Yan Shenjun was Yan Jiuling, the left commander of the Taiyuan Army Yai. When Taiyuan City was broken, Yan Jiuling and nineteen other people followed Han Shizhong's defeated troops to retreat to Jingzhao Mansion. They were also old subordinates of Zhong Shidao. When Zhong Shidao rebuilt the Shaanxi Road Defense Envoy's Office, they all activated them. Yan Jiuling is currently the military officer of the military.

When they heard that Li Taibao was coming, everyone walked out of the military yamen to welcome Li Yanqing.

This is also a happy thing. Li Yanqing was very worried that something happened to them in Taiyuan, but he finally met again in Jingzhao.

Yan Jiuling was promoted to the military officer, and two other old acquaintances Zhang Qu and Zhou Yan served as the military officers. The three of them were in charge of military affairs and controlled the logistics supplies of the 25,000 troops on Shaanxi Road.

Everyone warmly paid homage to Li Yanqing and surrounded Li Yanqing into the military yamen. Ma Shan had nothing to do with military affairs, but he hesitated for a moment and followed him in.

Li Yanqing handed over military power with Zhong Shidao in Lin'an Prefecture. He took the seat of the head coach directly and asked several major civilian officials to sit down.

"Yan Ganjun, I would like to ask about the military expenditure situation. Can you briefly explain it?"

Yan Jiuling nodded, and he knew the military expenditure of Shaanxi Road with all his eyes. He stood up and said, "The Shaanxi Road Army has 25,000,000, plus the Jingzhao Army guarding Tongguan and the 5,000 soldiers in the wing army that maintains public order in each county, a total of 50,000. According to the salary of ten jin per month and the expenses of food and clothing, it will cost 500,000 jin a month, six million jin a year. The taxes on Shaanxi Road are equivalent to 5 million jin, all of which are used to pay military expenses. In addition, the military expenditure transferred to Shaanxi Road by Bashu last year was 3 million jin, but in fact, the military expenditure of military expenses totaled 8 million jin."

Li Yanqing understood it, and he asked again: "How do you spend the military expenditure of 6 million soldiers after the military expenditure of 2 million jin?"

"There are many contents here, such as the salary of civilian soldiers, the breeding of military horses, the preparation of swords and spears, tents, armor, firearms, catapults and other military materials. In fact, the biggest part is to spend more than 100 military camps on the northern border. Last year, nearly 800,000 guan was used up. In addition to other expenses, there was really no spare money."

Li Yanqing also recruited soldiers and knew that the soldiers' expenses were so large. The Song Dynasty did not have a system of government troops like the Tang Dynasty. The Song Dynasty was completely a professional soldier. He had to pay his salary every month to support soldiers and the families of soldiers. The salary would be doubled during the war, so the military expenditure of the Song Dynasty began to be extremely heavy. When Song Xiaozong abdicated, he sighed and said to the prince: "Today, when the financial resources are given, the number of 10 is the rate, and more than 80 points is the basis for raising soldiers."

Most of the fiscal revenue of the Song Dynasty was used to support soldiers. The soldiers' salary was 8 jin per month, which was about 6,000 jin per month, and 200 jin per day. In the Song Dynasty, it was a middle-income. Soldiers also had to spend money on meals and military uniforms. In the monthly expenses of a soldier, they spent ten jin per month.

To increase the army by 10,000 yuan, a monthly expenditure of 10,000 yuan, and other miscellaneous expenses such as tents, military and horses. 100,000 yuan is not enough.

This time, Li Yanqing conquered the northwest, and Emperor Zhao Gou promised to subsidize all the taxes in Bashu, but most of the taxes in Bashu were subsidized to the three northwest routes, and it was not much added to him. Li Yanqing calculated that he could only increase his troops by 40,000 to 50,000 troops at most.

"I already know the situation. How much military ration is left on Shaanxi Road now?" Li Yanqing asked again.

"Qi Bao, there are about 400,000 stones left."

"It's only 400,000 stones!" Li Yanqing frowned and paced back and forth.

He knew very well that 400,000 s of military ration sounded like a lot, but in fact, it could only be eaten by soldiers for half a year after removing the loss. Moreover, the northwest region is no longer as warm and humid as the Tang Dynasty, harvesting twice a year, and the northwest of the Song Dynasty was only better in the middle region. It can harvest three times in two years, and other places can only harvest one year, and the yield is not high, and a maximum of more than 200 kilograms of wheat per acre.

Fortunately, it is August now, and the autumn harvest will be in a few months. Li Yanqing is in a hurry, so don’t think too much about these things for the time being.

"Let's talk about Yan'an Prefecture and Suizhou. Did the Xixia army violate the border invasion?"

Yan Jiuling nodded, "Yes! It's just a small-scale harassment, but if you are not prepared, the small harassment will immediately turn into a large-scale invasion. Xixia stationed 20,000 troops on the border, and General Zhong had a headache about this."

Li Yanqing knew in his heart that the Xixia army harassed Shaanxi Road in order to delay Zhong Shidao's army, and did not allow him to lead the army to serve the king, nor did he support Xihe Road. He might not really invade Shaanxi Road, otherwise the other party would not only deploy an army of 20,000 people, and pretended to attack Shaanxi Road and actually occupy Xihe Road. This is the strategy of Xixia.

