Chapter 113: The Purpose of War

  "What, you little brat can't eat your fill and now you know to come find me, your uncle?" Facing Liu Yu's somewhat anxious expression, Louis was completely nonchalant, biting into the black bread in his hand as he asked back with a hint of teasing.

  "Big Uncle I..." Liu Yu saw this and his heart was relieved. Louis' performance proved that the situation was not as bad as he thought.

  Originally, at noon today, Liu Yu went to pick up breakfast and found that the soldiers' rations were reduced by nearly half. The black bread was smaller than before, and the fist-sized piece of roasted meat that was available every meal was gone. At the same time, several officers also conveyed Kane's order that from now on, every day's breakfast will be this quantity, only afternoon meals will be the original quantity.

  The order was passed down and the originally somewhat ** soldiers in the army suddenly became quiet, whether they were Mongolian or wolf tribe warriors, they were all military races with strong discipline who had received militarized training since childhood.

  They believed that as the highest commander of the fortress, Kane had his reasons for giving such an order. Of course, everyone could guess what this reason was - the military food was insufficient. So after receiving breakfast, the warriors of both tribes took their black bread back to the barracks without any complaints.

  However, this little ration was really too small for the beast tribe warriors who had a large appetite. For the Mongol warriors, it was simply just enough to satisfy their cravings. Many warriors finished eating the black bread in their hands soon after they left and could only sigh and find a place to rest. As for Liu Yu, he didn't have the mood to rest. He looked at the "small" black bread in his hand and had some hidden worries, so he came to ask Louis for clarification.

  "Don't worry, the military's food supply is sufficient to support daily consumption until winter. It's just that yesterday we received your father's order, asking us to conserve military rations as much as possible without affecting the soldiers' combat effectiveness." Louis's explanation left Liu Yu stunned, he hadn't expected his father hundreds of miles away would still be intervening in the management of the fortress garrison's food supplies.

  "How could Father give such an order, is it because of the autumn harvest..."

  "Ah, yes, the kingdom's autumn harvest has had some problems, many places have had poor grain yields this year... If it weren't for the kingdom having some stored grain, there would be famine by winter." Louis casually placed the black bread on the wooden table in front of him, stood up and walked back and forth inside the military tent a couple of times, clearly losing his appetite as soon as he mentioned the internal situation of the kingdom.

  "Famine......" As soon as Liu Yu heard this word, many scenes buried for many years quickly emerged in his mind. The helpless mouse people were so hungry that their limbs were thin like twigs, and newborn babies also died of starvation because their mothers were too hungry to produce milk. This was the scene when he followed Tolomei to visit the mouse village many years ago, when the kingdom's granary areas suffered a poor harvest, causing a great famine in the kingdom, and countless vassal tribes faced the danger of starving to death.

  "Father is afraid that the war will last too long, so he let the army reserve some food first, right?" Liu Yu thought for a moment and roughly guessed his father Gaiya's intention.

  "It's almost that way, your father's worries are also reasonable. Our hundreds of thousands of troops and the large number of subordinate ethnic groups' miscellaneous laborers consume too much food every day, so we have to take some measures first. Moreover, you soldiers are not the ones who reduce their rations the most. This time, after discussing with Kayn, we decided to let the war horses in the army eat grass like the walking horses to save a little wheat." Louis smiled helplessly and told Liu Yu another decision he and Kayn had made.

  "Oh dear, those war horses are in for it!" Upon hearing this new decision, Liu Yu's face also broke into a helpless smile.

  The war horses in the Beast Tribe army are far superior to the pack horses in terms of explosive power and load-carrying capacity, which is maintained by feeding them wheat. Without the support of this high-protein food, a war horse's physical strength will rapidly decline, and they need to spend a lot of time eating grass to fill their stomachs every day.

  So Cain and Louis's decision was tantamount to temporarily turning the war horses in the army into walking horses, which also indirectly explained that Cain decided to adopt a defensive strategy of guarding the fort at Emalbena, abandoning the possibility of sending out large cavalry troops to launch an active attack.

  ..........

  Liu Yu's figure reappeared on the mountain slope behind the fortress of Aisu. After casually finishing the meager rations, he, who had no sentry or patrol duties in the army today, chose to cultivate in this quiet place as usual, but Liu Yu, sitting cross-legged, seemed unable to calm his mind.

  "When employing the army, a thousand chariots and ten thousand cavalry, with armor for a hundred thousand men, and provisions transported over a thousand miles. Then there are the internal and external expenses, the costs of entertaining guests, the materials for glue and lacquer, and the maintenance of chariots and armor, which amount to a daily expenditure of a thousand pieces of gold. Only then can an army of a hundred thousand men be raised... ...Hence, though we have heard of clever operations before, we have not seen one that has been prolonged. A prolonged war will necessarily cause the country to suffer. Therefore, those who do not thoroughly comprehend the disadvantages of employing the army cannot thoroughly comprehend its advantages."

  For some reason, Liu Yu thought of this passage from the Art of War. It talks about the harm of using troops for a long time, meaning that wars that mobilize the power of an entire country will often greatly consume the country's wealth, and if not careful, it will lead to very serious consequences. Therefore, as a general, one cannot fully understand the benefits of using troops without understanding the harm of using troops.

  Liu Yu now recalls this passage and realizes that the "Military Saint" Sun Wu's grasp of national warfare in the cold weapon era is indeed extremely accurate.

  "How long will this battle last?" Liu Yu whispered softly as he gazed out at the motionless Eastern army.

  He knew that the Fandor Empire had a larger number of troops, and the consumption would be a terrible figure, but the wealthy and powerful Fandor Empire could withstand such war consumption. However, the Beastman Kingdom, which had suffered a poor harvest and had tens of millions of large armies with huge consumption, could not withstand such war consumption at all. If the war continued until next year, the beast tribe would probably have to face famine.

  Father Gaea naturally thought of this too, so he let these frontline warriors reduce their food consumption in order to be more prepared for the famine next year. However, after calculating this, although the Beastman Kingdom has not yet lost to the Fano Empire on the battlefield, the kingdom has already suffered a great loss in terms of strength consumption.

  "Hmm, could it be that way? How come I didn't think of it?" Liu Yu sank into deep thought for a long time before suddenly feeling his thoughts connect like electricity. Some things he had never figured out now became clear in an instant. He slapped his thigh and jumped up from the ground, muttering to himself repeatedly.

  "All this is just to exhaust us, their original intention was like this, I'm so stupid, so stupid!" Liu Yu almost jumped up and down on the hillside, stamping his feet and scolding loudly.

  "What's their goal, Alexander!" Liu Yu had just cursed a couple of sentences when a low, cold voice suddenly interrupted his actions. After a brief pause, Liu Yu felt a chill in his heart and hastily turned around to find that several meters behind him, there was an additional figure clad in a black long gown, with a youthful appearance and a golden mask.

  "Pay respects to the three elders!" As soon as he saw the appearance of Huang Jinbi, Liu Yu immediately calmed down and hurriedly stepped forward to bow.

  "This isn't the military, just call me Seventh Grandfather!" The yellow-robed monk, who looked only a few years older than Liu Yu, spoke with an air that seemed to surpass Liu Yu by two generations.

  "Yes, Seventh Grandfather." Liu Yu called out without hesitation, seemingly not finding anything unusual about it.

  "Hmm, now you first tell me what you just thought of, that made you so flustered." The young Golden Bimon responded faintly and then asked Liu Yu.

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