The caravan traveled twice on the Gobi, each traveling less than 50 kilometers.

All because of the horses!

In many of our concepts, horses are animals that are very good at running, such as "five hundred in three days, one thousand in six days", all of which are the daily travel distance of horses. But the actual result is that the normal distance traveled by a horse is only fifty or sixty kilometers, and many horse breeds may not reach this level today. Mongolian horses are probably the best at running and have excellent endurance, and Mongolian horses can travel up to 60-70 kilometers at 8 o'clock, and this is still without weight. Someone, every 3 8s, shouldn't the horse run more than 200 kilometers? The problem is that by the time the horse continues to run for seven or eight hours, the horse itself is already useless, or even dead. This is nothing, some horses can't even run a dozen kilometers in a short time.

Camels are actually better suited for long-distance travel than horses. But alas, it is more convenient for cavalry to come, or to ride a horse. Depending on the factors, the caravan is not fast.

In order to obtain the ability to maneuver at high speed over long distances, ancient cavalry needed several prerequisites, one was to have two or three horses, ride in turn, and it was forbidden to ride war horses when marching. The second is to have a strong logistical supply capacity to accompany the tour, otherwise the little supplies brought by the cavalry themselves will be gone. Third, it is necessary to feed the horses' ass with concentrated feed, grain, beans and even eggs, which are similar to what the landlords eat, so as to ensure that the horses' farts do not lose fat and can continue to fight. If you just rely on eating grass along the way, you have to spend more than half of your time grazing the horses, and the horses can maneuver at about the same speed as crawling.

In ancient times, the infantry mobility speed of the feudal army was not very strong, which was mainly related to organizational ability, and the infantry of the feudal army could not catch up with the cavalry, which did not mean that the modern army did not have the infantry mobility speed exceeding the cavalry, which was a matter of the modern army. During the American Civil War, there were many practical examples, where infantry and cavalry set off together on a long and rapid march, and every time the infantry went two or three, they had to stop and wait for the cavalry behind.

At this point, the caravan stopped in a cooler place. Cao Jian and the old immortal went to find the dark river.

Qiao Guoqiang let his war horse open its mouth in a place where those people couldn't see, and sprayed a tube of water into the war horse's mouth with a syringe.

After drinking the previous "water can't support 10", in fact, it includes people and horses. If you drink water, 20 is enough. Ma Yi didn't do anything, and he had to drink more than a dozen liters of water.

This is usual.

In wartime, where is there still so much exquisiteness? It is also possible not to eat or drink for a day or two.

If it's thoroughbred horses in the West or something, it's definitely unbearable. The war horses in the East are not so squeamish, and their adaptability is much stronger than that of the West.

Drink less water, then urinate less.

If a few sips of water are not enough, then they can only withhold the water of the war horse.

Qiao Guoqiang took a shovel that looked delicate in Captain Li, and began to dig a pit in the ground.

"Hey, you want to dig a well?" Wu Lao Er asked.

"Yes!" Qiao Guoqiang: "Dig a well!" ”

"What a joke!" Bald: "What the hell are you going to do?" ”

"Get on the water!" The drum beater ignored Wu Lao Er, but kept digging, digging for more than half a meter, and finally felt moisture in the soil. After digging into the wet soil, Qiao Guoqiang began to expand the area of the pit in all directions, until a large pit with a diameter of 0.9 meters and a depth of 0.7 meters was dug.

"Hey, what are you digging this hole for?" Ma Stick looked at Qiao Guoqiang's strange movements and asked puzzledly.

"Should he," Lord Lacey looked at Qiao Guoqiang, who was putting a helmet into the pit, and wondered, "Is it really going to be in the water?" ”

A sheepskin was laid on the surface of the pit, and along the mouth of the pit, it was pressed by the gravel of the Gobi. The sheepskin was not paved, but a little concave in the middle, and Qiao Guoqiang also found a stone weighing about a pound and put it in the middle of the skin, so that the skin kept an inclination towards the middle. It looks, like a pointed bottom pot.

"Hey, brother!" Lao Bao asked, "What are you doing here?" ”

"Go to the water!" Qiao Guoqiang looked at everyone, "Do you want to try it?"

Captain Li pulled Wu Lao Er to the side and asked, "How much water is there?" ”

"Enough to reach this time after the big one!" Wu Lao Er: "Fortunately, Brother Qiao collected the water bag of the ringing horse, otherwise he would have been able to reach Ming." ”

"If Ming Cao Jian and the others don't come back, then let them go out first, and you can leave some water for them."

"Hey!"

Captain Li looked at Qiao Guoqiang who was guarding the edge of the sand pit and asked, "Can you really have water in this way?" ”

"Wouldn't you just have to give it a try?" Qiao Guoqiang: "Idle is idle anyway..."

Master Lacey took a sheepskin and walked over and said, "I want to try it, can you teach me?" ”

"Okay!" Qiao Guoqiang nodded in agreement.

"What then?" Ma Stick watched Lacey start digging the soil, and he also said to everyone with some uncertainties, "Then I'll try it too." ”

"Do it!" Captain Li: "Anyway, if you're idle, you're idle." ”

After that, he asked, "Brother Joe! How much water can you get this way? ”

"Not good!" Qiao Guoqiang estimated, "However, in an afternoon, it is no problem to fill a bowl of water." ”

There is a basis for him to do so:

In the deserts and desert areas of the interior of the Jungar Basin, annual evaporation can reach 2,300 mm, most of which is in summer. This "most" is calculated at 34, so it can evaporate about 1800 mm in the summer of a year. The summer here is half a year, so the amount of water that can evaporate is 10 mm.

Then a one-square-meter pit will bring 10 liters of transpiration water!

The bottom area of the pit with a diameter of 0.9 meters is 0.64 square meters, and half of the evaporation should be obtained in an afternoon according to five hours, after all, the afternoon is the hottest time, and the evening is the time when the evaporation is the greatest (because the surface temperature reaches the highest in the evening. ）

When it is dark, if the skin on the pit can get 4-5 mm of evaporation, then it means that the person has obtained 0.64 square meters * 4-5 mm of water. 0.64㎡ = 6400 square centimeters, multiplied by 5 mm on this basis is 0.5 cm, that is 3700 ml, which is equivalent to 6 bottles of mineral water!

An hour later, Ma Stick looked at Qiao Guoqiang, "Can you take it now?" ”

"Yes!" Qiao Guoqiang nodded: "It should be a little bit by now." ”

Ma Stick went to open his piece of sheepskin, looked at the bottom of the pit, and suddenly shouted in surprise, "There is water!" "There's really water!"

He took out the bowl full of water, held it in his hand and showed everyone "There is water, there is really water!" ”

"Hey, I'll see!" "I'll see! ~" Wu Lao Er and the bald man came over and looked, "There is really water!" We're not afraid! ”

Wenzhu stood up and looked at the water in the bowl, and hurriedly walked to Lacey's side, "There is really water!" ”

Without saying a word, Lacey uncovered his sheepskin and saw a bowl of water inside. "That's half a liter." Lacey was pleasantly surprised: "We really don't have to be afraid! Quick, get the hydration bladder! ”

"Hurry up, quench your thirst with two sips, and then go dig a pit!" Captain Li walked to the side with a knife and dug it up. When he was digging a pit with Lacey in front of him, he saw all the tricks. Now he just hates, because Mao hasn't met this surnamed Qiao for a long time, otherwise this Anxi army will have to die less every year by the post soldiers and scouts who die of thirst in the Gobi Desert!

"Dig!" Lao Bao was digging a pit with a knife while shouting, "If you dig a pit, you will have water, and if you dig a pit, you will have water!" ”