Empire Conquest-Chapter 904 - 122: The Prince Joins the Battle

Mobilizing princes to join the war and assigning them to grassroots units is no small matter.

Fortunately, the King of Saudi Arabia understands the gravity of the situation.

Two days later, Shi Shouliang returned to King Khalid’s Military City with good news.

The King of Saudi Arabia had agreed to his request to send princes to grassroots units as commanders and follow the Joint Headquarter’s deployments.

Crucially, the King of Saudi Arabia proposed a method to encourage the princes’ active enlistment.

During wartime, the annual stipend of male Royal Family members of military service age would be reduced to the bare minimum, just enough to barely cover basic living expenses.

Specifically, unmarried princes would receive only 3,000 Gold Yuan per month, while married ones would receive between 6,000 and 10,000 Gold Yuan per month, depending on their family situation.

In Saudi Arabia, this amount is certainly not much!

Saudi Arabia’s per capita GDP has already exceeded 20,000 Gold Yuan, and even the average monthly income of civilians is above 1,500 Gold Yuan.

Evidently, for those princes accustomed to a luxurious lifestyle, a few thousand Gold Yuan a month is really not much!

However, none of the princes objected.

The reasoning is very simple: the global war has already begun, and Saudi Arabia is bearing most of the costs of the Boss Bay War, with the funds deducted almost entirely from the Royal Family’s treasury, as the nation’s wealth is controlled by the Royal Family, and there is no reason for civilians to bear the costs of war.

In comparison, not only has the income of the Saudi Royal Family, and indeed, the entire country not increased, it has actually decreased significantly!

Since the outbreak of the Boss Bay War, Saudi Arabia’s oil exports have consistently declined.

With the outbreak of the Global War, Saudi Arabia has begun imposing embargoes on countries in the West Continent group, reducing oil revenue by about one-third.

Moreover, imports have continued to increase.

Not to mention, international grain prices in August had already risen by almost 30%, and they continued to rise after the outbreak of the Global War.

Clearly, the Saudi Royal Family must find ways to cut expenses.

Of course, the main purpose of this measure is still to have Princes representing the Royal Family go to the frontline to fight.

To encourage the princes to enlist, the King of Saudi Arabia has also been quite generous.

As long as they are fighting on the frontline, they can receive a monthly combat allowance of 5,000 Gold Yuan, with additional allowances provided based on attendance days.

Theoretically, by serving at the battalion-level units, they can receive an additional subsidy of 10,000 Gold Yuan per month.

If they achieve meritorious service in battle, that would be even more remarkable.

As long as the Commander’s troops achieve victory in battle, after the battle ends, the commanders will be rewarded based on the duration of participation, with a minimum of 1,000 Gold Yuan per day. If a major victory is achieved, such as capturing a town or annihilating an enemy main force, additional rewards will be provided.

Overall, winning battles will earn corresponding rewards.

Since the rewards target the commanders of the units, not limited to princes, non-Royal Family officers also stand to benefit, which can also boost morale.

However, for many princes, the monetary rewards are actually secondary.

Whether they actively participate in the war will also determine their status within the Royal Family.

According to the reform proposal of the "Royal Asset Management Committee" put forward by the King of Saudi Arabia, future Royal Elders, i.e., committee members, would no longer hold positions for life but would be subject to an annual rotation using a competitive points-based system based on actual performance.

The main reference standard is "contribution points."

Simply put, the more contributions made to the Royal Family, the higher the ranking, thus providing greater opportunities to enter the Royal Family’s core circle during rotations.

When assessing contributions, or contribution points, the most heavily weighted factor is military merits.

To put it simply, this is indeed the trump card.

While Saudi Arabia has thousands of princes, the core circle is only a few dozen; other princes merely possess royal bloodline.

Entering the core circle means being a "bona fide" prince!

The reason is simple: the assets of the Saudi Royal Family have already exceeded 1 trillion Gold Yuan!

Not just in Saudi Arabia, but globally, no family can compare with this.

Evidently, compared to annual stipends of tens of thousands or at most hundreds of thousands of Gold Yuan, the benefits of participating in the management of Royal assets are the real jackpot.

In fact, the members of the Saudi Royal Asset Management Committee up to now are still the seven direct lineage sons of the founding king and their sons. Clearly, for many non-direct lineage princes, there was no opportunity to get involved with the Royal assets.

This reform is tantamount to giving thousands of non-direct lineage princes a prospect.

Arguably, this is also a necessary path for the Saudi Royal Family’s reform.

Even if the original system could be maintained, it would be sufficient to keep Saudi Arabia wealthy, thus maintaining and consolidating the Royal Family’s ruling position in Saudi Arabia, allowing the direct lineage family to continue controlling the country, but it certainly cannot make Saudi Arabia a military power, let alone dominate Boss Bay.

From another perspective, it is this Global War that has forced the Saudi Royal Family to undergo self-reform.

To speak directly, the strong combat capability demonstrated by the Liangxia army in the Boss Bay War has already made the King of Saudi Arabia and the core members of the Royal Family realize that if they miss this chance for reform, perhaps before the war ends, the Saudi Royal Family will vanish.

At its core, the Liangxia Empire requires a Saudi Arabia capable of fighting alongside, not a Saudi Arabia that can do nothing.