At the same time as Li Lin spoke, Charlemagne's military top brass was perfectly interpreting his speech.

Planning marching routes and supply routes is the foundation of the military command base, which is not only a decisive factor at the tactical level, but also directly related to the strategic level. Throughout the history of warfare, the better supplied side was far more likely to win than the poorly supplied side, and the victory of an undersupplied army over an army with sufficient logistics to the point of surplus was only a rare case.

Even Charlemagne, who advocates the supremacy of spiritual power, understands this truth. The generals who boasted all day long that spirit could triumph over material things also knew that without bread to eat, the army would have to choose between mutiny and rout.

It's one thing to just understand and work hard to solve it, but it's another thing to be able to overcome it.

Treasury officials with black bags under their eyes brandished their reports as if they were brandishing cavalry knives, and roared hoarsely through the conference hall.

"Add another 50,000 horses and a corresponding share of fodder?! Is this impossible! Is the military going to starve half of the country's peasants to death this winter?"

"If we don't increase this number, 400,000 soldiers will be so hungry that they won't even be able to walk in less than a month! Does the Ministry of Finance mean that it doesn't matter if the situation on Kuah Island is repeated again?!"

The chief officer in charge of the army's dispatch also showed no weakness, and easily threw a black pot to the Ministry of Finance.

"If there are not enough horses, the troops will not be able to complete the crusade against the thief army as scheduled, what will be the consequences at that time, has the Ministry of Finance thought about it?

The titles of "capital enemy" and "non-national" are not something that the Ministry of Finance can bear, so they decisively threw the pot back.

"Is the military trying to shirk its responsibility? Have you ever been to see the situation in the countryside? The people who pull the iron ploughs are old people or children! There are only mares and ponies left in the livestock pen, and if the military wants to see the old and weak women and children in the rear all die of exhaustion and starvation, then they can go to the people to collect livestock!"

"Therefore, just endure the hardships of the moment, and take the much-needed supplies and cattle from the enemy......"

"Until then, the people will ......"

The back and forth of the quarrel continued, and for a while there was no sign of an end or any outcome of the quarrel.

The military department and the Ministry of Finance are not in a day or two of lawsuits, and the two sides have even performed all the military affairs for the sake of the budget, and the seemingly fierce quarrel at the moment can only be regarded as a daily painting style. But the content of the quarrel did matter this time, as can be seen by looking at the stinky faces of the bureaucrats and the military.

When the news of the Wehrmacht's retreat came, the whole of Charlemagne was boiling, and people rushed into the streets with cheers, and all kinds of celebrations raged for a whole day. Heroic words such as "kill all the sharp-eared ghost animals" resounded in the sky, and many people opened the wine that had been treasured for many years, and the whole sky over Charlemagne was filled with the smell of wine.

Everyone seemed to see the dawn of victory, that the war was soon over, and that the long days of suffering like a dark tunnel were about to pass.

Boosted by the optimistic atmosphere, the military immediately and eagerly launched the plan to send troops, and 400,000 troops marched towards Alfheim.

The beginning of the march was relatively smooth, except for a few unlucky ghosts who stepped on the treacherous mines, there were almost no casualties. After the march of more than 15 kilometers, the problems began to arise.

Elves have obsessive-compulsive tendencies, and no matter what they do, they don't stop until they do it to the extreme. This wonderful national identity was vividly reflected in the process of retreat. The Defence Forces not only removed the equipment and equipment, but also stripped the wood from the trenches. Not only did the rails and sleepers be stripped of the rails, but even the roadbed was run back and forth several times with heavy vehicles, until the entire roadbed had no repair value. The road is even more exaggerated, the asphalt is all ploughed with heavy machinery, and the broken asphalt blocks are scattered all the way. After that, a large tractor is used to plow the road surface and soak it in large quantities. As a result, the straight and smooth road became a huge mud pond, in which thousands of elephants rolled and dived.

It is quite difficult for even mechanized troops to pass through such a large area of muddy areas. With the breadth and depth of the muddy area, an armored corps could easily sink into the mud and could not move, even with rescue and repair vehicles. It should be emphasized here that motor vehicles should not rush to step on the accelerator and try to climb out by brute force when they get stuck in the mud. Not only can this sink you deeper, but it will also burn out the gearbox, and in severe cases, the engine will have to go into it, along with the drive mechanism.

This is true for mechanized troops, but what about Charlemagne's army, which has no railroad and can only advance on foot and on foot?

It is not difficult to imagine that it must have been a march full of suffering and blood and tears.

