Shi Ge was silent for a moment after hearing Dong Wenzhi's words, but he thought a lot. As a general, he understood the principle that before the troops moved, food and grass took the lead, which shows that war has never been just a fight of swords and blood. Many factors determine the outcome of the war. One of the most important ones is the supply of food for the army, which is an important guarantee of the combat effectiveness and combat radius of the army.

If you cannot prepare sufficient military rations for supply, it is a fantasy to win a war. Before launching a war, you must make a large amount of logistics preparations. Sometimes the supply of military food will even become the decisive factor of a war. There are countless examples of this.

It was said that King Zhaoxiang of Qin was Qin and Zhao in Changping, and the Qin army won the final victory. Rather than saying that the Qin army had stronger combat effectiveness, the Qin army's logistics supply capacity was stronger. Nearly one million troops on both sides were in Changping for more than five months. The Qin army tried all kinds of tricks, military, diplomatic, and spy methods, but the real decision on the outcome of the war was the food supply of the two armies.

The Qin army sent elite troops to cut off the Zhao army's food supply and divided the Zhao army. However, the Zhao army built a fortress on the spot and stood firm, and the rear was also desperately moving forward, so the Qin army still could not win. At the most critical moment, the Qin King personally rushed to the Hanoi County near the battlefield, and granted the title of local people a level, recruiting all young and middle-aged people over fifteen in the county to Changping to intercept the reinforcements and food transport of Zhao State.

These Qin's strategies created conditions for the final decisive victory. More than 40 days after the Zhao army was cut off food, the soldiers had already begun to kill each other. The main general Zhao Kuo had no choice but to lead his army to break through and was shot. The Zhao army, who was unable to fight again, abandoned their weapons and surrendered. However, such a long-term war that relies heavily on the supply of the rear would cause serious consumption of national strength.

During the 44-year-old retaliation against the Huns during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, there was no reliable supply of food on the vast grasslands, and a large amount of food and fodder must be prepared for the expeditionary army in advance. After several bloody battles, "The Huns fled far away, and there was no royal court in the south of the desert", but it also caused "the domestic waste and the household registration was reduced by half", and "thieves" were raised in various places. If Emperor Wu of Han and his successors had not realized the problem, changed the ruling route in time, and cultivated the people, the Western Han Dynasty might have destroyed the country in advance.

What's even worse was the Northern Expedition during the Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties. At that time, although there were only half of the country in the south, most of the time, various ethnic groups in the north were full of powers and fought each other. Instead, the South was able to focus on development and quickly accumulated strong strength to launch the Northern Expedition. The Northern Expedition in the South was to regain its homeland, so naturally it could not rob the local people's food.

Therefore, every Northern Expedition had to accumulate food and grass first, and under the technical conditions at that time, they could only transport food and grass on a large scale by water. At that time, the Southern Army had already formed a pattern of northern expedition, at least one year in advance, and then took advantage of the rising water season in the spring of the following year to fight against the flow of Huai and Si. As a result, the Southern Army often marched rapidly at the beginning, but once they crossed the Yellow River, the disadvantages of the Southern Army relying on rivers on the river were revealed.

The rivers north of the Yellow River are sparse and the water volume is small. It is even more terrifying that the rivers in the Yellow River basin will freeze in winter. At this time, the supply and reinforcements of the Southern Army often cannot keep up, so the Northern Army takes advantage of the situation to cross the frozen river to launch a counterattack. The Southern Army often loses and loses. When the situation is not good, the Northern Army will take advantage of the situation to fight to the south.

"The court ordered the opening of the military ban, and ordered us to send troops to harass the Song army and cut off its food route. Is it because the Song army had to stop advancing north because of the difficulties in supplying food and grass, and the court would send a large army south to launch a counterattack?" Shi Ge thought of this and felt aroused in his heart. The current situation facing the Southern Army's Northern Expedition was so similar to history that he had to feel expectations again.

"There may be this reason, but the current strategy of the court is to ensure that the capital is not lost, rather than to go south to counterattack." Dong Wenzhi shook his head and said, "The court ordered us to attack more to delay the time of the invasion of the south and the north, and to buy time for the royal army from all over the country to arrive in the capital."

"Did Brother Yan Zheng hear any rumors?" Shi Ge knew that the Dong family had many children in the court and had a wide range of sources. Perhaps it was because he heard some secrets that he made this judgment.

"It's not to be hiding Jin Ming. It was rumored that the Khan indeed planned to launch a counterattack when the enemy was slowing down the attack. However, because some people in the court opposed it, they thought that the royal army from all over the country had arrived one after another, and the troops were not enough to fight the enemy, and they had to wait for reinforcements to arrive one after another. So the Khan turned to Zhang Gui to lead the army to fight back. Zhang Gui had originally planned to defend Baozhou to fight the enemy, but was unwilling to attack. Some people also said that the newly recruited Yiyong Township soldiers lacked weapons and were not trained, so they were not opponents of the enemy. The Khan issued an order to open the military ban." Dong Wen straightened his beard and said.

"While discussing, there was another problem with Shanxi. Wanhu Suge, the capital of Shanxi, Hedong, lost consecutive battles, lost Taiyuan, and died in the chaos. When Taiyuan was lost, the Song army opened the road to Juyongguan and threatened the safety of the capital. It is said that the court was in chaos at that time, and the Khan had no idea for a moment and threw his sleeves away."

