For most ordinary people, "costume play" is almost the only way they can understand the ancient world. From the martial arts films in the early years to the later costume romance films, palace fighting films, and then to the "historical dramas" of the fire in recent years, the popularity and reliability of costume dramas are gradually rising. But to this day, most costume plays have always had a hard wound, that is, the depiction of the battlefield is too "freehand".
In many films, the depiction of the battlefield is often fragmented and idealized. If the director wants to use the language of the lens to reflect the cruelty and intensity of the war, he can only make the battlefield chaotic. The battlefield was dusty, shouting to kill the heavens, the soldiers of the two armies were fighting in unison, and the cavalry and infantry ran together, as lively as a big gathering.
On such a battlefield, the "array" and "battle line" are blurred, and a battle is fought from day to night, leaving wounded soldiers and corpses on the ground. Although those weapons, blood stains, flames, and corpses are very real, this depiction of the battlefield that loses time and space is actually very different from the real ancient battlefield.
After years of hearing and seeing, these rough battlefield descriptions have made most viewers completely astray in their understanding of war, and even some questions will appear: How many days and nights were fought in ancient times? Don't the soldiers have to rest? How do they eat and go to the toilet?
First, war is the most serious thing in human society
There is such a sentence in the "Zuo Zhuan": The great affairs of the country are in the worship and rong.
In the eyes of the ancients, sacrifice and war were the most important events in ancient society, because these two events were directly related to the survival of the ruling class. And these two things also have some commonalities, one is that they are very pompous, and the other is that they are very disciplined.
To understand how the ancients fought wars, remember the two main points of "pomp" and "rules" before we can study them further.
People who understand the military know that the soul of the ancient Chinese army is the "array", from the pre-Qin to the Ming and Qing dynasties, the marching and fighting are inseparable from the front. An army of as few as a few thousand, as many as tens of thousands or even tens of thousands, these people can spread for miles in line, which was a "management disaster" in ancient times when communication was not developed. In order to make the army combat effective, the army has been the most highly standardized organization in society since ancient times. In China, for example, from encampment to cooking, resting, attacking, and retreating, there are regulations, and one advance and one retreat require the officers to be lined up, and the military books of previous dynasties have described this.
On the battlefield, when the army is engaged, the soldiers cannot fight for themselves, but must be arranged in a phalanx under the leadership of the officers.
Take the Warring States Qin system as an example: the Qin army has five people, two soldiers, fifty people as one tun, a tun commander, a hundred people as a general, and set up a general. The situation in the State of Wei is similar to that of the State of Qin: five people are in the company, ten people are shi, fifty are subordinates, and one hundred people are Lu. The smallest unit on the battlefield is not an individual, but a team, one "divides" hundreds of people under the "" into 20 armies, arranged in an orderly manner, and advances and retreats together during the war, with officers commanding from behind.
The ancient battlefield was divided into arrays, and the front of the "array" was full of long-handled weapons, and soldiers stabbed each other with weapons such as go and spears. There are archers shooting arrows in the back, and catapults throw stones, and this order will not be chaotic under normal conditions.
The "array" is so strict that Qi Jiguang, a ming dynasty warrior, once wrote: "The array of the halls of the halls, thousands of queues are forward, the brave must not be the first, and the cowards must not be behind." ”
In the front of the battle with the enemy, there are generally three formations showing an "inverted triangle" arrangement, the front line is fighting, the back one as a reserve, the front casualties are too large, or the battle time is too long and the physical strength is insufficient, the officer will order the back line to the top, let the forward line down to rest and supply. When there is a vacancy in the top of the back line, a new reserve team will appear behind it, ready to play.
Second, man is iron rice is steel
Understand the form of warfare of the ancients, and then look at the diet of the ancient army. It must be determined that "people are iron rice is steel, a meal is not eaten hungry panic", soldiers killed in the dark, the meal must be eaten, otherwise people's physical strength will be overdrawn.
