sweeping the world

Chapter 702

In the era of cold weapons, there are really not many countries that can arm one million troops. If they can really arm one million people and use these one million troops to fight wars, it will be difficult to carry out long-term combat.

In the past, the Qin State repeatedly armed close to a million people to fight wars, but if you look up the history, you will find that the Qin army’s million-dollar scale can only last for two or three years at most, and most of them last for seven or eight months. Greatly hurt.

The Qin State has become a militaristic and 1-nationalist country since Shang Yang’s reform. All that survives is farming and warfare, and the meaning of existence is for war.It is precisely because of the existence of the farming and warfare system that most of the resources produced by the people of the country belong to the state. When the national treasury is sufficient, an army of one million can be mobilized repeatedly. Otherwise, it would be impossible to do so.

Since the Qin Dynasty, the Central Plains dynasties in the past dynasties have rarely produced such a terrifying number of 100 million troops. The standing army that was not used for production was only [-] to [-] when it was the most in the early Han Dynasty. The rest of the troops came from corvee labor. obligation.Subsequent dynasties were basically the same, except that there were very few professional soldiers who were not engaged in production. The rest of the soldiers usually did their own business and waited to be conscripted before entering the army.

"We are actually in the same state, the difference is that there is a standing army." Xu Zheng is a Taiwei anyway, and he is no stranger to military affairs: "Our county soldiers are the corvee system, and the popular point is the barracks built by the flow of soldiers."

Xie An, who has been in charge of military affairs in the northwest, had to show up when the king was inspecting the area. He had been waiting in the area near Nan'an County in Longxi County.

Xie An has two standing armies on hand, and they are fighting against the remnants of the Qiang and Di tribes. The fighting has been going on for a year and a half.

The so-called Qiang and Di remnants are naturally those who retreated from the Han territory.The remnants of the two clans located in the Xiqiang Mountain (Xiqing Mountain) area were only a part of them. At the beginning, they seriously threatened Longxi County, and the situation changed only after Xie An led his army over.

Within a year and a half, Xie An tried to enter Xiqiang Mountain twice, but the terrain there was really complicated, and the remnants of the Qiang and Di people were too easy to escape. The Han army only controlled the basin east of Xiqiang Mountain, and the source of troops Under insufficient conditions, it is difficult to control the mountainous areas.

"It is extremely difficult for a big man to have an army of one million in recent years." Xu Zheng said full of regret: "There are natural disasters that need to be dealt with, and those civil servants have been muttering about internal affairs, internal affairs, internal affairs!"

Xie Anyuan knew more about history than Xu Zheng. If he hadn't been forced, who would have set up a million-dollar army?
In the history of wars in the Central Plains, since the Qin Empire, the scale of millions of troops has rarely appeared. The main reason is that the food and related military equipment cannot keep up, and the few kings have millions of troops to kill themselves and the country. No, Zhu Xia civilization, who likes to use history to evaluate, will use those examples as negative teaching materials.

Shihu had an army of millions, and within a few years Shijie Zhao Guo entered the historical garbage dump.

Fu Jian also called for an army of one million, but after the First World War, it fell apart, and the Qin State (former Qin) of Fu's family, which looked extremely powerful, was quickly swept into the garbage dump of history.

The record of millions of troops in East Asia is relatively "level", and many of them are so-called "titles".If you look at what happened in the rest of the area, you will definitely be scared to pee in an instant.

"I'm not joking." Xu Zheng had recently come into contact with a lot of crooked nuts, and said to Xie An: "We are only an army of one million, but they have millions of troops at every turn. I don't know if it is true."

Xie An knew that many countries sent envoys to Han, but he only knew a rough idea of ​​what happened.

Xu Zheng just picked up some hearsay and talked about it, and his face was full of weirdness when he spoke.

Queen Semiramis of Babylon made an expedition to India with 300 million infantry, 20 cavalry and [-] chariots.This record comes from the "History of Persia" by the ancient Greek doctor and historian Ctesias (Ctesias) in the fifth century BC

Herodotus' "History" records that there was a Persian expedition to Greece and mobilized an army of 500 million.This is the background of the movie "Three Hundred Warriors of Sparta", which is the big move made by Darius.

