The history of war is a history of violent aesthetics. Due to the low productivity, the war instruments have been in the cold weapon period for a long time, and the war in the cold weapon period is extremely bloody. In order to improve the odds of war, besides constantly improving and optimizing cold weapons, the most effective way is to improve the quality of soldiers, so the soldiers recruited are all hot-blooded men.
The war is ruthless, the battlefield is cruel, and the bloody hand-to-hand combat of cold weapons is a great test of the willpower of soldiers. If you are in this environment for a long time, you can't vent and decompress, but if you remain depressed for a long time, it will breed hostility and people will become irritable and weird, similar to the current "war syndrome."
In ancient times, there were not many ways to relieve the pressure on soldiers. There are only two ways: one is to find a woman, but the army does not allow soldiers' families to join the army for a long time. The only way for soldiers to vent in this way is rape and plunder. The result of this way is the deterioration of military discipline, which is no less bad than that of bandits to their own people than to the enemy. Until Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, prostitutes were set up in military camps, and the government recruited prostitutes and the families of prisoners who were sent, supplemented by strengthening.
In ancient times, there were only two outcomes for soldiers who violated discipline, namely, being killed directly and being beaten half to death. After such reform, the fighting capacity of the whole army increased greatly, and finally the ferocious Xiongnu was driven out of the Central Plains. Since then, successive dynasties have continued the system of "engaging in geisha" until the Qing Dynasty.
Another way of venting is that after the victory of the siege war, if the stubborn resistance of the defending city causes heavy casualties to the siege party, the winner will generally rob the property by default and serve meat for a few days to appease the nervous nerves of the soldiers who have been struggling between life and death for many days. Many TV dramas have the plot of "killing the city in three days and sealing the knife after three days".
So the war in the era of cold weapons is very cruel. Even soldiers directly solve their physiological needs, and only money and beautiful women can comfort them.