The Ziqian family exchanged the national debt, and the Chu State, which was no longer short of money, bought 50,000 horses; Qi State lost a lot of military horses last winter, and the number of horses purchased was only a lot more than that of Chu State; Wei State only had a few soldiers, and also symbolically purchased 10,000 horses; Zhao State's 100,000 horses were not enough, but the army was changing clothes, so they had no money to buy horses. This year and next year, they could only make do with it temporarily, relying on the transportation system of Wei State and Chu State.

The four countries purchased more than 100,000 horses, and with the original horses, the cattle were definitely not as good as Qin, but the number of horses was far greater than that of Qin. The lack of horses had no effect on Meng Tian on the Western Front. The Qin army had been retreating, the logistics line was shortening, and it was impossible to use cavalry on a large scale in the mountains; it had no effect on Li Xin on the Northern Front. Li Xin, who had retreated to Xiangcheng, had only defensive tasks and no attack tasks. The real impact was Wang Jian, who was stationed in Puyang.

The Qi army had only more than 300,000 left. If the more than 300,000 Qi army was annihilated, the Qin army could march straight into Linzi. According to Wang Jian's intention, he would continue to consume the Qi army's soldiers. When Qi was invincible, Qi was destroyed. But now the Qin army on the Western Front had failed, and the National Weifu Mansion required Wang Jian to destroy Qi this year. This requirement naturally increased the difficulty of logistics supply.

The Qin army set out from the Qi-Chu border and attacked Linzi nearly 500 miles; it led to Linzi and continued eastward, attacking the Weishui coast for more than 700 miles; if it still wanted to go south to occupy Muling Pass, the journey would be even further, and the army would advance almost 900 miles. This was an attack in winter. There was a lesson from the Qin army's food for the enemy, and the Qi people would definitely strengthen the walls and clear the fields this time.

There were originally 80,000 servant cows and 70,000 horses in the army. Relying on these big animals, the Qin army could barely attack Linzi. This was the case when the Qi people were not strong enough to clear the fields. If the Qi people were strong enough to clear the fields, the Qin army would have no houses to remove in winter. With dry firewood, the logistics would need more materials to transport. For a longer distance, the army would have to have 200,000 cattle and 160,000 horses to keep the horses.

Horses and cows are different. Horses are tall, with at least five feet above one gui, and cows are less than three feet above one gui. In terms of pulling strength, the pulling strength of the cows is not much higher than that of the horse. The two horse-drawn carriages pulled by two oxen, and the load capacity increases by about one tenth. However, the food intake of the cows is much greater than that of the horses.

The speed of the army's advancement is about one house every day. There is no difference between whether this speed is ox carts or horse carts. However, the transportation efficiency of horse carts is twice that of ox carts. In a word, it is absolutely impossible to have no horse. During the banquet in the North City of Daliang, Wang Jian slowly said this in the Puyang temple.

"This is also a helpless move," Wang Ao explained. "There are not many horses in the country. Half of the horses in Longxi and northern horse farms are horses of horses. If this horse is used to pull and drag, it is a pity. For the current plan, I can only give more cattle to transport it with cattle..."

"The ox is transported by the ox. The ox travels too slowly every day, and it is not enough." Liu Chi, the trusted person, had to interrupt. "The ox can eat a day, but it can be used to carry a horse for two days. If a cart transports four thousand kilograms, this..."

Liu Chi cannot say the word daily loss rate, but this means. The daily loss rate of a carriage is different from that of a ox carriage. Two horses pull 1,000 kilograms, two ox carriages pull 1,100 kilograms, two horses consume 20 kilograms a day, and two horses consume 20 kilograms a day, plus the imperial hand, it will only be 22 kilograms at most; two oxes consume 30 kilograms or even forty kilograms of forage every day, and plus the imperial hand, it will be 42 kilograms.

In this way, the daily loss of the carriage is 2.2%, and the daily loss of the ox carriage is 3.81%. If a carriage is full of cattle and horse materials, how many days will the carriage be carried? The carriage is feasible: 1/2.2% = 45 days; while the ox carriage is feasible: 1/3.81% = 26 days. Including the round trip, that is, the itinerary is divided into two, that is, the carriage is feasible for twenty-two days, and the ox carriage can only be thirteen days.

The thirteen-day itinerary is only 60 miles a day. In other words, relying on the ox cart, the materials on the cart can be transported to the Weishui coast at most, and it is impossible to think far. Moreover, the daily loss rate of the ox cart is high, and the ten-day itinerary of the horse cart only consumes less than half of the materials on the cart (not forgetting that the return journey will be ten days, that is, twenty days); the ten-day itinerary of the ox cart, plus the ten-day return journey, three-quarters of the materials on the cart have been consumed by the servants themselves.

Because of the food volume and daily itinerary, the transportation efficiency of ox carts is low, and the low efficiency can be compensated by quantity within a short distance. If the transportation exceeds 800 miles in a long distance, it cannot be compensated by quantity, because this is the limit of ox cart transportation. Long-distance transportation can only be solved by pyramid-type barges. Ten ox carts bring supplies, and after being transported to the destination, they are transported by a ox cart or a horse cart to the front.

Any seemingly simple problem will become extremely complex in war, so the principle of war is that the simpler thing is, the more reliable it is. Logistics is the basis of military activities, and logistics relies on transportation to solve it. The transportation location will penetrate deep into the enemy territory. Once the local Qi people attack the transportation point, or the Chu cavalry attacked the transportation point, it would be a disaster for the Qin army.

In the shogunate, strategists were discussing how to use ox carts to support the battle to destroy Qi. Wang Jian remembered the tragic situation of the Qin army being driven out of breath by the coalition forces last winter and killing countless soldiers along the way. Retreat from Linzi is already the result, retreating from the Weishui coast, retreating from Muling Pass... No, the Qin army really wants to advance to Muling Pass, and there is no possibility of retreating. Instead of letting the army freeze and dispersing during retreat, it is better to fight the coalition forces to the death.

"Father, what should I do if I destroy Qi without horses?" Although Wang Ben was not as good at calculating as a strategist, he had been practicing military affairs for a long time and knew that it would be impossible to rely on slow ox carts to transport it. "Does the king want to blame me again?"

Wang Ben's last sentence was very gentle, only Wang Jian could hear it. Wang Jian's face changed when he heard this. He did not scold him loudly, and also said softly: "Nonsense! How could the king have such a heart."

"If the king had no such intention, why wouldn't he hold the horse?" Wang Ben had indeed been practicing military affairs for a long time, but he didn't know what was outside the military affairs. In his eyes, what the front line needed, the rear could provide. This has been the case with the Qin army for a long time. Even in the battle of Changping, the king never disappointed the generals on the front line.

"The king must have difficulties." Wang Jian didn't know why the rear could not provide the horse he needed, but his judgment of the situation was very accurate. After the Chu army captured Hanzhong, the Qin army would take Qi as soon as possible, otherwise Qin would lose the entire war.

"Difficult? What is the difficulty that can be more difficult than destroying Qi?" Wang Ben was angry. "If there was no horse to transport food, fodder and dry firewood, how could the army destroy Qi?"
Chapter completed!