Arrian's "Expedition" in the second century AD records that in the battle of Gaugamela, the decisive battle between Alexander and Persia, Alexander's army killed 30 Persian troops, and captured more than this, that is, the Persian army exceeded 60. , not counting the garrison troops in the territory of Persia, the total strength of Persia is more than one million troops.

The "History of Rome" by Appian, an ancient Roman historian from the first to second centuries, records that Caesar attacked Gaul and dealt with Gaul's 400 million troops.

There are still many records of over one million armies that can be found. Xie An suddenly found that he was completely unfamiliar with this world. It was an exaggeration for the ancestors of Zhu Xia to build an army of one million, but those crooked nuts could easily build an army of millions. , it’s simply terrifying.

Xie An was stunned for a while, then he said, "It's fake!"

Xu Zheng smiled indifferently: "Who knows."

The real situation is that the records of the number of troops in the ancient war history of foreign countries are far more watery than those of the Chinese Dynasty. The Chinese Dynasty has historians, and foreign countries do not have this profession. Furthermore, the Chinese Dynasty is at most "one as ten", that is, one person is exaggerated into ten. , usually appears in the aspect of "praising one's merits". Most of the time, it is just one or two times exaggerated. I really don't dare to be too shameless.Countries other than China are really different, that's why Westerners never use some "ancient book" records as an example, because they know that it is a joke.

The number of ancient armies has always been a mystery. For example, the dynasties of the Central Plains have been finely divided. There are reliable figures for how many soldiers, how many auxiliary soldiers, and how many militiamen. However, these people are regarded as an integral part of the army. .Then it creates a phenomenon that there are only [-] to [-] soldiers directly participating in the war, but internally and externally, the rest of the people who serve the war are included, and there are exaggerations such as hundreds of thousands of troops and millions of troops. numbers.

Because I really know what is going on, the Han Dynasty actually has a disbelieving attitude towards the Gupta Dynasty's so-called million-strong army directly participating in the war. It feels that it is a "claim". If the actual number of soldiers can exceed 20, it is an exaggeration. The rest They are basically civil servants and the like.

"We have deployed 15 people in the Pingman Colonel's Department, including two standing armies belonging to the Pingman Colonel's Department. The real soldiers are only more than [-] people, and the rest are serving those soldiers." Xu Zheng laughed "hehe" all the time, and then said: "Those armies with millions of people at every turn should be counted as one head."

The real situation is like this. Each standing army has 5000 soldiers, but not all of these 5000 soldiers are soldiers. For example, 5000 people in a division are only 500 soldiers, and the rest are There are only [-] soldiers serving as soldiers in a standing army.

The more soldiers there are in an army, the number of people serving them will increase geometrically. For example, 5000 soldiers only need about 200 people to serve, and [-] soldiers may need to increase to [-]. Thousands of people come to serve.This kind of service is not the kind of rear production, but various services nearby, such as usual ordnance maintenance, logistics line security, grain transportation and so on.

"It should be like that." Xie An thought it was definitely like that. If it was really calculated like that, wouldn't Zhu Xia's war against alien races be an army of 6000 to [-] million at every turn?After all, the national war is the participation of the whole people!He also thought it was a little funny later, so he said: "At least I know that there are so many countries with a population of more than a million."

Generally speaking, the place where a war consumes the most manpower is in logistics. The necessary transportation team is one, and then there are the guards on the transportation route. After all, no commander will ignore his own back road to protect the transportation route. It is necessary and incidental, and it is more about confirming the safety of the back road, or if there is no back road, isn't it just being surrounded?

When necessary, anyone other than soldiers will participate in the battle, but that is under the premise that an army cannot survive without fighting tooth and nail. This often results in life or death, and the number of casualties will be quite terrifying.

During Yang Guang's conquest of Goguryeo, the largest mobilization was more than 110 million people. The number of combatants on the front line has always been maintained at more than 20, and the number of people maintaining logistical supplies was 90 million.When the Sui army was in trouble, regardless of whether they were combat soldiers or auxiliary soldiers, even the civilian officials had to use their knives. The result of the failure of the war was that hundreds of thousands of people were buried in the ice and snow.

To take the initiative to invade a country is not only to face the enemy's organized regular army, but also to encounter more hastily organized mobs. Xie An expressed similar views to Xu Zhengyou. For example, the Gupta Dynasty obviously responded hastily and mobilized The number of soldiers in the army may seem huge, but the actual combat effectiveness is definitely not very good.

