Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 435: Logistical Support
As the saying goes, there are five of the Four Heavenly Kings. This time, the Ming Dynasty conquered Mongolia in three directions, but in fact, there were four directions if we really look at the routes of the troops.
The first route was naturally Liaozhen, which sent out 40,000 troops, led by Du Song, Xiao Bozhi and others. Although there were few soldiers on this route, they were almost all servants of the generals of Liaozhen: Liaozhen was the earliest place to become a warlord in the late Ming Dynasty. Although Zhu Youdong quickly killed the Jurchens after they founded the country, and tried his best to pay sufficient military pay to the nine important towns in recent years to curb the transformation of military soldiers into servants. However, Liaozhen was a very special place: its territory and population were equivalent to a medium-sized province in the interior, but it did not have a complete civil bureaucracy. It was a large military town, and the black soil here was so vast. Therefore, the generals who stayed in this place for a long time inevitably had a large number of servants.
This time, the Ministry of Revenue and other three departments jointly checked the quality of the soldiers. Although the qualification rate of Liaozhen’s soldiers was very average, it had the largest number of qualified people among the nine important towns on the border: basically they were the servants of the generals guarding the towns.
The second route is Jizhen, Jingying, Tengxiang Four Guards and part of the new army. Its commander is Cao Wenzhao, and under his command are generals such as Mao Wenlong and Huang Degong. As an important town guarding Beijing, Jizhen is relatively less warlordized, but this also led to a low pass rate for Jizhen's soldiers this time. Only more than 13,000 soldiers in the entire Jizhen passed the assessment this time. Together with the Jingying, Tengxiang Four Guards and other troops, there are less than 30,000 people. After the two new military towns of Cao Wenzhao and Huang Degong joined, this unit has 60,000 soldiers.
The third route, of course, was the Western Route Army led by Man Gui. Because this route had the longest offensive route, it was equipped with the most troops. In addition to the 45,000 troops from the three new army towns, there were also 5,000 new army cavalrymen drawn separately, and more than 30,000 soldiers from five towns including Shanxi, Yansui, Ningxia, Guyuan, and Gansu. A total of 88,000 troops, led by Man Gui.
The last route was under the command of Cao Wenzhao's Central Army, but in fact it was an independent march. The soldiers from Xuanfu and Datong Towns had a total of 20,000 soldiers. Its commander was Li Rubai, the general of Datong Town, and his generals included He Shixian, You Shiwei and others.
Although this group had the least number of troops, Wang Xiangqian had considered whether to properly reinforce this group when deploying troops. However, Ma Gui and Zhu Youdong from the Military Academy rejected Wang Xiangqian's idea.
Ma Gui's reason was: Datong soldiers were not weak, and they were facing the Tumed tribe along the way, whose combat effectiveness was relatively weaker than that of the Chahar tribe. As for Zhu Youdong, as a time traveler, he certainly knew how fierce He Shixian, You Shiwei and other Shaanxi people from Yulin were. Moreover, although there were no new troops among the 40,000 family servants in Liaozhen, they had already completed the change of clothes first. This Xuanda army had neither changed its clothes nor had the help of the new army. What level could it play was also something Zhu Youdong wanted to see.
Therefore, this group of troops was the last large-scale expedition of the original Ming soldiers.
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"General, the scouts ahead sent us news that the Mongols have fled and left the bodies of cattle and sheep in the rivers and ponds along the way."
"Humph! They're using the same old tricks. Order the engineering team to find a new water source and dig a well under the guidance of the engineering department personnel. After the well water starts to gush out, according to the dietary rules for this expedition, the medical team will monitor it with a microscope, boil it, cool it, and then give it to the horses. After that, give it to the soldiers in small batches."
"Yes, sir!"
On March 1, 1620, Li Rubai swore an oath in Datong to march to the battlefield. Along the way, he did not encounter any obstacles. By March 20, the entire army had reached the Hetao Plain, the core area of Qiantao, which was later called Baotou.
"This must be the Jiuyuan County of the Han Dynasty, right? It is said that during the late Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period, the invincible flying general Lu Bu was born here."
"Hahaha, although Li Shuai is not from Shaanxi, he is very familiar with the local customs and practices in our area."
