Second-hand time travel: Liu Bei, the big-eared bandit

Chapter 288 Fellow Travelers
"It's not difficult to make sure that every soldier contributes to the cause. I can simply write a report of victory and share the credit with the soldiers."

Liu Bei said to Xu Huang, "However, even if our troops gain merit in battle, it won't help. Gongming, what the soldiers lack is never heads or merits; what they lack is a system that can allow them to return to being law-abiding citizens..."

"Regulation?"

Xu Huang was a little confused: "The Han Dynasty once had a system of granting land to military officers..."

"Yes, there used to be such regulations, but they are no longer in place... This is the disease of the Han Dynasty."

Liu Bei nodded: "Gongming cares for his soldiers and treats them as human beings, which makes him one of my comrades. But has Gongming considered what will happen to the soldiers who have committed past offenses after they receive their rewards?"

"I never thought of that before. Please teach me, General."

Xu Huang shook his head.

"First of all, we will treat each other fairly and neither of us will take credit for the merits of our troops. Then your troops will be able to clear their names of past crimes due to their military achievements and be registered as commoners. They may be able to receive some rewards and rations."

Liu Bei explained step by step: "This is certainly a good thing, but..."

Xu Huang nodded slightly but remained silent, waiting for Liu Bei to continue.

“But they cannot become respectable people, after all, they have committed crimes in the past and have violated the seven categories of punishments.”

Liu Bei continued, “Right now, military rank is useless, and they are still subject to taxes and corvée labor. They escaped their status as thieves by beheading others and have returned to being commoners... But, Gongming, before they became thieves, they were originally commoners!”

Xu Huang suddenly paused.

“They are not from respectable families. No matter how much merit they gain, at most they can only receive more money as a reward. I can even allocate land to them and restore the land granted for their military merits. But they have a criminal record and cannot be respectable families. In the end, they cannot become officials.”

Liu Bei continued, "If they can't become officials or clerks, how many taxes and corvée labors can their wealth withstand? As long as the world remains unchanged and the social order remains the same, their ultimate fate... will probably be to become thieves again."

Xu Huang finally understood and sighed softly, "Then... General, how should this world be changed?"

"I will first quell the rebellion to seize power, and then cure the ills of the world. Giving people a way to make a living through hard work is far more useful than killing people for rewards."

Liu Bei replied, “I have always been willing to lift up the best men in the world from the dust... Those who follow me to quell the rebellion, I will guarantee their sons will become good men of good families, under the protection of me and the emperor. This applies to all those who fight. As long as you and I win, the sons of our troops will be protected. Those who make great contributions will be recorded, and I can promote them to generals and re-establish their families.”

"But this is not a long-term solution. Once the world is at peace, I need to change the way things are so that everyone has a path to becoming a courtier. Only then can I solve the root problem."

Xu Huang bowed and said, "General, you are benevolent... but everyone has their own selfish desires. Doesn't the General have any?"

"Of course I am. I was also a thief by birth, so naturally I have desires for fame and fortune..."

Liu Bei nodded and spoke quite frankly: "But what I covet is the name of the Daoist Yi Tian, ​​and the benefit of winning people's hearts. I don't know what Gongming's heart desires... How can I win Gongming's heart?"

Xu Huang was taken aback for a moment, then asked with a smile, "Didn't the general say that we were kindred spirits?"

Liu Bei laughed heartily: "Good! Please follow me to Ao Cang, Gongming... Only when the rebellion is quelled and our fame can shake the world can we establish a new government and build our own path."

……

These days, it's really difficult to ensure that every member of your unit receives credit.

Great achievements such as beheading generals, seizing flags, and being the first to scale a city wall are unlikely to be attributed to the lowly soldiers who actually carry them out; they will only fall upon the leaders of the army.

Some rulers would also promote talented individuals from the ranks.

But this is called 'promotion', not 'rewarding merit'. Promotion is not merit, but relationship and favor; it is bestowing a favor.

In most cases, soldiers are just there to obey orders while they're alive, and they're dead if they die; who cares? If there are no words after a name, life and death are just numbers.

The credit for a successful project will only go to the leaders. No one will care if the hard-working staff work overtime for months on end. Their names will not appear in the project results report or the promotion list.

If the leader has humanity and cares for the animals, perhaps he can give them some material rewards and a few more bites of feed.

That's it.

Ordinary soldiers usually had to be beheaded to gain merit.

Previously, the Qin and Han dynasties had clear regulations—one was promoted one rank for each decapitation, and land was awarded based on military merit. The twenty ranks of nobility corresponded not only to social status but also to actual material rewards and livelihood security.

But now, the system of awarding land to those who have rendered meritorious service in the military no longer exists.

All the land already belongs to someone else; there is no land to be granted. Military ranks can no longer exempt one from taxes and corvée labor, and may even attract covetousness.

Since merit could no longer be awarded, the practice of granting land to those who had rendered meritorious service gradually fell out of the public eye.

However, if cattle and horses are given absolutely no hope, they will definitely revolt.

Thus, under the widely accepted logic of generational succession, cattle and horses were divided into different types.

If one's ancestors committed sins, then their descendants will carry that sin with them and have no future.

If the ancestors were unclean, then the descendants will also be unclean.

Some were descendants of disgraced officials, some were sons of slaves, some were prostitutes, some were merchants, some were adopted sons-in-law (whose ancestors were adopted sons-in-law), and some were migrants (who had been vagrants)...

Anything that doesn't involve farming or studying is considered a lowly profession.

If one's ancestors had a slightly problematic way of choosing a profession, that is considered an original sin from birth, sometimes called a lowly status, sometimes a criminal, and sometimes 'having engaged in lowly occupations'.

Medicine, witchcraft, and other tradespeople were not considered lowly, but they were not considered virtuous either.

The level of one's birth determines almost everything for oneself and one's descendants.

Fortunately, Liu Bei's father and grandfather were both officials, so he was registered at birth and had the status of a noble family. Otherwise, Liu Bei would have been engaged in a lowly profession.

(This is why Liu Bei's relatives looked down on him in history. Given the prevailing views at the time, few people believed that Liu Bei, who had once worked in a lowly profession, could amount to anything. However, merchants from the city were willing to help him.)
Those who can be called good citizens are only members of the gentry and good families—whose ancestors for three generations have not committed any of the seven offenses punishable by death, have never engaged in lowly occupations, own land, speak Mandarin, and pass down their family traditions through proper means (farming and studying).

But if one doesn't own land, then of course one can only engage in lowly occupations...

Thus, most people are born with original sin.

The purpose of military merit was to allow those with original sin to get close to good men.

If one is guilty, one can use merits to atone for or offset one's crime (money and silk can only be used for 'bail'); if one is of low status, one can use merits to offset hard labor (but not for 'regular labor' such as grain tax and horse tax).

Anyway, those with no status are perfect for hard labor: military service, grain transport, river engineering, palace repair... anything can be done, just give them a name.

Since land was no longer awarded based on military merit, and military ranks had become virtually meaningless, it was practically impossible for them to truly become sons of respectable families.

To cleanse oneself of lowly professions and associate with respectable people, to acquire property for one's children so that they may be like respectable people, to enable one's grandchildren to study and advance in their education, and to ensure that one's descendants truly become respectable people—this is already the highest pursuit of an ordinary soldier.

But, but...

(End of this chapter)