As time passed, Austria's economy was gradually prospering.
Since Laszlo's ascension to the throne, there had been seven years of war in a decade, which once caused the people of Austria to suffer greatly.
The only comfort for the Austrian people was that in the past decade or so, no enemy had ever been able to set foot on Austrian soil and cause destruction.
Only the people in Outer Austria and the Tyrol border regions were occasionally plundered by the Swiss, but now even that menace had been eliminated by the Emperor.
The Habsburg Family, by relying on intermarriage, obtained Bohemia and Hungary, effectively forming a back-to-back personal union of three nations, which greatly alleviated the defense pressure on the three countries.
This was especially important for the Hungarian people.
In the past decades of war against the Ottomans, Austria and Bohemia often provided aid due to their joint rule.
With allies standing behind it, and no need to worry about being stabbed in the back, the Kingdom of Hungary could naturally commit most of its defense forces to the eastern front line to confront the Ottomans.
Now, with the retreat of the Ottomans and the establishment of vassal states like Serbia and Bulgaria, Hungary's defense pressure suddenly eased.
Considering this situation, the Austrian people very much hoped that the Emperor would invest more resources into the development of Austria, and were no longer willing to fund aid to Hungary.
Laszlo naturally complied with the people's wishes; not only that, but he also used various means to force the vassal states to share Austria's financial burden.
As a result, although the Austrians did not feel much difference, they were actually receiving preferential treatment.
At least compared to the old Hungarian farmers struggling on the brink of survival, the Austrians were now moving towards a comfortable standard of living, and their situation was much better.
Yet, even so, Austria was still constrained by massive military expenditures and had to face a slowdown in economic development.
To support the Independent Army stationed in Styria and the Guards stationed in Vienna Neustadt, Laszlo had to spend around 250,000 florins in military expenses each year.
This was even after he had made great efforts to reduce expenses through various means, yet it still brought a heavy burden to Austria.
For this reason, Laszlo began to consider the matter of a second military reform.
"Are you finally planning to reduce our astonishingly large army?"
At the Privy Council meeting that day, Laszlo presented his ideas to his ministers.
This almost immediately elicited an exclamation from the Minister of Finance, Jacob; the most important reason he had been working so hard to raise money for the Emperor all these years was this army.
Now that the Emperor proposed to reorganize the army, Jacob immediately became energized.
If possible, he hoped to limit the army's size to within five thousand men, which would immediately restore Austria's economy to health. "Jacob, calm down," Laszlo said, somewhat helplessly, "Although the army brings a great financial burden, they are indispensable for Austria.
The topic we are discussing today is how to reduce some military expenditures while preserving the army's combat effectiveness as much as possible."
"You're not thinking of forming an Austrian standing national army, are you?"
Field Marshal Adolf, who had the most say, looked at the Emperor with hesitation.
Seeing the old Field Marshal's expression, Laszlo's heart sank; if even this military governor of Austria did not agree with his plan, then it was likely not feasible.
In fact, although he had long conceived of a conscription system, he was not overly optimistic about it.
"Adolf, do you think that conscripted militias, after long-term training, could replace our current mixed military service system?"
"It's difficult, Your Majesty."
Facing Laszlo's question, Adolf sighed and shook his head, denying Laszlo's idea.
He had truly followed Jan Žižka in Tábor to form a new type of army, and he understood that such an army could only achieve combat effectiveness comparable to elite mercenaries under extremely special conditions.
This was just one limitation of a conscripted standing army; another more important limitation was that it could not be afforded.
Conscripted soldiers must first be conscripted from Austrian citizens, and this involves a very complex issue.
Do urban residents and people within noble territories count as Austrian citizens? Strictly speaking, no.
If Laszlo directly bypassed them to conscript soldiers into the army, it would undoubtedly cause unrest in the country.
And if he conscripted directly from the royal demesne, then Laszlo's plan for economic development could basically be declared a failure.
Laszlo, who had actually worked the land, knew that with Austria's current ratio of one harvest to six, it was far inferior to the rice paddy yield of the Great Ming at the same time.
Therefore, the agricultural population was currently key to preventing the collapse of the nation.
Under these circumstances, to still try to establish a national conscripted standing army would probably mean he was not dying fast enough.
Since Austrian soldiers could not be directly used in large numbers to serve in the Austrian army, the difference between soldiers conscripted from the Empire, Bohemia, and Hungary and mercenaries was actually not significant.
Anyway, no one had much sense of belonging or honor; there were only two reasons for joining the Imperial Army: stable wages and the Emperor's prestige.
On this basis, following the Emperor and winning battles meant more opportunities to get rich.
This was also why Laszlo's army could always attract enough Imperial mercenaries at lower wages than those of the same era.
Not including the pressure from logistics, military pay alone was quite expensive.
