In the era of cold weapons, countries that could mobilize millions of troops have always been a minority.
If we want to mobilize millions of people to join the army, the first thing is that the country must have a sufficient population base, so the territory of the country must be not much smaller.
In addition, the country needs to have enough agricultural areas to produce enough food to feed the huge population. The usual accumulation supports and mobilizes millions of people to become the basis of soldiers.
In addition to the population, territory and sufficient food, the country's economic strength must not be too low. After mobilizing soldiers, they can't be left empty handed. In addition, there is the need for uniform.
With the above foundations, a strong central government is indispensable. Otherwise, even if the country has a large population and how developed the economy is, without a strong central government, the country's strong strength actually belongs to the level that can not be used.
For example, the state of Qin in the Warring States period repeatedly mobilized more than 500000 troops with a population of 45 million. Qinting is a center with superb combat effectiveness. It not only mobilizes the source of troops, but also usually ensures sufficient military supplies.
For the rest of the Warring States during the same period, not a few countries were able to mobilize millions of troops, but usually because the hub did not have enough executive power, it clearly had a huge population base, but usually being able to mobilize 200000 or 300000 troops was to reach the limit.
At that time, there was a special Warring States period. Chu had the largest population, the largest territory and the largest economic strength, second only to Qi. However, Chu could not give full play to the combat effectiveness of the country because of its special national conditions.
In each dynasty of Zhuxia, there were not many countries that could mobilize millions of troops. Only millions of troops could be mobilized. Up to the Warring States period, the states of Qin and Chu, the Western Han Dynasty emperor Xiaowu, and the state of Shijie and Zhao, who were disorderly and disorderly.
If we can mobilize millions of troops and mobilize the army to the battlefield, then we can only rely on the Qin and Chu states in the pre-Qin period, plus the Western Han Dynasty in the Liu Che period.
Looking back, the standing troops of the Northern Song Dynasty have always exceeded one million, but those who can pull out for field operations have never exceeded one hundred thousand; The Ming Dynasty was also a dynasty with more than one million standing troops for most of the period. The same as the Northern Song Dynasty, the so-called standing army really didn't have many field troops.
Mobilize millions of troops, and really deploy millions of troops to the battlefield. Counting, it is only the state of Qin in the pre-Qin period that really does this.
For example, Emperor Xiaowu of the Western Han Dynasty mobilized millions of troops, but in fact there were not so many troops to the war. The most frequent one was Wei Qingtong's 450000 troops and Huo Qubing's 30000 troops. In addition to the two uncles and nephews, the combined forces of the other border prefects and school captains were about 130000. Together with some border troops, the total force used in a campaign was more than 700000.
After this battle, the state funds and treasuries of the Western Han Dynasty were probably empty, and the troops used for a long time did not exceed 100000. Until Liu Che's death, he once again used a total force of more than 150000. It was Li Guangli, general of the second division, who went on an expedition to Dawan.
Other dynasties? There are millions of standing troops in the national air force, but whether it is passive defense or active attack, we rarely see examples of more than 200000 troops deployed on a single battlefield.
"The million troops of the Han Dynasty..." Xie an said with emotion: "it is by no means a garrison!"
Xie AI understood what Xie an said.
The so-called garrison is an army without field combat capability. It is usually the garrison of a city, and its quality is basically not good.
In the Han Empire 16 years before Yuan Shuo, there were a total of 15 standing armies, including the Huben army and the Yulin army. These standing armies are legions with field capability, with a total force of about 200000.
In fact, they are the so-called garrison soldiers at the next level. They have different qualities. In fact, there are no serious generals to practice. They can't even form a basic military array when they are pulled to the field battlefield.
Xie AI really understood what Xie an meant. In addition to the quality of the source of troops, the key is the general who controls the army.
This time, the shogunate of the western expedition will eventually reach 500000 troops, and the pressure on Xie an is not generally great.
How many people have commanded 500000 troops as a general in history? There are only a few generals who can command more than 500000 troops and win the war. They are dissatisfied with one hand.
