Take the first anti-encirclement and suppression war as an example. In this war, the protagonist captured a sub-nest. The total food captured was enough to feed 10,000 people for one month, which was enough to feed an army of 150,000 people for two days.
However, this sub-nest is an exception, because this sub-nest was the logistics base for the Pavement Ant Army's first encirclement and suppression campaign and needed to supply rations for the entire army. Therefore, before the war, the Flying Knights discovered that this sub-nest received a large amount of food. Signs of exotic grain shipments.
If it were an ordinary secondary nest, an optimistic estimate would be that the food reserve would only be half of that of this secondary nest. In other words, the food captured by capturing these ordinary sub-nests is only enough to support the Northern Expedition of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom for one day.
Theoretically, the Northern Expeditionary Army must capture a sub-nest of the Paving Ant Kingdom every day to ensure that the capture and consumption are equal.
However, this is an almost impossible task. In one day, they have to march on the road and fight. If there is a problem in any link, there is no guarantee that the goal can be completed within the specified time.
To put it simply, as long as the enemy sticks to the underground of the lair, they can hold on for a while with a small number of troops.
Moreover, although the Pavement Ant Kingdom is relatively weak near the southern border, this is due to various reasons. For example, the main forces of the Pavement Ant Nation have combat missions in other directions, and the south has always neglected safety precautions, etc.
But the appearance of the God Envoy King's legion has given the Pavilion Ant Nation a warning that the south may not be very stable either.
The main nest of the Pavement Ant Kingdom can mobilize 10,000 mobile troops to deal with the few defenders of the "bridgehead". With their background, it is not difficult to organize forces to resist or even resist when an enemy army is discovered in the south. Counterattack.
In other words, for the Northern Expedition of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom, the most advantageous fighter opportunities are only the first few days. They can quickly seize several sub-nests of Pavement Ants without warning by means of surprise attacks.
As long as Paidao Ant Nation reacts, the Northern Expedition will become increasingly difficult.
By then, the Northern Expeditionary Army may not be able to expand its results. Failure to capture a new sub-nest means losing the source of captured food.
The food provided by the Big-headed Ant Kingdom and the protagonist can only support the army's five or six days of fighting on the north bank of the river. Once the food reserves are bottomed out, the consequences will be disastrous for the Northern Expeditionary Army, which is isolated in Hebei.
Of course, the Northern Expeditionary Army will also be able to collect food from the occupied auxiliary nests, and even eat the corpses of both the enemy and ourselves to satisfy their hunger as a last resort. But those are only temporary measures when there is no other way. In the long run, they still cannot supply the consumption of the army.
Ants always seem to take logistics too lightly, whether it is big-headed ants or pavement ants.
It would be wrong to say that ants don't understand logistics at all. The king's meeting of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom will specially arrange the centralized transportation and supply of military rations before the war, which seems to be very experienced.
However, in terms of the amount of military rations provided, it seems that both pavement ants and big-headed ants generally only provide the army with a share of less than one month.
The pavement ant army does this every year during its southern march, so that after the beginning of spring, the pavement ant army is forced to stay where it is and start looking for food everywhere. Once a war broke out, the corpses of both sides on the battlefield had to be taken away for military rations.
The same is true for the Big-Headed Ant Army. The King's Council can clearly calculate the astronomical food consumption of such a large army, but it is still optimistic that the problem can be solved by giving food to the enemy.
But the protagonist must consider this issue.
As long as you cross the river, the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom will be the knife and shield in the hands of the protagonist.
As a knife, the Northern Expeditionary Army will plunge into the southern hinterland of the Pavement Ant Kingdom to bleed this powerful enemy.
As a shield, the Northern Expeditionary Army stood in front and a "bridgehead" guarded the ferry. At the same time, the strength and attention of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom were turned to the north. At this time, the protagonist's two territories, one in the south and one in the north, can accelerate development without restriction.
However, the knife cannot be broken too quickly, and the shield must last as long as possible.
With the current Northern Expeditionary Army's pitiful military ration stock calculated on a daily basis, it is obvious that it cannot meet the protagonist's requirements.
But how can we get more food?
It is already difficult to tap the potential within the Big-headed Ant Kingdom. In normal times, these armies would be dispersed in the main nest and more than a hundred sub-nests, so there would be no need to worry about food problems.
Because military operations consume far more calories than ordinary activities, individual warriors consume much more food than ordinary ants.
In addition, these warriors cannot produce food at all except for seizures on the battlefield, but in their own territory, they are ordinary laborers performing foraging work.
Consumption increased, but the number of foraging ants decreased. Supplying such a large army consumed the resources of the entire Big-headed Ant Kingdom and squeezed the kingdom's territory to the extreme.
Each secondary nest can currently provide very little surplus food. The main nest is fed by a batch of mealworms donated by the protagonist. However, due to the lack of technology in the main nest, the output is very small, which is a drop in the bucket for the entire situation.
As for the Big-headed Ant Kingdom, it is almost impossible to provide too many resources to the Northern Expedition Army.
The protagonist also cannot provide many resources. Although the territory under the protagonist's governance is very prosperous, the food produced by the farms and farmland has greatly exceeded the consumption of the existing ant colony.
But this kind of wealth is relative to the tens of thousands of ant colonies in the protagonist's territory. Once he has to independently supply the consumption of an army of 150,000, the protagonist will immediately become a poor family.
Moreover, the protagonist's resources are the basis for future expansion of the ant colony and power. Without resources, all plans are in vain.
The Northern Expeditionary Army is just a tool for the protagonist, but now it seems that this too huge tool has a faint tendency to kidnap the protagonist.
If you just sit back and watch them die, you will not be able to achieve the protagonist's goal. Even if the Pavilion Ant Kingdom is no longer restrained, the protagonist will have to abandon Hebei and retreat to Henan.
Supporting the Northern Expedition is beyond the protagonist's ability to bear. In the long run, not only will the protagonist slowly lose blood, but his own power will also be unable to take the opportunity to expand.
The original plan was designed to make the Big-headed Ant Kingdom and the Pavement Ant Kingdom contain each other and bleed out together, but now there is a risk that even the protagonist himself will be weakened. It can only be said that everything in the world cannot be controlled by one person. directional.
The world has the best of both worlds!
The protagonist forces himself to calm down. There is always a way out, and he needs to find a way to break the situation.
After careful analysis, the biggest difficulty now is the lack of food. The shortage of food is caused by too many troops, so the number of the Northern Expeditionary Army needs to be reduced.
But is the King's Council of the Big-headed Ant Kingdom willing to overturn the decision and reduce the number of troops?
