Chastity Layman

"The Governor's Mansion of Youzhou has six prefectures under its jurisdiction, and now there are thirty military mansions, including fourteen in Youzhou, nine in Yizhou, one in Pingzhou, two in Beiyan, two in Jizhou, and two in Tanzhou."

In the Governor's Mansion, Shi Li Xuandao, the newly appointed Youzhou Governor's Mansion Chief, is reporting the military situation to Qin Lang.

"There are forty-eight Army Commander's Mansions in Hebei, and the Governor's Mansion in Youzhou occupies thirty."

"In addition, there are six prefectures under the Governor's Mansion of Youzhou. There are seven armies, four guards, two passes, seven cities, two towns, and thirteen guards!"

Qin Lang held a statistical sheet in his hand, and was more and more surprised as he looked at it. It can be said that two-thirds of the military power in the entire Hebei region is concentrated in the Youzhou region.

Li Xuandao was originally one of the Eighteen Scholars of the Prince of Qin's Mansion, he was also a member of the Li family in Longxi, and even a distant member of the royal family. At the same time, he was Fang Xuanling's cousin. He came from Chang'an and had been in Li Shimin's shogunate for a long time. very clear.

According to what he said, there are now 635 commanding military mansions in the entire Tang Dynasty, of which there are 257 in Guanzhong alone, accounting for 40%, and there are 46 in Longyou.

Secondly, the most commanding military mansions are in Hedong, and there are 162 lands where the emperor Longxing is located. The third is Henan, the heart of the Central Plains, with seventy-five. Forty-eight commanding military mansions were established in Hebei successively, accounting for less than 10% of the total.

The setting of Hebei Commander’s Mansion was not equal to the number of households in Hebei. According to statistics from the founding of the Sui Dynasty, Hebei was the most populous place in the world at that time, followed by Henan, then Guanzhong, and then Huainan and Hedong. However, the establishment of the Commanding Army Mansion in the Tang Dynasty was obviously distributed according to the important functions of politics and military affairs.

In comparison, Hebei is pretty good. There are only a few military mansions in Jiangnan, Lingnan and other places, and they are all concentrated in one or two important states.

There are only two military mansions in Jiangnan.

The most populous area in Hebei is actually not the Youzhou area, but Wei Zhao and other places in the south. Beiyan Prefecture, outside the Military Capital Pass, is sparsely populated, but there are two military mansions with more than 2,000 government soldiers. It can be said that the vast majority of the population in Beiyan Prefecture are government soldiers and their families.

This is highlighting the thinking of the Datang military government's deployment, strengthening Guanzhong, and guarding the border.

Originally, there were 30 commanding military mansions in Youzhou. Even if they were all subordinate mansions, with 800 people in one mansion, there would be at least 24,000 soldiers and horses. It is the duty of training.

The real war is another system.

What Li Xuandao just said about the seven armies of Youzhou and the four guards and arrests refers to this. The government soldiers serve as soldiers in civilian wars in their spare time. They usually take turns to serve as guards in the capital or to guard the frontiers. The 30 soldiers in Youzhou The soldiers of the Tongjun Mansion are not directly guarding the border. They also have to take turns to go to Chang'an to be on duty. Only a few soldiers from the 30 Tongjun Mansions in Youzhou are actually guarding the border in Youzhou, and many frontier troops are from Other Central Plains military government.

In the words of later generations, the Tongjunfu in the Tang Dynasty was similar to the organization and mobilization organizations of the armed forces of the cities and counties. The army, guards, towns, and guards were the real border defense organizations.

On the border of the Tang Dynasty, frontier troops were stationed at critical points. The larger ones were called troops, the second ones were called guards, and the second ones were called cities, towns, and guards.

For example, the seven armies in Youzhou are the Guangbian Army and Qingyi Army stationed in North Yanzhou, the Mighty Army and Zhenyuan Army stationed in Tanzhou, and the The Jingsai Army and the Xiongwu Army, the Liucheng Army stationed in Pingzhou, and the Seventh Army are the seven military cities in the frontier fortress, in which seven frontier troops are stationed.

