However, the order of the triumphant Qin army was not to keep up and capture Mobei, but to turn offense to defense. The 300,000 army built the Great Wall on the spot based on the Northern Great Wall of the Yan, Zhao, and Qin Kingdoms during the Warring States Period. The Lintao area stretches all the way to Liaodong, and the Great Wall that traverses east and west appears in front of people for the first time.
What caused Qin Shihuang to stop the Northern Expedition, and instead exhausted the nation's financial and human resources to build the Great Wall? Because Qin Shihuang is not only an outstanding politician in our country, he is also an outstanding economist, he must have calculated an economic account.
Great Wall
Let us think about the problem of dealing with the Xiongnu from the perspective of Qin Shihuang. First of all, the people under Qin Shihuang's rule are basically peasants, and if you want to go deep into the desert to fight the Huns, you need a considerable number of cavalry. To transform farmers who do not usually ride horses into powerful cavalry, not only requires a lot of time and money to train, but also because these farmers become soldiers, they can no longer engage in farming, and they will also suffer labor losses in production.
Besides, even with powerful cavalry, to send them to fight in the depths of the northern grasslands, the transportation and wastage of grain and grass is a terrible expense. In ancient times, there were no highways, railways, or large trucks. Food transportation could only rely on human and animal power, which was very difficult. It was recorded in the historical records that when one stone of grain was transported from the Central Plains to the front line in the north, the food consumed by the transportation team on the road reached 192 stone!
The combat cost of the Huns is very low. The nomads grew up on horseback. They were both herders and warriors. The role change was easy. They could even graze and fight at the same time. The logistical support was much better than that of the farming people.
The cost of fighting for farming nations is higher than that of nomads, but the benefits of fighting are very poor. Even if the vast grasslands are occupied, they cannot be cultivated. The Central Plains dynasty's tax revenue is obtained from the farmers. Without the farmers, what is the use of having such a large grassland? Even if the war against the nomads is won, they will be crushed by the high cost of the war.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was talented and roughly. He once won a brilliant victory in the war against the Huns. However, the labor of the people and the wealth greatly weakened the country’s economic strength and directly led to the decline of the Han Dynasty. The army of Ming Chengzu Zhu Di went out of Mobei five times and fought hard for many years. The ministries rushed to flee, but at the end of the battle, it was the Ming Dynasty who could not bear it first.
Looking at the nomads on horseback, they come and go like the wind, plundering the wealth accumulated by the farming peoples is easy, and the benefits are amazing. With low costs and high returns, how can nomads not love looting and warfare?
You have to think of a trick to change the huge contrast between costs and benefits. Qin Shihuang learned from the strategy of the Warring States Period and thought of building the Great Wall. With fortifications like the Great Wall, the mobile battlefield will become a fixed front. The nomads cannot repeat the farce of looting and running. They must first fight the defenders on the front line of the Great Wall.
In this way, the costs and benefits have changed. The defensive peasants can obtain food from nearby farmland, but the offensive nomads stay away from the pastures where they graze. Moreover, there are many mountains along the Great Wall, and strong passes have been built on important roads. As long as the infantry of the farming nation sticks to the line of defense, the cavalry of the nomads is useless, and often they are beaten before they have grabbed something. .
Relying on the Great Wall to fight a defensive war, the farming nation does not need to train cavalry units, and the training cost is reduced. Also, because soldiers are originally peasants and have fixed bases, soldiers who are familiar with farming can completely cultivate on the spot in their leisure time, and the logistical burden is also small. too much.
To be honest, although Qin Shihuang, an outstanding representative of the farming nation, has not read modern "Principles of Economics" and other books, his large-scale construction of the Great Wall does indeed conform to the most basic laws of cost and profit in economics. . The construction of the Great Wall certainly consumes a lot of manpower and material resources, and in the short term the economic pressure is great, but from a long-term perspective, Qin Shihuang’s account is very astute.
The subsequent dynasties and generations, as long as they have the conditions and needs, have tried their best to build the Great Wall to defend against the nomads in the north. For example, during the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty, the Mongolian Tatar Tribe often invaded northern Shaanxi and Gansu, so the emperor summoned ministers to discuss defense matters. The ministers calculated an account. If 50,000 laborers were recruited to repair the Great Wall in two months, it would cost less than 1 million taels of silver; and 80,000 troops would be sent to conquer the Tatar invaders. Nearly 10 million taels of silver. The cost is clear at a glance. Moreover, soldiers can farm in the Great Wall and obtain a certain amount of grain, which saves the huge cost of transferring grain from the interior to the front line. Therefore, the emperors of the Ming Dynasty chose to build the Great Wall. The majestic Great Wall we see today was completed during that period. Naturally, Marco Polo, who came to China in the early years of the Yuan Dynasty, could not see the Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty.
