I am not Yuan Shu

Chapter 257 Yuan Shu decided to spend money
When Duan Yu heard Yuan Shu talking about important matters, he immediately thought of Yuan Shu's desire to become emperor.

If Yuan Shu wanted to gain popularity in order to become emperor, this is understandable.

But if you do this, it will be very difficult to operate.

Duan Ying thought for a while and frowned.

“There are indeed those who have strict military discipline. Throughout history, when we sent troops to conquer places, we did not always massacre the city. However, most of those were in places that surrendered smoothly, or places that were easily conquered. The army did not suffer too much loss, and there was not much resentment. There must also be enough rewards, so that the military discipline can be maintained and massacres will not be caused.

Some cities have resisted for too long, causing too much damage to the besieging army. It will not be enough to appease the army's morale without massacring the city. Moreover, Zijia, I think Puyang City will most likely not surrender honestly. I'm afraid there will be a tough battle. In this cold winter, the soldiers have to fight hard to attack the city in the severe cold, and they may suffer heavy losses for this. They must be full of resentment.

If you don't let them massacre the city, this evil fire can't be vented, then who knows what they will do? Even if the battle is going smoothly and the city is successfully captured, if you don't let the soldiers rob and massacre the city, then who will give them the rewards they need? The court? Do you think the court will give them this money?
If you think the court can give it, then you can write to Lord Yuan now and let him decide whether he is willing to give it. If he is willing to give it, then I will restrain the army and not let them massacre the city. If he is not willing to give it, then don't think about it. The life and death of the people of Dongjun has nothing to do with you. "

Duan Ying sighed and patted Yuan Shu on the shoulder.

"Zijia, those who achieve great things do not care about trivial matters, but you should not be soft-hearted. You should focus on the whole world, not just Dongjun."

Duan Xing's words were not completely unreasonable, but Yuan Shu could not accept them.

How can this be called a woman's kindness?
I just want more people to survive.

Yuan Shu sighed helplessly.

He thought slowly for a while, and then gave his own plan.

"How about this, General Duan? I can send someone to ask Yuan Sikong, but even if he doesn't agree, I will pay the money myself to compensate the army. I will give them enough money and never let them suffer any loss. Do you think this is okay?"

Duan Xing was really surprised this time, he was so surprised that he couldn't close his mouth.

"Zijia, I understand that you want to win people's hearts, but this is not a small amount of money. People's hearts can be won in many places, not necessarily on the battlefield. Moreover, can you afford so much money?"

"The six thousand men in my headquarters will not need this money. They were all trained by me and I know them well."

Yuan Shu said slowly: "In addition, the Northern Army, the Huben Army, and the Yulin Army are all elite troops of the court. All rewards can be paid from the court's public account. There will be no shortage, and I don't need to pay for it. The part I need to pay is for the recruited Sanhe soldiers.

This money is equivalent to buying the lives of the people of Puyang from them. Although the money for buying lives is expensive, their number is limited. I can still afford to pay more than 10,000 people a sum of money for buying lives. After all, I have also taken a lot of good things from the eunuchs. "

Yuan Shu was not stingy with his spending of the money.

In Duan Xing's eyes, Yuan Shu seemed to be showing off his strength as one of the richest people in the Han Dynasty.

Duan Ying didn't find it strange that Yuan Shu was rich, but after hearing what Yuan Shu said, Duan Ying still scratched the back of his head in confusion.

"Zijia, do you have any old friends in Puyang City?"

"No, I have never been to Puyang."

"Then why... is it just to accumulate fame for big things? It doesn't have to cost so much money, right?"

Duan Yu roughly estimated the money it would cost to do this, and then came up with a rough number that would make him heartbroken.

He knew that Yuan Shu had taken away a lot of the eunuchs' property from Yuan Feng and became a wealthy local tyrant.

But it’s not necessary to spend so much money, right?
If it really doesn't work, just give it to me!

Such good money, just to buy the lives of a group of common people?

Duan Xing couldn't understand.

He tried to continue persuading Yuan Shu.

