Spoiling History: Starting from the Three Kingdoms

For Liu Bei, he was not very envious of the fact that the irrational emperor Li Zhi had an army of 300,000.

After all, Kong Ming had already told him more than once that the difficulty in commanding an army of more than 100,000 people was never the people.

Logistics supplies, communication between superiors and subordinates, how to effectively convey orders, how to give instructions when fighting, etc. are all difficulties.

But these difficulties are not insurmountable.

Training officials, making officers literate, formulating regulations to convey orders with flags and drums, recruiting more army staff, etc. These are all ideas that come up during casual discussions.

The command of the army can be cultivated and reproduced.

But the victories of those famous generals cannot be replicated.

For example, a champion can go deep behind enemy lines without getting lost, and can fight bravely.

For example, Li Jing rushed to sweep the Liting Court on a snowy night, and he could predict that the enemy would hit.

At this moment, Liu Bei's words to future generations that the meaning of a famous general is to speed up the process of history became clearer.

Ten thousand people can achieve your goal of 300,000 people, and it will take less time, consume less food and grass, and achieve the goal better.

[The decline in combat effectiveness of the Tang Army during the Emperor Li Zhi's period is visible to the naked eye.

Some people attribute this to the gradual collapse of the imperial army system, and claim that the strength of the Tang Dynasty during Li Shimin's period was due to the complete imperial army system.

But in fact, in Li Shimin's later period, the military system could no longer keep up with the times. The most typical example is Xue Rengui.

Xue Rengui was not a government soldier, but a recruiter. In the Tang Dynasty, he was called a recruiter.

The Benji of Taizong writes very clearly: Send out soldiers from all over the world, recruit 100,000 soldiers, and go to Pyongyang to attack Goryeo.

Why do you do this? Because the government soldiers are simply not enough.

The government military system is similar to the integration of military and peasants. They serve as soldiers in wartime and as farmers in leisure time. They are exempt from taxes, but they need to serve a corresponding number of days each year.

For example, there is a thousand-man military mansion within five hundred miles of Hulao Pass. According to the Tang Dynasty's military regulations, this thousand-man military mansion needs to be divided into five teams of 200 people to serve in turn within five months, that is, five Fan.

This kind of government military system was completely insufficient after the Tang Dynasty began to expand.

The rapid expansion of territory means that the places where government soldiers serve are often thousands of miles away from the military government, and each service may take a year or more.

Moreover, there were frequent wars during the Zhenguan period. It was often possible that after a soldier's one-year military service was completed, another war would begin, and the soldiers would have to rush to another battlefield, making the calculation of turns extremely complicated.

Secondly, during the Zhenguan period, when military merit was still high, the government soldiers restricted the scale of sending troops.

Still taking the Fifth Division as an example, Li Shimin established 634 military mansions in the world in the tenth year of Zhenguan. The military mansions were divided into three levels: upper, middle and lower. The upper military mansion had 1,200 people, the middle military mansion had 1,000 people, and the lower military mansion Eight hundred people.

From this, it can be vaguely calculated that the number of government soldiers in the ten years of Zhenguan was 600,000. According to the provisions of five rotations of service, the limit of the government soldiers that could be mobilized in the ten years of Zhenguan was 120,000.

These 120,000 soldiers must not only guard the border but also defend the capital. In the end, only about 40,000 to 50,000 people can be deployed to fight.

If you include the time spent by the soldiers on the road and the provisions for taking turns to rest, if there is a continuous battle, the number of soldiers that can be dispatched can even be reduced to about 30,000.

For this reason, Erfeng began to recruit troops when he attacked Goguryeo, and finally drew the golden card of Xue Rengui.

Everyone who wants to do it will get a hundred if he raises ten, and a thousand if he raises a hundred. Those who are not allowed to join the army will sigh in anger at Yu Yi.

This is a record of recruiting soldiers. It can be seen that the effect is very good. After all, for the people of the Tang Dynasty, joining the army does not care about your three melons and two dates. Everyone is going for military glory.

During the Battle of Liaodong, the combat effectiveness of this group of recruited soldiers was also obvious to all.

Not to mention the God of Death Xue Rengui, he is simply the best spokesperson for recruiting soldiers.

A typical example is the Battle of Baiyan City. The city lord surrendered and rebelled again, which made Li Shimin very angry. He immediately ordered the city to be destroyed. He took no money from the prisoners and treasures, but rewarded them all to the soldiers.

Under this encouragement, Baiyan City was conquered in three days. During this period, Qibi Heli even led only 800 men to repel the 10,000 reinforcements from Wugu City. The combat effectiveness of the recruited troops was evident.

After the Battle of Goguryeo was temporarily over, although the two battlefields were very similar, Li Shimin still issued an edict prohibiting those who had participated in the Battle of Goguryeo from participating in the Battle of Xue Yantuo.

This edict can be said to be for the benefit of the people, or it can be said that it is to give the eager soldiers at home a bite of meat.

But the tossing and turning in the middle is enough to show that it is not so much that the military system is gradually collapsing.

It would be better to say that the government military system has gradually become incompatible with the national conditions of the Tang Dynasty, which often required fighting across thousands of miles. 】

Although there was no edict to integrate the military government of the world, Li Shimin had to admit:

The conflict here is really a source of worry.

Military mansions are mostly located in places like Henan, Hebei and Hedong Pass. It would have been better if we had conquered Jieli last year. The journey is only a thousand miles away.

