The sky was as dark as the bottom of a pot, the rain outside the car was like a waterfall, and the windows and doors were closed to prevent the wind and rain from invading. Although candles had been lit in the carriage, Zhao Yu still felt depressed and depressed. Think about this emperor is really not a human job, the people only need to solve their own food and clothing, the ministers only need to do their own things, but they have to worry about the whole world, delicious food but unpleasant food, carved beams and painted pillars are like sleeping needles and felt, the rivers and mountains are magnificent but have no time to appreciate, and countless beauties in the harem are alone at this time.

"The edict of Shangshu Province, and the officials of Lianghuai and Huaibei, the rain in the upper reaches of Jianghan has increased, and I am afraid that the downstream will become troublesome, and I am very worried. All ministries must make good preparations for flood prevention, monitor the water situation at all times, check for hidden dangers, repair dikes, and raise supplies. The relevant provinces and ministries should send personnel to supervise and inspect, and if there is any slackness, they will be severely punished. In the event of a disaster, it is imperative to ensure the lives of the people, and local officials must quickly organize evacuation and do a good job in disaster relief work. If necessary, ask the garrison to help! ”

Zhao Yu thought about it and was still relieved, so he wrote an edict by hand, sent someone to transfer it to Lin'an with an expedited transfer of 800 li, and issued it as soon as possible. Chen Zhishi, who was on duty, immediately re-transcribed it, stamped the seal and sent it out. After receiving the reward, he felt a little at ease, picked up the candlestick on the table, and looked close to the map hanging on the carriage board, thinking about how to quickly capture Xiangyang.

According to the established plan, the two groups of East and West were to go hand in hand, to end the Northern Expedition before the arrival of the May heat. However, the West Group has not been able to conquer Xiangyang for a long time, and more than 100,000 troops have been stationed here for more than two months, which has also brought great pressure to logistics. In May, he said that Huguang Road was going to supply military rations for the two battlefields of Jingxiang and Sichuan, and that the grain stored in the official warehouse was about to run out, and he hoped that His Majesty would urge him to end the battle as soon as possible in order to relieve the pressure on Huguang.

In June, Lin Zhiwu wrote again, asking His Majesty to postpone the supply of summer taxes sent to the imperial court in order to relieve the urgent need. He also mentioned that because the battle of Jingxiang dragged on for a long time, the hundreds of thousands of conscripted servants could not return to their hometowns, resulting in many fields not being able to sow seeds in time, and the reduction of production this autumn was a foregone conclusion. If the war is extended again, it will be difficult for Huguang to maintain itself, so it can only transfer grain from Jiangdong to Xiangxiang.

Lin Zhiwu was a nail that Zhao Yu put in Huguang, the purpose of which was to let him coordinate all parties to ensure the military supplies and food on the Jingxiang battlefield. As his confidant, if it weren't for the extraordinary time, he wouldn't have complained repeatedly. This is also why Zhao Yu had to bring the Imperial Army, that is, to let them carry grain and grass through Jiankang to solve Jingxiang's urgent need.

Zhao Yu was also helpless, ensuring the importance of logistics supply for the war was undoubted, so that once the grain route was robbed or the grain was exhausted, the army would immediately fall into trouble. However, some people still question why soldiers need a lot of extra food when it comes to war, so they have to eat every day.

First of all, from the institutional level, many dynasties adopted the conscription system, that is, the soldiers were based on the peasants, and the main identity of the soldiers was yeoman farmers. They serve in the military for a certain period of time, and some even bring their own food and clothing, the advantage is that they are exempted from conscription, and outside the service period, they are ordinary people, and the daily rations naturally do not need to be worried about by the imperial court.

The conscription system of the Han Dynasty and the government military system in the early Tang Dynasty were similar to this situation. If there is no combat mission and the army is stationed in one place for a long time, it needs to open up wasteland for farming and be self-sufficient, that is, the so-called military cantonment system. The Ming Dynasty's guard system was also similar to this situation, as Zhu Yuanzhang said: "I raise millions of soldiers, and it doesn't cost the people a grain of rice." ”

The Song Dynasty implemented a conscription system, and Zhao Yu strengthened it, prohibiting the forbidden army from doing business in Tuntian, and the food, military expenses, weapons and equipment were all supplied by the state, and these were all from taxes, and the insufficient part had to be purchased by the imperial court. Although this ensures the combat effectiveness of the army, it is a heavy burden for the country.

It is not difficult to see that if a war is to be launched, it is necessary to first predict how long the war will last, and then calculate the approximate total amount of grain and grass required according to the size of the army dispatched, and allocate it from the official warehouse, so that it must be continuously replenished in case the war is prolonged. After all, whether the soldiers bring their own dry food or are self-sufficient, once they encounter a long-term battle, the daily supply of food and grass cannot be sustained, and they must prepare enough military food to meet the needs.

And this number is often very huge, Zhao Yu has calculated that with one army, it will need 400,000 stone of grain for ten months, which is about more than 20,000 tons now. At this time, the yield per mu of high-grade fertile land was only about three stones, which was the output of more than 100,000 mu. This only counts the soldiers' rations, not the concentrate required for the horses and the rations for the people.

