Chapter 297: Before the food and grass move, mules and horses go first

When Wu She was lobbying the King Yingbu of Huainan in Pengcheng, Xiang Zhuang came to She County. (《》彩7*

In the mountainous areas of She County in Danyang County, the lush and primitive forests that were once burned down, replaced by green pastures. This is the largest military horse farm in the Chu State - the Military Horse Farm in She County. There are no less than 100,000 Mongolian ponies and more than a thousand Arab mixed-race horses in the horse farm.

In order to introduce Arab horses, Chu paid an extremely heavy price.

In order to support the navy fleet to travel to Southeast Asia, the State of Chu consumed a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources.

After the first failed trip to the South China Sea, the State of Chu quickly built a fleet of twenty Chu ships, which was led by Ge Sheng and went to the South China Sea with 4,000 Ruishis twice. However, it happened to encounter the South Vietnamese mutiny, and the fleet became a transport team, traveling between Nanyue and Jiangdong, transporting tens of thousands of Chu men.

Half a year later, Ge Sheng regrouped and went to Nanyang for the third time.

This time, the fleet had even crossed the Strait of Malacca. Unfortunately, the fleet was once again hit by hurricanes in the Indian Ocean. Four ships loaded with public transport paper, white wine, silk and other goods hit the reef and sank. Without these cargo, it would be meaningless to go to the West again, so Ge ​​Sheng had to return.

When I went to Nanyang for the fourth time, the fleet's ships increased to fifty!

Moreover, Ge Sheng also learned from the lessons of the last failure and placed the goods on each ship, so that even if one or several ships sink, it would not affect the overall situation.

This time, Gosheng's fleet finally arrived at the sky city - Babylon.

At this time, the Mesopotamian Basin was under the rule of Seleucid (a general under the command of Alexander the Great), and was attacked by the Roman Empire and the Silent Empire, so there was no time to entertain guests from the East. However, the Chu people still got what they wanted - Arab horses, camels and a lot of gold!

However, on the way back to Jiangdong, many crew members suffered from serious diseases and died one after another (actually abused diseases). (《》牌7*

After passing through the Strait of Malacca, the four thousand sailors had died to less than a thousand. Even the general of the tower ship, Ge Sheng, died suddenly due to illness. One thousand people could not control fifty ships. As soon as several lieutenants formed a plan, they concentrated the healthy Arab horses, camels and all the gold onto the twenty ships, and then sank the other thirty ships.

Many more people died on the way back to Jiangdong from Malacca.

When the fleet returned to Dantu Port, there were less than 600 sailors left when they set out, and they were all skinny and thin. The only thing that is to be thankful is that the hundreds of Arab horses and dozens of camels who arrived in Jiangdong with the ship were intact, and tens of thousands of kilograms of gold were also completely unharmed.

When Xiang Zhuang heard that Ge Sheng was also dead in the middle of the journey, he was deeply saddened and immediately posthumously awarded Ge Sheng the Marquis of Wuxiang. Ge Sheng's eldest son Ge Bu, who was only nine years old, inherited the title.

Therefore, in order to obtain the Arab horse, the State of Chu paid an extremely heavy price.

Nowadays, more than a thousand mixed-blood horses in the military horse farm in She County are developed by hybridizing Arab horses as their breeds and Mongolian ponies.

However, Xiangzhuang was a time traveler after all, so he did not repeat the mistakes of Emperor Wu of Han.

Emperor Wu of Han used all the sweat-blooded BMWs introduced from Dayuan for breeding, but ignored the bloodline genes that maintained the sweat-blooded horses, and finally embarked on a path of no return to the point of introduction, breeding, improvement, and return until death. In the end, the huge Han Empire could not find a purebred sweat-blooded BMW.

Therefore, Xiangzhuang did not use all Arabian horses for breeding, but retained a certain population to maintain the genes of Arabian horses. Only by maintaining the gene bank of Arabian horses can Arabian horses be continuously used for improvement, and the military horse farm in She County can continuously cultivate excellent mixed-blood horses. (《》彩 7*

However, from the perspective of size, the modified mixed-blood horse is not very outstanding.

In fact, the purebred Arabian horses introduced from Babylon were only more than six feet in average height, which was only about feet higher than the average height of Mongolian horses. It was more than enough to form light cavalry. If it was used to form heavy cavalry, it would not work. If it wanted to form heavy cavalry, it would have to be a tall horse with a height of more than eight feet!

However, just as there are horses with a height of more than eight feet in Mongolian horses, there are also individuals with super-large sizes in the Arabian horse population, and even horses with a height of nine feet will be born. As long as the Arabian horse population and the mixed-blood horse population are large enough, enough horses will always be cultivated. It is only a matter of time before the formation of heavy cavalry.

However, Xiangzhuang came to She County this time, but he did not come to see these mixed-blood horses.

Xiangzhuang came to She County this time to recruit mules from Bashu, because in addition to the military horse farm, there is also a large mules and horse farm in She County, which houses tens of thousands of mules.

As the saying goes, before the army moves, food and grass moves first, but Xiangzhuang doesn’t move, mules and horses move first!