"I have been the commander-in-chief of Datong for many years." Li Rubai responded with a smile and called a few messengers over: "Who is at the front of my army now?"
"Replying to the commander, it is Captain He Renlong."
"Ah, it turns out to be General He's Qilin." After smiling at He Shixian next to him, Li Rubai said to the messenger, "Send a message to General He, tell him that our army will temporarily stop advancing and set up camp here today. Let him lead the army to conduct reconnaissance thirty miles ahead. If he can catch a few tongues, that would be the best!"
"Yes, sir!"
After issuing the order to the front line, Li Rubai ordered You Shiwei to arrange for the entire army to set up camp, while he and He Shixian personally rushed to the rear team: Zhu Youdong repeatedly reminded that it would be difficult for the Mongols to deal a devastating blow to the Ming army in this battle, and the Ming army would lose because of logistics. Therefore, the commanders of the four armies attached great importance to the logistics troops in this expedition. Once the decision to set up camp was made, the chief officer would arrange the general affairs and go to the logistics troops as soon as possible.
As the saying goes, food and grass must be sent before troops move. As a time traveler, Zhu Youdong launched this large-scale expedition, on the one hand to completely solve the Mongolian problem, and on the other hand to test the existing logistics support system of the Ming Dynasty.
Thanks to the fact that the Ming Dynasty had money in its silver treasury and grain in its granary at that time, and although many combat soldiers were eliminated in the military household assessment organized by the Ministry of Revenue, in another sense, there was no need to recruit pure civilians for the logistics support this time.
In this expedition, the generous emperor arranged for each expeditionary force to have twice as many baggage soldiers as combat troops. So Li Rubai's army had 20,000 combat troops and 40,000 baggage soldiers.
There were more logistics personnel, and there were no shortage of supplies: in addition to a large amount of rice and flour staples, there were also a lot of dried potatoes, sweet potato chips, fried noodles, etc. Fresh meat could not be stored for a long time, so not much was brought, but a lot of smoked meat and dried meat were also brought. In addition, thanks to the advancement of technology, canned food is also very popular: a lot of canned meat, beans, and fruits similar to Spam in later generations that have been sterilized at high temperatures were also prepared. The daily drinking water for the army was also prepared in large quantities of distilled glass bottles, considering that the enemy was likely to pollute the water source everywhere.
It was easy to transport so many supplies from the inland to Datong and other places where troops were dispatched. After leaving Datong, all the roads on the grassland were pristine, which put great pressure on logistics.
At this time, the advantage of using military households instead of ordinary civilians as baggage soldiers emerged: at least in terms of discipline and organization, military households were much stronger.
"Meet General Li and General He."
"Well, how are you guys doing today?"
"My two great commanders, we have marched forty miles today, and none of my carts or two-wheelers were damaged. Three of the four-wheelers got stuck in the mud, and when they were lifted out, one was broken."
"Well, what about the supplies on this car?"
"Don't worry, General Li. Our army consumes a lot of supplies every day. If a vehicle breaks down, the supplies on the vehicle will be consumed on the same day. But I feel that if we go further in, these four-wheeled vehicles will really run out."
"If there are none, then there are none. Write to the officials of the Ministry of Works in the rear and report our situation here . Ask them not to send any more four-wheeled carts. After more than half a month of marching, it has been fully proved that wheelbarrows and the original two-wheeled carriages are the most suitable for the road conditions here. Ask them to send these to us."
"yes!"
After taking care of the situation of the vehicle team, Li Rubai came to the team of cooks responsible for the daily meals of the entire army.
"Everyone, are there any problems with the various cans we opened during today's march?"
"In reply to the Marshal, among the 2,300 cans of various types opened today, no leaks, bloating, or changes in taste were found. Among the 60,000 bottles of distilled water distributed today, no reports have been received from soldiers or officers that the taste has changed."
"Good! The most important task for this expedition is to ensure that our army eats well and safely. I beg you all to keep up the good work!"
"Yes, I will follow the commander's orders."
After completing the routine daily inspection of the logistics troops, Li Rubai was about to go to the camp to check on the soldiers, but he heard a burst of hurried horse hooves coming from afar.
"Marshal, the spies ahead reported that a Mongolian wanted to see you!"
