Translator: Exodus Tales Editor: Exodus Tales
Chapter 1212 – Population Explosion
After forming the Imperial Palace Guards, this round of military organization came to an end.
During this round of military organization, apart from Wuqi and Xu Da who were given the title of great general, the other generals were all given titles. The standard was that marshals were awarded Grade 2 general, while Legion Generals were either Grade 2 or Grade 3 generals.
Wolf legion corps marshal Meng Tian was awarded Grade 2 Fujun general.
Phoenix Legion corps marshal Guo Ziyi was awarded Grade 2 Shangjun general.
North Africa marshal Chang Yuchun was awarded Grade 2 north conquering general, Heluo legion corps marshal Yang Su was awarded Grade 2 east defending general, Hedong legion corps marshal Zuo Zongtang was awarded Grade 2 west defending general.
At this point, out of the Grade 2 generals, east defending, west defending, north defending and south defending generals, the titles of north, south, east, and west conquering generals were all given out.
Out of the Fujun, Zhongjun, Shangjun, Zhenjun, Zhenguo, and Nanzhong general titles, only the Zhenjun general title was left.
Piaoqi general, Cheqi general, and Wei general; only Xu Chu was given the title of Wei general. The titles of Piaoqi general and Cheqi general were still empty.
Consequently, out of the 17 Grade 2 general spots, only three were left.
Along with Baiqi, Han Xin, and Li Jing, these commanders-in-chief, and Huo Qubing, Xu Da, Sun Bin, Li Mu, and Zheng He, these six great generals, the upper structure of the Great Xia Army was basically solidified.
Out of the 10 famous generals in China, apart from Wei Qing who committed suicide and Wang Jian who was in Great Qin, the remaining eight were all in Great Xia.
After the reorganization, the 710 thousand soldiers that remained after the various legion corps had replenished their loses were all removed from service and left to the Privy Court and Civil Affairs Department to handle.
This was the largest scale disarmament in Great Xia’s history. Luckily, the two organizations were familiar with the system of disarming the soldiers and everything proceeded smoothly.
At this point, Great Xia had a shocking 6.8 million troops in the navy alone; this was despite Ouyang Shuo disarming many troops and trying his best to reduce the number.
If not, the Great Xia Army would pretty much reach the 10 million scale.
The 6th year of Gaia was the year that Great Xia experienced a population explosion. At the start of the year, the population of the dynasty was around 150 million and was a huge distance away from the 200 million mark.
Following which, oceans amounts of people moved into Great Xia, and the population approached 200 million.
In the 4th month, under the aggressive actions of Silver Hand striking out, Great Xia attacked on all fronts, taking down Johor, Piao, Java, and Ethiopia, which caused their population to increase by 30 million.
Following which, they took down Han and Qing, while Jin, Sui, and Shu submitted. With the addition of Jiangnan and Wannan Provinces, in a short three months, Great Xia’s population increased by 80 million.
One must know that each imperial city had 10 million civilians. Zhan Lang got off cheap by taking down Jianye effortlessly. If it were not the fact that Ouyang Shuo had other plans, he would not have let the Blood Red legion corps succeed so easily.
Great Jin, as the third largest player dynasty in China, had close to 30 million people.
It was not hard to understand why Ouyang Shuo gave the order to stop the dynasty’s conquests and focus on internal politics right after the battle ended despite Great Xia only adding Hedong, Zhongyuan, Wannan, and Jiangnan provinces.
He gave such an order because there was simply a huge influx in population that was enough for Great Xia to digest for a long time.
The ocean amounts of civilians in Luoyang, Jingdu, Quanzhou, and Chengdu had to be led to other prefectures and counties to live, and they could not accumulate in one spot.
Along with the recent half a year, where more and more China region players and spawned refugees swarmed in from the various prefectures and counties, Great Xia’s population reached 370 million based on the new data from the Civil Affairs Department. Compared to the population at the start of the year, the number had more than doubled.
Before the end of the year, the population of Great Xia could easily breakthrough the 400 million mark.
During the rule of Daoguang, China’s population had hit 430 million, creating a record.
Based on those standards, Great Xia’s overall population would be able to break that record and reach a whole new height. Even so, an army of 6.8 million troops was still a heavy burden to the territory.
In history, the largest scale army was the Ming Dynasty’s army that had close to 2.8 million troops at its peak. Their population then was only around 200 million.
Moreover, the number of Ming troops was known to be exaggerated by everyone.
Even with the 6.8 million troops number, the troops to people ratio of Great Xia exceeded that of the Ming Dynasty.
In terms of military scale, Great Xia would be unprecedented and unique in history.
Even in China’s recent years, the peak scale of troops did not exceed 6.5 million, lower than the current scale of Great Xia. Such a comparison revealed the hefty financial burden Great Xia was facing.
Even so, Ouyang Shuo could not disarm the army.
This was the most crucial time for Great Xia. Internally, they had to wipe out the four country alliance to unify the country; externally, they needed to face enemies on all four fronts. Moreover, they also needed to take the initiative in Africa.
Along with defending against the beast caves, every aspect needed the support of a huge military.
To disarm now would be asking for death.
Only after they wiped out the four country alliance and solidified a stable core could the dynasty start to consider disarming the troops in the core area of China region to reach the goal of reducing troops.
Based on Ouyang Shuo’s plan, no matter how Great Xia expanded in the future and how the population rose, seven million troops would be the maximum, and there was no way they would reach 10 million.
The external expansion of the dynasty would rely on the army in China region.
As such, Great Xia returned to the starting point – only by taking down the four country alliance could Great Xia totally free themselves from all restraints and actively expand overseas.
If not, without needing Silver Hand and Azure Badge to strike, Great Xia would be dragged down by the military expenses and dragged into the quicksand of war. They would be unable to pull themselves out.
Hence, the three countries submitting was Great Xia’s most glorious but also most arduous time.
…
Gaia 6th year, 10th month, 6th day, Shanhai City.
Imperial City, temple of heaven square, the nine cauldrons were all lined up in a row. Each cauldron was 3 feet 6.5 inches tall, based on the 365 days of a year, while the circumference was two feet four inches, representing the 24 solar terms.
On the cauldrons were carved trees and wood, fishes and bugs. All of it looked realistic and alive.
During the past two days, the cauldron of Shu Han was sent to Shanhai City. At that time, Ouyang Shuo was busy discussing with the officials about military reorganization and did not have time to care about the matter.
After the military organization plan was settled, Ouyang Shuo rushed over.
By gathering up all nine cauldrons, he had completed the S rank quest Yu the Great Nine cauldrons. Ouyang Shuo was interested in finding out what changes would happen to these nine cauldrons.
