The resettlement of discharged soldiers could, to the greatest extent, solve the labor shortage in the Southern Border's subsequent construction projects.
Of course, Zhou Xu had no intention of forcing them to do backbreaking labor there.
As for these discharged soldiers, he basically gave them two choices.
The first was to let the state arrange a job for them after discharge. That job meant staying in the Southern Border to participate in its construction projects.
The second was to decline a state-arranged job after discharge and receive a one-time discharge payment instead. After that, the state would no longer concern itself with them.
After the relevant notice was issued, more than eighty percent of the soldiers chose the former.
The fundamental reason was that Zhou Xu enjoyed sufficiently high prestige among the people. The common folk trusted him and believed that listening to him could never be wrong.
Zhou Xu naturally would not shortchange this group of soldiers.
After all, they were excellent laborers in peacetime, and when war came, they became seasoned veterans with abundant battlefield experience. They were unquestionably a high-quality population.
As for those who chose the latter, their discharge payments were also issued extremely promptly.
Basically, as soon as the Military and Political Department submitted the list, he had the Finance Department verify the number of people and the amounts before sending the discharge payments out.
During that process, the pensions for wounded veterans and fallen soldiers were issued at the same time.
To ensure that this money reached every soldier or their family members clearly and without fail, Zhou Xu specifically dispatched one of his personal guards, along with supervisory personnel from Ye Jinghong's Investigative Department and one person in charge each from the Finance Department and the Military and Political Department, establishing four-way oversight.