The two Commanding Army Mansions in Northern Yan Prefecture, and the local Guangbian Army and Qingyi Army are actually not a system at all and have nothing to do with each other.

The soldiers in the two commanding mansions in Northern Yanzhou are all mansion soldiers, but usually only a small number of them are sent to Chang'an or the border to serve as guards in the capital or guard the border, and the rest are farming at home. The soldiers in the two armies belonged to the frontier army on duty. They may have been transferred from Hebei to be on duty, or they may have been transferred from the military mansions in Guanzhong, Henan, Hedong and other places to guard the border in rotation.

The Commanding Army Mansion is under the command of the Twelve Guards, and the Ministry of War is mobilized. The frontier army and Shouzhuo were mobilized by the Ministry of War and under the command of the Dudufu.

"Soldiers from North Yanzhou will also take turns to go to Chang'an to serve as guards? Soldiers from Guanzhong will also be transferred to North Yanzhou to guard the border?" Qin Lang felt that there was something wrong with this military system. One west, more than a thousand miles away. Why can't the soldiers of Beiyan Prefecture be stationed at the border directly?

Li Xuandao replied that this is the imperial government’s military system, just like during a war, the imperial court will draw soldiers and horses from various commanding mansions, then assemble them to reorganize, and then select generals and officers to lead them. It's the same as the commander of the Commander's Mansion, don't take the soldiers of the Commander's Mansion directly into battle.

Li Xuandao handed Qin Lang a map, which was a map of the six prefectures of the Governor's Mansion in Youzhou. It marked the locations of states, armies, guards, cities, towns, etc. It was much clearer from the map.

The seven armies under the Governor's Mansion in Youzhou were all set up at the foot of Yinshan Mountain, along the line of the Great Wall. As for the important town of Youzhou, there is no army in the prefecture. Instead, several military cities have been set up around Youzhou City, such as Cage Fire City, Guangyang City, Changdao City, Dushan City, Gulu City, Huicheng, etc. .

The two important passes in Youzhou, one east and one west, are Junduguan (Juyongguan) and Yuguan (near Shanhaiguan). The passes on the first line of the Great Wall, such as Beikou, have also established Beikou Shouzhuo, Yancheng Shouzhuo, and Flood Pass. Shouzhuo, Yuguan Shouzhuo, etc.

These military cities, Shouzhuobao, Zhenzhai, Shubao, etc. have built the defense line of Youzhou.

There are more than 1,000 troops and less than 5,000 frontier soldiers stationed in castles at the military level, and there are as few as 300 for guarding and arresting, and more than 1,000 for large ones. As for towns, there are generally dozens to hundreds of people, and for garrisons, there are more than a dozen to dozens of people.

Whether it is the army, the guards, the towns, or the guards, their common feature is that they all guard according to the fortresses and guard the key passes of Guanjin.

The soldiers are all rotated to guard the border, not all Hebei or Youzhou soldiers.

Qin Lang was quite happy, thinking that Youzhou's defense network was quite tight, but Li Xuandao immediately poured cold water on him.

"Nominally, the Governor's Mansion of Youzhou has seven armies, four guards, two towns, thirteen guards and two gates. There should be 37,500 frontier troops stationed there. The soldiers who are registered are old, weak, sick and disabled, and cannot fight. Even the soldiers are famous, but there is no one who checks."

There are many reasons for this situation. One is that after Luo Yi returned to the Tang Dynasty, he made a false report in the Youzhou military register and reported it.

Furthermore, many generals deliberately emptied their pay and so on.

Although Youzhou belonged to the imperial court early, the imperial court really took control of Youzhou after the suppression of Liu Heita. In fact, it only took two or three years. , Li Yuan was incompetent, but Wang Junkuo was ambitious, and he did a lot of tricks in it.

And Wang Shen and others from Luo Yi's former department also practiced fraud.

"What does Li Changshi mean, we don't have enough soldiers now, so we can't fight yet?"

