Chapter 60 Temple Calculations on the Eve of the Expedition
When the sun set and night fell, the two thousand warriors from the rear army finally stationed at the Herotepec camp with 20,000 militiamen and baggage.
The camp was abuzz with people. The militiamen were packing up their luggage, grinding corn flour, baking tortillas, and preparing food for tomorrow's expedition. The warriors gathered together in battalions, discussing their hopes of returning home and imagining the beauty of their hometown.
The new commanders of each battalion are not idle. They are seizing the time to get familiar with their warrior centurions and restore the organization of the army.
In the camp, Avitt took off the king's clothes and the burden of the king, showing a bit of relaxation and ease.
Wearing only a robe, he continued to handle military affairs beside the campfire. On the eve of the expedition, the military affairs were complicated. Shulot was also there to help, studying, assisting, and arranging the subsequent march plan.
After the surrender of the Xilotepec camp, the army now has 30,000 warriors and nearly 30,000 militiamen. Daily logistics arrangements, march plans of each battalion, replenishment of food, grass and supplies... all kinds of things come one after another. People come in one after another.
If you count too many, every job will seem very arduous.
But like now, when a battle is about to happen, the work is even more complicated. The army has to prepare different plans and records, although most of the plans are not used at all.
These matters first go through preliminary processing by the staff, and then flow to the supreme commander, waiting for the final decision. Just like the wooden board in the hands of the young man.
"There are still too few warriors who are proficient in mathematics!" Looking at the wooden board in his hand, Shulot called for talents from the bottom of his heart.
In his hand was the camp information that Culuka handed over after his surrender: a huge wooden board with pictures on it that included information about all the camps. Because there was no written text, the Mexica commanders could only use pictures to record detailed military information.
.
The young man first saw a group of graphic villains, which were very vivid and he could understand them at a glance.
On the top are eight simple little people holding sticks, representing the eight thousand militiamen. Below are four small square people wearing hats and leather armor, representing the four thousand city-state warriors. At the bottom are four small people wearing hats, leather armor, and leather armor.
The little man with the pattern of "Hui" on his armor represents the four thousand warriors directly under the royal family.
On the far left of the little warriors are three large flags, of different sizes. There is a rectangular square on the flag, and the square is filled with densely packed vertical bars. It is also separated by a long red strip in the middle, like a ruler.
"What is this? Command flag?" The young man studied for a while and made a judgment.
Avitt took the board and looked at it a few times.
"Yes. Commander's flag. The three flags represent that the warriors come from three different city-states. The patterns of the city-states are on the edge of the flags." Avitt identified. In this era, this kind of military knowledge is regarded as a secret secret between master and apprentice, and only senior commanders can
Only officials can access it.
"The rectangular squares represent the number of troops." Avitt pointed to the largest rectangle. "Look, this pattern is the symbol of the capital of Tenochtitlan. Looking at the size of the squares, it happens to be about four thousand people."
As he said that, he pointed to the other two commander flags: "These two, the smaller city-state has an estimated 1,700 warriors, and the other large one has approximately 2,300 warriors."
The young man was simply shocked. Calculating the area by looking at the picture is so powerful?
"Teacher, you are so good, how can you calculate so accurately?"
Avitt laughed and tapped the boy's head gently. Well, it didn't hurt at all.
"Look at the vertical bars in this rectangular square. Each vertical bar is a warrior squad, with different patterns to distinguish them. The number of people is generally between 80 and 120. Count how many vertical bars there are and you can roughly calculate
Know how many warriors there are."
Xiuluo nodded. The warrior squad is a basic tactical unit. The captain is usually a senior warrior and can lead the warriors to carry out different instructions such as scouting, hunting, formation, assault, and garrison. When there is a chance in the future, it is better to change the army to a unified one.
of centurions and centurions.
"Then what does this red ruler mean?" the boy continued to ask.
"This depends on the commander who drew the picture." Avitt smiled. "The red line is to divide the samurai squads into broad categories. For me, I am used to putting the squads that are good at offense at the top and the squads that are good at defense at the top.
under."
"As for my commander-teacher back then, he liked to put the minor civilian warriors on top as tactical consumables, and the important noble warriors on the bottom for careful use."
The young man said he understood that distinction is everywhere and everyone has a ruler in their heart.
Then, he looked at the twenty small flags on the left side of the militia man. The edges of the flags were simpler patterns with a blank rectangle on them.
"So these twenty small flags mean that the militiamen come from twenty different villages? But why is there a blank space in the rectangle?" The boy drew inferences.