"The important officials in the court were worried that the Hebei Song army suspended the northern invasion to be a delayed strategy. They were waiting for the Shanxi Song army to break through Taiyuan and cut off the road to the grassland, and then the three groups of troops surrounded the capital. In this way, they did not dare to go south to counterattack, and instead ordered us to harass the Song army in front of us and try to cut off the food route."

"It turns out that there are such twists and turns in it, which makes the Zhang family boy succeed!" Shi Ge knew that although he called it a rumor and did not name it, he knew that this was the truth. As for whoever interfered with it, he could guess it was the Zhang family who made efforts to allow him to stay in Baozhou for a while.

"You historians also want to urge them to abandon Baozhou. Come and make a decision!" Dong Wen said with a smile.

"Haha..." Shi Ge's old face turned red and laughed dryly, took a sip of tea and said, "Brother Yan Zheng thought the Song army suddenly stopped and waiting for the arrival of food and grass was just one aspect. So what do they want to do?"

"It's because of the food and grass!" Dong Wenzhi poured a tea ceremony for him. "Before the invasion of the north, the Song army must have hoarded a large amount of food and grass near the dividing line after the peace talks, such as Xuzhou and Shangqiu. The time they chose to attack was when the rivers had not been frozen, so in Hebei, they could transport grain across the Yellow River through water; in addition to using the canal, Shandong would also use sea transportation to supply grain."

"It's just that our dynasty was unable to resist and retreated too quickly. The Song army was progressing smoothly, which made it difficult for the transportation of supplies to keep up with the army's advance north. On the other hand, Henan and Shandong had already started war before the autumn harvest. Even if the food in the fields was harvested, the shortage of food caused a certain amount of famine. In order to stabilize the situation, the Southern Dynasties would inevitably need a large amount of food to provide relief to the people, which made it difficult to deliver military rations to the front line in time."

"Well, what Brother Yan Zheng said is exactly that the rapid defeat of our dynasty may have exceeded the expectations of the Southern Dynasties, which forced them to stop waiting for food!" Shi Ge couldn't help but smile bitterly after hearing this.

He had to admire Dong Wenzhi's meticulousness and analysis of the facts. At the moment when the Song army entered Hebei, the east road attacked along the canal to ensure smooth water transportation. Now that it has entered Hejian, as long as all signs are captured, a large amount of food can be transported continuously to the capital by sea transportation to supplement the lack of canal capacity in the spring.

The Song army entering the West Hebei Road continued to attack along the Chidao, mainly relying on land transportation of grain, and as long as we concentrate our strength, we can ensure supply. As for the Song army entering Shanxi, the large amount of grain stored by the imperial court in Shanxi could obtain sufficient supplies as long as we could capture prefectures and counties. The food obtained after taking Taiyuan may not be eaten up in two years.

Therefore, he judged that the Song army originally planned to invade Hebei after the spring before the war. Who would have thought that the Yuan army was so unbearable that it would be defeated thousands of miles, which caught the Song army off guard and had to stop waiting for food and go to rest. At the same time, he admired the Southern Dynasty's emperor's timely order to stop the attack in the face of a good situation.

Everyone knows that war causes huge losses, and those who start war will try their best to pass on the burden of war. The more elegant one is because food is used to the enemy. To put it bluntly, after entering the enemy territory, they rely on seizing and looting the enemy's food to meet the supply. This method can save a lot of military spending. At the same time, because the logistics pressure drops sharply, the speed of the attack can be greatly increased during offensive operations.

As long as there is enough food in front of you, the scope of combat is almost unlimited, but once the army stops and still relies on this method, it will lead to serious consequences. Usually, the output of the northern land is only a small amount of surplus except for the local people's consumption. Once tens of thousands of troops suddenly come, it is like a locust plague, which will soon consume the local surplus and cause soaring prices.

"This plan in the Southern Dynasty is so poisonous!" Shi Ge sighed after thinking it through. He understood that the occupation forces lacking food would rob residents of their rations without hesitation. As a result, as a warrior, he understood the most, that nothing could arouse fierce resistance than this behavior.

"Yes!" Dong Wenzhi also sighed, "The Southern Dynasty has to move forward slowly, and it will consume a lot of money and grain to help the people who have been displaced due to war and cannot survive the winter, but it can quickly win the hearts of the people and gain a stable rear. Even if our dynasty wins by chance and regains the lost land, the people will lose all their hearts and keep the turmoil, and it will be difficult to regain the past."

"On the other hand, the Song army's slow advance seemed to have won time for the court to mobilize reinforcements to defend the capital, but the money and grain consumed by hundreds of thousands of troops entering the capital was difficult to count. The current national treasury is empty, where does this money and grain come from? Apart from printing treasure money, you can only plunder the place and plunder the people. By then, the court's people will lose all their hearts, hungry people everywhere, and chaos will be everywhere, and the situation will be difficult to deal with under internal and external troubles."

"So, the Southern Dynasty will be slowed down for one day, and the court will be under a heavy pressure. Within a few months, the army will not be able to eat, and the morale will be gone. The Southern Army will win without fighting." Shi Ge said silently for a moment, "Brother Yan Zheng, can we have no choice but to sit back and see the country fall?"
Chapter completed!