The northeastern region controlled by the old-fashioned king is a relatively remote and barren area.

Unlike the other side, the paving ant on the other side of the river is in the territory of the barbarian country, and the banks of the great river are fertile land and rich in production. However, the south bank of the river is dominated by rocky tidal flats, overgrown with weeds, and produces less production. Only the vicinity of "Waterfront City" is slightly more fertile, so every year the southern expedition of the Paving Ant Barbarian Kingdom must first conquer "Waterfront City" as a base.

Because of the barrenness, most of the seventeen sub-nests in the northeast are small and medium-sized sub-nests, and the ant mouths add up to about sixty or seventy thousand, and now the forty thousand of the strongest ants have been pulled into the army of the old-fashioned king, this military-civilian ratio is about 2:3, and in the human world, it is no longer just dry and fishing, which is simply unheard of.

In comparison, the military-civilian ratio in the human world is much lower, often less than 1:100, with an upper limit of 1:6 and in extreme cases no more than 1:3.

In terms of standing armies alone, it was about 1:200 during the Ming Dynasty in China; During the founding period of the Qing Dynasty, there were about 100 million people, and the military strength was 200,000 Eight Banner Army and 600,000 Green Battalion soldiers, and the ratio of military to civilian was about 1:100;

Generally speaking, in a feudal country, the more developed the economy, the smaller the proportion of military and civilian. This is because the development of social institutions will promote the social division of labor, and the non-agricultural population will continue to grow. In ancient times, army recruitment not only required a large supply of resources, but also affected economic production and thus taxes.

A simple calculation can be found that a regular soldier must be equipped with at least one logistics personnel, and at least one civilian must work to provide food and clothing for these two people, which is considered to be 3 strong men, so 1:3 is the limit of the military-civilian ratio. Considering the country's other tax needs, 1:6 is a de facto limit.

And the classical **** countries and nomads can only approach the limit ratio of 1:3 because they are "all soldiers".

The ancient Greek city-state of Athens was able to make all the people soldiers, because the main sources of taxes for the Athenians were maritime trade and silver mining, and the tax income was much higher than that of agriculture. The Athenians did not have much standing army, their citizens were in a sense professional soldiers, and the fundamental guarantee of Athenian independence was that all citizens defended the country. But this does not mean that the military-civilian ratio is 1:1, without considering the factor that citizens are not out of production in peacetime, simply count all citizens into the army, we will also find that ancient Athens has a large number of non-citizen slaves and foreigners, who are engaged in production but cannot be soldiers, so the wartime military-civilian ratio in ancient Athens will not be higher than 1:3.

This kind of citizen soldier system in ancient Athens was not only unique to ancient Greece, but also practiced in the Qin Dynasty, the earliest unified feudal dynasty in China, and almost all the vassal states during the Warring States Period also had this policy of combining farming and warfare.

Therefore, in the pre-Qin period, the limit of the long-term high military-civilian ratio was created. With the population of millions of vassal states at that time, it was a decisive battle between hundreds of thousands of armies at every turn, and the ratio of military and civilian can be imagined.

But this high proportion could not be sustained, and the fall of the Qin Dynasty was also related to the fact that all the children of Guanzhong became soldiers and the state taxes dried up.

Eventually, in the history of the East and the West, this classical "all the people are soldiers" was eventually replaced by a small number of standing armies. In this regard, Archer Jones has an analysis in the book "The Art of Western War":

"The size of a country's (nation) armed forces is determined by the size of its population and productive forces. In ancient times, the majority of the population was engaged in agricultural production to support themselves and to produce some merchants, artisans, monks, and officials whose surplus supply was only a small fraction of the population. Such a low-productivity society can only maintain an armed force that makes up a small percentage of the population. Even when the country already has a well-developed monetary economy, the primitive tax, fiscal, and banking systems still struggle to make money grow rapidly. It was only in the age of relative modernization that the government had tax revenues, tiny reserve banks, and coinage that it was able to divert a large proportion of the country's output to support the war effort. In ancient times, even these institutions could not raise much financial resources, because so many people could only survive on a subsistence level, so there was little left over for war. Even the Roman Empire, which was politically and economically developed, could only maintain an armed force of less than 1% of its population.

Due to the lack of both physical and financial resources, militias have become a universal system of soldiers. Under the militia system, some or all free males are obliged to serve in the armed forces for a certain period of time. Often, they have to arm themselves at their own expense, and with that in mind, the government may exempt them from a certain amount of taxes. Some militias are trained, often most of the time, to train basic skills; Other militias lack combat skills and even specialized weapons, for example, some militias use agricultural tools as weapons. While sometimes militias are complementary to professional soldiers, it is often they who make up the entire armed forces of the Government.

The militia has a distinct advantage: it is very cheap in peacetime; But its low consumption is offset by low efficiency. The Greeks relied on the militia for a long time, because only in this way could they have the same number of troops as the professional army that their powerful rivals, the Persians, had. The Romans also relied on militia at first, but like the Greeks, they found that the constant wars made professional armies not only more effective, but also more important. Moreover, the militia cannot engage in a long war, or even a longer campaign, because they must return to civilian occupation. In other words, the government can provide a large militia, but only for a short period of time. When the war lasts for a long time, a professional army that can always remain armed for a longer period of time has obvious advantages. Even governments that do not engage in continuous warfare may prefer a professional military because it allows its citizens to bear only taxes and not the costs, inconveniences, and potential dangers of military service. An army of professional soldiers, although small, has the advantage of having a higher level of combat skills than amateur soldiers such as the militia.

There is nothing particularly difficult about feeding an army in peacetime. An army made up of militias supports itself through its civilian normal occupations such as agriculture, commerce, or industry. The Government can also meet the needs of professional soldiers more easily, as they are usually able to contribute to the country and have stable access to most of the basic food they need through the established civilian market organizations.

Whether it is a militia army or a professional army, as long as it is concentrated, it will bring the problem of food supply. An army that is concentrated for a campaign is the equivalent of a city: densely populated and does not produce the food it uses. However, unlike cities, armies do not have an existing transport network or any existing mode of supplying local needs. ”