Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1107 Choice
At the same time, the Xiliang soldiers not only attacked the village of Anping, but also divided into several teams, and many villages in Hejian County and Zhongshan County were looted and massacred.

Because these places are very close to Youzhou, the detailed information was sent out by local school officials as quickly as possible and arrived in Jicheng at the same time three days later.

After reading it, Yuan Xi threw the bamboo slips to the ground, scaring Da Qiao who was grinding ink nearby.

He sent several generals to the south in the past few days to stop the Xiliang soldiers, but the main force should not have arrived yet. Even if it did, they would not be able to capture the main force of the Xiliang soldiers immediately. It was during this gap that the Xiliang soldiers made intensive and desperate actions!
Only then did Yuan Xi deeply understand why Yuan Shao did not adopt Tian Feng's strategy of sending light cavalry to harass the enemy behind enemy lines. This approach would too easily hurt the people and too easily lose their support.

There are many ways to harass the enemy behind closed doors. Attacking transport convoys, destroying grain storage sites, and ambushing small groups of enemies is certainly one of the means, but raiding enemy villages, burning villagers' houses, looting civilians' food, and destroying people's homes are also effective.

Just like the tragic situation in Anping County, if Yuan Shao had adopted Tian Feng's suggestion at that time, Cao Cao's heartland Yanzhou might have been in a similar situation.

But after careful consideration, Yuan Shao rejected this proposal and decided to engage in a full-scale war with Cao's army. The reason he did this was not only to arouse public indignation, but also for the reputation of the Yuan family. After all, the Yuan family advocated benevolence and righteousness, and if they wanted to conquer the world, they would not do anything to damage their reputation.

So invisibly, this saved the lives of the people of Yanzhou. Of course, the battle for the world is not won by whoever is kind and righteous. In the final victory in later generations, the Yuan family still lost to the more unscrupulous Cao family. This is quite ironic.

But from another perspective, it is precisely because Cao Cao did so many things that angered God and people in later generations, including executing the queen, something that even powerful ministers throughout history who had more power than Cao Cao did not dare to do, that he has a very bad reputation. Even if he wanted Emperor Xian to abdicate, he could only let his son do it for fear of criticism from the world.

But no matter what, the battlefield is ruthless. Yuan Xi deeply realized the helplessness of being kind to others. This inhumane method is still very useful when two armies are fighting. At least the letter said that after the Jizhou army heard the news of the village massacre, there were signs of wavering morale. After all, the soldiers' families were all in the villages and towns of Jizhou.

Da Qiao walked gently to the bamboo slips on the ground, picked them up, and then walked to the table and put them away. However, she couldn't help but be curious. While putting the bamboo slips flat, she quickly glanced at them and saw a few lines of words in the middle.

The village, which originally had more than a thousand people, was cut off from all life, and no chickens or dogs survived. The dead were lying on the road, and corpses were scattered throughout the village. There was almost no place to stay, and no one was spared, young or old. The men were disemboweled and their internal organs were hung on trees. Many women were impaled on wooden stakes, their limbs were chopped off, and their clothes were stripped off. Everywhere you looked were body parts, and the roads and fields were stained red.

After seeing this, Da Qiao felt dizzy, and felt an unusual tightness in her chest and abdomen. She almost wanted to vomit, so she quickly closed the bamboo slips.

She had traveled to many places in the past few years and had seen dead people. When she went north from Shouchun to Jicheng, corpses appeared from time to time in the mountains, fields, Huai River and Yellow River. When she and Xiao Qiao saw them for the first time, they were also extremely frightened.

Feng, who was accompanying them at the time, even made fun of them, saying that they were too well protected. When she was a refugee, she saw such scenes every day and almost became a corpse in the fields.

Da Qiao didn't feel much at the time, until she saw these lines, then she realized that there were still many terrible things happening everywhere in the world, even not far from her.

She couldn't fully imagine what kind of scene was written on the bamboo slips, but just sketching a few words in her mind was enough to give her nightmares.

Seeing Da Qiao's pale face, Yuan Xi sighed and said, "There are indeed many such things in the world. I don't want you to be exposed to too many of these inhumane things."

"After all, the battlefield belongs to men. You go down and rest first. I'll find someone to discuss matters later."

Knowing that Yuan Xi wanted to discuss important matters with someone, Da Qiao bowed and took her leave. Yuan Xi then asked someone to invite Zhuge Liang over.

Zhuge Liang's house was not far from Yuan Xi's residence. He was talking to Huang Yueying at this time. After receiving the message, he stood up and said to Huang Yueying, "I will definitely be back late. You should go to bed first."

Huang Yueying pouted and said, "The king said that my husband should take care of his health, but it's almost midnight, why is he looking for my husband to discuss matters at this time?"

Zhuge Liang smiled bitterly and said, "My lord, he hasn't rested either. He is more tired than anyone else. He summoned me now. There must be something wrong. He can't wait until tomorrow."

He hurried out and rushed to Yuan Xi's study. After reading the secret letter sent to him, he also remained silent.

Although Zhuge Liang had predicted the lower limit of Cao's army to some extent, it was still a great shock to him when this happened.

