My father, King Chu, was besieged at Gaixia

Chapter 84 Great achievements
Xiang Chang led the escort cavalry out of Gaixia City, quickly returned to the rear army, and went straight to the rear army training ground in the northwest.

The wide and flat training ground was surrounded by strong and armored soldiers wielding bows and spears. They were lined up in neat rows, ready to go, and the murderous aura was chilling.

In the martial arts arena, more than a thousand prisoners were squatting in clusters with their heads in their hands. Each of them was wearing only a single piece of clothing, with dishevelled hair and dirty faces, and shivering in the cold wind.

According to Xiang Chang's request, they were not given food for several days, so all the captives were dejected and weak.

Zhou Yin, who had been waiting in the drill ground for a long time, followed Xiang Chang and led him to the generals' platform in front. He said helplessly, "Don't be fooled by their pitiful appearance. They are just a group of wolves that can never be tamed. If you really try to persuade them to surrender, you will only be attacked back!"

Xiang Chang smiled slightly: "That's not the right way. For these lost lambs, we need to use love to inspire them."

For some reason, Zhou Yin felt his scalp tingling when he saw Xiang Chang's extremely familiar and sinister smile. He inadvertently remembered his past "great achievements" and instinctively felt that the love he was talking about might not be a good love.

Xiang Chang took a large bullhide loudspeaker from Tian Jian's hand and shouted to the prisoners in the audience with a high-pitched and affectionate tone:
"Captives, lost lambs, you are blessed today! In the name of the last general of the Great Chu State and the eldest son of the King of Chu, I am here to invite you to surrender. As long as you surrender to the Chu army and become brothers, your past sins will be forgiven and written off. If you fight hard on the battlefield and make meritorious deeds, you will have endless wealth and glory waiting for you!"

All the prisoners squatting on the drill ground slowly raised their heads and looked over hesitantly with dull and weak eyes.

They were forced to surrender and became prisoners. Many of them had already predicted their fate. Even if they were not killed, they would be demoted to slaves and coolies, and their lives would be worse than death. As for being recruited to join the army and become a soldier, it has been a long time since I heard of such a good thing.

"Haha, what? You don't believe it?" Xiang Chang waved to the audience. Hei Shi, who had been waiting for a long time, excitedly brought a few sturdy and dull-looking soldiers to the stage.

"Come here, brother, tell everyone your name, where you are from, what achievements you made in the previous battle, and what rewards you received!" Xiang Chang pulled a soldier over and shouted loudly with a loud speaker, "Hey, why are you so embarrassed? Why are you blushing? Just shout when you feel pleasure! This is such an honorable thing, shout loudly! Shout out what's in your heart!"

Under Xiang Chang's urging and encouragement, the young soldier, who was obviously an honest farmer and had never seen a big scene, turned red in the face and shouted into the loud speaker with all his strength:

"My name is Fan Ji... I am from Chen County of the Great Chu... I attacked the Han army that night and chopped off the heads of five Han soldiers... I was rewarded with five taels of gold and a roll of cloth... I also have five hundred acres of land in the county. After defeating the Han army, I will return to give it to you..."

Fan Ji's voice became more and more fluent. Thinking of the generous reward he had received, the joy in his heart finally overflowed onto his face. He took out a piece of gold and a scroll of silk from his arms, and waved his arms vigorously at the captives below.

"Good man! Good man! Isn't that a good shout?" Xiang Chang patted the soldier Fan Ji on the shoulder and praised him repeatedly, then pulled out a second soldier and stuffed the loudspeaker in front of his mouth.

