In early February, the outskirts of Chang'an city gathered and swore to send troops.

Compared with the previous ceremony of sending troops in Shendu, Chang'an City was much simpler this time. It only set up a simple general platform on the school ground outside the camp, and there was no ceremony for the soldiers to praise their martial arts.

But even so, when Li Tong was on stage by Jia, even if he didn't wear the gold-plated armor, he still became the focus of the field in an instant. Although the surrounding camps were silent, many admiring eyes were concentrated on the platform.

Strictly speaking, this army of Guan's inner Tao has not experienced any iron-blooded training, and is just a group of old soldiers who have been practicing camp for a long time. However, His Highness Yong's generous rewards to the army, so that the soldiers can have no worries and fight with peace of mind in the future.

Although the rewards were their hard work, the government and the country had been filled with demonic trends for many years, especially with the gradual collapse of the military system of founding the country and expanding the border, it was naturally a special kind reward.

Most of the soldiers actually had no close contact with King Yong. Even when King Yong was patrolling the camp, there were a large number of central soldiers guarding him in front of him and behind him, so there was a barrier between the upper and lower parts.

However, with the previous rewards, the soldiers of the camp had already deeply felt that His Highness Yong was not just aloof, did not involve human common plans, and did not care about the hardships of the soldiers.

King Yong proved with practical actions that he remembered every soldier's hard work and put it into action.

Wearing military uniforms, everyone has the awareness of dying on the battlefield, but if this life is worthless in the hard work for several months, the campers will inevitably be confused and fight for some reason. King Yong gave them a reason to continue fighting.

"The former kings proclaimed their power at the four extremes, the country stands proudly in the world, and the kingly sects are well-versed in all directions. No one in the country dares to claim to be against each other. All the barbarians received orders! The country's fortune was shallow and short-term, but now it has been settled inside and outside. The barbarians are stubborn, and they can survive by being grateful and forgiven. If they don't suck the scars for a long time, they dare to bully China without anybody? This time, the army will not ask for the victory or defeat. Anyone who does not obey the king's order in the realm will only kill them and will not leave any prisoners!"

After Li Tong took the stage, he looked around and held the sword and shouted: "The only thing is loyalty and courage, only virtue and righteousness can survive! Even if there are hundreds of millions of thieves, they cannot accomplish things in the past, but they cannot do it now! The Tang family raised their scholars only, but they can be praised for their strength. If the court and axe are set, only merit is rewarded!

All the soldiers and I are united, and they will help me, but they will still have a breath, share the joys and sorrows with the soldiers, and share the honor and disgrace! Today, the law is not for punishment, but for the people, they are actually a warning, but they cannot reward one thing, and they will not be able to be merciless if they die. The soldiers spit on me in person, and they dare not avoid punishment!

But if you donate your life to the country, you will have to treat life and death well. The treasury has accumulated savings. What should you do? Behead one level of armor and reward ten pieces of money. The army will reward you with great rewards, and reward your righteousness with great strength!"

When the soldiers in the camp heard this, they all showed surprise on their faces, either incredible or in a flash of eyebrows. If they hadn't been in the camp at this time, they would have been making noises.

As early as Emperor Gaozong's remuneration system, the military merit reward system established based on the military system was already difficult to continue to operate.

Especially after a large number of Long March athletes were summoned into the army, these recruited athletes had no stable military status and frequent foreign wars. They may still be in Liaodong this year and have arrived in the Western Regions next year. The soldiers have no fixed place to live. In addition to fixed money, grain and military funds, the rewards are mainly based on the spoils obtained in the war.

But two major problems arise from this. One is that those who fought against the Tang Dynasty were all poor and poor, and the most trophys seized were livestock. If these livestock were in the mainland, of course, they were of considerable value, but in the border areas, they were not of much use except slaughtering and eating meat.

The two are that the spoils are inconvenient to transport, fur, tents, etc., but if those living things are to let them run around with the army, they may be exhausted.

Although the imperial court also had teams that specially transported spoils back to the territory, the battle and acquisition of spoils were uncertain, and the losses along the way were really difficult to determine.

In addition, some broad-based villages with vast land and sparsely populated areas can also be granted land and distributed to slaves. However, narrow villages like Guanzhong have no land to be granted, and they can't even support themselves, so even if they have to have slaves, it's useless.

For example, after the middle period of Emperor Gaozong, the Tang Dynasty's foreign achievements declined. One reason was that a group of founding generals and elite soldiers in Zhenguan were exhausted from famous generals and the army's elite, and the other was that the country was poor and the people were exhausted, and the army had no intention of fighting. Joining the army was already a high-risk behavior, and the benefits were so uncontrollable. If such an army could still maintain its strong combat power, it would be a ghost.

When later generations talked about the Anshi Rebellion, people often mocked Xuanzong for opposing the Hu people and delegating power to the Jiedu governors too much.

But this itself is a way to control the cost of war. The cost of recruiting local people in the Tang Dynasty was too high. It was necessary to maintain control over the vast territory and reduce the cost of land maintenance. The Hu people with high quality and low prices were a choice.

