August 20th, Shanhai City, Xia Palace.
Military Affairs Minister Du Ruhui represented the Privy Council and reported to Ouyang Shuo the Army Reorganization Plan for the Appropriate Reduction of the County Guard Divisions (Draft) drafted by the Privy Council.
This round of reduction was only for the four major provinces and sixteen counties. The Zhili County Guard Division had already been reduced. Yizhou County, Qiongzhou County, and Xingzhou County were all islands and were not in the list of reduction.
The sixteen counties had a total of sixteen full guard divisions, with a total force of 2.16 million people, which was equivalent to the establishment of three corps. At the same time, the four major provinces had three full army groups, with a total force of 1.05 million people.
Not only was such a large army unnecessary, but it would also put a huge pressure on the imperial court's finances and the local governments. It was time to reduce the size of the army.
With Ouyang Shuo's personal proposal, the Privy Council drafted this round of reduction.
The four major provinces of Yunnan, South Sichuan, Lingnan, and South Min would each retain only one guard division. In the future, the expanded territory would be directly allocated according to the standard of one guard division per province.
The subordinate relationship of the guard division retained in each province would also be transferred from the Privy Council to the provincial governor's yamen, and the provincial governor would command and dispatch. In this way, it would also cut off the connection between the county governor and the local guard troops, making the provincial governor the only civil official with the power to mobilize troops within the scope of the province.
This kind of institutional arrangement was very beneficial to maintaining the governor's authority.
Among the four newly appointed governors, Bai Hua, Fan Zhongyan, Huo Guang, and Xun Yu, none of them knew military affairs. It was more than enough to command a guard division.
Previously, Mu Lanyue and Pei Ju also knew a little about military affairs, which was already the basic requirement for a governor.
Of course, the provincial governor only took over the command power, but the appointment of the commander of the guard division and above, the military files, the supply of weapons and equipment, and the management of combat training, and other military affairs would be transferred to the War Zone Commander.
During wartime, the War Zone Commander also had the power to directly mobilize the guard division without the provincial governor's permission. All the War Zone Commander had to do was to report to the Privy Council before the troops were mobilized.
In other words, the Privy Council basically let go of the local guard divisions and focused on the field army.
Because four out of four would leave one, this round of reduction would eliminate twelve guard divisions, a total of 1.62 million people. The Garrison Division was officially part of the army, and their treatment was the same as that of the field army. Therefore, they had to be properly resettled after they were disbanded. They couldn't just transfer unqualified soldiers to civilian work like how they dealt with prisoners of war.
For this reason, the Ministry of Finance specially allocated a special fund of one million for the settlement of the demobilized soldiers.
Some of the soldiers who had been retrenched this time would be transferred to yamen laborers, filling the internal affairs departments of the Governor's Yamen, the Prefectural Governor's Yamen, the Prefectural Governor's Yamen, and the County Prefectural Governor's Yamen, further improving the local yamen labor system.
This was especially true for the newly established Governor's office, which required at least three to four thousand bailiffs.
According to the calculations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the bailiff system could roughly absorb more than 30,000 people, which was less than one-fifth of the total number.
Some of the soldiers, especially the military officers, would be transferred to civil servants and enter the agricultural system, construction system, internal affairs system, and customs system to strengthen the local government offices.
This was especially true for internal affairs and customs, where experienced officers were needed the most.
The newly established Customs Department and Border Department of the Revenue Department were in urgent need of a batch of military officers to be transferred to the civil system of inspectors and inspectors.
Some of the soldiers would be transferred to the Shushan Iron and Steel Group, the Huaxia Shipping Group, the Huaxia Textile Group, and the Huaxia Construction Group.
In particular, the Shushan Iron and Steel Group, which was in urgent need of expansion, was in urgent need of a group of hardworking steel workers. This group alone could absorb 50,000 ordinary soldiers.
For the engineers in the Garrison Division, the Huaxia Construction Group, which was being established, was the most suitable place to go.
The Huaxia Shipping Group needed to recruit a group of soldiers to be transferred to the maritime escort team.
Through the above methods, the placement of most of the soldiers was solved, and the remaining 30,000 soldiers were given a considerable amount of demobilization fees according to their military rank, allowing them to make a living on their own.
Fortunately, the dynasty's business was booming, and these soldiers didn't have to worry about not finding a job.
As soon as they received the news, the three major royal merchants smelled it and came to recruit a group of demobilized soldiers to enter the Chamber of Commerce as guards. These soldiers were several times stronger than the strong men recruited by the merchant caravans from the people.
There were also some soldiers who relied on the demobilization fees to make a living and start their own businesses.
All in all, this round of disarmament not only helped to slim down the army to a certain extent, but it was also a great supplement to all aspects of the dynasty, especially in terms of human resources. It strengthened the bureaucratic system, and it could be said that both sides benefited.
Otherwise, the Ministry of Finance wouldn't have so easily taken out a million in resettlement fees.
These were only on the surface. Secretly, a group of soldiers who had "made a living on their own" and "started their own businesses" were secretly recruited by the Mountain Sea Guards to become a new group of secret agents.
To the Mountain Sea Guards, these soldiers who had been on the battlefield and seen blood were the best secret agents. Especially the scouts, who were basically all reserved by the Mountain Sea Guards in advance.
Some of the experienced soldiers were secretly recruited by the Mountain Sea Guards under the Mountain Sea Guards.