If we recruit soldiers from Huainan Road into the Western Regions, it will probably take a year to go back and forth.

But you can't completely ignore the soldiers in Huainan Road.

Because if the Western Region is to be conquered, only the troops from the nearby Guannai Province will be sent out. After the Western Region is pacified, Guannai Dao will probably have several military merits per capita. The soldiers from Huainan Province and Hebei Province will probably have green eyes.

Therefore, Du Ruhui was quite curious in this situation:

I wonder what the military system will be like in future generations?

Li Shimin has been immersed in fighting for many years, but he doesn't care much about it:

No matter what kind of military system, in the end it is just the desire of soldiers to dare to fight.

The soldiers of Zhenguan Prefecture are strong. They are strong because meritorious deeds must be rewarded and demerits must be punished. The general dares to take the lead and does not hesitate to sacrifice his life for the country.

Anyone who can do this will be a strong soldier regardless of whether he is recruiting soldiers.

If you can't do it, a military government will be useless.

It is not only an answer to Du Ruhui, but also Li Shimin's own question and answer.

At this time, Li Shimin remembered that the soldiers of later generations were named in front of the people, and that this army of later generations could march against natural disasters.

He vaguely understood something, and even remembered a question he asked himself a long time ago:

What is a strong army?

Li Shimin asked and answered himself:

The Taoist makes the people agree, so they can die with them and live with them without fear of danger.

Li Jing knew Sun Tzu's Art of War by heart. At this time, Su Dingfang, who was confused, explained:

Sun Tzu said that there are five ways to strengthen an army and achieve victory. The first is strict laws, the second is wise and brave generals, the third is knowing the location, and the fourth is being able to get the right time.

None of these four are difficult. Your Majesty said it was the fifth one.

As soon as Li Jing opened his mouth, Su Dingfang wanted to roll his eyes. Isn't this difficult?

Okay, it may not be difficult for you.

Su Dingfang also remembered that these were the opening words of Sun Tzu's Art of War.

Because it is the beginning, it is often ignored by people, who focus on studying the subsequent attacks, military strength, actual situation, military struggles, etc.

Sun Tzu said it simply, but Su Dingfang also understood:

How difficult it is to attain enlightenment in these five days. Who can do it?

The people agree, that is, the soldiers, the people and the monarch have the same will, so that the army can live and die without fear.

According to Guangmu, the imperial soldiers during the Zhenguan period were only fighting for military merit, and were far from being enlightened.

Du Ruhui also thought of the people's army charging against the natural disaster, and sighed softly:

The army of future generations will be the army of enlightenment.

Su Dingfang and Li Shi couldn't believe it.

Li Shimin smiled and expressed understanding.

[Therefore, the decline in the combat effectiveness of the Tang army has less to do with the lack of government troops and more to do with Li Zhi.

When Li Zhi saw that his father was recruiting troops very effectively, he also imitated him.

But the difference is that the combat effectiveness of Li Zhi's recruits is getting worse and worse, and there are fewer and fewer strong recruits. In the later period, even the old and weak were dissatisfied with the recruitment, which is in sharp contrast to the Li Shimin period.

Later, Liu Rengui couldn't stand it any longer, so he gave Li Zhi a yin and yang in the memorial, and he summarized a key point in time.

The fifth year of Xianqing, that is, 660 AD.

This year, Su Dingping defeated the Three Kingdoms of Congling, and his master returned to the court. Later, when giving the reward, Li Zhi did something not very authentic:

Soldiers who died in the expeditionary force will no longer be awarded merits or asked about.

One of the reasons why soldiers dared to die in the Zhenguan period was that even if they died, as long as they performed meritorious service, the credit would be passed on to their families. During Li Shimin's period, special envoys would be sent to visit the families of the deceased and pay homage to the spirits of the fallen soldiers.

Li Zhi canceled all these benefits.

Later, when it came time to pacify Baekje and besiege Pyongyang, Li Zhi intensified his efforts. Not only were there no rewards for those who died in battle, but military merits were withheld from those who were still alive.

Therefore, after 660 years, the situation of every conscription in the Tang Dynasty was reversed from that in the Li Shimin period:

People who are strong, have plenty of money at home, and have connections in the government will work hard to hide in Tibet, just to avoid being drafted.

People who had no money and connections, even the old and the weak, were forcibly recruited into the army.

How could the Tang army's combat effectiveness not decline under such circumstances?

During the reign of Emperor Gaozong, he had to recruit troops for every battle, and more and more troops were recruited. For example, after the defeat of Dafeichuan, Li Zhi probably learned from the painful experience:

I haven't recruited enough soldiers!

So they collectively raised 300,000 people and handed them over to Pei Xingjian, just because they were afraid of losing.

That is to say, Pei Xingjian was really capable at that time and arranged the 300,000 troops in an orderly manner.

Otherwise, if it had been someone else, this group of Tang troops with varying qualities might have destroyed the logistics before they started fighting the Turks.

And why did Li Zhi suddenly become so stingy? Because he keeps the money for great use:

He wants to be granted Zen status on behalf of his father.

Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu began preparations for the grand ceremony of conferring Zen in 664, and it was not until the beginning of 666 that the official conferral was officially granted.

This trip can be called the most massive face-saving project since the founding of the Tang Dynasty.

Only one month after being granted Zen status, Li Zhi, who directly destroyed the treasury, officially issued the order:

Make new money and waste old money.

He is going to steal money from the people of Tang Dynasty. 】