Taking the basic unit in Laszlo's army, the lance, as an example, a lance, according to Austrian military regulations, consisted of 5 men, with different configurations in different armies.
According to standard conditions, the 5 men included one heavy cavalryman, one light cavalryman, one pikeman or great swordsman, one crossbowman or musketeer, and one non-combat support personnel.
Among them, the support personnel had the lowest monthly salary, only about 1.5 florins, an income barely enough to support themselves.
Most of them were not equipped with armor, only a self-defense weapon, mostly a hand-and-a-half sword.
These people were standard reserve soldiers; they had to go to the battlefield to hold the line during the most intense fighting, and usually performed miscellaneous duties.
Some of them happened to possess specialized skills and could earn more additional income.
Above them were pikemen, musketeers, and crossbowmen, whose monthly salary was 3 florins.
For reference, the average monthly salary of Swiss mercenaries before the defeat of the Confederation was 3.5 florins.
Soldiers in the Imperial Army who provided their own complete equipment received full pay.
However, if they joined empty-handed, they needed to draw corresponding armor and weapons from the Emperor's arsenal.
The monthly salary of such soldiers would drop to 2.5 florins for the first eighteen months, until the deducted wages covered the price and rental of their equipment; then they would receive full pay and ownership of their equipment.
Of course, the above conditions were for pikemen; crossbowmen needed to accept a reduced salary for the first two years, and musketeers for the first three years.
It is worth noting that to serve in the army in this way, one must swear allegiance to the Emperor in a personal capacity.
However, because the generals were more adept at organizing mercenaries, these semi-conscripted soldiers, after experiencing many wars, would also be assimilated into qualified and seasoned mercenaries.
Further up were light cavalry and great swordsmen, both of whom enjoyed double pay, meaning a monthly salary of 6 florins.
Among them, great swordsmen were tasked with breaking formations, and were always placed at the front of the battle formation, undertaking the most dangerous work.
Moreover, they needed to be "licensed to work," meaning they had to obtain certification as a sword master from the Brotherhood of St. Mark, exclusively authorized by the Emperor, for the military to acknowledge their worth.
Light cavalry, needless to say, mostly came from Hungary and Dalmatia; they were the Emperor's most capable scouts, and sometimes undertook the arduous task of harassing enemy forces.
As the sergeant of a lance, a heavy cavalryman enjoyed a high monthly salary of 8 florins; if he also held a knight's title, his salary would be doubled. Officers above them enjoyed even more generous treatment, and during wartime, additional military pay had to be disbursed.
This required a large amount of cash flow; therefore, once war broke out, Laszlo had no choice but to issue mandatory war bonds domestically and use the method of allowing plunder to offset part of the pay.
These measures squeezed the people's resources and emptied the national treasury, yet still could not fill the large military expenditure gap.
It is said that a monarch's true strength should not be judged by his treasury balance, but by how much he can borrow from various channels.
Laszlo was undoubtedly the most creditworthy person of this era; with the help of Fugger, he could borrow three hundred thousand florins from the Empire, Hungary, and Italy within half a month.
This sum was enough to support his army's expenses for half a year, which seemed quite a lot.
However, loans had to be repaid, either by using his real estate as collateral—Laszlo sometimes had to accept this—or by declaring bankruptcy, making it difficult to borrow again.
It was precisely because of such a heavy burden that Laszlo had to find ways to raise money from various sources.
The most profitable, of course, was war; spoils of war and war reparations almost always accompanied Laszlo's campaigns, sometimes even ransoms.
Farming yielded slow results, but monopolizing mining, especially gold, silver, and copper mines, could bring in quick money.
Additionally, Laszlo could find opportunities to acquire a lot of unexpected wealth within the Empire.
The money earned by these means was immediately invested back into the army, without even making a ripple.
If he delayed army pay for one month, his army might choose to endure it out of respect for him.
If he delayed army pay for half a year, Laszlo would have to be prepared for his army's garrisons to be looted or even destroyed.
"So, we have no choice but to cut and streamline the army?"
"Your Majesty, that is indeed the case."
"Diplomacy and administration require more resource allocation, and your court should also maintain the proper standards for an Emperor."
Laszlo's gaze swept over everyone, finding that the ministers all agreed.
Even Field Marshal Adolf, the military head, remained silent at this time.
His heart was conflicted; as a military commander, he naturally did not want Austria's military strength to weaken, but the fact was that Austria had already suffered greatly because of this massive army.
Even just maintaining the nine thousand troops in Austria's core region was already a considerable burden for the whole of Austria.
In comparison, neighboring Hungary, which maintained fifteen thousand standing troops, did not necessarily have a much lighter burden than Austria.
To the north, the Kingdom of Bohemia, having lost Moravia, found six thousand troops still a significant number.
The six thousand troops in the Venetia region, with the Northern Italy states sharing the burden, did save a lot of expenses.
