Chapter 27 The grain and grass are not moved, and the mules and horses go first

When Wu Shi was lobbying Huainan Wang Yingbu in Pengcheng, Xiang Zhuang came to She County. &*．． Fastest Update**

In the mountainous area of She County in Danyang County, the once lush primeval forest has been burned down, replaced by a piece of green pasture pasture, here is the largest military horse farm in Chu State - She County Military Horse Farm, the horse farm breeds no less than 100,000 Mongolian bantam horses, and more than 1,000 Arab mixed breed horses.

In order to introduce Arabian horses, the state of Chu paid an extremely heavy price.

In order to support the fleet of sailors to go to the South Seas, the state of Chu spent a lot of manpower, material resources, and financial resources.

After the failure of the first trip to the South Seas, the state of Chu soon built a fleet of twenty Chu ships, still led by Ge Sheng, with four thousand sharp soldiers to the South Seas, but it happened to meet the South Vietnamese mutiny, this fleet became a transport team, back and forth between South Vietnam and Jiangdong, transporting tens of thousands of strong men of the Chu state.

Half a year later, Ge Sheng regrouped and went to Nanyang for the third time.

This time, the fleet had even crossed the Strait of Malacca, but unfortunately, the fleet was hit by a hurricane again in the Indian Ocean, and the four Chu ships loaded with paper, liquor, silk and other goods ran into the reef and sank.

On the fourth voyage to the South Seas, the number of Chu ships in the fleet increased to fifty!

Moreover, Ge Sheng also learned the lesson of the last defeat and placed the cargo separately on each ship, so that even if one or several ships were sunk, it would not affect the overall situation.

This time, Gosen's fleet finally arrived in Babylon, the city in the sky.

At this time, the valley of the two rivers was under the rule of Seleucus (Alexander the Great's general), and was under attack from the east and west of the Roman Empire and the Sabbatical Empire, so there was no time to entertain guests from the East, but the Chu people still got what they wanted—Arabian horses, camels, and a lot of gold!

However, on the way back to Koto, many crew members fell ill and died one after another (in fact, malaria).

After bypassing the Strait of Malacca, less than a thousand of the four thousand sailors had died, and even the general of the Lou boat, Ge Sheng, died of illness, and a thousand men could not control fifty Chu ships.

On the way back to Jiangdong from Malacca, many people died.

By the time the fleet returned to Dantu Harbor, there were less than 600 of the 4,000 sailors left at the time of departure, and all of them were skinny and skinny, and the only thing to be thankful for was that the hundreds of Arabian horses and dozens of camels that arrived in Jiangdong with the ship were intact, and tens of thousands of catties of gold were also undamaged.

Hearing that Ge Sheng also died violently in the middle of the way, Xiang Zhuang was greatly saddened, and immediately posthumously presented Ge Sheng as the Marquis of Wuxiang, and Ge Sheng's eldest son Ge Bu, who was only nine years old, inherited the title.

Therefore, in order to get the Arab horse, the Chu State paid an extremely heavy price.

Nowadays, more than 1,000 mixed-breed horses in Shexian Military Horse Farm are crossbred with Mongolian bantam horses with Arabian horses as horse breeds.

However, Xiang Zhuang was a traversal after all, so he did not repeat the mistakes of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty used all the sweaty horses introduced from Dawan for breeding, but ignored the bloodline genes that maintained the sweaty horses, and as a result, they embarked on a road of no return that was introduced, mated, improved, backcrossed, and finally extinct.

Therefore, Xiangzhuang did not use all the Arabian horses for breeding, but retained a certain population to maintain the genes of the Arabian horse. ..., but in terms of size, the improved hybrid horses are not very outstanding.

In fact, the purebred Arabian horses introduced from Babylon were only more than six feet tall, only a few feet taller than the average height of the Mongolian horses, which was more than enough to form light cavalry.

However, just as there are horses that are more than eight feet tall in Mongolian horses, there are also oversized individuals in the Arabian horse population, and even horses with a body height of nine feet will be born.

However, Xiang Zhuang came to She County this time, but he didn't come to see these mixed horses.

Xiang Zhuang came to She County this time to collect mules on an expedition to Bashu, because in addition to the military horse farm in She County, there is also a large mule and horse farm, which has tens of thousands of mules.

The so-called, the army has not moved, the grain and grass go first, but Xiang Zhuang has not moved the grain and grass, and the mules and horses go first!

The mule is actually the offspring of the cross between the horse and the donkey, which has the weight-bearing capacity and resistance of the donkey, and the spirituality and running ability of the horse, and the mule eats less than the pack horse, and the ability to adapt to the harsh environment is even better than the southwest pack horse.

