Speaking of the military council in the He Nei Army's main tent, Sima Ye Lin took the initiative to volunteer, securing the task of escorting the grain and grass to support the allied Ji Province Army.
After returning to the tent and having a discussion, Ye Lin's words somewhat dispelled his brother-in-law Fang Yue's doubts and suspicions.
However, Fang Yue did keep a trick up his sleeve. The He Nei County soldiers were his direct support. Now that his good-for-nothing brother-in-law was eager to take on a heavy burden, if he were to take a thousand elite troops to transport the grain, then his brother-in-law would be left with an Empty Fort Strategy. How could he agree to that?
In the end, Fang Yue only allocated Ye Lin a cavalry troop of fifty men, plus a company of two hundred infantry. He kept Chang Hao and the remaining one hundred and fifty cavalry to protect him, while the company commander of the infantry given to Ye Lin was Fang Xin, Fang Yue's cousin.
Even though they were related, the necessary precautions, supervision, and sand-mixing were all in place. Warfare is a matter of life and death.
Under the Han Dynasty's system of selecting officials, counties would recommend Filial and Incorrupt, and provinces would recommend Distinguished Talent, generally using people who were close.
And the local troops were usually formed with the private soldiers of the aristocratic families as the backbone. For example, the famous Zhu Jun repeatedly suppressed the Yellow Turban and the White Wave Bandits, and his troops were based on five thousand family soldiers.
And now, the elite He Nei County soldiers of Fang Yue and Ye Lin, not to mention the military commanders, even the company commanders were mostly the children of the local great clans.
When the famous He Nei Sima, Ye Lin, finally led the troops and escorted the supplies on the road, he realized that even transporting grain, even within He Nei Commandery, was a tough job.
The seat of government for He Nei Commandery was Huai County, but because the Han dynasty's Prefects and Commanders often had different seats of government in different cities.
Therefore, as a compromise, the He Nei Army, which participated in the alliance of the Eastern Han lords in the first month of the first year of the Chuping era, set up its main camp in Pinggao, on the north bank of the Yellow River. From Pinggao, going south across the Yellow River led to Chenggao, also known as Hulao Pass.
Pinggao County was located between Huai County and Wen County. It was established during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. At this time, the leader of the alliance, Yuan Shao's Ji Province Army, was stationed in Ji County, to the northeast of He Nei Commandery.
The journey from Pinggao in the central-southern part of He Nei Commandery to Ji County in the northeast was only about two hundred miles.
Just like Wang Kuang, the actual strength of the He Nei Army was just over three thousand men, but they claimed to have six thousand. The leader Yuan Shao had scraped together a force of at most five thousand from Bohai Commandery, yet boasted of over ten thousand.
As for the nearly ten thousand troops of Han Fu, the Governor of Ji Province, stationed in Ye County, they simply claimed to be a force of thirty thousand. However, Yuan Shu, the Prefect of Nanyang, had only doubled the number of his troops stationed in Nanyang, claiming to have twenty thousand.
Wang Kuang had indeed been a spendthrift in his youth, throwing money around like it was nothing. But back then, he was young and sought fame, and helping people in the martial world didn't cost that much money.
Being a commandery's Administrator now, Ye Lin had to support thousands of soldiers and also provide for Yuan Shao's army. The pressure and burden were completely different from his days wandering the jianghu.
Therefore, the provisions that Administrator Wang allocated to Ye Lin, intended for transport to Yuan Shao's Ji Province Army, amounted to a mere one hundred carts. If each cart could hold ten shi of grain, that totaled only one thousand hu of grain. (Before the mid-Tang Dynasty, hu and shi were used interchangeably)
So, how many days could one thousand hu of grain feed an army?
According to the late Han Dynasty, each soldier consumed 2 sheng of rice per day, requiring 1.2 shi of rice for 60 days. An army of 10,000 men would need 12,000 shi of rice for 60 days. (See Li Quan's Tai Bai Yin Jing from the Tang Dynasty and Shen Kuo's Dream Pool Essays from the Song Dynasty; the Tang and Song sheng were roughly equivalent).
If Yuan Shao's Ji Province Army were to be calculated at 5,000 men, not considering that cavalry consumed five times as much grain as infantry, the 5,000 infantrymen would consume 100 hu of grain per day. If this one thousand hu of grain could be entirely transported to Yuan Shao's camp, it would only be enough for ten days' worth of food.
Was it because Wang Kuang, the Administrator of He Nei, was being stingy?
Actually, no. Wang Kuang had put his own brother-in-law in jail and was preparing to kill him as a gesture of loyalty to Yuan Shao, the leader of the alliance. Could he really be that stingy with a few hu of grain?
