What money cannot fix

There was a murmur of discussions amongst generals sitting beside each other as Li Xian made his announcement. Finally, some of them thought.

"Our soldiers' armour I noticed are predominantly made with leather and at most, iron. Is there anything better that money can afford?" Li Xian asked and the first to reply was one of the most respected generals, Yan Yan.

His white beard quivering, the general remarked, "My lord, we can, of course, replace everything with iron but this makes very little sense as some soldiers are meant to stay light and move quickly, such as our archers when they are skirmishing."

"Huang Quan, can you work with the craftsmen to see if they have a way of using the water wheel machines to manufacture and hammer iron armour. There will be a reward of a title and wealth for whoever manages to make iron armour thin and strong while keeping it light."

Huang Quan, a military general that was admired greatly by Liu Bei and Cao Pi following his surrender to Wei, his true potential never reaching full potential under the latter as he believed that he held allegiances to Shu Han for the remainder of his life.

He immediately clasped his hands and bowed a little, "Your humble servant follows your command but my lord, I am no craftsman, it might be better to directly issue a challenge to the local guilds."

Quickly, Huang Quan added, "But of course, I am willing to supervise this task to ensure that everything is up to standard."

Li Xian nodded and he turned his attention to defences.

"Generals, do we need anything for our passes and our walls? If I wish to turn Yi Province to a fortress, what would you do?"

"My lord, morale is generally decent but I think we should focus on turning our soldiers to being the greatest defenders of Yi." Meng Da replied, his loud booming voice drowning out the others who were echoing various sentiments.

"How do you propose to that?" Li Xian asked and Meng Da retrieved a scroll from his sleeves which he promptly unfurled. The scroll detailed the primary concerns of soldiers in wartime. Amongst the top of these concerns were "What would happen to my family if I died in battle"

Such a sentiment was troubling.

It was said that in WW1, only 15% of soldiers had truly aimed to shoot to kill, with most soldiers aiming above the heads of their enemies even in close trench warfare distances. British officers had to march down the firing line with a stick in most cases to even prompt his men to fire.

In WW2, it was said that only 20-25% of soldiers had truly attempted to shoot to kill even when the fate of the world hung in balance. For Li Xian, if he wanted a spirited defence and unwavering loyalty of his soldiers against the potential civil war with Zhang Lu, he needed to placate this.

"General," Li Xian spoke as he chewed through a piece of suckling pig, "how about we come up with a system that when a soldier dies in battle, their families can claim their meals from the provincial government for the rest of their lifetime and their funerals paid for by the government as well?"

A silence fell over the hall as the generals pondered this, with most having already stopped eating awhile ago.

"It might possibly work, general. If we manage to open up more land in the future, we can attempt to award these lands to martyrs as well." Li Hui chimed in and Li Xian shook his head.

"Add on this. Those who contribute enough will get these lands. No point awarding them when they are not alive to enjoy it. I don't need suicidal troops at my front."

"My lord, I must protest this!"

A call from the end of the hall came from a particularly rounded individual who looked like a snivelling rat. From within Liu Zhang's emotions came a wave of dislike.

It was Zhang Lu, the one who would betray him.