In fact, in recent years, the Shexian Military Horse Farm has been able to replenish its own blood, and no longer need to be subsidized by the state treasury.

Speaking of mules, in fact, as early as the Western Zhou Dynasty, but it was hidden in the palace as a rare thing for the nobles to enjoy, until the Song Dynasty, the mule was used as a servant livestock, so as to begin a large number of breeding, but with Xiangzhuang this traversal, the time of the Chinese envoy mule is greatly advanced.

This expedition to Bashu can no longer let the soldiers of the Chu army carry dry food bags on their backs.

In the past, carrying dry food bags, it was forced by the situation, there was no way, now the conditions of the Chu army have been greatly improved, there is no need to let the soldiers gnaw the dry and astringent dry food, and from Jiangdong to Bashu, it is more than 2,000 miles away, just marching has to walk for a month or two, no matter how big the dry food bag is, right?

Therefore, this expedition had to requisition enough mules to transport grain and forage.

In this expedition to Bashu, Xiang Zhuang plans to take the 20,000 elites of the Tiger Camp and the Sky Wolf Battalion as the backbone, and then transfer 30,000 soldiers to form an expeditionary corps, and Xiang Zhuang also plans to personally lead the army to the expedition!

An army of 50,000 is not a small number of people eating horses and chewing horses!

Moreover, the road from Jiangdong to Shuzhong is long, not to mention more than 2,000 miles, and the march alone is afraid that it will take a month or two, and if the war does not go well, it is entirely possible to drag on for three or four months, so this expedition must prepare at least 50,000 troops for four months' rations, which is really not a small amount.

Based on the calculation that a soldier consumes one stone of grain in a month, 50,000 soldiers will consume 200,000 stone of grain in four months!

200,000 stones, that is, 24 million catties, a mule carrying 800 catties (Qin catties) over the mountains and mountains is no problem, that is to say, 30,000 mules are needed, considering the loss of mules in the transportation process, at least 1,000 more heads need to be requisitioned, this is just the transportation of grain, counting the weight is more.

Therefore, this expedition will also recruit 40,000 mules!

As for the rations of 40,000 mules, there is no need to consider it, because the mule's adaptability to the harsh environment is stronger than that of the Mongolian bantam horse, and if there is no excessive load, there is basically no need to worry about losing fat and falling down, and it is not a desert from Jiangdong to Bashu, and the grass along the way is enough to solve the problem of mule rations. …,##########

When Xiang Zhuang was recruiting mules and horses for the expeditionary legion, Liu Bang was in a daze in Taicang, Xianyang.

The foundation of the Han State was originally much better than that of the Chu State, even after Guanzhong was sacked by the Chu army, its population size, cultivated land area, land fertility, etc. were still better than Jiangdong.

In the past ten years, the total population of Chu has almost doubled, reaching nearly five million, but the Han State has not stood still, and now the total registered population of the Han State has exceeded seven million, and the number of strong men has exceeded one and a half million.

The corn stored in Xianyang Taicang is far more than the rice in Ziling Taicang.

Eight hundred miles of Qinchuan, Bashu Plain are all anointed land, although the Jiangnan of later generations is known as the land of fish and rice, but in this era most of the area is uncultivated wasteland, so Jiangdong's cultivated land area, yield per mu and total grain output are far from comparable with Guanzhong, Bashu, the two granaries of the world.

Ten years of accumulation, the corn stored in Xianyang Taicang has exceeded five million stones!

Standing in Taicang, looking at the hill-like corn that could only be stacked in the open air in the granary, Liu Bang really couldn't believe that these were true, more than ten years ago when he was competing with Xiang Yu for the world, he was often worried about tens of thousands of stone military rations, capable as Xiao He Xiao Cheng Prime Minister, and he had to do his best to barely supply the military rations of the Han army.

But now, there is so much grain in Xianyang Taicang that I can't eat it all!

Even if a million troops are dispatched, it will be enough to support the May operation!

So, it's time to get out of the customs, although he Liu Bang's health is not bad, but no matter what, he is already sixty-nine years old this year, and he can live a few years in the future, then only God knows, if he can't sweep away the Kwantung countries and dominate the world in his lifetime, then he Liu Bang can't even turn a blind eye to death.

However, before leaving the customs, we have to solve the hidden danger of the Huns!

If the Xiongnu are not destroyed, the rear of the Han State will be unstable, and the rear will be unstable, and the Han army will be distracted and dual-purpose, which is undoubtedly extremely unfavorable from a strategic point of view, and it is easy to be used by enemy countries like Chu, of course, it is not necessary to sweep away the Xiongnu, as long as the Jiuyuan is recaptured and the Xiongnu are driven back to Mobei, it is almost the same.