My life is like walking on thin ice

Chapter 491 Good News
When the victory news of "Gaoque was about to be conquered" was transmitted back to Chang'an, Liu Rong took the news with trembling hands.

——It was not only because of the importance of Gaoque that Liu Rong was excited.

It was also because this good news came too early - more than three or five days earlier than Liu Rong had originally predicted!
Therefore, while Liu Rong was excited about capturing Gaoque for the Han Dynasty, he also had a hint of doubt in his heart.

Could it be that Zhidu had stuffed all the more than 30,000 vanguards into Gaoque?
What's worse, Cheng Buzhi was also bewitched by Zhidu, and only gained a quick victory at the cost of tens of thousands of casualties?

It was not until he received the victory report, spread it out, carefully read its contents, and imagined the entire battle process in his mind that Liu Rong finally calmed down and was able to feel completely happy for the victory.

——No unexpected casualties!

Gao Que's meat grinder only roared for less than half a day!

Although there were still thousands of Han soldiers caught in this meat grinder, the Han army's war loss estimate of "at least tens of thousands of casualties" before the battle was reduced by more than half!
Even if we include the non-combat casualties caused by extreme weather and marching under extreme conditions, it is still within the acceptable range for the Han family!

Zhidu's vanguard consisted of 35,000 men, and eventually nearly 32,000 of them arrived at Gaoque, and at least 30,000 of them lived to see Gaoque being captured by the Han!
It sounds like a lot - nearly three thousand people froze to death, suffered frostbite, or were missing, and nearly two thousand were killed or wounded on the battlefield.

But don't forget.

At the beginning, the troop budget for Zhidu's vanguard was as high as 50,000 people!

Zhidu asked for a budget at the beginning, so that he could lead 50,000 people out of Bowang, and finally 30,000 people could reach Gaoque, and more than 20,000 people could survive after the war, and he asked Liu Rong for money!
The 20,000 non-combat casualties in the Source Plan were reduced to less than 3,000, only 15% of the original plan.

The original plan for combat casualties was 10,000, but in reality it was less than 2,000, also only 20% of the original plan.

If Zhidu's troops are in such a good condition, then Cheng Buzhi's central army is even more pleasing.

——From the time Cheng Buzhi led his troops out of the Bowang camp to the time when the Huns in Gaoque were eliminated and the battle for Gaoque was declared over, the total number of casualties in Cheng Buzhi's central army was controlled at an appalling two thousand.

Two thousand people!
Two thousand casualties, not two thousand killed!

Among these two thousand people, quite a few were rescued and even continued to serve as "elite veterans who had been injured and had combat experience"!
This is very scary.

Think about what the scene was like more than 50 years ago when Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang was trapped on Mount Baideng during the Han-Xiongnu Battle of Pingcheng.
——There were hundreds of casualties on the actual battlefield, but the elite guards of the Southern and Northern armies suffered tens of thousands of casualties!
The five schools of the Southern Army, including the three schools brought by Emperor Gao, had a total of 6,000 troops, but their organization was destroyed after the war!
Of the eight schools of the Northern Army, five were taken to Pingcheng by Emperor Gao, totaling 10,000 troops. However, after the war, less than a thousand people were still serving in the Northern Army!
In the Battle of Baideng, the Han army had at least tens of thousands of veteran soldiers who were experienced in battle!

If this is an asymmetric war surrounded by enemies and is not representative, let’s talk about some more recent examples.

In the fourteenth year of Emperor Taizong Xiaowen's reign, the Xiongnu Lao Shangchan's army pressed forward, the north and Longyou were devastated, and Yanmen and Shanggu were littered with corpses.

How many Han people died at that stop?
——The first battle was against the Beidi Duwei's troops in Chaona Sai. A total of 5,000 border guards were wiped out, and no one survived, including the Duwei himself!

Five thousand people!

It's still the border guards!
Among them there is even a captain at the level of a general, five lieutenants at the level of a lieutenant general, ten team commanders, and fifty battle-hardened marquises - without exception, they are the backbone of the border defense force!
This was only the first battle, and it was only the first battle after the Huns broke through the Han country and officially started the war.

How many casualties were there afterwards?
Official historians recorded: In the winter of the fourteenth year before Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu invaded Xiaoguan.

The following year, the nationals of Qi, Chu, Wu and Huai were moved to populate the border counties such as Beidi and Longyou.

It may be difficult to calculate how many people died on the battlefield and how many were abducted by the Huns.

But in the second year after the war, Emperor Taizong Xiaowen forcibly relocated dozens of people from inland areas in order to fill the population gap in the counties along the border.

