With the establishment of the eight war zones, the defense zones of the various armies were relatively fixed, especially the Gyeonggi war zone and the Central Plains war zone. They were already detailed to the point of being stationed in every province.
This was beneficial to the construction of the army headquarters, military headquarters, and division headquarters.
After this round of disarmament was completed, the Great Xia would enter a period of strategic defense for a long period of time. If nothing unexpected happened, war would gradually fade from the lives of the people in the Central Plains.
As such, a stable internal environment was created that was beneficial to the internal construction and industrial revolution.
In addition, the establishment of the eight war zones was in fact a blueprint for the empire.
For a long time to come, the Great Xia would use this as a benchmark. While strengthening its internal construction, it would actively expand outwards to increase its global hegemony and strive to become the Great Xia Empire as soon as possible.
In a year's time, the Great Xia completed "Condition 1" and unified the Huaxia region.
In the following eight years of Gaia, the empire would look down on the entire Asian continent. It strived to complete "Condition 2" as soon as possible and obtain the position of hegemon of the Asian region, so as to launch a final charge towards the highest throne.
…
27th December.
In order to coordinate with the eight war zones, the imperial court made a unified adjustment to the ranks of the generals.
There were three first-grade generals, namely Bai Qi, Han Xin, and Li Jing.
There were five first-grade generals, including Sun Bin, Li Mu, Wang Jian, and Wu Qi, the four war zone commanders, as well as the navy commander, Zheng He. The Commander of the Imperial Guards, Huo Qubing, and the Commander of the Yulin Royal Guards, Xu Da, were demoted from their ranks.
Second-grade generals, namely Cavalry General Huo Qubing, Chariot General Xu Da, and Guard General Xu Chu.
Second-grade generals, namely Imperial Guard General Zhou Yu, Middle Guard General Shi Lang, and Upper Guard General Yan Huo, were all admirals of the navy and were worthy of such positions.
The Second Rank Two Garrison Generals were Garrison General E Lai and State Garrison General Shi Wan Sui. Both of them were first-rate, unrivalled generals. They were also Ouyang Shuo's trusted subordinates and old generals of the empire. The title of Two Garrison Generals was appropriate.
Second-grade general, namely Cliff Mountain Fleet Navy Commander Yu Dayou.
In addition, Coastal Fleet Navy Commander Qi Jiguang was conferred the second-grade rank of Sea Commander.
The Second Rank Four Expedition Generals were East Expedition General Li Xiucheng, South Expedition General Zuo Zongtang, West Expedition General Li Ji, and North Expedition General Guo Ziyi. They were the commanders of the Empire's four main offensive fronts.
The Second Rank Four Generals were East Suppression General Yue Fei, South Suppression General Zhang Han, West Suppression General Meng Tian, and North Suppression General Chen Yucheng.
Below that was the rank three general.
She was a third-rank general, the Commander of the Female Palace Guards, Hua Mulan.
The third rank Four Peace Generals were Eastern General Zhang Xutuo, Southern General Fan Lihua, Western General Shi Dakai, and Northern General Chang Yuchun. They were the commanders of the Empire's four major defensive positions.
There were four generals of the third rank, namely the Eastern General Zhan Lang, the Southern General Yang Su, the Western General Hou Junji, and the Northern General Xue Rengui. They were the commanders of the Empire's four main areas of attack.
Below them were some surplus generals. I won't go into details.
At this point, before the arrival of Gaia's eighth year, the Great Xia army had gone from reducing the number of soldiers in the name of reducing the size of the army, to setting up war zones on a large scale, and to adjusting the ranks of the generals. Finally, they had completed a top-down restructuring.
In the coming Gaia's eighth year, the Privy Council would set up eight logistical support centers as an opportunity to provide more efficient logistical support services for the eight major war zones. They would strive to get rid of the dependence of war on labor as soon as possible.
Previously, the Privy Council's War Preparedness Department had only set up local logistical supply depots and had never set up a large-scale logistical support center. Every time, they had to wait until the outbreak of war before they mobilized a large number of laborers to transport supplies to the front lines.
This time, it was a complete restructuring.
Every logistical support center served a war zone. For example, the logistical support center for the Central Plains war zone would be set up in Luoyang.
For this reason, Ouyang Shuo had already authorized the Privy Council to select 320,000 soldiers from the upcoming round of reduction to form an independent logistical support unit.
This way, they could save a sum of retirement funds.
The planned logistical support center did not only guarantee rations, but also armor, weapons, warhorses, guns, cannons, ammunition, fighter jets, siege equipment, and other war resources.
