Chapter 411: Wooden Ox and Lost Horse, Nanzhong Rebellion
Author: Playing with Basilisk
Chapter 411: Wooden Ox and Lost Horse, Nanzhong Rebellion
The training results of the cavalry were highly recognized by Zhuge Liang.
These cavalry are not simply using scarecrows to simulate battles, but are conducting comprehensive tactical training.
They themselves were all the elite knights when Liu Bei first formed the cavalry in Hanzhong, Liangzhou. They were composed of outstanding Han knights from the Yongliang region in the northwest and a small number of Qiang and Di elites.
In the battle of Guanzhong with Cao Cao, they performed brilliantly.
Therefore, the cavalry are all elites who have been on the battlefield. However, in the past, Zhang Fei and Ma Chao fought as a cavalry commander and fought according to his own intentions, lacking certain tactical training and organizational capabilities.
So the purpose of re-training here is to improve their tactical execution and turn them from elite veterans into a group of strong troops who obey orders.
Under such hard training, the cohesion of the soldiers was strengthened very quickly. Shen Chen also used many of his disciples to serve as middle and lower-level officers, giving political propaganda courses and telling the soldiers why they were fighting.
As a result, the soldiers at the bottom have faith. They understand that they are fighting for the common people, for the peace of their hometown, and at the same time for their wives, children and families. Therefore, their fighting spirit is high and they train extremely hard.
Zhuge Liang stayed in the Guixu Township military camp for three days and visited the entire camp. Then, accompanied by Shen Chen and Li Yan, he went north to inspect Baoxie Road, Chencang Road, Tangluo Road and Ziwu Road, and truly understood Hanzhong. Four difficulties and obstacles.
By June, after three months of inspections at the county government residence in Baozhong County, Zhuge Liang visited Chencang Road and Baoxie Road twice. This morning, just after returning from Jigu, a meeting on grain transportation was held. .
Zhuge Liang sat in the main seat, and below him Shen Chen, Huang Zhong, Li Yan and others took their seats one after another. After everyone arrived, Zhuge Liang said seriously: "In the past three months, along the Chencang Road, Baoxie Road, and Tangluo Road, I have walked Ziwu Road several times, and I thought that the only people who can transport grain are Chencang and Baoxie Road."
"Yes, brother, I think the same thing."
Shen Chen agreed at first, and then sighed: "Chencang Road is spacious and an open road. When Yuan Zhi was the prefect of Hanzhong, he had been repairing the road and trying to ensure that all roads were as smooth as possible. Although there are some difficult places, But overall it is still very easy to walk. There is even a part of the Ximian River that can be transported by ship. Using the Mian River, some grain and grass can be sent to Wuxing. The only problem is that it is too far. It has to be transported from Nanzheng to Yangpingguan. Then from Yangpingguan to Hechi, and finally all the way north to Chencang, a distance of 1,200 miles. It has made a big circle, so that the movement of grain and grass is extremely slow. Transporting grain by ox carts and horse-drawn carriages is only a daily journey. For twenty miles, if a large army is dispatched to transport grain on the Chencang Road, we don't have that many horses and oxcarts at all. How can we support the entire Northern Expedition grain road with just manpower?"
The army did not transport food all at once, but transported food continuously. According to the records in "Juyan Han Slips", Han soldiers consumed three shi of food a month, but that was based on millet and wheat. Hanzhong is now It is a rice-producing area, so a soldier consumes two dendrobiums of food per month, which is two stones.
If we send out 100,000 troops, the food consumed per month is 200,000 dan. However, this is only the basis. People eat horse chews, and the civilians and auxiliary soldiers who transport the food also need to eat. Even if it is doubled, it will still cost 100,000 dan. , not to mention salt, pickles, etc.
In other words, the overall consumption of an army of 100,000 people will consume more than 300,000 shi of food a month. In the Han Dynasty, one stone was 120 kilograms, and one kilogram is about 223 grams, which is about 27 kilograms today. The army will eat 810 kilograms a month. tons of grain.
