No Foreign Enemies, Why Still Need an Army?

"Your Highness, believe me, you will surely become one of the greatest emperors in the history of the Sun Moon Empire! This humble one swears to follow you to the death and dedicate my all to the future of the Sun Moon Empire!" Ye Xingyun realized profoundly that the emergence of the Soul Guidance Steam Engine would drastically improve the Sun Moon Empire's insufficient labor productivity, and that the output value of both industry and agriculture would see a qualitative leap.

For the Sun Moon Empire, this change was by no means as simple as one or two new machines; what it would usher in was a new era! An era belonging to the rapid development of soul guidance machinery!

"Senior Ye, please rise. The future of the empire cannot reach glory through my efforts alone; it requires the dedicated assistance of others." As Xu Mochen stepped forward to help the kneeling old prime minister to his feet, the corners of his eyes grew slightly moist.

It had to be said that Ye Xingyun's loyalty and dedication to the Sun Moon Empire were beyond doubt. Even with Xu Mochen having lived two lifetimes, he could not help but express his heartfelt admiration for Ye Xingyun's devotion.

After finally giving Ye Xingyun instructions regarding confidentiality and seeing him off, Xu Mochen began to ponder his next plan alone: as things stood, merely developing finance, industry, and commerce was not enough. To ensure his own status and the stability of the Sun Moon Empire, possessing a powerful army was of the utmost importance.

However, based on the current situation, the Sun Moon Empire's military system and weaponry still suffered from many problems. Moreover, because the days of peace had lasted too long, and there were no internal disturbances or external enemies, the laxity in the Sun Moon Empire's military preparedness was actually quite severe.

Out of the entire Sun Moon Empire's population of 150 million, the standing army consisted of only 800,000 troops. Furthermore, their weapons and equipment had not been updated in a long time, and the military thinking of many officers, as well as the tactical command courses in military academies, remained stuck in the ways of a thousand years ago, showing no progress at all.

Coupled with the fact that the parliament felt the world was at peace and saw no need to invest heavily in military spending, the budget was naturally slashed again and again, and the number of troops was repeatedly cut, eventually shrinking to its current size.

Of these 800,000 troops, 500,000 were internal guards responsible for maintaining urban security in various cities across the empire, and 100,000 were naval forces responsible for patrolling and stationing in the seas and islands near the empire. The actual Sun Moon Empire ground forces numbered a pitiful 200,000, and these were basically all officers and so-called elite troops.

The main reason the Sun Moon Empire's ground forces were so small and composed mostly of officers was that the parliament believed recruiting and training ground troops was very easy, and in a time of peace without external threats, there was no need to maintain a massive standing army.

Consequently, the vast majority of the rank-and-file ground soldiers existed in the form of reserves. In wartime, they could rely on these 200,000 officers and a large number of reservists to quickly assemble and organize, forming a massive ground force of over a million people in the shortest possible time.

At first glance, this system seemed to have no problems; it solved the awkward situation of having no troops available in an emergency while significantly reducing military expenditures, allowing a large amount of fiscal surplus to be used for developing people's livelihoods and industry and commerce.

To put it bluntly, the parliament had always been worried about whether there were other countries and civilizations beyond the vast oceans of the Sun Moon Empire. However, due to the limitations of technological levels and the relative abundance of domestic resources, people's enthusiasm for long-distance exploration was low, so no external enemies had ever been discovered. Thus, the Sun Moon Empire gradually entered a state of relaxation, and some even firmly believed that there were no other countries beyond the Sun Moon Continent.

But Xu Mochen knew very well that across the vast ocean to the east of the Sun Moon Empire, there existed the Douluo Continent, a landmass far more terrifying in scale than the Sun Moon Continent! Although their various systems were inferior to those of the Sun Moon Continent, their territory, population, natural resources, and the quantity and quality of their soul masters were likely beyond anything the Sun Moon Continent could compare to.

Xu Mochen even knew clearly that in a few thousand years, the Sun Moon Continent would likely drift due to the selfish manipulation of a certain deity, eventually bordering the Douluo Continent, at which point war would immediately break out between the two different civilizations due to various contradictions.

Although the Sun Moon Continent was superior to the Douluo Continent in terms of technology, industry, commerce, economy, and systems, its military training was severely neglected, discipline was lax, the vast majority of its soldiers were reservists, and it had not fought any decent battles for a long time.

Added to this was the fact that the lack of large-scale warfare for years led the parliament to cut military funding whenever possible, which meant the army's equipment was never updated and the officers' thinking remained overly conservative and outdated.

Therefore, when they encountered the Douluo Continent—which had been in a state of division and war, thus possessing countless battle-hardened soldiers, as well as a larger territory, population, and powerful soul masters—they were immediately caught off guard and routed, eventually forced to cede territory, pay indemnities, and change the name of the continent.

Even the ambitious schemers lurking within the Sun Moon Empire took the opportunity to launch rebellions, seizing large swaths of the empire's territory with the support of various nations from the Douluo Continent!

In the end, the emperor and parliament of the Sun Moon Empire at the time could only compromise, even having to enfeoff these people as dukes and marquises, agreeing to their brazen carving away of much of the Sun Moon Empire's territory.

However, fortunately, after this war, the various parties on the Douluo Continent felt that the Sun Moon Continent no longer posed a threat and began to grow complacent, shifting their focus back to internal strife.

Coupled with the fact that the Sun Moon Empire endured humiliation and began to develop with one heart, the national strength of the Sun Moon Empire rose at a frantic speed in this atmosphere of unity. Eventually, under the rule of Xu Tianran, they first swept away the various separatist forces within the country (such as the Grand Duke of Brilliance, Zhao Yang, who died at the hands of Huo Yuhao), and later launched a war that sent the nations of the Douluo Continent fleeing in terror, nearly bringing them to the brink of national extinction.