Normal people eat three meals a day, and some laborers or athletes with great physical strength even have to eat four meals to replenish the energy needed for a day. In ancient times, soldiers who fought on the battlefield, wearing armor, carrying knives, carrying spears, marching and walking were all physical exertion, not to mention slashing and slashing to stimulate fierce fighting, they needed energy no less than athletes, and needed a lot of energy.
On the ancient battlefield, there were two ways in which soldiers ate. The first is to make rice in the barracks in a unified manner, which is the top priority of the army, and is generally uniformly produced and distributed by the men and grooms. In order to facilitate cooking, the army will generally transport grain and grass in advance, set up granaries, consider water intake when camping, and be close to the mountains and forests to obtain fuel.
When there is no war, the army eats and rests uniformly, and the ancient food is more monotonous, mainly the staple food of supplementing carb water, millet, rice, wheat and even sorghum, soybeans have been used as staple foods for Chinese. Ordinary soldiers ate staple food, accompanied by pickles, sauces, and officers would get a small amount of meat.
The second way is for soldiers to urgently replenish their energy between battles, and the food they eat at this time is commonly known as "dry food". This kind of food is similar to the "fried noodles" of our army during the Korean War, which are some fried corn, baked flatbread, bean cake, which can be carried around after being fried with salt, and can be solved by swallowing a few bites in a hurry.
When the battle was fierce, it was impossible for ancient soldiers to return to the camp for dinner. Just as soldiers eat field rations today, they take out fried corn and flatbread, and a little water is a meal. Wounded soldiers go to the back for treatment, and soldiers who are not injured or slightly injured do not get out of the line of fire and are ready to go into battle.
Third, the most hygienic group: the army
In addition to "eating and drinking", the "Lasa" of the ancient army is also very exquisite.
In the eyes of modern people, the ancient sanitary conditions are very backward, in terms of "convenience" the ancients have not been very particular, dig a pit, bury some soil, is a toilet.
But in the military, how thousands, even tens of thousands, of people get to the toilet is a big problem. Poor disposal of excrement from the army is likely to cause an epidemic of diseases that directly destroy an army. The enemy can also judge the number of this army and whether the grain and grass are sufficient by studying the enemy's excrement.
So before camping, the granary and toilet location should be divided, these two alms can not be too close, the toilet is generally in the camp under the air outlet, to stay away from the water source, so as not to cause pollution, the terrain can not be too high, otherwise it will come out when it rains. The army was stationed in separate battalions, and also built toilets in separate battalions, and the sappers dug out large and small deep pits as pits, and if conditions permit, they would build a shed to shelter them from the wind and rain.
The pit will not be too far from the camp, making it more convenient for soldiers to come and go, but it will not be too close, so as not to affect the life of the army. Before the start of the war, the soldiers generally went to the toilet in groups, if it was in the middle of the night, they needed to apply to their superiors, and then someone accompanied them to prevent the treacherous air to report, or there were deserters who fled. The latrines in the barracks are regularly cleaned and buried with soil or lime to prevent too many flies from growing and spreading diseases.
Before going to the battlefield, the soldiers will have a full meal and have time to solve the convenience problem by the way, but after going to the battlefield, they will not be empty, and unless they are replaced, they can only hold back.
Feces are useful in warfare and are a simple version of a biological weapon. Archers will soak the arrows in fecal water, killing and injuring the enemy and causing wound infection; if it is a "defensive battle", the defenders are very likely to directly throw fecal water downstairs, which is often cooked, and poured down is burned and infected, which has a great impact on the hearts of the siege army.
After the war, the army's toilets could become a "treasure" for farmers, and a large amount of manure could be used to water the fields, and these resources would not be wasted at all.
Text/Shogakuno
Resources:
1. "On the Origin and Formation of Ancient Military Camps", He Zhanyong
2. "Military Food in Ancient China", Kuning