However, the Austrian government had to fund the replacement of troop and equipment losses during wartime, immediately maxing out the financial pressure.
Maintaining such a large number of standing mercenary troops was primarily due to the immense military pressure Laszlo had faced for a long time.
However, the large army in turn forced him to continuously engage in foreign wars, trapping him in a vicious cycle.
Now, the external military threat had diminished, and after careful consideration, Laszlo finally resolved to reduce the army.
Reducing the army was a technical skill; how to do it to maximize the reduction of military expenditure while retaining the ability to suppress various domestic forces was crucial.
Laszlo already had some ideas on this.
"Does anyone have any suggestions regarding the army reduction?"
Laszlo asked.
Jacob was about to advise the Emperor to drastically cut the army when Field Marshal Adolf spoke first.
"Your Majesty, to determine how many standing troops we need to maintain, let's look at our enemies.
The Ottomans have several Janissaries regiments, with a total strength of about eight thousand men now.
This is the core of their army, but considering that the Ottomans's mobilization capability is stronger than ours, our standing army should be larger than theirs.
The French standing army is similar to your envisioned national army, initially including ordnance knights, militia archers, and artillery units.
However, the militia performed extremely poorly in combat, so Charles VII later abandoned this army.
Although Louis XI expanded the size of the ordnance knights to over 30 companies in previous years, he later reduced them to 22 companies under opposition from all social strata nationwide.
Thus, including artillery units, the French standing army's size is around 15,000."
"Which means we need to maintain at least 23,000 standing troops."
Laszlo said without hesitation.
"Well, if we need to deal with threats from two directions simultaneously, then this number is reasonable.
But this includes not only Austria's standing army but also the armies of our vassal states."
"We certainly need to consider this situation; I predict such a situation will most likely occur in the future."
Laszlo had already learned from the Duke of Armagnac about the French King's close contact with the Sultan; his enemies had clearly united.
"Considering the Hungarians' extreme reluctance to fight in areas west of Vienna, we should have a clear division of military tasks for each country, which will facilitate coordination and avoid widespread dissatisfaction.
Greater Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, and the three vassal states will be grouped together to deal with the Ottomans; we will not discuss this part today.
Austria, Bohemia, and Milan will form another group, responsible for dealing with military pressure from France and even the Empire.
Based on this, we can then determine how many troops we should reduce."
"Looking at it this way, we are indeed maintaining too many troops," Eyczing quickly calculated, immediately understanding why the princes within the Empire were so respectful when they saw him, "Milan and Bohemia maintain 12,000 troops, and we still have 15,000 troops in Austria, not counting the forces in the Outer Austria border regions and the conscripted army."
Field Marshal Adolf reminded, "Although the armies of Milan and Bohemia, and the Austrian conscripts are numerous, their combat effectiveness is not strong.
I suggest reducing Austria's army size to three legions, which will be sufficient to handle threats from France and the Empire.
Moreover, you can introduce the reduced units to clients who are currently in urgent need of soldiers; I believe our army's reputation is enough to make them generous."
"Indeed, if the issue of resettling the demobilized troops is not handled well, a mutiny might occur.
In that case, let the demobilized soldiers serve our allies; I will send someone to discuss this with the Duke of Burgundy.
As for the surplus mercenaries, settle them in the free mercenary camps in Swabia."
Laszlo felt uneasy, but releasing the elites he had personally trained was a helpless measure.
He no longer wanted to test the limits of heavy debt and bankruptcy; the country needed to develop.
Just like the two Black Guards created by Maximilian I in history, totaling about eight thousand men, they refused to continue marching into Hungary after recovering all of Austria.
Maximilian, who originally intended to maintain this army as a standing mercenary force, was forced to "release" them because he simply had no money to maintain the army.
Later, a considerable portion of this army was hired to serve the French King and was annihilated by the combined forces of Spain and the Empire on the Northern Italy battlefield.
Laszlo could only try his best to ensure that these mercenaries he released would not become his enemies in the future.
"Since the army's size is to be reduced, the system also needs some reforms.
I intend to separate the cavalry units into their own distinct force, retaining three companies of cavalry, which is fifteen hundred men.
The remaining three legions, with a strength of nine thousand men, will only use infantry and artillery."
After the war with the Swiss, Laszlo finally decided to steer the army towards the development path of infantry phalanxes.
Cavalry, especially heavy cavalry, despite possessing the ability to dominate the battlefield, was simply too expensive.
Only Laszlo and Adolf were most knowledgeable about the army's situation.
But when the ministers heard that the Austrian army would be reduced by nearly one-third, everyone immediately expressed unanimous agreement.
A more detailed army reduction plan was submitted to Laszlo by the Court Military Committee a few days later.
After receiving the Emperor's approval, under the overall planning of Field Marshal Adolf, a committee composed of several military advisors began to lead this important work.