Chapter 278: Methods of expanding the army! (Thanks to the book friend Mo Shaobao for the reward! Please subscribe!)
After learning about the financial situation of Fengzhou government office, Ye Mingsheng began to ask the main questions.
"Do you know how many unowned fields there are in Fengzhou?"

Hearing Ye Mingsheng's question, Liu Zhengxian was a little stunned. He didn't know why Ye Mingsheng asked this question. After hesitating for a while, he answered:

"General, in recent years, due to the Khitan raids, many people have left their homes in Fengzhou, and the fields have become barren. There is no specific statistics, but there must be about a thousand hectares of land!"

When Ye Mingsheng heard the number "one thousand hectares", a light flashed in his eyes. In ancient times, fifty acres of land was equal to one hectare. This one thousand hectares is fifty thousand acres of fertile land. This was a huge fortune in ancient times, enough to support him to complete his next plan.

Thinking of this, Ye Mingsheng looked at Liu Zhengxian and said very seriously:
"Liu Tongzhi, your next task is to find out how many unowned farmlands there are in Fengzhou and give me a specific number!"

"Yes! I understand!" Although Liu Zhengxian couldn't figure out Ye Mingsheng's intention, he still nodded and accepted the order.

During this period, whether it was the danger from Khitan or the turbulent situation in Liaoyang, Ye Mingsheng had the idea of ​​expanding his army...

When he first arrived in Fengzhou, Ye Mingsheng had 6,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry, a total of 7,000 soldiers and horses. He thought it was enough, but this battle with Yelu Yan made Ye Mingsheng realize the weakness of his own forces.

Although Ye Mingsheng won a great victory in this battle, if Ye Mingsheng did not have the grenade as a backup, then this great victory would probably turn into a great defeat.
In this battle, Yelu Yan took advantage of the high mobility of the Khitan cavalry to create a time difference for himself, forming a local advantage and catching himself off guard. But in the final analysis, it was because Ye Mingsheng himself was weak in force. If Ye Mingsheng had 10,000 men instead of 3,000, do you think Yelu Yan would still dare to be so arrogant and underestimate the enemy and advance rashly?
This is one aspect. On the other hand, the current situation in Liaoyang and Da Zhou is on the verge of breaking out. It only takes a little spark to ignite the entire powder keg...

In such a situation, with only 7,000 soldiers and horses, you are destined to be a chess piece. It is far from enough to become a chess player who can control the situation!
Of course, expanding the military is easy to say, but it is difficult to do!

The first thing is the issue of money and food!

During this period, the situation in Changqing Prefecture was tense, and Chen Dechang, Wang Muzhi and others were secretly expanding their military and preparing for war, so the food and salary expenses were extremely high. Therefore, the food and salary allocated to Ye Mingsheng was only half of what it normally was.

Not only that, as for the compensation for the soldiers who died in Ye Mingsheng's battle with Khitan, Chen Dechang had clearly told Ye Mingsheng in the letter that Ye Mingsheng needed to figure it out on his own, and he would not take even a tael of silver...

Although Chen Dechang withheld his own food and wages, in order to ensure the combat effectiveness and cohesion of his troops, Ye Mingsheng could only complain while using his own money to subsidize the army's expenses. Fortunately, Ye Mingsheng got 10,000 taels of silver from Dong Jianchuan, otherwise he would not have been able to hold on until now!

Although this makes Ye Mingsheng's current financial situation a little tight, at least it can still be maintained. But if Ye Mingsheng continues to expand his army, a few hundred or thousands of people would be fine, and Ye Mingsheng could still afford it if he tightened his belt.

But if the military is expanded on a large scale, there will be only one result - financial collapse!
But does it make sense for Ye Mingsheng at the moment to only expand by 1,800 people?
In Ye Mingsheng's imagination, his military strength must reach at least 15,000 people to be basically qualified to compete for Liaoyang!

To reach the number of 15,000, Ye Mingsheng would have to more than double his current military strength, which would require a lot of food and wages! Ye Mingsheng's economic development plan for Fengzhou's coal and iron resources has great potential, but it is still in the investment stage. Not only will there be no output in the short term, but Ye Mingsheng will also need to continue to invest.

Ye Mingsheng has already taken an extra 10,000 taels of silver from Dong Jianchuan. Although he might be able to get some more if he takes more, he believes it won't be too much. Not only will it not play much role in expanding the army, it will also make him look greedy and affect the current cooperation between the two sides...
In addition to financial issues, there is another major problem that restricts Ye Mingsheng's military expansion plan.

The problem is - soldiers!
Due to the long-term looting by the Khitans, Fengzhou suffered serious population loss. In such a large state with several counties, there were only less than 100,000 people, and the number of people of military age was even smaller.

If Ye Mingsheng does not change this situation and continues to recruit soldiers from Fengzhou, not only will Ye Ming not be able to recruit many people, but the food production of the entire Fengzhou, as well as the economic development plan formulated by Ye Mingsheng himself, will also suffer a major blow.

With a shortage of food and wages in front and a problem of soldiers in the back, Ye Mingsheng's idea of ​​expanding the army seems to be just an idea and cannot be turned into reality.

Faced with such an embarrassing situation, Ye Mingsheng pondered for several days before he came up with a solution to the problem!
The solution is land!

Although Fengzhou is poor, it has land! And it is very good farmland!

In today's feudal peasant society, land is absolutely hard currency!

Ye Mingsheng could use the land cultivation rights as food and wages for the soldiers, and the land would also attract young and middle-aged people to return to Fengzhou, so the problem of soldiers would also be solved.

Therefore, as long as Ye Mingsheng makes good use of the vast fertile land in Fengzhou, it would not be difficult to expand the army to 20,000 or 30,000 people, let alone 15,000 people!
Although the idea is good, if Ye Mingsheng does this, the first problem he will face is the threat from the Khitans!
Why are there so many unowned fertile fields in Fengzhou?
The reason was that the original owners of these fertile fields could not stand the constant looting by the Khitans year after year, and eventually left their homes and Fengzhou.

Therefore, if Ye Mingsheng wanted to use land to attract population, he had to do one thing, which was to make the people believe that he, Ye Mingsheng, had the ability to protect everyone's lives and property and protect everyone from being plundered by the Khitans...

Therefore, while Gu Sansi and Yelu Peng had just started to contact each other and had not yet reached an agreement to redeem these Khitan captives, Ye Mingsheng ordered that these Khitan captives be escorted to various places, where they would be displayed for public viewing and beaten and scolded, and the great victory over the Khitans be publicized to the common people to enhance their confidence and let everyone return to Fengzhou with confidence.

Judging from the current feedback, Ye Mingsheng's operation has been very effective. Many poor families have expressed their willingness to believe in the Zhenwu Army, believe in General Ye, and are willing to come to Fengzhou to start a new life.

(End of this chapter)