章 550: 513 Chemists and Engineers

To control the vast lands, relying on a minority of elite troops would not suffice; ensuring a sufficient number of basic military forces was essential.

The territory of the Great Tang Kingdom was already quite sizable, and 400,000 regular soldiers could not fully control the entire nation.

Moreover, out of these 400,000 regular soldiers, at least about 100,000 were not on the mainland of the Great Tang Kingdom but were deployed overseas.

This meant that the actual military strength of the Great Tang Kingdom was only around 300,000. And these 300,000 people had to be distributed across three defensive lines.

One defensive line was in the north, guarding against Qi Country, the second was in the west, to resist the Dahua Empire, and the last was in the south, targeting Chu Country.

The previous military deployment included roughly two divisions per defensive line, about 40,000 people, which accounted for approximately 120,000 soldiers.