"Yes, there are twenty different villages. The patterns represent that the villages belong to different nobles or royal families." Avitt smiled and nodded. His teaching to Shulot was a rare moment of relaxation for him.
"As for why it's blank? Of course it's because no one knows the specific number! Militiamen are recruited according to villages, led by village leaders, and gathered into groups. The commander will only roughly estimate the number of people based on their area, and then
Put it into specific construction projects, or secondary battlefields that need to be consumed."
Then the young man understood that the militiamen did not need to know the specific numbers and casualties, and were widely used war consumables.
Shulot shook his head and continued to look at the pictures to guess the military situation. He suddenly saw a very vivid figure.
"This yellow round ball is a corn tortilla? There are one, two, three, four...twenty-five?"
"Well. This round refers to the prepared dry food, usually corn tortillas. When stationed during normal times, the warriors can only eat two meals a day, morning and evening, and only two cakes in one meal. During the march, a strong warrior should eat at least one meal.
Three loaves are required. And on the day before the battle, the warriors need to save more energy, so they have to eat three meals, each with more than three loaves."
The young man nodded. The three armies have not moved, so food and grass go first. Fighting and marching will consume more food. Marching dry food should be light in weight and small in size. The best choice is to make corn tortillas, which are easy to carry and dry and solid.
"And here, one corn tortilla ball represents the consumption of a thousand warriors marching for ten days. Twenty-five corn tortillas means that the camp originally had 25,000 warriors' ten-day marching food. Kuruka has indeed prepared
Pretty good.
Tomorrow we will dispatch 30,000 warriors, and prepare at least ten days of dry food, so we will need thirty corn cakes. It would be better to have more, then let the 30,000 militiamen work tonight, and make forty corn cakes overnight!"
After speaking, Avitt called his personal guards and immediately conveyed the new instructions.
"How about the militia's food?" The young man was a little curious, but he didn't see the corresponding sign.
"The militiamen usually bring their own food, mostly sweet potatoes, corn, beans and pumpkins. Then during the march, they will go to the wild to get some food, such as hares, voles, wild vegetables, leaves or insects.
If there is insufficient food in the camp, the militiamen will be abandoned first. The commander will usually launch a meaningless attack to consume them first to prevent the militia from rioting. Of course, if there is sufficient food in the camp, the commander will want to train the militia
, and an extra meal of corn will be provided every day.”
Xiulote was silent for a moment. An ancient Chinese poem said, "When a man is sleepless, a general's hair will turn gray and his husband will cry."
In the writings of civil servants, generals and conscripts are sympathetic to each other. However, militiamen cannot be compared with samurai, let alone commanders. Militiamen need to work day and night, prepare dry food, dig trenches and fill trenches. They also have to endure hunger and are the first to suffer.
casualties.
Therefore, Zhengfu should have only tears but no gray hair, because they will not live long enough to have gray hair.
The moment of softness passed quickly. The boy looked around again and found no new food patterns. He asked doubtfully: "How much food is left in the camp?"
Avitt stretched out his hand and simply turned the big wooden board over. At that moment, hundreds of food graphics, in the form of square simple drawings, came into view of the young man.
Corn, beans, pumpkin, fish, avocado, pepper, and cocoa are all drawn in square frames, and then neatly arranged to fill the entire board. From time to time, Xiulote saw that the frames with corn were crossed out, and some
Some were circled.
"What do these boxes mean? What do these dashes and circles mean?"
"Like tortillas, a box represents the consumption of a thousand people and ten days. The crossed out represents losses, such as the Otomi guerrillas, or the damage of mountain transportation. The circled represents spoilage, and this kind of food will
Damage to the samurai's body will be left to the militia after simple processing. There will always be militiamen who don't have enough food.
There are now... I count... about three hundred boxes, which is a month's worth of food for 100,000 people. This should be prepared for Tisok's army, and it is all stored here. Xilot
Camp Peck is close to the river, so it is indeed convenient to transport food. This batch of food is enough for us!
However, this kind of frame is very inaccurate. For raw food like this, one frame can sometimes only feed 800 people, and sometimes it can feed 1,200 people. It all depends on the mathematical level of the quartermaster and the speed of food deterioration.
If there is no big problem, the loss is acceptable. But if there is a big problem, the quartermaster will have to pay for his crime with his life, regardless of the noble rank. Therefore, for the alliance, this is also the position with the largest number of executions.
As a commander, in order to ensure that the warriors have an accurate amount of food when they go on an expedition, they still have to choose processed corn tortillas. Corn tortillas can also be stored longer than raw food."