Mules are actually descendants of horses and donkeys. They have the ability to carry and resist the donkeys, and the spirit and running ability of horses. Moreover, mules eat less than pack horses, and their adaptability to harsh environments is even better than pack horses in the southwest pack horses. With mules, all the bad horses eliminated from the military horse farm can be sold to subsidize the expenditure of the military horse farm.

In fact, in recent years, the military horse farm in She County has been able to replenish itself and no longer need to supplement the treasury.

Speaking of mules, they actually appeared as early as the Western Zhou Dynasty, but they were hidden in the royal palace as rare objects for the nobles to enjoy. It was not until the Song Dynasty that mules were treated as livestock, and thus began to be cultivated in large quantities. However, with Xiangzhuang, a time-traveling crowd, the time for mules in China was greatly advanced.

This time, the expedition to Bashu, the Chu army soldiers could no longer carry dry food bags to go on the expedition.

In the past, I carried a dry food bag, which was forced by the situation. There was no way. Now that the conditions of the Chu army have been greatly improved, there is no need for the soldiers to chew the dry and astringent dry food. Moreover, from Jiangdong to Bashu, it was more than two thousand miles away. Just marching alone would have to go for one or two months. No matter how big the dry food bag was, wouldn’t it?

Therefore, this expedition must be conducted to recruit enough mules to transport food, grass and supplies.

During this expedition to Bashu, Xiangzhuang planned to use 20,000 elite troops in the Huben Camp and Tianlang Camp as the foundation, and then dispatched 30,000 government troops to form an expedition army. Moreover, Xiangzhuang also planned to lead the army to the expedition in person!

The 50,000 army, people eat horses and chew it, is not a small number!

Moreover, the journey from Jiangdong to Shuzhong is long, and it is at least 2,000 miles. The march alone will probably take one or two months. If the war is not going well, it is entirely possible to delay for three or four months. Therefore, this expedition will require at least four months of rations for 50,000 troops. This is really not a small amount.

Calculate that a soldier consumes one stone of food in a month, 50,000 soldiers will consume 200,000 stones of food in four months!

Two hundred thousand stones are 24 million kilograms, and there is no problem with a mule carrying a weight of 800 kilograms (Qinjin) across mountains and rivers. This means that 30,000 mules are needed. Considering the loss of mules during transportation, at least a thousand more are needed. This is just the transportation of food, and if the supplies are included, there will be more.

Therefore, this expedition will require at least 40,000 mules to be recruited!

As for the food rations of 40,000 mules, there is no need to consider, because mules are more adaptable to harsh environments than Mongolian ponies. If there is no excessive load, there is basically no need to worry about losing weight. From Jiangdong to Bashu, it is not a desert. The grass along the way is enough to solve the food problem of mules.

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When Xiang Zhuang was recruiting mules and horses for the Expedition Legion, Liu Bang was staring blankly in Taicang, Xianyang.

The foundation of the Han State was originally much better than that of the Chu State. Even after Guanzhong was looted by the Chu army, its population size, arable land area, land fertility, etc. were still better than that of Jiangdong. In addition, the Baimo reform and ten years of birth, the population size and wealth of the Han State are now much more wealthy than that of the Chu State.

In the past ten years, the total population of Chu State had almost doubled to nearly five million, but the Han State did not stand still. Now the total population of Han State has exceeded 7 million, and the number of strong men has exceeded 1.5 million. Whether it is the total population size or the number of strong men, it still steadily surpasses the Chu State.

The corn stored in Taicang in Xianyang is far more than the rice in Taicang in Shiling.

The 800-mile Qinchuan and the Bashu plains are all fertile land. Although Jiangnan in later generations was known as the hometown of fish and rice, most areas in this era were unreclaimed wasteland. Therefore, the arable land area, yield per mu and the total grain output of Jiangdong were far from comparable to the two world granaries of Guanzhong and Bashu.

After ten years of accumulation, the corn stored in Taicang, Xianyang has exceeded 5 million stones!

Standing in Taicang, looking at the hill-like corn that was piled up in the granary, which could not be put down, so it could only be piled up in the open air, Liu Bang really couldn't believe that these were true. When he was competing with Xiang Yu for the world more than ten years ago, he was often worried about tens of thousands of stones of military ration. He was as capable as Prime Minister Xiao He and Xiao, and had to do his best to barely supply the military rations of the Han army.

But now, there is so much food in Taicang in Xianyang that it can’t be eaten!

Even if one million troops are dispatched, it is enough to support the May battle!

So, it's time to get out of seclusion. Although Liu Bang is in good health, no matter what, he is already sixty-nine years old this year. How many years can he live in the future? Only God knows. If he cannot destroy the Kanto countries and unify the world in his lifetime, then Liu Bang can't even die.

However, before leaving the customs, the hidden danger of the Huns must be solved first!

If the Huns are not destroyed, the rear of the Han Kingdom will be unstable. If the rear is unstable, the Han army will be distracted. This is undoubtedly extremely unfavorable from a strategic perspective and is easily exploited by enemy countries like the Chu Kingdom. Of course, it is not necessary to wipe out the Huns. As long as Jiuyuan is taken back and the Huns are driven back to the north of the Mo, it will be almost done.
Chapter completed!