With the previous experience as a lesson, the second soldier went on the road and took out a piece of gold and a scroll of silk from his pocket. His face was flushed with excitement. Compared with Fan Ji, he seemed to be more dramatic. He stretched his neck and shouted to the captives below:
"My name is Zhuang Zhu'er, I'm from Huangcheng. I also killed five weaklings in the Han army that time! The king personally issued me a reward, praised me a lot, and promoted me to be a general of the hundred. Here, this is the gold reward for me, and this is the proof of my five hundred acres of land. Hahaha, I smiled proudly, smiled proudly, just ask you if you are jealous?" Upon hearing this, the first soldier Fan Ji took back the cowhide loudspeaker and added loudly: "My reward was also issued by the king himself. And I am also a general of the hundred."

"It's my turn, it's my turn." When it came to the third soldier, without Xiang Chang's signal, he came over impatiently, took the loudspeaker, and talked about his military exploits and rewards with saliva flying. He was also a brave warrior who had beheaded five people.

These soldiers, who became more and more excited as they talked, were all ordinary soldiers of the Great Chu rear army who had fought bravely and performed outstanding meritorious services during the night attack on Kong Xi's army of the Han army.

As the rear general of the Chu army, Xiang Chang had the final say over the affairs of his own military camp. After the surprise attack on Kong Xi's army, he first provided compensation to the officers and soldiers who died in the battle in the shortest possible time, and then asked Zhou Yin to sort out the names of the generals, officers, and soldiers who had performed meritorious service that night, and rewarded them immediately without delay according to the Chu army merit reward system.

He gathered all the officers above the rank of 500 chief and the middle and high-level generals in the rear army to watch the ceremony. In front of them, he invited the old man to come and call out the names of the generals, officers and soldiers who had made meritorious services. The old man, who was standing on the podium, personally promoted them to military rank one by one and awarded them rewards.

The ceremony was held with great ceremony.

Every time the old man finished handing out a round of rewards, the atmosphere group nearby would immediately blow horns and beat drums, and the girls seconded from the wounded camp would throw handfuls of tiny colored silk scraps, and the atmosphere on the scene would be as warm as it could be.

These meritorious generals, officers, and soldiers, where have they ever experienced this before? Moreover, not only have they been promoted and made rich, but they have also been personally rewarded by the Overlord and met the God of War in their minds face to face. This kind of honor was something they had never dared to dream of before. They were so excited that they almost flew up, and their loyalty to the Overlord naturally soared to a new height.

As for the other generals and officers of the rear army who were watching from the audience, they were also excited and envious, some even felt jealous to the point of choking.

That's right, the Chu military merit reward system was modified by Xiang Chang based on the Qin military merit reward system, in accordance with the principle of downplaying titles and emphasizing rewards and promotions.

Generally speaking, ordinary soldiers can get corresponding gold and silk rewards for beheading one enemy head. If they behead three or more enemies, in addition to corresponding gold and silk, they can also be promoted to the first level of military rank. If they behead five or more enemies, in addition to corresponding gold and silk, they can also be promoted to the third level of military rank.

The biggest difference between Xiang Chang's system of conferring titles based on military merit and the Qin Dynasty's system of conferring titles based on military merit is that Xiang Chang deliberately added pensions for soldiers who died in battle, giving them all 300 acres of land.

In addition, as for the rewards for the army, if they can kill more than 8,000 enemies when attacking a city or besieging a town, or kill more than 2,000 enemies in a field battle, it is considered a complete achievement. The troops that have achieved complete achievement will receive corresponding rewards for the entire army.

Of course, in order to prevent generals or officers from being greedy for merit and reckless, and not caring about their soldiers, regulations have also been made for the casualties of soldiers. If someone in a squad dies in battle, the other four people, including the squad leader, will be convicted. In addition, the same applies to the 10th, 100th, 100th, and 100th ranks. As for middle-level and high-level officers and generals, if the soldiers in their troops suffer heavy casualties, they will also be punished accordingly. As for the only way to atone for one's merit, it is to kill the enemy. If one person dies in battle, one enemy must be killed; if two people die in battle, two enemies must be killed. Therefore, the reward of "beheading one head" is obtained by deducting the number of deaths on one's side from the number of enemies killed.

(End of this chapter)