The Crescent of the Sultan

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, , 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 most commonly used animals for pulling carts and carrying loads.

While Wellington was fighting in India and Spain, he was constantly looking for good bulls.

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

Before that, he also expressed the same meaning 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 soldiers 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 action 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 Alexander's aggressive attack on Darius, some unscrupulous Persian officials 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 to conquer 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 is very clear why camels were used. After all, Alexander the Great used something that was agreed upon, so why didn't Emperor Cyril use it.

As an animal adapted to life in deserts and semi-arid areas, camels are also herbivores with ruminant function. 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 combat heretics, the attrition rate of these civilians will reach a very alarming level. A similar method is probably to kill all heretics who show any signs of disease. When the army is short of food, the return journey will no longer be provided for the heretics. of food, but directly drove the heretics to fight against the Wahhabis, or sold them to the local Bedouin nomadic tribes in exchange for food.

Is this kind of thing? The Sultan knew it but pretended not to know it. That's what the saying goes, "The master is kind-hearted and can't bear to see this."

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

For a desert environment, cooking is definitely out of the question. This is a luxury. Drinking water is extremely scarce, so there is no extra water for cooking.

Therefore, dry bread, pickled mutton and some easy-to-carry hard biscuits became the staple food.

Hard biscuits are the most popular among them, as regular bread does not keep well for long.

Hard biscuits can remain in good condition for a year when stored after baking, making them a very suitable food for the army.

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

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

As for why he didn't just grab it but bought it, don't be kidding. Muhammad Ali was not familiar with the place. Let alone robbing these tribes, he had to rely on the other party to lead the way.

In addition to military considerations, Muhammad Ali also had to make political considerations. His Majesty's intention is very clear. All the Bedouin tribes who came to seek refuge in this great expedition must be given preferential treatment, so as to facilitate the subsequent central government's decision on local affairs. rule.

The cost of establishing direct rule in this land was too high. Emperor Sai could only set up a governor position and rely on tribes to rule. Although this had hidden dangers, he was confident that he would never rebel before his death.

And after he died, let’s find out more about it.

Now, it’s time for Muhammad Ali to perform island hopping tactics (Desert Exaltation, Shia Acceleration, Betrayal Leading the Way Far Ahead Version)