It's not that Han has never encountered a situation where the entire population of an enemy country went to battle. This was the case with Murong Xianbei. The battle against Yan faced hundreds of thousands of enemy troops, but it is hard to say what quality the vast majority of the enemy troops have.

"Huan Wen also said that." Xu Zheng recounted the last battle between the Pingman School and the Lieutenant Division, and then said: "The difference between the Gupta Dynasty and those countries we have encountered is that they did not treat the lives of the untouchables Take it seriously."

Xie An had more or less heard of Ah San's caste system, but it was too unfamiliar to make any comments.

In fact, Xie An led the army to wipe out some of the remnants of the Qiang and Di people, so why not face the entire people of the two groups as soldiers?The Han army participated in the war with regular troops. Every time they fought with the remnants of the two tribes, they gained an overall advantage in the battle loss ratio. They really had enough experience to deal with the enemy forces that rushed into the army in a hurry.

The two hadn't seen each other for a long time, and the chat was to enhance their relationship with each other. Xie An also took advantage of the private chat to bring up some work problems, including some suggestions.

"The prisoners from Bashu were sent to the northeast." Xu Zheng was extremely sure that Xie An had not heard the news wrong, and answered Xie An's request directly: "You are also facing the problem of mountain warfare. Send a formal report. Just go to the Taiwei's Office."

In the final analysis, Xie An was too far away from Ah San's battlefield, so he would have some curiosity about it, and he would pay more attention to his own work. For example, he didn't have any troops who were good at mountain warfare, and he hoped that the center could support a group of them.

Regardless of whether it is the standing infantry or the infantry of the county and county, it is really an infantry. There are infantry and cavalry. There are no troops trained for special terrain. Regarding mountain soldiers, forest soldiers, etc., they are After the continuous outward expansion of the Han Kingdom, a new concept emerged out of need.

Before the Han Dynasty had this idea, they were surprised to find that some countries had already been organizing targeted armies, and they had obtained exact information from the missionaries of Persian Sassanid and Rome, whether it was the Persians or the Romans. People have their own troops dedicated to mountain warfare.

"We started later than others, and for the time being we can only replace them with prisoners of war who are already good at running around in mountains or jungles." Xu Zheng revealed a piece of news that is not a secret: "The king has made it clear that big men should also have their own mountains. force."

Xie An didn't know the news beforehand, so he asked in a daze, "A new standing army?"

"That would be great!" Xu Zheng gritted his teeth: "The Prime Minister and others have been emphasizing the lack of food, complaining that having thirteen standing armies has extremely consumed the national power, and they are obviously opposed to the establishment of a standing army."

Xie An understood it. Looking at the history books, it is true that today's big man has as many as 20 professional soldiers who are not engaged in production. The test of national strength is really not ordinary. People who don't consider whether the country can support it are different. They know the seriousness of the matter and tend not to need so many standing troops, but they dare not speak out their true thoughts.

Xu Zheng still said to himself over there: "It's fortunate that the king showed his attitude, otherwise they would still want to reduce the number of standing troops, and completely forget how the barbarians are wreaking havoc."

At that moment, Xie An was conflicted in his heart. Like many people in the current era, it is because he has experienced the catastrophe brought by the Hu people that he knows the importance of a country and a nation's force. "If you are warlike, you will perish", which basically regards "if you forget to fight, you will be in danger" as the truth.

"Not to mention how we expelled the barbarians, the Han Dynasty occupied the Indochina Peninsula, which has been providing food to the mainland..." Xu Zheng complained: "Why do they only see the waste and not the gain?"

Xie An nodded subconsciously, and responded: "In terms of harvest, it is one thing to open up territories, and the big man has also repeatedly obtained resources from outside."

Xu Zheng became even more energetic, one after another, he mentioned why he wanted to fight, and then there were some anecdotes about the center that had not been disclosed to the outside world. In general, the gang of civil servants were getting more and more unhappy.

Xie An also quietly listened to Xu Zheng's constant complaints. The more he listened, the worse he felt. No matter what, he felt that the new round of civil and military disputes seemed serious.

(End of this chapter)