The fleet docked at the mouth of the Huangzhou River, and standing on the boat, Liu Jun and other triumphant soldiers had already seen countless people waiting on the shore from a distance.

Huangzhou Mansion and other local officials stood at the front and waited, and when he led his troops to set off, Liu Jun was just a guerrilla, and when he came back, he was already a dignified Zhennan Hou. and those nine-headed bird soldiers, who returned home in triumph, were all promoted, and some even rose several levels. The emperor did not have silver to reward him, so he passed all the promotion lists of Liu Jun's subordinates.

Under the general army and deputy general soldiers, there are five generals, more than a dozen guerrillas, and dozens of other garrisons and thousands of general ranks. Although these new officials did not have their own soldiers and horses, they had already made their official robes, which were made by the tailors during the festival, and when they returned to their hometowns, they had already worn them as if they were already showing off.

As the so-called wealth does not return to the hometown, such as the night walk of clothes.

When he set out on the expedition, the three battalions of the nine-headed bird were less than 10,000 people, but when he returned, he had more than 15,000 men and horses in five battalions.

The ship docked, and the nine-headed bird rushed down. After disembarking, Liu Jun led his troops to line up by the river.

"Stand upright!"

After a loud shout, the soldiers and horses of the five battalions all stood solemnly, and then the drum band suddenly played mournful music, and the officials and gentry who greeted them were a little puzzled, how could the mourning music be put on such a festive day.

At this time, several ships approached the shore, and then a nine-headed bird flag was held high.

"That standard-bearer has only one hand!" Some onlookers found out and exclaimed.

Everyone looked, sure enough, the flag bearer who walked in the front, although he was dressed in a clean and neat blue uniform, he did only have one hand holding the flag, and the other arm had empty sleeves.

The one-armed standard-bearer landed ashore, and the fighters behind him disembarked one after another. At this time, the crowd of onlookers let out more exclamations. Because all these people who came down behind the one-armed flag bearers were disabled. He who lacks an arm, or a leg, or is blind in one eye. In the back, many people were even carried down on stretchers.

"Salute!"

Liu Jun shouted, clenched his right hand into a fist, and slammed it on his left chest. More than 10,000 nine-headed bird warriors used this etiquette to pay tribute to their compatriots. These disabled comrades, unfortunately wounded and disabled in the battle, were fortunate to survive. Now. They are going home, and they will be discharged from the army.

Behind more than a hundred disabled team members, another team came down.

This time it was the coffins of the nine-headed birds that had been killed in battle, and each coffin was carried by eight warriors, and the coffins were covered with white flags embroidered with the nine-headed birds.

A total of 368 dead, 368 coffins, 368 nine-headed bird flags.

In the midst of mourning and joy, all the nine-headed birds paid tribute to these fellow brothers, and the onlookers were also infected. There are even many people who shed tears for it.

Huang Daozhou stood there, looking at this ceremony, and suddenly had some understanding. He whispered to Yang Tinglin, "No wonder Liu Jun can do whatever he wants. With an army that had been trained for less than a few months, the bandits were defeated one after another. Look at this, Liu Jun leading the troops, an unusual method. The war dead. To receive this glory is to die without regrets. ”

"The dead have no regrets, and the living are even more moved. Who is not willing to die for Liu Jun? Yang Tinglin said movingly. Many generals in the Ming Dynasty now treat soldiers as slaves, but Liu Jun regards soldiers as brothers, and really treats them as brothers. There is a generous salary and reward before death, and there is such glory after death, which soldier will not be moved by this kind of treatment.

Liu Jun walked to the coffin of the dead, raised a white nine-headed bird flag with his own hands, waved it forward several times, and then shouted loudly, "The soul has returned, you are home, brother!" We're home, I'm taking you home, your soul home! ”

The first thing the nine-headed bird did when he returned to Macheng was to hold a grand memorial service for his fallen brothers.

Liu Jun brought the wives, children, parents, and brothers of the fallen brothers to mourn and mourn for each of the dead. Let the boss of each fallen person personally read the eulogy, and let his comrades and teammates speak in remembrance.

In the end, Liu Jun also personally awarded them a medal, which was received by their families.

"On behalf of the brothers of the Nine Birds, I would like to present him with the Medal of Loyalty, thanking him for his outstanding contribution to the victory, and remembering his heroic sacrifice!"

The Medal of Heroes is one of the new meritorious service systems established by Liu Jun, which is specially awarded to all soldiers who died in battle, as long as they are killed in battle, they can get a martyr's medal.

The Martyrs' Medal is a gold-encrusted medal, a round medal containing one tael of gold, which is awarded to the families of fallen soldiers, whose names will be recorded on the monument to the Chunglieji Temple, which is about to begin, and their families will also receive a pension of 20 taels of silver with the medal. These twenty taels are additional pensions, and there are also special forty taels of silver death pensions for fallen soldiers.

For those fallen soldiers who have received the Legion of Loyalty, if their families are interested in joining the Hydra, as long as the conditions are suitable, they will be given priority admission. If they have orphans and widows and have nothing to rely on, then the nine-headed bird will continue to give their families six buckets of rice per month until their wives remarry or their children reach adulthood.