"Besides, there are still problems of lack of training, incomplete equipment, and disorderly leadership." Li Xuandao bluntly said that Wang Junkuo, Wang Shen and others only cared about their own power before, and of course they were very concerned about their direct descendants. They are generous, and the equipment, money and food are given to them first, and then some other troops are too lazy to take care of them.

In addition, the frontier army is basically a round garrison, and the iron-clad battalion is full of flowing soldiers. If the chief officer is not willing to treat them kindly, how can they be willing to work hard?

So after coming here, most of them muddled along, being a monk for a day and hitting the clock for a day.

"Actually, not only our Youzhou, but Daizhou and other border areas in Hedong also have these problems. Otherwise, in these years, how could the Turkic people come and go as they want? Several invasions, the border The army was beaten to the point of losing their helmets and armor, and even the entire army was wiped out, all because of too many accumulated evils."

Datang is more capable of fighting, and those soldiers from the Baizhan government in Guanzhong are the only ones.

Qin Lang looked at the map in his hand, there were quite a lot of forts in the military towns and forts, and the line of defense was very dense, but if there were no soldiers and it was impossible to fight, it would be empty.

"Li Changshi, I think we have to find a way to deploy our troops first, otherwise, no matter how many military fortresses we have, it will be useless."

"The governor's words are very good, but where do the soldiers come from?" Li Xuandao asked, the battle is imminent, and there is a shortage of soldiers everywhere.

Qin Lang thought for a while, "First send the generals to the towns and castles of each army to check the soldiers and horses, and remove all those who are old, weak, sick and disabled. We must count how many are missing. How many weapons are missing, how many are left Money, grain and horses must also be registered.”

"As for the missing troops, I will ask the crown prince to urgently recruit soldiers from the Hebei Commander's Mansion to make up for it."

Wei Zheng was very quick in handling things. Wang Junkuo and Li Yuan's house in Youzhou had all their money confiscated, including the money of the hundreds of rebellious backbones who were captured and killed by Qin Lang that day. They were also counted quickly, and then they were announced on the list. After no one reported them, they began to reward them according to their merits.

Liu Jiu, Lin San and other officials of the Zhenfu Division were all added to the first rank, and the soldiers of the Zhenfu Division were awarded two ranks of honors, and they were also rewarded with money and silk. There are rewards.

The Mingzhou government soldiers and others were all awarded honors for a turn, rewarded with money and food, and those who showed bravery were also rewarded heavily.

The old troops recruited by Su Dingfang Dou Hongxian were all rewarded with money and food. As for the guys who joined the rebellion in Youzhou on the way, Qin Lang issued the Prince's order to pardon their crimes, and also rewarded some money and food.

He didn't take any of the money rewarded to Qin Lang, but gave it all out to reward the soldiers.

"Many people shouted to go home!"

Su Lie told Qin Lang that there are still about 8,000 heroes from Hebei gathered in Youzhou, and most of them were originally going to join Li Yuan's rebel army. Although they have not been questioned, they are still panicked and want to go home early .

"Didn't I already say that the war is coming, and since it's here, let's contribute our strength, and everyone will join the army to prepare for the Turks."

"Some people don't want to fight for the court. Dozens of people escaped in the middle of the night last night, but they were all captured by patrol soldiers. I don't know how to deal with them?"

Qin Lang was a little annoyed by Su Lie's question.

"Since the governor has issued an emergency call-up order, these people are soldiers of the imperial court. They are soldiers and in the army, or when the war is approaching, what do their actions count?"

Su Lie replied helplessly, "Deserters!"

"Then I would like to ask General Su, what is the crime of desertion?"

"The imperial court formulated the "Law of Catching Death". The deserters are divided into two categories. The first category is the deserters who went to the battlefield, and the second category is the deserters who guarded the border or defended the city. Each has a different punishment. Counting from the beginning, each additional day will result in eighty slaps, and every three days the crime will increase by one level, the highest being exile."

"On the battlefield, when the two armies are engaged in battle, if they run away, they will be executed immediately!"