The sky was as dark as the bottom of a pot, the rain outside the car was as heavy as a waterfall, and the windows and doors were closed to prevent wind and rain from entering. Although candles had been lit in the car, Zhao Bing still felt depressed and depressed. Thinking about this emperor, the common people only had to solve their own food and clothing, the ministers only had to do their own jobs, but they had to worry about the whole world, the delicious food was unwilling to eat, the carved beams and painted pillars were like sleeping in needles, the rivers and mountains were magnificent but had no time to appreciate, and countless beauties in the harem were alone at this time.

"I ordered the Shangshu Province to join the officials of Huaihe River and Huaibei, and the upstream of Jianghan River and Han River to increase rainfall, and I am worried that the downstream will become troubles. All ministries must prepare for flood prevention, monitor the water conditions at all times, check for hidden dangers, repair dams, and raise materials. Relevant provinces and ministries must send personnel to supervise them. If there is any slackness, severe punishment will be made. Once a disaster occurs, it is important to ensure the lives of the people. Local officials should quickly organize evacuation and do a good job in disaster relief. If necessary, please ask the garrison to provide assistance!"

Zhao Bing thought about it but was still worried. He wrote a decree and sent someone to send Lin'an in a hurry for 800 miles and issued it as soon as possible. Chen Shishi, who was on duty, immediately re-copied it, stamped the seal and sent it out. After receiving the reward, he felt a little relieved. He picked up the candlestick on the table and checked it near the map hanging on the wing board, thinking about how to quickly capture Xiangyang.

According to the established plan, the two groups of east and west advance together and support each other, ending the Northern Expedition before the arrival of May's hot summer. However, the Western Group failed to defeat Xiangyang for a long time, and more than 100,000 troops were stationed here for more than two months, which also brought great pressure to the logistics. Lin Zhiwu, the transfer envoy of Huguang, had once written to Zhao Bing twice, saying that Huguang Road would supply military rations from the two battlefields of Jingxiang and Sichuan, and the grain stored in the official warehouse was about to be exhausted. I hope that Your Majesty would urge the battle to end as soon as possible to relieve the pressure on Huguang.

In June, Lin Zhiwu wrote another letter, asking His Majesty to suspend the Xia Tax Supply Army sent to the court to solve the urgent problem. He also mentioned that because the battle between Jingxiang and Xiang was delayed for a long time, tens of thousands of soldiers were unable to return home, resulting in many fields not being able to sow in time, and the reduction in production this fall is a foregone conclusion. If the war is extended again, Huguang will be unable to maintain it, so he can only transfer grain from Jiangdong to Xiang.

Lin Zhiwu was a nail that Zhao Bing placed in Huguang. The purpose was to let him coordinate all parties and ensure the military supplies and food and money on the battlefield of Jingxiang. As his confidant, if it were not for the extraordinary time, he would not complain. This is why Zhao Bing insisted on bringing the imperial navy, so that they could transport food and grass through Jiankang, which solved the urgent need for Jingxiang.

Zhao Bing was helpless, and the importance of ensuring logistics supply to war is unquestionable, so that once the food road is robbed or the food is exhausted, the army will immediately fall into trouble. However, some people still question whether soldiers have to eat every day, so why do they need a lot of extra food when the war comes?

First of all, from the institutional perspective, many dynasties adopted the conscription system, that is, the soldiers were in farming. The main identity of soldiers was self-cultivated farmers. They served the country for a certain period of time, and some even brought their own clothes and food. The advantage was that they were exempted from their own corvee service. They were ordinary people outside the service period, so the daily rations needed by the court naturally did not need to worry about the court.

The conscription system of the Han Dynasty and the government system in the early Tang Dynasty were similar to this situation. If there were no combat tasks and the army stationed in one place for a long time, it would need to open up land and farm and be self-sufficient, which is the so-called military garrison system. The military system of the Ming Dynasty was also similar to this situation, as Zhu Yuanzhang said: "I raise a million soldiers and do not spend a grain of rice on the people."

The Song Dynasty implemented a recruitment system, and Zhao Bing even strengthened this, prohibiting the forbidden army from garrisoning and doing business. Food, pay, military expenses, weapons and equipment were all supplied by the state, and these were all from taxes, and the insufficient part would have to be purchased by the court. Although this ensured the combat effectiveness of the army, it was a heavy burden for the country.

It is not difficult to see that if a war is to be launched, you must first predict how long the war will last, and then calculate the approximate total amount of food and grass required based on the scale of the dispatched army, and allocate from the official warehouse. If the war is extended, it must be replenished continuously. After all, whether it is soldiers bringing their own dry food or self-sufficiency in military farms, once they encounter long-term combat, the daily supply of food and grass cannot be continued. You must prepare enough military food.

This number is often very large. Zhao Bing calculated that it would take 400,000 stones of grain to be used for ten months to go to the expedition, which is about 20,000 tons now. At this time, the yield per mu of high-quality fertile land was only about three stones, which was more than 100,000 mu of output. This only counted the soldiers' rations, the essence needed for war horses and the food transported by grain and the food for civilians had not been counted.

