Sima An frowned and looked at Zhao Hongrun, quite unable to accept Zhao Hongrun's "novel" remarks.
After all, he felt that the words of His Highness Prince Su had the power to subvert the concepts he had followed in the past.
"The general doesn't seem convinced?"
Perhaps noticing Sima An's expression, Zhao Hongrun chuckled and said, "Then let's speak with facts... Let's settle an account."
"Settling a score?" Sima An looked puzzled.
"Yes." Zhao Hongrun nodded and thought: "Take the more than 400,000 Chu people that I absorbed from Chu last year as an example...According to the general's temperament, he will probably kill all these people, right?
"
"...Hmm." Sima An responded without intending to refute.
Seeing this, Zhao Hongrun asked: "Then I would like to ask the general to calculate how the sacrifices of the Dangshan army will be if we kill those 400,000 Chu people?"
"A war with more than 400,000 Chu people?" Sima An frowned, as if he was saying: "How could I be so stupid as to lead 12,500 Dangshan soldiers into a head-on conflict with 400,000 Chu people?"
?』
It's no wonder, after all, the difference in numbers between the two sides is too big. Once the 400,000 Chu people risk their lives, it will definitely take a moment to swamp the Dangshan army of only more than 10,000 people.
In the face of absolute numerical superiority, no matter how well-trained the soldiers of the Dangshan Army are and how well-equipped their equipment is, it will be difficult to win.
After all, it is equivalent to a Dangshan Army killing nearly forty people while protecting themselves.
Don't think that forty people is not a large number. In fact, even the soldiers of the Dangshan Army only killed three to five enemies per person in a war.
Because on the battlefield, the two fighting soldiers are in a life-or-death situation, and each one wants to kill the other to save his own life.
Therefore, no one would consider conserving their physical strength, so every time they wield a weapon, they will exert all their strength, which makes the soldiers' physical exhaustion on the battlefield particularly serious.
However, once too much physical strength is consumed on the battlefield, it means that the soldiers are no longer able to withstand the next wave of enemy attacks with all their strength.
At this time, it depends on the attitude of the generals in charge of the war towards the troops under their command.
Take the generals of the Chu State as an example. Many generals of the Chu State used the lives of their soldiers as consumables. The soldiers in the front team died in battle, and the soldiers in the rear team continued to rush forward, purely using their lives to build victory. However, in the Wei State,
Here, generals like Bailiba and Sima An will choose to change the formation of their soldiers, replacing the soldiers of the front team with the soldiers of the rear team, so that the soldiers of the front team can get a precious chance to breathe.
Because of this, careful calculation shows that even the infantrymen of the Dangshan Army on the front line don't actually have much chance to kill the enemy.
Because after they kill several enemy soldiers, they will be moved to the rear due to the change in formation.
From beginning to end, even if you die, you will only encounter about three to seven enemy soldiers.
And this does not guarantee that the soldiers of the Dangshan Army will successfully kill the enemy every time.
Therefore, in a war, each soldier kills an average of forty people. This is absolutely impossible. You must know that there are many soldiers who have just joined the army, even those who have been trained, due to lack of relevant experience.
, after they go to the battlefield, they will almost always be frightened by the chilling battlefield atmosphere, and they will be at a loss when holding their weapons. As a result, they will not be able to kill even one enemy soldier, but they will lose their lives.
This is a common thing.
Only those soldiers who have witnessed cruel battlefields, even if they have not successfully killed the enemy on the battlefield, can be called a truly qualified soldier.
This is why Zhao Yuanzuo, the king of Southern Liang, hoped to recruit some veterans who had been on the battlefield from the Zhaoling Army, Shangshui Army, and Yanling Army when he formed the "Western Expedition Army" a while ago.
After all, for a soldier, no matter where they are trained or whether they have been on the battlefield, this is the most fundamental reason that determines their chances of survival on the battlefield in the future.
Because after wars since ancient times, the survival probability of new recruits is only 30% at best.
For example, out of a hundred recruits, after the first battle, only thirty will be left. After the second battle, there may be fifteen left. After the third battle, there will be only fifteen recruits left.
There will be about ten people left, and these ten people can be called "old soldiers".
As for the "Elite Soldiers Good at Fighting", there are only one or two left out of a hundred recruits, which is already a very impressive number.
However, you might as well ask veterans or even elite soldiers who have participated in multiple wars to see if they have killed a total of forty enemies in those battles.
The answer is, minimally.
This is war. Both sides fighting will send out their best warriors. Therefore, don’t think that killing enemies is so easy to earn. In fact, there are many veterans who kill less than ten enemies in their lifetime, and this
, is enough capital to show off to others.
The so-called soldiers who can defeat a hundred soldiers cannot be said to be non-existent, but after all they are just rare examples.
"Note: This only refers to the number of enemies killed per person. If you use strategies and use the power of nature, such as fire attacks, water attacks, etc., it is not included."
Therefore, even Sima An did not dare to claim that he could lead more than 10,000 Dangshan troops to kill more than 400,000 Chu people.