Under normal circumstances, the Great Song Dynasty occupied the rich Jiangnan region, with two major grain-producing areas, Jiangdong and Huguang, and the resources that could be deployed were sufficient to support long-term warfare. However, it is often impossible to decide where to fight a war, which also increases the pressure on the supply of grain and forage. Although Zhao Yu established heavy troops at all levels in the army, and used water power to reduce the requisitioning of civilian men as much as possible to reduce the consumption of grain, a large number of state troops and more than 300,000 civilian soldiers were still mobilized in the two battlefields, which was already a multiple of the combat troops.

In order to save grain and grass, if conditions permit, the people who transport the grain will be released in batches, but the front line will always maintain a considerable number of people, who will consume a lot of food every day, and over time, this will become a very terrifying number. In addition to the soldiers and people, there were also a large number of mules and horses in the army, including war horses that needed to be fed with concentrate, and pack horses, riding horses, donkeys and mules and other animal power fed by coarse materials.

For example, war horses, although horses can eat aquatic plants on the spot, they also need to prepare special feed. It can be fed hay, rice and wheat straw, beans and even millet. Generally speaking, ordinary animal power is fed with hay, and war horses are fed with a mixture of forage and grain to ensure physical strength during battle. There is also no absolute standard for the ratio of forage to grain, depending on the situation. The standard of each military horse is two liters of grain and a number of beans per day to ensure that the horse is physically strong.

Tens of thousands of hundreds of thousands of soldiers eat horses and feed, and the total amount of grain and grass required cannot be accurately controlled, and the combat time is even more unpredictable, so commanders must collect as much grain and grass as possible and organize transportation. Once there is a problem with the supply of grain and grass, there is no need to wait until all the grain is eaten, and when the stock of grain falls below a certain warning line, the whole army may panic, and it is difficult to continue the war here. At this time, unless the retreat route is cut off, the general commander will choose to retreat.

When one's own food and grass are insufficient, sometimes you can also take food from the enemy, such as capturing a city or granary, or eating wheat when it is ripe, and there are many records in various historical materials. However, this situation is very contingency and is constrained by time and space, making it difficult to accurately grasp it, and an excellent commander cannot pin his hopes on it. Food is always limited, and the daily consumption of food in a major war is an astronomical amount, even if the national strength can bear it, transportation is also a problem, and the patience and endurance of the rear are also limited.

Although some people found another way to solve the logistics problem, Cao Cao used human dried meat as military rations; When the Five Hu Rebellion was in China, the Di and Qiang people fought, and both sides had no military rations, and the victorious side ate the corpses of the enemy and their comrades after the battle; During the Five Dynasties of the Tang Dynasty, some warlords massacred the people on a large scale and used human flesh as food. These strange things can be called a mudslide in the logistics world, and Zhao Hao doesn't want to turn his army into a 'beast army'.

At this point, the Mongol army had reached the point of reaching its peak. On the one hand, the cavalry moved quickly, which greatly reduced the unnecessary consumption of food on the march, and on the other hand, the soldiers could put all their belongings on horseback, greatly increasing the number of supplies carried by individual soldiers. But this Zhao Hao can't learn, at most, he is now using vans to carry materials to improve his mobility, but he can only extend it for a while, and he still has to rely on supplies from the rear.

It can be seen that battlefield logistics is a big problem, and the commander-in-chief must either fight a quick battle or reduce the army's dependence on logistics in order to avoid putting himself in an embarrassing situation. All in all, no matter what time it is, war is a matter of burning money and consuming food. In a large-scale war, so many soldiers, men, mules and horses gather in one place, and the amount of food and other materials consumed every day is very staggering, and it may cost many times more to transport these materials.

If the logistical supply is interrupted, the entire war machine will also come to an abrupt end, so both sides must do whatever it takes to ensure the supply of food, grass and materials, no matter how heavy the cost. If a quick solution is not achieved, both sides of the war will be exhausted by this attrition until one of them is completely crushed. Meng Yuan has now been dragged down and has to sue for peace, and Zhao Yu is also making a final struggle, so that he even gave up Kaifeng, which was close at hand, because he was worried that the national strength would be difficult to support.

Zhao Hao's personal expedition was mainly to supervise the war, that is, to seize Jingxiang as soon as possible and end the Northern Expedition. However, this operation still relies on the troops deployed in Jingxiang, and according to the limited information available, the situation is not optimistic. Now that I have arrived, I don't even know the specific deployment of the Jingxiang battlefield, and I can't even find the location of the troops, so it's not easy to talk about a quick victory.

Therefore, what Zhao Yu needs most now is intelligence, not only his own, but also the enemy's. However, although he was anxious and anxious to obtain information, he could not show it, so as not to arouse the suspicion of the generals, and he could only get angry in a hurry.

"Your Majesty, Lord Tian asks to see you!" Wang De suddenly walked over and said.

"Oh, see you." Zhao Hao's heart moved, he may have been in contact with someone from the bureau.

"Your Majesty, the contact person from Jingxiang Station has arrived!" The car door opened, the wind and rain were still there, and Tian Qi said under the porch.

"Come in!" Zhao Yu looked out, but saw a drenched person standing behind Tian Qi, and then looked closely, it was actually a monk......