Chapter 165 Island Hopping Tactics (Desert Premium Edition)

When Muhammad Ali set out from Damascus, it was almost April 1790, and the weather gradually became hot, making the army's march further difficult.

After a series of discussions and calculations, Muhammad Ali finally created a suitable set of tactics for his army's march, that is, relying on the desert oases to advance step by step towards the hinterland of the Delameye Emirate. In the process, Among them, the former Sipaxi cavalry will serve as vanguards and patrols to find oases for the army and ensure safe passage between major oases.

The recruited Shias will be escorted by cavalry teams and use camels to transport food and military supplies forward.

Generally speaking, the army's logistics use a lot of cattle.

From the 15th century BC to the early 19th century in India and Spain, bulls were the animals most commonly used to pull carts and carry loads.

While Wellington was fighting in India and Spain, he was constantly thinking about finding good bulls.

He wrote in August 1804: “Without well-driven and well-tended animals, rapid movement of troops is impossible.”

Before that, he expressed the same idea in India: "The success of military operations depends on the supply of military supplies. It is not difficult to fight a war and it is not difficult to win a war. Sometimes you may lose troops and generals, and sometimes you may not lose a single soldier; but you must To achieve the goal, we must solve the problem of eating.”

Wellington had money and could buy more cattle; for him, the advantage of cattle was that they could both transport things and kill them for food, which he did.

There are few other commanders who are not short of money like him. After all, not everyone has a leader behind his back.

So generally speaking, cattle are very valuable and cannot be slaughtered for food for soldiers, and this automatically limits the speed and range of actions of the army.

For example, Alexander the Great, like Wellington, relied on large and small bulls to transport military supplies for his marching troops.

However, his tactical range could not exceed an eight-day journey from the supply depot, which was usually located at sea, because a cow would eat all its own fodder during this period.

As a result, if Alexander wanted to fight for a long distance, he had to either not stay too far away from the supply fleet, or send someone to the front station to buy food and find someone to donate the cash to buy the food or make a guarantee to ensure that the money to buy the food would be paid after victory.

Seeing the momentum of Alexander's attack on Darius, some Persian officials who were unscrupulous for profit rushed to make deals with Alexander.

Alexander's farthest march from home was from the Indus River to Makran in Balochistan in 326 BC. For this 300-mile march, he prepared 52,000 tons of supplies, enough to ensure that he consisted of 87,000 infantry and 18,000 The army consisted of cavalry and 52,000 handymen for 4 months.

Because the cattle team would eat up the fodder and the soldiers would eat up their 30 pounds of supplies before reaching their destination, Alexander relied on the supply fleet accompanying the army along the Indian Ocean coast to provide supplies, and looked to the monsoons to bring The rainwater that came in replenished the water in the river, because his army had to obtain drinking water from the mouth of the river.

The logistics were very well planned. If the grain and fodder on the supply fleet were regularly unloaded and distributed, he could have provided adequate supplies for his army.

However, the monsoon that year blocked Alexander's fleet from advancing at the mouth of the Indus River. As a result, his army lost 3/4 during the march across the Baluchistan desert.

It can be concluded that transporting supplies requires a waterway, river or coast not far from the marching route, otherwise vehicles are needed. In ancient times, animals were used as pack animals. In modern times, animals are also used in places with steep terrain (1874 In the war of conquering Khiva in Central Asia, the Russians used 8,800 camels to transport food for 5,500 soldiers), but the animals were absolutely incomparable to the vehicles and ships.

Many battles relied on water transportation. A famous example was when British general Marlborough campaigned in Bavaria in 1704, military supplies were transported down the Rhine River.

It's a pity that this is a desert, not to mention rivers, and there are very few oases.

So, it’s very clear why camels were used. After all, Alexander the Great used something that was agreed upon, so why didn’t Emperor Cyprus use it.

As an animal adapted to life in deserts and semi-arid areas, camels are also herbivores with ruminant functions. Their stomachs are divided into three parts, namely the rumen, reticulum and glandular stomach.

This structure allows camels to feed on the rough parts of rare vegetation in desert areas or semi-arid areas, such as Haloxylon ammodendron, Populus euphratica, Euphratica japonica, wolfsbane, wild watermelon, and cacti.

It can be said that almost any plant growing in desert and semi-arid areas can become food for camels.

At this point, in this great expedition to the Arabian Peninsula, cattle and horses were slaughtered.

After all, there is no grass in the desert. If you use cattle and horses to transport it, you will have to carry extra fodder, and this will increase the logistics cost to a point that the emperor cannot bear. You must know that Muhammad Ali’s army has a total of 20,000 soldiers. The remaining people.

Judging from Shen Kuo's algorithm in the Northern Song Dynasty, a soldier needs at least three civilians to transport food.

This place is a desert, and there are no official roads, making it difficult for vehicles to travel, which will only further increase the logistical pressure.

In other words, Muhammad Ali's army needed at least 100,000 civilians.

In order to reduce costs and fight heretics, the loss rate of these civilians will reach a quite alarming level. Similar means are probably to kill all heretics who show any disease. When the army does not have enough food, they will no longer provide heretics with food for the return trip, but directly drive the heretics to fight against the Wahhabis, or sell them to the local Bedouin nomadic tribes in exchange for food.

This kind of thing, the Sultan knows it but pretends not to know it. The so-called "the master is kind and can't stand these" is just like this.

In addition to making a fuss about transportation, what the soldiers eat is actually a place worth thinking about.

For the desert environment, cooking is definitely out of the question. This is a luxury. Drinking water is scarce, so where is the extra water for cooking.

So, dry bread, pickled mutton and some hard biscuits that are easy to carry have become the staple food.

Among them, hard biscuits are the most popular, because ordinary bread cannot be kept in good condition for a long time.

And hard biscuits can be kept in good condition for a year after baking and storage, which is very suitable for military food.

Even so, Muhammad Ali arranged other supply methods for logistics issues.

In addition to relying on the transportation of civilians, Muhammad Ali also specifically asked Emperor Seth to approve a sum of money. This money was used to buy food from the local Bedouin nomadic tribes. After all, transporting silver coins is much more efficient than transporting food.

As for why he didn't rob directly but bought, don't joke. Muhammad Ali was unfamiliar with the place, let alone robbing these tribes. He had to rely on them to lead the way.

In addition to military considerations, Muhammad Ali also had to make political considerations. His Majesty's meaning was very clear. For the Bedouin tribes who came to surrender during this great expedition, all should be given preferential treatment to facilitate the subsequent central government's rule over the local areas.

The cost of establishing direct rule on this land is too high. Emperor Seth can only set up a governor position and rely on the tribes to rule at the same time. Although this has hidden dangers, he is confident that there will be no rebellion before his death.

And after his death, the train will learn about it.

Now, it's Muhammad Ali's turn to perform island-hopping tactics (desert exclusive, Shia acceleration, Bedouin traitor leading the way far ahead version)