The first thousand three hundred and forty-nine chapters of the army's imagination of the railway
After Kang Changning's cavalry troops set off first, they were followed by the Chinese infantry and artillery and other main forces led by Fang Xitong himself. These troops also had cavalry, but naturally these cavalry troops could not march on horses. They could only
He leads the horse and marches honestly.
The Army of the Tang Dynasty clearly stipulates in the cavalry drill that unless there are extreme circumstances and the commander explicitly orders it, riding a combat horse (that is, the war horse used for charge combat) during the march is not allowed.
The only cavalry units that can enjoy horseback marching are those equipped with two or three horses. Even under normal circumstances, even if it is a cavalry unit equipped with two horses, the cavalry will not ride horses, because war horses cannot be ridden.
If there is no heavy load, the spare horse is used to carry equipment and other things. Naturally, the cavalry can only walk. If they carry too many things, the cavalry will have to march with equipment and other things on their backs.
Only cavalry units equipped with three horses will frequently have cavalry marching on horses. This does not mean marching on horseback all the time. It means that the knights walk a certain distance. When they are tired, they ride on the backup horse for a while, and then dismount and walk.
, so repeatedly, it does not mean that we are always marching on horseback.
If you want to march on a horse all the time, then you have to be equipped with five, six or even more horses! Well, this must be a Mongolian horse with very good endurance. If you replace it with other horses with poor endurance,
No matter how many horses you have, it won't work. If the horses themselves are exhausted, you still want to march on them. What a joke.
Even if you are marching on horseback, you can only ride a spare horse. As for the horses used for charging, it is impossible to ride them. For example, the cavalry with two horses and three horses can only ride occasionally when marching.
Ride the spare Mongolian horses or northwest horses. As for those Arabian horses and Central Asian horses, they are used when charging, not when marching.
Kang Changning's cavalry troops are all cavalry troops riding two horses or three horses. The marching speed is naturally much faster than that of riding a single horse. If they run fast, they need fast transport vehicles to provide supplies.
, these tens of thousands of people plus more than 100,000 horses, the amount of food and grass required is not a small amount. Although the horses can eat grass directly on the grass, on the one hand, it takes a lot of time to let the horses eat grass.
On the other hand, just eating grass has a great impact on the horse's physical fitness.
If you want your war horse to run fast and maintain physical fitness, you must feed it with high-quality feed. Just grazing and eating grass will not work.
Speaking of which, the cavalry operations of the Tang Army were more troublesome and complicated than the cavalry operations of the Tatars and other grassland nomadic tribes. The main reason was that there were not as many horses as others.
However, the Tang cavalry has always been trying to find ways to shorten this gap in marching ability, but it is not so easy to shorten.
This is why the Army of the Tang Dynasty has been supporting the construction of railways. Apart from the Ministry of Industry, the Army is the most concerned about the construction and testing of the Beijing-Zhenzhen Railway.
If it can be confirmed that this kind of rail transportation is feasible, then the Army will immediately build special military railways in some areas. They have even selected the route, that is, the railway from Tianjin to the Hetao area, which is specially used to transport supplies and
The rapid movement of troops.
It's just that the Beijing-Zhenzhen Railway encountered many troubles during the construction process, and the construction period was repeatedly postponed.
The construction of this kind of railway system in the wilderness is quite difficult, and it is more troublesome and complicated than the railway system used in the city.
Among them, the problem of rail theft has always existed. Even the Tang Empire specially formulated very severe punishment measures for rail theft. However, the price of steel today is so high that even if it is sold for scrap iron, you can get a lot of money.
For small profits, there will always be criminals who try their best to steal railway tracks.
And no matter what era, the idea of relying on the mountains to feed the mountains and the water to feed the water is deeply ingrained. Many villagers in the countryside think that since the railway is laid in front of their homes, they go to 'pick up' a piece of railway track every three days and come back.
That's not a matter of course.
In addition, I don’t know when it started. There are rumors that these railway tracks will destroy feng shui and so on. Many ignorant people do not allow railways to pass through their hometowns.
This has caused quite a headache for the Ministry of Industry, but the Ministry itself has nothing to do. All they can do is increase publicity and let people gradually accept railways.
As for the patrol police, they continue to increase patrols and shop searches, and at the same time conduct extensive publicity along the railway!
The slogan is simple and straightforward: "Training is against the law!"
But let alone ancient times, even in modern societies of later generations, there are people stealing public goods, so it is impossible to completely ban this kind of thing.