The most famous and powerful person, there is no other candidate except Han Xin.
Han Xin despises Bai Qi and says that Bai Qi has a false name. He thinks that Bai Qi has no strong ability to control the army at all. What he refers to is that Bai Qi just brings the army to the battlefield and has no flexible command over the army. He just puts the army on the battlefield to fight a fool's war.
Is Baiqi really leading the army like that? Looking for some examples of Baiqi unified military operation, it seems that Han Xin is not wrong. Baiqi unified military operation is a word of "Gang". No matter how many enemies there are, set up a camp to wait for being gang. When the enemy just doesn't move, it's Baiqi's turn to go to gang.
Bai Qi has thoroughly mastered the key to the art of war, which is to win by coincidence and surprise. However, such a playing method requires a very high quality of his troops, especially the engineering troops. At the same time, the consumption of logistics will be very terrible.
With a hard and rigid playing method, there are almost no big victories and defeats, and the casualties won't be much less than those of the enemy. It's almost killing the enemy for 1000 and losing 800. This is also the reason why Han Xin despises Baiqi?
When Baiqi commanded the most troops, it reached 400000, perhaps less than this figure?
Han Xin's evaluation of Wang Jian, who was also a general of Qin Dynasty, was much higher, not only because Wang Jian's highest number of troops reached 600000, but also because Wang Jian was able to mobilize the 600000 troops in a vast area.
Instead of putting 600000 troops there and not mobilizing them, they just hold the camp. People with this ability are actually handsome in the real sense.
Han Xin's evaluation of Li Mu is also much higher than Bai Qi.
The reason is that Li Mu commanded more than 100000 troops and horses on the vast grassland, divided troops and joined forces many times, played superb tactics of cooperation between chariots and cavalry, and even commanded a larger number of infantry to win against the Huns composed of cavalry.
Han Xin's evaluation of himself is, of course, incomparable. A sentence "more soldiers, the better" is enough to explain everything. He didn't brag. He used many achievements to prove that he was really an incomparable brag.
Han Xin would like to ask: who else can command more than 700000 troops in history, and can do it like an arm?
Every general will compare himself with famous generals in history, and Xie an is no exception.
When Xie an learned that he would command the 500000 real troops, he was much more nervous than excited.
Those who can command more than 500000 troops in history will either become famous generals or will inevitably become sinners nailed to the pillar of shame. Whether you win the war and become a famous general or become a sinner in a defeat, it is difficult to predict the future.
It's not unpredictable. Unless you command the army as a king, you will end up being suspected by the king!
"An didn't have the talent of Huaiyin Hou, so he can only serve the king with fear." Xie'an said this sentence specially for Xie AI: "please use your heart when introducing."
Xie AI saluted without saying much.
The northwest of jilongpo is a vast plain. After the Persian army came, it chose to camp 120 miles away from the Han Army camp.
Habibra didn't plan to build a defense line at the beginning, and the camp didn't have much complex layout.
The camp of more than 200000 troops covers a very wide area, which is definitely more than 20 square miles in terms of area.
They have the largest number of Chinese troops and cover the widest area.
Several camps are distributed around the Chinese army, mainly to arrange miscellaneous soldiers on the periphery. Even if they are attacked by the Han Army, they can stop them.
Because of the attention of Shapur II, the most famous legions in Sasan were transferred to the east when they learned that the Han army was moving westward.
It includes 5000 archers and 10000 undead troops who have inherited the name for nearly a thousand years. In addition, there are 3000 heavy cavalry and 6000 chariots, which constitute the absolute main force of the eastern Legion.
Persians have been playing with archers for nearly 3000 years. They formed archers in Darius period, but the number of archers in each period is not fixed.
During the period when the Parthians ruled this land, 15000 archers were once formed. In the early stage of their competition with the Romans, the archers beat the short legged Romans to the north and forced the Romans who were not good at riding to constantly improve their infantry defense. The Roman tortoise armor array was brought out in the process of resisting the Parthian archers.
Sassanne had learned the importance of saddles and stirrups from the Han Empire. They imitated them at the first time.
