My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 471 Bowang Luban Garden

Given this situation - the Wu-Chu rebels were composed of soldiers of this quality, yet Suiyang City was still on the verge of collapse. This also shows the situation of the Suiyang national army, which was not much stronger than the Wu-Chu rebels.

In addition, considering that the troops of Dou Ying and Zhou Yafu, especially those of Zhou Yafu who actually participated in the war, had effective combat strength that was no less than that of the rebels and their combat qualities were obviously higher than those of the rebels, it was not a shocking thing that they pacified Wu and Chu in three months.

Looking back at the Wu-Chu Seven Kingdoms Rebellion, it is not difficult to find that in feudal wars, the "so-called" military strength could not be taken seriously.

Because the weaker side will most likely exaggerate its own military strength in various ways, so as to put psychological pressure on the enemy and win more support from the fence-sitters.

Although the powerful side may not bother to "claim" to be so, they will tacitly count all kinds of non-combat organizations into the "total force".

In summary, during the Rebellion of the Seven States of Wu and Chu, the rebels had an effective force of about 100,000, and Zhou Yafu's army to suppress the rebellion also had an effective force of nearly 100,000.

In terms of numbers, the two sides were evenly matched, but in terms of combat quality, Zhou Yafu's troops had the advantage.

As for Dou Ying's troops - whether it is the 'total force' of 200,000 or the effective force of 50,000 to 60,000, they can actually be ignored.

Throughout the entire war, Dou Ying's troops did not participate in the fighting at all, and never approached any battlefield within a hundred miles.

You asked, has the Han family invested in these 200,000 people?
Were food and fodder provided? Were there any rewards for merit after the war?
Did these 200,000 people play any role during the war?
The answer is of course: yes.

But after all, he did not directly participate in the war, and his only role was to stabilize the morale of his own troops and deter the morale of the rebels.

In this way, during the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms of Wu and Chu, the Guandong rebels vs. the central court in Chang'an, the front battlefield was almost one hundred thousand people vs. one hundred thousand people.

After understanding this, let's look back at the 130,000 troops that Liu Rong planned to deploy in the Battle of Gaoque.

——These 130,000 people, every single one of them is an "effective force" and they all have to go to the battlefield to kill the enemy!

Liu Rong didn't even take into account the auxiliary troops, the camp troops, the civilian laborers, and the like!
In other words, the number of troops Liu Rong planned to deploy in this war far exceeded that of the Wu-Chu rebels under the command of King Liu Bi of Wu in those days, both in terms of numbers, combat qualities, and comprehensive combat power.

Gaoque is extremely similar to Hangu Pass.

This results in a very interesting and quite convincing reference.

Just imagine.

What would have happened if Liu Bi had appeared outside Hangu Pass with the main force of the rebels, who were said to have a million men but actually had more than 200,000 men and an effective force of only 100,000?
In the past, whenever the topic of 'what if the rebels had arrived at Hangu Pass' was mentioned, Liu Rong would always say: Regardless of whether the rebels could take Hangu Pass or not, as long as they appeared outside Hangu Pass, Chang'an would be in turmoil and Emperor Qi might 'abdicate'!
If we ignore the political significance of this matter and look at it purely from a military perspective: Based on the above assumptions, could King Liu Bi of Wu capture Hangu Pass?
There is a high probability that it cannot be defeated.

But Liu Rong wanted to say: Why?
Why don't you consider the political significance of this matter? !
——Back then, if the rebel army of King Liu Bi of Wu had sent a small army, a vanguard, or even a single scout to the outside of Hangu Pass, the whole world would have been shocked!

Now that the Han army soldiers have appeared outside Gaoque, won’t this cause turmoil in the Munan area guarded by Gaoque and the core Xiongnu city of Longcheng in the heart of Munan?

Of course, Chang'an could not be taken away. Emperor Qi could only and must stay in Chang'an, while Xiongnu Chanyu Ting could roam around.

The significance of Chang'an to the Han Dynasty is countless times more important than that of Longcheng to the Huns.

But no matter how small the impact is, it is still an impact, right?
The Han army sent soldiers to Gaoque, threatening Munan behind Gaoque and Longcheng.

Even if the Xiongnu Chanyu can move around with the Chanyu Court, it does not mean that the Xiongnu people do not care about the Munan area and Longcheng at all!
Back then, King Wu Liu Bi used 100,000 effective troops - especially those who sold everything they had, including the elderly, the weak, women and children - to force Emperor Xiaojing Liu Qi to behead his mentor.

Now, Liu Rong plans to send out an effective force of 130,000 well-trained and combat-qualified troops to raid the Huns' gateway in the Munan area: Gaoque.

Wouldn't the Huns be frightened and in panic?

