The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

Before the evacuation, the Qin people did not leave any prisoners.

It was not a venting killing for "revenge for the dead". Such thoughts might come up during the fighting, but they were gone after the fight. Their comrades died at the hands of the Chu people, but more Chu people also died at their own hands. This account cannot be settled.

Killing prisoners is a habit of the Qin army, for safety reasons, and also a desire for the number of beheadings. Including the military judge Qiu Xiao, no one raised any objections, only Qin Mo Chengshang stood up and objected a few words.

"The Chu people did not kill the Qin prisoners, why did the Qin people kill the Chu prisoners? Killing prisoners is unlucky..."

This person is probably going abroad with the Qin army for the first time, and everyone looks at him with strange eyes.

"The soldiers need the credit of the heads."

Li You, lying on the carriage, answered as a matter of course.

Cheng Shang's eyes widened: "The first merit... There have been many beheadings and flag captures, isn't that enough? Besides, they have laid down their weapons, so what's the harm in letting them go? Didn't they say that the Qin army would not kill innocent people indiscriminately?"

Zhai Chong on the side said: "Innocent is relative to the unarmed civilians. Anyone who has raised a sword against us is not "innocent". Besides, if we let them go, someone will definitely reveal our whereabouts. If it were normal days, it would be fine, but now we are still in trouble. I don't know when the Chu people will send troops to pursue us. We must not be soft-hearted!"

Cheng Shang still couldn't accept it. Since he couldn't persuade him from reason, he could only persuade him from emotion: "Captain Li, you were a Chu person from Shangcai, and General Heifu, you are a Nanjun person. Nanjun and Huaibei are both Western Chu. Although you belong to two countries, you have the same language and similar customs. These Chu captives are also your fellow villagers. Why can't you love each other, but hate each other and kill them as soon as possible?"

Li You's face suddenly turned unhappy. Heifu knew that Qin Mo had made trouble. Although Li You used his native place to win over the soldiers of Nanjun, he was very sensitive about others saying that he was a Chu person.

So Heifu smiled: "Mr. Cheng, please don't get entangled in big principles. For us, the king is raising an army and we are repairing our spears and halberds. We are just following orders and have no choice. Since Qin and Chu have already started a war, the soldiers on both sides will be enemies to the death before the end of this war. Love the enemy as you love your own comrades? We can't follow the Mohist's universal love and non-aggression. Besides, since the Mohists still adhere to the concept of universal love and non-aggression, why do you want to help Qin attack Chu?"

Cheng Shang's face was a little gray, and he murmured: "Because Qin Mo has figured out a truth... Only when the world is unified can wars be eliminated, universal love and non-aggression can be achieved, and the world can be united... We just want to speed up the unification process, I didn't expect...:"

"I didn't expect that the war was so cruel and the Chu people resisted so fiercely, and Qin still lost the war?"

Heifu shook his head. Idealists are always naive, but Qin Mo is already a more realistic and rational faction among this group of idealists.

Cheng Shang nodded: "In this way, it is unknown when the war in the world will end completely, and how many more people will die. If the killing continues, Qin and Chu will become more and more hostile, and the hatred will become deeper and deeper. This seems to be the opposite of our original intention."

Seeing that his persuasion was fruitless, he looked at the hundreds of Chu surrendered soldiers squatting in the distance with shame, turned back and walked towards the city dejectedly, sighing: "I will continue to make stretchers."

Although the carriages and horses abandoned by the Chu people were captured, sometimes they might have to abandon the carriages and walk through the wilderness, and the wounded who could not walk had to be carried by hand. So Hei Fu drew a sketch and asked Cheng Shang to find materials in the city, and took the soldiers to help make a batch of stretchers commonly seen in later generations, so that they no longer had to remove the door panels to carry people.

After Cheng Shang left, Hei Fu asked Li You again, but Li Duwei still did not change his mind.

So with the order of the military officers, the killing began. Everything was in order. First, the Chu people were forced to take off their armor. Then, the Qin people stepped forward silently, raised the crossbow indifferently, and followed by people holding swords to make up for the loss...

After only a moment, the last screams stopped abruptly, and more than a hundred corpses appeared on the ground. The military judge made a big stroke and recorded these people in the number of beheadings.

Seeing this scene, Hei Fu could only sigh: "Cheng Shang is right. The chain of hatred between Qin and Chu has tightened a little bit."

Hei Fu turned his back and looked at the soldiers and carriages that came out of the city one after another. Dou Ran, who was also tied up and thrown on the carriage, looked at the slaughtered Chu prisoners, his eyes were red. Only two useful Chu military officers and soldiers survived. They will be taken back to Qin as trophies with Dou Ran.

Tu Si and Man came to report: "Fake five hundred lords, everyone in the city has come out, plus the dry food captured from the Chu army, all of which are enough for five days!"

"Good." Hei Fu ordered Zhai Chong, Tu Si and others: "Let everyone change their clothes into the red armor of the Chu people, hide the flags, and fly the Chu people's flags!"

This is also the reason why Li You wants to kill all the Chu people, because they have to change their clothes.