The reason was that the He Nei Army's own stockpiled military provisions were only sufficient for three months, and that was based on the premise that the He Nei Army's soldiers remained at a base of three thousand regular soldiers.
In those days, the Han army transported supplies primarily using livestock in mountainous areas and ox carts and horse-drawn carts on the plains and grasslands. At the end of the Han Dynasty, a donkey could carry one shi of weight, a mule or a riding horse could carry 1.5 shi, and an ox cart could carry 10 shi. If they used ox carts to transport soldiers, one cart could carry five people.
He Nei Commandery was indeed quite prosperous, being located in the heartland of the Central Plains and near the imperial capital, Luoyang.
But don't forget, this was the first month of the first year of the Chuping era. It was the dead of winter, and even the Yellow River was frozen over. He Nei Commandery, like other places, had already eaten up most of last year's autumn harvest, and this year's summer harvest was still far off. It was the time of year when the old food was running out and the new wasn't ready.
Another reason for He Nei Commandery's lack of grain was the former governor of Bing Province, Ding Yuan. This guy had received an order from He Jin to lead the Bing Province troops into the capital, but he ended up staying and stationed in He Nei Commandery. The Bing Province troops and the Yongliang troops were known as the two most valiant and strong armies in the Northern Lands, both primarily consisting of cavalry.
So, Ding Yuan, along with Lü Bu, Zhang Liao, and Zhang Yang, had been stationed in He Nei Commandery for over a year. As outsiders, they had no scruples, and the Bing Province troops, with their need to feed both men and horses, had scraped off a layer of the land.
When Wang Kuang took over as the governor of He Nei Commandery, the money and grain in the counties of He Nei Commandery were much shorter than in previous years.
Ye Lin, in his previous life, was a special forces soldier on the border, and the original body he possessed was a Sima in the He Nei Army. Therefore, transporting supplies and marching was not technically difficult.
A vanguard of ten light cavalry scouts went ahead, and a squad of cavalry was left behind to guard the rear.
Fang Xin's infantry unit had two soldiers assigned to each of the supply wagons. Ye Lin himself led thirty cavalry in front of the column. The two hundred and fifty infantry and cavalry, along with the supplies carried by the one hundred and twenty-plus wagons, left the Pinggao camp and proceeded northeast along the main road.
From Pinggao, the main base of the He Nei Army, to Ji County, where the Ji Province Army was stationed, the journey was approximately two hundred li. The route followed the main road, passing through Huai County, Wuse, Xiuwu, and Huojia, before finally arriving at Ji County.
"My Lord, why aren't the cavalry protecting the flanks of the convoy? Why are you leading the infantry unit at the front?"
Fang Xin, a member of the Fang family from Wen County in He Nei, was a distant relative of the Captain, Fang Yue. If Chang Hao was Ye Lin's childhood playmate and follower, then this seemingly honest Fang Xin was the informant Fang Yue had placed under Ye Lin's command.
"This general has always been a master of warfare. I will surely become a famous general of He Nei in the future. The secrets of the heavens cannot be revealed! Just follow the road!"
Ye Lin wasn't stupid. He knew this guy was his brother-in-law's informant. He didn't have time to waste with him.
"Understood, my Lord!" Fang Xin, his face sullen, pulled his horse back half a step. In his heart, he didn't know how many times he had cursed Ye Lin as a "foolish buffoon."
Wen County was west of Pinggao, while Huai County was east of Pinggao. Ye Lin's force consisted of a mere two hundred and fifty infantry and cavalry, plus over two hundred cart drivers and over two hundred auxiliary soldiers. They claimed to have fifteen hundred men as they marched northeast, creating a very imposing sight.
It wasn't surprising at all. During the late Han Dynasty, the ratio of combat troops to auxiliary troops was roughly one to one. If you included the civilian laborers responsible for transporting grain, the ratio was at least one to three.
Because Ye Lin's unit was transporting one thousand hu of grain, primarily using over a hundred ox carts, the ratio of combat troops to auxiliary troops and civilian laborers was one to two. If you counted the four-legged oxen, the ratio had already exceeded one to three.
The ox carts moved slowly, only covering thirty to fifty li a day along the main road. Fortunately, they were traveling along the main road and passing through various counties, so this group of soldiers didn't have to sleep rough. They could stay in the county towns, saving them the trouble of setting up camp.
Ye Lin urged his troops forward. After half a day's work, the team had passed Huai County, the seat of the commandery. However, at a crossroads ten li north of the city, they encountered a group of people escorting a prison cart.