People have three urgent needs. How to deal with the excrement of hundreds of thousands of troops in ancient wars?

As one of the four ancient civilizations of mankind, the splendid civilization created by the ancients in China also made ancient China bear a large population. As early as the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the total population of China had exceeded10 million. Thanks to the large population, the war in China had reached the scale of several hundred thousand years ago. In the glorious Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the vassals fought and recruited 65,438+10,000 people at every turn. The grand occasion at that time could not be compared with Japan, Europe and other countries, which were still fighting the villagers thousands of years later.

However, after gathering hundreds of thousands of troops, people can't help but think of a problem. How did the ancients take these hundreds of thousands of troops to the toilet? At first glance, this question is somewhat funny. In fact, it is a serious issue concerning the life and death of the whole army. As the saying goes:? People have three emergencies? If the basic problem of going to the toilet cannot be solved, not only will the order of the army be destroyed, but it may even lead to disasters such as plague. Then, when the ancients fought, how did hundreds of thousands of troops deal with the shit?

Ancient people fought.

It is also said that the ancients had a vast territory and few people, and most of them fought in some remote places. Didn't they solve the problem of defecation by relieving themselves everywhere? In fact, the treatment of military excreta is not as simple as everyone thinks. If the defecation problem is not handled properly, it may threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands of troops.

First, improper disposal of excreta will lead to bad hygiene habits in the army and even make officers and men infected with diseases. If a large amount of excrement is not treated in time, soldiers will defecate everywhere, leading to the breeding of flies and insects, which will lead to various digestive tract diseases. Once this vicious circle is formed, it will develop into a plague that spreads rapidly in the army. At all times and in all countries, there are not a few teams that lost the battle because of the plague.

Military camp in film and television drama

In order to put an end to this problem, even if the field conditions are difficult and even if the ancient battlefield is camped at any time, temporary toilets are essential. After the ancient regular army settled down, they would find suitable places to dig and build simple toilets, avoid water sources and granaries, and avoid the spread of diseases by bacteria in excrement. Of course, this toilet should not be too far away from the camp, because soldiers who forcibly recruit or even pull able-bodied men are likely to escape from the army while going to the toilet; Moreover, if it is too far away from the camp, it will be easily discovered by enemy detectives, which will bring unnecessary security risks to the troops. So the construction of temporary toilets in the army is actually a very important thing.

Cavalry stills

Second, experienced enemies will infer the size of the enemy, the physical condition, sanitary condition and the source of drinking food according to the quantity and color of the other person's excrement. Once these military secrets fall into the hands of the enemy, it is likely to have a serious impact on the next battle plan. Therefore, in the ancient marching war, there were few cases of urinating anywhere. If you are a highly mobile cavalry, because you won't stay in a certain place for a long time, you will basically change camps in two or three days, so you can quickly dig a pit in a specific place and bury the shit before you start. Like historical records? "Biography of General Li" records: As long as you are good at aquatic plants and stop, everyone can help themselves? But only the highly mobile cavalry can solve the excrement anywhere.

Qi Jiguang's works

Third, a well-trained team will inevitably build temporary toilets after camping, and will also bury toilets after camping to prevent the army from being infected with the plague and avoid military intelligence leakage. For example, in Sun Tzu's Art of War written by Gong Wei in the early years of the Tang Dynasty, soldiers had to dig toilets every time they set up camp. Qi Jiguang's representative work "A Record of Military Training" made detailed provisions on the scale and use time of toilets in military camps. It can be seen from these ancient documents that it is a top priority for the army to go to the toilet when hundreds of thousands of people March, because only by dealing with basic physical health problems can soldiers be in the mood and have the conditions to continue fighting.