What was the concept of 100,000 troops in the Three Kingdoms period at the end of Han Dynasty?

China's ancient wars were often heard? 65438+ million? 、? 200,000? Even the description of hundreds of thousands of troops, which makes friends who see history for the first time have a very shocking feeling. Many people often laugh at foreign ancient wars, such as Britain, France and Japan. Village head fights? In fact, after calm thinking, you will find that the scale of the war of 65438+ million troops is already very considerable. Let's take the war in the Three Kingdoms period as an example.

One is Guandu, Chibi and Yiling.

1, Battle of Guandu

The first decisive large-scale battle in the Three Kingdoms period was fought by Cao Cao and Yuan Shao. For Yuan Shao, this is a battle to win the Central Plains. For Cao Cao, this is a self-defense counterattack to defend his troops. At that time, Yuan Shao had basically completed his rule over Hebei. Yuan Shao, one of the thirteen states in the world, has four states: Hebei, Youzhou, Binhe and Qinghai. These four states had fertile land, abundant population and talented people everywhere, and were the most populous places in the world at that time. Even Guanzhong is far less than Hebei, the capital of the world at that time. Therefore, Yuan Shao at that time was favored by the whole world and thought it was entirely possible to unify the Central Plains. In the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the author says that it is possible to unify the Central Plains.

However, romance has no reference value. Although this data looks comfortable, it is obviously exaggerated. It is by no means true historical data, and it is very misleading. According to the credible records in Zi Jian and The History of the Three Kingdoms, there are 65,438+10,000 elite soldiers and 0/10,000 war horses. ? This is the real strength of Yuan Shao, that is to say, even Yuan Shaocai, who controls the rich counties in the world, mobilized 654.38+ 10,000 troops. Of course, this 654.38 million+army must be a real army, not an army composed of logistics servants, handymen and waiters. Only when the army of combatants is completely counted can it be called an army.

Look at Cao Cao again. At that time, it also controlled most counties and counties in Kanto. Needless to say, Yanzhou, Xuzhou, Yuzhou and Sizhou, the old base areas, have all experienced great wars. Yanzhou was contested by Cao Cao and Lu Bu for many times, and Xuzhou was occupied by Liu Bei for many times. And Cao Cao himself used to? Revenge for my father In the name of the crusade against Tao Qian, all counties were slaughtered. From this point of view, Cao Cao's territory looks very large, but not many can actually be transformed into food and soldiers. According to the "History of the Three Kingdoms and Emperor Wudi": Cao is less than 10,000, and the injured are 12 or 13 years old? This is the elite Cao Cao brought from Xuchang to the front, plus Cao Cao's troops stationed at the front. Historians believe that Cao Cao's battle for Guandu had only 20,000 troops.

It can be seen that in the world-famous battle of Guandu, the strength of both sides is 5: 1, which means that 65438+ million is only 20,000.

2. Battle of Red Cliffs

The strength of Battle of Red Cliffs and Cao Cao is the best in the world. Except for Liangzhou, Yongzhou, Yizhou and Yangzhou, the world is basically owned by Cao Cao. Cao Cao's army mainly came from his 20,000-30,000 troops, followed by 70,000-80,000 troops collected by Yuan Shao from Hebei, and then 30,000-40,000 troops surrendered by Jingzhou. According to the Records of the Three Kingdoms, Zhou Yu once said: He knows people from China, but156,000, the number of people listed above is also 780,000. ? On the whole, even if Cao Cao occupies most of the world, he is only about 200,000, and it is impossible for Cao Cao to bring all his troops to Chibi, so he must have left some troops stationed in the rear area.

As for Liu Bei's military strength, Cao Cao has killed most of it in Changbanpo, leaving only 65438+100000 troops. As for Sun Quan, "The History of the Three Kingdoms" records that Zhou Yu invited 30,000 elite soldiers to live in Xiakou, so as to protect the generals from being defeated. ? Interestingly, Zhou Yu once asked Sun Quan to give him at least 50,000 troops, but Sun Quan told Zhou Yu that it was too difficult to recruit 50,000 people, so he could only give you 30,000 first. That is to say, when Zhou Yu fought in Chibi, his elite troops were only 30,000, plus Liu Bei's 1 10,000 people, and the total strength would not exceed 50,000.

Therefore, the water content of 830,000 troops recorded in Romance is surprisingly high, and the real strength is only1.8,000 to 50,000 people.

3. The Battle of Yiling

The battle of Yiling was the beginning of Liu Bei's downfall. Before Guan Yu was killed, Liu Bei's power reached its peak. Jingzhou, which is rich, has a sufficient population and enough money. Yizhou is a land of abundance, and the relative peace in the country has not been destroyed by war. In addition, Chengdu Plain and Dujiangyan, surprisingly, money and food are also objective. In addition, Hanzhong, which has just been captured, is obviously much better than when Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang sealed Hanwang. So how many troops can Liu Bei mobilize during this period?

