sweeping the world

Chapter 1066

In the era of cold weapons, countries that can mobilize millions of troops have always been in the minority.

If you want to mobilize millions of people to join the army, first of all, the country must have a sufficient population base, then the country's territory must not be too small.

Next, the country must have enough farming areas to have enough food to feed the huge population, and the usual accumulation supports the mobilization of millions of people to become soldiers.

In addition to population, territorial area and sufficient food, the country's economic strength must not be too low. After mobilizing soldiers, they cannot be left empty-handed. Another issue is the necessity of uniform uniforms.

With the above-mentioned foundations in place, a strong central government is indispensable. Otherwise, no matter how large the country’s population is and how developed the economy is, without a strong central government, no matter how powerful the country is, it will still be unusable. .

For example, the Qin State during the Warring States Period repeatedly mobilized more than 500 troops with a population of 50 million. Qin Ting was a center with superb combat effectiveness. It not only mobilized troops, but also usually ensured sufficient military supplies. .

In other Warring States periods during the same period, there were not many countries that could mobilize millions of troops. However, usually because the central government did not have enough execution power, even though they had a huge population base, they could usually mobilize 30 to [-] troops, which was the limit.

At that time, there was a special Warring States. The population of Chu State was the largest among all the Warring States, and the territory was also the largest among all countries. Its economic strength was second only to Qi State. However, Chu State could not give full play to the size of the country because of its special national conditions. fighting power.

In the various dynasties of Zhuxia, there are not many countries that can mobilize millions of troops. They are only able to mobilize millions of troops. The count is Qin and Chu in the Warring States period. Emperor Xiaowu in the Western Han Dynasty did it once. , Zhao Guo, a five-chambered stone man, did it once.

To be able to mobilize millions of troops and at the same time mobilize the army to the battlefield, then only the Qin and Chu states in the pre-Qin period, plus the Western Han Dynasty in Liu Che's period.

Looking back, the standing force of the Northern Song Dynasty has always exceeded one million, but those who can be pulled out to fight in the field have never exceeded [-]; the Ming Dynasty was also a dynasty with a standing force of more than one million for most of the period. China's standing army really doesn't have many field troops.

Mobilizing millions of troops, and really deploying millions of troops to the battlefield, counting and counting, only the Qin State in the pre-Qin period really did this.

For example, Emperor Xiaowu of the Western Han Dynasty mobilized millions of troops, but the number of troops that led to the war was actually not that many. The most was Wei Qing's 45 troops, and Huo Qubing's 13 troops. Except for this pair of uncles and nephews, the rest The combined strength of several frontier prefects and school lieutenants is about [-], plus some frontier troops, the total number of troops used in a battle is more than [-].

After this battle, the national funds and treasury of the Western Han Dynasty were probably empty, and the number of troops deployed did not exceed 15 for a long time.Until Liu Che's death, Li Guangli, the general of the Second Division, once again mobilized a total force of more than [-] to expedition to Dawan.

Other dynasties?The country has a standing force of one million, but whether it is passive defense or active attack, it is rare to see an example of deploying more than 20 troops on a single battlefield.

"The million-dollar army of the big man..." Xie An said with emotion: "It's definitely not a garrison army!"

Xie Ai understood what Xie An said.

The so-called garrison troops are troops without field combat capabilities, usually the defenders of a certain city, and their quality is basically not very good.

In the Han Empire before Yuan Shuo 16 years ago, including the Huben Army and the Habayashi Army, there were a total of fifteen standing armies.These standing armies are all legions with field capabilities, with a total strength of about 20.

The second-level county and county soldiers are actually the so-called garrison troops. Not to mention the uneven quality, in fact, there are no serious generals who come to practice, and they can't even form a basic army formation when they are pulled into the wild battlefield. stand up.

Xie Ai really understood what Xie An meant. Apart from the quality of the soldiers, the most important thing was the general who commanded the troops.

This time the Western Expedition to the shogunate will eventually reach 50 troops, and the pressure on Xie An is not ordinary.

How many people in history commanded 50 troops as a general?There are only a few generals who can command more than 50 troops and win battles with one hand.

The most famous and most powerful person, there is no other candidate except Han Xin.