Wouldn't it be hot for the tiger-skin Chanyu seat under the old thief Junchen to get his butt burned?

Even if the Han army failed to capture Gaoque in this battle, and even provoked a fierce counterattack from the Xiongnu, Liu Rong was certain that after this battle, the next Xiongnu envoy who came to Chang'an would definitely not be sent by Junchen Chanyu.

To be precise, it is impossible for it to be sent by the Xiongnu's "former Chanyu": Luandi Junchen.

Let’s talk about the Battle of Gaoque itself.

The investment of 130,000 combat troops may not seem like much, but considering that during the Wu-Chu Seven Kingdoms Rebellion, the main force of the rebels had 100,000 troops, it could be said to be Liu Bi's foundation for fighting for the world.
In the Battle of Gaoque, these 130,000 people had to squeeze together to capture and defend Gaoque.

The former was a full-scale rebellion that affected most of the Central Plains, while the latter was a local war targeting a single pass.

Liu Rong was very sure: it was almost impossible for these 130,000 people to go to the battlefield at the same time and it was impossible for them to be deployed outside Gaoque.

Considering the size of the target and the scope of the war, the number of 130,000 is already very high.

What's more, these 130,000 are only the troops deployed on the Gaoque battlefield.

Yes.

Just like the Hetao-Mayi Campaign, which was divided into two battlefields, the Battle of Gaoque also had more than one battlefield.

The only slight difference is that in this battle, except for the fixed Gaoque battlefield, the other battlefields are uncertain.

Not only is the location uncertain, but even its existence is uncertain.

For example, Hexi.

At the same time as the Battle of Gaoque broke out, Liu Rong planned to send another army to conduct strategic deterrence patrols in the western and northwestern regions of Hetao.

In addition, an army must be stationed in the western part of Hetao to guard against the Hexi tribes on the opposite bank.

The purpose was naturally to prevent the tribes in Hexi, who were loyal to the Xiongnu Chanyu Ting, from launching support for Gaoque after the Battle of Gaoque broke out.

There are two ways for the Hexi tribes to support Gaoque.

——Or, march northeast along the river from Hexi and directly provide support to Gaoque;

Or, they could cross the nearby river to the east, invade and attack the western part of Hetao to divert the Han's attention and achieve an effect similar to "besieging Wei to save Zhao".

Both scenarios are possible, and may even happen at the same time - after all, the various tribes in Hexi are not a monolithic entity. Some may choose to directly support Gaoque, some may choose to "besiege Wei to save Zhao", or simply fish in troubled waters and reap some benefits in the western part of Hetao.

Both are possible, so the Han family naturally has to guard against both.

Therefore, in addition to the 130,000 combat troops on the Gaoque battlefield, there must be a border defense force of at least 50,000 people in the western part of Hetao; and another mobile force of about 30,000 people is needed to patrol along the western and northwestern parts of Hetao to Gaoque.

Furthermore, the Hetao region itself also requires military force to suppress it.

——After all, it hasn’t been long since the Han Dynasty took control of Hetao.

During the Hetao-Mayi battle, the various tribes in Hetao knelt down very smoothly.

But in a sense, it also shows that these tribes themselves lack "stability".

Last year, these people were able to bring the Han army to their knees. In this year's Battle of Gaoque, they were able to kneel down and lick their Xiongnu compatriots, and even make trouble in the rear, preventing the Han army from concentrating on attacking Gaoque.

Therefore, there needs to be 50,000 to 80,000 troops inside the Hetao area, either broken up into small groups or gathered in one place to prevent possible fires in the backyard.

Fortunately, these people do not have to be elite troops - most of them are reservists, plus some core veterans, which is enough.

Just calculating in this way, in the whole battle, there were 130,000 troops in the main battlefield of Gaoque, 50,000 troops stationed in the western part of Hetao, 30,000 troops patrolling in the northwest, and 50,000 troops staying in Hetao - the total force deployed by the Han family unknowingly reached a staggering 260,000 people!
Two hundred and sixty thousand soldiers!

What concept?
——According to the ratio of civilian laborers to soldiers in battles outside the Great Wall, Liu Rong needs to recruit as many as 780,000 civilian laborers for these 260,000 soldiers!
In this battle, the 'total force' deployed by the Han Dynasty will reach a sensational level, and it will be genuine without any 'claim' of water: millions of people!
Today, the Han Dynasty has a population of about 30 million, with nearly 5 million households.

A war that required the Han Dynasty to deploy a million men meant that, on average, one man out of every five households in the Han Dynasty's territory would have to fight.
All the people in the world, regardless of age, gender or children - except for children who were not yet old enough to start fighting, on average one person for every thirty adults would join the war.

