Chapter 578: I Wish the World Had Fewer Heroes!

The sounds of slaughter in Gaotang City had ceased; the broken walls and rubble fell silent. Only high above, drawn by the stench of dead flesh, circling flocks of crows let out harsh, grating cries.

Qin veterans in black armor and crimson tunics, like crows scavenging among corpses, moved among the fallen gallants and sea raiders, finishing off the survivors and deftly hacking off their heads, knotting the hair and tying them to their waists.

Some already had three or four heads dangling at their hips, knocking together as they walked like wineskins sloshing full, dark blood trickling from the severed necks and soaking their shoes.

The Qin veterans paid this no mind, joking with one another as they worked. To men who had lived through the Unification Wars, this sight was commonplace — the things on the ground were not heads, but coin purses and land deeds. Like reaping crops, they bent over again and again, blades rising and falling...

The new recruits from Dongjun and Henei, however, could hardly stomach it. They had already vomited off to the side and now stood trembling under the great banner reading "Commandant of Jiaodong," merely watching.

The man holding that banner was Liu Ji, now growing back his whiskers. Personally appointed banner-bearer by Heifu, he had not taken part in the fighting, and his gaze upon the fallen gallants was deeply conflicted.

Over ten years ago, Liu Ji had been a village scoundrel and gallant himself — stealing chickens, swiping dogs, indulging his temper and sense of honor, worshipping Lord Xinling. For the grace of wine and meat, he had fought for Zhang Er and even killed a Qin soldier in the Battle of Waihuang...

"If I had died at Waihuang back then, my fate would be the same as these slain Qi gallants — headless, with no burial place."

At this thought, Old Liu felt a chill of lingering fear. He was a clever man; dying so easily like that would have been a shame.

But on the other hand, Liu Ji had also served as a Qin clerk for a long time. As a village chief, rope and bamboo slips in hand, he hunted criminals in the countryside. To locals, of course, he turned a blind eye, but when fugitive gallants from elsewhere broke the law, Liu Ji had no choice but to lead men to arrest them, cut them down on the spot, take their heads, and gleefully report his merits.

This dual identity made this battle very hard for him to bear.

Yet compared to the ordinary Qin clerk or soldier's mindset of "kill rebels, earn merit," what Liu Ji felt more was admiration and regret for the Tian brothers...

Though Tian Heng was crippled in one leg, he was fiercely valiant and highly skilled in martial arts. He fought desperately, weaving through broken walls and rubble, dodging arrows, and killing several men before the equally brave Cao Can closed in and stabbed him to death. His head had already been taken and presented before Heifu; his body remained where it fell.

But even in death, even after his head was severed, Tian Heng still gripped his weapon. Qin soldiers tried to pry open his hand but could not budge it and had to give up. Looking at him now, he seemed truly like Xingtian, whose fierce will endures beyond death...

As for the instigator of this rebellion, Tian Dan, he too was dead, killed under a volley of arrows.

To defend Tian Dan's head and body, the remaining several dozen gallants and retainers all fought to the death and were annihilated to the last man. Where their bodies fell lay the great banner of "Linggu," the symbol of Qi's ruling authority. The two entwined dragons painted upon it were now stained with flecks of red, as though weeping blood.

Those who had resolutely sung their death songs moments ago now lay as corpses strewn across the ground, utterly lifeless. If men have souls, perhaps they were now assembling overhead, taking orders from the Tian brothers, marching together toward Hao Hamlet, the Qi people's Yellow Springs...

Recalling that solemn and stirring scene, Liu Ji could not help but silently praise: "The Tian brothers could win men's hearts and held lofty integrity. Their guests and gallants admired their virtue and followed them in death — are they not supremely worthy? All of them, heroes!"

Though they failed to recognize the times, rising in revolt when they should not have — which was unwise — Liu Ji admired their spirit, even if he did not approve of their strategy.

But in Liu Ji's view, to cry out against injustice and rise to fight, even if defeated and killed, to go out with a thunderous crash that makes all under heaven look on — that is far better than living in wretched cowardice, trembling like a rat day after day!

Liu Ji was talking about himself! When Heifu had sent men with ten thousand coins to congratulate him on his wedding, he had had the chance to flee into the wilds. But after much deliberation, at Xiao He's suggestion, he chose the path most likely to keep him alive — to go of his own accord and beg Heifu's forgiveness.

By Liu Ji's reckoning, with an ordinary man, once a nobody like himself had begged forgiveness, a great man would most likely let the matter drop. But Heifu was different. Though he spared Liu Ji's life, he did not let him go home. Instead, he kept him in Jiaodong, ordering him to do this and that — now a pawn at the front, now a banner-bearer — in short, always right under his nose.

