novelSusiti Chapter 31 Commander Luo has truly done everything he could to be kind and righteous.
Chapter 31 Commander Luo has truly done everything he could to be kind and righteous.
Rock silently reminded himself, then sent his soldiers to check the village to see if there was anything that needed help.
While Rock and his group were fighting, the villagers had already witnessed their amazing performance. The purple sun that suddenly appeared in the sky and the bandits who were transformed into crystal statues all over the place brought great shock to the villagers.
This was the first time they had ever seen such magic. To many villagers, it was no different from that of a deity; it was truly a legendary deity reborn!
Therefore, when Rock led his cavalry towards the distant village and asked if they needed help, several villagers who had just opened the gate suddenly knelt down before Rock.
"Immortal Master! The Immortal Master has appeared!"
"Thank you so much, Immortal Master, for your help in wiping out those damned thugs!"
Seeing the villagers' reaction, Rock was both amused and exasperated. He simply waved his hand and said:
"Fellow villagers, please don't call me a celestial master. I'm far from becoming an immortal; these are just a few minor spells!"
Rock's words were quite true. Apart from this one spell, he was at best a strong mortal. He was far from becoming an immortal, and he was nowhere near the legendary lords and heroes of the Warhammer world.
However, the villagers believed that Rock was simply being modest.
To be able to conjure a purple sun out of thin air and instantly petrify all those bandits, killing so many bandits in one go, what else could he be but a living god?
Even if Rock didn't become an immortal, he's probably not far from it. He might even be one of those immortals who descended to earth for training!
Although their place was relatively isolated, they had heard of some folk tales and novels, and knew that the gods in heaven would occasionally come down to the mortal world to undergo trials and tribulations, and then ascend back to heaven after achieving their goals.
Thinking of this, the villagers looked at Rock with even more awe, which made him feel a little embarrassed.
After entering the village and making some inquiries, and also getting the soldiers involved in the firefighting efforts, Rock learned that:
In the previous battle, although the Smiling Lama did not concentrate too many flying head Gu in this village, mainly using these monsters to attack the walls of the Liu family compound, several villagers were still killed on the spot, and many more were injured.
Faced with the injured villagers, Rock didn't have any good solutions for a while, since he really didn't have any doctors on hand.
After much thought, he felt that the person with the best medical skills around him was most likely Lu Xiong, because Lu Xiong had to learn all kinds of human anatomy when he practiced martial arts, so that he could find the opponent's weaknesses when attacking.
So, besides his martial arts skills, Brother Lu also knows a half-baked acupuncture technique and has some knowledge of the human body, but that's about all he's capable of.
So aside from helping villagers with broken bones set their bones, there doesn't seem to be much else Rock can do to help.
For the ten militiamen who had died in the previous battle, Rock visited each of their homes and gave each family ten taels of silver as a pension, while also promising them:
For five years, Rock would give them ten taels of silver as a pension every year, and also give them some food every month. Although it wasn't much, it was enough to make their lives a little better.
It's unrealistic to expect to come up with a particularly reliable compensation system under the current conditions. Rock knew his own limitations, so he didn't make any promises.
But he seemed to have overestimated the treatment of soldiers during that period. Even though Rock thought his pension wasn't much, the families of the fallen militiamen cried and thanked Rock profusely.
Seeing their expressions, it was as if Rock had done something incredibly good, which made him feel a little embarrassed.
When the other villagers learned of this, they praised Rock's benevolence and righteousness while looking at the other militiamen with great envy.
In their eyes, being able to serve under Rock was a real blessing. Not to mention that meals were provided and guaranteed to be plentiful, the two taels of silver a month alone were enough to make them envious.
Not to mention, this two taels of silver is only the treatment for auxiliary troops. If they can be promoted to regular soldiers, their monthly salary will double!
The treatment was already good, and now, even their funeral arrangements are being taken care of by Rock. At least for the next few years, it's no exaggeration to say that Rock can support their entire family to a certain extent, reducing their financial burden by more than half.
Because of this, many villagers took the opportunity to rush over and continue to ask Rock when the next round of conscription would take place.
After thinking about the question, Rock told the villagers that he would wait until spring, after everyone had finished spring plowing, before conducting a second round of conscription.
