In the history of war, Li Mengxi could only think of Napoleon's campaign against Moscow as an example of a major defeat due to clothing problems.

It is said that because the coats of Napoleon's army used tin buttons, in winter, the tin turned into powder under the severe cold. Napoleon's soldiers suffered from the severe cold because they could not button up their coats, which eventually led to large-scale attrition.

Li Mengxi had great doubts about this story. He felt that this rumor was extremely unreliable.

How can it be so difficult to make buttons? If the tin buttons are gone, why not use iron? As an army, we must have a lot of iron on hand. We can just collect some iron materials and melt the iron to make buttons.

How difficult can it be? Even if you can't use iron to make buttons, you can just pull two branches to fasten your clothes. No matter how barren Russia is, you can't even find a branch.

Also, I don’t know how many troops Napoleon brought with him on the expedition to Moscow, but I imagine that as an expeditionary army, the logistics preparations must be very sufficient. It is impossible for such an army to not have a needle and thread in the entire army. Since there is needle and thread, there are no buttons.

Yes, it is not possible to sew the clothes directly. You will freeze to death because the clothes cannot be closed because there are no buttons.

Needless to say, Napoleon, even if a primitive man could grind a bone needle to pierce two hairs, he could sew an animal hide firmly. Napoleon's soldiers were not as smart as primitive men? Napoleon's soldiers had no hair? Obviously impossible.

Taking everything into account, Li Mengxi felt that the rumors were false. How could Napoleon fail because of a small button? The button could only be a small problem among the countless logistical problems during Napoleon's expedition to Russia, and it was a series of serious logistical problems.

All together led to Napoleon's defeat, and it was impossible for a mere button to crush Napoleon's powerful army.

It became clear that Napoleon was not defeated by a button, but by the harsh winter climate of Russia. Napoleon was defeated in the extremely cold winter in Moscow. The roads were difficult to travel, there was a lack of sufficient fuel, and weapons were difficult to operate in winter. The gunpowder changed due to the cold.

It was damp, a large number of livestock were frozen to death, logistics was paralyzed, and other difficulties were accumulated, and they were overwhelmed.

Because the Julu Army headquarters brought more thick clothes than the local soldiers, under the sudden change in temperature, few people in the Julu Army got cold and sick, while some of the local soldiers fainted from the cold, and more were shivering from the cold.

By.

In the scenario of heavy rain, during one day of heavy rain, the Julu Army suffered no losses, and the rural soldiers suffered a small reduction. If it lasted longer, during the two days of heavy rain, the Julu Army suffered no losses, and some of the rural soldiers began to freeze.

No matter how long the illness lasted, it could last for several to ten days. Heavy rains fell continuously for many days, and the rural soldiers who lacked clothing to keep out the cold were frozen in the low temperature for many days. By then, the rural soldiers generally began to fall ill.

As soon as the infection spread, it is estimated that after a rain, all the rural soldiers were wiped out.

People rely on people to fight, and the minimum needs for human survival are food and clothing. The minimum needs are food and protection from the cold. In the past, Li Mengxi thought that all materials were not as important as food. Now his concept has changed a bit. In addition to food, materials for keeping out the cold are also extremely important. Food

Clothing and clothing are the most indispensable parts of logistics supplies, followed by others.

As the saying goes, bring dry food when you are hungry and clothes when you are full. Even if you go on an expedition in summer, you must prepare winter clothes that can withstand the cold winter. The considerations are, first, the climate is unpredictable. Although snowfall in June is rare throughout the ages, it

It's definitely not impossible to happen.

Speaking of climate, especially the climate at the end of the Han Dynasty, the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty was the Little Ice Age, which was the most abnormal historical period in terms of climate. In the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the possibility of snowfall in June was greater than in other historical periods, so the army always had

Winter coats become even more necessary.

Furthermore, considering the variability of war, the process of war is not under human control. Many times, the war was originally planned to be fought for a month, but ended up fighting for a year. If the expedition was carried out in summer, and only summer clothes were brought with them, then

From summer to winter, the army has no winter clothes prepared and cannot withstand the winter cold. At this time, it is either forced to retreat or to urgently raise clothing. If it retreats, all the previous efforts will be wasted. If it is raised, thousands of sets of winter clothes will be raised in an emergency. Where can I find them?

In the past, Li Mengxi believed that all the transport capacity of the army should be used to carry as much food as possible. With limited transport capacity, it was still not enough to use all the loads from vehicles to individual soldiers to carry food. Now there are more winter clothes.

