At the beginning of Yuan Shikai's training, military pay was called "food for work", and both military pay and meals were in the same military pay. For example, the lowest-ranking "deputy soldier" pays 4.2 taels of silver a month, and deducts 9 taels of silver from the "dead rice price" every month to buy staple foods such as rice and flour. Although the remaining 3-2-3 yuan is the salary, the food and firewood expenses have to be deducted. So the monthly salary should be saved for one month, and the salary in January should be saved until the beginning of February. Even the food and gas expenses in January are shared equally, and the rest is in your hands.
Beiyang army would rather take more money, so the food is generally poor. Take the six towns guarding Gyeonggi in the late Qing Dynasty as an example. The staple food is either rotten rice or millet mixed with stones and sand, and the non-staple food is often vegetables. You can only eat meat during the Spring Festival. In the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Beiyang was in financial difficulties, used to paying debts, and the food went from bad to worse.
There are exceptions, such as military service. Only Feng Jun's food has more advantages. The cheap food in the customs is mung beans and millet, but it is rich in soybeans outside the customs. The military cheap soybean boiled sorghum porridge is nutritious and delicious, and the soldiers are stronger than Ma Zhuang.
The best food at that time was the military school. Baoding Military Academy's meals are fixed in 4.5 yuan, providing the most luxurious meals: breakfast porridge, two steamed buns for each person, a plate of soybeans, peas or salted radish, and any porridge will do.
In the early days of Whampoa Military Academy, the monthly salary of private soldiers was 10 yuan, equivalent to six taels of silver. After confinement, it is stipulated that six yuan is a fixed food fee, and the food is as good as a restaurant: rice porridge, steamed bread and side dishes, fried peanuts, sugar, dried radish, fried tofu and so on. Or canned four-color vegetables in the morning. Food expenses can't be spent, and students can get two or three pence at the end of the month.
1935, the military and political departments of the national government promulgated the "Regulations on Military Peacetime Giving", which initiated the new concept of "dividing grain and salaries".
The main change of the "meal sharing system" is that meals are no longer deducted from military expenses. For example, private 7.5 yuan, countries with wage difficulties take 7.5 yuan. The "staple food" of rice is actively transported and replenished by the rear military station, and each person is given 25 taels of rice or 26 taels of flour every day. This is the "staple food supply system". The cost of buying food and burning firewood is allocated to the "non-staple food expenses", which is the general non-staple food expenses of C, and 0.5 yuan every month.
The army brings its own rice, purchases it in large quantities and does not reproduce it, which can avoid the problem of insufficient supply in the battlefield. However, the weight of rice noodles is considerable and the transportation pressure is great. The resident headquarters must build a large number of grain depots around the battlefield and then open a long station line to go deep into the battlefield. Known as the American "Iron Shoulder Team", migrant workers carry rice noodles to the front line station by station. In order to facilitate human transportation, the calculation of rice and flour was changed to "big bag" during the Anti-Japanese War. Every "big bag" of rice is 80 Jin, and a migrant worker carries one bag. In the great war, there were more ferrymen carrying rice back and forth than combat troops on the vast battlefield hundreds of miles away. If the war situation is unfavorable and large troops move in, the warehouse will have to burn the hard-earned grain to avoid subsidizing the enemy. For the logistics department, the "staple food supply system" is an endless nightmare, so the delay is five years.
The "current staple food supply system" was blocked, and the troops could only try their luck with three bowls of rice.
By 1940, I finally made up my mind to overcome all difficulties, realize "cost sharing" and send rice noodles directly to the troops. Whether a soldier can eat or not depends on the ability of the station supervisor.
The battlefield in western Hubei is a classic of grain transportation. thorium
The rising price of rice is a big problem. The Ministry of Military and Political Affairs could not supply enough rice, so it had to take a small action to change the "rice" in the "Regulations on Military Peacetime Giving" to "polished rice". Chiang Kai-shek's 45th artillery regiment was seriously short of food. Wu Songqing, director of the Food Department of the Ministry of Military Supplies, personally investigated and found that the main problem was rice milling. Once milled into raw rice with chaff and shell, the milling consumption is 7%, and twice milled into polished rice, the milling consumption is 14%. Add 1% transportation loss and 2% rice washing loss, even if 25 metric tons of rice is milled only once, only 22 metric tons can be imported. Soldiers eat 25 Liang, and what they give directly can only be broken rice. It's just that changing rice leads to amazing expenses, and the chairman's anger can only get away with it.
Pasta is commonly used in the north, and the Ministry of War changed flour into raw wheat. Grinding wheat is also very particular. Hu Zongnan recruited 300,000 soldiers. Before the "salary division", the army had three bowls of millet porridge a day for a while, so hungry that it could not even build fortifications. After the staple food is supplemented, the Grain Bureau allocates raw wheat, usually 100 kg, and grinds it into 75 kg of flour. In Hu Zongnan, it grinds wheat bran, grinds 100 kg of coarse flour into 90 kg, and steam it into 13 double-length steamed buns, commonly known as "barbell steamed buns", one for each meal to support the physical strength of officers and men.
"Salaried teachers" enable troops to eat three bowls of rice and maintain basic physical strength, but non-staple food is a problem.
The cost of non-staple food can never keep up with the price. The Ministry of Military and Political Affairs requires local governments to supply non-staple food at "parity". "Parity" is generally half of the market price, and vegetable merchants are unwilling to implement it.
"Fair price" non-staple food also pays attention to what to eat. The experience of the Northeast Army shows that the most suitable food for the troops is soybeans rich in protein and oil, so the military supplies department stipulates that the "non-staple food ration" of extra-heavy soybeans requires everyone to eat 2 kg and 20 kg of soybeans, vegetable oil and vegetables every month. Vegetables can be sacrificed, so give vouchers. If you can't afford it, it's up to you.
The general army can only rely on the creativity of the army chief. Qiu Qingquan, the commander of the 5th Army, is a master of improving non-staple food. He asked the troops to grow vegetables, melons, pigs and sheep. It's not easy for a countryman to grow vegetables and raise pigs by himself, but Qiu Qingquan runs in an orderly way, and companies compete with each other and successfully raise soldiers.
Chiang Kai-shek's visit to Qiu Qingquan was very appreciated, and he often took it as an example, but the troops also had difficulties. The 196 division stationed near the chairman's residence has poor food. Chiang Kai-shek called Li, the acting teacher, and scolded him: "People have ways, but you have no way." Li Dadan retorted: "There is nothing anyone can do in Chongqing. The ground is full of slate, so they can't grow food. "