The years of conquest not only severely depleted Charlemagne's economy, but also greatly depleted his livestock. Before the start of the war, an infantry division had 5,400 horses, including spare replacement horses for towing artillery wagons, transporting supplies and the wounded, and for reconnaissance and communications troops. Today, an infantry division barely has around 5,400 horses, but nearly half of them are recruited camels—smaller, stout, hard-working agricultural horses. Some of the weaker units even used mules and donkeys to make up the numbers. Counting all these livestock, there were as many as 250,000 horses in the campaign of Charlemagne's Royal Army.

It is no exaggeration to say that it is these soldiers who cannot speak who directly maintain the lives of front-line troops.

Due to the complete destruction of the transportation system during the retreat of the Wehrmacht, all the supplies of Charlemagne's army had to be transported to the front by military horses after being unloaded at the rear railway station, and every piece of bread, every bullet, every barrel of gunpowder, and every cannon was carried to the front step by step by the animal transport troops under the indiscriminate bombardment of the Wehrmacht Air Force, wading through the waist-deep mud or even up to the neck. A division-sized combat unit consumes at least 500 tons of supplies per day, including food, clothing, ammunition, medical equipment, harness, spare parts for gun and horse-drawn carriages, stationery, and paper...... And so on, due to the damage to the roads and the mud, the loss of all kinds of materials has increased exponentially, the demand for materials has also increased, all the animal transport units are in overload, coupled with air raids and lack of fodder, these military horses are consumed very quickly. In just three days, 10% of the horses have died, and 30% are close to being scrapped. This is a bad omen for Charlemagne, who is preparing to expand the results of the battle with all his might.

"According to the request made by the military, an additional 50,000 horses will be called up. ”

It was easy to suppress the anger, and the official of the Ministry of Finance spread out the report and read it word by word:

"Note that even if the rear manages to get 50,000 horses, this does not mean that the matter is settled, and as long as the war is not over, the need and consumption of livestock will continue. Moreover, the daily ration of feed for each horse was 5 kg of oats, 5 kg of hay and 5 kg of straw, which means that all the horses attached to each infantry division would consume 80 tons of feed per day. Scaling up to the entire campaign cluster is at least 3,500 tons of feed per day. With the current situation that oats have begun to become people's staple food in China, I am afraid that I will not be able to make up so much feed. ”

"It's the same with food and other supplies. ”

Officials from the civil affairs department made up for it.

"Didn't you just say that, as long as you ......?"

The comptroller was equally aware of the shocking figures, but his position did not allow him to retract them like that. Just as he was about to continue his argument, Colonel de Grandmaison raised his hand to stop him, and when the atmosphere calmed down a little, the chief of the operations section, who had been watching from the sidelines, slowly spoke.

"The military deeply understands and empathizes with the difficulties in the rear. ”

After being noisy for so long, the military suddenly spoke softly, which eased the atmosphere of the scene and made the participants feel a little confused.

Before the doubts could ferment into concrete doubts, Colonel de Grandmaison spoke again:

"This battle is related to the rise and fall of the kingdom, and I believe that both the generals and the officials in the rear have a deep awareness of this......

"Your Excellency the Chief of Operations, there is really no more power left in the rear!"

Before De Grandmaison delivered a long patriotic speech, the Ministry of Finance gave the truth very simply - no matter what you say, what you don't have is nothing, and even if you put on the hat of "non-national", it is impossible to conjure horses and food out of thin air.

"Princesses. Charlemagne is the whole country, and Agen Toraton and Lorraine Tower are naturally among them. ”

The venue was in an uproar, and the sudden speech made the participants suddenly unable to turn around.

Ignoring the sudden change in the atmosphere of the room, and not giving the audience time to digest, de Grandmaison continued to speak in his usual impassioned tone:

"According to reports from the front, a considerable amount of supplies flowed into the civilian population when the thieves retreated, and at the same time, because the retreat was in a hurry, there was no time to flee with people and livestock. As long as these supplies are collected, the dilemma of supply difficulties at the front can be immediately alleviated, and as long as there is enough food and livestock, the military will have the confidence to continue the battle until the final victory......"

"Recruited from the place you just occupied?

"This is a great war for the survival of the country! Every Charlemagne should dedicate himself to it! This is true of the generals at the front! This is true of the rear! This is especially true of Agen Toraton and Lorraine!"

The roaring shouts suppressed all the voices at once, and everyone stared blankly at the hideous face of the chief of the operations section.

After gasping for breath several times, Colonel de Grandmaison regained his previous grace and composure, straightened his collar, glanced around the room, took out a piece of paper from his jacket pocket, and opened it in front of everyone.

"Ladies and gentlemen, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has issued an order to hope that the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Civil Affairs will cooperate with the military as soon as possible to formulate a plan for dispatching supplies to support the front line at the site in Agen Torathon. We also ask for your cooperation. ”

This time there was no more silence.