Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Chapter 1266 – Tibet-Tang Ancient Path
Along with the new addition of 1.98 million reserve forces, Du Ruhui suggested establishing a military service department under the Privy Court to manage the reserve forces, surrendered soldiers, and soldier retirement; this would help to effectively manage it.
At the same time, in the Governor-General, Provincial Governor, Prefecture Governor, Prefects, and county magistrate offices, he suggested that they set up relevant military service divisions that would be directly managed by the Privy Court.
His proposal would solve the retirement problem of the soldiers and the reserve force management problem.
The 1.98 million troops disarmed this time and those removed from the past few reorganizations would undergo military training when needed under the organization of the local military service divisions.
Hence, as long as there were war needs, the Imperial Court would be able to gather two to three million trained soldiers and even experienced old soldiers to throw onto the battlefield.
Apart from Great Xia, no other dynasty had the foundations necessary to achieve that.
There was also another benefit to establishing the military service department – it would help to deal with batches of generals.
Based on the newest organization, each legion would remove one division, which meant that 99 Major Generals would lose their jobs.
Apart from Major Generals, there was a huge number of colonels, majors, and more that would have to retire.
Toward the basic soldiers, the Imperial Court could hand them a retirement sum to settle them down. However, these generals could not be treated as such and would need treatment corresponding to their ranks.
If not, who would be willing to risk their lives for the Empire?
Based on the plan, there were three ways to deal with retired generals. First, they could move them into the command headquarters, legion corps headquarters, legion department, division department, or regiment departments to work.
Especially the latter four, which were the main remodeling targets of this round and needed a batch of generals.
Secondly, they could enter the military service department or the various divisions in the offices.
This was also a good idea. Although it was far from the frontlines, they would still be in the service and would have a lot of power to a certain extent.
Thirdly, they could arrange them to enter the Privy Court, Grand Council, or the various law and order organizations.
This had higher demands on the administrative abilities of the generals and was not something that normal generals could succeed at. However, if they were good at it, it would be a huge injection of new blood into the Imperial Court.
These three points could basically settle the generals that were released from service. If one could not find a suitable appointment from these three places, one could only say that the general himself was not suitable.
…
The third portion of the plan targeted the planning after the disarmament.
Based on the Empire’s strategy, the main warzones could be split into the mid plains, Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Asia, North Asia, Africa, and South America.
This also meant that the Empire needed to build seven warzones in the future. Currently, they had only established the northeast, southwest, and northwest warzones and the Africa warzone, so a huge adjustment needed to be made.
Adjusting the warzones was related to the jurisdiction region of the various legion corps. It seemed like an easy matter, but it concerned many things and was one of the toughest decisions that Ouyang Shuo needed to make.
As the Tibet war had not ended yet, and the Mongol Empire had not submitted, China had not been properly unified. Ouyang Shuo decided to postpone the discussion of warzones till the end of the year.
Of course, postponing this aspect did not mean postponing the entire plan. Ouyang Shuo quickly vetted the entire plan and made copies that were sent to the Cabinet and the Provincial Governor offices.
The Cabinet was in charge of coordinating the military expenditure, while the Provincial Governor offices were in charge of preparing for the taking over of the retired soldiers. They must not face a situation where the offices were unable to take out suitable posts when the soldiers were removed.
This disarmament affected both the administrative and military spheres and covered the entire empire. Naturally, it was best to start it as soon as possible.
…
Along with the plan being approved, apart from Tibet, Great Xia did not fight in any wars.
This disarmament started really quickly, and they aimed to complete it before spring of next year.
The first were the Guards Legion corps, Imperial Palace Guards, and City Protection Legion corps.
In truth, at the beginning of the year before Great Xia started the unification war, Ouyang Shuo had already informed the various warzone commanders and legion corps marshals about the impending disarmament.
In the 7th month, when the four countries submitted and the mid plains were unified, the disarmament matter had already spread to the division level.
Although the exact disarmament plan was not out yet, they already had enough time to consider what troops would be targets for the disarmament.
Hence, once the plan was officially released, the generals already had a rough idea in their hearts.
Ouyang Shuo had reason to believe that with the discipline and execution ability of the Great Xia Army, they would be able to complete this largely meaningful disarmament and revolution before the 8th year, 3rd month.
…
10th month, 10th day, House of Ogedai.
Under the guidance of Mongol guides, Wang Ben led 70 thousand elite troops to cross the mountains and rivers before finally arriving at the west tunnel between the Turkish Khanate and Tibet; this was the Tang-Tibet ancient tunnel.
This ancient path had a military castle designed around it; the Mongol army had set up camp there.
Due to the geography, the castle was similar to the ones in the Shu Lands. Once the army exited it, they would enter the core area on the west of Tibet.
At 11am, Wang Ben’s forces left the castle under the gaze of the Mongol army.
The moment they passed, the deputy general moved beside Wang Ben and asked with worry, “Commander, why do I feel that the way the Mongols are looking at us is not really friendly?”
Wang Ben smiled and said, “The Mongols are forced by the Empire to open a path for us, so it’s natural that they are uncomfortable about it. If they faced us with smiles, that would be unusual.”
“But I feel that something is up.” The deputy general could not understand.
Wang Ben did not bother about him and said, “Let’s think about how to complete the mission that the command headquarters gave us first. To sneak attack their grain line is not easy. A few days ago, they sent intel that the Ashoka Dynasty had moved 500 thousand more troops, but there have been no signs of them.”
“Commander, do not worry, we can just send more scouts and expand the scouting area. I do not believe that they could camouflage into the environment.” The deputy was really confident.
Wang Ben nodded, not saying anything more.
…
Just as Wang Ben’s forces entered the west of Tibet, the 500 thousand disguised troops from the Ashoka Dynasty, after merging into the long grain transport line, crossed the border and moved east.
If nothing surprising happened, these two forces would bump into one another.
