Guan Zhuofan held that Xinjiang is a vast territory, far beyond Shaanxi and Gansu, and that after our army entered Xinjiang, it was divided into separate attacks and attacked together, and the distance between the various armies was very long, and in the absence of a telegraph line, it was not easy to communicate with each other, and it was very difficult to carry out unified command.

If we insist on "commanding as we wish," we will tie our hands and feet and delay the fighters.

As far as the commander-in-chief is concerned, the military focus lies in the planning before entering Xinjiang, not in the command after entering Xinjiang, and after the various armies enter Xinjiang, they can only rely on the generals of the unified army to "make changes on the spot."

Therefore, Guan Zhuofan believes that Zuo Zongtang himself personally entered Xinjiang, which is equivalent to automatically demoting himself to the commander of a certain route army, which is not of great significance. As the commander of the Western Expeditionary Army, in addition to doing a good job of overall military planning, he should stay in the rear and engage in more important work - logistics support.

In the communication with Zuo Zongtang, Guan Zhuofan repeatedly emphasized that when entering Xinjiang, "there is no shortage of grain, no shortage of medicine, and endless transshipment, which is really the first priority of victory or defeat. ”

In all dynasties, China's use of troops on the frontiers and logistical support have been the greatest challenges and the most terrifying nightmare for monarchs and commanders, and the difficulty of this is far greater than the military operations themselves.

In the absence of any modern roads and means of transportation, all relying on manpower and animal power, in a short period of a few months, as long as several years, to ensure all the needs of tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of troops thousands of miles away, or even hundreds of thousands of miles away—from food and clothing to weapons, plus the harsh geography and climate that the people of the Central Plains have never seen on these thousands of miles, or even tens of thousands of miles—well. This thing. Just think about it. can drive people crazy.

In addition, horses, the main means of long-distance transportation, are the most scarce and expensive for China's agrarian regime.

If the enemy is a nomad, the cost of this is almost negligible.

In this case, the total cost of transportation. It is not surprising that tens of times, or even hundreds, tens of times, of the value of the transport object itself.

Figuratively speaking, it means that transporting a pound of grain from the rear to the front line will consume dozens of catties or even 100 catties of grain.

Therefore, every large-scale border military operation is a huge test of national strength and the government's organizational ability.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty made two expeditions to Dawan, but failed the first time, and was defeated due to insufficient logistical preparation. However, it must be noted that this "shortcoming". It is relative, if the object of the use of troops is in the country. Or, Dawan's location can be moved a little to the east, which may not be "insufficient".

The problem is - your sister's, Dawan is thousands of miles away from Chang'an, the ruling center of China at the time!

For the second expedition to Dawan, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty's preparations were very exaggerated:

"Pardon the prisoners and thieves, send evil teenagers and side riders, and leave Dunhuang for more than 60,000 years, and those who are responsible for personal affairs are not with them. 100,000 cattle, 30,000 horses, donkeys and camels with 10,000 grains, and crossbows. The world is in turmoil, and he turns to Feng Vawan, more than 50 captains. ”

Also, "Yifa 180,000 Jiuquan and Zhangye North, and set up Juyan and Xiutu to defend Jiuquan." And send the seven branches of the world, and carry the rice to the second master, and the transfer of people to Dunhuang is connected. ”

From these simple records, it is difficult for us to accurately calculate how much manpower and material resources were invested in the second expedition, but it is basically certain that most of China has been turned over.

So, this time, the second division student won, cut off the head of King Dawan, and brought back more than 3,000 horses, including dozens of so-called "sweat and blood horses".

Emperor Wu is eloquent, but it has always been uneconomical to do things, there is no concept of input-output ratio, and his brother-in-law Li Guangli is a mediocre talent, if a pair of monarchs and ministers are replaced to do this, such as Emperor Xuan and Zhao Chongguo, there is no need to spend so much effort and so much money, but in any case, there will be no too substantial difference.

The success of the second expedition to Dawan was not only due to the strong national strength of the Han Dynasty, but also inseparable from the strong organization and mobilization ability of the government at that time.

Organizing and mobilizing this matter is not something that anyone can do well, and there are too many things that can't be spent or spent badly, such as Emperor Yang of Sui's conquest of Goryeo. It should be said that at that time, China's national strength could support this border war, but in terms of "organization and mobilization", Yang Guang dropped the chain, got around, and in the end, got his head off.

In all fairness, Emperor Yang has done a lot of big things, and he is barely worthy of the words "eloquent", he ended up like this, and there is no need to talk about those real jokes.