Zhao Hongrun seemed to have seen through Sima An's innermost thoughts and said with a smile: "General, just make the most favorable estimate."
"..." Sima An was a little dissatisfied with Zhao Hongrun's tone as if he was sure of victory, and said in a deep voice: "The remaining...50%."
The meaning of this sentence is that Sima An felt that after killing more than 400,000 people, he would still have about 50% of the Dangshan army left.
I have to say that this is definitely the "most favorable estimate" and is so biased that even Sima An, who is a party involved, feels a little blushing.
But Zhao Hongrun didn't care at all. After all, he clearly won this account.
"Well, I killed more than 400,000 enemies and lost 6,000 to myself...hehehe." His meaningless laughter made Sima An feel even more embarrassed.
"But it doesn't matter... Having said that, I chose the soft policy, and my record is "more than 400,000 enemies were killed without losing a single soldier." Then the question arises, the general really thinks that these two
Do the advantages and disadvantages of the two only lie in the self-destruction of the six thousand people?" At this point, Zhao Hongrun shook his head and said seriously: "No, the gap between the advantages and disadvantages of the two, apart from the self-destruction of the six thousand people,
, it must also include the more than 400,000 Chu people who were incorporated into our Wei Dynasty. After these more than 400,000 people surrendered to our Wei Dynasty, they paid household taxes every year, which could amount to tens of millions of dollars...Twenty years later,
These more than 400,000 people will become 600,000, or even 800,000, or one million people. Among them, there will be at least 100,000 or even 200,000 men. This means that I, the Great Wei, can
We need at least 100,000 troops..."
In the following period, Zhao Hongrun calculated in detail to Sima An the "benefits" derived from the more than 400,000 Chu people. Every time he calculated each sum, Sima An's brows furrowed.
When the calculation finally came to a clear conclusion, that is, the 400,000 Chu people could support three armies like the Dangshan Army, Sima An held his breath and said nothing.
After all, in the face of Zhao Hongrun's conclusive and well-organized "evidence", he really had no way to refute.
At the end, Zhao Hongrun said to Sima An sincerely: "General, our country in the Wei Dynasty only has about 800,000 households, and the number of citizens is about 6 million. However, the citizens of the Chu Kingdom in the south are our country.
Three or four times that of Wei, do you know what this means?...This means that if the Chu State really wants to launch a campaign of annihilation against our great Wei Dynasty,
To fight, if one of ten farmers is recruited to join the army, he can recruit an army of at least two million people. What is the concept of two million people for our great Wei? This is equivalent to 30% of the citizens of our great Wei, which is equivalent to our great
More than half of Wei's men in their prime, about 60 to 70 percent... What's more important is that if our army wins and the Chu army fights
If our country is defeated, the Chu State will still have sufficient troops, and even in just twenty years, they can recover the losses in this battle; but what if our country is defeated? About 60 to 70% of the men in the country died on the battlefield, and by the time
At that time, how many military families who are receiving military pay will starve to death? This kind of consequences will not be seen for a hundred years, let alone twenty years.
We must be able to regain our strength... If the national population of our great Wei Dynasty is like that of Chu State, even if it is at a disadvantage for a while, there will still be a way out. On the contrary, once defeated, the country will be destroyed and the family will be destroyed. This is caused by the large population of the people.
The direct influence is also the reason why this king advocates absorbing foreigners. General, can you understand this?"
Sima An was silent after hearing this.
Zhao Hongrun has analyzed this principle to this extent, how could he still not understand it?
But the problem is that if he accepts Zhao Hongrun's concept, it means that his original concept will be subverted, and his unwavering belief in the past will completely collapse.
Of course, this does not mean that there is anything wrong with Sima An's previous beliefs. After all, as a general, there is nothing wrong with him killing foreign enemies and eliminating all forces that may threaten Wei.
It's just that Sima An looked at this matter from the perspective of a "general", while Zhao Hongrun looked at the problem from a higher position and from the perspective of a "king".
For a king, the first thing to do is always to be gentle. If the situation has no choice but to use force, it is always the last choice. After all, in ancient wars, "kill a thousand enemies and lose eight hundred to yourself." A wise king
, will never start a war easily, unless it has other motives.
For example, transferring the class contradictions of the domestic people to the contradictions of foreign wars to ease national sentiment; or the problem cannot be solved through diplomatic channels, and the only option is to use force, etc.
Therefore, the views of Zhao Hongrun and Sima An are actually correct. The only difference is that they look at things from different angles.
"We, the Wei Dynasty, will regain Sanchuan sooner or later. I can guarantee this to the general. However, I will choose a softer way to accept the people of Sanchuan into our Wei people, and gradually make them become convinced and become
I, a member of the Wei people, are just like the people of Liang and Zheng hundreds of years ago..."
"..."
Hearing this, Sima An glanced at Zhao Hongrun.
If it were anyone else, he wouldn't believe it, but if it were King Su who defeated Chu last year and successfully brought more than 400,000 Chu people to Wei, Sima An seemed to have a vague feeling of "this"
The illusion that His Highness Prince Su can indeed do it.
But at the same time, a feeling of loss also emerged in Sima An's heart.