Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors-Chapter 500 - 266: Stand Firm_2

"I must make you all understand one thing," he declared. "The imperial court today does not suppress the military with civil officials, but rather aims to restore the status of us military men, even elevating us higher than civil ministers. From now on, it’s no empty talk for a commander to transition into a high-ranking civilian officer, to enter the court with military merits to become an executive!"

Wang Jianxiong suddenly grasped the situation.

He now understood why the imperial court insisted on sending Liu Fa to reward the troops.

Rewarding the troops was merely an additional task. The true mission was to make the officers and soldiers of the loyalist army believe, through Liu Fa, that from now on, the status of military men had changed!

And indeed, what Liu Fa said made sense.

The military men of the Qi Dynasty had been suffocating!

Every time they went into battle, they even had to receive a Formation Map from the emperor and were obliged to arrange their troops according to the map, or else face severe punishment.

How ludicrous was that?

Any civil official felt emboldened enough to petition the emperor to execute a high minister.

And the blood feud between the military men and the foreign tribes was even more irreconcilable!

When the Jin soldiers moved south, looting and burning along the way, these officers had nearly all suffered heavy losses in battles against the Jin—whether it was the loss of a large number of soldiers, the loss of a beloved Deputy General, or even their hometowns impacted by war and their folks slain by Jin soldiers.

Thus, this battle was not just about earning merits—it was about redeeming honor!

It was a declaration to these military men that now, the emperor and civil officials in the court would not only stop hindering them but would provide them with the utmost support! The gold, silver, and treasures used for rewarding the troops, as well as the emperor’s attitude conveyed by Liu Fa, were the best proof!

And this was an invaluable opportunity for battle; any mishap would be an injustice to future generations, a curse for a thousand years!

Therefore, for these officers, this battle was no longer one that could be won or not, but a battle in which they staked all their belongings, lives, and interests!

Wang Jianxiong took a deep breath, "General Liu, I understand! If I must die to serve my country, now is indeed the time!"

Liu Fa nodded and then shook his head, "We military men are bound to fight to the death, but it isn’t enough just to die! We must hold our ground!

"Moreover, I believe we can hold it!"

He paused slightly, "General Wang, why do you think the loyalist army looked on and did not assist each other last time?"

Wang Jianxiong was taken aback, "That... is because the officers were timid, the soldiers lacked the will to fight, they had no intention of killing the enemy, and only sought self-preservation..."

Liu Fa smiled, "General Wang is right. But these are not the main reasons.

"The fundamental reason is, everyone lacked confidence!

"Because they did not believe they could win. The officers did not believe they could win, and every common soldier also did not believe they could!"

"When everyone thinks like this, our army would just be loose sand, crumbling at a touch, so how could the leaders dare to clash with the sharp edge of the Jin?"

Wang Jianxiong suddenly realized, "Indeed it is so."

The Qi Dynasty’s military had actually fallen into a sort of prisoner’s dilemma.

The military’s combat effectiveness had already been extremely low due to issues like soldiers drawing pay without serving, neglecting training, and uneven quality of troops;

The officers were well aware of this and knew they could not defeat the Jin, so they did not dare to engage proactively, and even refrained from rescuing their allies;

Knowing that the allies would not come to the rescue, the officers facing the Jin soldiers also refrained from exerting themselves to death;

And since all the soldiers thought this way, every time they clashed with the Jin, it ended in either an exploded camp or a mutiny;

This behavior in a large number of troops further reinforced the idea of "being unable to win," creating a vicious cycle.

In fact, were both sides truly powerless to fight a battle?

Of course not.

In small-scale skirmishes, the valiant Qi Army had countless examples of defeating the Jin soldiers.

However, once the battle scaled up to several thousand or tens of thousands of troops, the battlefield would become utterly one-sided.

At the root, morale and the will to fight were still decisive factors.

Though the Qi Dynasty’s military had gained numerical superiority by this time, if it continued as before, with low morale and soldiers lacking the will to fight, then the outcome would still be a swift collapse upon engagement.

Liu Fa continued, "That’s why, during this troop rewarding process, I will explain the stakes to all the officers!

"This time, His Majesty personally leads the campaign and is present in the Western Army’s camp! Now, all deployment plans are directly from His Majesty’s hand.

"His Majesty has declared that those who die in battle will be richly rewarded, while those who seek to save their own skins will not only face execution but also bear the eternal infamy of being cowards!

"This battle is the deciding factor of the Qi Dynasty’s fate. If, due to anyone’s cowardice, the Jin are allowed to escape... that will go down in history, tarnishing one’s name forever!

"So, General Wang, rest assured. As long as you can hold your position at all costs for just an hour, reinforcements will surely arrive! If anyone dares not come to aid, His Majesty will behead them first!

"And the same goes for the others. General Wang, if you neglect the duty to aid other generals under attack, you will be held accountable by military law as well!"

Wang Jianxiong nodded, "This subordinate... understands!"

...

Thus, Liu Fa led a team of elite Western Army troops and various supplies for rewarding the troops and visited all the encampments of the loyalist army.

Aside from delivering this message to every general, he also stationed some Western Army elite in weaker areas to fortify the entire encirclement.

In this way, what appeared to be a strong encirclement on paper was formed.

As long as all military forces supported each other and resisted the attempts of the Jin to break through, Liu Fa’s elite Western Army could follow up and inflict heavy casualties on the Jin.

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