Thief Emperor

Chapter 396 Treat People as Human Beings!

It is necessary to expand the army. Otherwise, even if Li Yun is a military genius, he will not have enough troops to command and will often be stretched to the limit.

Many things cannot be accomplished by relying solely on elite troops.

For example, when defending a city, a lot of auxiliary personnel are needed to do some auxiliary work. It is impossible to rely solely on elite soldiers.

It is worth mentioning that Li Yun’s elite troops plan has been quite successful so far.

The soldiers he trained, even if they were rookies who had just entered the battlefield, could compete with the soldiers of the Pinglu Army on the battlefield. This is actually a reflection of hardware quality, or the soldiers' personal physical fitness.

For an adult man, there is a big difference between having enough food and not having enough food.

There is a huge difference between a malnourished teenager and a strong teenager.

Although the elite soldiers trained by Li Yun have not yet become an invincible and elite army that can dominate the world, the basic conditions are there, but they lack the tempering of blood and fire.

The battle in Jiangbei not long ago made Li Yun realize the limitations of his previous ideas on training troops.

Sometimes, fighting a war is not just about charging into the battlefield and killing the enemy, there are many other things that require a large number of people to do.

An army of sufficient size can produce a large number of catapults, ladders and other siege equipment overnight. Li Yun currently does not have this capability.

The most important thing for him to do when he rushed back from Yangzhou, besides expanding his territory, was to raise the army. He now urgently needed a large number of ordinary troops.

Just like what Zhao Cheng said, which was a bit cruel.

If you can gather an army of 50,000 new soldiers, no matter how poor their basic qualities are, after a few battles on the battlefield, the remaining 8,000 people will be elite troops, if not elite!
The purpose of minting new coins and changing salt permits, in addition to alleviating the economic pressure on Du Qian, was to serve the military expansion.

Li Yun now has about 12,000 to 13,000 men under his command. According to his current plan, Su Sheng, Li Zheng, and Zhou Liang will recruit soldiers together. Li Zheng will lead 2,000 men south, and Li Yun needs him to bring back 10,000 men.

As for Su Sheng, Li Yun gave him the target of recruiting 10,000 new soldiers.

The same is true for Zhou Liang.

In other words, after this round of conscription, if everything goes well, the strength of Li Yun's troops will suddenly expand to about 40,000!
If it was just the wages for 40,000 people, let alone two strings of cash a month, even three or four strings of cash, Li Yun could barely afford it now. However, other aspects, including weapons, equipment and other expenses, would be a huge sum every month.

Under this premise, Li Yun had to reform the military system once again. This ladder system, on the one hand, maintained the treatment of front-line soldiers unchanged, and on the other hand, allowed Li Yun to reduce his military pay expenses by half.

However, the exact amount can only be calculated after the specific expenses are paid out.

After all, this kind of reform now has to be done by Li Yun himself. He doesn't have a budgeter or an actuary.

But a rough calculation shows that he should be able to sustain this scale now, at least for two to three years without any problem.

After the army is built up, if the finances can no longer support it, then expand outward directly. There will naturally be resources outside to support the army for Li Yun!
However, although the army is being expanded, Li Yun does not want to delegate the power to classify the army. This power is very profitable and can win people's hearts.

This matter can only be done by Li Yun, or by someone Li Yun temporarily assigns to do it. It cannot be delegated to others.

After all, this kind of hierarchical power is already "personnel power" in a sense, and it is the personnel power of the most basic officers and soldiers!

After speaking his mind, Li Yun looked up at Zhou Liang and said softly, "Third Uncle, do you think this rule I set will work?"

"If it can be done, why can't it be done?"

Zhou Liang smiled and said, "It will definitely work."

He looked at Li Yun, paused, and couldn't help but say: "In my opinion, the biggest problem of the envoy is that he has been an official for too short a time, and he doesn't have the authority of an official at all."

"Now, you are the lord of all the prefectures and counties in Jiangdong, and you are also the governor of all the prefectures and counties in Jiangdong. How can you not succeed if the government recruits men to join the army?"

"Once the written notice is posted, the local head of the village and the head of the village will naturally take care of these tasks, as for the salary and food."

Zhou Liang whispered, "Most armies don't have them. Some places even require conscripts to bring their own food to join the army. When they get to the army, they are given an iron knife and they are considered a soldier."

"When I was young, I joined the army in a muddleheaded way and almost died in the army."