Although these will be a lot of expenses, Liu Jun will not save them.

After holding a memorial service for all the fallen brothers, awarding medals and giving bereavement benefits, Liu Jun gave awards and farewell parties to those disabled brothers, and more than 100 disabled teammates will withdraw from the team.

Each of them was awarded a medal of loyalty, and each seriously injured and disabled person was given such a silver medal, as well as a medal bonus of ten taels of silver. When they are discharged from the army, they will also receive a disability allowance of forty taels of silver. For these soldiers who had to be discharged due to disability, Liu Jun tried his best to arrange some easy and simple jobs for them, such as going to the mines, workshops to guard the door, working shifts, or taking care of horses and mules, etc., so that their lives could be guaranteed and would not chill the hearts of these old brothers.

There is also a kind of Medal of Loyalty that was not awarded this time, and it was reserved for those who were captured, but the loyal and unyielding warriors, but now the Hydra has not been captured.

Among those teammates who died in battle and were disabled, several others were awarded a second medal.

Liu Jun's new medal system includes military merit medals and medals, military merit medals include special merit, first, second, third class merit and commendation a total of five grades, these are awarded to those brave soldiers in battle, and those who have won military merit medals can reduce the time for military promotion, as well as increase the salary grade, and even get promotion points. At the same time, each level of military merit medal, there is also a corresponding military merit medal reward, the commendation is one tael of silver, the third class merit is two taels of silver, the second class merit is five taels of silver, the fourth class merit is ten taels, and the special merit is twenty taels.

However, it is not easy to get the military merit medal, only those special combat exploits such as charging and breaking the formation, capturing the flag, and defending the main general can get the military merit medal.

In addition to the Medal of Loyalty and the Order of Military Merit of the Fifth Class, there are also Combat Medals, Model Medals, and the Medals of the Dragon, Tiger, Eagle and Leopard Tao, and the Nine-headed Bird Medal of the Third Class of Jewels, Gold and Silver is the highest medal.

Except for the combat medal, which is awarded to those who participated in a certain battle, and the exemplary medal for outstanding performance in training, the rest of the seventh-class medals are more difficult to obtain than military merit medals.

In this battle of sending troops to Sichuan, Liu Jun finally awarded only 36 soldiers, the highest one was only a silver nine-headed bird medal, and Liu Jun himself only awarded himself a medal of eagle promotion.

Receiving a medal is not only a name, but also has many corresponding benefits, such as the medals are inlaid with gems and gold and silver, and have a certain value in themselves. In addition, each medal comes with a significant bonus. In fact, those who have medals can also have certain bonus points in terms of promotion, salary increase, and promotion.

After the award, Liu Jun announced the promotion of the meritorious soldiers.

This time, Liu Jun broke the simple way of rewarding with silver in the past, and in fact, Liu Jun didn't have so much silver to distribute. After Liu Jun evaluated the merits of the soldiers, he listed four ways to reward them.

One is a salary increase, the second is a promotion according to merit, the third is a promotion, and the fourth is a silver reward.

However, the reward only accounts for a small part of it, and the soldiers can choose one of the three in the promotion and salary increase and promotion for their merits, although the salary will also increase after the promotion, but there are still some differences in the specifics. At the end, each meritorious soldier will receive a silver reward, but this reward is only a small part of the merit, and it is replaced by a point coupon.

Under this new reward system and the meritorious service system, most soldiers have been promoted, increased salaries, or promoted to ranks, or won medals, but they do not directly receive many rewards or point coupons.

However, there is a lot of support for this change. The silver reward is only a one-time thing, but the promotion is a promotion, and the salary is also increased accordingly after the promotion.

The new system stipulates that to kill bandits, ordinary old and weak associations can only be promoted to the first level with six military merits, and those who are strong and strong can also be promoted to the first level with three military merits. Now the calculation of the combat merits of the nine-headed bird is also very complicated, mainly the collective merit, performance merit, and first-level merit are added up to compound calculations, and finally distributed to each soldier's head. In terms of military merits, it is similar to the first level of the imperial court, but it is very different.

In short, there is a complete and detailed and complex military merit calculation model within the Nine-headed Bird Battalion, which is completely different from that of the imperial court.

In general, the military merits of the soldiers of the nine-headed bird are now linked to their official ranks, which in turn are linked to their salaries. The direct reward of silver was greatly reduced, but correspondingly, the salaries of the soldiers were much higher.

The higher the rank of the official rank, the higher the salary. Liu Jun added two levels of trial and agency before each official position, such as 1,000 households, which must first be promoted to 1,000 trial deputy households, then deputy 1,000 households, and then the actual deputy 1,000 households, and finally 1,000 households, and then 1,000 households. Originally, it was two levels of principal and secondary, but in the Nine-Headed Bird Army, it was a total of six levels of trial execution.

The gap between levels is smaller, but there are more levels to climb. (To be continued......)