Because there was no technological barrier between saddle and stirrup, as long as there were enough craftsmen, they could produce them in large quantities. Within a short year, Persian cavalry popularized saddle and stirrup.
The Sassanian archers who got saddles and stirrups were sent to the battlefield in the Middle East for actual combat test. In the face of those rebellious Arabs, they killed one side after another more easily than ever before.
The existence of saddle and stirrup not only strengthens the archer, but also strengthens the heavy cavalry.
Before there were no saddles and stirrups, although Sassanian's heavy cavalry could collide, the problem was that even if it was only a straight line, some knights would fall off their horses. Again, because there is no strength point in their legs, their main weapon can only be a riding spear with a length of about six meters, or that kind of hard pole style riding spear.
With a hard pole style spear, even if one accidentally stabs the enemy, the knight will fall off his horse because of resistance.
With saddles and stirrups, Sassanian equipped heavy cavalry have made necessary reinforcement, especially inspired by the crossbow used by the Han Empire. Sassanian himself has also developed a crossbow machine with performance... That is, the range and penetration may not be as good as that of the Han Empire, but they have also made a large number of crossbow machines, which are divided into walking and riding. The heavy cavalry is equipped with crossbow Long hair and machete are strengthened. It's not a bit.
At the same time, Sassanian's contact with the Han Empire was far from inspired by saddles, stirrups and crossbows. They also found that the original plate armor was lighter than scale armor, that is, the manufacture of plate armor was more difficult than scale armor, which was caused by the decisive difference in technology.
If the Han Empire had not been so domineering, sassanne did not realize that no matter how tolerant it was, it would not have been possible to avoid the western advance of the Han Empire. After being strengthened, they once again had the confidence to press the Romans on the ground.
Unfortunately, the Persians who had contact with the high-level Han people, combined with the foreign policy of the Han Empire, confirmed that it was sooner or later for the Han people to advance to the West. They really didn't want to wait for all the troops of the Han Empire to change their firearms. They chose to feel that there was still a trace of victory, even if they couldn't win, they could keep the west, and opened the prelude to the war early.
"Maybe we can't wait any longer?" Habibra has just finished reading the information from the kingdom of didoro: "the Han people sent envoys to West Kushan and Kashmir. West Kushan is afraid of the military peak of the Han Empire and is very likely to choose to stand on the side of the Han Empire."
In fact, the relationship between sassanne and the kingdom of jidoro was not good. In the early days of Shapur II's accession to the throne, he did not take the achievements of the kingdom of jidoro and hit the city of Peshawar several times, forcing the kingdom of jidoro to offer enough tribute and slaves before withdrawing leisurely.
With the size, population and economic strength of the kingdom of jidoro, Sasan did not think that the kingdom of jidoro would be much threatened by the Han Empire.
The most important thing is that sassanne and Rome have created the anti Han axis, and not a few countries have joined. Then hunit has survived in name, and xigaoche has to move all over the country. In addition, conspiracy failed to get the Han Empire into internal trouble, which is bad news for the anti Han axis one by one.
The kingdom of jidoro chose to join the war in the camp of the Han Empire, which is likely to have a very bad effect on the anti Han axis.
"Your Highness's army will come soon." Habibra pondered for a moment and said, "I've decided to start south first and attack West kusana!"
There are 220000 troops here, and the Han Army has no sign of moving westward. It would be a good choice to draw 40000 or 50000 to attack the West Kushan. If the Han army takes action, whether it is to advance the war with the main camp, or send troops to the West Kushan, habibra thinks it will be a good thing.
"The Han army moves best." Habibra was extremely afraid of the Han Army that had not moved. He knew that his generals had the same psychology: "after I led the troops to leave..." he looked at a middle-aged man with high appearance: "pars, you can command the army to press forward appropriately."
"Your Highness will arrive in two days?" Pars, the great nobleman in the East and the current Deputy General of the Persian army, nodded when he got the answer: "I understand what to do."
A knife held high is the most frightening thing before it is cut down.