Chaos of the Three Kingdoms Summons

Chapter 2665 Abolish the Governor-General, Promote Horse Administration, and Prepare for War

January of the second year of the Qianyuan era.

At the very beginning of the new year, the Great Jin Dynasty ordered the expansion of horse administration, with the Imperial Stud taking the lead in building government-run horse farms in the Central Plains and the south.

Prior to this, the warhorse farms of the Great Jin Dynasty were mainly located in the three border states of Liang, He, and Bing, which were the capital of Sili Province.

Each of the four provinces of Liang, He, Bing, and Si has its own official horse ranches of varying sizes, responsible for supplying warhorses to the military. The total number of horse ranches in the four provinces exceeds one million.

Today, Da Jin plans to further expand its horse breeding operations by building horse farms in suitable areas across the country to ensure the horse needs for continued combat operations.

At the same time, it was also to ensure that each state could meet its own horse needs, so that the armies in the Central Plains and the South would not have to be transferred from the North when they needed horses.

From submitting reports and obtaining approvals to transporting the warhorses to the requesting department, this entire process can easily take up to a year, severely impacting efficiency.

Therefore, the promotion of official horse farms from the four prefectures of Liang, He, Bing, and Si to all parts of the country was basically for these two purposes.

In addition, officials called "Ma Cheng" were specially appointed in each prefecture and county to oversee horse administration.

Following this, the Ministry of Justice promulgated a decree: "Those who steal mares shall be put to death, and those who steal cattle shall be put in cangues." Furthermore, the outflow of mares was prohibited to prevent military supplies from falling into enemy hands.

In addition to further expanding official horse farms, the Great Jin Dynasty also encouraged private horse breeding. The court issued an edict ordering the exemption of civilian labor service to encourage horse breeding, later known in history as the "Horse Restoration Edict."

In the military, Li Xiang ordered the dismissal of all personnel with disabilities or over the age of 32 in the existing army to ensure the quality of the military.

Those who are dismissed may return to their hometowns to serve as commoners according to the imperial edict, or be selected to fill vacancies in the government offices, prisons and other yamens of various prefectures and counties.

Furthermore, starting from the second year of the Qianyuan era, the Great Jin Dynasty officially abolished the position of Grand General. The existing Grand Generals of the four provinces of He, Bing, Liang, and Yan were all replaced by Generals of the Four Provinces' Martial Guards, a third-rank official. They served as the chief officials of a province, along with the third-rank Governor and the third-rank Tax Gentleman.

The land encompassed eighteen prefectures of the Great Jin Dynasty: Liang, He, Si, Yong, Bing, You, Ji, Qing, Yi, Nan, Yan, Yu, Xu, Jing, Yang, Jiao, Qiong, and Tang.

Apart from the two military commands, Yangzhou, and Qiongzhou and Tangzhou, the remaining fourteen prefectures all had a Wuwei General. Each Wuwei General commanded four infantry armies and three cavalry armies as the prefecture's troops.

The Jin army underwent several adjustments and eventually formed the current infantry system, with 1,000 men forming a battalion and five battalions forming an army, while the cavalry consisted of 500 men forming a battalion and three battalions forming an army.

Now, the Great Jin Dynasty only has external enemies left, and its internal troubles have been quelled. Therefore, Li Xiang strictly limited the military strength of each province, with four infantry corps and two cavalry corps in each province, totaling about 23,000 men, which was enough to stabilize the local prefectures and counties.

The troops under the command of the General of the Martial Guard are not allowed to leave their respective jurisdictions without orders; those who violate this order will be executed.

Qiongzhou naturally refers to present-day Southeast Asia. If this area were truly to be developed, a single prefecture would certainly be insufficient, but unfortunately, it remains undeveloped. After years of war, its population has dwindled to just over a million.

Therefore, only one state was established.

If this place can be fully developed someday, it might be possible to split it into two or even three states again, but that would probably be at least a hundred or even several hundred years from now.

