Compared with the long-term inefficient idle state of the civil service system, once the Li family army's war machine is activated, the efficiency is amazingly high.

From the General Senate Department to the specific combat troops, every link is continuously and efficiently operated under the lubrication of military orders.

The headquarters of the general Song Yunxiang, the expedition leader, was led by 20,000 troops. Due to the long journey, the navy's ships were severely insufficient, so they could only take land, pass through Luoyang, pass through Jingzhao Prefecture, and finally arrive at Fengxiang Prefecture, which is now Baoji City.

The main problem of the Western Expedition was not the battle between the two armies, but the need for abundant food and grass. Now, Li Zhongyi had just entered Kaifeng City, and the strategic transportation channel from the capital to the west was not only disrepair, but also had a long journey, so it was difficult to undertake the task of transporting strategic food.

Therefore, the task that Li Zhongyi handed over to Song Yunxiang was mainly guarding and waiting for change. After the main force of the army had dealt with the Khitans, Northern Han, Li Chongjin, and Li Yun, he turned around and took down the big granary of Bashu in one fell swoop.

Since the Qin Dynasty, the Bashu region has always been a strategic place to compete for the world. The Western Jin Dynasty was the Wu Kingdom, which first destroyed Shu Kingdom, and then launched a large army along the river and destroyed it with the flow.

From a strategic perspective, Li Zhongyi had the previous unified experience. If he wanted to take the Southern Tang Dynasty, he would first take Bashu, and then go straight down the river and take down the fertile land of Jiangnan in one fell swoop.

In history, the strategic policy of first and then north set by Zhao Kuangyin, the Taizu of the Northern Song Dynasty, missed the strategic opportunity for civil strife in the Khitans and delayed the best opportunity to recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun. It is really a pity!

Today, Li Zhongyi, because of his epoch-making killing weapon like bronze cannons, can unify the hometown of China calmly. Then, with his heavy national strength, he first recovered the Yanyun area, cut off the Khitan grain base, dragged it down and thin, and finally completely destroyed it.

The Great Zhou that did not unify the entire Central Plains would be at most more than 40 million people. If, plus the millions of people in Bashu, millions of people in the Southern Tang Dynasty, and millions of people in the hands of warlords of all sizes, the unified Celestial Empire would have at least 55 million people.

With a total population of more than 50 million, in addition to the elderly, young, sick and disabled, Li Zhongyi can raise at least 300,000 professional elite iron army.

More importantly, due to the extraordinary insight that spans thousands of years, Li Zhongyi also has a new force that can greatly liberate productivity, that is, at least tens of millions of young women.

In this era, the method of calculating population is all based on the number of male strong men's mouths and summarized.

According to Li Zhongyi's plan, women are allowed to participate in the selection of special officials and settle independently, so that they can not only engage in the affairs of writing and painting in the yamen, but also freely cultivate their own land. The human resources of the entire society will achieve explosive growth.

Very different from the population concepts of rulers throughout the ages, Li Zhongyi hopes that the more population, the better. In his opinion, population is actually the most important strategic resource.

Many ethnic groups in history were once powerful, but after the destruction of their country, the entire ethnic group disappeared without a trace. The core factor is that those ethnic groups have too few populations and cannot withstand the baptism of historical bumps.

It was much more convenient for the troops of Liu Heyang, the general of the East, to move out. After leaving the Bian River, he could take a boat to Yangzhou. Yangzhou was Li Chongjin's territory. Since Li Chongjin was going to commit suicide, Li Zhongyi, who was worried that he could not find an excuse to reduce the vassal states, simply fulfilled Li Chongjin, and it was imperative to capture him in battle.

Li Zhongyi now has nearly 170,000 soldiers and horses on hand, which is a veritable super warlord.

Song Yunxiang took 20,000, Liu Heyang took 30,000, Yang Lie divided 40,000, and more than 70,000 soldiers remained in Kaifeng.

In fact, Li Zhongyi had already planned to divide his troops to control the entire area, but he didn't find a good excuse for the moment.

Now, Li Chongjin and Li Yun raised an army to rebel at the same time, which gave Li Zhongyi an excellent opportunity. If Li Zhongyi didn't take the opportunity to spread military power at this time, then he would be the number one fool with Tianzi!

However, since entering Kaifeng City, Li Zhongyi has only moved the Political Affairs Hall and transferred the real power of the center to the cabinet.

In fact, with the assistance of the garrison, hundreds of trainees from the military and political academies, and nearly a thousand low-level officers who have changed their positions, have completely taken over the real power of each pavilion, each village, and each village.

This is the concrete manifestation of the strategy of surrounding the cities in the countryside in the Great Zhou!

In Li Zhongyi's dictionary, there was never a so-called local rule that the imperial power did not fall below the county. During the period of autocracy, it was precisely because of the great disadvantage of the imperial power that all kinds of ambitions could start from the countryside and then surround the city.

The control of power has always been a zero-sum game. If the imperial court eats one more bite, the family, local tyrants and evil gentry will definitely eat two less bites.

In addition to the degree of logistics control of the court, another necessary condition for the basis of the commercial tax filing system is actually: the changes in the property of local merchants.

The entire Chinese nation has been subverted for thousands of years in history. However, what has never changed is: people’s strong thoughts on earth!

When businessmen become rich, they must buy fertile land and build houses; when officials retire, they must return to their hometowns, buy land and build luxury houses for retirement.

The most surprising thing is that in the Heavenly Kingdom, even the poorest people have a dream of owning their own real estate!

In addition, under the official system, the official family is openly prohibited from doing business. The reliance of officials on the elderly is only tens of thousands of hectares of fertile land and land that can run dead.

People at that time said that Yan Song was a corrupt official. In fact, Xu Jie, who succeeded as the chief minister, owned more than 100,000 hectares of fertile land near Songjiang Prefecture in Shanghai?

The benefits of being able to penetrate the entire pole are simply too many, so many that they are countless.

First of all, the substantive military mobilization or engineering mobilization of the entire court showed terrifying growth of orders of magnitude.

Secondly, checking the taxable land of the people has been a mess throughout the ages. When it comes to Li Zhongyi, the benefits of controlling the village are obvious: who is a big landlord, who is a middle-aged peasant, and who is a retired corrupt official can be said to be clear at a glance!

The city of Kaifeng is actually similar to the rural areas. The towns of each yard and every wing in the city were cleaned up and replaced by all the soldiers of the Li family.

In addition, for the expenses of the past tense, copper coins must be exchanged for transaction money. For the past tense, all the banknotes are registered and encrypted paper money, which greatly compresses the huge space for tax evasion and bribery.
Chapter completed!