"Juyan Han Slips" also records that an ox cart can pull 25 shi of millet, and more than 10,000 ox carts are needed to pull 300,000 shi.
Frankly speaking, even if there are so many oxcarts, they can only travel 1,200 miles along the Chencang Road. It would take a month for the oxcarts to travel thirty or forty miles every day, and then there would be a lot of traffic in between. During the long lull, the troops on the front line would starve to death.
The most important thing is that this is only the section from Hanzhong to Guanzhong. After leaving Guanzhong, there is still more than 400 miles to Chang'an. Even after leaving Chencang, there is a plain area, which is not as difficult to walk as the mountains. The speed is It will be much faster, but it will also greatly extend the supply lines and food routes, making it more difficult for them to provide food and grass.
This is why Shen Chen feels that the problem of food supply is difficult.
Although he improved the deer cart, also known as the wheelbarrow, the load capacity of the wheelbarrow was still far inferior to that of the ox cart, and more civilians had to be mobilized. At least 70,000 to 80,000 civilians were required to continuously transport grain to ensure that the front line was ten Food for thousands of armies is constantly supplied.
So this is difficult to do.
However, Shen Chen remembered that he had watched the Romance of the Three Kingdoms TV series. The wooden ox and flowing horse invented by Zhuge Liang were very powerful. Sima Yi was once amazed that an ox cart could actually walk on its own, carrying a year's worth of food, and could travel dozens of miles a day, and a group of 20. There are many people here, but people don’t work very hard.
This shows that a wooden ox and horse can carry 24 shi of rice. Even if you only travel 20 miles a day, if you build more wooden ox and horse, each wooden ox and horse is equivalent to half an ox cart. Only 40,000 to 50,000 people are needed to transport grain to the front line. .
In addition, he remembered that it was said in the TV series that the wooden cow and the flowing horse walked on the praise path.
Baoxie Road is too close.
Six hundred miles.
Walking twenty miles a day, using 20,000 wooden oxen and straying horses, we can deliver 500,000 shi of grain to the front line in 25 days. Is that even possible?
Therefore, Shen Chen hurriedly asked Zhuge Liang to solve this problem.
However, Zhuge Liang did not give the answer immediately. He did not immediately bring up the question Shen Chen was thinking about, but first asked: "Xiaoqing, have you made any plans before?"
Shen Chen thought for a while and said: "Yes, Chencang Road is suitable for large-scale grain transportation, so I once thought about building a four-wheeled vehicle with a larger load capacity, but its shortcomings are also obvious, that is, it cannot turn and is flexible and long-distance. It’s not as good as a two-wheeled vehicle. I’ve never figured out how to make a steering shaft. Maybe even if I figure it out, I’m afraid the wooden steering rod won’t work, and I’ll have to use iron.”
There were very few four-wheeled vehicles in ancient China. It was not that they could not be built due to technical limitations, but that four-wheeled vehicles were far less flexible than two-wheeled vehicles. The steering shafts used in later generations of cars were made of gears. Shen Chen was engaged in architectural design, not in engineering. As for automotive technology, a layman in this field can only explore on his own.
“To a four-wheeler?”
Zhuge Liang shook the feather fan slightly, pondered for a while and said: "I remember Xiaoqing told me about gears before. Maybe this thing can be made with gears."
"I think so too. In fact, making gears is not that troublesome. Just make a mold and fill it with molten iron. The problem is that I still don't know how to use the gears for steering. Oh, I wish I had studied theory earlier."
Shen Chen's voice was much softer for the last sentence.
Zhuge Liang was surprised and said: "What?"
"nothing."
Shen Chen shook his head.
He is an architectural designer, majoring in fine arts, and also studied liberal arts at first.
The application of gears can only be handled by science students.
In other words, it is not that troublesome. The mechanics of junior high school physics can use gears to build a steering four-wheel vehicle.
It happened that Shen Chen had graduated from college for who knows how many years, and he had already given back the little knowledge he had in junior high school to the teacher.
