As the saying goes, before the soldiers and horses arrive, the grain and grass go first.

Now that there are so many people in the Two Realms Mountain, there must be a lot of food. Especially those who are physique, they can eat very well, and for them, after the battle, they must eat a lot of things.

There are definitely a lot of examples of troops marching and fighting in history to eat human flesh, mostly ethnic minorities, especially some ethnic groups who have lived in the mountains for a long time and have not undergone socialized development, but there are absolutely very few people who really eat human flesh and use it to replace grain and grass, but it is not uncommon, and they generally do it to achieve their own special purposes, rather than like to eat human flesh.

At the end of the Sui Dynasty, Zhu Cang is a more famous dynasty, and the people at that time should not be as developed as we imagined in ancient times, that is, the early reign period, it is said that Zhu Cang is very fond of eating human flesh, especially children and women, after all, men belong to the labor force, most of them are captured as slaves, and men should not look very delicious. Zhu Cang recommended this kind of liking to his troops, which is said to make the troops more combative.

The Qiang people, a minority group, appeared during the Wuhu Rebellion, to put it bluntly, it is a nation composed of tribes of wild people in the mountains, and the Han people are aliens to them, nothing more than a new animal, and it is rumored that the Qiang people never have food and grass when they march and fight, and call women "two-legged sheep" Directly from the Han region to snatch people and eat, wanton looting, during the day people as food and grass, at night for the soldiers to promiscuity, is really a brutal race, in the Central Plains battlefield to eat countless people, and finally in its territory was solved at one time Han women there are 250,000 giant.

There are many other examples of this, most of which are not really eating human flesh, but just giving people a kind of fear pressure, and they are simply boasting of their cruelty or superiority, after all, neither intelligent animals nor us humans will eat the same kind of people.

Unless there is some extremely special reason, such as natural and man-made disasters, or other things, people may be forced to eat people in extreme cases, but afterwards it must have a great impact on the body and mind.

But why are so many people still being spread out to eat people? It is precisely because of the taboo of this matter that more people have the courage to take risks, because it will make the common people fearful, and such a taboo can give them some kind of power, even if all the people do not believe it, but those who hear it will be creepy, there is no doubt about it, as long as their purpose is achieved.

It's like the ancient battles all pay attention to the famous division, and all the emperors also call themselves the orthodox descendants of Yanhuang, which is all to let themselves have a reasonable identity, otherwise how can you be a high-ranking ruler, when everyone no longer believes that you are irreplaceable, I am afraid that your place will no longer exist.

After all, people in ancient times were still very superstitious, and there were special officials responsible for spreading these rumors, so that more people could be influenced by this speech, which would have a guiding effect on the outcome of the war.

Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty captured all the people, exhausted the treasury, and built the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, which was infamous.

But there is also a little comfort that the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is not a vase dedicated to the emperor, it is an important hub for transporting grain in Chinese history, and until now, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is still working.

Wherever the ruler is located, its political, economic, military and other aspects represent the most developed level of a region. In order to supply military supplies and meet the needs of the people's lives, grain from all over the country may be transported to Beijing. But in the early days, local powers were divided and wars continued. In the countries of the North, it is difficult to transport grain from the South, and more often it can only be transported from the surrounding areas. Therefore, the real large-scale transportation of grain began in the Sui and Tang dynasties.

Du Mu once wrote, "When a concubine smiles on a red dust, no one knows that it is a lychee", this poem describes the process of using horses to transport lychees, the fruit of the south, to the north. Could it be that Datang used horses to transport grain?

The answer, of course, is no. At that time, it was a very luxurious thing to quickly transport tropical fruits from the south to the north, and the cost was too high for ordinary people to afford. It's okay for short distances, but not for long distances. Coupled with the large amount of grain and grass, it is difficult for horses to afford it.

After the Sui Dynasty unified the country, grain and grass from the south could be transported to the north. The only way to achieve the standard transportation mode of large carrying capacity, transportation speed block, low cost and so on, is by waterway. This is also the fundamental reason for the birth of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.