From the late period of Emperor Gaozong to the Wuzhou dynasty, the order in the border area began to gradually collapse, especially the resurgence of the Turks. Part of the reason was that the surrendered Turkic tribes could not bear the heavy military service. Even Guanzhong, the fundamental land of the Tang Dynasty, was so tired, and the armed forces in the Hu people who were consumables were naturally even more miserable.

Li Tong doesn't need to face this problem at the moment. What he needs now is to establish his own powerful image both internally and externally.

As a marching chief, he himself is not qualified to be the master and reward the soldiers, so he chose to directly kill the enemy and give money to motivate him.

To be honest, although this method is direct and simple, it is not conducive to the construction of the army, because the army belongs to the state and maintains the rule of the regime. Whether it is to grant land or transfer honors, this is to tie the army closer to the rule.

As for sending money directly, you will not get such an effect. If you send the land to your hands, you must cultivate it with peace of mind. However, if you send the money to your hands, you can spend it anywhere. If you can't spend it in Chang'an, then go to Luoyang.

It’s not that Li Tong didn’t want to use other methods, but the problem is that he didn’t. The honor transfer system was broken long ago when his great-grandfather Li Shimin was about to attack outside. It was even more difficult to directly attack the local tyrants in the pass, so he could only temporarily follow Yi.

When the marching reward was announced, all the soldiers in all camps were very excited. Although they were not as eager to fight, they were full of expectations for this marching. Cutting a head would mean the annual harvest of fifty acres of land, which was really touching.

When I closed my eyes and imagined it, what appeared in my mind was no longer Hu Kou who came from the tsunami, but large areas of yellow grains.

If someone else announced such a high reward, the soldiers might have to doubt it, but since it was said by His Highness Yong, there was nothing to doubt.

Not to mention that His Highness Yong just rewarded them, he gave a huge amount of money to revive Chang'an industries alone. How many thief Hu dared to invade? Even if he had a total of 500,000 people, he would have only been cut by five million yuan. For His Highness Yong, it would be a small amount of money!

"Kill the thief! Kill the thief!"

The sound of drums and whistles sounded, and the generals of each battalion took the stage to accept the flag order. After the flag order entered the camp, the soldiers in the battalion raised their arms and shouted, and the sound shook Chang'an for a moment!

The shogunate officials and the nobles in the capital went out of the city to see off the army. When they heard the deafening shouts in the camp, they were shocked for a moment. The army had its own power, and how could it not be called a strong army in such a strong momentum?

The 30,000 army was first to drive 5,000 elite cavalry, then 10,000 central army, and then there were even a larger number of civilians, pack horses, vehicles, ships and other supplies. Another 10,000 troops followed him and joined the central army to mount the baggage camp. The 5,000 troops were used as the rear army and would only be on the road after the army was set off for several days to maintain the safety and smoothness of the rear road.

The army marched forward for two days and first arrived in Xianyang. Then the central army stayed here for a day. Li Tong personally visited Zhaoling to worship Emperor Taizong.

This place of Zhaoling is not the first time Li Tong has arrived. In his early years, he went to Qianling to guard the tomb and worshipped him.

Zhaoling is a tomb because of the mountain, and its structure is majestic. In addition to the tombs of Emperor Taizong Li Shimin and Empress Changsun, there are also hundreds of tombs of famous officials and generals of all sizes. Many well-known heroes of Lingyan Pavilion in later generations have a place here. During his lifetime, they assisted Emperor Taizong in establishing the country and promoting the rule of the country and reaching the Six Yi. After his death, they still united the monarch and ministers, and accepted the admiration and worship of later generations.

But what really made Li Tong feel passionate was not the grand pattern of Zhaoling. To be honest, the scale of Qianling is a bit larger than that of Zhaoling.

The most eye-catching thing about Zhaoling is the two rows of stone statues of the 14 kings in front of the tomb. It is not that these fourteen kings are worthy of admiration, but that these fourteen kings stand here, which best reflects the peerless style of the Tiankhan, as the king of the Tang Dynasty and the emperor among the kings!

Later generations have many idle tongues criticized Emperor Taizong of Tang’s private morals, but no matter what, as an emperor, Emperor Taizong of Tang was the best of all kings in history. In the early years of Zhenguan, he was forced to sign the Weishui Alliance. He drank horses in Mobei for just a few years, captured Jie Li Khan alive, pulled out the Tang Dynasty from the quagmire of the chaos at the end of the Sui Dynasty, and dominated the inner world!

If Li Tong had a simple admiration for his great-grandfather before, he would be much more excited this time leading the army to visit Zhaoling.

After entering the hall to worship, he walked out of the hall and stood in place to overlook the two rows of stone statues of foreign kings from various countries, especially the Turkish Jieli Khan and Tubo Songtsen Gampo among them. Li Tong felt even more complicated and secretly decided that when he died of old age, he would definitely make a few more of these things in front of the tomb, which would be much more exciting than the stone cow and stone horse.

After worshiping Zhaoling, the army left two thousand people to guard the tomb and arched around Chang'an at the same time. After entering Qianling tomb and worship, they also stayed two thousand people, and Yang Xianzong led 3,000 people to guard Jingyang.
Chapter completed!