"How far is it from Jingzhao Mansion?" Zhu Liang, the grain envoy, asked on the river valley post road beside Luoshui River.
"There are still forty miles to Tongguan County."
"Let's take a rest first." Zhu Liang looked at the tired Tutuan countryman and ordered.
As the food envoy of Shuofang's army, before the main force has set off, he must go to the front line to establish a food platform and equipment depot to reserve supplies for the war.
Shaanxi and Guo are still too far away from the core of Lingxia. It is impossible to transport food over long distances. We can only use the surplus food in Weibei and Huazhou nearby. Whether it is enough is hard to say.
It would be great if we could control the river.
The water boat departs from Lingzhou and transports it all the way to Hezhong Town, and then takes a land transfer for a while to reach the front line.
"Let's carefully calculate the materials used for war horses and draft animals." During the break, Zhu Liang said to several military officials.
His arithmetic skills are average, but his work is meticulous.
However, these civil servants under my command all came to join the army after the imperial arithmetic examination was abolished. They have been in the army for some years, are good at arithmetic, and are familiar with every corner of the military camp. They are all practical talents.
The imperial examinations of the Guo Dynasty were inherited from the Sui Dynasty and developed. There are more than 50 subjects, namely Jinshi, Mingjing, Mingshu, Mingfa, Mingshu, etc. The examinations are held every year, and the number of admission places is not fixed, and is determined by strength.
For example, the Xiucai subject was discontinued because it was too difficult and too few people were admitted each year.
After the Huangchao Rebellion, due to lack of money, the imperial court cut off many subjects from the imperial examination, and Ming Calculation was one of them. What to do with some Calculation students who had studied Calculation for many years? Naturally, they had no choice but to go to a place where they could support their families.
The requirements for arithmetic candidates are not very high, because even if you pass the exam, you will only be a minor official from the ninth rank, and you will not be able to advance a few levels in your life. If you can reach the seventh rank, you will have to burn high incense, and you will never be able to enter the "noble" position.
(Fifth-grade) ranks, and even most people will be ninth-grade officials throughout their lives.
In fact, this would be pretty good. The "auxiliary courses" such as Mingshu are discriminated against and are not as good as the "main course" Jinshi. But after all, they take the exam every year, and there are people who win every year. If they win, they will actually work for officials, not "officials"
, is an "official", after all, he has cultivated many talents that the country needs.
By the Ming Dynasty, there was only Jinshi as a subject. What about people who studied arithmetic, law, calligraphy, etc.?
In the ten prefectures of Shuofang, the number of medical students and economics students is already more than twice the number stipulated by the imperial court. This year, arithmetic schools are also being opened at the prefecture and county level. This is another big expense, with 20,000 yuan a year being indispensable.
Doctors in agriculture are also being recruited, but there are no plans to open it at the county level. We will first set up a state school to include horse administration, breeding and the like.
As for PhDs in engineering, PhDs in law, etc., save some money first, unless they are "sponsored" by the court.
"The Flying Bear Army now has 27,000 horses and the Cavalry Army has 20,000 horses. These two armies will go south early next month. Don't make a mistake." Zhu Liang was not good at arithmetic, so he repeatedly warned him, fearing that there would be mistakes.
.
"As ordered." All the officials responded one after another.
Flying Bear, the horse of the Second Cavalry Army, is really "delicate"!
Once a war breaks out, they don't even want the forage mixed with grains and beans, but only grains, beans and bran, which they make into cakes and feed to the horses.
Forty-seven thousand horses consume more than 4,200 hu of grain a day, and 127,000 hu of grain in a month. The amount of food is amazing!
I can't say, but in the end I have to argue with them and mix in some hay to reduce food consumption.
The war horses of the Tielin Army's cavalry are willing to be mixed with grass and beans. Are the cavalry and flying bears so delicate?
Wei and Hua Er towns have a population of just over one million. How long can they sustain it?
But there aren’t that many pastures in the Central Plains, which is another problem.
War logistics is really a big problem. Alas! It would be much easier if Jingzhao Mansion was willing to provide food and grass...
After resting for a while, the convoy continued its journey.
This time they shipped a lot of camping equipment, plus 500,000 arrows, which were shipped to Tonghua in advance for storage.
This month, a team of camels and horses will set out, with more than 10,000 camels and more than 8,000 pack horses, carrying Uighur beans, soybeans, ropes, whetstones, spades, chisels, tarpaulins, clay pots and other odds and ends.
This is another big expense.
In addition, people need to be sent to Tongzhou to sort out several coal mines. If there is coal for the army to travel, it will be much more convenient than woodcutting.
The general doesn't like to cut down trees, and the army is now accustomed to using coal unless there is no place to camp.
The greatest use of charcoal in the imperial dynasties was in Chang'an and Taiyuan, while the charcoal in Chang'an mainly came from Tongzhou, which solved a big problem.
The cost of a war far away from the core area is so high! No wonder the commander-in-chief ordered to transfer manpower from Sui, Xia, Ling, Lan, and Wei to form the Tongzhou Metropolitan Academy. The transfer cost was too high.
In mid-August, the convoy led by Zhu Liang personally crossed Luoshui and arrived in Tongzhou.
The assembly of materials is in progress, and the assembly of personnel is about to begin...
****
"This time the troops are entering the Central Plains, how should we think about how to fight?" Shao Shude returned to Yulin Palace in Shengzhou and found the cavalry envoy Zheji Yu and the flying bear army envoy Yang Hongwang.
