The Mystery of the Qin Dynasty's Warring States Large-Scale Battles
There are many book friends who do not understand the scenes in this book where tens of thousands of troops are fighting and killing each other, and some even have doubts. This can be understood by the author, possibly because some places in the book were not clearly explained. Here, the author will explain it.
In the late Warring States period and Qin dynasty, a military system known as "total war" was implemented among various Chinese vassal states. The guiding ideology of "total war" was to send as many people as possible onto the battlefield, so at that time each country formulated a fairly strict conscription system - Fu Ji's conscription: all civilian men aged 17 (or older) were drafted into the army, received regular military training, and were incorporated into regular or reserve forces until they reached the age limit before being allowed to retire.
Thus, during the Spring and Autumn period, wars with a scale of over 100,000 people were rare among various vassal states. However, in the late Warring States period and Qin Dynasty, scenes where tens or even hundreds of thousands of people killed each other became common. Because according to the guiding ideology of "total war": if a country had a population of one million, with five men per household being a relatively common situation at that time, mobilizing 200,000 male soldiers for battle was not a difficult task. In this way, for large countries like Qin, Chu, and Qi with populations of 40-50 million, it was not impossible to reach an army strength of 600,000 or even one million after national mobilization. The population of the entire country during the Qin period was also not as small as some book friends imagined. According to some historical records, the combined population of Qin and the six states in Guandong exceeded 20 million people. If we add the newly conquered southern territories, it is estimated that the total population can reach around 25 million people. With such a large population base, it was entirely possible to mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops for battle in a short period. Therefore, the frequent appearance of large-scale battles in this book is not due to the author's fevered imagination.
Regarding the issue of a large-scale reduction in population base mentioned by some book friends, I don't know if everyone has noticed that the three major countries in Guandong: Qi, Chu, and Zhao are basically still ruled by the original aristocratic class. In order to gain the support of their own people, they have no reason to slaughter civilians. The collapse of Qin's rule was relatively quick, so the population base of these three countries will not suffer too much loss. It is entirely possible to mobilize tens of thousands of troops. Wei and Han are also in this situation, and the population loss will not be significant. Only places like Nanyang and Nanguo, where Chen Sheng and Wu Guang's uprising was intense, and the land of Yan, where the Chu army and the rebel aristocracy fought fiercely, may have a larger reduction in population. However, it should not fundamentally affect the overall population base. (And the murderous king Xiang Yu is still under the control of Xiang Liang, so he cannot slaughter people at will, and he has always been in Chu land, so there is no reason for him to kill his own people!)
Many book friends are also worried about the problems of grain, grass and military expenses. Here, the lord will explain it briefly: In the Warring States Period and Qin Dynasty, the armies of various vassal states did not have any military pay, or it can be said that all soldiers at that time were volunteers, which saved a considerable part of military expenses. The country normally only needs to provide food and supplies for the army.
When it comes to food, the agricultural production of various countries at that time was also quite developed, and may even exceed the imagination of most book friends. Here, take Qin as an example: In the Qin Dynasty, Qin farmers were not allowed to leave their land, and diligent farming was their fate; All the draft cattle in Qin were registered with the government, and farmers were absolutely forbidden from abusing or killing them, otherwise they would be severely punished, even if a village's draft cattle became thin, the responsible person would be flogged ten times, and if the management of draft cattle was not good, the county magistrate and county lieutenant would also be punished by the imperial court. Of course, if the government and farmers took good care of the draft cattle, the country would reward them; Qin attached great importance to the popularization and protection of advanced agricultural tools, when the Qin army was still equipped with a large number of bronze weapons, Qin farmers had basically all used iron farm tools, even the government would lend free of charge to some poor farmers Advanced iron tools, even if they were worn out by normal use, farmers did not have to bear any compensation; The attention paid by the upper and lower levels of Qin to weather was unprecedented. If it rained, each place had to report accurately to the superior the size of the rainfall, the scope of the rain also had to be reported clearly, if a drought or locust disaster occurred, they had to report in time, otherwise the country's punishment would be very severe; Furthermore, Qin's agricultural department was highly advanced, strict and emphasized practical experience in managing agricultural production. For example, in the Guanzhong area, Qin stipulated: Water paddy seeds used 2.3 dou per mu, wheat and barley used 1 dou, small beans used 0.67 dou, and large beans used 0.5 dou. If the land was fertile, the amount of seed sown per mu could be appropriately reduced... There were many similar regulations, but these seemingly harsh regulations guaranteed the high development of Qin's agricultural production at that time, providing sufficient food for the Qin army to fight everywhere. The various countries in Guandong may have had different laws from Qin, but I believe they would not have been able to contend with Qin for hundreds of years if their agricultural management was not good, and it would have been impossible to support a large army and fight against Qin.
As for the problem of logistics, the gentleman has a fairly detailed explanation in this book: all countries have built powerful military systems, with young workers and women working day and night to manufacture massive military supplies for the army, whose advanced and perfect degree may still make people sigh in admiration today.
By now, the gentleman thinks that friends should have basically dispelled some of the doubts in their minds. Of course, there may still be some reasons that the gentleman has not mentioned, such as: at that time, the common people had endured hundreds of years of continuous war and had a strong tolerance for poverty; and the major grain-producing areas of Bashu and Jiangnan were less damaged. These are not elaborated on here!
Thank you for the concern of book friends, but some book friends don't understand history or haven't read the book carefully before scolding Jue Shi, which is not right. I hope to pay attention to this, and the author also has dignity!