That's why he felt pain in his head.
Zhuge Liang thought for a while and said, "Maybe I have a way. You can ask the craftsmen to make the gear I want and try it first."
"I have some ready-made."
Shen Chen turned to Shan Yi outside the door and said, "Yide, send someone to Guixu and bring all the gears."
"yes."
Shan Yi went to send someone to get it.
It is more than a hundred miles from Baozhong to Guixu, and it is already afternoon. Even if we go quickly to pick it up, we will not arrive until tomorrow, so the issue of switching to a four-wheeled vehicle will be put aside for now.
Zhuge Liang said in a deep voice: "I thought that large trucks can be used to transport grain on the Chencang Road, and I will figure out how to switch to four-wheeled vehicles later. On the Baoxie Road, small trucks can be used, and the plank roads are often dozens of miles parallel, up and down. There are stairs, and a camp is set up every tens of miles. Four-wheeled carts are used to carry square bags and transport grain and grass to the camp. There are constant trips back and forth. What does Xiaoqing think?"
Set up camp for tens of miles?
Shen Chen thought about it. According to Zhuge Liang's theory, a small stronghold should be built every few miles to store grain. Then the soldiers would use something like a supermarket trolley to go back and forth from the front and rear camps to deliver the grain and grass to the camp behind. To the front camp, a streamlined operation will be formed, which will greatly reduce the time and cost of transporting food.
The main reason is that the Baoxie Road is basically a plank road. There are three to four hundred miles of plank road in the six hundred miles alone. In history, Zhao Yun burned down the plank road for more than 100 miles. Later, the Shimen Plank Road restored in Hanzhong City was able to Get a glimpse of the style of Baoxie Road Plank Road back then.
Therefore, Zhuge Liang proposed to use small carts to transport grain back and forth on the plank road. There is no need to worry about the problem of the grain truck encountering stairs on the plank road and being unable to climb up. Instead, he can directly build a stronghold near the stairs, or transfer and exchange the grain. Just send the grain from the back to the empty cart in front and continue transporting grain forward.
In this way, there will be an endless supply of food.
The only disadvantage is that the scale of grain transportation is relatively small. It is estimated that each time it is only two to three hundred kilograms, and the load is only one-fifth of that of a large truck. But the advantages are also obvious. One is that the grain transportation is fast, and the other is naturally low cost. efficient.
"Um."
Shen Chen thought it made sense, nodded and said, "You can give it a try."
"That's it."
Zhuge Liang said: "I will draw the drawings and objects first. Xiaoqing can go to Baoxie Road to arrange the stronghold first. After I make the actual objects, you can give it a try."
"good."
Shen Chen agreed to the matter.
Now the two of them split up. Zhuge Liang began to make tools for transporting grain, while Shen Chen went to Baoxie Road to select a stronghold.
This matter is related to whether the Northern Expedition can be launched smoothly, and there is no room for carelessness, so Shen Chen is very attentive.
In the next half month, he followed the Baoxie Road northward to Xieyuguan again. Along the way, he ordered his soldiers to choose places other than the plank road to build camps.
Plank roads often have steps of dozens of miles each. In order to prevent the wheels from passing through, he ordered to use chisels to dig out stone holes in the walls. When he encountered the soldiers who came to deliver food, they had already arrived, but the empty convoy that came to pick up the food had not yet arrived. You can place the food at the cave stronghold first and then go back.
Compared with building a plank road, it is much simpler to dig a stone cave. Because the plank road is to dig a stone cave on the cliff, and then use wood to lay out the road, dig out the hole below, and use a tenon and tenon structure to connect the supporting wood below with the The upper wood is connected.
The ancient ancestors were not only admirable in their wisdom, but also in the results of their labor. At least for the plank roads opened on the cliffs like this, even machines may not be able to do it well, but the ancients were able to make hundreds of Here, we can see how much manpower and material resources they spent to build these roads.
