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With Nanzhao’s national strength, they can mobilize a 100,000-strong army at any time for long-term warfare. With desperation, raising an army of 300,000 is not impossible.

Such a great enemy must not be underestimated and ignored.

To Xichuan Prefecture’s north, although there is Hanzhong Country, it does not pose much of a threat.

But to the north of Hanzhong Country lies Zhou Country, an enormous force. To prevent Zhou Country from breaking through Hanzhong and brazenly marching southward, Xichuan’s northern border must maintain adequate defensive forces.

Thus, within Xichuan Prefecture, there must be at least two, or even three, Forbidden armies, along with an Inborn Grandmaster stationed there.

Adding these two prefectures together, five Forbidden armies will be required.

As for Xiangyang Prefecture, there were originally two Forbidden armies stationed there, along with Zhou Qing, the Inborn Grandmaster, who can barely withstand the pressure from the surrounding three major countries.

But now, one of the Forbidden armies from Xiangyang has been transferred to Xichuan Prefecture, causing Xiangyang’s military strength to be directly weakened by a third, leading to a massive gap in defense and severely affecting the security situation in Xiangyang.

Therefore, it is urgently necessary to replenish a Forbidden army there.

The last one left is Dongting Prefecture, where the national capital is located. After a decade of operation, the population of Dongting is thriving, and agriculture and commerce are booming, making it Chu State’s true foundation.

One Dongting region is equivalent to half of Chu State.

Now with only two Forbidden armies along with 20,000 prefectural and county soldiers garrisoned in such an important foundational area, its defense cannot be considered anything but empty.

To ensure stability in this area, Dongting must have at least four Forbidden armies, along with 20,000 local prefecture and county soldiers, making up a standing army of 100,000, only then can it barely withstand external pressure and resist the threat of Ning Country’s 300,000-strong army.

Lastly, the navy — the previously planned 50,000-strong naval force must be established as soon as possible.

So, to sum it all up, Chu Country needs to maintain eleven Forbidden armies and 50,000 naval forces, a total of 270,000 combat soldiers, to barely ensure the most basic self-defense capability.

Altogether, Chu Country still lacks three Forbidden armies, 20,000 naval forces, a total shortfall of 80,000 men.

The military expenditure for these 80,000 men, especially for the expensive naval forces, would amount to an annual expense of 7 million silver taels.

If, in addition to self-defense, Lu Yuan wants to ensure a certain ability to wage external wars, another four Forbidden armies and 80,000 soldiers would be needed on the basis mentioned above.

Only then could there be 100,000 troops available for external wars at any time, as was the case during the previous assault on Da Changhe Country.

With this arrangement, another 5.5 million silver taels would be added to the annual expenditure.

In conclusion, Chu Country needs to recruit an additional 138,000 soldiers and increase its annual expenditure by 9 million silver taels to meet the basic self-defense benchmark.

To satisfy a certain level of external warfighting capability, Chu Country needs to recruit a further 218,000 soldiers and increase its annual expenditure by 14.5 million silver taels.

Either of these benchmarks would pose a tremendous financial burden on Chu Country.

“I have now opened up Qianzhong County, and we are about to recapture the old territory of Xichuan Country, increasing our land by 15 prefectures and doubling Chu State’s territory.

To digest these territories, Chu State needs at least ten years to do so considering its size.

Therefore, before these territories are integrated, Chu State will not have the capacity to expand externally.

So, for the next ten years, there is no need to worry about external warfighting capabilities; just ensuring basic self-defense is enough.

In such a case, Chu State only needs to maintain eleven Forbidden armies, 50,000 naval forces, and 104,000 local prefecture and county soldiers, as well as 4,000 Jinwu guards in the capital, totaling 378,000 soldiers.

As for military expenses, it would amount to around 25 million silver taels.

According to last year’s statistics, the existing three prefectures and seventeen fiefs of Chu State have an annual income of about 21 million silver taels.

