Because the cost of transportation is too high, for every 100,000 troops, 700,000 households and 3.5 million people have to transport grain, and these 3.5 million people must stop agricultural production.
This is definitely not a mouthful.
Food shortages are generally long-distance wars, and local wars generally do not have food shortages.
There is a professional answer to this question in the "Art of War of Sun Tzu":
100,000 teachers, thousands of miles, the expenses of the people, the salaries of the public, the daily expenses of a thousand pounds, the disturbances inside and outside, the slackness of the road, and the people who are not allowed to do things, 700,000 families.
This means that an army of 100,000 people, if it travels thousands of miles, needs 700,000 peasant households to stop production and provide it exclusively for feeding.
At that time, the population of each family was about 5 people, that is, 100,000 people were fighting thousands of miles away, and 3.5 million people were needed to transport food.
How can so many people be needed? That's an exaggeration.
Because the ancient transportation technology was backward, the transportation of grain mainly relied on people and livestock, and people and livestock also had to eat, otherwise they would starve to death on the road, and who would send the grain?
Therefore, not all the grain loaded into the truck was sent to the front line, and most of it was eaten on the road.
For example, a man pulled a horse and pulled five hundred pounds of grain and grass.
Adults have about 2 kilograms of grain a day, because they always need to walk, the consumption is large, a person has 3 kilograms of grain a day, and a horse has about 12 kilograms of grain and grass a day. The daily consumption is 15 catties of grain and grass.
Long-distance deliveries start in ten days, and the people who deliver the food have to eat food when they return.
In this way, five hundred catties of grain were transported to the front line, and there were only a few dozen catties left.
The numbers may not be precise, but that's what it means.
This is not counting other attrition, and in fact less food may actually be delivered to the front. In this way, one can only rely on the number of people to pile, and a person can only send dozens of pounds of grain and grass to the front line, and a large amount of manpower must be used.
What is the concept that the people who are transporting cannot work during the period, and 3.5 million people have stopped production.
These 3.5 million people are pure deficits, unable to engage in agricultural production, and need someone to feed the stomachs of these three and a half million people.
No country can afford to play like this, so food shortages are common.
Is there only one method of transportation?
Is there a cheaper shipping method?
Yes, by water.
The consumption of waterways is much smaller than that of people pulling livestock to transport food, at least the boat does not have to eat.
Boats also carry much higher capacity than horses.
However, the requirements of the ship are very high,
First, there must be water;
Second, the water should be deep enough, otherwise it will run aground;
Third, the river should be smooth, the middle can not be cut off, can not appear too far away from the water, such as encountering a waterfall, directly finished playing.
Therefore, many times the waterway is not available.
For example, Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, the waterway could not be passed.
Because twenty years after Liu Bang left Hanzhong, a major earthquake occurred, which cut off the Han River and directly changed the river channel.
This led to the waterway that Han Xin could transport grain to take, but Zhuge Liang could not go, and Qinling's grain transportation was simply a nightmare.
Can land and water cooperation be used together?
Yes, but there needs to be a premise, that is, at the intersection of water and land, there must be so many people, so many horses waiting to carry the food.
Otherwise, the people and horses are all loaded on the boat, and there is no difference except that they are faster.
With the development of the times, the grain transportation in the Warring States period was lost, and in the later generations, there was a qualitative change, but the proportion was also quite amazing.
A soldier on the front line needs at least two people to transport food to feed.
For example, in the famous "Meridian Valley Conspiracy", Wei Yan also talked about the situation of grain transportation:
This holiday, there are five thousand elite soldiers and five thousand negative grains, straight out of the praise.
Probably means, give me five thousand elite soldiers, give me another five thousand anti-grain soldiers, and I will go directly to attack Chang'an.
Wei Yan was preparing to make a surprise attack on Chang'an, although the distance was far, but compared to a thousand miles, it was already very close, and at such a distance, five thousand elite soldiers needed five thousand anti-grain.
Short distances and low losses require one-to-one grain transportation, not to mention long distances.
Zhuge Liang invented the wooden cow and the horse to solve the problem of grain transportation.
In addition to the loss of grain transportation and the inability of a large number of people to cultivate, there is also a harsh place.
Military food for fighting wars is different from what is eaten in peacetime, and military food must be easy to store, easy to cook, and nutritious.
Meat these short shelf life, has not been shipped to the front line on all spoiled, although ancient times have been known to use salt to improve the validity of food, but the cost is too high, salt in ancient times is a luxury.
Beans don't work either, and it's not easy to cook.
Marching to fight is not like the TV series, cooking on the fire is not fake, but there is not so much time, pay attention to speed, stir-fry a few dishes, with steamed buns, drink soup, think of what, it is impossible.
The main food of ancient warfare was porridge, supplemented by dry food, and there was no time to make exquisite food.
And the beans are not easy to digest, the most important thing is that it is easy to stink the companions, think about the scene of tens of thousands of people at the same time.
Are beans useless? No, beans can be made into sauce, after all, protein still needs to be replenished.
Millet stands out among many foods.
Millet is easy to store, according to Tang Dynasty literature, millet can be stored for 9 years.
Millet is easy to process and nutritious.
Before the Sui and Tang Dynasties, China's political and economic center was in the Yellow River Basin, and millet was the traditional production area of the Yellow River Basin.
Although rice can also be preserved for four to five years, this thing is expensive, the yield is not high, and it is a luxury, so Professor Yuan Longping is so great.
Wool cannot catch a sheep and keep it, otherwise it is easy to go bald.
In a long war, the main military food is relatively single, and it is easy to eat up the national treasury, after all, it is impossible to harvest a bumper harvest every year.
summary
In ancient times, food shortages were generally long-range wars, and due to the relative backwardness of transportation technology, the roads were not as accessible as they are today, so the consumption was extremely large.
Only through the number of people to pile up the front-line military food, which led to a large-scale reduction in grain production, the national treasury will always be in a state of insufficient income.
Due to the relatively backward storage method in ancient times, the grain of soldiers is relatively simple, which is a burden for the national treasury.
This is also the reason why in ancient times, there would be a shortage of food when there was a war.
With the development of the times, the situation of food shortage gradually improved, unless there was a natural disaster, it was generally the corruption of officials.