The reason is simple: he needs to accumulate money and supplies before he can recruit villagers to join his army. At the same time, he also needs to expand his territory so that he can recruit a larger force.
Otherwise, given the current situation, he wouldn't be able to gain many soldiers even after all his efforts, and he wouldn't have enough money and food to support them.
After telling the villagers that he planned to conscript soldiers after the spring planting season, Rock thought for a moment and then said to them:
"Fellow villagers, thank you for your support of my cause, Luo's Army. When we recruit soldiers again in the future, the Luo family army will conduct an assessment of those who wish to enlist. After the assessment, we will give priority to recruiting those who pass the assessment from the families of martyrs and military personnel!"
Upon hearing this news, the villagers couldn't help but gasp, looking enviously at those families that had produced militia members.
Wow, one person joins the army and the whole family can enjoy such preferential treatment, that's really amazing!
With such generous benefits offered by Luo Ke, serving in his army has become a highly sought-after position. Because of this, when the villagers heard that Luo's army would prioritize selecting soldiers from among martyrs and military families, they couldn't help but feel envious.
"This Commander Luo is truly benevolent! He thinks so much about his soldiers; there are probably very few generals in the whole world who can do that, are there?"
One villager couldn't help but sigh, saying that it's no exaggeration to say that as long as one member of their family could serve in the army for Rock, their entire family would be secure for the future.
As for the fact that the families of martyrs are given priority for enlistment in the army, will it lead to their family producing more martyrs in the future, and if things go wrong, they might end up with a whole family of martyrs?
The villagers didn't care about this kind of issue at all.
What good is a family full of martyrs?
If Rock is willing to provide such compensation for the death of one person in the family, then if the whole family were martyrs, their descendants would not have to worry about anything, as Rock could simply support them!
Moreover, in this chaotic world, it's as if not joining the army guarantees survival.
Of all those people who ventured to Northeast China, how many were able to settle down, live a peaceful and prosperous life, get married, and have children?
Along the way, countless people were eaten by zombies or killed by bandits. Even though they have now established their own villages, without a powerful backer, they are still lambs to the slaughter in front of bandits.
In comparison, if you could join Luo's army, bandits would have to think twice before attacking.
After all, the Luo family army is so powerful that it even wiped out the big bandits of Black Dragon Mountain. If it were bandits from other places, wouldn't they feel guilty and afraid that the Luo family army would come back to retaliate and pay for their blood debts?
After distributing the compensation, Rock and his men did not linger in the village but left immediately.
Despite the villagers' warm invitation to stay for a meal, Rock thought for a moment and decided not to waste the villagers' food.
If his 100-plus cavalrymen were to eat and feed themselves, the village in front of them would not be able to sustain them. After he finishes his meal here, what will happen to the villagers when they return for the winter?
"Sigh, these villagers have it tough..."
Thinking of how eagerly the villagers had enlisted, Rock couldn't help but sigh.
Since the Song Dynasty, there has been a saying that good men do not become soldiers. However, the reason for this saying is that the treatment of soldiers was not good enough, and the composition of the army was too mixed.
If someone like me recruits soldiers directly from respectable families, with proper pay and compensation, how could the villagers possibly be unwilling to join the army?
Or rather, they simply couldn't earn such generous treatment in any other profession. In order to ensure that their whole family had enough to eat, these villagers were still willing to risk their lives and were determined to follow Rock, even knowing that joining the army might mean death.
Lu Xiong silently followed beside Luo Ke, staring at him blankly, his heart filled with mixed emotions.
In the past, Lu Xiong had seen many rebel armies in Shandong. Since the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, anti-Qing rebel armies had never disappeared in that area.
However, almost no matter when, the anti-Qing rebels there always failed to grow strong and powerful, and were always suppressed by the imperial court, making it difficult for them to truly gain momentum.
This puzzled Lu Xiong, but he hadn't thought much about it before, only that the imperial court was too powerful.
But now he understands why those rebel armies failed.
Most of the rebels never thought about things like pay, compensation, or the treatment of the families of fallen soldiers when they were fighting. They were just like bandits, recruiting men and taking refugees hostage, and then starting uprisings everywhere.
In this situation, how many people in the rebel army were truly determined to fight them?
Compared to Rock's army, Lu Xiong suddenly felt that the rebel armies he had seen before were no match for him.