The Ministry of Revenue estimates that once the initial governance of Qianzhong County is completed and the tax exemption period ends, this area should provide an annual tax revenue of about 2 million silver taels.

As for the Xichuan Prefecture, once the 5 prefectures of Xichuan Country are recaptured and people are relocated there, the prefecture’s solid foundation will quickly transform it into an important source of tax revenue and grain production.

The five prefectures of Xichuan Country do not need much — with a population of around 1 million, they could easily provide 5 million silver taels in tax revenue annually.

However, if people were to migrate from the domestic territory to Xichuan Country, the local fiscal revenue would decrease due to the reduced population.

But this reduction should be controllable within three million silver taels. Therefore, by migrating the population to Xichuan Prefecture, a profit of around two million silver taels could still be made.”

Lu Yuan calculated the gains and losses in his mind, and finally concluded: “So, after the development of Qianzhong and Xichuan, Chu State’s thirty-two prefectures in four counties should maintain an annual income of twenty-five million silver taels.

If the situation is good, it might even increase by another one or two million silver taels.

In terms of military expenditure, the domestic financial income can barely break even.

However, in addition to military expenditures, there are various administrative expenses and salaries for officials.

These administrative expenditures, totaling an estimated five million silver taels a year.

So, does Chu state ultimately have an annual fiscal deficit of five million silver taels?”

Lu Yuan was not too worried about the five million silver taels gap.

During his expedition to the southwestern Yi people, he not only gained an expansion of Qianzhong County’s territory, but also amassed the accumulated wealth of the Yi people nations within Qianzhong Territory, including the Wu Savage Country.

In cooperation with Li Xiong, not only were the national treasuries of various countries plundered, but also the wealth of Yi people tribes and rich Yi families’ assets were taken by Chu State.

It should be noted that there were millions of Yi people living within the territory of Qianzhong County.

The wealth accumulated by these million Yi people over the years has now been taken by Chu State, resulting in a sudden wealth for Lu Yuan.

Previously, Li Xiong had plundered the entire Xichuan area, resulting in a wealth amounting to several hundred million.

Today, Lu Yuan has plundered the wealth of the Yi people in Qianzhong County, although it is not as rich as Xichuan, but it has also obtained a wealth of around fifty million silver taels.

This harvest has slowly been converted into silver taels through various channels and entered Chu’s state treasury.

Chu’s army could maintain over a hundred thousand soldiers in Qianzhong and Xichuan regions, thanks in part to this wealth.

Besides, in the Kunhai region, Li Xiong has been constantly plundering the wealth of the Yi people, then using the looted money to exchange for the food and arms he urgently needs from the Chu state to maintain the increasingly fierce war with Da Changhe Country.

By Lu Yuan’s estimate, the trade with Kunhai Country alone could at least bring a minimum income of thirty million silver taels for Chu state.

So, with these eighty million silver taels plus Chu state’s original savings, there would be no financial crisis for the next ten years.

“Furthermore, there’s an annual aid of three million silver taels from Nanhai Country. However, now that Yan Wangqiu is dead, I don’t know if there will be any changes to this aid.”

Lu Yuan frowned, but soon eased.

Regardless of whether there will be any issues with Nanhai Country’s aid, it will not have any impact on Chu State for the time being.

Giving aid or not won’t be a problem at that side?

The only effect would be on the relationship between the two countries.

As for the squabbles created by Yan Wangqiu’s sons, it has caused much laughter and ridicule among the various countries in the world.

For these successors, Lu Yuan didn’t have too much hope that they could maintain a good relationship with Chu State like Yan Wangqiu.

However, in that case, the opportunity for conflict between him and his old friend’s offspring would inevitably arise.

The only hope was that Yan Wangqiu had made arrangements before his death.

“What will you choose after all?”

After writing various orders on troop deployment and army expansion, Lu Yuan sent them to Baling City as quickly as possible.

He slowly walked outside of the main hall, looking at the south with a deep gaze.