This ratio is extremely terrifying.

Because the concept of 'adults' includes the elderly and women.

If you remove the women from a group of thirty adults, there will be half left, and if you remove the elderly, there will be half less.

This means that one out of every seven to eight able-bodied men will, in the harsh winter of this year, either as a soldier or as a civilian, set foot on the Hetao land from Chaona Pass.

Such huge labor costs naturally mean equally huge logistical supply costs.

——With millions of people, the monthly food consumption is as high as two million shi!
The war only needs to last for six months, and the consumption of military rations will be enough to eat up the Han Dynasty's theoretical agricultural tax revenue for an entire year!
Taking into account that nowadays, 30% of the Han Dynasty's agricultural taxes will be withheld by local governments, and the rest will mostly be used to pay officials' salaries.

The surplus available for "operation" is less than 10% of the total agricultural tax.

In other words: if the Xiangfu National Treasury was responsible for the supply of food and fodder in this Battle of Gaoque, it would only take more than half a month to eat up the surplus agricultural tax revenue of the Xiangfu National Treasury last year.

If the fighting lasts for three to five months, then the prime minister's treasury will have no chance of doing anything for the next ten years - they will just have to rest and recuperate, and try not to default on the salaries of officials, which can be considered as "burning out".

Of course, according to convention and system, the food rations for these one million people are not actually the responsibility of the government.

——The conscripted civilians had to provide their own rations, as well as bows, swords, and other items they brought with them for "ulterior motives" and to achieve great things.

As for combat units, apart from the Southern and Northern Imperial Guards, the standing field armies like the Feihu Army, or the professional soldiers directly under the central government such as the Huben and Yulin Arms;

In theory, anyone who is not a member of the standing armed forces and is not a professional soldier but is drafted into the army before the war should also provide his own dry food and weapons.

Of course, in the actual operation process, the Han emperor would often relax the standards a little.

For example, experienced veterans and special soldiers, such as giant shield soldiers, armored soldiers, crossbowmen, etc., who do not have the ability to "provide their own weapons" can report to the military camp empty-handed.

As for rations, they were often only required to bring a symbolic amount for three to five days, and the central government would be responsible for the rest.

But the civilians had never been treated like this before - they had to bring their own food, drinks, daily necessities, weapons and ammunition.

But in this battle, Liu Rong planned to fill this gap.

The reason is simple - the hardships of fighting outside the Great Wall are easy to imagine even if Liu Rong has not experienced it.

For example, at the moment, if the more than one million people calculated by Liu Rong really left Chaona and went to Hetao, who knows how many of them would be buried in a foreign land and die outside the Great Wall!
Moreover, this battle was different from previous rebellions of princes or large-scale battles with the Huns - there was only a Gaoque on the battlefield!
Except for the absolutely elite troops who climbed to the top of Gaoque Wall, any other civilians, auxiliary soldiers, and even troops responsible for other strategic tasks would almost never get the opportunity to kill the enemy and gain merit.

When the Han Dynasty was conscripting civilians before a war, why didn't the people show much resistance?

It is precisely because there is an opportunity to achieve merit - as long as you are lucky, you may be able to chop off the head of an enemy who has lost his way and separated from the main force!

In a war like this where civilians had almost no chance to make achievements and had to endure extreme hardships and suffer non-combat injuries and deaths, Liu Rong really wanted to give them some compensation.

After thinking about it, the only thing I can think of is food rations.

——Don’t let them pay for their own food and go to Hetao to make selfless contributions to the army;
Give them a bite to eat.

Even giving half, or even part of it, is better than giving nothing at all.

"Pasta, close to the combat troops;"

"Leave the millet to these poor people."

"If everything goes well, we must not forget them when we reward meritorious service and provide pensions for the disabled after the war."

Thinking of this, Liu Rong, with his hands behind his back, made a rare appearance at Shanglin Garden - Bowang Garden, which he had not visited for a long time and had not had time to visit for several months.

Looking at the outskirts of the garden, the tenant farmers were cleaning up the straw with hunched bodies but not looking sad.

Looking inside the garden, the vast wilderness that was sparsely populated a few years ago is now full of houses and people coming and going.

Liu Rong smiled inexplicably and felt a sense of peace that he had never experienced before.

But in the end, Liu Rong did not stay anywhere else for too long, but went straight to a military restricted area deep in the garden that was connected to the hunting ground.

——How to capture Gaoque at a lower cost is Liu Rong’s top priority right now.

In the current Han Dynasty, almost all military supplies that can reduce the casualties of Han soldiers and simplify the course of the war - whether in the trial stage or in mass production - will only appear at the destination of Liu Rong's trip.

Shanglin, Bowang Luban Garden...

(End of this chapter)