People take food as the sky, people have to eat, whether ancient or modern, in ancient times, in general, as long as there is no serious natural disaster in peacetime, there is generally no shortage of food, but in wartime, as long as there is a war, it seems that there will be a shortage of grain and grass, why? Didn't people eat without fighting in ancient times?
In a feudal society based on agriculture for thousands of years, the so-called compulsory soldiers are actually ordinary peasants serving in the military, organized to fight when there is a war, and when there is no war, they go home to farm, what to do.
Conscripts accounted for the vast majority in ancient China, and conscripts existed for a long time, and until now, there are still conscripts, such as armed police forces.
grain
The so-called professional soldiers are to fight as soldiers as a profession, in addition to being a soldier to fight and participate in military training, do nothing else, such as Wei Wushi of the State of Wei during the Warring States period, Qin Ruishi of the Qin State, including the Five Schools of the Northern Army of the Han Dynasty, and the National Standing Army of the Tang and Song Dynasties.
In ancient times, the more conscripts there were, the biggest difference between conscripts and professional soldiers was that when there was no war, the food of conscripts did not need to be provided by the state, provided by individuals themselves, anyway, they were also peasants, self-sufficient, only when conscripts fought, food was uniformly provided by the state, and professional soldiers, whether they were fighting or not, food was provided by the state, because they took being soldiers as their profession, and there was no other means of livelihood except for being soldiers.
In addition, when fighting wars in ancient times, most of them were conscripts, for example, the Warring States Seven Heroes fought for hundreds of years, basically peasants from various countries, that is, conscripts in the war, the state wants these conscripts to fight, they have to provide food for them to eat, and when there is no war, the state does not need to provide huge grain, so there will be a shortage of grain when a war is fought, which is an important reason for the lack of grain in the war.
fight
The state provides food and individuals prepare their own food, which is a completely different concept, originally everyone eats, but the state provides so much grain at once by relying on the production of grain and the amount of grain taxed from the people, this amount is very large, once not enough grain is prepared, there will be a shortage of grain, and even if the grain is collected from the people, the people also have to leave a part of the grain as rations, and it is impossible to hand it all over.
What this means is that
Originally, grain was eaten every day on average, and some of them may not be available until after the grain is harvested, but it is difficult to come up with so much grain in the war period at once, and there will be a shortage of grain, so the war generally occurs in the time after the grain is collected, if the war is fought in other periods, there will be a shortage of grain, and if there is no grain, the war will automatically end.
For example, take the Qin state in the Warring States period, even if the Qin state in the Warring States period had a population of 20 million, if an army of 50,000 people is launched to fight, a single soldier eats 2 kilograms of rice a day, and the daily rations of 50,000 people are 100,000 kilograms, if you want to fight a month's war, you need 3 million kilograms of grain, and if you want to fight a year's war, you need 48 million kilograms of grain.
Transporting grain
Taking the main cultivated land area of the Qin State at that time the Guanzhong Plain and the Chengdu Plain combined, it is estimated that there are 11,000 square kilometers, a total of 16.5 million mu of cultivated land, according to the average grain production per mu in the Warring States period of 230 kg / mu, the Qin State can produce about 3,795 million jin of grain a year, the Qin State has a population of 20 million, whether it is a war or not, it must eat, even if each person eats 2 kg a day, the grain produced by the Qin State in a year is only about 190 kg per person, and the average person can only maintain 95 days. That's about three months.
The above is the amount of grain consumed by the Qin state when it does not fight and the output converted to the population, which is not counting the loss during natural disasters and the loss during transportation, it should be known that the Warring States period was often fought, 50,000 troops went to war, it was a small war, the Qin state could not move is hundreds of thousands of people to fight, then the grain pressure will be even greater.
For example, in the Battle of Changping, the Qin State invested at least 500,000 troops, the Zhao State also invested 450,000 troops, so many people fought on the front line, the grain output consumed in a day was an astronomical number, the food consumption of 500,000 people in a day of fighting was 1 million jin, the Battle of Changping was fought for more than a year, and the grain alone consumed 365 million jin, which was only the grain consumed on the front line, and the left-behind personnel in the rear also had to eat.
The second factor affecting food shortages is transport.
Ancient wars can not all be fought in the city, there are a large number of field operations and long journeys to other countries to fight, if the war is a long way, it will face the problem of grain transportation, ancient transportation is extremely underdeveloped, sometimes there is grain, can not be transported to the battlefield in time, will also cause food shortages.
For example, Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition was to transport grain from Yizhou to Hanzhong, and then from Hanzhong to the front, in the middle of which it was necessary to pass through the very difficult Shu Road, crossing the eight hundred miles of Qinchuan dangerous land, most areas did not have roads, but completely relied on manpower shoulders to carry, the difficulty of transportation can be imagined, Zhuge Liang several times in the front line of the battle are because of lack of grain and retreat, many times because the grain transportation can not come, rather than no grain.
Of course, this situation of food shortage due to the difficulty of transportation due to the terrain is not universal, but it also exists.
The third factor affecting food shortages is attrition. Grain is also depleted, all kinds of losses, there are natural and man-made disasters, there are also transportation losses, there are also war losses.
Trucks transport grain
For example, because of natural disasters caused by grain damage, this category may be relatively small, but like the loss of grain in the process of transportation and war food loss is more, grain from the storage area to the front line, that is not a small task, the ancient transportation of grain has cattle, mules, horses, etc., but also need a large number of transport people's strength, whether it is livestock or people's strength, are to eat grain, and the loss is not a lot, and the transportation distance is proportional to the distance, the farther the road, the greater the loss.
Another is the war attrition, in the war there will often be grain burned by the enemy, such as the Battle of Guandu, Cao Cao burned Yuan Shao's grain in Wuchao, although Cao Cao himself was short of grain, but for the victory of the war, without hesitation, he burned the enemy's grain, and this loss was also relatively large.
The fourth factor affecting food shortage is that no one has farmed after the war.
The impact of food on war
The conscripts were originally peasants who cultivated the land, and they were the main labor force of each family, and now they are all going to war, and if they happen to be in the busy agricultural period, then there will be no one to cultivate the land, and even if the women and children left behind in the family can grow, they will not be able to compare with the young and middle-aged labor force, and the grain output will be greatly reduced, and there will be a serious shortage of grain.
It is precisely because of the superposition of many factors that there will be a shortage of grain in ancient times, and the more protracted the war, the more there is a shortage of grain, and when there is no war, the country does not need large-scale preparation of grain, naturally there will be no shortage of grain, even if there is a natural disaster and a man-made disaster, there will be no shortage of grain, even if there is a natural disaster and a man-made disaster, it is not a big deal to open a warehouse to relieve some disaster victims, and there will be no shortage of grain, unless there is a particularly serious natural disaster, but it is very rare.