Three Kingdoms: I am not Liu Bian

Chapter 16 Long Live the Prince!

The scholars of the Later Han Dynasty also instilled this view into the emperors of the Later Han Dynasty. As a result, few emperors of the Later Han Dynasty ever reviewed their own imperial guards, so that the Northern Army became a weapon for relatives of the emperor, scholars and eunuchs to fight for power.

Besides, how could an army in the feudal era become invincible just by practicing benevolence and righteousness?
What if Huanwen's army really encountered Qin's elite soldiers?

Even Duke Huan of Qi continued his grandfather Duke Zhuang of Qi's national policy of "rewarding bravery" and conferred titles on soldiers who fought bravely. A beheading could earn a reward of eight gold coins. Duke Wen of Jin even emphasized "rewards for military conquests" and expanded the scope of rewards for military merit to include lower-class farmers and soldiers and even slaves.

Under the guidance of these one-sided and extremely distorted erroneous ideas, the emperors and scholars of the Later Han Dynasty increasingly neglected this issue, which made the combat effectiveness of the Northern Army of the Later Han Dynasty increasingly low.

The soldiers of the Northern Army also gradually realized that they had no chance of success.

Since I can’t get any reward even though I fought with all my might, I’ll just eat his mother’s food and drink his mother’s water. I won’t pay any grain to Dong Zhuo when he comes!

After Dong Zhuo entered Luoyang, he easily took over the Eight Schools of Xiyuan, which were reorganized from the Northern Army, with rewards, and transformed them into an army loyal to him with rewards.

So is the army driven by benevolence and righteousness invincible and loyal to the court?

not at all!
But does generous treatment conflict with driving soldiers with benevolence and righteousness?
Is it necessary to make people hungry, cold, and cold and to make them fight in difficult conditions in order for the army to be victorious?

This is called eating without suffering!

But after hesitating for a long time, Liu Bian could only turn around and say to Zhong Yao: "Yuan Chang's words make sense!"

"I have decided to reward the Northern Army with an additional one million coins."

"In addition, we will improve the food of the Northern Army and increase the pensions for soldiers who retire due to old age, injury or illness, as well as those who die in battle."

Liu Bian knew very well that it was simply a fantasy for him to debate the classics with a learned scholar like Zhong Yao with just the few pounds of knowledge in his head.

With the little knowledge he had in his previous life, it was fine for him to brag about national affairs with a few friends after drinking, but as for debating with professionals, let alone whether he was right or not, in this life, Liu Bian, who only had the cultural level of literacy through a few enlightenment books, was simply asking for trouble when debating with Zhong Yao, who could quote classics at will.

If Liu Bian was not the crown prince, he estimated that Zhong Yao would make him cry!

But he is the prince. He is both a contestant and a referee. Even if he doesn't move a step, he has the final say on the standard of victory.

Even if he is wrong, there are great scholars who will argue for him!
"Yuan Chang, my demands are modest. I do not seek an invincible army of benevolence and righteousness. As long as I can defeat the elite warriors of the Wuzu, I will be satisfied."

"If the army of benevolence and righteousness is truly invincible, how could there have been the 'Siege of Baideng Mountain'?"

"Hasn't Yuan Chang heard that 'the Han dynasty has its own system, originally a mixture of the ways of the hegemon and the king'?"

"This matter ends here. I have made up my mind."

Liu Bian directly used his power to pass the decision to reward the soldiers of the Northern Army. After all, the money came from the Prince's treasury and did not need to go through the Secretariat.

Is a reward of six million coins too little?
There are now a total of 4,149 people in the five schools of the Northern Army. Six million coins means that at least the lower-level soldiers can get about 1,000 coins, which is definitely a generous reward.

The price of corn these days is about 125 coins per stone, which means that this money can buy eight stones of corn.

In wartime, a soldier would have to eat nearly a stone of corn a month to maintain his combat effectiveness.

But for an ordinary family of three, each family only eats one stone of corn a month.

One thousand coins can feed an ordinary family of three for eight months!
But is six million really a lot of money?
Cao Song bought a small official position of Counselor for Cao Cao and paid six million coins into Liu Hong's treasury.

How ironic! When will these scholars who always talk about benevolence and righteousness experience the treatment of being driven by benevolence and righteousness instead of profit? Why do they change their minds when it comes to themselves? At the end of the Han Dynasty, when the world was in chaos and the princes were fighting for power, these former scholars, when they themselves became princes, said that they had to treat the soldiers well in order to achieve unification.

Zhong Yao was helpless. Although the prince was quite wise, he also inherited the emperor's stubborn character.

In such a situation, admonition will only backfire.

Zhong Yao has his own persistence, but that doesn't mean he will get into trouble.

Those who encounter this misfortune are either fools or people with bad hearts and lungs, who try to use Prince Liu Bian as a stepping stone to gain reputation for their own "loyalty and integrity".

Therefore, Zhong Yao allowed Liu Bian to send someone to announce the reward and no longer tried to dissuade him.

In fact, he himself was a little shaken in his heart, but the educational concepts he received since childhood made it difficult for him to change his mind immediately.

"Wenhe, I'll leave these matters to you. I've handed over the entire treasury of the Crown Prince's Mansion to you, the Housekeeper. You must ensure that every reward is delivered to everyone without any deductions, otherwise I will hold you accountable!"

"Regarding the issue of improving the treatment of the Northern Army soldiers, you will be responsible for discussing it with the five captains and coming up with a plan for me."

"only!"

Jia Xu gladly accepted the order. Compared with traditional Han scholars, Jia Xu, a Liangzhou scholar, seemed much more "rebellious" and paid much more attention to military issues than traditional scholars like Zhong Yao.

Afterwards, Jia Xu informed the entire army of this news through Sun Jian, Lu Bu, Gao Shun, Liu Bei and Huang Zhong.

Money is attractive, and free rewards are naturally exciting as well.

The king never jokes, and the prince is also the king.

Therefore, although the rewards had not yet been issued and the treatment was still under discussion, the soldiers of the Northern Army cheered.

No one knew who started it, but the shout of "Long live the prince" was particularly conspicuous even among the cheers in the training ground.

In the Changshui Cavalry Commander's unit, Liu Bei glared at Zhang Fei behind him. Zhang Fei shrank his head and looked at his elder brother angrily.

As a member of the Northern Army, he subconsciously shouted out when he received rewards and promises of improved treatment from the prince, but he forgot that the person on the stage was only the prince, not the emperor.

But now that I have shouted, it’s too late to undo what has been done. I can only hope that the prince didn’t hear it.

But with Zhang Fei's shout of "Long live the prince", gradually more and more soldiers joined in the shouting.

Sun Jian, Lu Bu, Gao Shun and Huang Zhong were also very surprised. They had been together for many days, so how could they not recognize Zhang Fei's loud voice? They thought that Zhang Fei did it on purpose. They secretly blamed Liu Xuande in their hearts, "This Liu Xuande is too unfair. He had such an opportunity but took it all for himself without calling them." So they also took the lead in shouting "Long live!"

"Long live the prince!"

"Long live the prince!"

"Long live the prince!"

In the end, these more than 4,000 Northern Army soldiers shouted "Long live the emperor" in unison. The sound was like waves crashing on the shore and like thunder in the clear sky. The shouting spread throughout the entire palace and even spread out of the palace. The Secretariat was shaken, the Three Dukes' Mansions were shaken, and the scholars in Luoyang heard it and were all horrified.

(End of this chapter)