Video spoilers history, starting with the blitzkrieg on Poland

The marquee continues to play.

[Back to the topic, what was the status of white porridge and pickled mustard tuber in ancient times? ]

[Let's talk about white porridge first. It's easy to make. Just boil rice and water. In ancient times, it was indeed the staple food that many ordinary people longed for. ]

[Especially in times of famine, when the harvest was poor, the people didn’t have much food.]

[Cooking porridge can feed more people with limited food, after all, once water is added, the volume increases. ]

[But there is a big problem with this white porridge. It provides limited calories. ]

[A normal adult male who does physical work needs to consume more than 3000 calories a day to have the strength to work.]

[But it is too difficult to meet this calorie requirement by just eating porridge. ]

[For example, if you only drink porridge, it's like using a small pipe to fill a large pool with water. The speed can't keep up with the consumption. ]

[In ancient times, those who performed corvée labor, such as building the Great Wall and digging canals, did heavy physical work. If the rations given by the court were only porridge, they would not be able to survive.]

[Take the Qin Dynasty for example. According to the unearthed Qin bamboo slips, male prisoners were given 2 kilograms of "禾" every day during their labor.]

[This "禾" is most likely unthreshed millet. ]

[Ordinary common people could receive four pounds of unhusked millet as a subsidy every day when performing corvée labor. This is equivalent to about 2.6 pounds of coarse millet.]

[If this much millet is cooked into dry rice, it can barely fill your stomach. ]

[Although the taste is not as fresh and delicious as modern white porridge. ]

【But it can fill you up! 】

[But if it's cooked into porridge, you can only drink water to fill yourself up, and you'll be hungry again after a while. ]

【And even the poorest people. 】

[It is also served with wild vegetables and grains. ]

[Just eating porridge? That's like telling your subordinates: "We are running out of food."]

[Let's talk about pickled mustard tuber. Although there was no industrial production of pickled mustard tuber in ancient times like today, similar pickled vegetables have always existed. ]

[The biggest advantage of these pickled vegetables is that they are easy to preserve and convenient to carry. ]

[In ancient times when supplies were scarce, it was indeed a common side dish on the tables of ordinary people. ]

[Moreover, its salty taste can stimulate appetite, which is a good change for people who are used to eating light food. ]

[However, eating only mustard tuber is not enough, as it mainly provides salt and does not have much nutrition, let alone calories. ]

[It’s like cooking without adding oil, but only with seasonings. The dish has flavor, but it doesn’t fill you up.]

[The key is that these pickled foods are not cheap! ]

[Since salt was a hard currency in ancient times, ordinary people had to use it sparingly even when eating pickles.]

[If you really use "pickled mustard tuber" to feed the dead, the cost may be higher than meat. ]

[Unless the system only limits you to pickled mustard tubers, it would be better to prepare a few more meals of meat. ]

[Death soldiers are not ordinary menial workers, but "special forces" who require high-intensity training and combat. 】

[The nutritional structure of white porridge and mustard tuber is seriously unbalanced - lacking in protein, fat and vitamins. If you eat this for a long time, you will be weak in the knees, not to mention killing and robbing.]

[The food standards of the elite armies in ancient times were much higher than this. ]

[For example, the Qin army provided "one dou of corn, half a liter of soy sauce, and half a cup of salt."]

[The Song Dynasty imperial army was given "two liters of grain a day and ten coins for salt and vegetables."]

[This is just the treatment of ordinary soldiers. ]

[If the assassins had to eat porridge and pickled mustard greens every day, they would probably have fainted from hunger before they could even start.]

……

Tang Dynasty.

When Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, Li Longji, saw this, he nodded in approval.

"The army of our Great Tang swept across the world, conquered thousands of miles, and was invincible wherever it went."

"Tianmu has mentioned many times how strong the Tang warriors are."

"But the strength of the Tang army is not only because the soldiers fight for the Tang Dynasty, but also because our Tang army soldiers have the best supply system!"

"They are well fed, well clothed, have excellent weapons and armor, and their treatment after retirement is guaranteed."

