Логистика. Раз.
Tsang, Shui-lung. War and peace in northern Sung China: Violence and strategy in flux, 960-1104 A.D. 1997.
Страницы 142-143.
However, in mountainous Ho-tung and Shensi, expensive ground transportation was the only option. Wagons deteriorated in the mountainous terrain; horses and donkeys consimied excessive food. Human porters became a bitterly acceptable alternative.
In the account of Sung Ch'i, Sung cavalry could carry food for ten days. According to an accurate estimation by Shen K'uo (1033-1097), a famous Chinese scientist during the eleventh century, it took 300,000 laborers to supply an expeditionary force consisted of 100,000 soldiers. Shen K'uo calculated that the minimimi consumption of a man was two shene a day, while his maximimi load was six tou (sixty sheng). It was an extraordinary hardship to carry both equipment and rations for five days. Thus, if a community provided one soldier, then these two persons could sustain eighteen days. Including his return, the maximum operational range of this soldier would be the distance of a nine-day-trip. Mobilizing two laborers to carry the food for every soldier would extend the duration of a one-way campaign up to twenty-six days or a two-way campaign for thirteen days. If the campaign were longer, the only alternative was to increase the proportion of porters to three porters to one soldiers to enable a penetration into the enemy territory for thirty-one days. With the return, the maximimi penetration was sixteen days. Thus, an expeditionary force of 100,000 soldiers required 300,000 transport laborers for a half-month campaign. The populated and hospitable Hopei theater might allow K'aifeng to procure food fixen the vicinity of the battlefield. But, in the Ordos Desert, a travel distance of sixteen days would likely be the maximum range of Sung projection of power.
Transport units needed to be guarded. Shen K'uo considered that employing 30,000 out of 100,000 soldiers to guard the 300,000 unarmed laborers was a barely acceptable rate. However, it meant only 70,000 soldiers remained for the attack. This was the optimum rather than a realistic scenario, the scientist stated. Officers were exempted from carrying food, while those on the duty for water ration and firewood gathering carried half. In addition, the carrjdng of soldiers and laborers falling ill, injured, and death must be shared by others. Shen K'uo recorded: "If pack animals are used, then a camel can carry three tan, a horse or mule can carry one tan and five tou, and a donkey can carry a tan." Despite the ostensible advantage that pack animals could carry more, Shen K'uo remarked that they were less controllable in military action. Also, the use of pack animals depended on the geography of the theater. Traveling in the desert increase the death rate of pack animals and resulted in the heavy loss of their cargo. Therefore, compared with human power, the use of camels, horses, and donkeys did not seem to have higher priority. Shen K'uo's calculation clearly indicated that massive conscription of transport laborers was still irreplaceable in providing logistic service on large scale operations.
- One sheng is equivalent to 0.718 kg. One tou was the culmination of ten sheng.
- A tan is equivalent to 71.86 km. (N.B. - это опечатка, должно быть "kg").