Traveling through Tianlong: Starting from the Zhenlong chess game

Chapter 259 Reform of the military system, an alternative military merit system

Zhezong then looked at Zhao Mu's policy on rectifying military affairs.

In Zhao Mu's eyes, the military system of the Song Dynasty army was quite problematic, even a mess.

One of them was to force a group of criminal prisoners into the army, which was very magical.

Putting such a bunch of bastards with no will to fight on the battlefield is a waste of rice.

It is simply too easy for the enemy to instigate this group of people to rebel. As long as the enemy promises them to defect, not only will their previous crimes be wiped out, but they will even be heavily rewarded. This group of people can do well if they don't betray their masters for glory, let alone expect them to win the war.

Therefore, Zhao Mu planned to kick this group of social trash out of the army and let them work in digging mountains and building roads, or else just throw them away. Instead of staying in the army and wasting rice and becoming a factor of instability in wartime.

So Zhao Mu proposed in his memorial to re-professionalize, standardize and regularize the soldiers of the Song Dynasty. All the unqualified trash and the bastards without the will to fight were sent back to their hometowns to farm, leaving only a few young men to be retrained into elite soldiers.

Just like the Imperial Guard in Tokyo. Today, there are 800,000 soldiers in the Tokyo Forbidden Army of the Song Dynasty. Zhao Mu also learned from Hu Yanjin that these 800,000 people sound scary, but in fact, their combat effectiveness is not strong. There are only 200,000 young men who can be directly used in combat. Most of them are civilian husbands with the title of Imperial Guard.

Zhao Mu felt that there was no need to support them. It would not be too late to recruit civilian laborers during wartime. If people like him are streamlined, it will not only reduce the country's financial burden of raising troops, but also increase the military's combat effectiveness as quickly as possible.

The reason Zhao Mu used to persuade Zhe Zong was the principle in the military book: "Soldiers are more valuable than more valuable soldiers." And he also specifically mentioned that in all dynasties, prisoners would only be used as soldiers when the country was destroyed. And take the Shang Dynasty and Qin Dynasty as examples, because these two dynasties have precedents of releasing prisoners into the army. Zhao Mu also said in the memorial, "The Song Dynasty is at the height of its power, how can we possibly be in danger of subjugating our country?"

Seeing this, Zhe Zong couldn't help but frown.

Then there is the issue of improving the treatment of military personnel.

Not only were soldiers in this era poorly treated, they were even nicknamed "thieves serving the army."

Although the court during the Five Dynasties was feared by the military chiefs, the most important component of a country's national defense strength was poorly paid and low in status, so no one could increase its combat effectiveness. This kind of army "fires three shots" before the battle is considered worthy of the emperor.

If you want soldiers to work hard, you have to give them money and fame.

However, because it was Zhao Mu's first time to make a remonstrance, there was no real drastic reform. The issue of improving the treatment of soldiers was not directly mentioned. Because this was an absolute taboo in the Song Dynasty, Zhao Mu could not get into trouble.

Therefore, Zhao Mu thought of a compromise solution that could not only improve the soldiers' treatment, but also make it easier for the emperor to accept it.

That is to imitate the "military merit system" of the Qin Dynasty, but Zhao Mu changed the reward.

The military merit and title system of the Qin Dynasty allowed for promotion of officers and titles, in order to enhance the soldiers' enthusiasm for war.

Zhao Mu changed this reward into silver. On the battlefield, he was rewarded with one tael of silver to behead an ordinary enemy soldier, five taels to behead a soldier, ten taels to behead an officer, a hundred taels to behead a military academy, and a hundred taels to behead a general. It's three thousand taels, and it's ten thousand taels to kill the commander-in-chief. If the prisoner can be captured alive, the reward will be doubled.

I just want to record military merits for you. Even if he died in the subsequent war, this money can be paid to the soldier's family together with the pension.

Zhao Mu just wanted to use money to kill his enemies. By then, on the battlefield, the Song officers and soldiers would no longer see enemies, but money in vain.

