"The heartland is right, and the continental bridge is right, but the problem is that the supply cost of this road is too high. The Mongols can drive cattle, sheep and horses across thousands of miles to fight, which requires extremely tough and hard-working people.

The quality of the army has been extremely rare for thousands of years. Even the Mongols only lasted for two generations and were no longer able to carry out such thousands-mile marches."

As the person in charge of the logistics of the Jingnan Campaign, Zhu Gaochi slowly said to Zhu Di almost subconsciously and out of some occupational disease considerations.

After Zhu Di heard this, he also made a comparison from his heart.

The Yan army, which had recently experienced the arduous four-year bloody battle of Jingnan, was even slightly better than the Ming army at the founding of Hongwu in terms of combat effectiveness, equipment, and soldiers.

Judging from the large-scale, ultra-long-distance outflanking that Zhu Di led this army to complete in several battles, Zhu Di is confident that the quality of this army is the best in the world.

So, can this world's number one army be able to carry out large-scale maneuvers across thousands of miles like the Mongols?

Zhu Di thinks it is very difficult.

Of course, there are reasons for the different attributes of the army. The Yan army, which is a mixture of Han soldiers and Mongol Tartar officials in the north, is not all cavalry like the Mongolian army in the Genghis Khan era, but a mixture of infantry and cavalry. The proportion of cavalry is

There are also mostly semi-armored cavalry and heavy armored cavalry, not light cavalry like the Mongols.

Therefore, whether it was the mules and horses needed to carry armor, the horses needed to convert infantry into mounted infantry, or the donkey carts needed to transport food, the Yan army was destined to be unable to conduct expeditions across thousands of miles like the Mongols.

Dao Yan also sighed softly: "The Mongolian expedition to the west was unprecedented in ancient times, and it will be difficult for future generations to achieve it."

""Journey to the West" once recorded the scene of Mongolia's Western Expedition, which is the so-called: the mountains and rivers are looming, and the sky is green. The chariots and tents are like clouds, and the soldiers are like rain. The horses and cattle are in the wild, and the soldiers are in armor. Fireworks look at each other, and the camp is thousands of miles away.

.It has never been so prosperous through the ages."

Zhu Di not only nodded, but since he couldn't do it, talking about "Heartland" and "Continental Bridge" was probably just talk on paper.

The truth is correct, but except for the Mongols in the era of Genghis Khan, no army can do it again.

After all, the terrain on the Continental Bridge was too harsh and the environment too difficult for thousands of soldiers who were both hard-working and nomadic to make a living.

——————

"I don't think it's right."

Zheng He was the first to speak: "The reason why it's wrong is also very simple. I dare to ask this Mr. Jiang, how many years has passed since the Battle of Talos before the Tang Anxi Army lost control of the Anxi Protectorate and the Beiting Protectorate?"

"

Jiang Xinghuo replied calmly: "More than ten years after the Battle of Talos, the Anshi Rebellion broke out. Tang Ting began to gradually lose control of the Western Regions. And forty years after this battle, Tang Ting completely lost the Anxi Protectorate and the Beiting Capital.

Hufu Tang

The poet Bai Juyi once said in his poem "Xiliang Ji": Anxi is usually thousands of miles away, but today the border is in Fengxiang (Baoji, Shaanxi). What this poem reflects is the situation where the Tang court completely lost control of the western territory."

"That's it!"

Zheng He imitated Guan Gong, stroked his fake beard, and said: "The reason why in just forty years, the western border of the Tang Dynasty retreated from Congling, tens of thousands of miles away, to Fengxiang in Guanzhong on the east side of Longshan Mountain.

The reason is that next door to the west, the desert is

It is difficult to replenish supplies. Even if troops are stationed, even if they can rely on profits from trade to supplement expenditures or even have a surplus, the more they fight, the richer they become, and the more they fight, the more military achievements they gain, but there is a fundamental problem with this so-called "continental bridge" and "heartland"

It cannot be solved.”

"Let's talk about it." Zhu Gaoxu asked curiously.

Zheng He said with certainty: "That is the Western Silk Road, a wealthy trade route. In the final analysis, it is just a trade route. It itself cannot produce enough supplies, including armor, weapons, arrows, and food, all of which have to be obtained from

Transporting it from the distant Guanzhong may not be a loss if you just calculate the money. After all, if you occupy the Western Region, you can get the right to collect taxes on the trade routes, but once a war breaks out, these things cannot be bought with money."

After speaking, Zheng He looked at Jiang Xinghuo confidently.

To Zhu Gaoxu's surprise, Mr. Jiang did not refute, but admitted it.

"You are right, especially the sentence 'trade routes are just trade routes'. You are especially right."

"So going back to the issue we mentioned before, it may not be difficult for you to understand why I say that the core of land power theory is actually the concentration and high pressure of population, resources."

"It must be understood that any discussion of land power or sea power without the right to trade access routes fails to recognize the essence of the matter."

"Land power or sea power to be mentioned later, as national power, are a means rather than a result of safeguarding the country's international power, that is, the power of communication between countries."

Jiang Xinghuo asked: "So what is international power?"

Zhu Gaoxu was the first to answer: "Just like those generals of the Tang Dynasty, they traveled across the Western Regions and destroyed countries at every turn. If there was a country that did not submit to China, it would be completely destroyed."

Zheng He thought more profoundly: "I think it should be the ability to influence other countries, so that other countries can bow their heads to China."

Jiang Xinghuo shook his head.

"There is a saying that temples are the continuation of the economy, and wars are the continuation of the temples. International power is the ability of a country to influence other countries in all aspects from the perspectives of war, temples, economy, etc., and the most fundamental of them is

, the most lasting thing is economic benefits.”

Jiang Xinghuo looked at Zhu Gaoxu and asked softly: "Do you still remember the lesson in the first volume of our "On National Destiny"? In that lesson, we also mentioned the Tang Dynasty."

Zhu Gaoxu was startled and then recalled it.

"At that time, Mr. Jiang, you recited a poem and looked quite sad."

"Don't you know, the Han family has two hundred states in Shandong, and thousands of villages are home to Jingqi!"

"No one has collected the bones of the past, new ghosts are annoying and old ghosts are crying, the sky is cloudy, rainy and wet, and the sound is chirping."

"In that lesson, you said that the reason why the Tang Dynasty wanted to control the Western Regions at all costs was to become a big watermelon. If the Tang Dynasty controlled the Silk Road, it would have countless wealth and would not need to rely on land tax to live."

Zhu Gaoxu suddenly said "Hey".

In a daze, he seemed to remember the foreshadowing of a sentence Jiang Xinghuo had planted a few months ago.

"Both the strong Han Dynasty and the prosperous Tang Dynasty failed in the end. This also involves the core of the 'National Destiny Theory', which will be discussed later."

The grass is as gray as a snake thread, and the veins lie thousands of miles away.

Jiang Xinghuo looked at Zhu Gaoxu's appearance and rubbed his hands happily. This student remembered it very seriously.

"It seems that you have remembered it, so today, in the third volume of "The Theory of National Destiny", I will reveal to you the introduction buried in the first volume."

"Why did the powerful Han Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty attempt to control the expansion of trade routes in the Western Regions and failed in the end?"

"This is also the fundamental difference between the land power theory and the sea power theory."
Chapter completed!