"These taels of silver were seized from the Heavy Martial Pavilion."
Chen Ye stood before the crowd and said, "You followed me through thick and thin, and today naturally marks the time to mete out rewards according to your merits."
"Step forward, each of you, and take a hundred taels!"
As his voice fell, Zhuang Chaoyang froze entirely, unable to recover his senses for a long time.
Wang Erli opened his mouth even wider, staring at that full chest of silver with eyes rounded as large as copper bells.
Zhuang Chaoyang stammered somewhat, saying, "A hundred taels... My Lord, this... this is too much!"
To tell the truth, not just he, but the others had never seen so much silver in all their lives.
As Servant Soldiers hailing from peasant stock, they received not a single cash of regular stipend for serving in the Cui Family, let alone the fact that when they previously worked as long-term farmhands for wealthy households, their monthly pay amounted to merely one or two taels of silver, which still had to sustain entire households of young and old.
A hundred taels of silver was enough to last his family five or six years, and then some.
Wang Erli also waved his hands repeatedly and said, "General, this reward is too heavy; we cannot bear it!"
Chen Ye laughed heartily and said decisively, "You can bear it. Without you following me through life and death, I could never have taken this Linchuan City. Take it; these are your rightful due."
Having spoken, seeing that the crowd still dared not move, he cast a look at Su Guang.
The latter understood tacitly, bent over to retrieve ingots of silver from the chest, and stuffed them one by one into everyone's hands.
Zhuang Chaoyang received that heavy