Volume 1 I Want to Be an Emperor Chapter 43 Military Affairs Reorganization

  Today's second update... still working hard...

  According to Liu Xuan's idea, the Youlin riders would have limited initiative to attack in the future. However, no matter how they attacked, the Youlin riders were still the emperor's guards and could not be easily moved. At the same time, they were also the most important mobile troops in the capital. Continuing to command the Youlin Army was basically equivalent to standing guard beside the emperor every day.

  Tiger and leopard riders are different. From the very beginning, the purpose of setting up tiger and leopard riders was to conquer all directions, not only to pacify the vassals in various places, but also Cao Cao and Liu Xuan had the intention of using tiger and leopard riders to open up territory for the Han Dynasty.

  This is a tacit understanding, even if neither of them has ever mentioned this topic, but both Cao Cao and Liu Xuan do not think that forming such an elite cavalry is just to deal with those domestic lords.

  After all, the main battlefield of cavalry is in the north, and the most important cavalry battlefield in the north is on the vast grasslands or deserts outside the territory of the Han Dynasty, which is the best place for cavalry to show its true value.

  However, there was one thing that made Cao Cao very entangled. In his mind, the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry should be a heavy cavalry with full armor on both men and horses. Once they appeared on the battlefield, they would first strike the enemy with their momentum. But if he really wanted to conquer all directions, the heavy cavalry was undoubtedly not suitable for this role.

  Liu Xuan had also been curious when he went to that repair shop, why the heavy cavalry, a type of soldier, could never become the main character in wars on this land. Later, after discussing with an ancient war enthusiast, he finally understood - it was because this land was too vast and too broad.

  Mobility is very important in war, and with the vast battlefield, mobility can be perfectly played out. Therefore, light cavalry or Mongolian archers on horseback are more suitable for this land, while heavy cavalry that can only make short sprints, whether it is organization, training or maintenance, needs to consume a lot of money, inevitably has no place to use its strength.

  Also for the above reasons, the number of heavy armored cavalry has always been suppressed to a certain extent. For wars that often take place on this land with tens of thousands as units, the effect is even smaller - because once participating in such a frontal battle, it is inevitable to suffer heavy losses, and this loss, even if Cao Cao, who occupied half of China at that time, could not bear it.

  Historically, the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, although a heavy armored cavalry, had no notable military achievements. The existence of this unit was more for intimidation and to showcase their overall strength rather than actual combat use.

  With so many considerations, Cao Cao couldn't help but think about whether his own ideas could still be realized, or if he should make some adjustments to his original plan based on the current situation.

  Positioning the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry as light armored light cavalry? At least the Pingzhou Iron Cavalry under Lü Bu's command was this type of cavalry, and its combat effectiveness was also one of the top-notch elite forces in the world. If Cao Cao could build such a cavalry unit, its practical value on the battlefield would be far greater than that of heavy armored cavalry, which looks strong but has many restrictions.

  However, Liu Xuan did not think so - one of the main reasons for restricting the mobility of heavy armored cavalry was war horses. The war horses produced in the Han Dynasty were always inferior to those from Western countries. It is said that the Red Hare horse had Arabian bloodlines.

  Of course, if Liu Xuan had several thousand Red Hares, then he wouldn't have to worry about these things. The problem is that he doesn't, so he can only think of a solution from another angle.

  After some thought, he really came up with a solution, but the method would take more than a day or two to accomplish, and it might take decades to waste. However, after careful consideration, this matter was not in conflict with his original intention, so Liu Xuan still made up his mind to let Cao Cao form a purely heavy armored iron cavalry.

  However, at first only one tune was formed, and the rest were ordinary cavalry. One tune is five hundred people, Liu Xuan's meaning is to form a three-thousand-man cavalry corps, but among them, five hundred are heavy armored cavalry, and the rest are ordinary cavalry.

  Cao Cao thought for a moment, this is indeed a compromise, but will the formation of three thousand people be too much?

  "There are not many war horses in Chang'an at present." A cavalry unit of 3,000 people requires a large number of war horses, which is not just 3,000. The minimum is 5,000 to 6,000, and the maximum is tens of thousands. If you count the logistics team, etc., one battle can make one side rich or bankrupt.

  "There will be war horses, for now just set up the framework, and we'll discuss the specifics later." Cavalry was considered a high-level troop at this time, so he didn't expect to have a few words with Cao Cao here and then bring out 3,000 cavalrymen tomorrow. For now, it's just about making a plan, and then following that plan step by step.

  At the same time, since Cao Cao chose the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, it means that Cao Cao wants to unify the army and conquer all directions. Therefore, he cannot be assigned a civil position in the imperial court.

  Liu Xuan's second point for reforming the imperial court was that no official in office, whether he was one of the Three Dukes or a common Langguan who had just entered the imperial court, was allowed to hold multiple positions.

  At present, Wang Yun holds two powerful positions as both the Minister of Works and the Commander of the Imperial Guard, almost having a monopoly on the entire imperial court. Liu Xuan also knew that in this land's dynasties, past and present, there was such an evil custom - to show respect for someone, the emperor would often bestow multiple titles upon them.

  Of course, there are also some people who grab power and put titles on themselves.

  He could not accept any of them, and he wanted to eradicate this situation from the root. He directly issued an edict, explicitly prohibiting such things from happening again - what he could control on the court, this decree was mainly aimed at the lower levels.

