Three thousand dragon cavalry need 9,000 Eastern European Mongolian horses. Considering the reasons of loss and disease, it is estimated that more than 10,000 horses must be prepared. Fortunately, Eastern European Mongolian horses are cheap, with war horses only 20 gold coins per horse, and ordinary riding horses do not exceed 10 gold coins per horse.
The horses of the dragon cavalry are used to rush the road and do not require charge. Therefore, ordinary riding of horses is enough. Therefore, ten thousand horses are not very valuable. Moreover, Eastern European Mongolian horses with Mongolian horse blood have very low requirements for feed. Generally speaking, they can eat grass. If you only ride one horse for a long distance, you may need to supplement some essence. When three horses are riding in exchange for riding, you basically don’t need to supplement much essence. Just carry some salt with you to supplement the salt loss of the horse’s running and sweating.
In this way, even if you march for a long distance, the consumption is not very large, especially the consumption of food. In addition, buying horses from the Crimean Khanate is very cheap, so there is no need to cherish horses too much. Moreover, this is not a war horse.
You should know that during the Boer War, the British tried their best to transport 350,000 horses from all over the world to the battlefield. However, after the war, considering that the cost of transporting horses was more expensive than the horses themselves, the British army directly sold most of the horses at a low price on the spot. But the problem is that the locals did not lack horses, and the Boer also organized horse teams to attack the British. Therefore, when the locals did not lack horses, the price of horse handling was very low.
Marin's battle this time is also the same. The long-distance raid will definitely harm the horse's body. If you don't feed some food essence, you will definitely lose weight. You can feed the food... The price of grain in Europe is so expensive, it's not cost-effective...
According to the minimum standard for arriving on the battlefield in 25 days, like the French cavalry carving, if you feed 4.8 kilograms of food every day, you will consume 10 pounds of food every day, worth 10 Finneys, and 6 days will be a gold coin. 10,000 cavalry and 30,000 horses will cost 30,000 gold coins in 6 days, and more than 120,000 gold coins in 25 days... No wonder in this era, there were very few European countries that could dispatch tens of thousands of cavalry. It was scary to death at the cost of the barely cost.
For example, if France mobilizes nationwide, 100,000 knights can be pulled out, but usually, the French are absolutely unwilling to mobilize too many cavalrymen. Because the cost of marching alone is a sky-high investment!
Besides, for Marin, there are 30,000 horses, and the purchase price is only 300,000 gold coins. According to conventional rules, more than 120,000 gold coins will be consumed in 25 days. If you eat for more than two months, the cost of feeding the horse will exceed the value of the horse itself...
So, to summarize, the most cost-effective way is to try to reduce food consumption. Only when you see that the horses are really unable to hold on, add some feed. In addition, it will definitely be better to feed before the war. In this way, the overall cost will be much less.
Even if the 30,000 horses are left in the end, the food saved is enough to supplement the new horses.
Of course, this is only for ordinary riding horses and horse-drawn horses. For war horses, try to ensure nutrition. Therefore, you must prepare a batch of soybeans and oats.
Look, all the newly arrived ships of soybeans in the Americas were requisitioned as war preparation supplies. Then, the logistics department put all the 100 tons of soybeans into a large iron pan and fryed them, and turned into fried soybeans. Then, while stir-frying the beans, salt was added.
In this way, the fried soybeans are fragrant and can replenish salt. Subsequently, these fried soybeans with salt are ground by windmill stones, and are ground into soybean noodles, and are sealed in oil paper bags to isolate the air and heated, making them military horse grains that can be preserved for a long time. In addition, the amount is also set. The weight of cooked soybean noodles with salt is 1 pound. Each time a horse is fed, one bag is fed, no more or less. Feed up to two meals a day, and you can feed one more meal before the war. Of course, the war horse can be fed one more meal, and when riding a horse, you can feed it at most one bag every day. If you don’t work hard, you won’t feed it.
This is better than putting soybeans in the bag, because the war horse is greedy. If the bag is not tied tightly, the war horse will steal soybeans. Therefore, sealing the cooked soybean noodles with salt with salt can not only be quantified, but also isolate the fragrance and prevent the war horse from stealing.
...
This is about horses, and human supply requirements are much higher than those of horses...
