How can we know the true strength of the enemy in ancient wars?

In ancient times, there was already a prototype of the intelligence bureau in our country, and after that, these spies would go to fight the enemy's intelligence. Or arrange some undercover agents, so that you will know the real strength of the enemy.

In ancient times, there were scouts, and these scouts were generally responsible for finding out the enemy's strength, how many troops and how many **, and how they trained these are scouts.

The most effective way is to judge from the traces of their journey during the march, and there is also a way to judge the number of their soldiers, which is from the pits dug in the stoves where they cook, which can judge their strength.

In ancient times, there were many ways to truly understand the strength of the enemy. For example, look at the traces left by some of the places they have walked or stayed.

<> "How to accurately know the enemy's strength in ancient wars?" What are the investigative methods?

Knowing oneself and knowing one's opponent and not being defeated in a hundred battles" is the most basic principle of marching and fighting a war in ancient times, and only by understanding the enemy's troops, deployment, and other information can we do a good job in dealing with various things. But how exactly do you know the exact strength of the enemy? Small-scale battles are fine, and experienced generals can see the approximate number of people with the naked eye, but how to judge a large-scale battlefield of tens of thousands?

This is a great test of the wisdom of the ancients. In fact, in ancient times, it was impossible for both sides to fully know the enemy's specific troop information, and if they were afraid that they would not know the bottom of their hearts, they could conduct a tentative battle, and then integrate the most authentic intelligence information.

Although there were many reconnaissance techniques at the time, the enemy may use tricks or distract his forces and use some false information to confuse his opponent. In ancient times, many armies had a bad habit, that is, they liked to exaggerate their own battles, one was to deter the opponent, and the other was to embolden themselves. However, after a long time, both sides also understand that this is just a bluff, so if you want to be accurate, I am afraid you still have to be fully prepared from your own side.

The reason why it was difficult to know the enemy's strength when marching and fighting in ancient times was that the soldiers basically divided the troops into three categories: regular soldiers, surprise soldiers and ambush soldiers, and generally only regular soldiers could be easily seen. If you ignore the presence of surprise soldiers and ambushes, you are likely to fall into the trap set by the enemy. Therefore, with the Scout's naked eye alone, even if he has a lot of experience, it is difficult to estimate the situation outside of his visible range, especially when the two sides meet for the first time.

Therefore, if you want not to suffer a loss in numbers, you can only raise your own strength to a limit number.

If the two sides are already more familiar, for example, Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition during the Three Kingdoms period. He knew that his troops were inferior to the Wei army, so he could only resort to a strange strategy and never engage the Wei army head-on. And Cao Wei knew that he had the advantage of troops, so he would not hide his strength in a messy way, and at this time, the intelligence of Zhuge Liang's investigation would be more real, but how to outwit it it would be analyzed on a case-by-case basis.

Generally speaking, the side that knows that it is inferior in strength will definitely not find the enemy desperately, and there are many battles in history where fewer wins are more, basically through outwitting.

However, there is also a more extreme means of investigation, which is to arrange for undercover agents to enter the enemy's troops. "Li Weigong's Law of War" once recorded that "each 1,000 people are battalions, and there are many soldiers outside, each with 27 curtains, 18 horizontal columns, and six sides to support the Chinese army." "If you can blend into the barracks, you can get a relatively accurate intelligence, but at the same time, it will be extremely risky.

Ancient soldiers were very wary of spies, and once discovered, they became captives.

Therefore, in general, there is no particularly good way to know all the information of the enemy on the ancient battlefield. However, the investigation work is still indispensable every time, and it is better to know it than to have no score in your heart. More importantly, in the face of the rapidly changing situation on the battlefield, being able to make the most correct judgment in the shortest possible time is a big killer move on the battlefield.