Xiuluo nodded. Food storage and transportation is always a big problem. In the warm and humid rainy season, food storage loss can even account for 30% of the month, and transportation loss is proportional to the distance.
In simple camps, old food often cannot be stored for too long, so the army never has enough food.
Once the food road is cut off and there is no new food replenishment, the old food will quickly deteriorate in the rainy season. Just like the current king Tisoke, he must be in a serious food shortage dilemma. Once there is a food shortage, the army will
Morale plummeted and combat effectiveness declined rapidly.
"If an efficient logistics team can be established, it will greatly reduce the empire's food burden when it goes on an expedition. Of course, first I have to cultivate a group of talents who are proficient in mathematics." The young man set up a military reform in his mind.
The goal.
Hulot continued to turn back to the front of the board. He was finally attracted by a row of conspicuous long flags in the center of the board. There were many bright green feathers on the flags, and there were still different patterns on the sides, but they were extremely delicate.
"What is this? It looks very detailed." The young man was a little confused and counted nine long flags in total.
"This is the most important backbone of the army." Avitt sighed with emotion. "The nine long flags represent the pedigree of the nine hereditary nobles. The number of feathers on the long flags represents the number of great nobles."
"Generally speaking, these feathers are at least half of the battalion-level commanders in your army, and all legion-level commanders! Each feather representing a noble noble starts as a battalion-level commander, which is equivalent to the top level of ordinary civilian warriors.
."
The young man shook his head. He wanted to reform the military commander system, but the current resistance was still too great.
While talking, Avitt took out an old wooden board. This was the army information he got from Ketoko after capturing the reinforcements in the capital. He found the flag at the front, pointed to the largest feather and said:
"Look, Xiulote, this flag with the sun pattern is the family pattern of the Kechar family. The biggest feather on it is Ketoko. Since we are going to sacrifice him to the flag tomorrow morning, let's do it now
Just paint it out."
Avit picked up a brush, dipped it in the sacrificial Mayan blue dye, and painted it directly on the feather representing the great nobleman Ketoko. "Ketoko" was covered in blue and sacrificed to the god.
.
"Avit, are we really going to execute Ketoko tomorrow? If this news reaches the capital, how will the chief priest Kechar react?" the young man asked seriously.
"Of course, Ketoko is the commander-in-chief of the reinforcements, and keeping him is always a hidden danger. Executing him can just intimidate the generals and warriors, and increase our possibility of victory."
Avitt sat up straight. His bright eyes shone with the edge of a commander. His smiling face showed the confidence of a king.
"Let us fight with all our strength! If we win, we will have everything. We will occupy the throne and become a condor and fly into the sky. If we lose, we will lose our lives. We will go to the Kingdom of God together and turn into petals and fall into the abyss. Why think too much
!”
Avitt laughed loudly and threw the wooden board in his hand to the side. Then he grabbed the young man and sat beside him.
"These drawings are too laborious. Come, let's use the words you invented to reorganize the army information." With that, Avitt picked up the brush and took the wooden board to record: "Thirty thousand warriors, thirty thousand militiamen, one hundred thousand
One month’s worth of food…”
Shulot thought for a moment and suddenly smiled: "Avit, now it's my turn to teach you something."
As he said that, the boy grabbed the pen and board from his friend's hand and wrote in Chinese characters word for word:
"If the battle is not fought but the temple is considered the winner, it should be counted as more. If the temple is not fought but the temple is not counted as the winner, it should be counted as little. More is the winner, less is the loser, and what is more, nothing is counted!"
"What's this?"
Shulot laughed loudly and threw the board in his hand to the side. Then he grabbed his friend, opened the tent, and looked at the vast and distant stars together.
The galaxy has not changed for thousands of years, and the war will continue for thousands of years. The boy recalled the scenes in his "memory" one after another: the Napoleonic War, the Civil War, the Franco-Prussian War, World War I, World War II, from the Army Staff to the Joint Staff, from industrialization to
Digitization, until the era when calculation determines everything!
"This is the future of war!" The young man looked confidently at the dazzling stars.
"...Come here! Copy the military information."
"It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, don't pinch my face, it hurts too much!"
The night before the expedition was full of busyness. It was not until Sirius rose quietly and dawn was not far away that the final calculations were finally completed and the battle plan was finalized.
The two of them had made all military preparations and rarely forgot about the pressure of the battle.
They temporarily broke free from the shackles of the throne, they just discussed the direction of military change, and they worked together to create a future that would change everything.