Even if we talk about Southeast Asia, or even the southern regions of the Great Jin Dynasty, such as Yangzhou, once it is fully developed, that province would have to be divided into several provinces. If it weren't, the strength of that province would be too unbalanced.

As for Qiongzhou, not only was there no General of the Martial Guard, but there wasn't even a Prefect. It was simply divided into eight commanderies and kingdoms, directly managed by the Six Ministries of Nanjing.

As for the troops defending Qiongzhou, they were composed of the troops of the various vassal kings.

Tangzhou, naturally, is the present-day homeland of the Li Tang dynasty.

However, this state is currently only in the planning stage and has not yet fully taken shape. After all, at present, only most of the southern part of the peninsula is in the hands of their Great Jin.

Therefore, Tangzhou is not included in this arrangement for the time being, and will be relocated after the formal demise of the Li Tang dynasty.

The original Southern Grand Camp was abolished and replaced by the Southern Court Central Imperial Guard, with Chang Yuchun as the commander-in-chief, which consisted of sixteen infantry armies and ten cavalry armies, totaling about 100,000 troops.

In addition, during wartime, Qi Jiguang's 100,000-strong Yangtze River navy was also subject to mobilization by the Southern court.

The Yizhou Grand Camp was renamed the Southwest Grand Camp, commanded by Yangxiahou Feng Yi, while Bai Qi, the original commander of the Yizhou Grand Camp, was appointed Minister of War for the South. It comprised eighteen infantry corps and six cavalry corps, totaling approximately 100,000 troops.

Han Qinhu, the General of the Martial Guard of Yizhou, retired to his hometown before the new year and was succeeded by Cen Peng, the Marquis of Xinye.

The positions of General of the Martial Guard in Jiaozhou and Nanzhou were held by Fu Cunshen and Xue Wanche, respectively.

Qin Qiong, the former General of the Yangzhou Martial Guard, and Yang Su jointly served as Vice Ministers of the Ministry of War in the South.

The Southern Court is temporarily overseen by the Crown Prince.

The three provinces of Yan, Yu, and Xu in the Central Plains will still have the Central Plains Camp. Guo Ziyi, the original commander of the Central Plains Camp, will be demoted to deputy commander and his title will be temporarily revoked. The Central Plains Camp will be commanded by Di Qing, the former Grand Commander of Hezhou.

There was nothing that could be done; Guo Ziyi had made a huge mistake in his battle against Liu Bei.

But in these situations, it's simply a matter of whoever gets caught up in it being unlucky.

At first, Guo Ziyi didn't believe this feigned surrender, but when even Guan Yu's own son was thrown out as a bargaining chip and died in that battle, and even Liu Bei himself almost died, Guo Ziyi had no choice but to believe it!
This is just like Zhuge Liang back then, relying solely on sufficient sacrifices to deceive the enemy.

However, although this defeat was understandable, a loss is a loss, and a rather miserable one at that, so the punishment that should be given is certainly not lacking.

The Central Plains Camp, with its sixteen infantry corps and ten cavalry corps, totaling approximately 100,000 troops, is sufficient to stabilize the three provinces of the Central Plains and suppress any potential unrest, unless the unrest originates from the Central Plains Camp itself.

However, even if this change originated from the Central Plains Camp itself, the troops of the three provinces of Yan, Yu, and Xu, even if they were no match, would still be enough to buy the central government enough time to mobilize troops to suppress it.

From the time Li Xiang established his military camp in his early years, his idea was to wait until the country was at peace, then separate the state armies and field armies. More directly, he wanted to decentralize military power in order to strengthen the central government's authority.

Unlike the south, which borders the Kushan Empire, or the north, which borders the grasslands, the Central Plains region has more than enough troops of about 100,000.

The positions of General of the Martial Guard in Yan, Yu, and Xu provinces were respectively filled by Wang Ben, Gao Changgong, and Pei Xingjian.

(End of this chapter)