The Three Kingdoms: Zhaolie, the strategist, and the rise of the Han Dynasty

Chapter 62 We need a new military system! (Please read on!)
There has only been relative fairness in this world, how can there be absolute fairness?

When war broke out, the scholars and powerful people in Xuzhou would move their families to avoid disaster.

When the war is over, people will come back and harvest the fields again.

In order to save Xuzhou, countless people paid with blood and even their lives.

These powerful people were still able to profit from it, and Liu Bei was of course feeling indignant.

On the other hand, although Xuzhou had a good harvest last year, that was only compared to the past two years.

Everything is afraid of comparison. In the past two years, there have been starving people everywhere, and no one was spared.

Now that we have achieved some success, we can announce to the outside world that it is a great harvest.

In fact, the grain Liu Bei had collected so far was barely enough for self-sufficiency.

Therefore, he banned the outflow of grain not simply to target Cao Cao, but because after Xuzhou gathered refugees, there were too many people to feed.

Old Liu is also under a lot of pressure now.

"In fact, I have a plan to strike down the powerful people in Xuzhou."

"Oh? Military advisor, please tell me quickly."

Li Yi said slowly:
"Last year, because the lord had just taken over Xuzhou, people's hearts were unsettled, various factions were suspicious of each other, and the regime was unstable, so I didn't mention it."

"Now that Xuzhou is unified and the political situation is stable, Yi thinks we can take some action against the local tyrants."

Li Yi deliberately increased the volume of the word "slightly". In his opinion, many of the local powerful people in Xuzhou have a history of hundreds of years.

Don't be reckless. You have to boil the frog in warm water and do it slowly.

Otherwise he will be the next Wang Mang.

"What good plan does the military advisor have?" Liu Bei asked patiently.

Li Yi looked to the south, which was the direction where the military camp was located.

"My lord, have you ever thought about military reform?" Li Yi asked.

"Military reform...?"

Liu Bei's eyes narrowed. The composition of the Xuzhou army was indeed quite complicated.

There are local soldiers from Xuzhou, Danyang soldiers from Yangzhou, Taishan soldiers from Yanzhou, border soldiers brought back from the north, and the Hu cavalry given by Brother Gongsun.

The composition of the group is indeed mixed. It is not easy for Lao Liu to unite them into one team despite the language and accent barriers.

"When Qin occupied Guanzhong, it was just a weak country."

"After Shang Yang's reform, he introduced a system of twenty levels of military merit to encourage the Qin people to farm and fight."

"This will enable Qin to have an iron-blooded army, and the King of Qin will be able to sweep across the six kingdoms and unify the world."

"However, since Emperor Gaozu founded the Han Dynasty, the country has been at peace, and the system of military merit titles has been abolished."

"The world is in chaos today, with princes from all over the country ruling their own territories, just like the seven kingdoms fighting for supremacy back then."

"Why not restart the military merit system to inspire the fighting spirit of the men of Xuzhou, so that they can be invincible like the Qin army back then."

"Only in this way can the lord rely on the ruined land of Xuzhou to wipe out the heroes and revive the Han Dynasty!"

Li Yi looked stern and slowly gave his opinion.

Xuzhou is already in ruins, even with its ancient productivity.

If we rely solely on farming to slowly recover our strength, it will take five or six years to see results.

Otherwise, why do time travelers like to create messy things like potatoes and fertilizers?

Without these things, relying solely on farming would require a huge investment of time.

There is still Lao Liu in Xuzhou. Can you afford to wait?
Today, Xuzhou has gone through several wars, with its people displaced and fields barren, similar to the impoverished and weak Qin State of the past.

Cao Cao's massacre of Xuzhou was essentially to eliminate Xuzhou's war potential.

Li Yi hoped to develop Xuzhou's greatest war potential by restoring the system of military merit and titles.

Liu Bei seemed to be thinking about something. He paced back and forth, silent and contemplative.

After a moment, he slowly opened his mouth:
"The military merit system can indeed motivate soldiers to fight to the death, but for Xuzhou, it is difficult to say whether it is a disadvantage or an advantage."

After spending a year with Li Yi, we learned and improved together.