All the patrol police can do is maintain patrols with great intensity.
However, the Army obviously does not pay much attention to these issues. The Army is more concerned about practical issues. As for people being afraid of affecting Feng Shui and stealing railroad tracks, the Army says there is no problem at all!
The Army's way of handling these problems may be different from that of the Ministry of Industry and Patrol Police. The Army's way of handling these problems is simpler and more rough.
Stealing rails, sleepers and other facilities on ordinary railways is just an ordinary crime of theft. Even if it is severely punished, it is only limited to ordinary criminal offenses.
However, military railways are military facilities. According to relevant regulations, military facilities are within the military restricted area. If you rashly break into the military restricted area, patrol soldiers can be killed on the spot. Deliberately damaging military facilities will be punished as treason.
.
In any country with a centralized feudal monarchy, the crime of rebellion is very serious, and beheading is the lightest one. It is common to run a house raid, and even relatives may be implicated.
With such a deterrent, ordinary criminals would simply not dare to attack these military facilities.
Even if some ignorant people dare to gather a crowd to destroy the railway, they will be shot on the spot if they are caught, and then the local authorities will be notified for in-depth investigation.
Well, this is a major crime of treason and will implicate many people!
If someone is unwilling to allow military railways to pass through the border on the pretext of Feng Shui, or even causes large-scale civil unrest, the Army said it would be easier: blast a few cannons, fire a few rounds of volleys, and charge everyone with bayonets in the end.
solved!
No matter in any era, don't expect the army to have any benevolence. It is a professional violent organization, not to mention the army in the feudal dynasty. The object of allegiance to the army is not the country, the people, etc., they are loyal
The target is the emperor!
The most important duty of the army of the Tang Dynasty was not to protect the country, but to safeguard the imperial power of the empire and the rule of Emperor Li Xuan.
The Army is confident in using railways, but the current problem is that the Army still doesn't know whether the large-scale construction of military railways can really bring about sufficient effects.
You must know that building railways is expensive, and the army is preparing to build military railways on its own. All these costs are military expenses. After spending so much, it is natural to see relevant effects.
In fact, the army has also thought about asking the Ministry of Industry, especially the railway company, to build a railway from Tianjin to Dongsheng City. However, most of the sections of this railway are on grasslands with few people, except for the military.
In addition, there is no demand for passenger and freight transportation, and there is no profit at all.
Therefore, the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises have given the Army a very clear answer. For the time being, the cabinet will not consider building railways in areas with no profit potential.
This is not only true in the Hetao area, but also in the Northeast, Northwest, etc.
At present, the railway development in the Tang Empire is in a period of experimentation and exploration. In order to maintain the good development momentum of the railway and absorb more social capital investment to reduce financial pressure, in the past ten years or even longer, the railway development has
The construction plan is limited to areas with huge passenger and freight demand, such as the Jiangnan region, the Central Plains region, etc.
The border areas, regardless of the southeast, northwest, are not included in the plan.
The cabinet is unwilling to suffer losses, so the Army has no choice but to build a purely military railway on its own.
However, the Army and the Cabinet have also reached an agreement, that is, the Army can repair and use it on its own first. When the time is right, the railway company controlled by the Ministry of State-owned Enterprises will acquire these military railways and incorporate them into the operation network of ordinary commercial railways.
At some point, certain compensation will be given to the Army.
Naturally, this kind of compensation cannot be given directly. After all, the military is not allowed to do business, so compensation may be provided in the allocation of the fiscal budget, or in the form of building railways in other border areas.
Although it seems that the Army still suffers a lot, but whoever gave the Army the need has to make this loss.
Anyway, nowadays in the north and northeastern regions, military transportation is facing great difficulties. Huge sums of money are spent every year to maintain supply lines. If a military railway can be built, it can also save the army a lot of material transportation costs.
However, even though the Army has planned to build military railways in the northern border areas, it is still under planning. Therefore, whether it is material transportation in the northern grasslands such as Hetao and Fengzhou, or material transportation in the Northeast, it is
Only traditional methods can be used.
Fang Xitong led the army to set off, and behind him were more than 100,000 civilians engaged in material transportation.
These materials are produced from major arsenals in the country and then transported by ships to various ports in the Northeast. After being unloaded, they will be transported by the transportation group of the Logistics Department through various means of transportation, mainly heavy-duty four-wheeled carriages.
To large cities where strategic materials are stored, these towns are often also strategic material reserve stations for the Army.