By the time Shen Chen returned to Jigu from Xieyuguan in June of the fourth year of Zhangwu's reign, he had already seen Zhuge Liang setting up a camp in Jigu. Four-wheeled carts were placed on the road outside Jigu, and two carts were placed on the carts. A square bag was then pushed onto the trestle by the soldiers and transported to the front line.
In terms of walking, people can walk about four to five kilometers per hour. The entire Baoxie Road is 600 miles, which is about 250 kilometers when converted into kilometers. Calculating the walking speed based on twelve hours a day, it can be A walk of five to sixty kilometers can be completed in five days at most.
The advantage of the Baoxie Road is that it is close, but the shortcoming is also obvious. It is too narrow. It can only accommodate two people walking side by side. It is next to a cliff. Even the handrails and the rain shield on the head were made by Shen Chen last year. He ordered Li Yan to make them. .
Li Yan sent people to re-drill holes on the top of the plank road, connecting holes every few meters with wooden sticks, and then used wooden sticks to connect the plank road below, and laid wooden boards on top.
In this way, there are vertical wooden sticks on the cliff side of the plank road as handrails, and then an iron chain is strung up in the middle. In this way, the upper wooden boards can prevent rainwater, preventing the wood from getting damp and rotting, or the food and grass getting wet when it rains when transporting food. The plank road will also be more stable.
At this moment, below the Jigu camp, Zhuge Liang led Shen Chen and others to the entrance of the Baoxie Road, pointing to the uphill slope: "Look, this cart uses four wheels to transport grain. It is stable and safe on the plank road. There are two carts on it. A square bag can carry five husks of dendrobium and has a slope of 600 miles. If there is a stronghold every 30 li, a person can go back and forth between the strongholds in two hours. At six to eight hours a day, one person can transport at least 15 dendrobiums of grain and grass. "
Shen Chen looked over and saw hundreds of soldiers lined up in a long snake formation, pushing small four-wheeled carts like supermarket trolleys along the road. Thirty miles is twelve kilometers, and a round trip takes two days. Fourteen kilometers, if you walk quickly, you can actually complete it in four hours. Based on the size of the cart with 500 people, it can transport 7,500 shi of food every day.
The six hundred miles of Baoxie Road means twenty strongholds. Each stronghold is assigned 500 people, and 10,000 people transport 7,500 shi of grain back and forth every day. In one month, it is about 230,000 shi of grain. Although it is not enough Ten thousand troops are consumed in one month, but the problem is that they can still add more people.
For example, if we add 500 people to each stronghold, the monthly grain transportation can be doubled to 460,000 shi. There are 20,000 people in the entire Baoxie Road constantly pushing grain back and forth, and there will naturally be an endless supply of grain and grass on the front line. .
Seeing this scene, Shen Chen was surprised and felt ashamed at the same time.
As a descendant, I didn't think of this flow-type method of transporting food, which is really a bit embarrassing for the time travellers.
But he also admired Zhuge Liang's wisdom and said: "Brother, this method is really good. In this way, each person transports fifteen stones per day, and each stronghold has a thousand people. The daily transportation of food is fifteen thousand stones. There are only 15,000 stones on the plank road." It requires 20,000 people to go back and forth three times a day, which is enough to feed an army of 100,000 people every day."
Zhuge Liang smiled and said: "Because it flows on the plank road every day, I named this method of transporting grain flowing horse."
"Flowing horse?"
Shen Chen was confused.
When he was reading The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, it was said that a wooden cow and a flowing horse were a self-propelled thing that looked like an oxcart. Why was it just a handcart? Besides, weren't the wooden cow and the flowing horse the same thing? Why were they named separately?
Did he change history, or is Sima Yi riding a wooden ox in the TV series nonsense? The wooden cow and flowing horse in real history are not the style of the TV series at all?
Then again, flow means flowing on the plank road every day, so why is it called a horse?
"good."
Zhuge Liang nodded and said: "I also developed a wooden ox that can turn based on the gears Xiaoqing made. This thing can carry a year's worth of food and travel thirty miles a day without a lot of work. Over there, Xiaoqing, come with me and take a look."