If not for the interference of the Son of Destiny at the time, Huo Yuhao, and a certain Tang from the God Realm, the Douluo Continent would likely have long since become the Sun Moon Empire's possession. Although the Sun Moon Empire later occupied the Douluo Continent again, for some unknown reason, it turned into a bizarre federation!

And this bizarre federation, first called Sun Moon and later Douluo, was controlled by the Tang Sect, the Spirit Pagoda, the War God Temple, and Shrek. The Tang Sect, Shrek, and the Spirit Pagoda were indigenous forces of the Douluo Continent, while the Hall Master of the War God Temple, Chen Xinjie, and the Deputy Hall Master, Guan Yue, were respectively a subordinate of the aforementioned Tang and a junior fellow apprentice of the Shrek Pavilion Master! It is evident in whose hands the real power of the federation lay, and the poor Sun Moon Empire royal family disappeared without a trace from then on, never to be mentioned again in the original work.

Of course, since Xu Mochen had transmigrated to the Sun Moon Continent, he would naturally not allow such things to happen. He would definitely go to the Douluo Continent, and as for that certain Tang? He must be eradicated at all times! It had to be done!

As for how to deal with the Douluo Continent, Xu Mochen naturally had his own ideas. Once this plan could be successfully implemented, it would definitely allow the Sun Moon Continent to dismantle the various forces of the Douluo Continent at the lowest possible cost.

However, for this plan to succeed, besides relying on the Sun Moon Empire's powerful economic, technological, and industrial strength, superior ideology and systems, and natural geographical conditions, it also required a powerful army; otherwise, doing so would only be playing with fire and burning oneself.

After all, dignity only exists within the reach of the sword's edge, and truth only exists within the range of the cannon. Without a powerful army as a backing, if you lose in other aspects, the other party will simply flip the table, put a blade to your throat, and force you to submit. Then you would have no choice but to obediently admit defeat and spit out all the benefits you had worked so hard to obtain.

Thus, in the following dozens of days, Xu Mochen urged the establishment of production lines for the Soul Guidance Steam Engine and the research and development of its accessories, while also beginning further discussions with other soul guidance weapon designers.

Although the profits from arms sales had decreased significantly due to the Sun Moon Empire's military budget cuts, the scale of the Sun Moon Empire's army was still there—not huge, but certainly not small—so the potential profits were still considerable.

Coupled with Xu Mochen's assurances to the military soul guidance weapon experts at the Sun Moon Royal Research Institute that he would persuade the parliament to expand military preparedness, the experts finally agreed to Xu Mochen's request and began to research and develop a new batch of soul guidance weapons according to his plans.

Xu Mochen also synthesized some weapon development ideas from Blue Star with the development direction of soul guidance weapons in Douluo Dalu 2, as well as the actual situation of the Sun Moon Empire, and formulated a military industrial path suitable for the Sun Moon Empire's development with the experts.

Of course, Xu Mochen did not forget to carefully understand the situation of the Sun Moon Empire's army. But he didn't know until he checked, and he was shocked when he did; the problems within the Sun Moon Empire's army could not even be described as merely "many."

Currently, the Sun Moon Empire's army was divided into nine military regions according to the thirty-six provinces and the Ming Capital special administrative region. Except for the Central Military Region, which had the additional jurisdiction of the Ming Capital, the other major military regions were each composed of troops from four provinces. Since the Sun Moon Empire had a total of only 800,000 troops divided into nine major military regions, one could imagine the number of troops in each region.

In addition, the current light weapon configuration of the Sun Moon Empire's ground forces and internal guards consisted mainly of long and short-barreled soul-powder flintlock guns for ordinary soldiers and soul masters below level 30, supplemented by soul guidance ray pistols and rifles for soul master soldiers above level 30. Heavy weapons included soul-powder cannons using primitive soul powder as ammunition, supplemented by a small number of soul guidance energy-gathering cannons.

Furthermore, there was a certain number of cavalry, whose weapons, in addition to the aforementioned light weapons, included specially crafted sabers and lances (don't misunderstand, these were lances like those used by knights)! The naval sailors were equipped mostly with paddle-wheel sailing ships with iron-plated hulls, mounted with light and heavy soul-powder cannons and a few soul guidance energy-gathering cannons!

Of course, it could not be ruled out that a very small number of powerful soul master officers could equip themselves with custom-made individual soul guidance weapons! But these were also specially crafted by soul guidance weapon designers at a high cost, and compared to the scale of the Sun Moon Empire's army, they were truly a bit scarce!

In fact, this situation occurred not only because the cost of orthodox soul guidance weapons like soul guidance ray pistols and rifles was too high, but also because they could only be used by soul masters, and each shot consumed a significant amount of soul power. Therefore, even low-level soul masters would rather choose soul-powder guns—which had lower power but did not require soul power consumption—than choose soul guidance ray guns.

Not to mention things like soul guidance energy-gathering cannons; they condensed soul power through the cannon to fire a shell, and the soul power consumed for a single shot was at least equivalent to the entire soul power of a level 40-something powerhouse! So this thing was equipped even less frequently!

Therefore, compared to a thousand years ago, apart from the fact that the army finally managed to have a gun for everyone, there was actually not much difference in terms of weaponry compared to a thousand years ago!

Of course, the very small number of officers equipped with custom soul guidance weapons were not included. These weapons were specially designed and crafted by high-level soul tool designers, and the requirements for the manufacturer's level and materials were strict. The cost was naturally frighteningly high, and the manufacturing time was very long, making them completely unsuitable for standardized production and popularization. This was not only a problem for the Sun Moon Empire's soul guidance weapons but also a huge problem for the current development system of soul tools as a whole!