For example, Yingzong of the former Ming Dynasty is such a real comic. The change in Tumubao, the 300,000 elite army, simply starved themselves to the end, and the Mongols just pushed it in the end. Yingzong and his eggless little friend don't know what "logistics" is and what is "organization and mobilization"? Such a comic comparison actually turned into a wise and martial love species in a certain TV series in later generations - your sister!

Zuo Zongtang is familiar with these historical facts - of course, excluding the TV series. Since he was a teenager, Zuo Jigao has had a great interest in "side affairs", and has been particularly involved in the politics and military affairs of the northwest, and has studied it deeply, so that Lin Zexu believes that "the southeast is a person who can control it; Xiding Xinjiang, who belongs to Shezuojun. When Lin Zexu said this, Zuo Zongtang was just a man who had never been out of office.

Therefore, Zuo Zongtang highly agreed with Guan Zhuofan's view that "there is no shortage of grain and straw, there is no shortage of medicine, and there is no end to the transshipment, which is the first priority for victory or defeat." After careful consideration, he accepted Guan Zhuofan's opinion, stayed in Suzhou, and made overall plans for grain transportation and military supplies, and entrusted the operational command of each army after entering Xinjiang to Zhan Donglu, who was "the camp of the prime minister's battalions", and solemnly declared that Zhan Donglu "handled it by camera" and that he "did not make it remotely".

However, the overall operational plan for the invasion of Xinjiang was decided at a military meeting before entering Xinjiang, and there were two principles: first, the north first and then the south, that is, the northern Xinjiang should be determined first, and then the southern Xinjiang should be conquered; Second, first delay and then speed, slow and quick battle.

First the north and then the south, because:

First. Entering Xinjiang from Gansu. The road of northern Xinjiang. It is much easier to walk than the road in southern Xinjiang.

Second, the imperial court is in northern Xinjiang, and there are still several strongholds, which can be received after the western expeditionary army enters Xinjiang.

Third, the enemy in the north is weaker than the enemy in the south. It is easier to make a "good start". This first battle into Xinjiang is very important to both sides, the morale of our army is needless to say, Agubai in southern Xinjiang has just leveled dissidents, and the hearts of the people in the country are undecided, and the northern Xinjiang has been taken, and his "Zhedeshar Khanate" is naturally more popular, at this time. Fighting from the north to the south can achieve twice the result with half the effort.

As for "first late, then faster." The so-called "slow" and "slow" all refer to the fact that the combat units must not be separated from each other by the heavy grain routes, and if the grain and medicine do not keep up, the combat units would rather stop and wait for supplies, that is, they would rather be "late" and "slow" than rashly advance. Otherwise, the loss of follow-up supplies, even if it gains momentum for a while, and then, in the geographical environment of Xinjiang, it almost means that you are in a desperate situation.

This "delay" and "delay" also refer to the need to conduct a detailed investigation of the enemy's situation and the battlefield environment before the battle, make careful arrangements, and make a plan before acting.

When everything is properly prepared and the operation is officially carried out, it is necessary to "hurry", that is, to open full firepower and give the enemy a thunderous blow, so as to ensure that all battles are annihilated, and that it does not turn into a war of refueling or a battle of defeat -- the reason is that as I have already said, because of logistical supplies, in the special geographical environment of Xinjiang, long-distance pursuit will be a very headache.

In short, this "slow and then fast" campaign emphasizes the importance of pre-war preparations, especially the importance of logistical support.

Let's take a look at how Guan Zhuofan and Zuo Zongtang are, as Wenxiang said, "The transfer of military food is not scarce." Reading all the history books, all dynasties, the use of troops in the Western Regions, the supply of military food, no one at a time, no one day is lacking, such as the one who marched into Xinjiang this time, it has never been seen before! ”

It is necessary to ensure that "there is no shortage of military rations for thousands of miles" and "there is no shortage of military rations" and "there is no shortage of a single day." The word "money" is the first thing to say.

Different from the military expenditure and logistical support of the modern army, one of the most important tasks of China, as a commander-in-chief in this era -- and even the word "one" can be removed -- is to raise and fight for military expenses for oneself, and sometimes, this work is even more important than commanding operations.

From that time on, what supported the Chinese army's large-scale military operations became "co-paying", that is, without going through the central government, the provinces directly paid money and grain to a certain army.

In principle, the amount of the salary is linked to the wealth and poverty of the province, but the specific amount, the imperial court generally only does the coordination work between the province and the army, and rarely makes hard rules - in fact, even if you do hard and hard rules, people will spread their hands together, saying that I just have no money, and the court has no way.