This is a must. If we prioritize it, both food and clothing are important, but in the final analysis, food is the most important. With the same transportation capacity, carrying food is definitely more cost-effective than carrying clothing. For this reason, clothing should not occupy too much space.

Lots of transport capacity.

Let’s take a closer look at the cold-proof clothing in the Han Dynasty. The only clothing that could be used to keep out the cold in the Han Dynasty was silk, linen and fur. Silk and linen and other fabrics had very poor cold-proof properties. In order to achieve the effect of keeping out the cold, they had to be very heavy. In this way, a linen winter coat could weigh more than a dozen

It weighed 10 pounds, which greatly occupied the space for soldiers to carry weight.

The ability of fur to keep out the cold is especially better than that of cotton. Fur is the most capable of keeping out the cold and at the same time, it is the lightest and most cost-effective way to keep out the cold. If the logistics structure is made more reasonable, the entire army should be equipped with a set of cold-proof clothing.

Fur clothing, however, is difficult to obtain and expensive, and it is almost impossible to equip thousands of people with furs.

At this point, another dilemma arises.

Warm-proof clothing is very important. At the same time, due to the lack of efficient cold-proof materials, cold-proof clothing is generally overweight, and individual soldiers have a limited load. Overweight clothing will greatly occupy the capacity of transporting food. At this point, it seems that we can only choose one of the two.

, either bring more food, or waste several kilograms or even heavier clothes to occupy part of the load-bearing space.

Other than that, there seems to be no other way.

At this time, Li Mengxi clearly realized how important cotton was. Later dynasties owned cotton. Only in this aspect, cotton made the cold-proof clothing lighter, making the clothing less occupied by transportation capacity, allowing the same total carrying capacity to carry more food.

The logistical capabilities of the armies of later generations were therefore much stronger.

The state of Gaochang in the Western Regions had cotton, and cotton was probably grown in the northwest of the Han Dynasty. A small amount of cotton cloth could also be purchased in Luoyang, but these limited sources were not enough to equip the army on a large scale.

The easily available fabrics had poor cold resistance and were too heavy, the furs were too expensive, and the cotton was too scarce. These available materials were all insufficient. Unless other materials were found, Li Mengxi thought of down.

Down is better at keeping out the cold than cotton, and its weight is stronger than cotton. It can be said to be the best cold-proof equipment with the least logistical pressure.

I remembered that large-scale poultry farming has begun in Julu. When the war is over, Julu will probably have tens of thousands of chicken and duck seedlings. If there are millions of chickens and ducks, one chicken and duck will produce an average annual harvest.

With 2 taels of feathers, the annual down output is 250,000 jins. Assuming that 10 jins of feathers can be used to make one warm coat, when the poultry industry reaches its peak, 10,000 down jackets can be made in a year.

As for how long it will take to reach the peak of poultry scale and reach one million scale, Li Mengxi calculated that it will take three to four years.

Productivity is still too low. With all the manpower and material resources combined, it can only produce 10,000 down jackets a year. To produce these 10,000 down jackets, one million poultry must be responsible for supplying raw materials. Behind these million poultry, there are at least one million people.

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In other words, if the production of down jackets continues, it will take a hundred years to provide one set to all the people.

Either there is a miscalculation somewhere, or the output is just so low.

——

Because it was a rainy day, it got dark very early, so I had to set up camp early.

It's still raining heavily, and it's troublesome to camp in this bad weather.

When it was still dark, the scouts were sent out to look around for suitable camping spots. But when it got dark, the scouts had not returned yet.

After a long time, the scout came back belatedly and said that he had searched all over the area and found no high ground where tens of thousands of people could be stationed.

There are no high enough terrains to be found, but there are small slopes. However, if the camp is dispersed and attacked by the enemy, the consequences will be disastrous.

Although the enemy troops have been retreating for many days since the march, and not even a shadow of the enemy troops has been seen for many days, but with the intelligence and reconnaissance methods being so underdeveloped, if the scouts miss one or two small groups of enemies, they will wait until the dead of night.

, in case two groups of enemy troops are rushing into the camp, and when the time comes, all the troops are scattered and their strength cannot be unified. In addition, the heavy rain and the noise of the people are drowned out, and there are many rural soldiers in the team. If they are rushed by the enemy troops indiscriminately,

When the time came for the village soldiers to blow up the camp, the defeated soldiers swept over the formation and were defeated like a mountain.

On balance, it was too risky to camp dispersedly, so the entire army camped on the same spot.

When camping on a rainy day, the most important thing is to avoid rainwater. The methods to avoid rainwater are: first, camp at a high place, second, dig drainage ditches, third, bury the corners of the tent, and fourth, use elevated beds for beds.