"Zijia, this matter needs to be discussed. Even if you are willing to pay the money, I dare not make any promises to you. What if the rebels resist too fiercely and cause too much damage to our army, and the soldiers are full of resentment? I tell you, it is impossible to control it! No matter how high the prestige of the commander is, it will not work!

When I led the army to attack the Qiang people, I always killed them all, so their resistance was very fierce. So I also restrained the army and told them not to always kill all the Qiang people after the victory, but the resistance of the Qiang people was still as fierce, and the losses of my soldiers were still great. After trying this once or twice, the resentment within the army has made me a little scared, and some people even directly contradicted me. I don’t want to commit more murders, but things on the battlefield cannot be judged by common sense. You can want to win people’s hearts or you have good intentions, but on this battlefield, I advise you not to do this. ”

Yuan Shu sighed and reached out to hold Duan Ying's hand.

"General Duan, if I can't even control whether my troops are going to kill people, how can I have the confidence to do great things? Let those who should die die, and let those who should live live. These two things are equally important to me. I have decided that the great things I want to do include this one."

"…………"

"What is an elite army? It means that they obey orders! Whether on the battlefield or outside the battlefield! If the commander's orders cannot be carried out, if the commander instead succumbs to the tyranny of the army, then this is not an elite army! It is just a group of beasts!
Wild beasts can hurt people, and they can also hurt themselves! They are never controlled. If you are not careful, they will attack and hurt people. Even the generals who lead them will suffer greatly. How can we not guard against such wild beasts? General Duan, isn't this what we need to worry about?"

After Yuan Shu finished speaking, he patted Duan Ying on the shoulder and turned to leave.

Duan Yu looked at Yuan Shu's slowly leaving back, and in a trance, he seemed to feel that what Yuan Shu said made some sense.

If the army only follows orders on the battlefield but not outside the battlefield, then...

It’s not good indeed.

After that, Yuan Shu did two things.

The first is to write a letter to Yuan Feng to see if he can get some financial assistance from Yuan Feng to reduce his financial burden and continue his career of cheating his father.

The second was to write a letter to Lu Zhi, asking him to coordinate the current account books of Yi Xin Hui and set aside some money. In case Yuan Feng could not help, he would have to pay for it himself.

Duan Xing also did two things.

The first is to publicly demand the enforcement of military discipline.

He said that no matter what the battle situation was, after the city was broken, the court's regular army was required not to massacre the city, and the three armies, the Northern Army, the Huben Army and the Yulin Army, must obey orders. Those who obey orders will be rewarded by the court, and those who violate them will be severely punished afterwards.

Second, it is to make requests to the Sanhe recruits in the army.

No matter how brutal the battle was, the recruits from Sanhe were not allowed to massacre the city or harm the civilians after it was captured. As long as they did so, in addition to the usual rewards, the Cavalry Commander Yuan Shu would give them an extra generous reward as a personal reward.

After these two orders were issued, they caused widespread discussion throughout the army.

Although the first order to restrict military discipline is rare in the standing army, it does exist.

As the imperial court's standing army, they already had military pay, and they participated in the war not only to make money, but also to gain merit and get promoted.

After all, you still have to stay in the system. It may feel good to disobey the orders of the commander-in-chief, but it is not worth it to be put on the list, given trouble, kicked out of the standing army and lose your job.

Therefore, the commander's orders have a strong deterrent effect on them.

As for recruiting soldiers in Sanhe...

Most of them came purely for money, and if the enemy was too tenacious and caused too much damage to them, they would definitely resort to massacring the city to vent their anger. The restraint of the commander-in-chief was not as deterrent to them as it was to the standing army.

If things go wrong, there might be disturbances or even camp riots.

As for this order not to massacre the city and then give extra money, at least this group of Sanhe recruits had never heard of it.

Isn't this equivalent to paying these people to buy the lives of civilians in the city?
Are there any generals willing to do this?
Yuan Shu, they all knew this man's reputation.

Being in the Sanhe area, they were fully aware of Yuan Shu's series of earth-shattering actions in Luoyang City. Some of them even witnessed Yuan Shu's "heroic appearance" with their own eyes and listened to his speech in public.

I have to say, this is a very charming person.

(End of this chapter)