Datang's grain transportation has been relatively developed, and in Youzhou, where the economy is relatively prosperous, there have been subdivided industries such as rice industry, japonica rice industry, oil industry, and mill industry. In Datang, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal has been renovated by Guo Shoujing, and its transportation capacity has been further improved, and the grain transported through the canal can reach more than 3 million stones every year.

Although the logistics technology is particularly good, there is already a very mature granary storage system. "The water runs as it nears, and it is stored in the warehouse when it is not passed. "Special grain and grass storage silos are set up on the rivers where they are transported, and if they can be transported by water, they will continue to be transported, and if they can't, they will be stored in the granaries first. The grain delivered to the destination will also be stored in the corresponding warehouses for subsequent sale, purchase or retrieval use.

If there is transportation, it must be lost to the water, especially the grain and grass by water. In order to salvage, people change the goods to be transported into bags to facilitate salvage. The government estimates the amount of food that will be lost to prevent theft.

During the Warring States Period, the Battle of Changping broke out, and the 400,000 Zhao army chose to break through because of the lack of food and grass, and finally suffered a heavy defeat. In the last years of the Qin Dynasty, Xiang Yu sent troops to cut off the grain route of the Qin army and won the victory of the "Battle of Julu". During the Three Kingdoms period, in the battle of Guandu, Cao Cao burned Yuan Shao's army rations, Yuan Shao was defeated, and Cao Cao dominated the north from then on.

The list goes on. "Sun Tzu's Art of War" also said: A thousand dollars are spent every day, and then a 100,000 army is raised.

In China, on the battlefield where cold weapons are the mainstay, food is the key to the army's logistical support. "Grain" has two meanings here, the first is food in a narrow sense, which refers to the food that soldiers eat on a daily basis. The second is grain in a broad sense, which includes not only everything that a soldier can eat, but also the forage used by war horses.

Regarding the importance of food to war, many wise sayings were born in ancient China, such as "A Hundred Words on the Art of War?? Ministry of Justice?? "Grain" said: Eater, the heaven of the people, the life of the soldiers. Win with soldiers, food first.

Why is food so important in warfare? In fact, to sum up, there are four reasons: First, man is iron and rice is steel, and only food can sustain the lives of soldiers. Second, only when the soldiers are well fed can they exert their strength and maintain their combat effectiveness. If they are all hungry and powerless, they will lose the war.

Third, sufficient food, for an army, can improve morale and let soldiers have no worries. Fourth, sufficient food can make strategic deployment more calm, and it can be used to fight quickly, slowly, and face the enemy head-on, or it can besiege and consume the opponent.

Sima Qian said in "Historical Records: The Biography of Zhang Yi": Those who are inferior to the army should not be challenged, and those who are inferior should not be long-lasting.

Meaning, if you don't have enough food, you don't have to fight a protracted war with the other side. It is precisely because grain is extremely important to the war that the logistical support of grain has attracted more attention from both sides of the war. If there is a war in front, because the food has not arrived, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers are waiting to be fed, then this war cannot be fought. Not only when attacking, but also when defending, a lot of food is needed. "Pipe" said:

The earth is guarded in the city, the city is guarded by the soldiers, the soldiers are guarded by the people, and the people are guarded by the corn.

It means that although the guards of the city are soldiers, in the final analysis, they are still in the food. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cao Cao had a deep understanding of the importance of military rations, not only burning Yuan Shao's grain depot in the Battle of Guandu, but also using the advice of strategists Zaoyi and Han Hao to involve the displaced people and soldiers in Tuntian, so that Cao Cao's military rations were sufficient, and Cao Cao made a great contribution to sweeping the north.

"Putting grain first" is the biggest characteristic of the logistics support system of the ancient Chinese army, and this iron law has not changed to this day.

Grain is important, but on the battlefield, wouldn't it be sad if there was no food in the treasury itself?

As early as the Zhou Dynasty, there was a reserve system for military rations. If the state wants to prepare for war, it must do a good job of stockpiling military rations, and if the treasury is empty, it will not have the confidence to win a war, whether it is an active war or a passive war. "Pipe" cloud: If you have savings, you will not be scarce for a long time.

