Mythical Three Kingdoms

While Li Dian was pulling Le Jin to become his buddy, Chen Xi was discussing some matters with Zhou Yu that had already been discussed with Cao Cao.

"You’re saying you need twenty thousand navy men, and then you can get unlimited supplies of cement at a price that’s only one-tenth of before?" Zhou Yu looked at Chen Xi with suspicion, feeling as though Chen Xi had set a trap for him to fall into.

"You should know that even if I give you the navy, it’s meaningless. Their families are all in Eastern Wu, so even if you have the navy, you can’t use them against us. As for training, if I remember correctly, Gan Xingba is considered a top-notch naval commander." Zhou Yu hesitated as he saw Chen Xi’s expression, which seemed to say, "Take it or leave it."

"Just tell me if you agree or not; if not, never mind." Chen Xi was too lazy to explain to Zhou Yu.

"Three thousand, I agree." Zhou Yu immediately cut the number down to three thousand. They had plenty of navy in Eastern Wu, but the so-called high asking price and low offer still stood; why should he give twenty thousand without understanding the purpose?

"You’re really too stingy, aren’t you? How about nineteen thousand?" Chen Xi gave Zhou Yu an annoyed look. Cao Cao was providing manpower to repair the roads, and Sunx Ce couldn’t just sit back and enjoy the same benefits without offering anything in return, otherwise Cao Cao would be furious.

"Four thousand?" Zhou Yu tentatively asked, finding this somewhat interesting.

"You seem completely insincere." Chen Xi said irritably.

"The problem is you suddenly came with this request, what sincerity can I have? Besides, we travel by boat in Eastern Wu, Jiangnan, and Jing-Xiang. Although road cement is good, why should I buy it?" Zhou Yu raised an eyebrow in displeasure.

"Give me a reasonable offer; I really don’t believe you don’t need it." Chen Xi rolled his eyes.

"Eight thousand men. As long as these eight thousand men are not used against me, even if a battle is inevitable in the future, I won’t call them back, nor will I instruct them." Zhou Yu crossed his hands, propped up his head, and spoke with solemn authority.

"Eight thousand it is." Chen Xi thought for a moment and said. Gan Ning had their navy dismantled; with eight thousand people in a one-to-three ratio, in a year Chen Xi could train a new navy. "Sign the document, sign the document; if it’s a bit less, so be it."

"Did something happen to Gan Xingba?" Zhou Yu asked suddenly after signing.

"No, he just conned something out of Cao Sikong, and now I’m here to con a bit from you as well." Chen Xi said seriously.

"I knew something happened." Zhou Yu looked at Chen Xi for a long time, "Although it’s true you conned something from Cao Sikong, if nothing happened to Gan Xingba, you probably wouldn’t have such a serious expression."

"I really can’t hide anything from you." Chen Xi sighed, "All in all, I want to curse someone, but I don’t know who to curse; I’m really furious."

"It doesn’t seem to be anything major." Zhou Yu observed Chen Xi’s frustrated expression, knowing the matter couldn’t be too serious, otherwise Chen Xi wouldn’t be in the mood for this kind of chat.

"It’s quite significant, okay?" Chen Xi said irritably.

"Alright, I have work to do, so stop bothering me." Zhou Yu glanced at Chen Xi.

"How can you treat me like this?" Chen Xi said angrily, "I’ve never kicked you out, and I’ve helped you whenever you asked for it. Yet you’re kicking me out now; aren’t you done yet? Logically, yours should be the easiest, right?"

Zhou Yu glanced at Chen Xi, "It’s true that organizing military officers is easy, but how do you handle the rewards? Who will take them? The civil official system doesn’t mind, but hundreds of thousands of soldiers won’t understand all this complexity. Who will make the decision?"

"Naturally, the three parties..." Chen Xi instinctively responded, only to realize something seemed wrong, and he couldn’t phrase it like that.

"Because each of the three parties has different systems, the rewards are different." Zhou Yu shrugged, "Now I’m revising a new reward and punishment policy that makes soldiers from the three parties, who originally benefited from different policies, feel satisfied."

"The worst part is that the system I’m creating now might very well become the unified system for the three parties in the future. I’m considering just copying the military merit rank system, but we all know its drawbacks." Zhou Yu said helplessly.

"We all know the major disadvantages of the standard military merit rank system, so we specially revised it with Boning and the others later on. Why not use the one we established before?" Chen Xi pondered and asked with some confusion.

"Your system is entirely based on your capabilities. Although you have canceled or partially canceled rewards like land grants and housing grants, which are common incentives in the military merit rank system, your other rewards completely overshadow the previous ones, at least in the short term," Zhou Yu shook his head and said, "You can achieve this, we can’t, and using the oldest method, the drawbacks are too significant."

In fact, what Zhou Yu is discussing now is the biggest drawback of the original Twenty Ranks of Qin Nobility. The advantages of this military merit rank system have been talked about so much, there’s no need to mention them further; only the flaws should be addressed.

