000, and the total mobilization was as high as 568,000!

In order to maintain the normal operation of such a large army, Xu Muhe issued the order of King Qi, allocating 550,000 stones of grain and 850,000 bundles of grass from the Ministry of Revenue.

In addition, there are a large number of strategic reserve food such as canned food, meat (pork, mutton, whale meat), salted fish, sugar and other supplies, and ready-to-eat foods such as fried noodles and pancakes are purchased from the public.

The General Staff also specifically requires private feed factories to provide 100,000 servings of feed before December.

All textile factories in Qiguo require 150,000 sets of winter clothes by the end of October: each set of winter clothes includes a woolen coat, a set of sweaters and a set of cotton clothes.

Thereafter, 20,000 units will be provided each month, which is expected to continue until March next year.
Chapter completed!