Because grain is not a timely product, it needs to be cultivated, grown, harvested, collected and processed, and this cycle can be as little as half a year or as long as that. In addition, the working people themselves have to keep some grain for their stomachs, and in the event of a famine, they may not be able to bear the taxes paid, so an appropriate reserve of military rations can ensure that there is enough food in the war.

In order to do a good job in saving grain, people adopt two ways: First, the "accumulation committee" system. Since the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, the successive dynasties have established the "Ji Committee" system, "Zhou Li" records: where the road of the country and the wilderness, there is a Lu in ten miles, and there is food in Lu; there is a lodging in thirty miles, and there is a road room in the lodging, and there is a committee in the road room; there is a city in fifty miles, and there is a waiting hall in the city, and there is an accumulation in the waiting hall.

In other words, these "commission" institutions along the way accumulate grain in peacetime, and in case of war, they will be used as wartime reserves.

Second, personal reserves. That is to say, in order to prevent the shortage of food and grass, soldiers should also carry food on their bodies, so there is a saying that "people can use several tens of buckets of dry food with three buckets".

However, there are also extreme situations on the battlefield, if there is a fierce battle in the front and the grain and grass cannot be transported in the rear, there are also those who "eat everything that can be eaten", including all kinds of wild vegetables and fruits, and even slaughter war horses for food. The key to the transportation of grain.

With food reserves, everything is in vain if food cannot be delivered to the front. On the battlefield, the transportation of grain is very important, and there is a saying that "the division travels from the grain", and the grain must be delivered wherever the army goes. Therefore, in addition to the soldiers in the front, the army must also set up grain transport officers and grain transport channels in the rear to ensure the supply of grain and grass.

In ancient times, there was no machinery, transportation relied on manpower and animal power, coupled with the poor road conditions, long-distance transportation was very arduous, if there was bad weather, etc., the front-line soldiers were afraid that it would be difficult to continue.

Therefore, in military thought, great importance is attached to transportation assurance. "The Art of War" cloud: The poverty of the country is greater than that of the teacher: those who are far away from the teacher will lose, and the people will be poor if they are far away.

At the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Mongols besieged Xiangyang, and a large amount of grain was stored in Xiangyang City, but because the Mongols were besieged for a long time and could not hold on, the soldiers and civilians outside the city took advantage of the rising Han water to send grain to the city, solving the famine of the soldiers in the city. It can be seen that the key to grain transportation.

It should be particularly emphasized that there is a problem that is easy to ignore in the transportation of grain and grass in ancient times, that is, the grain transporters themselves have to consume grain on the road, after all, they also have to eat. In other words, the farther the grain is transported, not only will there be no advantage in transportation time, but it will also consume more in terms of transportation weight. In this regard, in "Eleven Families Note on Grandson", Cao Cao once said:

Six Hu and four buckets for the bell, counting thousands of miles of transport, twenty minutes and one bell in the army. The stone one, one hundred and twenty pounds. The method of transfer costs twenty stones to get one stone. Words are far away.

This is still in the case of smoothness, if there is weather, roads and other reasons, the loss is greater. In the "Three Strategies", it was said that the transportation of grain is actually reducing the rations of the people, and many times, if the food consumed by war and transportation is too large, the people are hungry, and they will rebel.

It can be said that the transportation of grain and grass for the Chinese army is very difficult, and in order to solve these difficulties. In ancient times, systems such as the garrison of soldiers on the border were invented to reduce the pressure of grain transportation. However, in special geographical environments such as desert operations, grain transportation still needs to be solved in advance in order to ensure our own victory. During the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Di, the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, sent troops to Mobei five times, and he was able to return with victory, because the Ming Dynasty made great efforts in grain transportation.

With the development of the times, the grain transportation in the military is also developing, for example, in the late Ming and Qing dynasties, the imperial court actively developed Cao Yun, and the development of Cao Yun greatly increased the speed and quantity of grain and grass transportation.