Shen Chen followed the direction he pointed and came all the way to the back of the Jigu army camp. He saw a kind of vehicle placed on the camp. There was a huge carriage on the top, and a four-legged frame below. The wheels are a bit like that kind of office chair, but much larger than the office chair.
"This thing is a wooden cow."
Zhuge Liang pointed to the vehicle and said.
Shen Chen was even more puzzled and asked: "Brother, have you solved the steering problem?"
"Yes."
Zhuge Liangliang nodded: "I installed a rack inside, and used the gears to turn the front two wheels into movable wheels. When turning, the axle will automatically rotate back and forth according to the road ahead, thereby achieving steering."
"do not talk."
Shen Chen only felt a headache and recalled the tragic memories of being tortured by the physics teacher.
How about learning Confucian classics well after traveling through time?
Isn’t it that he is a liberal arts student?
Zhuge Liang smiled and said: "Xiaoqing can try it. After adding gears, the speed is indeed much faster. If you don't add gears, you can still make four wheels, but you can only increase the load-bearing capacity of two parallel small wheels on each side. It’s not like now where you can use four big wheels and carry a larger load.”
Shen Chen walked over and tried to push it. It was indeed more labor-saving. He could drag the cart back and forth and turn it, so he said: "This wooden ox can be turned and pushed. It's good to take Chencang Road. Brother's method It’s indeed a good method, but it’s a bit time-consuming. Having said that, why do we call it a wooden cow and a flowing horse?”
"I understand."
After saying that, without waiting for Zhuge Liang's answer, Shen Chen suddenly realized: "The person who pushes the wooden cow and the horse is the cow and horse. That's what my brother meant."
"Nonsense."
Zhuge Liang couldn't help but rolled his eyes and said: "The ox is slow but the horse is fast. The horse can travel a hundred miles a day, but the ox can only travel thirty miles a day. Isn't this just a wooden cow and a horse?"
"I see."
Shen Chen said happily: "If we send troops to the Northern Expedition, Baoxie Dao will arrange 20,000 stray horses, and Chencang Dao will send 10,000 wooden oxen. We will only need 30,000 people to do corvee work, and the grain transportation can reach more than 600,000 dan in one month. The food and grass problem , it’s completely solved! Hahahahaha!”
He laughed.
Everyone was also smiling.
Now that the biggest problem of the Northern Expedition has been completely solved, they will no longer have to worry about running out of food and grass.
Zhuge Liang waved his feather fan and kept smiling.
Although he has always been responsible for the work of the housekeeper in the rear, it is still a pity that he did not go to the front line to help in person.
Now he has helped Shen Chen complete the most difficult food transportation problem in Hanzhong. Feeling the joy from the heart of his wise brother, why shouldn't it make him feel happy in his heart?
"Report!"
Just when everyone was happily celebrating that the food supply problem was finally solved.
A horse came from the rear to report: "Gaoding, the king of Yue Yi, united with Zhu Bao, the prefect of Zangqi, to rebel. Governor Li went deep alone and was surrounded by the enemy in Dianchi County!"
Zhuge Liang suddenly frowned.
Shen Chen said angrily: "The rebellion in Nanzhong is really rampant. I'm just about to test the strength of the cavalry. Brother, please go south with your cavalry."
"It doesn't matter."
Zhuge Liang waved his hand: "Southern and central areas are all mountainous, and there is not much use for cavalry. I have ordered Wang Ping to wait for me in Jiangzhou. Although the counties and counties are rebelling, Yizhou's county soldiers are enough to cope with it. You actively train new troops and prepare for the Northern Expedition. I will set off immediately to go to Nanzhong."
"good."
Shen Chen knew that this matter could not be delayed, so he said: "I will send it to my brother."
At that moment, he sent Zhuge Liang all the way to Nanzheng Pier, and the Prime Minister's guards escorted him across the Han River and headed towards Micang Road.