The only drawback of this system is the land grants. Yet, the most substantive and core part of this system is precisely the land grants. To incentivize the soldiers, the scale of the land grants is very generous. The First Rank Nobility, disregarding the housing, grants 150 acres of land. This rank is very easy to obtain; just one enemy head is enough.

In normal wartime, this naturally is not a problem. But when the dynasty becomes unified, this becomes a big pit. Back then, when the First Emperor of Qin dispatched Wang Jian, Wang Ben, and others to annihilate the Six States, the forces used were not less than a million, and in the end, the Six States kneeled.

In a normal war, excluding own side losses, indeed it’s impossible for all soldiers to have ranks, but in a war of unification where even the enemy’s homeland is destroyed, undoubtedly everyone can earn a low-level rank.

How many ranks were approximately created in the Qin State’s war to unify the Six States? Excluding high-level ranks, only counting the low-level ones, approximately one million. These one million people in the Twenty Ranks of Qin Nobility are basically in the third, fourth, or fifth rank; that is, each person gets three, four, or five hundred acres. Averaging, about four hundred million acres are needed.

During the Qin Dynasty and Western Han Period, the entire Central Plains had roughly eight million qing of arable land, equivalent to eight hundred million acres. Half of it needs to be distributed to the soldiers who unified the Six States, leaving no room for the First Emperor’s realm to exist. Naturally, the First Emperor could only demote many soldiers to hidden officials.

This is also the reason why after the First Emperor died, the Qin State was completely devoid of soldiers. As for the so-called Great Wall Garrison and Qin Soldiers taken away by Zhao Tuo who pacified Baiyue, these are nonsense. Under the military merit rank system, as long as a man was available, he was a soldier.

The reason for being without soldiers is simply put, the First Emperor didn’t fulfill his promise according to Qin Law for the People of Qin. From a certain perspective, the First Emperor can be considered to have tarnished the government credibility established by Shang Yang.

Perhaps, while the First Emperor was alive, relying on the prestige from pacifying the Six States, he could suppress the Qin people’s anger. But with the downfall of the First Emperor, the Qin State naturally collapsed as well.

This is also the crucial reason why when Xiang Yu and Liu Bang entered Guanzhong, the People of Qin had no organization. They had sacrificed so much for the nation, only to end up with the country failing to keep its promises, leaving them burdened with heavy labor tasks, and even forcing them into a state of insolvency and becoming criminals.

This is actually the biggest problem with the military merit rank system. Before my side gains overwhelming advantage, there’s no danger, but when my army gains overwhelming advantage and all soldiers end up getting ranks, it’s necessary to calculate whether the nation has enough to distribute.

Distributing half of the realm to those soldiers, even if it only takes three or four generations to recover, would be unacceptable for any hero unifying the realm. So, despite the numerous advantages of the military merit rank system, when it comes to discussing unification wars, it could lead to ruin.

"You can’t possibly redesign one all over again, it’s completely unrealistic. Back then, we calculated for a long time before finalizing our system," Chen Xi looked at Zhou Yu speechlessly and said. Just Zhou Yu alone wanting to accomplish this, truly is wishful thinking.

"It certainly is unrealistic, but if we don’t redesign it, only your system would suit best, yet despite being suitable for you, the drawbacks for us are too big," Zhou Yu shook his head and said, after all, the three sides aren’t just one side.

"Then it’s up to you, this is not my concern anymore." Chen Xi didn’t want to take on this matter, mainly because it’s indeed too difficult to accomplish; it’s not something that can be done by one person in a short time.

"Then go busy yourself with your matters, I’ll continue dealing with mine," Zhou Yu wasn’t affected by Chen Xi’s demeanor, waved his hand and said.

"We’re planning to station troops in the Western Regions; do you want to send people?" Chen Xi didn’t leave, instead repeated what he had said to Cao Cao to Zhou Yu and then asked.

"Station troops, we’ll pass on that, but we can offer personnel support," Zhou Yu thought briefly and said. The Western Regions were just too far for them, he wasn’t very interested. Chen Xi was well aware of this and came mostly to inform Zhou Yu, showing no intention of deliberately concealing it from Sun Ce’s side.

"Whom do you plan to send?" Chen Xi asked.

"You’re probably thinking of sending Ziming or Shiyuan along with a military general, right?" Zhou Yu looked at Chen Xi and asked. Chen Xi didn’t hide it, nodded his head. Facing someone as astute as Zhou Yu, there wasn’t much point in concealing.

"Although I don’t know what you’re scheming there, I feel I need to consider this thoroughly, and as for the military general, I do indeed need to think it over carefully," Zhou Yu was silent for a moment, then spoke with a calm demeanor.

"Alright then, just notify me once you’ve got a plan. When I hold a raffle later, remember to come and support," Chen Xi saw Zhou Yu like this and didn’t push. He nodded, turned around, and left, waving his hand as he walked.

{"Zhou Gongjin is indeed arrogant, actually directly entrusted me with eight thousand of his navy, really not afraid I might train these eight thousand into a navy to defeat him."} Chen Xi thought with a slightly serious expression.