For the imperial court, it would be good to be able to ensure that the "Beijing salary" of the provinces was in place on time and in full - the royal expenses and the salaries of hundreds of officials all depended on this "Beijing salary".

Since the "co-salary" is not as good as the "Beijing salary" in the "upper heads", the commander-in-chief of the army cannot count on the imperial court, so he has to come forward himself to make friends and establish relations with the governors of the provinces. Second, lobby the other party to increase the amount of "co-payment" in the province.

The "co-pay" system provided basic financial support for the suppression of the Hongyang Rebellion and subsequent military operations, but the side effects of this system were extremely huge, and could even be said to be fatal:

In a sense, the "boss" of the army has changed from the central government to the local government - the reason is very simple, it is the local government, not the central government, that pays my salary.

The place is thus enlarged, and the army is centrifuged.

The "subsidized salary" system is a "cheap move" for the central government's lack of finance, but now it is different from the past, and I can no longer drink to quench my thirst.

Otherwise, how can we talk about centralization? What ...... "big thing"?

Guan Zhuofan made up his mind to completely reverse this pattern starting with the recovery of Xinjiang.

The abolition of the "co-payment" is not possible for the time being, because if the local government does not pay for this money, it will have to be paid by the imperial court, and before the existing fiscal and taxation system is thoroughly reformed, it is still very difficult to ask the imperial court to pay for this money, whether it is Yan Jingming's household department or Guo Songtao's advisory committee.

Fiscal and taxation reform is a painful matter, and at present, the time has not yet reached the ripe time.

What Guan Zhuofan can do is to cut off the direct connection between the commander-in-chief of the army and the "co-payer."

This knife began with Zuo Zongtang's westward expedition.

As explained above, the military expenditure of the Western Expedition was arranged by Guan Zhuofan and handled by Hu Xueyan as a "foreign debt".

After some folding, the bank led by the syndicate that lent the money was replaced by HSBC, a British, to Citibank, where Guan Zhuofan was the boss behind the scenes. However, although the leading bank has changed, the guarantee conditions have not changed: the customs offices in various parts of China still act as guarantors, issue "stamps" to the syndicate, and then the "co-payment" of the provinces will be released to the customs, and the customs will repay the loans on their behalf.

There are many benefits to such an arrangement.

First, the syndicate does not have to worry about not being able to repay the loan, the general tax department of the customs is the British, Hurd, and most of the customs departments in various places are also served by foreigners, and the "stamp seal" of the customs is trustworthy to the bank.

Second, the "co-pay" of the provinces was given to the customs, not directly to the Western Expeditionary Army, and Zuo Zongtang took the money from the bank, not from the governors of the provinces, although the "co-pay" was still "co-pay", but it did not have a direct relationship with Zuo Zongtang.

In this way, the connection between the commander-in-chief of the army and the "co-payer" was severed.

This knife was cut down, others don't say it, Zuo Zongtang himself, but he increased the amount with his hands!

Zuo Zongtang has always claimed that "his life is worried about salary, and he is ashamed of competing for salary" - this is a half-truth, "worrying about salary" is true, and "worrying about salary" is true, and "being ashamed of competing for salary" will be gone, if he is really "ashamed of fighting for salary", he will not be "heroic and deceitful", and for the sake of Guangdong's salary, Guo Songtao, his son and daughter, will be squeezed away from the position of Yuefu.

However, it is a "struggle for salary", more often, it is a "request for salary", not only to ask the governor, but also to ask the feudal division, I am the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, the third-class marquis, on the title, it is already super product, but I have to pay the smiling face of the feudal division from the second grade, what is the taste?

It's good to say that I begged it, but the problem is that those sub-bird people, one by one, are "hidden in the depths", often begging and begging, and they don't ask for anything, and they are white and shy with my old face!

Now, good, good, happy, happy!

Of course, if Guan Zhuofan does this, the responsibility of the imperial court - in fact, his own responsibility - will be heavy, and he should take the skin of the original army commanders and governors to pull it himself, otherwise, the assistance cannot be paid to the customs on time and in full, and the foreign tax department will have opinions.

However, Guan Zhuofan didn't plan to pull any skin, his countermeasure was very simple, to upgrade the "co-salary" to the same status as the "Beijing salary", and if it could not be resolved on time and in full, the demote should be demoted, and the dismissal should be dismissed.

*

(4,100 words in a large chapter)

*(To be continued.) )