In addition to overcoming the challenges of manpower consumption, food loss, roads, and weather, the transportation of food also has to deal with another risk, that is, the sneak attack of the enemy. In ancient warfare, there was a tactic of choking the enemy's throat, called "cutting off his food route", because once the enemy lost the continuous supply of food, the morale of the army would be in chaos. But "soldiers, treacherous ways", you can cut off the enemy's grain route, and the enemy army can also cut off our grain route, so the protection of the grain route is a compulsory course in the military.

"Caolu Jinglu" once pointed out: The way of food and salary is the throat of our army, and survival is blocked, and success or failure is at stake. If you worry about it for a long time, you can't afford to be sluggish!

It can be seen that the key to the grain route, especially when the army invades the enemy's territory, because the grain route is going to extend into the enemy's territory, and the possibility of being attacked is very high. Therefore, people generally use the following methods when transporting grain to avoid the grain channel being cut off.

Sending heavy troops to protect this is a common method. A strong military force can resist enemy attacks, but it is also a heavy burden for one's own side.

Send a large number of military scouts, and on the way to transport grain, send a large number of military scouts to find out all the surrounding terrain and the enemy's situation to avoid being attacked. Although the burden of this method is relatively light, in ancient times there was no high-tech reconnaissance equipment to assist it, and it was inevitable that there would be mistakes and omissions in the investigation of military detectives, and sometimes they would be used by the other side, causing losses.

This is not the norm. There is also a type, as Sun Tzu says in the Art of War, to simply do not bring food and survive by taking the other party's food. For example, Huo Quai, a famous general during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, adopted this method to raid the Xiongnu, but it had greater limitations.

On the whole, the road to the transportation of military rations is indeed very dangerous. Therefore, in the ancient military books, there is little discussion on how to "protect the grain route", but there is more discussion on "cutting off the grain route". For example, during the dispute between Chu and Han, Liu Bang asked Xiao He to guard the Guanzhong and continuously deliver food for himself. And Pai Peng cut off Xiang Yu's food channel more and pushed Xiang Yu into a desperate situation.

In the "Guanzi" of the Spring and Autumn Period, a terrifying estimate was given: "Therefore, the division of the first phase will accumulate for ten years, and the expenses of the First World War will be exhausted." "If you go out to the army once, you may run out of money and food for ten years, and if you fight a war, the money and food saved by several generations will be over nine times out of ten.

Although in terms of productivity level, the dynasties of the past dynasties must be higher than the Spring and Autumn Period, and the cost of grain and grass may not be so amazing. But as long as there is a war, "the soldiers and horses go first before the grain and grass are moved" is a major problem for the rulers of the past dynasties. A grain of grain can often stump how many ministers and famous generals.

However, many modern history lovers often have doubts about this issue: on weekdays, soldiers have to eat food when they practice on the border, and it is rare to see a shortage of food. Why is it that when a war starts, food and grass are tight?

Actually, this is a huge misunderstanding.

First of all, the most basic fact is that the army's food consumption in wartime is much greater than in peacetime.

In peacetime, the army is often stationed in its respective defense area, and there is a fixed amount of food for how long it is stationed. However, when World War I broke out, troops would inevitably be dispatched. In defensive warfare, it is necessary to mobilize troops to rescue, and in offensive warfare, it is necessary to gather heavy troops to counterattack. The soldiers had to eat food when they were fighting, and they had to eat food when they were marching long distances, and the consumption of food increased dramatically.

And this increase is only one aspect. More importantly, the demand for food from the front line has increased, and of course food has to be transferred from all parts of the country. However, the long transportation journey is inherently large. When a stone of grain is transported from the rear to the front, there is often a fraction left. But even so, we have to grit our teeth and go to the front. The longer the war drags on, the more the food supply becomes like a bottomless pit. Fill in a lot.

Therefore, in all dynasties, all emperors with military vision, in order to solve the problem of food consumption, often made a fuss about transportation routes. For example, Qin Shi Huang built the famous "Qin Straight Road".