The great hero of the Silk Road, starting from a farm farmer

Chapter 227: Logistics and battlefield are out of touch. Victory will not be complete, and defeat will lead to a rout!

At the end of May in the sixth year of Jingli, shortly after the war with Beixiang ended, the main force of the Yungu Army began to gather in the Linjin Ferry area.

Chariots and horses roared, pedestrians carried bows and arrows, and the official road from Taoyang to Hezhou was filled with people, all armed with weapons and baggage.It takes four or five days to walk from Taoyang to Linjin Ferry. This time we enter the Huanghe River Valley, a total of about [-] regular soldiers will be needed, and the total number of civilians responsible for logistics support will be as many as [-] to [-].

According to the calculation of military strength in this era, the Yungu Army can be regarded as having more than [-] soldiers and horses about to attack the Huangshui Valley.

The mobilization of nearly [-] personnel was the first external use of troops. There were many issues involved and the entire system was in a state of chaos.

At Linjin Ferry, Song Xueliang, as the commander-in-chief of the former enemy, had arrived in advance and set up the crossing headquarters here to be responsible for preparing and organizing the army to cross the river.

"The commander-in-chief ordered us to build a pontoon bridge across the river before June [-]th, build a material transfer station on the west bank, and clearly identify the enemy's deployment at Haixi Fort, Ningxi Acropolis and the mouth of the Dachuan River. Below I will make a specific division of labor, and you all will follow my orders." Lighting the oil lamp, Song Xueliang, dressed in military uniform and with a majestic expression, assigned combat tasks to the people in the former enemy's headquarters.

In the battle to regain the Huangshui Valley, the first test was to cross the Yellow River westward.

The Yellow River is a big river and cannot be crossed. Small-scale people and materials use sheepskin rafts to cross the river. However, this crossing involving thousands of horses cannot be crossed with sheepskin rafts, and a pontoon bridge must be built at the ferry.

The equipment used to build the pontoon bridge is actually sheepskin rafts. The small sheepskin rafts are strung together with thick ropes, and then wooden boards are laid on the rafts to turn them into a pontoon bridge that can pass people and horses.

The river is thirty to forty feet wide, and the bridge deck must be as wide as two rafts. The length of one raft is about one foot.It takes two to three hundred rafts to build a pontoon bridge.

Under normal circumstances, a raft is composed of twelve whole sheepskin floats, so to build a pontoon bridge at the ferry, more than 3000 whole sheepskin floats have to be collected.

It is true that Linjin Ferry is a large ferry, but it is still difficult to collect so many floats at once. The main job of Song Xueliang's former enemy headquarters was to find ways to collect enough sheepskin rafts for the pontoon bridge for the army to cross the river.

Sheepskin rafts are the main tool used to cross the upper reaches of the Yellow River. They have been used for more than a thousand years because of their high buoyancy, large cargo capacity, and lightness.This thing can still be seen in the Yellow River scenic spots in later generations.

The reason why people in the upper reaches of the Yellow River use sheepskin rafts instead of wooden rafts is partly because the river is shallow and the buoyancy of rafts may not be sufficient in some areas.On the other hand, because the water upstream is strong, it is difficult to go backwards.Generally, sheepskin rafts are used to transport people and materials across the river, and the rafters carry the rafts back to the starting point. Lightweight sheepskin rafts are easier to carry.

People who have never ridden a sheepskin raft may think that it is dangerous. In fact, any kind of raft used by later generations of tourists is still safe as long as the balance of passengers is correct.The most dangerous sheepskin raft is called a single raft, which is made of a piece of sheepskin. The sailor rides directly on an inflated sheepskin to cross the river in a way that is almost like swimming. The whole process of crossing the river is extremely thrilling.It is slightly safer than one versus two. You can cross the river by using two sticks connected with two sheepskin floats.The rafts in Sheepskin City with more than three sheets are called continuous rafts, which look dangerous but are actually very safe.

Making a raft is not easy. You have to choose good sheepskin and use very particular knife skills to peel it off. It can only be used after it has been properly prepared.The time span is very long and cannot be made for immediate use, so the rafts for the Yungu military pontoon bridge must be collected from old ferry passengers instead of killing sheep to make them.

In order to collect enough rafts, Song Xueliang even sent people to find rafters near Wazhou to collect sheepskins. It took more than ten days to collect enough sheepskins to build a pontoon bridge.

After the pontoon bridge was set up, troops and supplies began to cross the river one after another. Only then did Song Yingkui rush to the ferry to take over the command of further military operations.

"Third uncle, after the army crosses the river, you will take the main force to attack Haixi Fort, and then prepare for the war against Ningxi Acropolis. This battle and all matters before the battle will be fully responsible for the former enemy headquarters. I will not take it lightly. I will intervene and be responsible for holding you back from behind." The famous generals in hundreds of battles are all made by fighting, and the Yungu army needs commanders who can independently undertake the war.The Western Fan army was relatively weak, so Song Yingkui planned to take this opportunity to train his third uncle so that he could share his worries.

"Kuiwa, I'm afraid something will go wrong in such a big war, so why don't you make the decision?" Song Xueliang has experienced almost all the wars that the Yungu Army has participated in, but he is still not confident in his commanding ability and is very embarrassed. expressed his concerns.

"Go and fight with confidence! In the future, you will be stationed at Haixi Fort to deal with the troops of Xifan and Beixiang at the same time. How can you be reassured if you don't practice a little or two? Let's start with this battle!

Remember that the key to war is both on the front line and in logistics.The leader of the army must take charge of the war from the perspective of the battlefield and the overall logistics situation.I guess you have thought about the advantages and disadvantages of our army and the Western Fan army before the battle, but have you thought about the advantages and disadvantages of logistics?Frankly speaking, in terms of logistics, our army is actually at a huge disadvantage.

First of all, the materials we need to transport are many times more than those of Xifan, and our firearms rely heavily on logistics that Xifan can hardly imagine.In terms of individual soldier quality, Xifan soldiers are more resistant to hunger, cold and hard fighting than our soldiers!Their battlefield control range is more than twice as large as ours!Taking this battle as an example, we should not have much difficulty in attacking Haishi Fort. But if we attack Ningxi Acropolis, which is nearly [-] miles away from Haishi Fort, trouble will arise.A single trip to transport grain to Ningxi Acropolis took five days, while the Western Fan soldiers' raid on Haixi Fort could be accomplished in two days.How to deal with this disadvantage is something that the leading commander needs to carefully consider. "

Facing his third uncle, Song Yingkui couldn't help but talk more.In the future, the Yungu Army will inevitably face multi-front battles. The third uncle is the only one who can share the worries for him at present. He must be allowed to think more about the entire strategic level, not just the matter of leading troops into battle.

An excellent large corps combat commander must have excellent logistics coordination capabilities.

Regarding this, Dazheng is a negative example.The logistics coordination work of Dazheng's large corps was done by military governors with civilian backgrounds. No matter how old a general was, his function on the battlefield was that of a commander on the battlefield.

It's just a joke. According to Dazheng's arrangement, it would be strange to win the battle.The person who coordinates logistics does not know the specific situation on the front line, and the commander who is preparing to attack the army will not receive efficient logistics cooperation, and will not be able to deploy tactics and make strategic plans based on the actual situation of logistics supply.Just in terms of reaction speed, it is a few beats slower than others. The result is that the victory will not be complete, and the defeat will be a huge defeat.

(End of this chapter)