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 buzzing with people. The militiamen were sorting out their luggage, grinding corn flour, baking tortillas, and preparing food for tomorrow's expedition. The warriors gathered together in groups, 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 conduct military affairs around the camp fire. On the eve of the expedition, the military affairs were complicated. Shulot was also there to help, studying and assisting in 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 matters came one after another. When there are more people, every job becomes very arduous.
But now, when we are about to encounter a battle, the work is even more complicated. The army had to prepare different plans and records, although most of the plans were never used.
These matters first go through preliminary processing by the staff, and then flow to the supreme commander, waiting for the final decision. It's like a wooden board in a young man's hand.
"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 Kuluka handed over after his surrender: a huge wooden board with pictures on it that contained information about all the camps. Because there was no formal writing, Mexica's 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.
Above are eight simple little men holding sticks, representing the eight thousand militiamen. Below are four small square figures wearing hats and leather armor, representing the four thousand city-state warriors. At the bottom are four little people wearing hats and leather armor with the pattern of the word "Hui" on the leather armor, representing the four thousand warriors directly under the royal family.
On the far left of the little samurai 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. There is a long red strip in the middle, like a ruler.
"What is this? Command flag?" The young man studied it for a while and made a judgment.
Avitt took the board and looked at it a few times.
"Yes. The 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 edges of the flags." Avitt identified it. In this era, this kind of military knowledge is regarded as a secret secret between master and apprentice, and only high-ranking commanders have access to 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, there are exactly about four thousand people."
As he spoke, he pointed to the other two commander flags: "Of these two, the small 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 awesome, how can you calculate so accurately?"
Avitt laughed and tapped the boy's head gently. Well, it doesn'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.”
Xiulote nodded. The samurai squad is a basic tactical unit. The captain is usually a senior samurai and can lead the samurai to execute different instructions such as scouting, hunting, formation, assault, and garrison. When there is an opportunity in the future, I still want the army to be transformed into a unified centurion and centurion.
"Then what does this red ruler mean?" the boy continued to ask.
"It 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'm used to putting the squads that are good at offense at the top and the squads that are good at defense at the bottom."
"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 edge of the flag was a simpler pattern with a blank rectangle on it.
"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, and 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. They 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 tortilla? There are one, two, three, four...twenty-five?"
"Well. This round refers to the prepared dry food, usually corn tortillas. Usually when stationed, the warriors can only eat two meals a day, morning and evening, and only two cakes in one meal. During the march, the strong warriors 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, and the food and grass go first. Fighting and marching consume more food. Marching dry food should be light in weight and small in size. The best option is to make it into 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 is indeed prepared Not bad.
Tomorrow we will dispatch 30,000 warriors and prepare at least ten days of dry food, which will require thirty corn cakes. It's better to have more, then let the 30,000 militiamen work tonight and make 40 overnight! "
After speaking, Avitt called his personal guards and immediately conveyed the new instructions.
"What 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 not enough food in the camp, the militiamen are the first to be abandoned. The commander would usually launch a pointless attack to wear them out first to prevent the militia from rioting. Of course, if there is sufficient food in the camp and the commander wants to train the militia, he will also provide an extra meal of corn every day. "
Shulot was silent for a moment. An ancient Chinese poem says, "When a man is sleepless, the general's gray hair makes his husband cry."
In the writings of civil servants, the general and the conqueror share a common understanding of each other. However, militiamen cannot compare with samurai, let alone commanders. The militiamen had to work day and night, preparing dry food and digging and filling trenches. They have to continue 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 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, peppers, and cocoa are all drawn in square frames, and then neatly arranged across the entire board. From time to time, Shulot saw corn boxes being crossed out and others being circled.
"What do these boxes represent? What about these dashes and circles?"
"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 food will Damage to the samurai's body will be left to the militia after simple processing. There will always be militia who don't have enough food.
There are... I count... about three hundred boxes here, which is enough food for 100,000 people for a month. This should be prepared for Tisok's army, and it is now stored here. The Xilotepec camp is close to the river, so it is indeed convenient to transport food. This batch of food is enough for us!
However, this frame is very inaccurate. For raw food like this, one box can sometimes only supply eight hundred people, and sometimes it can supply one thousand, two hundred people. It all depends on the mathematical level of the quartermaster and the speed of food deterioration.
If no major problems occur, the loss is acceptable. But once something goes wrong, it's time for the quartermaster to pay for his crime with his life, regardless of noble rank. So for the Alliance, this is also the position with the most 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. Tortillas also store longer than raw food. "
Xiuluo nodded, food storage and transportation is always a big problem. During the warm and humid rainy season, food storage loss can even account for 30% of each month, while transportation loss is directly proportional to the distance.
In simple camps, old food often cannot be stored for long, so the army always has insufficient food.
Once the grain channel is cut off and there is no new grain replenishment, the old grain will quickly deteriorate during the rainy season. Just like the current king Tisok, he must have been in serious food shortage. Once there is a shortage of food, the morale of the army will drop sharply and its combat effectiveness will decline rapidly.
"If an efficient logistics team can be established, it will greatly reduce the empire's food burden when going 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.
Shulot continued to turn back to the front of the board. He was finally attracted by a conspicuous row of long flags in the center of the board. There are many bright green feathers on the flag, and there are still different patterns on the side, but they are 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 said 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 there was still too much resistance.
While talking, Avitt took out an old wooden board. This is the army information obtained from Ketoko after capturing the capital reinforcements. He found the flag at the front, pointed to the largest feather and said:
"Look, Shulot, 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.”
Avitt casually 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 gods.
"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 a commander's edge. The confidence of a king appeared on his smiling face.
"Let us fight with all our strength! If we win, we will have everything. We will occupy the throne and fly into the sky as a condor. 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 and threw the board aside. Then he grabbed the young man and sat beside him.
"These drawings are too laborious. Come, let us 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 the teacher's hand and wrote in Chinese characters word by word:
"If you have no battle but the temple is the winner, you have to count it as more. If you have no battle but the temple is the loser, you have to count the less. More is the winner, less is the loser. What's more, nothing counts!"
"What's this?"
Shulot laughed loudly and threw the board in his hand aside. Then he grabbed the teacher, 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": 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 busy. It wasn't 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 war.
They were temporarily freed from the shackles of the throne. They were just exploring the direction of military change. They worked together to create a future that would change everything.
