The Reason to Fight

Before the battle, deep in the night.

Zhang Xu was clad head to toe in the finest armor, and the spear in his hand had been replaced with the most powerful Dharma treasure he could wield.

Only faint firelight glimmered beside them. All the Vanguard Camp soldiers had eaten and drunk their fill, but no one had touched alcohol.

"Brothers, you've all received your compensation, right?" Zhang Xu asked the massed soldiers.

The soldiers nodded.

"Your children's and wives' rewards have all been delivered too, right?" he asked again.

"Three hundred gold, one hundred mu of land, and the documents granting hereditary clerk positions have all been sent back," someone among the soldiers answered.

"A piddling little post like that, and they dare call it hereditary? I thought you lot had been granted noble titles!" Zhang Xu cursed with a laugh.

The soldiers chuckled as well. They knew it was nothing to important figures, but it truly could be passed down generation after generation. They had seen it themselves: in many places, old local clerks had entrenched themselves in one spot for years upon years, their local ties tangled like roots and branches until they had nearly formed Lineages.

It might not have been presentable, but calling it hereditary was not wrong in the slightest.

After the laughter died down, Zhang Xu looked at the thousand-plus men before him and continued, "You know this, don't you? Whether it's the land you've just been awarded or the positions that can be passed down through the generations, there is one prerequisite for them to exist."

"That is... the Great Deer Kingdom must still exist."

Those words plunged the soldiers into silence.

"As long as this kingdom remains, our land and positions remain. If Human Path breaks through, you've all seen what happened