Therefore, other than warehouses, there were corresponding munitions factories, horse farms, and other facilities that formed the logistical support center. It was a very complicated and systematic logistical support cluster.
Other than the soldiers of the logistical support unit, there were also workers who received wages to serve the logistical support center. This formed a massive industrial cluster.
And this was also a boost for the empire's industrialization.
Throughout modern history, the role of war in promoting industry could not be ignored.
It could be imagined how complicated it was to set up such a logistical support system. Therefore, Ouyang Shuo did not start work in Gaia's seventh year, but pushed it to Gaia's eighth year.
The Privy Council had a year to complete the construction of the eight logistical support centers.
The first task was to properly handle the tens of millions of weapons and equipment that the army had replaced after the reduction of the army. They had to set up corresponding warehouses for daily maintenance.
Some of the weapons and equipment, such as bows and crossbows, might not be suitable for the battlefield, but they could not be used by the people. It would cause hidden dangers to the management of the local government offices.
Another example would be the muskets that had been eliminated earlier. They had to be stored and sealed.
Only when the eight logistical support centers were completed would the modernization of the Great Xia army take a solid step forward. In the future, all kinds of firearms and armor would be installed in the army.
…
On the 30th of December in Gaia's seventh year, a system announcement resounded throughout the world.
"World Announcement: On the seventh anniversary of 'Earth On's' launch, the game will undergo its eighth update. It will take effect immediately. For the details, please log on to the official website."
…
Once the announcement was made, Ouyang Shuo logged on to the official website as usual to check on the update.
[1] The global map has been restored to its normal scale.
The game world was based on Earth. The surface area was expanded by ten times. The goal was to create a vast and boundless wilderness, allowing thousands of overlord players to have sufficient strategic space.
Today, there were less than twenty overlords in the game world, and the wilderness was no longer a wilderness.
The huge map had become a hindrance to development. With the game world's technological standards, if not for the existence of teleportation arrays, the territory's size was already very limited.
Just like the current Great Xia, its territory spanned too much, making it very difficult to govern. If not for the establishment of four protectorates and a military governor, the imperial court would not be able to manage it.
An overly vast map also brought a disadvantage to Gaia's refinement of the overlords. It was unable to threaten the survival of the common people.
In Gaia's sixth year, the cities no longer spawned refugees. The vast territory was sparsely populated.
The October natural disaster in Gaia's seventh year might have baptized the entire world's territories, but through the reclamation of new arable land, the entire world's territories recovered within a year.
Food and clothing were never a big deal.
Of course, this was not in line with the ancient setting. Adjusting the map to its original scale also helped to limit this.
Of course, Gaia's deeper goal was to further intensify the conflicts between the dynasties.
Taking Great Xia as an example, if not for the goal of becoming an imperial dynasty, Ouyang Shuo would not have much motivation to continue expanding the empire's territory.
That was because no matter how much territory they conquered, they still had to manage it.
Instead of expanding without restraint, it was better to focus on internal affairs, especially accelerating the industrial revolution, using quality to replace quantity.
That was a very wise choice.
In modern society, even a tiny place like Star Nation could stir up a storm in the international community.
Even small countries like Japan and Goryeo could dominate. To a certain extent, it showed that in the face of rapid modernization, the size of territory was no longer an important factor in measuring a country's strength.
After digesting the existing territory, Great Xia would be able to dominate the world.
Because of this, Gaia threw out such a bait. On one hand, it accelerated the industrial revolution, and on the other hand, it greatly reduced the territory's area. This made the overlords' hungry ', allowing their ambitions to continue growing and killing each other.
Of course, 'returning to zero' in the game world was relative. Cities, arable land, roads, and all other man-made facilities would not be reduced. Otherwise, all the previous efforts would have been in vain.
Even so, this update would still have a profound impact on the game world.
Using the capital as an example, the Lianzhou basin was already very vast. On the premise that it could accommodate a large capital city, there was still a lot of empty space.
After reducing the size, the surroundings of the capital became very urgent.
It could even be said that the name Lianzhou basin would become history and no longer exist. The rocky mountain range to the north of the basin would also disappear, returning to its original appearance.
Another example, the river in the game world was several times wider than in reality. It was one of the pillars that supported the inland transportation. This time, it would also return to its original size, and the transportation capacity would be greatly reduced.
From then on, many rivers would no longer be suitable for river transportation.
Another example was that after the map 'returned to zero', the places where the monsters lived would be closer to the places where humans lived, threatening the survival of humans at any time.
There were too many such troubles to mention.
Gaia really did not mind blowing things up. After this round of updates, it would be enough to make the dynasties flustered for a while.
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