Since there is no way to camp at high places, drainage ditches are of little significance, and all the pressure for rain protection is on the tents and raised beds.

The camp seemed very messy. The first thing to complete the arrangement was the vehicle array. After the vehicle array was arranged on the outside and basic defense was done, the soldiers of each battalion inside began to work calmly.

There were people walking around everywhere. In the rain curtain, there were fewer and fewer fires scattered everywhere. The torches were easily extinguished in the rain. Fortunately, the Julu Army had backup means. They set up torches in the baggage train at various places in the camp.

After they were erected everywhere, torches were inserted into the stands, and the torches were burning calmly under the protection of the rain shield. Thanks to the light provided by these torch stands, the camp could barely get enough light to set up camp without overshadowing the busy work.

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When the soldiers were setting up camp, Li Mengxi was also patrolling the camp. The Julu Army was now wealthy, and its sufficient logistics allowed almost every soldier to have a torch. However, the problem became more serious.

In the past, when logistics was insufficient, soldiers were not issued many torches, and lighting problems all depended on torch stands. The problem of rain protection for individual soldier torches was not so obvious. Now everyone has a torch, and the torch cannot protect against rain. Once it is extinguished, a large area will be destroyed.

It looks very dazzling.

Of course, Li Mengxi knew that there were better lighting tools that were windproof and rainproof, such as lanterns. The cost of making lanterns was nothing more. Lanterns either burned wax or oil. The fuel cost was too high and they couldn't afford to equip them.

Under today's real conditions, there is no other cheap lighting material except wood, and wooden torches are not rainproof and will disappear after rain, so the core problem is how to protect the torch from rain.

There are many ways to simply shelter from the rain. You can use a wooden barrel to cover the torch, you can use a wooden board to block it, you can use a cover, etc. But since you are in the military, you have to consider logistics.

, the core of the logistics problem lies in the transportation capacity, that is, the rainproof means must not increase the load too much.

Li Mengxi thought that the most convenient way to prevent rain is an umbrella. Umbrellas have a large protective area, are widely used, and are easy to use. They are really a very cost-effective option.

The soldiers each carried an oil-paper umbrella, which did not add two kilograms of weight, but provided a powerful means of preventing rain. With the umbrella, when encountering a heavy rain, the soldiers could hold an umbrella in one hand and a torch in the other, without fear of any rain or snow.

The Julu Army was now considered an experienced army. The soldiers were already familiar with camping matters. It didn't take long for the soldiers to set up their tents. Li Mengxi went to check the tents and found that the tents were set up on the spot.

On the road, there was a lot of water on the road, and the tent was almost soaked in the rain, which made Li Mengxi feel very helpless.

But when Li Mengxi looked at both sides of the road again, the terrain on both sides of the road was lower and there was more rain, and he felt balanced. At this moment, Li Mengxi realized a piece of geographical knowledge. The reason why a road is a road is that it is probably the flattest one in the surrounding area.

If the place with the best terrain is in a low-lying area and will accumulate water whenever it rains, few people will be willing to walk there. If there are fewer people walking, it will hardly become a road.

There is another way to camp. On rainy days, if you can't find a suitable camping high ground, it is a good choice to camp directly in the middle of the road. The middle of the road will probably be slightly higher than the roadside.

Li Mengxi also deepened his understanding of the road. When the road was first opened, the road surface was generally higher than the surrounding area. However, as time went by, people walked and cars pressed on it, and the road became more and more solid, and the road surface became more and more difficult.

The lower it is, once the road surface is lower than the left and right roadbed, then immediately when there is rain, the rainwater will gather on the road surface and wash away a large amount of soil, causing the road surface to be lower. This becomes a vicious cycle, because the road surface is low, so

It is easy to accumulate water. Because it is easy to accumulate water, the soil is easily washed away. The soil is washed away, causing the roadside to be lower and easier to accumulate water. The degree of road surface collapse will become faster and faster. This is the soil erosion of the road surface.

It can be seen that the most damaging factor that threatens the road surface is not people walking around, but rainwater erosion. Therefore, the most important thing in road construction is to build the road surface higher than the roadbed, and it is best to use a stone road surface.

Moreover, once a depression is found on the road surface, it should be repaired immediately to make it higher than the roadbed. Otherwise, the road will be destroyed at an uncontrollable speed and become faster and faster.

Li Mengxi took out a pen and paper and wrote a few strokes in the rain. When others saw it, they thought that Li Mengxi had come up with some clever military strategy. However, they did not know that Li Mengxi only wrote about road construction.
Chapter completed!