Among them, in Longyou, where the fighting was the most brutal, it is said that "nine out of ten houses were empty", and some villages were completely wiped out, with not a single person left.

Liu Rong also did some calculations.

From the seventh year of Emperor Gaozong (200 BC) when Emperor Gaozong was trapped in the Siege of Baideng, to the second year of Emperor Liu Rong (148 BC) after the end of the Han-Xiongnu Hetao-Mayi period.

During the 52 years before and after, how many Han soldiers and civilians died under the hooves of the Xiongnu's horses, or were abducted to the grasslands and became slaves?
The rough number Liu Rong came up with was: nearly 100,000 generals and commanders in the army were killed in the battle!
The number of disabled people is many times greater, and the number of injured is countless.

In order to comfort the fallen soldiers, the central government of the Han Dynasty paid out nearly hundreds of millions of money in pensions alone - five years of agricultural tax revenue during the reigns of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing was given out as pensions for the fallen border soldiers!
If even the soldiers are like this, then the civilians are simply unbearable to look at.

During the fifty-two years, hundreds of thousands of civilians died at the hands of the Huns.

The number of people who were abducted, disappeared, or maimed by the Huns and subsequently unable to take care of themselves exceeded one million...

You have to know that the population of the Han Dynasty is only 30 million...

Even taking inheritance and iteration into account, since the rise of the Han Dynasty, the Han family has only had no more than 10 million white names.

Among the 100 million people, more than a million were either killed under the hooves of the Huns' horses or abducted by the Huns and taken to the grasslands, where they became slaves and servants, living a life worse than death.

This is an unimaginable proportion.

Can you imagine that an average of one hundred people you know - whether relatives, neighbors, friends, or colleagues - died/disappeared due to foreign invasion?
Especially this is the average ratio!
In fact, the vast majority of these figures are borne by the people living along the wall in the north!

So the question should be: Can you imagine that someone you know dies or gets lost every now and then?

Can you imagine a village you've visited that's like The Truman Show - a new batch of people every few years, and no two are ever the same?

Have you ever seen a city where there is not even a single living thing?

Have you ever seen human corpses that can block a river and pile up higher than the mountaintop?

Can you imagine that in the spring of the second year after a war, the drinking water you depend on for survival is still the scarlet color of blood...

It is no exaggeration to say that although the past fifty-two years are not the darkest period of Chinese civilization and the most miserable period for border people in the 5,000-year history of China, they are definitely unprecedented. Even if there will be dark years in the future, no one will want to have them!

Let’s go back and look at the Battle of Gaoque.

The number of troops involved in the battle was less than 100,000, and the total number of casualties was around 5,000, less than half.

is it a lot?
In particular, among these more than 5,000 heroes, most of them were non-combat casualties caused by marching in extreme weather and extreme conditions.

On the real battlefield, the death rate of the Han army was controlled within 2%!

In the past, who would have dared to ask for such a low death rate?
Okay, let’s count the ‘casualties’ together.

The troops under Zhidu lost nearly 3,000 men and women before the battle, and nearly 2,000 men and women were wounded or killed during the battle.

The main force of Cheng Buzhi's central army suffered a total of 2,000 casualties.

Adding everything up, the total casualties in the Battle of Gaoque were 7000/85000.

8% nodded, which is still less than %.

——The total casualty rate is less than 10%!
Since the Han Dynasty, let alone the Battle of the North Wall, even the rebellions of the princes of different surnames and the princes of clans, was there any war whose casualty rate could be controlled below 10%?

Yes, if the army’s death rate exceeds 10%, morale will be low; if it exceeds 20%, the army will be dispersed; and if it exceeds 30%, it may collapse at any time.

This law applies to almost any army in the era of cold weapons, and even to most modern and contemporary armies in later generations.

But the standard here is the death rate, not the casualty rate!
The impact of casualty rate on military morale can be seen simply by recreating a scene like this.

You are a soldier, and together with nine other comrades, you are defending a section of the city wall.

On the first day of defending the city, the friend who was fighting next to you was killed.

On the third day, your sergeant was killed in battle.

On the fourth day, a young man from your village was also killed in the battle.

There are only seven of you left on the city wall. How do you feel?
Do you still have the confidence to defend this section of the wall and win this war?

Even if there is - after the war, when you return to your hometown, how will you face your neighbors, the orphans and widows of your superiors, and the parents of your friends?
The same scene: you are still a soldier, still guarding a section of the city wall with nine comrades.