This round of disarmament could be said to be a feast for the dynasty to divide the cake, and it was extremely exciting.
As this round of disarmament involved more than ten key departments, the cabinet would take the lead to set up a disarmament team, with the Cabinet Secretary Jiang Shang as the team leader and the Minister of Military Affairs Du Ruhui as the deputy team leader.
The team members included the Deputy Minister of Administration Zhang Tingyu, who was mainly responsible for the establishment of civil officials in the process of demobilization; the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Di Renjie, who was mainly responsible for the placement of the bailiffs and the internal system; the Deputy Minister of Finance Cui Yingyou, who was mainly responsible for the placement of personnel in the enterprise and the tax system, and the demobilization fees.
In addition, there were nearly ten high-ranking officials, including the Director of Construction, the Director of Agriculture, the Director of Civil Affairs, the Director of Public Security, the Director of Finance, and the Director of Taxation.
The four governors who were still in Shanhai City were naturally involved.
Disarmament sounded easy, but it was an extremely complicated matter to implement. According to the calculations of the Privy Council, it would be considered efficient if they could settle everything within three months.
...
After the disarmament plan was approved by Ouyang Shuo, it immediately came into effect.
Just like that, at the end of August, within the four major provinces of the Great Xia Dynasty, there was a large-scale disarmament operation. There were often groups of soldiers on the official roads within the territory, which attracted the attention of the outside world.
As "superstars", every move of the Great Xia Dynasty could easily provoke the sensitive nerves of others.
Naturally, this time was no exception.
In this regard, Ouyang Shuo did not think of deliberately hiding it.
In less than three days, the news of the Great Xia Dynasty taking the initiative to reduce the number of soldiers by 200,000 spread like wildfire and appeared on the headlines of various major media outlets. No one knew what was going on with the additional 40,000 soldiers.
In any case, in order to attract attention, the unscrupulous media did not mind slightly "exaggerating". In the words of the literati, this was called a rhetorical device and not some kind of deception.
Naturally, there were different opinions about the disarmament of the Great Xia Dynasty.
Those who praised it felt that the initiative of the Great Xia Dynasty to reduce the number of local guards showed that they were extremely confident in the safety of their territory. Reality also proved that in the past two to three years, no army had invaded the territory of the Great Xia Dynasty.
Every war that the Great Xia Dynasty participated in was a foreign expedition. From this point of view, there was indeed no need for the Great Xia Dynasty to arrange a large number of internal guards.
There were also people who felt that the Great Xia Dynasty's decision to reduce the number of local guards was not only because they were confident, but more importantly, it showed that the Great Xia Dynasty was further deepening the dynasty's governance system and carrying out internal self-innovation.
Such an action was a sign that the level of governance of the Great Xia Dynasty had risen to a new level.
Looking at the 5,000 years of history of Huaxia, in every prosperous dynasty, the army was concentrated in the capital city and the borders. There were very few garrisons in other places, and they mainly focused on agricultural and commercial development.
In this way, the people could forget about the war, concentrate on production, and increase their happiness index.
The Great Xia Dynasty was heading towards a flourishing age!
Naturally, there were also many detractors who felt that the disarmament of the Great Xia Dynasty was overconfident. Once the flames of war spread to the borders of Great Xia, they would have to swallow the bitter fruit of this round of disarmament in the future.
…
Just when the outside world was in a state of turmoil, the Great Xia army had a new movement.
On the 22nd of August, the third and fifth corps, which were stationed in the southern mountains of Yunnan Province, suddenly used the excuse of "changing guards" to continuously move north.
In addition, the Leopard Army, which was stationed in Chuannan Province, as well as the Brave Tiger Army, which was stationed in Lingnan Province and Minnan Province, showed signs of assembling at the borders.
This unusual military movement immediately attracted the attention of observant people.
There were even people who linked this matter to the disarmament of the Great Xia Dynasty. People couldn't help but speculate whether the so-called disarmament of the Great Xia Dynasty was just a smokescreen with the purpose of concealing the true whereabouts of the army?!
Many people were worried that this was a sign that the Great Xia Dynasty was preparing for another expedition.
However, who was the opponent that the Great Xia Dynasty wanted to eliminate this time? [Chuanbei City State], [Xiangnan City State], or [Yanhuang Alliance]? No matter which one it was, it seemed that they would not be able to withstand the iron hooves of the Great Xia Dynasty.
In an instant, the world was in turmoil.
The dark clouds of war once again shrouded the wilderness of the China region, making people feel suffocated.
[Chuanbei City State] and [Xiangnan City State], which were most likely to be attacked, were like ants on a hot pan. They were panic-stricken and uneasy. Even the prices of goods began to fluctuate.
The lords of the two major cities met frequently to discuss countermeasures.
The current Great Xia Dynasty was not something that they could contend against. Even if the two major cities joined forces, they were not confident.
Some busybodies had already predicted that after this war, there would be no more cities in the China region, and it would officially evolve into a warring state. Other than one vassal, the rest of the lords would all withdraw from the struggle for hegemony in the wilderness.
The blood-boiling struggle for hegemony was gradually approaching.
Just when this kind of news was spreading like wildfire, one after another, shocking news came out one after another.
Almost at the same time, Wanshi City, Luofeng City, West Chu, Jiangchuan Province, and other allies of the Great Xia Dynasty all mobilized their troops and assembled at their respective borders.
This time, the China region was truly in chaos!
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