Millet at home
Today, people often use "millet plus rifles" to describe the harsh conditions of wartime, but do not know, this inconspicuous, and even some of the shabby "coarse grains", but in ancient times, the military grain "top chair" for a thousand years. Why is millet? This is closely related to the scope of activities of the ancients. Before the Sui and Tang dynasties, China's political and economic centers are in the Yellow River basin, and the local is the traditional main production area of corn. About 6,000 years ago, corn began to spread in a large area around the Central Plains, to the Shang Dynasty, corn has become the staple food of the northern farming nation, about which the unearthed oracle bone inscriptions had a clear record.
It is well known that only when a crop is widely planted in the civilian population and reaches a state of surplus, this grain may become military food. And from the pre-Qin to Sui and Tang dynasties, corn is the most eligible for this condition of food varieties. And rice due to the production conditions at that time, has not yet realized a large number of planting. According to records, during the Qin and Han Dynasties, the price of 1 bucket of rice could buy 2.5 buckets of corn, and eating rice was definitely a "very luxurious thing" in those days. How much corn was produced in ancient times? History, the Warring States Wei Li Yul changed the law, in the tithe (Editor's note: pay one-tenth of the mu production as a tax) under the conditions of the 5-member family cultivation of 100 acres of farmland, the annual output of corn 95 stone, the remaining 45 stone, converted into a modern unit of measurement, the mu yield of about 79.41 catties, has reached the state of the establishment of the 60%, which is not easy to be in more than 2,000 years ago. It is with sufficient grain, the Warring States and the Qin and Han Dynasties, often hundreds of thousands of people gathered in large regiments of combat could become a reality. According to "sleep tiger land Qin tomb bamboo slips" records: Qin will be stored corn yellow, white, green 3 classification collection, oak sun storage grain to 20,000 stone for 1 cum stacked, Xianyang warehouse is expanded to 1O million stone 1 cum stacked. These piles of corn, unintentionally, is an important capital of the Qin leveling of the world, the unification of China. During the Han Dynasty, the cultivation of corn was popularized on a large scale. In the article "On the Precious Corn" written by Chao Qiu, a statesman during the reign of Emperor Jingdi, the strategic value of corn was highly evaluated, such as "with armor of a million, but the death of corn, can not be defended", "Corn, the king of the great use of the government of this matter", although here the word "Corn" has become a collective term for food, but also from a side highlights the importance of corn production in the Han Dynasty.
The Han Dynasty had a long fight with the Xiongnu in the northern border, and in order to prepare for the war, the Western Han Dynasty successive generations of rulers took a lot of measures, of which the most critical is to raise food and horse breeding. According to the Book of Han? Food and Foodstuffs Zhi", Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty had adopted the words of Chao Er "to title for grain and grass", for the border guards to raise "enough to support the five years" of military rations. The rations for the soldiers and officers were fine, but the real problem was the feeding of the horses. In some ancient movies and TV dramas, you can often see military horses grazing in the stables. In fact, the Han-Hungarian war early, the Han army horses to eat the fine feed can be corn, because this can ensure that the horses have plenty of physical strength. So, how big is the belly of the war horse? Han book? Zhao Chongguo biography" said clearly: "military horses in January of the food, the degree of support for a year of field soldiers." Salt and Iron Theory also mentions that "a horse in the stable, when the food of the family of six, the death of a man." 1 horse to eat at least 6 people's rations, and the early Han Emperor Wu Di, the state already has more than 400,000 official horses, the huge consumption of corn can be imagined. This situation continued until Zhang Qian's mission to the Western Regions, introducing alfalfa, an excellent pasture for sweat-blooded horses, to alleviate the situation.
In addition, the longevity of corn in the military is also due to its good storage. Archaeologists in the excavation of the Sui dynasty contains Jia warehouse site found that one of the grain cellar has been preserved in the charred grain (corn) 500,000 pounds, which should not yet have time to consume the remaining grain. According to the documents of Tang Dynasty, corn could be stored for 9 years, while rice could only be stored for 5 years. The shelf life of corn is almost twice as long as that of rice, and in fact, the storage time of corn may be longer. According to the Old Tang Book? According to the Old Book of Tang, Ma Zhou Liezhuan, the Chang'an treasury left behind by the former was not used up until the 11th year of the Tang Zhenguan (唐贞观11年), 20 years after the fall of Sui. This advantage of corn in the military is very significant, after all, the ancient transportation conditions are backward, remote areas of the garrison inevitably encountered a long time can not supply the situation.