“It’s a strong support system.”

"Or maybe it is the great national strength of the Tang Dynasty that has built the vast mountains and rivers of the Tang Dynasty and allowed the legend of the Tang army's invincibility to continue for many years!"

“Even if we lose battles occasionally, we can continue to expand our territory.”

"Like what's said on the sky curtain, white porridge and pickled mustard greens are enough to fill you up every day."

"It is indeed good to use it to provide relief to the victims during famine years."

"But do you want to use this kind of treatment to support a strong army?"

"Even raising assassins?"

"I can only say that this drama on the sky screen is overthinking."

As he was talking, Li Longji looked at the skit that was playing in the background on the sky curtain, and he felt more deeply about the plot of the skit.

It's just pure comedy.

……

[Some people may say that you are a soldier of a powerful regime during a peaceful time.]

[In ancient times, people had a hard life. When there was a famine, they could have porridge and pickled mustard greens to eat. Wasn't that something they should be thankful for?]

[For this bite of food, aren't you willing to be a dead soldier? ]

[From another perspective, even in a famine year, if you attract a group of people with porridge and pickled mustard, it is difficult for these people to become true warriors. ]

Why?

[Because in times of famine, most people who come here for a bite to eat are just trying to survive, and their loyalty is hard to guarantee.]

[Once there is a better place to go, or if there is danger, they will probably run away immediately.]

[A true warrior needs to undergo long-term training and cultivation, and his loyalty must be ingrained in his bones.]

【Like the period from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. 】

[Those big families, such as the Cui family of Boling, the Li family of Longxi, and the Wang family of Bingzhou. ] [The families have a large population, some of which have tens of thousands of people, which is simply a small kingdom. ]

[They want to train assassins, so they spend a lot of money and carefully select the right people from childhood. ]

[Provide them with good living conditions, teach them martial arts and strategies, and cultivate their absolute loyalty to the family.]

[These warriors are closely tied to the interests of their families, so they will sacrifice themselves for their masters without hesitation at critical moments.]

[Let's do some economic calculations. It's not a small amount to support a group of assassins.]

[Take Sima Yi's 2.5 warriors as an example. Assuming each warrior eats 700 kilograms of food a day, not counting vegetables, meat, eggs, and milk, they would consume two and a half tons of food a day, or more than tons a month.]

[How could it be easy to transport so much food to the home without anyone noticing in the ancient times when transportation of materials was inconvenient?]

[Also, with so many people eating, drinking, defecating and urinating, how do they deal with their daily excrement? ]

[Even if the food can be secretly transported, the excretion problem is not easy to solve. ]

[So, the economic cost of keeping a group of assassins is not something that most people can afford, let alone relying on a few bowls of porridge and a few dishes of pickled mustard.]

[If you must use the "white porridge and pickled mustard tuber" strategy, you can probably only support the following types of people:]

【The first is the refugee beggars.】

[In times of famine, refugees would "exchange their children for food", and a bowl of porridge could save their lives.]

[For example, in the Nian Rebellion in the late Qing Dynasty, many of the lower-level members were famine victims, but these people had very poor fighting ability and would collapse when they encountered regular troops. They were not considered death warriors at all.]

[Second, temporary cannon fodder. Some warlords would forcibly conscript able-bodied men, give them some porridge and send them to the battlefield, but these people had zero loyalty and would immediately defect or flee once the battle situation turned unfavorable.]

The third is religious fanatics.

[In the early days of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Hong Xiuquan used the "God Worshipping Religion" to gather believers, and the food was just "brown rice and wild vegetables", but the believers fought because of religious fanaticism. ]

[Even so, the Taiping Army still had to rely on looting food to survive in the later period. ]

[To sum up, white porridge and pickled mustard tubers could barely feed people in ancient times, but they could also raise a large number of people in troubled times. ]

[But we definitely can’t afford to support the dead soldiers. ]

[What really makes people work hard is either huge wealth or power and status, or at the very least, people have to believe that "there is a future in working with you."]