If this commandery governor were not a man with a wife and children, Liu Ji might have suspected he had some special designs on him...

Life like a mouse under a cat's paw was hardly comfortable. Liu Ji did want to leave, but Jiaodong was an unfamiliar place, and Heifu's retainers kept watch on him. With no chance to escape, he could only endure.

The Tian brothers had done what he had wanted to do but had not done, and that was why Liu Ji felt admiration in his heart and praised them as "heroes"!

At this moment, the Qin soldiers were busy hacking off heads, while the Qin clerks were settling scores after the fact, gathering the rebels' misdeeds and charging them with crimes — rebellion, murder of officials, robbery, rape, and pillage. But in Liu Ji's eyes...

The Tian clan fought for their family — what crime was there in that?

The gallants fought for themselves — what crime was there in that?

Selfish and self-serving? Bringing disaster to Qi? Dragging the common people down with them?

"Bah!"

Old Liu scoffed inwardly at the Qin clerks' condemnations.

Who isn't selfish and self-serving!

Who in this world doesn't live for themselves, doesn't fight for themselves?!

All that talk of benevolence, righteousness, and morality, standing on the moral high ground to criticize this as wrong and that as not right —

Who is truly the hypocrite, the Tian clan or you?

When people talk, they just follow their position, not their brains.

What is right and what is wrong? What benefits me is right, what harms me is wrong. What I like is justice, what I hate is evil.

The logic is that simple and clear. We're not Mohists — where would all that "for the sake of all living beings under heaven" come from?

In Liu Ji's eyes, "all living beings under heaven" was something to consider after victory. Before that, slaughter if you must, kill if you must — the means don't matter, only the result is everything!

Of course, right now he was caught in Heifu's claws, not even free himself, so he could only lean on the banner pole and keep these thoughts in his heart.

But even this small wish was not allowed...

"Are you perhaps thinking that the Tian brothers are heroes?"

A dreadful voice sounded beside him. Liu Ji's scalp instantly tingled. He gripped the banner pole tightly and straightened his back!

It was Heifu. With two trusted guards, he rode past Liu Ji and stopped one pace ahead of him. The personal guards stood to either side, blades in hand, while Heifu gazed at the corpse-strewn inner city and said with a smile:

"A senior who once served as a constable... ah, as a village chief, told me: a person — one stroke slanting left, one stroke slanting right — has two legs. One leg does good, the other does evil, and both return to the same head. No one is pure white, and no one can be pure black."

"These gallants — in the past, they produced nothing, indulged their tempers, and were scoundrels in their regions. Since it wasn't my jurisdiction, I couldn't control them. Later, when they followed the Tian clan in revolt and ravaged Qi, they became rebels, and I, by His Majesty's command, suppressed them. Recently, suffering repeated defeats and finding every step difficult, they began committing crimes and plundering the common people, becoming villains. As a Qin official, I must bring them to justice."

"But now, facing death without losing heart, though they are like mantises trying to stop a chariot, I see it with my own eyes and must also call them brave men..."

Liu Ji dared not speak; his heart pounded wildly. This Heifu seemed to have mind-reading arts, always seeing through his thoughts.

Heifu's back was to Liu Ji, so Liu Ji could not see his expression and could only bow his head and listen to his words.

"I admit, Tian Dan and Tian Heng are heroes of the Tian clan, heroes to themselves — but they are not heroes of the Qi people, still less heroes of all under heaven!"

When nations rise and fall, the common people always suffer. Heifu had served in the military for ten years; the blood spilled in the Unification Wars was already more than enough.

A single general's fame is built on ten thousand bleached bones. For this world to produce one "hero" — the ambition born, the enterprise founded — is enough to plunge the land into misery and ruin. How much worse if, in a mere decade, a dozen or twenty "heroes" were to spring forth?

Those who find the clash of warlords magnificent and entertaining are mostly idle folk sitting in studies, theater balconies, or in front of television screens. As for those living in this age?

They would rather be dogs in peacetime!

"So my only wish is that this world have fewer of these so-called 'heroes'!"

Heifu turned his head and looked at Liu Ji — the man who had led his horse and held his banner, the great hero who, in history, would "gather all heroes to punish Qin and Xiang." He smiled and said:

"Liu Ji, do you want to be a hero?"

PS: I saw a reader comment that perfectly matched my thoughts, so I borrowed it, hehe. Thanks to Yezi Yishi. Chapter 2 in the evening.

(End of chapter)