Look, the compressed biscuits provided by Beihai Kingdom are nothing unacceptable to the old mercenaries who have suffered. However, the primary school and young soldiers selected by Shaoer from various schools in Beihai Kingdom have much higher requirements for food and drink...
The old mercenaries grew up in the mountainous areas of poor southern Germany, and eating was a problem. For example, Kohler bread with only grass bran was a good meal for them at first. Because they could not eat bread all year round. In order to obtain food, they searched for wild vegetables all over the mountains to fill the lack of grain. In the bread they ate, wild vegetables, wood chips and even soil were the main body of the bread. Rye only accounted for a small part of the bread.
Therefore, these mountain mercenaries were not resistant to eating Kohler bread for long-distance marches. The main reason is that in comparison, Kohler bread is really better than their previous meals.
But the children in Beihai National School are very lucky that under the rule of Marin, the schools have opened canteens. In order to help children grow up healthily, bread is basic. In addition, salted fish, vegetables, and even cattle and goat milk are given priority for the school to grow taller.
As a result, the children are free of charge to Marin. However, if they are used to eating pure black bread without grass bran, salted fish, milk and other foods, and let them marche into monotonous compressed biscuits, they will frown.
Although they won't complain publicly, it also affects morale...
In desperation, Marin had to provide them with upgraded versions of compressed biscuits - sweetened compressed biscuits with maple syrup. Then, they also provided roasted salted fish (also sealed by oil paper bags, of course), and sealed and packaged dehydrated vegetables...
Then, these young Dragoons ate maple syrup compressed biscuits for each meal, supplemented with bagged grilled dried salted fish and dehydrated vegetables. This standard was only enjoyed by centurion-level officers in this era...
Fortunately, these children are not as luxurious as American soldiers later, and they have no requirements for drinking water, and can solve the problem with hot water. As for dehydrated vegetables, they seem to be unwilling to wait slowly for the vegetables to soak in the water before cooking.
During the march and training, the boys tore open the paper bag and then opened their mouths and chewed the dehydrated cabbage...
It’s no wonder that in this era, Europeans ate vegetables raw. Even in later generations, they liked to make vegetable salads, which were mixed salads. However, they were fruits, and they were used to cooking them...
Marin has promoted stir-frying many times, but everyone accepts it. But the problem is that because of the insufficient supply of edible oil, most serf families do not have the conditions to stir-fry. How to deal with vegetables without stir-frying? Just eat them raw...
However, this facilitates the supply of food for marching. When the army marchs, there is no need to provide many iron pots to cook. Basically, every 10 people need a pot. Moreover, they do not want to cook vegetables, but to cook hot water. Because Marin forced the soldiers to drink hot water.
Of course, there are also people who are used to eating cooked vegetables that will throw cabbage wrapped in oil paper bags into the pot, add some salt, and drink vegetable soup. However, most teenagers from serf families from the countryside are more accustomed to eating dehydrated vegetables when they are unpacked.
...
However, from the daily training of the Three Thousand Dragoons, Marin felt worried. Why? The requirements for combat preparations will be high in the future!
In the past, combat preparation supplies only required the soldiers to prepare ordinary compressed biscuits and salt. However, the new generation of young soldiers came up and greatly increased their requirements. They grew up in sweet water, unlike those old mercenaries, starving people to death. In this way, logistics expenses were greatly increased.
For example, maple syrup compressed biscuits, this thing was originally intended to be provided to officers in normal times and to frontline soldiers during wartime. After all, maple syrup production is not high. The main reason is that insufficient staff to collect maple syrup has affected production capacity.
But seeing those young soldiers who were loyal to him also had to eat sweet biscuits... it was too luxurious...
However, after eating maple syrup biscuits, the teenagers' physical strength recovery speed is indeed faster than eating ordinary biscuits...
"Yes, sugar was in the 20th century, but war preparations were coming..."
Malin suddenly remembered that before the actual opening of China in the late 20s, sugar was always a war preparation material, and it was given priority to supply the army. At that time, sugar, tobacco and alcohol were monopoly sales, and they could not eat it without a certain status. Only soldiers could obtain sugar subsidies stably. During the self-defense counterattack in Yue Monkey, the famous 761 compressed dry food contained white sugar ingredients.
It is said that eating sweet dry food containing sugar not only restores strength quickly, but also makes soldiers feel happy and helps to improve morale...
Chapter completed!