What were the three essentials for winning a war in a medieval setting?
Aaron believed that different historians, military strategists, and politicians would give a hundred different answers to that question.
But for now, the three most important essentials for winning a battle were "Food! Food! Food!"
In an age when supplies were scarce, food was the most important requirement for maintaining an army. The Arabel Restoration Army numbered roughly eight thousand. At three pounds of bread per person per day-about 1.36 kilograms-eight thousand soldiers would eat twenty-four thousand pounds of bread a day, and that was only the bare minimum.
So, over twenty-odd days of mustering, eight hundred thousand pounds of grain had been consumed just like that.
But that was not even the true extent of their consumption. An army needed not only large numbers of auxiliary troops behind it, but also farmers, merchants, grooms, craftsmen, and even camp prostitutes. Then there were the higher-ranking knights, mid- and senior-level officers, wizards, and high-level adventurers, whose ration allowances naturally had to be higher.
Every day, the army camp produced a ton of human feces and nearly another ton of dung from pack animals.
In theory, the army's provisions also had to include fresh or salted meat, bacon, butter, cheese, tobacco, dried fish, vegetables, and beer. Without those things, Lady Laeral's own troops might endure for a while, but the mercenary adventurers would mutiny!
And even that was far from enough. There were also heavy cavalry units in the camp, and the supplies those heavily armored knights consumed were even more staggering.
A heavy cavalryman's standard equipment consisted of a shortbow, lances-at least two-a suit of chainmail or plate armor, a polished iron helmet, greaves, iron gauntlets, a tasseled surcoat, two javelins, half-barding made of leather and iron, a sword-or