At this point, he thought for a moment and continued, "You are probably the only one in the world who recruits soldiers on a voluntary basis and you also need to post the salary."

Li Yun was also a little surprised when he heard this.

The inertia of thinking in another world made him unaware that his actions were completely different from those of this era.

In fact, when most armies of this era were started, it was similar to what Zhou Liang said. You couldn't just not go if you wanted to.

Moreover, the troops can be replenished at any time. If an army suffers heavy casualties, it can be fully replenished in one or two months at most.

This way of fighting is very different from the conscription and war that Li Yun had in mind.

After being stunned for a while, Li Yun lowered his head and drank a sip of tea, and heard Zhou Liang continue to say: "Your Excellency may not know that when I was stationed in Jinling some time ago, many local people wanted to meet some generals in our army through connections."

"Some families have borrowed money from all over the village, eight or nine strings of cash, or even ten strings of cash, hoping to use the money to open up new opportunities and allow their children to join our army."

Li Yun rubbed his brows and said with a wry smile: "If Uncle San hadn't told me, I really wouldn't have known."

He looked at Zhou Liang and asked, "Is anyone collecting money?" Zhou Liang didn't say anything, but just looked at Li Yun silently.

Seeing this, Li Yun shook his head again: "My question was stupid."

In this case, someone must have collected the money, otherwise Zhou Liang would not have known.

"Just grab it."

Mr. Li's face darkened and he said in a deep voice, "We are in a difficult situation now, and someone has taken this kind of money. If you find anyone else, you will be arrested and sent to me for questioning."

Zhou Liang bowed his head and said, "I obey your command."

"Then let's just leave it at that for now. We should..."

"I only have about half a year of peace left."

Li Yun said softly: "In the past six months, we have recruited all the new soldiers that should be recruited. After the New Year, there will be no such peaceful days, and we will not have the time to train the soldiers leisurely."

Zhou Liang replied with a "yes" and without further ado, he turned around and walked out of the tent to do his business.

Li Yun sat alone in the general's tent, sitting in silence for a long time.

Unconsciously, his position was a little too high.

When he led the anti-theft team and the Yuezhou Army in the past, he only had a few hundred or a thousand people under his command. After staying together for a long time, Li Yun could call out the names of many of them and was familiar with most of them.

He saw everything clearly from top to bottom and was able to control it.

But now, the troops under his command were divided into various captain camps. He could only see the soldiers at the lowest level when he occasionally went down to patrol the camps. He sat too high and could hardly see what was below.

After thinking for a long time, he knocked on the table silently.

In the military, perhaps it is time to set up an agency to enforce discipline.

After having this thought, he closed his eyes and thought for a while, then stood up, looked at the soldiers outside the tent, and remembered what Zhou Liang had just said.

After being silent for a while, he reaffirmed his thoughts and murmured.

"I treat my soldiers as human beings..."

"It can't be a bad thing."

…………

Jinling City, Li Garden.

Li Yun sat on the armchair, looking at the middle-aged man in front of him who looked to be nearly 40 years old. After taking a look at him, Li Yun asked calmly, "What's your name?"

This is the sixth person he has met in the past two days. All of them are talents who have been "preliminarily screened" by Du Qian and have the potential to become the future backbone of Jiangdong Group.

The middle-aged man bowed his head and said, "My lord, my surname is Huang."

"Mingchao."

Li Yun nearly spit out a mouthful of tea. He swallowed it with difficulty and looked at the middle-aged man with a strange expression: "What's your name?"

"My name is Huang Chao."

Li Yun was silent for a long time before asking, "Which nest?"

The middle-aged man was also stunned, and quickly replied: "The Heavenly Dynasty."

Li Yun then breathed a sigh of relief and looked at him seriously.

He has an ordinary appearance, but his clothes are neat and he doesn't look shabby.

"How long have you failed the test?"

Li Yun asked.

Huang Chao was stunned and stared at Li Yun blankly: "Envoy...how did you know?"

He then remembered that he had told Du Qian about his family's situation, so he lowered his head and said, "I have failed in the examinations for a long time and want a way out. I heard that the envoy was recruiting talented people, so I came to seek refuge with you."

"I would like to serve as your aide."

Li Yun just thought about it for a moment, then smiled and looked at him with squinted eyes.

"Well."

"Sir, please...stay."

(End of this chapter)