Volume 1: Birth! Seven time travelers Chapter 063 Weird Logistics Support
"May God live forever, long live God, long live God."
"Saints be with you."
"Thank God for His grace. Long live God. Long live God. Long live God."
"God's grace is great."
"I, your humble servant Liu Jing, will forever obey your orders. Long live your life. Long live your life. Long, long live your life."
After completing the ceremony of three kowtows and three bows, Liu Jing, the general of Sichuan, received the imperial edict from Sun Chengzong to send troops to Mubang.
After receiving the imperial edict, he quickly got up from the ground. Liu Jing stretched out his left hand, and immediately a personal soldier came to take the imperial edict. Then his serious expression suddenly turned into a grim smile.
"This is Lord Sun, right? I have never seen him before. Where did you work before you took up this position?"
"You are too polite, General Liu. I used to be a scholar-official and an editor in the Hanlin Academy."
"Oh, a Shujishi! He will be a minister in the future. I must get closer to Lord Sun... Well, this must be Eunuch Liu, he was sent out to take charge . Who knows, he will become a eunuch in the future."
"We only know how to do our best to serve the Emperor. We don't care about eunuchs or anything like that."
"Ah, Eunuch Liu is too upright, Lord Sun, you are not the same, are you?"
"Haha, General Liu, this eunuch of yours is also from one of your general families. Eunuch Liu's father was once the deputy general of Liaoyang."
"Hiss~~Eunuch Liu, your father is not Liu Fengji (Liu Yingqi), right? Hahaha, it really is . Well, we military generals are the most loyal to the emperor. In addition to killing enemies, we can also send our sons to the palace to serve the emperor. Eunuch Liu, you come from a military family, so you are one of us! The military supervisor sent by the Imperial Household Department this time is a good choice!"
"Haha, let General Liu know that this time, I am just accompanying you all to go to the south. The real military supervisor is Lord Sun."
After more than 200 years of advocating civil officials and suppressing military power, the power of military officers in the Ming Dynasty has been much smaller than when the country was founded. When it comes to sending troops to fight, it is usually the civil officials who are in charge of formulating combat plans and managing the logistics of the entire army. And what about military officers? Well, you just need to march and fight according to the plans formulated by the civil officials.
Of course, sometimes the palace would send eunuchs to serve as military supervisors, and at this time the logistics would often be managed by the eunuchs.
So when Liu Jing saw that the court had sent both civil officials and eunuchs, he instinctively thought that Liu Shimin was in charge of the logistics of this expedition. After hearing that Liu Shimin was also from a military family, his inner joy naturally came out.
As for what if Sun Chengzong's plan is ridiculous? Humph, Liu Jing is a revolutionary like him, and he has a special place in Wanli's heart. He doesn't care about ordinary civil officials - when they go to the front line, they can do what they want.
Unfortunately, the cost of this military expedition was sponsored by Xinghua Palace, so the logistics were naturally managed by the people of Xinghua Palace.
"Oh, I remember now. The court bulletin from more than a year ago mentioned the enlightenment of the crown prince. I didn't expect that Lord Sun was the crown prince's teacher! Well, of course I also knew that the crown prince guided Doctor Wu to invent the method of vaccinating against cowpox. Recently, everyone in my barracks has been getting the smallpox vaccine. Oh, Lord Sun must be an extraordinary person to be able to teach such a wise crown prince! No doubt, I estimate that within five years, I can change Lord Sun's title to Lord Sun, hahahaha~~~"
After the old soldier talked to himself for a while, he suddenly found that the two people next to him were smiling at him without saying anything. No matter how thick-skinned Liu Jing was, he felt a little uncomfortable. So he quickly turned around and yelled at his men: "What are you all standing here for? Waiting for Lord Sun to give you money? Why don't you hurry up and prepare the banquet? I want to treat Lord Sun and Eunuch Liu to a drink!"
It must be said that although Liu Jing's troops had poor military discipline and often harmed local people when they went out to fight, their execution was very high. Less than a quarter of an hour after Liu Jing gave the order to prepare the banquet, a steaming hot banquet was set out.
"Master Sun, Eunuch Liu, please take a seat."
After everyone sat down, Liu Jing first introduced several main generals under his command to Sun Chengzong and Liu Shimin. Naturally, Sun and Liu also praised the prowess of these generals in various ways.
After three rounds of drinks and the foreplay, Liu Jing rolled his eyes and said, "Sir Sun, may I ask, what is the court's overall strategy for this military expedition?"
"General Liu, the court means that before June of this year, at least 10,000 reinforcements from the Ming Dynasty must enter Mubang."
"Ah? Lord Sun, are you kidding? It's already the third day of March ! You want to get to Mubang in less than three months? Forgive me for not being able to help you."
In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, due to the continuous decline in the status of military generals, civil officials became increasingly harsh on military generals and the army.
Take the example of the Ming army marching on its own territory: theoretically, the army does not need to carry logistical supplies such as food when marching on its own territory. In fact, in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, with the collapse of the Weisuo system and the immaturity of the military town system, no town general could organize the logistical supply for a march of thousands of miles.
Therefore, when the Ming army moved within the country, local officials were responsible for supplying food to the army.
But the civil officials of the Ming Dynasty were very smart. They said: Military men have not received much education, do not understand righteousness, and are definitely not honest. Therefore, in order to prevent military generals from embezzling the state's food, when the army passed through their jurisdiction, they would not directly allocate food to the army. Instead, they would organize local civilians to cook the food into cooked food and distribute it to the passing army on a per capita basis.
In this way, the military commanders will not have the opportunity to embezzle. As for whether the civil officials who talk about morality and justice will embezzle, well, I guess, maybe, probably not.
According to the custom of that era that poor people only had two meals a day, local governments were required to provide two meals to their own troops passing through.
But then the civil officials found another problem: What if an army marched very fast and crossed two or more counties in one day? Wouldn't the soldiers have to eat five or six meals a day? No! The country's resources cannot be wasted like this. So later the local civil officials agreed on a rule: the county would not provide meals on the day the army entered the county - because you had already eaten in the previous county. Only when the army stayed in the county for more than one day would the county provide meals.
There is no doubt that this would limit the mobility of the Ming army: for soldiers, once they set out, it often meant that they would have no food to eat that day. After arriving at a new place, they would have to go hungry for a night before they could eat. Therefore, in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the movement of the Ming army often took half a day to walk and a day or even more to stop...
The commander of the army had no idea what to do: The emperor doesn't need hungry soldiers. If you force the troops to march quickly and cover several counties in one day, and every county refuses to provide food because the troops didn't stay in the county long enough, the army will mutiny!
In the historical plane, during the Battle of Sarhu between the Ming Dynasty and the Later Jin Dynasty, when the armies of various parts of the Ming Dynasty gathered in Liaodong, it was because of this fucked-up system that many armies could not catch up with the war. The white-pole soldiers of Shizhu, Sichuan, took nearly a year to reach Beijing from Shizhu! This was because their commander Qin Liangyu was deeply loved by the army and could only achieve extraordinary speed.
That's why Liu Jing said that it was impossible to get to Mubang from Sichuan within three months.
