Ice and Fire: Conquering the World Starting from the Wall

"The Star Child" is different; with just one sentence, he made most people feel hot all over and their breathing quicken.

Lynn noticed that several people even reached behind their backs to scratch their itch.

Casa nodded to Lynn, and Lynn stood up and said:

"South of the Wall, everything will be different. The land there is arable, and free people will have a hard time surviving without crops from the land. So many free people will go to farm, whether they like it or not."

Before the crowd could erupt in cheers, Lynn continued:

"You are born warriors, not farmers with hoes. You used to be confined to the canyon, which made it difficult for you to develop, but now it's different. Your bravery will bring your families unprecedented glory and wealth."

"In the name of 'Guardian of all living beings in Westeros,' I pledge that in the war against any force that opposes our cause, every ordinary soldier who takes the head of an enemy will be rewarded with the taxes generated by the land of five families of three, passed down from father to son, without end."

"Five heads are enough to promote someone to captain, who will lead a team of ten men into battle. His status is equivalent to that of a propertied knight in the South. A warrior who cuts off more than ten heads can become a centurion, and I will grant him land and fiefdom, a rank equivalent to a noble title."

This was the best way Lynn could think of to motivate his soldiers; though barbaric, it was undoubtedly effective.

The specific figures involved were derived from simple calculations he made based on Kuna's description of the population and land in the North.

However, this data is outdated and will definitely need to be adjusted later.

In addition, to prevent the Thane people from not understanding, he specially made a simple tree diagram for explanation. Of course, the diagram did not contain words, but instead used things like tree branches and pebbles as substitutes.

The Thane people are disciplined and obey orders, but only in relation to Magna.

They themselves have no class consciousness, and even their actions are usually based on family units. Lynn had to force the concept of hierarchy into them, and the military merit system was the best choice.

As for the promised rewards, a portion can be obtained from free people who are willing to farm.

Besides, there will always be some short-sighted nobles who will oppose Lynn and this wildling army and refuse to pay the "Guardian Tax" to the Wall. When the fighting starts, it will depend on how well the Thane warriors, who are empowered by the merit-based nobility system, and other wildlings who are willing to fight perform.

If they win, the nobles will have plenty of land, wealth, and people; if they lose, there's nothing to say, they'll just die or be buried.

The group of Thane seemed somewhat confused after hearing this. Lynn, having no other choice, took out the bronze ingot that Saigon had given him as thanks for avenging his father and said:

"The gist is that every ordinary soldier, just by cutting off the head of an enemy—note that I'm talking about real, combat-ready soldiers, not civilians masquerading as soldiers—can obtain a fortune of about ten bronze ingots, every year! And for their descendants!"

The atmosphere inside the tent suddenly became lively. Before, when they talked about land, people, manors, houses, and stone castles, they felt that these things were far away. Now, with bronze ingots as a reference, things suddenly became much simpler.

Such a bronze ingot could be exchanged for a dozen or so fine furs or hundreds of kilograms of processed fresh game in the border region. Having ten ingots meant that one could support four or five people with almost no labor or hunting.

Lynn simply made a conversion here: if taxes in kind, such as grain, fruit, and livestock, were included, the resources that the southern lands could provide would certainly be much more than the Thane estimated.

In this enthusiastic atmosphere, Lynn further explained the concept of team performance evaluation: for officers (such as captains and centurions), the evaluation is based on the collective results of the entire team. If the battle is poorly fought and no victories are achieved, the commanding officer may even be punished or demoted.

In addition, when calculating military merits, the number of casualties on one's own side must be deducted first.

For example, if a ten-man combat team loses two members, they must kill at least two enemy heads for the excess to be counted as military merit.

In addition, there was a strict verification process. After the battle, the spoils would be publicly displayed for three days (the Qin army's "Three Violent Heads"), and a special person would conduct a strict verification. Soldiers would supervise and report on each other, and only after everything was confirmed to be correct could the reward be implemented.

The discussion lasted a long time. Lynn did not make a decision immediately, but listened to many opinions and made some appropriate modifications.

For example, in addition to "decapitation", some merits that Lynn overlooked were also added, including high-level military merits such as being the first to break through the castle during an attack, killing enemy generals, and capturing enemy flags. These will bring richer rewards than decapitation and the rewards need to be calculated separately according to the specific circumstances.

Lynn thought to himself, "Isn't this just like the three great feats of ancient times: first to scale the enemy lines, kill the enemy generals, and seize the flag?"

Lynn had previously said that class division would be inevitable once these so-called freemen went to more habitable lands, and this has now come true.

Even before they crossed the Great Wall, the conflicts of interest had already begun to teach the Thane people to think.

The biggest takeaway Lynn gained from these discussions was from the Thane people themselves.

The Thane people typically live in small units called families and large units called clans. To prevent clans from cheating by sharing heads, warriors are mixed into squads, and captains are not allowed to lead their own sons, and so on for centurions.

This was exactly the kind of good thing a leader could hope for, so Lynn quickly wrote it down, preparing to pass it down as an ironclad rule.

Throughout history, how many dynasties' armies have decayed under the control of their generals' private soldiers and retainers?

Finally, there's one more reason: the Thane people felt that getting promoted to centurion by cutting off ten heads was too easy. The Thane people only had about 1200 warriors, which meant that there could only be a maximum of twelve such positions.

Therefore, they suggested increasing the difficulty: ten heads would only qualify one as a 30th-rank officer, while a 100th-rank officer would require even higher military merits.

This was the first time Lynn had ever seen reverse negotiation make promotion more difficult, and he also felt that the Thane people were looking down on the Southern army too much, as if taking their heads was as easy as picking melons from the ground.

"This system is not only implemented within Thern; other free warriors who are willing to follow orders will also participate, so there are enough people and slots."

Lynn explained it this way, but the Thane warriors were very resistant to fighting alongside other clans, and even less willing to lead them, which can only be described as a serious case of racial discrimination.

Overall, it's not a bad thing, as it can save a lot of money on "military expenses" later on, so Lynn noted this down as well.

At this point, Lynn had not yet brought out the powerful weapon of compensation for those disabled and killed in the war. The reason was that the "Guardian of all living beings in Westeros" was currently poor and had no decent resources to offer, so he could only make empty promises.

There are limits to empty promises; making too many would look bad, and Lynn isn't that shameless.

We can make up for it when we have more resources later.