The Three Kingdoms began with island farming

Chapter 550: One Hundred Thousand Troops
How long would it take to send troops from Chang'an to attack the Kushan Empire, a distance of thousands of miles? What would be the loss rate?
Tian Ze once calculated this.

If grain is transported from Chang'an, it will take at least a year, and the grain loss rate will be over 95%.

Even if Guan Hai was there, the loss rate would not be less than 90%.

What is this concept?
If an army of 10,000 goes to war, it needs at least 100,000 or even 200,000 civilians to provide support.

From this perspective, the Kushans' attack on the Han Dynasty was simply a joke, and their failure was not surprising.

The more soldiers and horses there are, the faster they will die. Unless we can get food supplies in the Western Regions, it would be good enough if we can return alive.

This is also the reason why Tian Ze prepared to enfeoff seven kings and lead the western expedition with the seven kings as the main force.

The logistical difficulty of attacking Kushan from the Great Qi was beyond imagination and almost unfeasible.

This kind of war is unprofitable and difficult to achieve effective results, as it is easy to be defeated and wiped out.

It is necessary to build a base in the western part of the Western Regions that can be used for long-term operations and to provide money, food and other supplies. Otherwise, there will be no possibility of occupying Kushan, and the most that can be done is to teach the other party a lesson.

Chen Gong asked Tian Ze how many troops he was going to send.

Tian Ze really wanted to send out 500,000 troops.

After all, once the Central Plains was unified, Da Qi would have more than 1.5 million troops and no other strong enemies around, which would be too wealthy.

Even sending out a million troops would not be too much of a burden, after all, there are so many militias and reserve forces in various places.

However, there is still the issue of logistics. It is simply not realistic to send 500,000 troops.

After experiencing many wars, Tian Ze and his civil and military officers all deeply recognized one truth.

In large-scale wars, the key is logistics.

Unless one side makes a major mistake, logistics will directly determine the outcome of the war.

"Two hundred thousand troops!" Chen Gong said gritting his teeth, staring at Tian Ze.

Tian Ze was a little scared by looking at him.

"Ahem." Tian Feng coughed lightly, reminding Chen Gong to be more careful.

As a subject, doing this is extremely disrespectful.

Chen Gong also realized his mistake and bowed, "Your Majesty, please forgive me for my mistake, but it is impossible for us to defeat such a large army of 200,000!"

Hearing Chen Gong's decisive words, Tian Ze couldn't help but sigh.

"The Kushans are not a weak country. They have at least 200,000 elite soldiers. If we send too few troops, Yuan Benchu, Cao Mengde and others will be under too much pressure."

"Kushan is just the beginning. There are also Parthia, Rome and other countries behind. You don't want to just destroy Kushan and cripple them, do you?"

"Moreover, there are millions of people in the Western Regions. Add in Yuan Benchu, Cao Mengde and their people, and the population is no less than 10 million."

"If we spend a year to manage it, our troops can be fully supplied in the Western Region. This way, the logistical pressure can be greatly reduced."

Upon hearing this, Chen Gong interrupted and asked, "How much can it be reduced?"

Tian Ze was suddenly speechless.

"The place where the four kings gathered is none other than around Shule. If we send troops from Shule to attack Kushan, even if we calculate the distance from the Kushan capital Kapisa, it is at least four thousand miles away."

"Logistics will take half a year, and the food loss rate will be over 70%."

"An army of 10,000 people needs at least 30,000 to 40,000 civilians to protect it."

"Among the millions of people, apart from those who serve in the army and those who need to farm, how many young and strong people are available?"

"Your Majesty, do you think Yuan Benchu ​​and his men are capable of providing us with 800,000 young and strong men to support logistics? Their own troops also need support."

"Or should we just send a million young and strong people there? Even if that means we need to relocate tens of millions more people."

There are some accounts that you really don’t know until you calculate them, and you’ll be shocked once you do.

After listening to Chen Gong's analysis, Tian Ze was completely unable to figure out the account.

Now he finally understood why Chen Gong went crazy.

In civil war and foreign war, logistical pressure is completely different.

Zhuge Liang only had to attack Chang'an from Chengdu, but he had to go to Qishan six times because of logistical problems. It would be even more difficult for Tian Ze to attack Kushan.

"How about a hundred thousand soldiers and horses?" After thinking for a while, Tian Ze cut the number in half.

Chen Gong was still not satisfied and prepared to continue settling the score.

But Tian Ze waved him off.

He couldn't settle this account any further. If he continued to do so, he would probably have to give up the Western Expedition.

"Just one hundred thousand!"

"Putting aside everything else, I only want to ask whether Yuan Benchu ​​and his men can help maintain the 100,000 troops."

"We should still be able to recruit 100,000 young and strong men from Xiliang to the Western Regions for rotation. Count these 100,000 as well."

Seeing Tian Ze's attitude, Chen Gong sighed deeply.

If you don't become a householder, you don't know how expensive firewood and rice are.

Let’s not talk about Yuan Benchu, it’s not so easy to deal with these 100,000 young and strong men.

Although the danger to life is not great, a round trip will take at least two years.

Perhaps those with strong willpower could hold out for about three years and transport grain twice, but to do more than that would be unrealistic.

How much money and food would be needed to ensure that the people would be willing to go? These figures made Chen Gong feel dizzy just thinking about them.

But Tian Ze has obviously given up calculating the profit now and only asks whether it can be guaranteed.

This attitude is similar to that of Emperor Wu of Han when he conquered the Huns.

Regardless of gains and losses, we must fight. The only question is whether we can fight, not how much it will cost.

"Yes!" Chen Gong gritted out a word from between his teeth.

This world was conquered by Tian Ze. Tian Ze has absolute authority, but also a little bit of willful power.

He had countless reasons to stop Tian Ze, but he couldn't.

Unless Tian Ze is like Emperor Wu of Han, who defeated the country to the point where it is in danger of being destroyed, Chen Gong can only advise but cannot stop it.

"Then fight!" Tian Ze said without hesitation.

No matter how difficult the conditions are, it is not an excuse.

He doesn't have much time left. If he doesn't fight now, he will have to fight later, and more people will probably die.

Rather than this, it would be better to end it all in his generation.

After all, with his existence, Da Qi still has a great advantage.

This is the best opportunity.

"What about Sindhu?" Cheng Yu asked suddenly.

Chen Gong immediately glared at him and said, "Cheng Zhongde, you are really not a human being!"

Cheng Yu didn't care about Chen Gong's scolding at all. He knew that Chen Gong was already completely furious. It was considered restraint that he didn't chop him with a sword at this time.

However, he is a die-hard supporter of Tazawa.

Since Tian Ze has decided to fight, he has to help Tian Ze consider everything.

"Although Sindhu is far away from Yizhou, once we take over the southeast, if we can build water conservancy projects and transport goods by river and sea, we can solve the logistics problem very well."

"Let's take a step back. Even if water conservancy projects are difficult to build for the time being, it won't be difficult to transport supplies and food from Jiaozhou by sea."

"so……"

Cheng Yu looked directly at Tian Ze, his eyes full of determination.

"We can send 300,000 troops to Sindhu. After we take Sindhu, we can cooperate with the troops in the north to attack Kushan from both sides. This is completely feasible!"

(End of this chapter)