Once the war is decided, the army will be dispatched. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 The army is not something that can be dispatched casually, because the army will consume food and grass. In ancient times, due to the constraints of natural conditions, the general state had a surplus grain transfer area and a non-surplus grain transfer area, and the grain output of the surplus grain transfer area was relatively large, which could supply the additional population, so the army march was generally within the surplus grain transfer area.

And Liangzhou and Yongzhou, including the merger of the state, these years, there is no war, so there is a lot of surplus grain, Ma Hong will expand his power to the Western Regions and the north, of course, because of the needs of the war and have to march in the non-surplus grain transfer area is very many, in the early stage of Ma Hong in Jingzhou caused by the war to destroy Liu Bei, is desperate for the people to starve, the economy retreated to Liu Bei with troops, want to solve Liu Bei's thorn in the eye, now the territory of Chu continues to expand, the north after many years of recuperation, if you do not train soldiers, The combat effectiveness of the soldiers will inevitably decline, and in order to fight a decisive battle with Cao Wei in the future, Ma Hong naturally wants to let the soldiers of the three northern states, Liangzhou, Yongzhou, and Bingzhou, maintain their combat strength at all times. The size of a Western Regions is five Liangzhou, but the total population of the Western Regions is only more than 300,000, and there are many races, there are many small countries, and the combat power of these small countries is not enough to compete with the Chu State, this is the reason why Ma Hong used troops against the Western Regions, and at the same time, although the Western Regions are vast and sparsely populated, they are rich in resources and are horse-producing lands.

However, the Western Regions are far away, and even the cavalry will take some time, and the army needs a lot of supplies, such as 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. Some of them only prepare three days of rations in order to travel lightly; Some of them brought enough food to feed for three months. In some cases, the army brought large numbers of livestock as a source of meat. 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, as well as javelins, stones, etc. The average number of arrows carried by an archer ranges from 30 to 50, and once these arrows are worn out, it will be particularly difficult to replenish them. In particular, Fox Du and Pound were pure cavalry troops, and fifteen thousand war horses needed a lot of fodder, although in the case of poor supplies, the horses could also eat only grass, but this would lead to a decrease in strength - naturally, the horses that were extensively bred were accustomed to eating grass, but such horses were not as strong as those carefully bred horses. In winter, hay is a must. 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. The need for non-combatants in the army is also numerous. Most of these non-combatants are supply personnel. In addition to supplying troops, the army of Chu basically had no non-combatants, and some chores were also done by soldiers.

Pound and Fox Du marched into the Western Regions, because the supply line was long, the speed of the cavalry was extremely fast, and the supply line was often not easy to keep up, once the army lost supplies, then the combat effectiveness would inevitably decline, which was why Ma Hong asked Pound and Fox Du to plunder. If Pound wants to supply the army, there are several ways: one is to 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. But in the Western Regions, most of them are nomadic people, so if you want to get food, it is even more difficult, only plunder, and in ancient times the army had this common sense, it was natural to plunder the inhabitants of the enemy country. This plunder is often very brutal. Burning, looting, and rape are commonplace. Even if Ma Hong does not give an order, in foreign wars, only generals with abnormal minds will prohibit plunder, of course, Hu Du and Pang De are not the kind of generals with abnormal minds, so when they receive Ma Hong's order to plunder, they will not refuse. The army was only possible in a civil war, and plunder could be curtailed. Of course, unbridled plundering is forbidden. When Pound and Fox Du were plundering, the general large army did not move. Only skirmishers were dispatched. 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. In the decisive battle of Mobei in 119 years before the Chinese attack on the Huns, the main force of cavalry was 100,000, while the infantry protecting the logistics team was hundreds of thousands. Of course, these infantry also had to consume food, so the food to be transported to the destination was limited, and there was a saying at that time that the Huns were fighting: it took thirty stone of grain to reach one bell. The logistical pressure is huge, the Western Regions is fortunately not unified, there are many countries, although the supply line is long, but the supply soldiers and people used to dispatch do not need much, and relying on the plundering of cavalry, Ma Hong only ordered to extract 50,000 people from Liangzhou, plus 10,000 infantry to supply the army of Hu Du and Pang De.

Ma Hong used all the cavalry, one of which was because the Western Regions were too far away, and if the infantry took longer, it would consume more grain and grass; The second is that in order to win by surprise, it is possible for light cavalry to march long distances and quickly. But not sustainably. The third is that Ma Hong wanted to train cavalry for a future battle with Cao Wei's Central Plains.

However, there are fatal drawbacks to the surprise victory, because if the light cavalry moves quickly, it will inevitably leave behind the logistics team and all the people and things that cannot move quickly, and the horses themselves will be very tired (although the cavalry generally has spare horses, in order to save horsepower, the spare horses generally do not advance with the fast troops, otherwise all the horses will not be able to rest). In this way, the combat effectiveness and endurance of the hussars themselves will inevitably be greatly reduced. Basically, you can only win by surprise. Once you can't win, you can only lose. However, the combat effectiveness of the countries in the Western Regions is not comparable to that of the Xiongnu during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, even if it is compared with the Xianbei tribe in the north now, it cannot be compared, so Ma Hong dared to let Pang De and Hu Du lead light cavalry to attack the Western Regions. (To be continued.) )