The truly professional elite soldiers will not think about this problem in battle, they will only carefully carry out their profession, calmly accept orders, and then protect themselves, kill the enemy, and then take the first merit of the whole army at the head of the city.
In ancient times, there were often specially set up siege armies, they were called "first-to-ascend soldiers", the Han Dynasty had the official position of "trapping Chen Duwei", "trapping Chen" and "trapping the camp", and Gao Shun, who we are talking about today, "trapped camp", wrote in the "Hero's Record" quoted in the "Biography of Wei Shu Lü Bu": "The more than seven hundred soldiers who will be sent are called a thousand, the armor and fighting tools are all well-trained, and those who attack every attack are called trap Chen camp."
There were also such Biao Hanzi under Cao Cao, and it is said in the "Biography of Dianwei": "Wei is strong and martial, and all his generals are selected as pawns, and every battle, they often ascend to Chen first."
In ancient times, such trapped soldiers were often used as decisive death squads, becoming the spearhead of attacks, even if they were the first to climb the ladder, which in their view may be a proof of honor and courage. As the elite of the standing army, this kind of unit will always have its own pride, others will write a suicide note with a sad face when they hear that the siege is siege, they will not be able to rub their fists and hear the battle, and they will be happy, and they will use it as a shortcut to promotion and wealth, and they look forward to the sword of the commander - brothers! Those who rush up first, the official is promoted to the third level!
The military book "Liutao", which is said to be written by Jiang Ziya, contains the words "siege of the city is the first to ascend, and the field war is the first to go", and Sima Qian of the Han Dynasty also has the same saying in the "Chronicle of History and Cargo Colonization", "the siege of the city is the first to ascend, but the enemy is trapped". Only the bravest army, the most daring soldier, can bear the heavy responsibility of attacking the city first.
Of course, we should not overestimate the will of people in war, even the "trapped soldiers" will still collapse and panic, don't forget how Gao Shun was captured, he had already killed the siege, but some of the soldiers who were divided and cut off shouted "The general abandons me" in the back! This caused Gao Shun to kill and go back to save people, and as a result, he was served by a pot. This shows that in the case of unfavorable war, even the most elite ancient soldiers will panic; if the siege is good, if the situation is unfavorable, I am afraid that the soldiers will no longer have courage, think wildly in their minds, and greatly reduce morale.
However, this is not a problem, although the ancient people did not have any revolutionary spirit and free will, but the desire to pursue profits was no different from ancient to modern times. The reward received by "First Deng" is very huge, and the "Han Feizi" records an experience when Wu Qi attacked Lin Jingting, and the reward he gave was - "There are those who can ascend first, the doctor of the shizhi country, and give the upper field house", so "people rush to it, and attack the pavilion and pull it out".
Here Wu Qi did not gather a real army, he felt that it was too big to move, so he mobilized the people around him to receive the reward purely by offering rewards, and then people flattened the territory of the Qin State with a meal. Although I didn't say what the first person to attack was thinking, just looking at Wu Qi's reward was enough to make ordinary people mad, and it is estimated that their minds are full of the idea of rising to the top and getting rich.
For modern people, if someone tells you to level the gas station opposite the middle X oil, the middle X let you manage it at the middle level, and also send a set of villas in the second ring road of Beijing, it is estimated that you will ask the leader whether the house can be given according to ability, you can dismantle from Hainan Island to Jiamusi.
However, most ancient wars were very cruel, inhumane, and without the exchange of benefits. For example, the phenomenon of "slave siege" existing in both China and the West, many civilians and defeated soldiers who are charged into military camps are only given the worst weapons and sent to the city to fight and consume, waiting for them to have no honor, let alone rewards, only life and death. Presumably, when this kind of soldier was the first to climb the ladder, his heart was extremely desperate, and he could only seek to die quickly like a moth to the fire, or to vent his full of resentment on the soldiers at the head of the city.