War, another way of human civilization evolution. Throughout the ages, the rise and fall of a country is mostly related to war, and a series of derivatives accompanied by war have also entered the stage of history, such as soldiers, weapons, military supplies and so on. As the basis of the outbreak of war, these three things have attracted much attention, and emperors of all dynasties have made great efforts to improve them.

However, whenever a war breaks out, there will always be a strange war phenomenon, that is, food shortage.

This problem can be traced back to the pre-Qin period at the earliest, and it has existed in all dynasties, which is surprising. Obviously, the number of soldiers has not increased, and the food and grass prepared for soldiers in the war is often much more, but under the guise of fighting, the soldiers at the front line shouted: "Why is there no food and grass?" I'm thin today, I don't have enough to eat and I have no strength. "

(Ancient military granary)

Many world-famous battles have also failed because of lack of food. The most typical is the battle of Guandu between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, and Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition. Yuan Shao failed because of lack of food, and missed the northland, so that the property of "four generations, three publics" was lost to Cao Aman. Zhuge Liang, who strategized and defeated the feather fan, made five northern expeditions in his life, and every time he retreated for lack of food, otherwise Shu would perish.

Today we will look at the essence through the phenomenon and study the strange phenomenon of food shortage in ancient wars.

In ancient times, there was a tried and tested tactic, which was to cut off food. Once the enemy's channel for transporting grain and grass is found and then destroyed, the war can basically be declared over.

(Battle of Guandu)

The battle of Guandu at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty is a vivid example. At that time, Yuan Shao was surrounded by four states: You, Ji, Qing and He, with hundreds of thousands of elite soldiers. On the other hand, Cao Cao has only tens of thousands of soldiers in Yanzhou and Yuzhou. Facing Yuan Shao, who was several times his own, Cao Cao not only didn't feel timid, but took the initiative to attack. Genius Guo Jia even wrote the famous article "Ten Wins and Ten Losses".

However, these are not the fundamental reasons that affect the battle of Guandu. What really made Cao Cao defeat Yuan Shao was Xu You's stratagem. Xu You, who came to surrender, told Cao Cao that if he wanted to win, he must first burn down Yuan Shao's lair where he stored grain and grass. Cao Cao laughed when he heard that there was no food. Immediately he sent his troops to burn the nest, finally defeated Yuan Shao and unified the North.

In addition to the lack of food caused by this food blocking road, there are too many agricultural laborers deployed in the war, which is related to the unique system of officers and men in ancient times. They rode horses as soldiers in wartime and farmed at home in their spare time.

When there is no war, the civilian labor force is sufficient and agricultural production is stable. As long as it is not a year of catastrophe, food is generally guaranteed. Once the war breaks out, young people who are usually idle at home will go to the battlefield, and sometimes they will catch up with young people to forcibly replenish their troops when they encounter insufficient troops, which will fundamentally lead to a sharp decline in agricultural production personnel. Soldiers in the army no longer produce food, and young people are dragged to the battlefield. The rest of the food producers are old, weak, women and children. You can imagine how low the grain output is.

(conscription)

Besides, war often foretells death. When the casualties are too large, the court will forcibly recruit soldiers. When young people have no sign, they recruit young and old. When all ages die, the dynasty will also be declared dead.

At the end of Qin Dynasty, Liu Bang and Xiang Yu competed for hegemony. In order to win the world, Xiao He put away all the young people in Sanqin area. Otherwise, Liu Jing's proposal to move the nobles of the six countries into Sanqin in the future would not be so smooth. Therefore, the outbreak of war itself will reduce food production, so there will be a reality of food shortage.

Natural and man-made disasters, more than half of the food shortage wars broke out in the year of catastrophe. Because of hunger, the bottom people began to resist. Because of the famine, the willing saw the opportunity to seek the throne. Modern historians once said: The people in ancient China were the most simple and kind. As long as they are well fed and warm, they don't care who the emperor is.

(peasant uprising)

Indeed, in ancient times when the weather was good, wars rarely broke out, but in every year of great disaster, the people simply could not stand the oppression of the bureaucratic landlord class. In order to survive, they had to rebel and beg for food. Peasant uprising will lead to the rebellion of local governors. From small to large, a national war is inevitable.

It is not difficult to see from here that this kind of war caused by lack of food, the war caused by most natural and man-made disasters, and the collision between grain failure and social class contradictions have produced fierce sparks. Instead of reconciling contradictions, the bureaucratic landlord class forced farmers to pay more food, which not only intensified farmers' resistance, but also made the frontline battlefield more short of food.

To sum up, war is an act of social operation, and grain and grass are closely related to it. They are both external and internal, so when the war breaks out, there will always be various reasons leading to food shortage.