On the first day, your friends, fellow villagers, and sergeants were all injured and sent down the city wall.

That night you went down the city wall and went to see them.

Their injuries varied in severity - a friend had a cut, a fellow villager had his calf stabbed, and the sergeant had several fingers chopped off.

You are a little sad, but far from losing the will to fight.

The next day, there were seven of you left, and two more of you were injured.

You still went to visit them that night. They were seriously injured and might not be able to get out of bed, but they were still alive.

On the third day, there were five of you left, and one more was injured.

The reinforcements finally arrived, and you have gathered ten people, but you only know three of your comrades who fought together at the beginning.

The fourth day, the fifth day, the sixth day...

By the seventh day, there are no longer any comrades you knew and with whom you fought side by side at the beginning on this section of the wall.

There are nine new recruits around you.

As for your nine wounded comrades, one died of his injuries, and the remaining eight are lying in the wounded camp, chatting and gossiping every day.

When they see you coming, they keep saying you are stupid and dumb. It would be better for us to lie down in the wounded camp together.

You just smile and tell yourself: This city must be defended!
Regardless of whether our comrades survive or not, we must bring them back home!
...

This is the most realistic portrayal of the "death rate" and "casualty rate".

The casualties were mostly injuries, and a small number were deaths.

Furthermore, the attention of the survivors will be instinctively drawn to the 'wounded'. Unless there is a very deep connection, the dead will always be ignored.

——It’s not because they are not important, but because the human body’s protective mechanism forces the survivors to ignore and forget the dead in order to maintain emotional stability.

The death rate often has the most direct impact on an army's morale and even the direction of subsequent battles.

Because when the people around you are dying in battle rather than being injured, your emotions will inevitably accumulate.

When your comrades are injured or dead, you can still focus your attention on the "injured" and chat with them to divert their attention.

But if there are only the dead, then you can only force yourself to accept the reality: your comrades are dying quickly.

You never know when it will be your turn.

The wives, children, the elderly, and parents of the comrades-in-arms were destined to become targets of bullying and attack by the idlers and ruffians in the village.

You're almost there too.

When you die in battle, your parents, wife, children, and family will become the fattest and easiest to control in the eyes of your evil neighbors, and you don't have to worry about backlash.

Then, you become a zombie.

You don't know who you are fighting for or why you are fighting.

For the country?

Comrades died one by one, the troops were almost wiped out, and the city was about to be broken!

How long can the country last?

For home?

You're going to die in battle...

Your family will soon become meat on the chopping block, to be torn apart and divided by the evildoers...

What kind of home is this for...

It can be said that what Liu Rong was most happy about in the Battle of Gaoque was not even the capture of Gaoque itself.

Instead, while capturing Gaoque and achieving such a far-reaching and grand strategic goal, bringing such great strategic gains to the Han Dynasty and inflicting such a heavy strategic blow to the Xiongnu, the casualty rate was still controlled at a completely acceptable level - even lower than expected.

Liu Rong has always insisted on this statement.

——War is a battle of logistics, a battle of national strength, but ultimately, a battle of people.

As long as people are still alive, everything is easy to say and anything is possible.

But if the people are gone, even if you have a vast territory, there will be no one to guard this fertile land.

There is a joke in later generations.

——In troubled times, others store grain while I store guns. Others are my granary.

The same is true.

When others occupy the land, I will expand my army. Others are my backyard...

"Zhidu, Cheng Buzhi, your contribution will be remembered for generations to come~"

"——In the later Zhu Ming Dynasty, the God of War defeated all the elites of China in one battle, and completely ruined the destiny of our Chinese nation."

"Now, after the battle of Gaoque, our Han family suffered almost no losses. How can this not be considered as a sign of national prosperity?"

Thinking of this, Liu Rong just slightly raised the corners of his mouth and waved his hand.

"Draft an imperial edict!"

"Enfeoffment: Yanmen Governor and former General Zhidu, the title of Marquis of Jiancheng, with a fief of 2,200 households."

"The governor of Shuofang, the general of the chariots and cavalry, Cheng Bushi, the marquis of Bowang, was granted an additional fief of 5,000 households!"

"Promote Bowang Hou Cheng Buzhi to be the Grand Marshal!"

"Lead the battle of Gaoque, and also take care of the supply of food, fodder and military equipment!"

...

"Send the Shaofu to transport a hundred cattle and a thousand sheep from Hetao to Gaoque to reward the whole army."

"All the items in the treasury that are related to the word 'warming up' should be transported to Gaoque!"

(End of this chapter)