Dou Ran's mouth is very hard, and nothing can be asked. The other two Chu soldiers can't explain clearly. They only know that a general is leading a large army to attack Pingyu. Pingyu has only 3,000 Qin soldiers, and I'm afraid it won't last long. The Chu people may have killed outside Xincai City...

The worst plan is that Xincai is also occupied by the Chu people. Hei Fu and his men must cross the Ru River to the southwest, walk another two or three hundred miles in the Chu army-controlled area, cross the entire Huaixi area, and reach the border of Nanyang County to be safe.

Hei Fu had no intention of establishing a base behind enemy lines. In Chu, they would be the worst offenders. In the battle of more than 100,000 people in Shangcai and Yangcheng, the hundreds of remnants should not join in the fun. It was important to escape quickly.

While everyone was busy stripping the Chu people of their armor, Hei Fu led his subordinates who had already changed their clothes and stood by the big pit where the Qin prisoners were originally detained...

They wanted to say their final goodbyes to their dead comrades.

…

There were originally 100 people in good order, but now only 70 were left. Many of them were wounded, with their ears wrapped or their arms hanging. The remaining 20 or so people had died in the battle and were buried under their feet.

The bodies of the Chu people were thrown outside, lying in all directions, while the bodies of the Qin people were carried into the pit and neatly displayed. The Chu prisoners were forced to shovel the soil and fill it up again. Now, it has returned to its previous solid appearance.

More than a hundred dead shared a grave, and there was no tombstone, only dozens of broken swords neatly stuck in the soil. The locust wood sword was also there, in the center, and the silk tied to the ring on the hilt fluttered gently in the wind...

Li Xian sighed and said, "My parents gave me a name when I was born, so how come I became nameless after I died? There is not even a tombstone."

"Who said I have no name?" Hei Fu asked back.

"I can't call out the names of the other hundred dead, but as long as they are under my command, no matter their name or nationality, I remember them clearly!"

Because they were Hei Fu's soldiers.

Hei Fu even remembered what those young faces looked like when he wrote letters home for them, and what they said.

"Zheng, you wrote home to say hello to your sick parents, apologized for not returning home for a year, and told your new wife to take good care of them."

"Huan, you complained in your letter that life in the barracks was too boring."

"Jiu, you repeatedly worried about whether the land and house of the title would be settled."

"Chaofu, you looked forward to the first meal you would eat after returning home."

"Que, you asked your sisters at home to help you greet your beloved in the same village, worrying that she might have married someone else."

"Zhongliu, you promised that you would return for the twelfth lunar month sacrifice, bring rewards, and bring glory to the village."

Standing here, listening to the wind singing, Heifu seemed to hear those chattering but simple words again, echoing in his ears.

Among them was Huaimu's voice.

Heifu still remembered that Huaimu looked a little awkward at first, as if writing a letter home was more difficult than being the first to capture the city, but once he started talking, he couldn't stop, and this iron-like strong warrior spoke tender and warm words.

"Huaimu asked his wife with concern whether her hands were frozen again from washing clothes in the winter. He also told her not to go too far to chop wood and to be careful of wild animals. At the same time, he asked his wife to collect some money from home and send it to his two younger brothers who were serving as slaves, if they still had not regained their freedom... In the end, Huaimu said that his wife had tried her best, and Huaimu would definitely return and would never break his promise..."

As Heifu read the contents of the deceased's letters, Dongmen Bao, among the people behind him, raised his head high. This fearless man, who was proud of bleeding and ashamed of crying, tried to keep his tears in his eyes.

The other dozens of people also looked solemn, and some even began to sob softly.

After a year or so of military life, everyone became brothers who were not brothers, and the loss was like losing a sibling.

Ji Ying came over at this time, also with red eyes, and said: "General Bai, before you came, Huaimu said that his last wish was to be buried in Jingling, on the hill. If he couldn't do it, he could be buried in Nanjun."

Birds fly back to their hometown, and foxes die on their own hills... This seems to be a poem by Qu Yuan, right? But no matter whether they are Qin or Chu people, this is the simplest wish of everyone when they die.

Hei Fu nodded, squatted down, picked up a handful of soil, and apologized to Huai Mu and his comrades lying on the ground: "We are leaving, and there is no time and no way to take you home. We can only leave you in this foreign country."

"But I will not break my promise! I said that I would take you home, no one will be left behind! Regardless of life or death!"

Hei Fu bowed to the tombstones composed of dozens of broken swords and swore: "Although the battle has stopped, the war is not over yet. The king will not give up until the fall of Chu. The king will raise an army and repair my armor and weapons! I will regroup and return here, and plant the Qin flag on this city and this land! At that time, I will use a hundred coffins to move your corpses back to your hometown!"

"My friends, wait for it!"

"This is Hei Fu's last military order to you as a general!"

The earth was silent, the graves were silent too, only the broken sword stood firm in the north wind, like a warrior who was still alive despite being dead, and the humming sound from its slight shaking seemed like the final answer to Hei Fu...

"Yes!"