On Logistics of Fielding an Umamusume Army in Medieval Conditions
Introduction to the Umamusume
It is well said that an army fights on its stomach, and that masters of warfare take to logistics as the cornerstone of military strategy. What challenge demonstrates these principles greater than that of fielding an armed and trained force of hundreds or even thousands of umamusume?
Umamusume, sometimes compared to valkries, are outwardly similar to human women with the noteworthy inclusion of their unique ears that stand on top of their heads and a soft tail not too disimilar from bundles of grass. Each and every umamusume carries a great deal of strength, diligence, and speed that records of humans that may match their speed are half burried in mythology.
However, these superhuman capacities bring about an equivalently nigh insurmountable appetite. A hypothetical farming community of a hundred humans (including children) may only be able to take in half a dozen umamusume children (assumed born in the community and cannot help increase food production) before their margin of excess produce is wiped out, cutting into the village's ability to trade or keep a reserve in case of disaster. Therefore, the sad reality is that you rarely see many young umamusume in rural areas; for most umamusume in times where a single bad harvest can spell famine for many, foals that cannot be sustained by their community are either offered up for adoption by those of wealth and into being raised for service to nobility or the state workforce (if such institutions exist); or worse, abandoned for anyone unlucky enough to have heart yet without much means and food to provide for a growing foal.
Thus, the main factor preventing the sovereigns of old from mustering a terrifying force of umamusume soldiers is simply that such a force would cause localised famines where ever they tread, not to mention amassing such a force in the first place would likely burn through years of resources in reserve before they are battle ready.
It is with this fact that explains the higher populations of umamusume within nomadic raiding cultures, history shows many examples of raiding umamusume being a strong threat to many civilisations. Loot, eat, and carry excess back to the others at camp. And even then, such forces have to manage their raiding schedules lest they accidently starve their settled neighbours to death which in turn hurts the nomads from accumulating wealth and supplies.
With the only beasts of burden being oxen, and sometimes camels (though only available in desert regions), humanity's only available means of transport are limited as cows and oxen often are crucial for the yields and survivial of farming communities. If your region has no navigatable rivers for boats, then you can only move what you can carry on your own back, march at the speed of your two legs.
The concept of a standing, professional military is something of a luxury, reserved only for well organised states with the bureaucracies to ensure the society is able to feed not only itself and have reserves in case of poor harvests, a large excess should be taxed and carried alongside where ever the army goes; not to mention non-levy soldiers do not contribute to food production, and levying soldiers from the common peasantry wrecks productivity, destabilising the economy of state.
And as the only reliable unit of speed of any force is that of the march, most armies begin campaigns carrying just enough food to cross into enemy provinces, looting and pillaging supplies from the enemy's people as they go. Human couriers and carvans can only catch up with armies if the army stops to wait, in which case each day of idleness is another day's rations lost for no strategic gain in the conflict. Therefore, war is fought both against time and mortal force.
Umamusume are gifted with a natural affinity for running, their great strength in addition makes umamusume what can be considered the rule-breaker of warfare. Whilst their great hunger means that umamusume has a similar ratio of what they must eat against how much they can carry as their human counterparts, their speed and strength offers the possibility for resupply from headquarters to the frontlines under reasonable timeframes so long the umamusume packcarrier can access sufficient food during the return trip.
The Mongol Empire in order to sustain the massive logistical networks needed to sustain their massive empire and army developed a system of stations in which small teams umamusume are stationed with enough supplies to last them a month (assumed if they don't keep their own livestock or work fields in the meantime), their core function is to receive and deliver messages (sometimes cargo for a fee, most traders have their own caravans) to the next relay station in the chain, spreading out the mouths to feed while ensuring speed of information and supplies through the continent.
Another solution to the logistical challenge came in the form of small food colonies run by the state dotted throughout the realm. This was the preferred solution by more sophisticated empires which allowed for larger resupply of both human and umamusume armies. Food colonies tended to include not just farms, but also warehouses, barracks, and allocations for training; a self-contained ecosystem for an army, and the first proper mode of quartering a mass of umamusume.
In conclusion, there is much to be thankful for the rise of technological advancements in transportation. Today, umamusume soldiers can be ferried and quartered in the same units as humans without any worries of food running out, logistical aircraft and trains keep supplies everflowing, whilst greater economic output and the excess production of most goods in modern nations has rendered looting no longer a logistical neccessity of war. It is with such benefits and improvements to the societal framework that social equality of umamusume has improved, the practice of weath-based adoptions of umamusume foals has been banned worldwide, and umamusume today universally live as private citizens with recognised autonomy as individuals like every other human.
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