The imperial court's reward for Xu Kun included not only promoting him to the sixth rank, but also awarding him nearly 50,000 taels of silver.
These benefits made many soldiers in Fujian's region green with envy.
A mere ordinary soldier rose to the rank of a sixth-grade military officer, a feat that many people could never overcome in their entire lives.
Besides the promotion, the reward given by Li Chang'an also made many ordinary people gasp in astonishment.
Fifty thousand taels of silver is the income of an ordinary person for ten thousand years.
This amount of silver, if converted into gold, would have filled two carts.
Looking at the glittering gold on the carriage, the soldiers from Fujian were all regretting why they hadn't followed the prince to sea to attack the Japanese pirates.
After receiving the imperial edict, Xu Kun took the reward money and walked across the dock to the side, where the other soldiers from Fujian came out one by one to receive their rewards according to their merits.
Looking at their son, who was standing tall and proud, Mr. and Mrs. Xu were filled with pride. Their Xu family had truly brought honor to their ancestors.
Xu's mother kept telling others, "This is my son, this is my son."
One by one, the soldiers from Fujian stepped forward. Yang Wenguang, holding the imperial edict, reported their achievements and his rewards.
This was specially ordered by Li Chang'an. He wanted the common people to see these things and know that following the Prince's army would bring them real money rewards.
Only in this way could they have the idea that if they fought alongside the prince, they would not be mistreated.
The army's triumphant return involves many procedures.
In addition to the original Ming Dynasty ceremonies, Li Chang'an added many procedures to let the people know that the current army is different from the one before.
These procedures take nearly three or four hours.
This kind of formalism, which was costly, time-consuming, and laborious, opened the eyes of the common people of the Ming Dynasty.
Although they couldn't understand it, it didn't stop them from watching with great interest.
It was the first time they had ever seen such a spectacular scene: hundreds of dancers dancing on the dock, thousands of soldiers in armor beating drums, and many people scattering flowers into the air.
The magnificent scene thrilled the locals, who had never witnessed such a spectacular sight in their lives.
So even if the imperial edict was full of nonsense, they listened with rapt attention.
Although they couldn't understand a single word of the imperial edict.
But they could see it; the reward money given by the prince, those cartloads of gold, were real and tangible, placed right in front of them.
Just as the people were marveling at the spectacle, the dancing girls suddenly stopped, and the cheerful drumming and music also quieted down.
Just when everyone was completely confused, a suona horn resounded through the sky.
As the suona horn sounded, the drumbeats also became deeper.
Chen Da stood at the bow of the ship, a white cloth tied around his head: "Heroes of the Ming Dynasty, may you live forever!"
"The heroes of the Ming Dynasty will live forever!"
"The heroes of the Ming Dynasty will live forever!"
Xu Kun strained his voice, his hoarse voice drowning out the sound of the suona.
Hundreds of thousands of soldiers shouted along with him.
The people looked at them, somewhat bewildered, not knowing what had happened.
It wasn't until a group of wounded soldiers disembarked from the ship that they realized what these people were shouting for.
Behind these soldiers, Xiong Er and his men stood on the dock, carrying coffins one after another.
As the coffins appeared, the families of the fallen soldiers, dressed in white mourning clothes, also appeared on the dock.
Looking at the coffins, Yang Wenguang couldn't help but tear up. In this world, only the prince would remember those fallen soldiers.
Only a prince would bestow an honor upon these soldiers.
Xiong Er carried the coffin and placed it in front of an old woman, his voice low and somber: "Auntie, I'm sorry, I didn't bring the person back from the battlefield."
"This is something Shui Sheng left for you. Please keep it safe."
Xiong Er took out a bag from his pocket, which contained all the belongings of the fallen soldiers.
The old woman opened the bag, looked at the clothes and shoes she had sewn for her child, and tears streamed down her face.
“We don’t blame you. You’ve done a great job. There are battles there where no one dies.”
“When my son Shuisheng went to the battlefield, he told us that if he didn’t come back, then he wouldn’t come back.”
"It's enough that Your Highness remembers our Shuisheng, that's enough."
The old woman looked into the bag and saw the clothes her son wore when he went to war; tears streamed down her face.
Looking at the marks on her clothes from the knife and arrow, she felt a piercing pain in her heart, as if someone were squeezing it.
She couldn't imagine how painful it would be for her son to have these scars on his body.
Looking at these things, she thought of her child and happily told her that she was going to fight a war with the prince.
He said he wanted to build a future for his family, because he didn't want the child in Dongniang's belly to be born with nothing and only be able to farm at home.
Thinking of her son's words, she stroked the coffin and spoke.
"My son, go in peace. Don't worry about your mother. The prince gave our family a lot of money, enough for us to live on for a lifetime."
"The prince also gave our family a martyr's plaque, and will give the family twenty taels of silver every month as a subsidy. Dongniang is about to give birth, but my mother didn't let her come and told her to stay home and take care of her pregnancy."
"The prince said that he would help raise the child after it is born and send the child to school."
“You died a worthwhile death. Your father was conscripted into the army and died with nothing, leaving only my mother and me to depend on each other.”
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