  The imperial edict has been drafted and will be announced at the morning court tomorrow. Of course, he had already hinted to Wang Yun before this, but Wang Yun didn't show any attitude, it seemed like a 'silent protest'. However, Liu Xuan was too lazy to care about how he reacted, anyway the edict had been issued, if Wang Yun really wanted to oppose him, then he would be severely punished.

  As for Cao Cao, it seems that he can only make arrangements in his military position. As for the Ministry of War among the six ministries, according to Liu Xuan's plan, it is also different from the original Ministry of War. This Ministry of War is mainly responsible for strategic suggestions. For this reason, Liu Xuan specially divided a staff office, which is also responsible for logistics affairs - originally, all financial matters in the imperial court should be under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Revenue, but Liu Xuan assigned military funds to the Ministry of War for management, so if the logistics cannot keep up during military operations, it is the problem of the Ministry of War.

  To put it bluntly, the Ministry of War does not have the direct right to command battles, but in order to engage in battle, they must obtain permission from the Ministry of War, which is a mutual restraint.

  The real commander-in-chief is the general, Liu Xuan thoroughly separated the generals from the rest, and the previous Han general's qualification to participate in political affairs was thoroughly abolished by Liu Xuan.

  "Since you're going to be a general, focus on military affairs."

  Although Cao Cao also made some achievements in politics, after all, Cao Cao's ambition was not here at this time. He wanted to see if Cao Cao, who focused on military affairs, could go further than before.

  Of course, the candidate for Minister of War Liu Xuan also had candidates, one was Zhu Jun, two was Lu Zhi, and three was Huangfu Song, all were loyal ministers, using any of them he did not worry that they would do evil to their own troops in the back.

  Besides, Cao Cao now wants to form the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry, and he is preparing to confer a general's position on Cao Cao. As a result, the position of Youlin Zhonglang General will be vacant, and the candidate for succession is also quite a headache for him.

  Apart from this, the reorganization of the Northern Army also gave him new ideas. It was no longer divided into martial schools according to its original organization, but thoroughly transformed into a single army with clearer powers: during wartime, it listened to the emperor's dispatch, and when there was no war, it guarded the capital and alternated garrisoning the borders.

  For the new Northern Army, Liu Xuan directly named it the Forbidden Army. He asked Xun Yu to help draft specific articles, and after finishing this task, he would go discuss the formation of the Forbidden Army, then delegate a senior minister to take charge.

  The Imperial Guard was not under the jurisdiction of any minister, but was personally commanded by him. The officers of the Imperial Guard did not need to listen to anyone's dispatch without the emperor's edict, and the generals who led the Imperial Guard were all temporary appointments. The middle and lower-level military officers responsible for training at ordinary times would also be transferred from time to time.

  Doing so might lead to the problem of soldiers not knowing their commander and commanders not knowing their soldiers, but Liu Xuan could hardly expect everything to be perfect at this point, so for now he just had to make do with the situation.

  The Imperial Guard, the Feathered Forest Cavalry, and the Tiger Scorpion Army are all the troops currently under Liu Xuan's command. Later on, the Tiger Leopard Cavalry will be added to this list. Apart from that, there is no need to specially establish more troops. From now on, battles will mainly rely on the Imperial Guard, with local troops serving as auxiliary forces (this unit is not reliable at present).

  As for the Zhongwei troops and the Chengmen Xiaowei led by Jinwu, Liu Xuan also wanted to reorganize and abolish them. From then on, all defensive matters would be handled by the regular army. Otherwise, what was the point of having the Imperial Guards? Were they just going to drink tea and chat during peacetime?

  The Zhongwei and Chengmen Xie can be changed to a similar police institution, responsible for maintaining law and order and patrolling...

  Looking at the messy paper written by himself, Liu Xuan couldn't help but smile bitterly.

  "The more I think about it, the more messed up things become."

  Cao Cao left, and he wrote and painted here, just wanting to think about where else he needed to change. However, the more he wrote, the more he found that the current system was really hard for him to be satisfied with. By this time, he had almost overturned the entire imperial court system.

  Just as he was having a headache, Lü Bu happened to arrive, and Liu Xuan put the paper in front of him aside and called Lü Bu in.

  Looking for Lü Bu is nothing else, just discussing the reorganization of the Hu Bao Army.

  The Hu Bao army was originally the emperor's personal bodyguard, with many heavy infantry soldiers. After Lü Bu became a general of the Hu Bao, he added to it his own cavalry from Pingzhou. Liu Xuan planned to fill out Lü Bu's Pingzhou cavalry to 1,000 men and then change the Hu Bao army from being the emperor's personal bodyguard to being the emperor's claws and teeth, like the Hu Bao cavalry, to help him pacify the four directions.

  Lü Bu naturally had no reason to disagree, the emperor wanted to help him increase his elite soldiers, he was overjoyed and wouldn't dare oppose it.

  The more the Son of Heaven did so, the more he showed his importance to him. Moreover, the Emperor soon gave him a secret decree: "Tomorrow, lead the Tiger Guard to guard the Golden Flower Hall, listen to my orders and act accordingly. Special permission is granted for Feng Xian to hold a halberd and ascend to the hall, guarding me on both sides."

  Lü Bu immediately understood that the Emperor was going to make a big move and immediately nodded in agreement.