After half a day's rest and the arrival of the infantry troops from Luocheng, Mu Yunfeng decided to let the army continue to march towards the city of Kof in Gan State.
After meeting Mu Yunfeng, Chu Fan handed over the command of the army to Mu Yunfeng. After all, everyone has their own expertise. Although Chu Fan had read some military books when he was on Blue Star, he lacked practical experience in real battlefield command.
It is not an easy task to command a large-scale military campaign. As a commander, you need to make sure that each general arrives at the corresponding location at the appropriate time according to your own arrangements. You also need to deal with emergencies on the battlefield at any time to ensure coordination and cooperation between various troops.
Chu Fan thought that he was not capable of such meticulousness. This rescue of Mu Yunfeng was not actually a big battle. It could only be regarded as a strategic raid at most. A real large-scale battle required careful planning and coordination. If he were to deal with these things himself, Chu Fan thought that he might not be able to do very well, and it was also a brain-consuming and physically demanding task.
When the Wei soldiers heard that His Majesty did not give Qiu Li an official position because of his surrender, but only rewarded him with some gold, silver, wealth and land, and did not make too many rewards, many soldiers admired His Majesty even more.
A deputy general who had studied Confucianism in the army was very puzzled when he saw the soldiers were very excited.
He approached a group of soldiers engaged in a heated discussion and asked softly, "Your Majesty's reward for Qiu Li is so small. How can ministers and generals from other countries surrender to Wei? If we have to fight every battle ourselves, won't even more soldiers die?"
After hearing the deputy general's words, the soldier laughed and joked, "This young general is a scholar, so he knows more than us roughnecks. But we roughnecks only know that Your Majesty is clear about rewards and punishments. If the enemy doesn't surrender, then we will beat them into submission, and that way we can gain more military merit."
The deputy general was very dissatisfied with the soldier's answer. How could a soldier talk lightly about war just for the sake of gaining military merit?
The deputy continued, "You think it's easy, but if the enemy fights desperately, won't more of our brothers be sacrificed? If we're unlucky, some of you might even die here."
At this time, a young soldier stood up and said, "General, do you think we are afraid of death now that we have chosen to join the army? Even if we die on the battlefield, His Majesty and the court will treat our families well. Our parents, wives, and children will not starve or freeze, and the court will provide them with adequate pensions.
If we have not died on the battlefield and have won military merit, then at the end of the war we can return home in glory, and Your Majesty will not treat any meritorious official unfairly."
When the young soldier said this, he looked up at the sky and continued, "One last thing. I don't want the enemy general to order a fight to the death with us today, and then stand up and surrender the next day. Then he will become a general of our Wei State and enjoy the glory and rewards that should belong to us.
I also don't want to see, decades later, when everyone has forgotten us soldiers who shed blood and sacrificed our lives on the battlefield, someone elevate the enemies who trampled on the corpses of our comrades. Or even have the descendants of these enemies place their tablets in the ancestral temple of the Wei State and enjoy incense and offerings. General, do you think this is fair?
When future generations, under the guidance of those with ulterior motives, forget the heroes who truly shed blood and sacrificed their lives for the country, and dance the enemy's victory dance on the land where we sacrificed our lives, I wonder if you, General, would tell me whether this is the outcome we want to see?
The deputy general was stunned after hearing the soldier's words. Such a situation had never been mentioned in the knowledge he had learned. Instead, they had always emphasized the necessity of loyalty and righteousness during their studies. Sometimes they would even compromise with the enemy in order to maintain "superficial peace". This was why the deputy general thought that the enemy's surrender was a matter of course.
There were many such ideological clashes in the Wei army, because before Chu Fan carried out educational reforms in Wei, the cognition of scholars and ordinary people was completely different. Scholars mostly studied Confucian classics, emphasizing benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and trustworthiness, while ordinary people, due to the hardships of life, valued practical interests and fairness more.
Before Chu Fan implemented educational reforms, scholars in the Wei Kingdom were often out of touch with reality, their ideas too idealistic and lacking a deep understanding of reality. This often led to those in power not understanding what the people needed. In some states, scholars who had never worked in the fields to grow crops were even asked to write books to encourage farmers. How could such a thing convince the people?
How could the policies formulated by such people truly meet the needs of the people? Although ordinary people did not dare to question the abilities of these scholars in person, they were privately full of disdain and resentment towards these so-called "learned men".
However, with Chu Fan's reform of Wei's education system, people from all walks of life were able to study in their corresponding majors, and then professional matters were left to professionals. This situation has improved.
When the Wei army was heading towards the city of Kov, the captives from the Gan State also began to build roads. Because the predecessors of the Gan State soldiers who were captured by the Wei State had done ideological work for the new captives, these newly captured Gan State soldiers quickly accepted the reality and began to seriously participate in the road construction work.
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