Old Liu's political level was already very high at this time. The military merit system did give ordinary people an opportunity to rise. Li Yi's statement of slowly cracking down on local tyrants might have relied on this.

Through the military merit system, civilians were provided with opportunities for promotion, thus reshuffled the wealth distribution in Xuzhou.

But Liu Bei understood that the essence of the 20th level military merit title was to suck the blood of the people of Xuzhou, and it was definitely not a long-term solution.

"We are going to adopt the military merit system, but we are not going to copy it completely."

Li Yi saw what Liu Bei was thinking and explained it to him in an orderly manner.

In fact, the Qin Dynasty's twenty-level military merit system is the ancestor of the game's promotion mechanism.

Others play games to earn money, but the Qin people fight wars to earn their lives.

Getting promoted by one level by chopping off a head sounds great and it can indeed inspire the fighting spirit of the lower-level soldiers.

After all, kings, princes, generals and ministers are all born with different species. Who doesn’t want to enter the upper class?

But Shang Yang, like many game planners today, has a very bad conscience.

When you reach level four, you’ll find you’ve been tricked.

Shang Yang immediately added a suffix "doctor" to your name.

It's like setting a new threshold for you.

If you are at the grassroots level, you can only play at the grassroots level forever.

If one wants to move up further, one cannot rely solely on personal military achievements, but must participate in group army operations.

When the army fights in a group, the casualties are the greatest, which is equivalent to "annihilating" a part of their own people and squeezing their interests to the maximum.

As you go up, the routines become more and more numerous.

But the core idea is just one: to squeeze out your surplus value, leaving not a drop behind.

If you can really get promoted through military merit, then you will definitely be a talent who can leave your name in history.

If you can't rise up, you will never rise up. You are dead in the physical sense.

The biggest benefit of this military title was that it enabled the Qin State to produce a large number of famous generals, which were able to completely defeat the surrounding countries.

However, just as Liu Bei worried, the military merit system was essentially bloodsucking and could be ignored during war.

Once peace is restored, it is easy to trigger a series of social conflicts.

But Li Yi believes that some improvements can be made on this basis, such as canceling such a cruel mechanism as "collective responsibility".

In fact, the Han Dynasty inherited the Qin system and retained many old systems of the Qin Dynasty.

The system of military merit was actually retained. As early as the time of Liu Bang, the slogan "Only Liu can be king, and only meritorious service can make one a marquis" was put forward.

However, the national conditions of the Han Dynasty were different from those of the Qin Dynasty. By the end of the Han Dynasty, military merit titles had been completely abolished.

However, among many princes, one can actually see the shadow of the military merit system.

What Li Yi has to do now is to formally restore it and draft various terms.

However, improvements must be made based on the actual situation in Xuzhou and in a realistic manner.

Take the essence and remove the dross to create a twenty-level military merit system with Xuzhou characteristics.

The charm of this system lies in that it can "suppress the rich and promote the poor."

That is to say, suppress the corrupt nobles and elevate the status of the common people who are eager to change their destiny.

To put it in a more philosophical way, it is about readjusting distribution and mobilizing the potential and dormant enthusiasm of society.

"Whether it is the Qin system or the Han system, as long as it can solve our problems, it is a good system."

Li Yi explained the twenty-level military merit system to Liu Bei in an easy-to-understand manner.

He proposed his own improvement plan, and Liu Bei was relieved:
"Okay, then let's follow the military advisor's advice."

"According to the military advisor's reform, this strategy is not too drastic. We can give it a try."

Liu Bei was actually very willing to give opportunities to his subordinates who had ideas, not just because he was Li Yi.

……

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　Brothers, this book may be put on the shelves on the 1st. When it is put on the shelves, Hua Mou will definitely update it! By the way, I have set up a book club. There is no threshold now. I will set a threshold when it is put on the shelves. Brothers who join the group now will be veterans. The author will send red envelopes in the group from time to time. Of course, it may not be much in the early stage, but as long as it is put on the shelves and makes money, the author will definitely give back to the brothers, because the brothers have made me successful. I really treat you as brothers. By the way, I ask the brothers to read it. This is really important, please!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)