[If you travel back to ancient times and want to set up a private army, it is recommended that you prepare more gold, silver, food, and land. Otherwise, if you only rely on "full feeding", you won't even be able to recruit a few bandits. ]

[Of course, if you insist on "raising dead soldiers at low cost", you can only pray that your opponent is poorer than you. ]

[For example, if your enemy can only afford "boiled tree bark in water", then your white porridge and pickled mustard tuber may still be able to put up a fight. ]

The video ends here.

Barrages of comments appeared one after another.

"No, white porridge and pickled mustard greens are not enough to satisfy hunger. They can only ensure the daily activities of the army. The death soldiers are all masters of special skills. How can we support them?"

"With this standard, you still want to keep dead soldiers? There is no meat or vegetables. This standard is not even good enough for qualified hired farmers!"

"In fact, at the beginning, we had KFC and pork knuckle rice every day, but now it has been cut down to white porridge and pickled mustard tuber. "

"Cyberkay, beautiful, right?"

"Zhacai? Many people know that salt was as valuable as gold in ancient times, but they have no idea about the gold content of oil."

"If we can have unlimited rice and pickled mustard, and then use them to exchange for resources, we can take off."

"If the system stipulates that it can only be eaten, and only with white porridge and pickled mustard, then that won't work."

"Many assassins don't actually know they are assassins. It's only when the time comes that they realize they have no choice but to fight."

"I saw on TV that before the battle, the brothers drank a bowl of wine, and then they could recruit death squads."

"Those are called death warriors and vanguards. They are very different from death warriors!"

"The simplest dead "Shi" character, just from this word you know the cost can't be low. "

"Zhuan Zhu, Yu Rang, Jing Ke, which one can you invite with just a few meals?"

"Feng Xuan, a subordinate of Mengchangjun, was dissatisfied with the poor treatment and left several times. In the end, he was given a high treatment and made great contributions to Mengchangjun."

"Porridge can recruit refugees and rebel troops, but if you capture a city and still eat porridge and pickled mustard, don't blame your brothers for being ruthless."

"More than ten years ago, there was a case where a boss paid a lot of money to help an old man's daughter get medical treatment and also arranged a security job for the old man. Later, the boss's son was beaten seriously by gangsters. The boss was still going through the reporting procedure, but the old man just beat the gangsters. "

And outside the sky.

Late Han Dynasty.

Cao Cao laughed when he saw the video end, "These netizens from later generations, they want to raise a group of loyal soldiers with just porridge and pickled mustard greens? This is simply wishful thinking."

Xun Yu bowed and asked, "Prime Minister, in your opinion, how should we raise soldiers to die?"

Cao Cao stood up and paced back and forth in the hall.

"Death warriors are people who are willing to sacrifice their lives for us at the critical moment."

"If you want them to be loyal to you, you can't just give them a few bowls of porridge and a few plates of pickled mustard. Money, beautiful women, and high positions are all necessary."

"Just like how Dong Zhuo treated Lu Bu when he recruited him."

"But more importantly, we need to win their hearts."

At this point, Cao Cao suddenly said with some regret:

"What a pity... I tried to win over Guan Yu, giving him gold and silver for riding and dismounting, and a small banquet every three days and a big banquet every five days, but he still missed Liu Bei."

"I don't know what benefit this big-eared thief gave Guan Yu?"

But in the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang had truly suffered from hunger and several people in his family had starved to death.

I don't think it's that exaggerated.

"This white porridge and pickled mustard may look a bit shabby, but if you find the right person, you may be able to raise a brave warrior."

"For those who are desperate and starving, a bowl of hot porridge and a plate of pickled mustard tuber may be enough to make them feel grateful."

"When we were conquering the world, all the brothers around us went through life and death with us. We didn't want anything else, just to have enough food to eat and to have something to look forward to."

"The key to raising loyal soldiers is to choose the right people, those who value loyalty and have backbone."

"Once they recognize us, they will naturally work hard for us."

Zhu Yuanzhang talked eloquently, obviously recalling past events.

I remembered how I became the leader of my brothers. (End of this chapter)