God Three Group Chat: Three Kingdoms

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Zang Ba knew more about the elite troops within the Han Empire than ordinary officers.

On the one hand, it's because of their status, and on the other hand, it's because of the duties of Zang Ba's army, which allows them to obtain information and intelligence in this area.

His ability to possess an independent army was based on actual needs, and it was an extension to a certain extent that led to its current form.

In essence, the duties of the corps are not much different from those of a normal logistics and transportation team, except that the only difference is in the transportation of supplies.

A normal logistics and transportation team can transport almost anything, including military supplies such as weapons, equipment, and armor.

Zang Ba's army was different; they only transported one thing: money.

Whether it was transporting money from various prefectures and counties to Chang'an, or from Chang'an to other places, the massive-scale transportation of money was carried out by Zang Ba's army.

Of course, the money involved in this kind of transportation is usually in the hundreds of millions, or even more.

Although the existence of money shops and similar institutions made large-scale transactions easier and reduced transportation pressure, this did not change the fact that basic-level money transactions were still conducted using five-cent coins.

We can't expect every ordinary person to use paper vouchers that cost tens of thousands of yuan for transactions, can we?
Over the years, the lives of ordinary people in the Han Empire have indeed improved a lot, but they are not so extravagant that everyone has so much money.

To be able to do this while ensuring purchasing power, what would that be like?
Furthermore, the trust that ordinary people have in the monetary system takes time to change, and during this process, the existence of metal currency remains somewhat irreplaceable.

Therefore, in the years before society was stable, the main task of Zang Ba's army was to transport Wuzhu coins on a large scale, a considerable portion of which were newly minted Wuzhu coins, genuine copper coins.

With increasingly higher output of goods and a wider variety of items, the five-coin coin has become deeply ingrained as a monetary equivalent, and even in the areas surrounding Luoyang, the crisis of trust in copper coins left over from the Dong Zhuo era has been eradicated.

In some ways, this can be seen as a sign of a more stable society.

It was precisely through carrying out this large-scale transport of five-cent coins, especially the military pay for a large number of troops, that Zang Ba gained a very clear understanding of the number of elite troops within the country.

The deployment of 80,000 elite troops here means that the number of elite troops in the Han Empire has fallen below 200,000, and the number of ultra-elite troops is probably not even 100,000.

"What's wrong?" Yu Jin glanced at Zang Ba's silence, then looked at the surrounding army. Not understanding the reason, he hesitated for a moment before asking.

This was Yu Jin's first real assignment to command a large army in battle, and he didn't have much experience dealing with veterans like Zang Ba.

Although according to the military orders, Zang Ba's army was indeed required to obey his commands, doing everything according to the orders might actually complicate matters further. "To deal with the Kushan Empire, we have already mobilized more than 500,000 troops..." Zang Ba turned to Yu Jin and stated a very large number.

"Five hundred thousand?" After thinking about the number, Yu Jin nodded and said as calmly as possible, "They are, after all, a country with a million armored soldiers. If we want to take them down, the manpower and resources we need to invest will not be small."

"We've committed so many troops; I wonder what our opponents will think." Zang Ba shook his head slightly, looking thoughtfully to the west.

In the Central and South Asian battlefield, Guan Yu's army group, together with the Yizhou troops, had a total strength of over 200,000, making it a genuine main battlefield. The total number of troops deployed by both sides on the battlefield exceeded 500,000. If we add the logistics and transportation personnel and military service personnel from both sides, the total number of people mobilized by both sides in this area directly exceeds one million.

On the naval front, the Kushan Empire deployed nearly 300,000 naval troops, while the Han Empire had a navy of over 100,000, making it a very important battlefield.

In the north of the Kushan Empire, the war between the Pamir Mountains and the Kushan Empire also involved tens of thousands of people on both sides, though it seemed to be a small-scale conflict.

However, Zang Ba was very clear about one thing: in the north of the Kushan Empire, both the Kushan Empire and the Han Empire were essentially quite restrained.

If a full-scale war were to break out, the Yuezhi could deploy hundreds of thousands of troops. Meanwhile, Cao Cao, who was also stationed in the north, keeping an eye on Central Asia while constantly probing and testing the northern borders of the Kushan Empire, also had a considerable number of troops at his disposal. If a war were to break out, it would become another massive battlefield.

"The Kushan Empire is indeed very powerful. According to current intelligence, the size of their army exceeds one million, and it's unknown how many troops they will have at their limit." Following this intelligence, Yu Jin frowned slightly.

When the size of the armies on both sides reaches this level, some things that are not particularly significant in small-scale wars become truly deadly at this scale.

Intelligence, logistics, and strategy are becoming increasingly important and their proportion is increasing significantly.

"I wonder how they manage to pay their military expenses. Our army's annual military expenditure has already exceeded 100 billion. How does the Kushan Empire manage to keep going?" Zang Ba scratched his head, genuinely curious, upon hearing about the size of the Kushan army.

Even a decade or two ago, the Han Empire would have struggled to maintain a million-strong regular army for combat, even if it was fighting on its own soil or responding to a temporary call to arms. Yet now the Kushan Empire possessed this capability. While intrigued, Zang Ba couldn't help but look at the Kushan Empire with newfound respect.

When the scale reaches a certain level, war becomes a matter of logistics and endurance. The Kushan Empire's current situation seems quite troublesome.

"How much? Hundreds of billions?" Upon hearing this military expenditure, Yu Jin's face was full of disbelief, and he looked at Zang Ba with considerable surprise.

He hadn't been in contact with military spending for a long time and never imagined that military expenditures could be this large, amounting to hundreds of billions.

“Yes, military spending keeps increasing every year, and I don’t know when it will end.” Recalling the enormous financial burden calculated by Lu Yi, Zang Ba said that his current position was pretty good.

"Now I understand why General Huangfu remained silent about military spending." Taking a deep breath, Yu Jin quickly calmed himself down, preventing himself from being swayed by this astronomical figure. (End of Chapter)