Han Xin despises Bai Qi, saying that Bai Qi has a false name, and thinks that Bai Qi does not have the ability to control the army at all. What he means is that Bai Qi just brings the army to the battlefield, and does not have much flexible command over the army. Just put the troops on the battlefield to fight.

Did Bai Qi really lead his troops like that?Searching for some battle examples of Bai Qi's commanding troops, it seems that Han Xin is not wrong. Bai Qi's commanding troops is just a word "just". It was Bai Qi's turn to go straight.

Bai Qi has thoroughly grasped the key to this art of war, but this style of play has extremely high requirements on the quality of the troops under his command, especially since the engineering army, and at the same time, the consumption of logistics will be terrible.

Hard-boiled style of play almost won't lead to big victories and big defeats, and if you win, your own casualties won't be much less than the enemy's.Is this also the reason why Han Xin looks down on Bai Qi?
When Bai Qi commanded the most troops, it reached 40. Maybe it was even less than this number?

Han Xin's evaluation of Wang Jian, who was also a Qin general, was much higher, not only because Wang Jian's highest number of troops was 60, but also because Wang Jian was able to mobilize those 60 troops across a vast area.

Instead of putting 60 troops there, not mobilizing them, but just defending the camp, people with this ability are actually handsome in the true sense.

Han Xin's evaluation of Li Mu is also much higher than that of Bai Qi.

The reason is that Li Mu commanded more than a hundred thousand soldiers on the vast grasslands, divided and joined forces many times, and played superb tactics with chariots and cavalry. The Huns won the battle.

Han Xin's evaluation of himself is of course extremely awesome, and the sentence "the more soldiers the better" is enough to explain everything.He didn't brag, and used many achievements to prove that he was indeed incomparably awesome.

Historically, Han Xin was able to command an army of more than 70, and he was able to do so with ease. Han Xin wanted to ask: Who else?

Every general would compare himself with famous generals in history, and Xie An was no exception.

When Xie An learned that he would be commanding a solid army of 50 troops, he was more apprehensive than excited.

In history, those who can command more than 50 soldiers and horses will either become famous generals, or they will inevitably become sinners nailed to the pillar of shame.Whether it is to win the battle and become a famous player, or to become a sinner after a complete defeat, in fact, the end of the future is very difficult to predict.

It's not that it's unpredictable, it's that unless you lead the army as a king, you will end up being jealous of the king!
"Anwei has the talent of the Marquis of Huaiyin, so he can only serve the king's affairs with all his heart." Xie An said this sentence specifically for Xie Ai: "Please pay more attention to Chang Shi during the introduction."

Xie Ai saluted without saying much.

To the northwest of Jilongpo is a vast plain. After the Persian army arrived, they chose to set up camp 120 miles away from the Han army camp.

Habibullah didn't plan to build a defense line from the beginning, and the camp didn't make any complicated arrangements.

Once the number of people reaches [-], it becomes boundless. The camp of more than [-] troops covers a very wide area, definitely exceeding [-] square miles in terms of area.

They have the largest number of Chinese troops and occupy the largest area.

There are multiple camps distributed around the Chinese army, mainly to arrange miscellaneous soldiers on the periphery, even if they encounter a surprise attack by the Han army, they can also stand up to block them.

Because of Shapur II's attention, the most famous Sasanian legions were transferred to the east when they learned that the Han army was advancing westward.

Including five thousand horse archers and ten thousand undead troops whose reputation has been passed down for nearly a thousand years. In addition, there are three thousand armored heavy cavalry and six thousand chariots. These troops constitute the absolute main force of the Eastern Legion. .

The Persians have played cavalry archers for nearly 3000 years. They formed cavalry archers during the Darius period, but the number of cavalry archers in each period is not fixed.

During the period when the Parthians ruled this land, [-] cavalry archers were formed at one time. In the early stage of their contest with the Romans, the cavalry archers beat the short-legged Romans so hard that they couldn't find the north, forcing them who were not good at riding The Romans who fought in the war continued to improve their infantry defenses. The tortoise shell formation of the Romans was created in the process of resisting the Parthian cavalry.

Sassan had already learned the importance of saddles and stirrups from the Han Empire, and they imitated them immediately.

