Chapter 729: Chapter 569 Zhou Lan’s Arrangement_3
So neither Yang Zhenshan and Zhou Lan, nor Wu Tuo, placed too much emphasis on the Wula Tribe.
After obtaining Zhou Lan’s map, Yang Zhenshan refined his plans while preparing for war within Chongshan Pass.
"Dad, the war horses have all been brought! There are a total of thirty thousand, all just reached adulthood!"
Inside the General Mansion, Yang Minghao reported to Yang Zhenshan.
The most abundant resource in Chongshan Town now is war horses.
Currently, Five Camps has close to thirty thousand war horses, and various Rescue Camps also possess nearly fifty thousand war horses. Besides these, various garrisons across the regions have many war horses.
Additionally, the Northern lands have vast horse ranches that altogether nurture over two hundred thousand war horses.
The reason for such an abundance of war horses is twofold: first, after the annihilation of the East Sea Hu Clan, Chongshan Town seized a large number of battle horses; second, following the collapse of the East Sea Hu Clan, many horses turned feral, and over the last decade, these wild horses have continuously proliferated in the plains, resulting in many horse herds.
The third reason is the equine policy of Chongshan Town; Pang Tang and Zhou Lan always encourage the citizens of Chongshan Town to establish horse ranches in the Northern lands, also urging people to raise horses themselves, even concerning themselves with horse traders transporting Chongshan Town’s horses to sell in the hinterlands of Da Rong.
This led many citizens and military households in Chongshan Town to raise horses, causing the price of horses in Chongshan Town to continuously drop.
Nowadays, a cart-pulling nag in Chongshan Town costs merely around ten to twenty Silver, though back when Yang Zhenshan was in Chongshan Town, a nag could not be purchased for less than twenty Silver.
The price of war horses has also dropped significantly; a fine steed suitable as a war horse decreased from the original seventy to eighty Silver to now less than fifty.
In recent years, after Zhou Lan established the Dinghu Guard, he let the guard soldiers capture several wild horse herds, which gained them tens of thousands of horses for nothing.
"Divide the war horses, allocate one horse to each common infantry, two horses for each Heavy Armor Foot Soldier, and ensure each auxiliary troop has one war horse!"
"In short, ensure every soldier can ride a horse for long distances!"
Yang Zhenshan instructed Yang Minghao.
"Yes, I will arrange it right away!" said Yang Minghao.
A large number of war horses require a hefty supply of horse fodder; while having war horses can enhance the marching speed of infantry, it brings greater pressure on logistics.
Although Yang Zhenshan does not plan to draft civilians, it doesn’t mean he lacks supply teams; do not forget under the General Mansion there are twenty thousand engineer troops.
These engineer troops were previously used for road construction and city building, and now they can fully serve as civilian transporters for supplies.
Apart from engineer troops, the Governor’s Office can also draft twenty thousand soldiers as civilian transport workers.
This way, there would be forty thousand civilian transport workers responsible for transporting food and various materials.
However, if Yang Zhenshan were to deploy all elite troops from Chongshan Town, that would be thirty thousand troops from the Camp and forty thousand from the Rescue Camps; indeed, forty thousand civilian workers are far from sufficient.
When one thousand soldiers fight on the frontline, another ten thousand civilian workers are needed to transport various materials, and also a large number of them are required to follow the army to help establish camps and construct siege engines.
When Yang Zhenshan attacked Chongshan Pass back then, he brought along two thousand engineer troops, and later, Pang Tang delivered nearly twenty thousand civilian workers to help construct various military equipment.
And when originally subjugating the East Sea Hu Clan, even more civilian laborers were mobilized; at that time, the livestock and supplies seized by Yang Zhenshan were transported by soldiers and civilian workers.
Thus, with a large army on campaign, countless civilian workers are always needed behind the lines; the longer the battle line, the more civilian workers are required.
Under normal circumstances, for an elite army of seventy thousand, forty thousand civilian workers are far from enough.
However, Yang Zhenshan does not plan to wage war according to conventional thinking; following conventional wisdom, he must first defeat Menghe Mountain Pass, otherwise transporting the vast quantities of grain to the west of Menghe Mountain would be impossible.
The path too narrow for transporting grain and taking a detour too far, resulting in substantial grain consumption if there are many civilian workers on the road.
Yang Zhenshan does not plan to stubbornly contest Menghe Mountain Pass, thus he does not need that many civilian workers.