The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 152: Grabbing War Merits

Madam Gong Er looked around and saw that everyone was so happy. She couldn't help but whisper, "Thanks to the True Lord for enlightening me. I'm still too naive and don't understand human nature. If I really didn't reward them and just used all the food as military rations, it would have been disheartening. Now that I think about it, the reason why the officers and soldiers' discipline has been damaged is largely due to the lack of rewards and punishments in the army. In a situation like today, if the soldiers didn't loot the food on the spot, once the food fell into the hands of the officers, they would have pocketed it all. The soldiers wouldn't get any benefit at all, so of course they would grab it first."

Zhenjun nodded: "Don't worry, you are still young, take your time!"

With every battle of the rebel army, not only the soldiers grow, but the generals also grow.

Madam Gong Er and Yue Wenxuan stood side by side on the top of the city wall, watching the laborers and soldiers collecting food with a smile. Farther away, a large number of people were cheering and talking and laughing loudly in the streets, and the laughter filled the entire county.

Looking at the battlefield again, eight hundred prisoners were cleaning up the battlefield.

They collected arrows and discarded enemy weapons from the battlefield and piled them together, waiting for the rebels to count and inspect them. They also stripped the clothes off the corpses, leaving only the naked bodies, and then carried them to the hillside and dug a pit to bury them.

The expressions of these eight hundred prisoners... are a bit strange.

After witnessing the battle just now, many prisoners had subtle changes in their hearts.

Yue Wenxuan could roughly guess what they were thinking, but he was not in a hurry to talk to them now. It was still early. He should wait for a while and wait for the real Jin thieves to attack. He would fight with them and let them see what they were thinking. Only then would they be truly shocked.

Just as he was thinking about this, he suddenly heard a noise coming from a distance.

I saw a group of archers from Jiaoshui County surrounding Zhang Wazi and talking. Both sides were talking very loudly, and it was obvious that they were arguing about something, and their faces were red and their necks were thick.

After a while, all the members of the Zhangjia Village team came over and surrounded Zhang Wazi. Then the two groups started arguing together, with Zhang Dashu's voice being the loudest.

Yue Wenxuan pointed over there and said, "Let's go see what's going on over there."

Madam Gong Er showed an embarrassed look on her face: "Oh, my subordinates were ignorant and disturbed the True Lord. I am sorry to have made a fool of myself."

Yue Wenxuan: "Don't blame your own people before you figure out what's going on."

Madam Gong Er obeyed the order and strode over.

Yue Wenxuan also followed.

As soon as the two men came over, the two teams stopped arguing, bowed deeply, and then started explaining to them in a flurry of words.

Yue Wenxuan listened patiently for a long time and finally understood.

It turned out that they were fighting over who would own the head.

This group of archers from Jiaoshui County were responsible for operating the giant crossbows on the city wall. They had long heard that the rebel army calculated the bounty per head, with the real gold thief worth 30 strings of cash per head and the fake gold thief worth 5 strings of cash per head.

Who wouldn’t be tempted by this reward?

So after these archers shot the giant crossbow arrows from the top of the city wall, they kept following the arrow they shot, watching it fly and fly... fly into the crowd and kill a gold thief.

Then the group's eyes were fixed on the body of the gold thief from beginning to end.

As a result, the rebels opened the city and rushed out...

The army and bandits were defeated, so naturally the bodies were left there without anyone moving them.

The archers mustered their courage and planned to go out of the city to cut off the head and come back to claim the credit, but they saw the Zhangjiacun team running past the corpse. Zhang Wazi took out a knife and cut off his left ear.

The archers remembered Zhang Wazi's appearance, and when they returned to the city to celebrate their achievements, they surrounded him and demanded that he take the ear and return it to its rightful owner. Zhang Wazi refused, saying, "Who knows if you shot that body? What if you're the ones claiming the head? I have the ear of a man killed by a catapult in my bag. His forehead was smashed to pieces by a stone. Who knows who threw the stone? Why isn't anyone here to claim it?"

Archers: "Others didn't see it clearly, but we saw this arrow clearly. If you cut off the ear, it will be ours."

The two sides began to argue.

It’s just a trivial matter!
But both sides fought fiercely, howling and refusing to give in.

Upon hearing this, Madam Gong Er was overwhelmed with worry and quickly turned to look at the Jiaoshui County Magistrate: "Your Excellency, you are usually in charge of solving cases, so this kind of case must be your forte."

The Jiaoshui County Magistrate immediately wiped his sweat. "What the hell? This kind of case is the hardest to judge. If I give it to Zhang Wazi, I'll offend the people of this county. If I give it to a local, I'll offend the rebel army. Isn't that a thankless task? This case can't be judged! I absolutely cannot touch it."

The county magistrate had no choice but to pretend to be an idiot...

Madam Gong Er was extremely embarrassed and didn't know what to do, but she was the commander-in-chief and she had to do it.

OMG my head hurts...

Yue Wenxuan thought to himself: This kind of thing really happened? When you count the number of people killed, this kind of thing is bound to happen.

As the military uses firearms more extensively in the future, there will be more cases where it is unclear who owns the heads of people.

After the musket executions began, how could one possibly sort out whose musket killed whom?

The calculation method of combat merit for ranged and melee soldiers needs to be reorganized.

He called Madam Gong Er aside and said, "Madam Er, your method of calculating military merits needs some fine-tuning."

Madam Gong Er quickly said, "Seek your guidance, Master."

Yue Wenxuan: "For long-range combat units, military merit cannot be calculated based on head counts. Instead, it should be calculated based on the results of strategic and tactical execution. This method of calculating merit should be gradually replaced and promoted, and eventually completely replace the head count method."

Madam Gong Er was bewildered when she heard this: "Huh?"

Yue Wenxuan had to spend some time explaining to her how it was impossible to figure out who was responsible for the deaths after the widespread use of firearms, and then he talked about the concept of calculating military merits based on the results of strategic and tactical execution.

Madam Gong Er listened for a long time before finally understanding: "Master, I understand. The general gave the soldiers an order. If they fulfilled the order, they would be rewarded. If they failed, they would not be rewarded. No matter how many heads they took, if the mission failed, it would be useless."

Seeing that she understood, Yue Wenxuan didn't say much and asked her to slowly improve the reward and punishment system in the future.

He first solved the problem at hand.

Yue Wenxuan walked up to Zhang Wazi and said with a smile, "Wazi, whether or not these archers claimed the head, it was definitely not you who killed it. This achievement cannot be counted for your team."

When Zhang Wazi saw the True Lord appear, he quickly bowed respectfully, opened the bag, and took out an ear.

Yue Wenxuan didn't take it either. Who would be willing to take this bloody ear? He turned to the archers and said leisurely, "Take that ear. This time, I'll give it to you."

The archers were delighted.

(End of this chapter)