Under normal circumstances, the Song Dynasty occupied the prosperous Jiangnan, with two major grain-producing areas, Jiangdong and Huguang. The resources that can be allocated are enough to support long-term combat. However, it is often impossible to decide where to fight the war, which also increased the pressure on the supply of food and grass in the previous few days. Although Zhao Bing established baggage troops at all levels in the army and used hydraulic turnover to reduce the requisition of civil servants as much as possible to reduce the consumption of food, he still used a large number of state troops and more than 300,000 civil servants on the two battlefields, which was already a multiple of the combat troops.

In order to save food and grass, if conditions permit, the civilians transporting grain will be released in batches, but the front line will always maintain a team of civilians of a considerable size. They consume a large amount of food every day. Over time, this will become a very terrifying number. In addition to war soldiers and civilians, there are also a large number of mules and horses in the army, including war horses that need essential feeding, pack horses that feed coarse materials, horses, donkeys and mules and other animal powers.

For example, war horses, although horses can eat water plants on the spot, they still need to prepare special feed. The feed they feed can be hay, rice and wheat straw, or beans or even millet. Generally speaking, ordinary livestock are fed with hay, and war horses are fed with mixed forage and grain to ensure physical strength during combat. There is no absolute standard for the ratio of forage and grain, depending on the situation. The standard for each military horse is to grow two liters of grain every day and several beans to ensure that the war horses are full of energy.

Tens of thousands of soldiers are fed by horses, and the total amount of food and grass required cannot be accurately controlled, and the combat time is even more unpredictable. The commander must collect as much food and grass as possible and organize transportation. Once there is a problem with the supply of food and grass, there is no need to wait until all the food is eaten up. When the food storage is below a certain warning line, the entire army may panic, and it is difficult to continue the war here. At this time, unless the retreat route is cut off, ordinary commanders will choose to retreat.

When the food and grass are insufficient, sometimes you can get food due to the enemy, such as capturing a city or granary, or eating it when the wheat is cooked. There are many records in various historical materials. However, this situation is very accidental, and it is difficult to accurately grasp due to time and space. Excellent commanders cannot pin their hopes on it. Food is always limited, and the daily food consumed in a war is astronomical. Even if the national strength can bear it, transportation is also a problem, and the patience and tolerance in the rear are also limited.

Although some people took another way to solve the logistics problems, Cao Cao used human jerky as military rations; during the Five Barbarians and Invasion of China, the Di and Qiang people fought, and neither side had military rations. After the battle ended, the victorious side ate the bodies of the enemy and companions; some warlords massacred the people on a large scale during the Tang and Five Dynasties, using human flesh as food. These weird things can be called a mudslide in the logistics world, and Zhao Bing did not want to turn his army into a "beast army".

At this point, the Mongolian army has reached its peak. On the one hand, the cavalry acted rapidly, greatly reducing the unnecessary consumption of food during the march. On the other hand, soldiers can put all their belongings on horseback, greatly increasing the amount of supplies carried by individual soldiers. However, Zhao Bing couldn't learn this. At most, it is now used to carry supplies to increase the power of the motor vehicle, but it can only be extended for a while and still has to rely on the supply from the rear.

It can be seen that battlefield logistics is a big problem. The commander either fights quickly or reduces the army's dependence on logistics to avoid putting himself in an embarrassing situation. In short, no matter when the war is at all, it is a matter of burning money and consuming food. In a large-scale war, so many soldiers, civilians, mules and horses gather in the same place, the food and other materials consumed every day are very amazing. In order to transport these materials, it may cost many times the price.

If the logistics supply is interrupted, the entire war machine will come to an abrupt end. Therefore, both sides must do whatever they want to ensure the supply of food and supplies, no matter how heavy the price is. If they cannot achieve a quick battle, both sides of the war will be exhausted and exhausted until they completely dragged down one of them. The Mongol Yuan has been dragged down and has to seek peace. Zhao Bing is also making the final struggle, so that even Kaifeng, which is close to him, gave up, because he is worried that the national strength will be difficult to support.

Zhao Bing's personal expedition was mainly to supervise the war, which was to seize Jingxiang as soon as possible and end the Northern Expedition. However, this battle still relies on the troops deployed in Jingxiang. According to the limited intelligence, the situation was not optimistic. Now that we are in front of us, we don't even know the specific deployment of the Jingxiang battlefield, and we can't even find the position of the troops. It's not easy to fight quickly.

So what Zhao Bing needs most now is intelligence, not only his own side, but also the enemy. However, although he was anxious and eager to obtain information, he could not show it, so as not to arouse suspicion of the generals, and he could only get angry by himself.

"Your Majesty, Master Tian is looking for a meeting!" Wang De suddenly came over and reported.

"Oh, see." Zhao Bing's heart moved. He might have contacted the people from the Affairs Bureau.

"Report to Your Majesty, the contact person from Jingxiang Station has arrived!" The car door opened, and the wind and rain were still there, Tian Qi reported under the corridor.
Chapter completed!