In this era, the annual income of an ordinary household was only three to five taels of silver. But if you kill enemies on the battlefield, just a few kills can equal your family's income for a year. If you cut off a junior officer, you can earn a few years of income.

Not to mention killing a general, even if you kill a mid-level military academy, if you get a hundred taels of silver reward, you can directly retire from the army and return to your hometown, marry a wife and have children, buy a house and land, and enjoy the rest of your life in peace.

This is a big temptation for most poor people who have no energy. This is at least their only chance to become rich.

Even in the end, these poor people will still look forward to the coming of war. Fully arouse the abundant martial virtue of the Han people.

Moreover, in order to convince Zhe Zong, Zhao Mu even settled a score for Zhe Zong. Assume that the enemy has an army of one million, even if all are calculated based on the price of soldiers, then if they are all killed, the court will need to pay a reward of five million taels of silver.

Among the millions of troops, if there are 5,000 people per army, then there will only be 200 generals, and only 1 in 5 commanders will be forty. Their heads are only worth one million taels of silver.

If five hundred people are counted as one school, then there are only two thousand people in the middle-level military academy. Cutting off all their heads requires a reward of two hundred thousand taels of silver.

And the grassroots corps commanders, chiefs, uncles, etc. are ignored. The annual income of one or two years in the Song Dynasty is enough to motivate the soldiers to kill all the one million troops.

Moreover, it is impossible to kill more than a million people in a real war. As long as two or three hundred thousand people are beheaded, the opponent's morale will be completely destroyed. The opponent will only think about escaping and surrendering, instead of fighting with a group of murderous people.

And it is even more impossible to have so many troops and so many soldiers. What's more, the huge army is not only used for field battles, but also for defending the city.

In this era, any country that can mobilize an army of one million is an absolute superpower. And this million-strong army is almost all the armed forces in the country. If even half of the million-strong army is lost, then this country is not far from being destroyed. Moreover, after capturing the city and territory, you can also seize the opponent's materials, money and food to replenish yourself. Therefore, the cost is much less than Zhao Mu calculated.

Seeing this, Zhe Zong nodded repeatedly. In Zhezong's eyes, Zhao Mu's calculation was really a good deal. With only one or two years of Song Dynasty's annual income, a country could be completely destroyed. Giving rewards to soldiers to motivate them is much better than giving annual coins. Moreover, as long as most of the unqualified soldiers are laid off, the money saved will be enough to motivate them.

Zhao Mu also set the rules for obtaining bounties. Only those killed on the battlefield would be counted. He also followed the supervision method of the "military merit" system. Zhao Mu's move was to avoid the occurrence of "killing good people and taking credit for merit". Zhao Mu strictly forbids the occurrence of "taking advantage of fellow soldiers' heads to lead the army".

Another point is to avoid false reporting. Therefore, the actual number of people who could be recognized as military merit awards was slightly less than the number of people they actually killed. Moreover, the reward rules are invalid for killing and harming the people.

As for the last part of military affairs, there are some chores to expand armaments as soon as possible. These are matters of the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ordnance Bureau. These are small things.

After Zhezong read Zhao Mu's military reform plan, Zhezong praised: "The emperor's uncle does have the style of a business king in the pre-Qin Dynasty. It's just that I feel that this issue of disarmament needs to be discussed. That is, if we can save so much manpower, then we can How should we place them? If these people are released into the countryside and have nothing to do, they may cause trouble."

Zhao Mu smiled and said, "Then just send them back to their hometowns to farm, right?"

Zhe Zong smiled bitterly and said: "The emperor is not in court, so some things may not be clear. Nowadays, most of the land in the countryside of Song Dynasty has owners, and except for the prisoners, most of these young people have no land to cultivate. They will live after they return. Poverty, if instigated with ulterior motives, may lead to rebellion.”

Zhao Mu still said confidently: "Then let's find a way to give them land to farm, right?"

(End of this chapter)