Chapter 482 Obeying Orders
After the meeting in the hall, everyone dispersed. The generals had to recruit soldiers and assemble according to military orders, while the officials of the Tian Ce Palace and the Xingtai officials needed to take inventory of the treasury and military equipment.

Only seven people, including Li Qinglian, Dugu Ying, Guo Fenghe, Zhang Jian, Zhu Deyu, Chang Yanheng and Yu Zhongheng, stayed behind for a deeper discussion.

Only then did Li Yuanhui tell everyone about his experiences during his trip to Chang'an, as well as the abdication at the end of the year.

Li Qinglian was puzzled and said, "Your Majesty, I have some objections to this matter. Your Majesty is now on the throne, and the Eastern Palace and the Prince of Jin's Palace are fighting, while the Prince of Qi's Palace is aloof. Isn't this more beneficial to Your Majesty? On the contrary, after the crown prince ascends to the throne, although there is the Prince of Jin to restrain the court, it is still not as free as it is now..."

Dugu Ying said: "I also think that it is more beneficial for Your Highness if Your Majesty is in power at this time."

Li Yuanhui sighed and said, "How could I not know what you said? But if Aye does not abdicate and let the prince ascend the throne, the East Palace and the Jin Palace will have to keep fighting. In this way, the day of unifying the world will be far away."

"But once the Crown Prince takes the throne, he will continue to rely on you and the Prince of Jin in the short term, but in the long run, even with the Golden Casket Alliance, it may not be able to accommodate you and the Prince of Jin. I wonder what you are going to do then? Will you continue to give in, or let Luoyang calm the situation?"

Guo Fenghe then asked a few questions in return, expressing everyone's concerns. What would you do if the prince wanted to take back power after he came to power? Would you give in again and again, or what?

This is also the voice of the silent generals, Zhang Jian, Zhu Deyu and Chang Yanheng.

Li Yuanhui sighed and said, "I know you are worried, but even if the second brother ascends the throne, he cannot immediately control Guanzhong. When the third brother returns to Chang'an with the merit of destroying the country, his prestige will surely increase greatly. Will he still have the time and energy to deal with me? Besides..."

"Besides, Wuji showed me the prescription that the Eastern Palace has been using recently. In order to conceal the truth, the Eastern Palace deliberately did not use the Imperial Hospital, but a famous doctor in Chang'an, my second brother."

At this point, Li Yuanhui shook his head with a somewhat depressed look, and his meaning was self-evident. The prince was probably not in good health, at least he would not live long.

After hearing this, the faces of the few people all lightened up a little. They naturally didn't know about such secret matters. Now after listening to what Li Yuanhui said, they all felt more at ease.

"So this time, my third brother is going to use his troops in Jingnan, and everyone in the Qi Palace must do their best."

What Li Yuanhui meant was that the third brother and I are now on the same front, so don’t try to hold us back on this kind of thing. Helping him is helping me.

Everyone responded again: "We will obey the king's orders."

After Chang'an, the administrative and military systems of Luoyang, the eastern capital, also began to operate, making pre-war preparations for the attack on Western Wei.

The seven states currently under the jurisdiction of the Prince of Qi's Palace, namely Jiangzhou, Yangzhou, Southern Yuzhou, Northern Yuzhou, Yanzhou, Qingzhou, and Xuzhou, plus Luoyang, are all relatively densely populated plains. For almost ten years after the founding of the Tang Dynasty, Guandong has almost always been under the control of the Prince of Qi's Palace.

Li Yuanhui was also a leader who attached great importance to restoring people's livelihood and agricultural production. This allowed the economy, agriculture and population levels of the seven states to recover greatly during this period. Even in places such as Jianghuai, which Li Yuanhui had controlled for a longer time, the population tax has now exceeded that of Dayan during its heyday.

The Central Plains regions that were most severely devastated at the end of the Yan Dynasty, such as North and South Yuzhou and Yanzhou, were ravaged by chaos and bandits. Places like Yuzhou, Runan, Chenjun, etc. were even uninhabited for hundreds of miles. Now, they have recovered almost completely.

Even because of their sparse population, North and South Yuzhou played a crucial role in Li Yuanhui's post-war reconstruction.

Because the land in Jianghuai was very limited at the time and there were many powerful people, and the military system could not be separated from the land, the four guards and one hundred military offices controlled by the Prince of Qi's Palace, except for the soldiers from Jianghuai, gives most of the land to the rest of the tribes in the vast plains from the Huaibei area of ​​Yuzhou to the south of Luoyang.

