Chapter 1173: Trust

Lv Bu and his party left the city gate and galloped quickly toward the military camp outside the field. That was the military camp belonging to the Jiuyuan Commandery army.

It was the most powerful army in Jiuyuan Commandery. Jiuyuan Commandery had six counties; there were not many counties attached to the state commanderies in the border areas.

Because they were constantly in the border areas and received invasions from the grassland aliens, most of the northern border areas would be concentrated.

People would choose to huddle together for warmth; facing the grassland aliens, they naturally had to huddle together, so the distribution of commanderies and counties was relatively concentrated.

If Jiuyuan Commandery were placed in the Central Plains, its area would be comparable to a top-tier commandery, and distributing more than a dozen county cities would be no problem.

But being in the border lands, it had to be relatively more concentrated.

Among the six counties, each county had county soldiers, but they were only ordinary second-line troops; only at this military camp outside the Jiuyuan Commandery government were tens of thousands of troops stationed.

It was also the most prosperous army in Jiuyuan Commandery.

Lv Bu was not the Commandery Commandant of Jiuyuan Commandery, but his strength and his ability to lead troops in battle made the Commandery Commandant, that is, the Commandery Commandant, have nothing to say.

In the army, one pays attention to strength.

Lv Bu's strength made these tens of thousands of troops all very convinced; following him, they would live better.

Just like in the Great Qin era, many army soldiers were willing to follow people like Bai Qi and Wang Jian, because these people rarely lost battles, and some even maintained an undefeated record throughout their lives.

The Great Qin era was a military merit system; the bottom-level soldiers, if they wanted to live better and get more rewards, could only make contributions.

And following a good general meant that the opportunity to make contributions was very great.

This is also the reason why the morale of the Great Qin army was terrifying, far exceeding the six states, because of the military merit system; even if they died, their families could live well.

Even the lowest title was at least between one hundred and three hundred *mu*; this was bestowed by the imperial court, although the imperial court's land tax was very high.

But in the Great Qin era, the harsh taxes were not comparable to later generations; of course, service was still needed, which was the most terrifying thing.

But once your title reached the level of *Bugeng*, you did not need to serve.

This is also the reason why many people joined the army in the Great Qin era, especially the old Qin people, because as long as you made contributions on the battlefield, it was equivalent to changing your class.

The status of the army in the Great Qin era went without saying.

It was like this in history, and in this mythical world, it was even more so.

And in the Liu Han era, the military merit system had already been abandoned.

But in the northern border areas, it was still inherited to a certain extent; after these soldiers joined the army, they could guarantee that their families would live better, especially the regular combat soldiers, whose treatment was very good.

However, the reason why these soldiers were most convinced by Lv Bu was still Lv Bu's strength, which could lead them to survive when resisting the grassland aliens.

The requirements for the border army in the northern lands were actually very simple: to survive.

This requirement looked simple, but it was not simple at all; after all, compared to the northern border areas, the grassland aliens were actually even more vast.

In the more than ten border states, the population might be far worse than the grassland aliens, but it was impossible for everyone in the Han race to join the army; the number of people joining the army could not compare to the aliens.

The grassland aliens were said to be a race on horseback, and everyone could fight; this was of course an exaggeration, but the grassland aliens were definitely more terrifying than the Central Plains' militarism.

It was possible that half of every ten people could fight.

And in the Central Plains, one in a hundred might, while in the border areas, it might be one in twenty.

As a result, the number could not compare to the grassland aliens.

Fighting wars does not look at numbers, but sometimes numbers can overwhelm everything.

Most of the time, one thousand elites facing ten thousand people might have confidence, but what about facing one hundred thousand people?

Just lining up there would make people tremble with fear.

One hundred thousand people, even if they stood there and let you kill them, could make you tired to death.

Sometimes the border army faced the grassland aliens and fell into a disadvantage in numbers; the Han race in the Central Plains far exceeded the aliens, but in the border areas, they always suffered such losses.

Why? Because the grassland center simply did not want to support them and simply did not care about the border, just letting their border fend for itself.

How could this not make the people of the more than ten border states resentful?

Before Zhang Hu and Lv Bu rose in Bingzhou, there were naturally armies, but they were often just for self-protection; every time they faced an invasion by the grassland alien army, every defense resulted in the loss of countless soldiers, and sometimes they could not even defend against the enemy.

And after Zhang Hu and Lv Bu rose, Bingzhou underwent great changes; the casualties in army battles constantly decreased, and they could even counterattack the grassland.

Which of these soldiers joining the army did not have a blood feud with the grassland aliens?

Most of the soldiers were actually following their fathers' careers, with brothers ending and younger brothers succeeding; they died generation after generation, and such blood feuds even lasted for dozens of generations.

The appearance of Lv Bu and Zhang Hu allowed them to counterattack the grassland.

Therefore, Lv Bu had become the true number one in the army of Jiuyuan Commandery; although he was only a Colonel, the general commanding Jiuyuan Commandery could not suppress him.

Not to mention, he would not suppress him either.

The Lv clan had already taken root in Jiuyuan Commandery, and Lv Bu's father was even a general of an army in Jiuyuan Commandery.

Among the one hundred thousand troops of Jiuyuan Commandery, including fifty thousand elites, Lv Bu's father commanded fifteen thousand of them.

And Lv Bu's Colonel department had few people, but they were even more elite.

When Lv Bu entered the military camp, it set off a roar, and soon Su Fan heard that Lv Bu was going to lead troops to the grassland again this time.

Imitating the grassland's "grass-cutting," Lv Bu also came to "counter-grass-cutting" to counterattack the grassland.

Every action also brought a lot of benefits to everyone.

In this era, beef and mutton were still very expensive; ordinary common people could not even afford to eat it once a year; only those noble clans could afford it; even small landlords could not afford it on a daily basis.

Only during festivals could they eat something good.

The life of ancient small landlords was not too good; historically, due to productivity problems, how much income could those small landlords have each year?

When Su Fan was in the martial arts world, he had personally experienced it; his family was considered a landlord in the county, and a not-small landlord at that.

However, relying on those thousands of *mu* of land, the true annual income was only a few hundred to a thousand taels; this number was indeed an astronomical figure for those bottom-level common people.

But a whole family had to be fed, and on top of that, the officials in the county government had to be taken care of, so the true surplus was not much.

Of course, wanting to eat meat was not lacking.

But the Su family at that time was a powerful clan of a county.

In this era, beef and mutton, especially beef and mutton from the grassland, were even more expensive; every time they brought back tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of heads, although the soldiers did not get much.

It was also a large number. ===== CHAPTER 1174 =====