In the great detour, the first thing to solve is the problem of logistical supply.
"There are not so many pastures in the Central Plains. How can people and war horses solve the problem of food sources?" The three people sat around eating fruits. Shao Shude asked: "After the cavalry sets off, they can only carry ten days of food and water. How will they solve the rest?
?”
"Can the commander-in-chief allow the plundering of the people?" Oritsugu Yu asked bluntly: "If the people refuse to pay food, can the massacre of villages and towns be allowed?"
Shao Shude remained silent. This is a very real problem and cannot be avoided.
The Central Plains is different from the grasslands. There are not so many pastures for you to graze horses, cattle and sheep. Even if there are open pastures, the type of grass growing on them is also very problematic. It is not impossible to set off with a large group of cattle and sheep, but it is very difficult.
This move probably won't work very well.
"Bring more cheese and preserved meat, these things are very hungry." Yang Hong saw Shao Shude thinking, and suggested from the side: "Maybe it can last for more than ten days."
"You can collect food, but kill as few people as possible." Shao Shude also knows that this sentence is relatively weak. In fact, if you don't kill people when others see you, why should you pay for food? In addition, ordinary people in the countryside don't have much food, especially if the walls are cleared.
That's really not the case at all. Where can you supplement it?
"If the enemy digs trenches and cuts off the road, is it allowed to force the people to fill the trenches?" Oretsugu asked again.
Shao Shude was a little angry, why did he always ask such pointed questions? But he was sensible and knew that these were real problems, damn reality!
He tried to remember what the Mongols did.
The Mongolian Empire was a history editor. In their official records, it was written that soldiers who traveled long distances ate human flesh, dead animal carcasses, and even grass when they were extremely hungry.
Capture prisoners, take one out of every ten and eat them, and eat any animals they encounter, including mice, cats, etc.
If there are no people or animals to eat, and when the horse is extremely hungry, he stabs the horse in the butt and sucks the horse's blood.
When there was no food or cooking, the horse's internal organs were eaten raw.
Traveling long distances is not as beautiful as it looks, and running out of food is a common occurrence.
This kind of cruelty is not found in people living in wealthy areas, but there are many in the grasslands. This is why Shao Shude likes to recruit grassland cavalry, not only because many of them have practiced riding skills since childhood.
Of course, they can't reach the level of the Mongols. It's not that they can't be as hard-working as the Mongols, but they don't have their cruelty and their moral bottom line is not low enough.
"There are many ways to fill the trench, and you can even take a detour." Shao Shude glared at his brother-in-law.
From the perspective of hegemony
It may not matter much to force the people to fill trenches, because there are many warlords who do this, even famous heroes and founding monarchs in history have done this.
Eating human flesh may be okay. When the world was in chaos and the production order was destroyed, how could there be so much food? Did no one eat human flesh in the last years of the Qin Dynasty? Did no one eat it during the Three Kingdoms? At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, which rebel army did not eat human flesh?
?The worst case scenario is that after conquering the world, people will cover it up, search and suppress all kinds of private private records, reduce their credibility, and classify it as unofficial history.
It seems that there is nothing wrong with massacring a city to scare the enemy. Because it is so convenient, many cities may surrender without a fight in the future.
But if you really do this, it will still not be in line with your own values.
You have already been assimilated so much, and you are still having fun giving up some of your only persistence!
"So noisy!" Shao Shude stood up and cursed with a smile: "Can't we fight without these? There are heroes from ancient times. I respect Taizong the most, and he fights cleanest. Go back and plan an advance route. This time the enemy is unprepared.
, you are destined to suffer a loss. After you suffer a loss, you will probably be able to improve your memory, but that is for next time and has nothing to do with this time. If you really can’t continue the fight, you can withdraw later, and I won’t blame you."
"As ordered." The two of them saluted together.
In ancient times, heroes fought together in battles.
Some people use unscrupulous means, some do something and some don't.
With the same team and the same strength, the former is more likely to succeed than the latter. It can be said that bad money drives out good money.
Shao Shude felt that he had not been beaten by society yet, so he might not be in a hurry to lower his moral level. At the worst, he could sit in Guanzhong, control Pujin Pass, Tongguan, and Wuguan, and slowly look for opportunities, otherwise he would not be destroyed.
After Zhe and Yang left, Shao Shude read the letter sent by Zhe Silun again.
In fact, I have watched it once before, and now that I have watched it again, I have made up my mind.
He found Lu Siye.
"Write a letter to Fengxiang Zhe Situ, asking him to take charge of the overall situation and conquer Feng Xingxi." Shao Shude said: "Send envoys to Fengxiang Mansion, Xingyuan Mansion and Jinzhou, saying that they are powerful. The three towns will join forces to defeat Feng Xingxi.
I am a commander. If Zhuge Zhongfang and Li Xiang are unwilling, I will have to deal with it myself."
Of these three companies, except for Gold Merchants, which is a small town, the strength of Fengxiang and Xingyuan cannot be underestimated.
Zhuge Zhongfang now has about 20,000 yamen, Zhe Zongben has slightly more, but not more than 25,000, and gold merchant Li Xiang has less than 10,000.
If the three families join forces, they can raise more than fifteen thousand no matter what.
That's almost enough. With the terrain over there, too many troops would be a problem.
"After capturing Junzhou, there is no need to rush back. I want to talk to Zhao Deqian."