After the population and tax situation recovered, the six states of Xuzhou, Southern Yuzhou, Northern Yuzhou, Yanzhou, Qingzhou, and Jiangzhou successively formed local rural armies, which were called "tuanlian soldiers." Fifteen strong men were selected from every hundred households, and they returned to farming in spring and summer, and followed the army in autumn and winter.

Tuanlian soldiers were mainly recruited by local government and not registered in the regular army. During their service, they were given food, pickles, weapons and uniforms to assist local garrison troops in defending the territory or cooperating in combat. However, they were not separated from production for a long time. After the military mission was completed, they were immediately sent back to their hometowns. Their nature was between government soldiers and recruited soldiers, and they could be considered as soldiers in the field.

It is precisely because of the existence of the militia that Li Yuanhui can boldly mobilize the state and county soldiers in various states without worrying about the security and defense situation in various places after the state and county soldiers are transferred.

Li Yuanhui's plan was to appoint Qingzhou governor Li Yaoshi as the commander-in-chief, leading 8,000 Qingzhou troops, 7,800 Yanzhou troops, 4,500 Southern Yuzhou troops, 5,500 Northern Yuzhou troops, and 4,200 Xuzhou troops.

In addition, there are 20 newly formed Zhechongfu recruits who have not yet been assigned to the various guards. They have been trained according to the training plan personally drawn up by Li Yuanhui. The training content and formation refer to the French army during the Napoleonic period, Qi Jiguang's Qi Family Army, and Yuan Shikai's Beiyang New Army. It has been almost a year, and it is time to temper and sharpen the front. This time, Li Yuanhui asked these people to follow Li Yaoshi to go to war, which means he is coveting high hopes.

If their performance is average, not as good as the current Jianghuai veterans, or even far worse, Li Yuanhui will simply disband this part of the new army and assign it to various guards whose combat effectiveness has already been formed, directly using the old to lead the new, and there will be no need to bother with any military system reforms in the future.

If you don't have that talent, it means you didn't even understand the homework you copied.

If the combat effectiveness is confirmed, we will have an elite force capable of fighting tough battles, and it is also the future development direction of the Tang army.

The new army had twenty Zhechoufu, with Xu Qiande as the General Zhenjun, the envoy with the imperial power, in charge of the four departments, and Fu Weixue as the General Fujun, the deputy governor.

Duan Xiaoxian, Li Bao, Zhu Wenzhen and Lan Yu were appointed as the front, back, left and right Lieutenant Generals, each leading five detachments.

These people have one thing in common, that is, they are young. Duan Xiaoxian is the nephew of Mrs. Duan and the Duan brothers, Li Bao and Zhu Wenzheng are the nephew and nephew of the old Zhu, and Lan Yu is the brother-in-law of Chang Yanheng.

They were all about the same age, around 20 years old. They were the next generation of military commanders that Li Yuanhui was training, and he personally taught them military tactics and marching. He had high hopes for them.

After the military order was issued, Xu Qiande and Fu Weixue, as the chief and deputy commanders, came to the palace with four young generals to receive orders.

Li Yuanhui said: "Qian De is a famous general who has fought in hundreds of battles. He is a master who can defeat thousands of enemies. You must be careful when you lead the new army to fight this time. The four of you are all talented generals that I am very optimistic about. You have all been in the army and have experienced battles. I don't have anything to tell you today. You are all veterans and know the rules. You must obey orders. After the battle, the military orders are the king's orders. Whoever dares to disobey will be killed."

Upon hearing this, the four young generals all bowed to the ground and said, "We dare not, we must follow the military order."

Finally, Li Yuanhui pointed at his two nephews and said, "These are my eldest brother's two sons, Changgong and Yanzong. They will each lead 500 armored cavalrymen to join the expedition. Qiande and Weixue, you two should take them with you and give them a good experience. What I just said about the four of them is the same as for you two. Do you understand?"

Li Changgong and Li Yanzong did not expect that their fourth uncle would give them the opportunity to join the army so soon, and they immediately said, "Yes, fourth uncle, Changgong (Yanzong) understands."

Xu Qiande and Fu Weixue agreed immediately, but they were complaining in their hearts.

The new army was a bunch of troublemakers. Duan Xiaoxian and Li Bao were okay as they were both relatively stable, but Lan Yu and Zhu Wenzhen were a bit unruly.

Now here come two descendants of the former crown prince and two imperial grandsons and princes. This team is really difficult to lead.

(End of this chapter)