In the movie "The Great Cause of Building an Army", there was a classic line: "Since ancient times, fighting wars, three points of military and seven points of economy." "In a war, the deployment of generals and the combat effectiveness of soldiers are actually not as important as strong economic support. The reason why Hitler wanted to target the Jews with a butcher's knife in World War II was not only that Hitler was a loyal believer in anti-Semitism, but he also wanted the amazing wealth that the Jews possessed. In the end, Nazi Germany was also defeated because of the long stalemate between the Battlefield in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, and the economic collapse.
So what is the most expensive place in a war? Whether it is the era of hot weapons or cold weapons, the salaries of soldiers and the pensions of soldiers who died in battle are the largest amount of money spent, but they are not the largest expenditure items. In the era of hot weapons, the economy will mainly be used in the loss of weapons and ammunition and the research and development of advanced weapons, while in the era of cold weapons, the allocation of grain and grass is the most expensive item in the economy.
There is a famous saying in our country about war called "Soldiers and horses do not move grain and grass first." "Because the war in the era of cold weapons is often not able to be completed in a short period of time, if it is a siege war, I am afraid that it will be longer, at this time, grain and grass represent the foundation of the combat side and the time that can persist." At that time, if you want soldiers to go to war hungry, not to mention the problem of reducing the combat effectiveness of the army, it would be good for soldiers not to mutiny. Therefore, in ancient times, fighting grain and grass was the most important thing.
However, when patrolling or practicing daily, soldiers also have to eat grain every day, so why do they find that the food hoarded is not enough when they go to war? Many believe that soldiers need more food per meal than usual when they fight. This is indeed one of the reasons for the lack of food in wars, but it is not the main cause.
In ancient times, there were no mechanical tools to help them with farming, only farmers' workers to grow crops, and no fertilizer to improve the fertility of the cultivated land. The productivity of such a way of working is very low, and in the Taiping era, it was fine, and when it came to fighting, it would immediately be stretched. Moreover, if a large-scale battle is carried out, the imperial court is afraid that a large number of young and middle-aged laborers in the country will be sent to the battlefield after emergency training. As a result, there are naturally not many people in the farmland to engage in farming, and food productivity is once again reduced.
In addition to productivity, another weakness is the ancient mode of transportation. During World War I and World War II, the transportation of food supplies was carried out by plane or train, which was not only fast but also not too restrictive, while the ancient transportation of supplies could only rely on horse-drawn carriages. Not to mention the slow speed, it is also very susceptible to the influence of weather and terrain, and the enemy will also send special people to cut off the supply line.
In the "Art of War of Sun Tzu", it was once said that "the poor of the country are far from the division", which means that the reason why the country has declined because of the war is mainly long-distance transportation. Sun Wu believes that in the process of transportation, "Qiu Niu cart, ten to six." "After long-distance transportation, counting the loss of resources such as people, vehicles and horses on the way, ten resources have been consumed for six points."
So how did the excellent generals in ancient times avoid the problem of insufficient grain and grass? The answer is also given in Sun Tzu's Art of War, that is, "it is used for the country, because the grain is for the enemy, so the army can have enough food." Sun Wu believed that when a good general conquered the enemy's territory, he would seize grain and other materials from the enemy to enrich himself, so as to achieve the purpose of feeding the war with war, so as to maintain the combat effectiveness of the army to the greatest extent.