On the way westward, Li Yanqing repeatedly considered the way to break the situation in the northwest. The main reason for the Song army to fail repeatedly in the northwest was not that it was insufficient troops, but that the Song army adopted a defensive strategy and allowed the Western Xia army to attack as they pleased, which was very passive. To change the situation of being beaten by passively, the best way to break the situation is to take the initiative to attack.

Li Yanqing rested in Jingzhao Prefecture for two days, and then led 15,000 troops from Jingzhao to Yan'an Prefecture.

Zhong Shidao deployed 25,000 troops on the front lines of Yan'an Prefecture, Suizhou and Baozhou, and was commanded by Deputy Commander Zhang Jun. Zhang Jun also served as the prefect of Yan'an, and personally led 15,000 troops to take charge of Yan'an Prefecture. The other two commanders, Wu Jie and Wu Zhen, led 5,000 troops to guard Suizhou and Baozhou respectively.

The Song army defended the northern Shaanxi line not in the military camp, but in the dangerous passes scattered everywhere. Each pass ranged from three to five hundred people. These passes are located in steep places, easy to defend and difficult to attack. Usually, they use pigeon letters to communicate, and Zhong Shidao spent more than 800,000 yuan to repair these dangerous passes. In addition, Yan'an Prefecture also has a support army of 5,000 people. As long as the Xixia army goes south, the support army will set off at any time.

Of course, this defense method also has certain effects, but the Western Xia army often takes the method of striking the east and attacking the west, causing the support troops to run around and run away, and they are more difficult to survive.

That morning, Li Yanqing led two thousand troops to Yan'an Prefecture, and soldiers had already notified the northern Shaanxi military.

When Li Yanqing's army arrived at Yan'an Prefecture, Zhang Jun personally went out of the city to welcome Li Yanqing's arrival. Zhang Jun knelt down on one knee and saluted, "I am not in charge of Zhang Jun to meet the Taibao!"

Li Yanqing's Taibao was only his official position, but his real power was the strategic commander of the Northwest Third Route, which means that the military and political power of the Northwest Third Route was seized.

"General Zhang please get up!"

In history, Zhang Jun, Han Shizhong, Liu Guangshi, Wu Jie, Liu Qi and others all came from the Western Army. After Li Yanqing looked at the list of generals, there were famous generals such as Zhang Jun, Wu Jie, Wu Zi, Liu Ziyu, and Yang Zaixing in this 25,000-man Shaanxi army. If these famous generals were used properly, they would become their right-hand men to fight against the Jin soldiers and recover the rivers and mountains.

"Thank you, Taibao!"

Zhang Jun stood up and introduced several generals behind Li Yanqing, "This is the Wu-level general and the Suizhou military envoy!"

Wu Jie was about thirty years old, with a medium figure, a calm eyes, a long beard on his jaw, a mountain-patterned armor, a phoenix winged trousers, a hint of elegance in his heroic martial arts. He bowed to Li Yanqing without panic, "Wu Jie is in a low position to meet Li Taibao."

Li Yanqing smiled slightly, "I have heard of the name of the Wu brothers of the Western Army for a long time, can I be there?"

"Wu Zi is here!"

Another person came from behind Wu Jie. He looked very similar to Wu Jie, but his body shape and temperament were very different. He was tall and mighty, half a head taller than his brother Wu Jie, and he was very strong.

"I am worthy of being a powerful general in the Western Army and have a reputation!"

Li Yanqing praised, then smiled at another elegant general next to him, saying, "If I guess correctly, this is General Liu Ziyu!"

Liu Ziyu is the eldest son of Liu Wei, the envoy of Qin Fenglu Xuanfu. He was about 35 or 36 years old, both civil and military. He looks quite similar to his father, and Li Yanqing recognized him at a glance.

"Let's go to Liu Ziyu, see Taibao!"

Li Yanqing met with Yang Zaixing and other generals one by one, and then he entered Yan'an City accompanied by the generals.

In the military yamen, Li Yanqing first communicated with Zhang Jun about his plan to send troops. Regardless of Li Yanqing's identity or his combat experience in Xixia, Li Yanqing had the right to speak in the battle of Xixia. Zhang Jun knew this very well.

However, Zhang Jun was still a little hesitant, "The Taibao must take the initiative to attack Xixia. Beizhi has no objection, so Beizhi is worried that the Jin soldiers will take the opportunity to attack Shaanxi Road?"

Li Yanqing smiled and said, "It's August now, and there are still three or four months before the Yellow River freezes. I will fight for this battle for up to two months. I can retreat before the Yellow River freezes. Moreover, I have deployed heavy troops on the front lines of Tongguan and Pujinguan. After our army goes north, I hope General Zhang will release some of the troops along the Yellow River to prevent the enemy from crossing the river and attacking Shaanxi Road with rafts. As long as it is deployed properly, there should be no big problem."

Since Li Yanqing was sure, Zhang Jun was no longer worried about the Jin soldiers. He asked again: "How many troops were Taibao going north to lead?"

"Around 30,000 people are enough. This time I came to Yan'an Prefecture. One was to visit the generals on the northern Shaanxi border, and the other was to borrow 7,000 troops from General Zhang."

Li Yanqing was very polite, and Zhang Jun certainly had his own consciousness. He hurriedly said: "Deploy troops and generals is the power of Taibao. If you dare to make decisions, the Shaanxi army will be dispatched by Taibao."
Chapter completed!