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms records that Liu Bei started a crusade against Jiangdong with more than 700,000 troops, and said that his army could even camp for more than 700 miles. After careful analysis, we can find that Liu Bei's territory is nothing more than Yizhou, Hanzhong and Jingzhou, not the core ruling area of the Han Empire. After Guan Yu went north, the local army recruited by Jingzhou either entered Sichuan with Liu Bei or died in Maicheng with Guan Yu, and the land under its jurisdiction was directly incorporated into the State of Wu. For Liu Bei, this is not a plus item, but a minus item of the enemy. Hanzhong's army is too far away from the battlefield, and Liu Bei can't transfer them to the southern battlefield, because Cao Cao's army still has the strength to recapture Hanzhong. Therefore, in fact, Liu Bei's available troops are only three parts: Yizhou New Army, his own headquarters and barbarian servant army, and the total strength adds up to only 50,000 people.

As for Wu Dong, they had only 654.38+million troops in their heyday, while Sun Quan could only mobilize 50,000 people in the Yiling War. This is basically consistent with Battle of Red Cliffs. At that time, Zhou Yu could only lead 30,000 people to fight, because Sun Quan's strength did not increase much compared with that at that time.

Therefore, the whole battle of Yiling is only a war of 50,000 to 50,000 yuan, which can't keep up with Yuan Shao's investment in the battle of Guandu. More than 700,000 yuan in the romance is entirely to send gold to the Han royal family.

Second, the real population and mobilization ability of the three countries.

According to the credible data of current research, the population of the Eastern Han Dynasty reached 60 million in its heyday, but in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, due to natural and man-made disasters, the population was greatly reduced, especially after the Yellow turban insurrectionary uprising, there were only 6.5438+million people left in the thirteen states in the world. It seems that 1 00000 population can still mobilize100000 people, but in fact10000 people in1ton are already very high, because the basic grain production and administrative management of the country cannot be ignored, and the ratio of male to female in the population under natural selection conditions should be 1:60.

Come to think of it carefully, in the troubled times of the Three Kingdoms, the number of troops that can be mobilized nationwide will not reach 400,000-500,000. Therefore, if we can dispatch an army of 65,438+10,000 people, it is basically the material level that has an absolute advantage, so the defeat of Yuan Shao Guandu has a great impact on history.

A set of data shows that the population of Wei is 4.43 million, that of Wu is 2.3 million, and that of Shu is only 940,000. Excluding more than 3.5 million women who can't go to war, the actual male population is only about 4 million. After subtracting children, the elderly and the population who do not accept military service, it is basically clear who can go to the battlefield.

Let me give you an example. After Zhuge Liang's death, Jiang Wei attacked the Central Plains nine times. Although every time in the romance, he claimed to lead an army of 654.38+ 10,000 troops, in fact, Jiang Wei's battlefield was far from it. Northern expedition? , but more like a robbery in the north, the real number of his troops at a time is only 10000. In other words, only these 654.38+00000 people can be mobilized quickly in Shu. If Shu can dispatch 654.38+000000 people at one time, I believe it can basically empty Shu's property. If invincible, its country will die.

Third, look at the actual scale of the war objectively.

Although we often see it? 65438+ million? 、? 200,000? Even hundreds of thousands of troops, but really don't care about these statements. Fighting costs money and consumes food. When an army goes out to war, it must consider the food production, equipment and weapons manufacturing after the soldiers leave, and whether the actual food consumption can be sustained.

If the number of an army is as high as 65438+ 10,000, then the daily supply will be terrible. For example, a soldier eats three A Jin days, 654.38+10,000 people eat 300,000 A Jin days and 9 million A Jin months. If we can't make a decision quickly, that country will be completely dragged down.

This explains why during the battle of Changping, the prince of Zhao had to change his mind and let Zhao Kuo take the place of Lian Po, because the protracted war was too much for Zhao, and no man went home to produce, so just consuming food was enough to bring Zhao down.

This also explains why Wei did not destroy Shu and Wu quickly when it was most powerful, but spent so many years recuperating, because their troops were also stretched.

To sum up, an army of 6,543,800 people, whether at home or abroad, is actually a very large-scale war. During the Three Kingdoms period, Liu Bei was unable to mobilize 65,438+10,000 troops in his life. Once Dongwu mobilized 654.38+ 10,000 troops, it was basically a decisive battle to gamble on national luck. Wei's vast territory and rich resources alone can mobilize a standing army of 654.38 million people.