Chapter 597: Chapter 278: Local Public Security_3

If it was in the three counties of the Great Chu mainland, many people would be happy to go there and serve as county soldiers. A monthly salary of three silver tales is quite attractive.

But if it’s Qianzhong County, the originally attractive salary suddenly becomes less appealing.

What kind of place is Qianzhong County?

It’s full of Yi People, poverty-stricken mountains and treacherous waters, war and danger everywhere.

Even if you offer a high salary of three silver tales per month, not many people are willing to come here as soldiers.

Compared to the peaceful, prosperous native land of the Great Chu, people who have been accustomed to good days wouldn’t want to spend their lives in this remote poor countryside, taking their families with them, and living in constant fear of being killed.

It’s precisely for this reason.

So when the Military Department started recruiting, many people who came to join, once they heard they were going to Qianzhong County, lost interest and disappeared.

In the end, only those who were extremely poor, gambling their lives for wealth, or younger sons who were forced to leave home with no other choice. would choose to apply.

But how many of these people are there in the Great Chu mainland now?

Once they have undergone a physical examination, even fewer pass.

This is why in more than six months, the Military Department has only recruited 5,000 people out of 6 million.

Recruitment progress is difficult, and there are very few people in the country willing to join the army in Qianzhong County.

Unfortunately, the court cannot use forceful means.

If you conscript people by force, once they’re in Qianzhong County, they might flee.

This is entirely possible.

After all, most of those capable of being soldiers have decent physical abilities, and some even know a little martial arts, not much worse than those small fries in the Jianghu.

If these small fries in the Jianghu can travel everywhere, so can these conscripted people when they flee.

If they flee in groups, these deserters with some military training could even become significant threats to local security as bandits and pose a significant safety risk.

More seriously, it might even lead to a small rebellion. It’s not impossible.

Moreover, a force filled with resentment and lacking in fighting spirit cannot be relied upon to maintain the local security of Qianzhong County.

There’s even the risk of them deliberately causing trouble due to dissatisfaction, which would backfire.

So, for these reasons, the Military Department finally abandoned forced conscription and chose to rely on the meager results of voluntary enlistment.

But at this rate, it’s endless to make up the prefectural and county level soldiers in Qianzhong County.

It’s not even worth thinking about without three or five years, even eight or nine.

But for such a long time, local security in Qianzhong County cannot be left unattended, right?

Otherwise, rebellions like the current one with the Yi People will emerge continuously from the various prefectures and counties without end.

“It seems that there’s really no other way. We must deploy the forbidden army for the time being.”

After thinking about these troubles for a long time, Lu Yuan could only make this decision with a bitter smile.

As no one is willing to settle in Qianzhong County, there are not enough county soldiers, but the local security cannot be ignored, so the problem of local stability here can only be temporarily supported by the forbidden army, which can be rotated.

However, although it’s decided that the forbidden army will temporarily take over security, how many troops to send and which troops to send are also issues to consider.

“There’s a lot of forces from the Da Changhe Country still on the other side of my father-in-law in Hui Chuan, which in the north. He needs to keep an eye on them, and seize the opportunity to attack Hui Chuan, thus seizing the lands of the two prefectures to make up for the territories of one county and ten prefectures in Qianzhong County.

He has a heavy task there, so his 20,000 forbidden troops cannot be moved.”

Lu Yuan pondered in his heart.

Although his main force in the middle road had made a breakthrough with Li Xiong’s desperate crossing of the river, the Chu Army had not yet made any breakthroughs in the two flanks of the Hui Chuan and Nongdong Kingdoms.

There are still tens of thousands of Yi troops from the Da Changhe Country on the opposite side of the two flanks, and there are many martial arts masters in these Yi troops, which is a formidable force.

So, currently, Lu Yuan had no better way to deal with these heavily defensive troops.

After all, he couldn’t imitate the middle road by sending his precious forbidden army like those worthless Yi soldiers to keep crossing the river with countless lives to force an attack, could he?

In that case, the enemy’s defense could indeed be broken.

But after the breakthrough, the two flanks would have lost almost all their soldiers.

Despite breaking through the defense, no more territories could be captured. Instead, a significant amount of strength would be lost, making it utterly meaningless.

Thus, the Chu Army remains at a standstill in the two flanks in the north and south.

Lu Yuan’s strategic plan is to keep making breakthroughs in the middle while using the gains in the middle to pressure Da Changhe Country to withdraw troops from the north and south flanks, giving the two flank armies the opportunity to break through.

Only in this way can the greatest achievements be achieved with the least cost.

“In Nongdong Kingdom, Li Liang’s area is also part of the Kunhai region. I’ve already promised the territory to Li Xiong, and under the previous agreement, he was to attack it himself.

So, whether Li Liang crosses the river or not doesn’t really matter, as the battle can be completely handed over to Li Xiong to fight. All he needs to do is restrain the Da Changhe army on the other side.”

Lu Yuan looked at the map of Nongdong Kingdom’s location with mountains, rivers, and streams roughly depicted, albeit marked unclearly.

However, the territories originally belonging to Nongdong Kingdom have now on the map been divided into Dongxie Mansion, Xixie Mansion, and some areas of Shou Palace Mansion.

With these two and a half prefectures, there are 25 counties. If one allocates 10,000 soldiers, each county gets 400 forbidden Army soldiers, plus the original 100 more prefectural and county soldiers. There are more than 500 military personnel in each county.

With more than 500 troops, it’s enough to suppress the local area, which has already lost a lot of Yi men.

“In this way, the area of the two-and-a-half prefectures is almost settled. What’s left is the other five-and-a-half prefectures.”

Lu Yuan’s gaze moved to the other parts of the region, with 25 counties in the south of Qianzhong County, where Li Liang could help share the pressure.

However, the remaining 55 counties in the other regions have to be solved by him in terms of their security issues.

In other words, it’s necessary to draw some people from his direct subordinate fifty thousand forbidden Army to fill the gap in local security.