In order to build the elite of the 100,000 new army, Li Liangzuo did not hesitate to spend money on equipment, as the mobility of the sharp knife troops of the Western Xia is the first, because after the reduction of the Western Xia, only the 100,000 soldiers and horses left, once the invasion of foreign enemies occurs, it is necessary to have a strong combat effectiveness, good mobility of the army to quickly support; And the New Army is such an army.
In addition to being responsible for the support and defense of the territory of Western Xia, the new army is also the advance army of Li Liangzuo to expand the territory in the future, so the new army must also have the ability to fight far away from the territory, you must know that in this era, the transportation capacity is limited, and the agricultural civilization army needs a lot of logistical support to go out to conquer the fortress, and once the logistics supply is lost, there is a danger that the whole army will be wiped out.
Xixia is a society where farming and nomadism coexist, with the steady development of Xixia, the nomadic nature of the original party has begun to gradually lose, the new army trained by Li Liangzuo completely belongs to the nomadic mode of warfare, that is, there is no rear combat, the army in addition to a small amount of supplies, the rest need to be obtained from the enemy country or hunting, which is a great test of the quality of the warriors, patience and psychological quality.
Li Liangzuo divided the 100,000 new army into three divisions and one battalion, the three divisions were a heavy cavalry division, a light cavalry division, and a mounted infantry division, and the remaining battalion was Li Liangzuo's personal guard battalion, and all those who could enter the personal guard battalion were the elite of the elite.
The equipment of the heavy cavalry division is the best of all, and the personnel requirements are the most stringent; A heavily armored knight is equipped with the following items: a set of chain mail, a set of fish scale armor, a set of horse armor, a horse lance, a Mongolian scimitar, a short bow and a riding bow, a pot of arrows and heavy arrows, ten light arrows, two pairs of riding boots, two sets of saddles, a modified war horse, a traveling horse, and a pack horse.
This set of heavy equipment costs about a thousand yuan, of course, spending so much money is also rewarding, the main task of the heavy cavalry division is to break the formation, he is the sharp knife unit of the two armies, the heavy cavalry of this era is like the heavy tank of later generations, it is almost invincible in the field.
The second is the light cavalry division, compared to the heavy armored cavalry division, the light cavalry division is poorly equipped, after all, the tasks of the two sides are different, but compared to the light cavalry of the current era, it is much better.
A light cavalry was equipped with the following equipment: a set of chain mail, a set of leather armor, two Mongolian scimitars, a short bow, two pots of arrows and forty heavy arrows, twenty light arrows, two pairs of riding boots, two sets of saddles, two fine Hexi war horses, and one pack horse.
The main task of the light cavalry is to chase and kill the enemy army in a long run, after the heavy cavalry division breaks through the enemy formation, the light cavalry division will rush in through the gap, divide and surround the enemy army, and eat the enemy army with superior forces, of course, how to fight depends on the form of the battlefield.
The last one left is the light infantry division, the light infantry has been the elite troops of Western Xia since the time of Li Deming and Li Yuanhao, they have a special title of infantry, and what Li Liangzuo has to do is to further upgrade the original elite infantry.
All the officers and men of the light infantry division were all from the Hengshan Dangxiang people in the south of Western Xia, where the ravines and ravines exercised their muscles and muscles well, whether it was a ravine or a flat ground, they walked like flying.
The light infantry was equipped with the following equipment: a set of chain mail, a horizontal knife, a dagger, a longbow, a crossbow, two pots of arrows and 20 heavy arrows, 40 light arrows, a marching horse, a carrying horse, a saddle, a pair of riding boots, and two pairs of cloth shoes.
The main task of the light infantry division is to carry out long-range attacks with bows and crossbows, and the rest is to fight the enemy infantry, as well as to act as a vanguard in siege warfare, and of course infantry in ambush warfare.
The remaining 10,000 personal guard battalions are the elite of Li Liangzuo's elite, this is a mixed army, including 3,000 heavily armored knights, 3,000 heavily armored infantry Modao Army, 3,000 elite light infantry can be used as light cavalry, 1,000 light cavalry, and the equipment of these 10,000 people is similar to the rest, the difference is that they have more war horses.
Among them, the heavy armored infantry is the most important, they are the last barrier to protect Li Liangzuo, and they are also an important force to deal with the enemy's light cavalry, and the requirements for the quality of heavy infantry are stricter than those of the heavy armored knights, which is why there are only 3,000 people.
The composition of the heavy armor foot soldiers should be at least one meter eight or more, and those who are strong or not can not wear more than 100 pounds of armor, the equipment of the heavy armor foot soldiers is as follows: a set of bright light armor, a set of chain mail, a Mo knife, a horizontal knife, a longbow, a strong crossbow each, a pot of arrows and ten heavy arrows, 20 light arrows, a pack horse of one skin, a pair of leather boots, two pairs of cloth shoes.
In order to equip the new army with these equipment, Li Liangzuo can be said to have spared no expense, a set of equipment for heavy cavalry is worth more than 1,000 guan, the equipment of heavy infantry and heavy armored knights are almost more than 1,000 guan, and the light infantry and light cavalry are not cheap, of which the light cavalry needs 800 guan and the light infantry needs 500 guan, so that the equipment of the new army alone needs more than 79 million guan, and the exchange of silver also reaches nearly 40 million taels.
This does not include other military expenses, food expenses, and the expenses required to breed war horses; According to Li Liangzuo's regulations, the military expenditure of the new army is 10 guan per person per month, so that the military expenditure of the whole army will be 12 million guan per year; In addition, the food should be eaten once a day to replenish the strength of the soldiers, plus some other miscellaneous expenses, the average per person should be consistent, and this year will cost 3.65 million yuan.
In addition, there is the cost of war horses, the war horses used by the heavy armored cavalry need to be re-cultivated, according to Li Liangzuo's requirements, the war horses used by the heavy armored knights are mated by Hexi horses and Mongolian horses, and the war horses need to eat food mixed with blood or raw meat every day in addition to forage, which are generally mixed with the forage.
Due to the heavy smell of blood, many war horses did not eat, and finally starved to death, and the starving war horses were not wasted, all of them became the fodder of other war horses later, Li Liangzuo successively bred 200,000 such war horses, and finally successfully cultivated only 40,000; Under such cultivation, the new war horse is a head taller than the ordinary war horse, and the endurance and sprinting ability are very strong.
In addition to these 40,000 war horses, Li Liangzuo also prepared more than 100,000 excellent Hexi war horses for the new army, more than 200,000 pack horses and marching horses, and a total of 350,000 horses of all kinds; The cost of cultivating these horses is also staggering, with each horse consuming an average of three times a day.
One of the very important reasons for this is that a large number of new war horses died in the process of breeding, which doubled the cost of cultivating war horses, of course, after the training of the new army, the cost will be greatly reduced, and the cultivation of war horses will be calculated according to each horse three times a day, and it will be nearly 11 million a year.
Calculated in this way, after three years of training for the new army, the military expenses of the whole army plus the cost of food will be nearly 47 million guan, the cost of cultivating war horses will be nearly 33 million guan, and the equipment of the new army will need more than 79 million guan, not counting other miscellaneous expenses, it will be nearly 159 million guan in the next three years.
The annual tax revenue of the Great Song Dynasty in this era was 70.7 million guan, the tax revenue of the Liao state in the north was 38 million guan, and the tax revenue in the first year of the assimilation reform of the Western Xia was only 30 million guan
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