Since saddles and stirrups do not have any technological barriers at all, as long as there are enough craftsmen, they can be mass-produced. Within a short year, Persian cavalry popularized saddles and stirrups.

The Sasanian horse archers who got the saddles and stirrups were sent to the Middle East battlefield for actual combat tests. Facing the rebellious Arabs, they carried out one-sided killings one after another more easily than before.

The existence of saddles and stirrups not only strengthened archers, but also strengthened heavy cavalry.

Before there were no saddles and stirrups, although the Sasanian heavy cavalry could charge forward, the problem was that even if they only hit a straight line, some knights would fall off their horses.Furthermore, because their legs have no leverage point, their main weapon can only be a riding spear about six meters long, or a hard spear style.

With a stiff-bar style spear, even if it accidentally stabs an enemy, the knight will fall off his horse due to the resistance.

Sassanian equipped heavy cavalry with saddles and stirrups, they carried out the necessary reinforcements, especially inspired by the crossbows used by the Han Empire, Sassan himself also developed a crossbow machine, performance... that is, range and wear The penetrating power may not be as good as that of the Han Empire, but they also manufactured a large number of crossbows, which are divided into walking and riding. The heavy cavalry is equipped with riding crossbows, long hair and scimitars. It is really not the slightest bit of strengthening.

At the same time, Sassanid’s contact with the Han Empire was far from being inspired by saddles, stirrups and crossbows. They also discovered that plate armor was lighter than scale armor, but the manufacture of plate armor was more difficult than scale armor. That is Due to the decisive difference in technology.

If the Han Empire hadn't been so domineering, Sassan hadn't realized that no matter how much he endured, the westward advance of the Han Empire could not be avoided. After they got those reinforcements, they once again had the confidence to hold the Romans on the ground.

Sadly, the Persians who had contact with high-level Han people, combined with the foreign policy of the Han Empire, were extremely sure that the Han people's westward advance was a matter of time. They really didn't want to wait for the Han Empire's army to change their firearms before facing them. , I chose to think that there is still a glimmer of victory, and even if I can't win, I can still keep the Western Conference, which kicked off the war early.

"Perhaps we can't wait any longer?" Habibullah just finished reading the information sent back from the Kingdom of Jidoro: "The Han people sent envoys to Western Guishang and Kashmir. Western Guishan is afraid of the Han Empire's military peak and has great The possibility of choosing to side with the Han Empire."

In fact, the relationship between Sassan and the Kingdom of Jidoro was not good. In the early days of Shapur II's ascension to the throne, he did not miss the Kingdom of Jidoro. Only with a large number of tribute and slaves did they retreat leisurely.

With the size and population of the Jidoluo Kingdom, including its economic strength, Sassanid did not feel that there would be much of a threat from the Jidoluo Kingdom siding with the Han Empire.

The most important thing is that Sassanid and Rome formed an anti-Han axis, and not many countries joined. Then Hunnite was already dead in name only, and Xigaoche was about to move the whole country. In addition, the conspiracy failed to make the Han The empire is in internal trouble, and bad news for the anti-Han axis is coming one after another.

The Kingdom of Jidoro chose to stand in the camp of the Han Empire to join this war, which is likely to have a very bad effect on the anti-Han axis.

"His Royal Highness's army will arrive soon." Habibullah pondered for a moment, and said, "I decided to go south and attack Xiguishuang first!"

They have a strength of 22 troops here, and the Han army shows no signs of advancing westward. It would be a good choice to withdraw [-] to [-] troops to attack Xiguishuang. Habibullah thought it would be a good thing to fight on the ground here, or to send troops to Xiguishuang.

"The Han army is the best when it moves." Habibullah is extremely afraid of the Han army that has never moved. He knows that the generals under his command have the same mentality: "After I lead the troops to leave..." He looked at a man with a face. A middle-aged man with a fairly high value: "Pars, you can lead the army to press forward properly."

"Your Highness will be there in two days?" Pars, a great nobleman in the east and the current deputy general of this Persian army, nodded when he got the answer: "I understand what I should do."

A knife was raised high, and it was the scariest thing before it was cut down.

(End of this chapter)