Chapter 344: The Supply of War
War is not only the war of the rulers, not only the war of the soldiers, but also the war of the people, once the war breaks out, it is necessary to requisition a large number of people to transport grain and grass, now Zhu Ran of Eastern Wu asked Sun Quan for soldiers, Sun Quan ordered all men over the age of 12 in Eastern Wu to fill the army, then it means that the delivery of grain and grass needs to be completed by women and children, once a country is a soldier, even women, children, old and young have to go to war to transport grain and grass and equipment, then the food produced by the country in the next year will be greatly reduced. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info
If the army is marching within the territory of the country, it relies on the logistics team to provide food and relies on the dispatch of personnel to requisition and purchase food from the local people. If the army is not well disciplined, the levy often turns into plunder, and the plundering of the country's population has always been considered despicable. But poorly disciplined armies often did this, and the army of the late Han Dynasty was no different from the robbers, and even more ruthless than the robbers. Such an army wants to win the battle unless the gods help. Now that the whole people of Eastern Wu have been soldiers, and the people have to contribute food to the country, in the long run, the people will definitely be dissatisfied, if the people's grievances boil and lose the hearts of the people, Sun Quan's power will fall faster, which is also what Sun Jing is more worried about. If for some reason the army does not march in the surplus grain transfer area, then there are several ways: First, plunder. It is tragic that the people have been plundered, but the safety of the army always comes first; the second is to send troops to hunt and gather food; The third is to rely on accompanying supplies and livestock. Fourth, it relies on the supply team. When it reaches the territory of the enemy, the supply of the army will be greatly challenged. Not only did the supply distance become longer, but they also had to face the enemy's strong walls and harassment. In each region, the time of harvesting grain is different, in the tropics it is three crops a year, in the warm temperate zone it is two crops a year, and in the temperate zone it is one crop a year, except for the harvest season, the rest of the time it is necessary to obtain grain from the enemy people. In ancient times, it was natural to plunder the inhabitants of enemy countries. This plunder is often very brutal. Burning, looting, and rape are commonplace. No one in their right mind would limit the plunder of the enemy's territory. It was only in a civil war that plunder was possible to be curtailed. In addition to plundering, the most important thing is to get supplies from your own country. However, in enemy territory, the supply convoy is vulnerable to attack, so the supply convoy itself needs to be guarded. The state of Chu continued to harass the border between the two armies with light cavalry, and even sent dozens of light cavalry into Yangzhou to continuously harass and burn the countryside and villages, once it encountered the supply team of Eastern Wu, it began to attack violently, these series of measures caught the Eastern Wu army off guard, and also made Zhu Ran and Zhou Yu quite a headache, the cavalry of Eastern Wu was too weak, and even the cavalry force was less than 5,000 people, and in the face of the continuous harassment of the Chu army, it has been miserable. When marching in enemy territory, the risk of being attacked is greater, so it is necessary to be vigilant when marching.
Generally speaking, when marching in the country, you only need to march along important roads in a long snake formation, if the number of troops is too large, it is enough to advance along several roads, but in the enemy's country, it is necessary to avoid the surprise attack of the enemy, so generally avoid marching in narrow terrain, such as valleys and swamps, because once attacked by the enemy, it is difficult to deploy. However, due to the continuous harassment of the cavalry troops of the Chu State into the Yangzhou border to the Dongwu transportation team, the Dongwu transportation volume needed to be escorted by enough soldiers, which caused a lot of trouble to the Eastern Wu, but the Eastern Wu could not send soldiers to harass the supply lines of the Chu State, so it was in a passive state.
The supplies needed by the army included food, firewood, clothing, spare weapons, spare weapon parts, disposable shooting weapons, tents, digging and construction tools, spare musical instruments, and so on. The amount of food carried by the army varies according to different tactical needs. In general, the army carries only the most basic clothing and clothing for soldiers who have worn out their clothes to change and to repair damaged flags in a timely manner. Coupled with the fact that there were no conditions for bathing, the ancient army was almost all smelly, and the whole body was crawling with fleas. There are also only a small number of spare weapons, and weapon parts are used for those weapons that are more fragile, such as the strings of crossbows. As for the shooting weapons that are consumed at one time, they are arrows, javelins, stones, etc. The average number of arrows carried by an archer ranges from 30 to 50. The more backward armies generally did not have any construction tools, and in this respect the construction tools of the Chu State were far more sophisticated and advanced than those of the Wu State. The supply is not only food, especially the consumables such as bows and arrows, the Chu State is rich and rich, especially after Ma Hong refined the smelting technology, the feather arrows of the Chu State far surpass the Eastern Wu in terms of quantity and quality, so when the two sides have a confrontation war, even if the Chu State is a tough battle, in the case of the advantage of numbers and equipment, it can also cause great damage to the Eastern Wu soldiers defending the city, so that even if the Eastern Wu is defended, it will have to pay no less than the losses suffered by the Chu State. The other is the supply of war horses, and war horses need feed. Although it is possible for horses to eat only grass in the case of poor supplies, this will lead to a decrease in strength - naturally, roughly-bred horses are accustomed to eating grass, but such horses are not as strong as those that are carefully bred. The war between Chu and Eastern Wu took place in autumn and winter, and now it has lasted until winter, and in winter it is necessary to prepare hay.
Chu occupies five states, and Ma Hong in recent years, with the improvement of science and technology, whether agriculture, commerce, industry in the three countries are in the top position, no matter when and where, as long as the war is fought, the fight is manpower, material and financial resources, Chu in this regard for Wei, manpower is not an advantage, but for Eastern Wu manpower is indeed a huge advantage. The total population of Chu reached 9 million, of which Jingzhou, the most populous, reached 2 million, a county in Hanzhong reached nearly 1 million, and even Liangzhou, which had the smallest number in the past, now has more than 800,000 after absorbing a large number of Qiang people. Especially after the Chu State occupied the Western Regions, a large number of good horses were introduced into the country, and its cavalry strength has surpassed that of the Wei State, for the Eastern Wu who had no cavalry, fighting on land, the excellent cavalry would be their biggest nightmare, because sometimes even if it was 10,000 infantry, when facing the kite tactics of a thousand cavalry, it was also inaction, and if it was a field battle, the cavalry would exhaust their physical strength and consume to death. So at the beginning, the state of Wu was a strong wall and a clear field, did not dare to fight a field war with the state of Chu, only dared to fight a defensive war on land, and defended at the beginning, which lost the initiative, when the state of Chu wanted to fight you, when to fight you, and you can only wait, once the war began, the infantry besieged the city, the cavalry went around to the interior of Eastern Wu, harassed it, destroyed farmland, demolished houses, this series of measures made the generals of Eastern Wu miserable, Jiangxia was completely defeated, Changsha was also completely defeated at the beginning, after Zhu Ran lured Huang Zhong and destroyed Huang Zhong's troops, this victory barely managed to find some balance. (To be continued.) )