The Xiliang Army has a tradition of doing this kind of thing. At the beginning, Dong Zhuo came up with this inhumane idea in order to reward his soldiers.

He took advantage of the fact that the local people were holding a New Year's sacrifice and all gathered in the downtown area, and led his troops to rush in, killed and beheaded all the men, and abducted the women. He announced to the outside world that he had defeated the enemy, and then paraded his troops through Chang'an.

Naturally, this could not be concealed from anyone. The sad and angry poem by Cai Wenji in later generations, "Men's heads are hung by the side of horses, and women are carried behind horses," was referring to this incident. However, people at that time dared to be angry but not speak out. In that situation, who could stand up?

When Yuan Xi talked about this with Zhuge Liang, he said coldly: "It's ridiculous that when Cao Cao was the enemy of Dong Zhuo, his ideal at that time should have been to stop the atrocities and restore the Han Dynasty."

"However, he eventually lost himself in the vortex of power and became as crazy as Dong Zhuo, or even crazier."

"Military Advisor, can we only fight back against the Xiliang cavalry's actions?"

Zhuge Liang listened and said, "I will do my best to predict the enemy's route and drive them away from my lord's territory in the shortest possible time."

Yuan Xi asked in return, "What if they come back again next time?"

Zhuge Liang's face froze and he remained silent.

Yuan Xi said, "I would like to ask the military advisor a few questions."

Zhuge Liang hurriedly said, "My lord, please give me your instructions."

Yuan Xi said slowly: "If one day, I do something like this to the enemy's people, will the military advisor stop me?"

Zhuge Liang's face was stiff, and after a long while he said, "My Lord, if you want to conquer the world, you must not fight against injustice with injustice, and act like beasts." Yuan Xi asked in return, "What do you mean by injustice, towards humans or towards beasts?"

Zhuge Liang reacted quickly and immediately understood the key point of Yuan Xi's argument. He replied: "The way of no way is naturally for people."

"Beasts are born in this world without any mind. It is not unrighteous to kill them. If no one kills them, they will kill each other. Heaven has made it a cycle, so it is not righteous to be killed by humans."

Yuan Xi said, "Well, then are people who do beastly things still considered human?"

Zhuge Liang stiffened and hesitated for a moment before saying, "Not really."

Yuan Xi continued to ask, "If someone who has done a beastly act retaliates with the same beastly act, is the person who is taking revenge considered a beast?"

"Confucius said, 'How do you repay kindness? Repay grievances with justice, repay kindness with kindness. Do you agree with me, military advisor?'"

Zhuge Liang thought that his lord had revealed his true purpose. He could naturally guess what Yuan Xi would say next, so he could only say with difficulty: "Although some people act like beasts, their families may be innocent."

Yuan Xi thought that Zhuge Liang had predicted his own prediction, and he said, "Military Advisor, do you think they are really innocent?"

"If those Xiliang soldiers hadn't looted property and women to feed their families, his family might have starved to death long ago."

"The premise of their survival is itself built on sin."

Zhuge Liang only got the answer: "After all, the people of Xiliang are also the people of the Han Dynasty. In the future, they are more likely to be the subjects of the lord. If..."

Yuan Xi sighed, "Did they ever think about this when they were killing their compatriots?"

"If the Chinese don't kill Chinese, then what they have done is not even human, so how can they expect others to treat them like human beings?"

"A gentleman has things he should do and things he shouldn't do. Military advisor, do you think now is the time to do nothing?"

Zhuge Liang was rarely left speechless, but at this moment he was unable to speak. Seeing this, Yuan Xi thought that although Zhuge Liang was good at debate, what he had proposed was the essence of things that had been discussed countless times over thousands of years. How could he refute it in such a short time?

Moreover, even after two thousand years, this kind of thing is still regarded as justified by a certain reactionary ruling regime, which even treats the people under its rule by means of massacring entire clans. How can we be fair to the people who have been harmed if we do not exterminate such evil people along with their clans?

Do you really think that if it is passed down for a few generations, the next generations will be innocent?

After a long time, Zhuge Liang smiled bitterly and said, "Give me some time, I may be able to find a reason to refute you, lord."

"But now, I have to admit what the lord has said. I cannot refute it."

Yuan Xi laughed triumphantly, "Doesn't that prove that at least I am right now?"

Zhuge Liang sighed, "I know that you are holding back your anger, but I remind you that even if you are like this, you should have a bottom line, otherwise you may degenerate into someone like Dong Zhuo and Cao Cao."

"And if he was a real beast, why would he care about his family?"

After hearing this, Yuan Xi said solemnly, "I will keep the military advisor's teachings in my heart."

Zhuge Liang's frown relaxed a little, and he stood up to say goodbye. Before leaving, he said to Yuan Xi: "Thank you for your trust, my lord. You didn't need to tell me."

Yuan Xi sighed, "I wish I had a mirror that could reflect my own shortcomings."

Zhuge Liang understood what was going on, bowed deeply, and walked away backwards.

Yuan Xi stood in front of the window, listening to Zhuge Liang's footsteps fading away. He finally made a decision in his heart. He personally summoned officials from the school office overnight and wrote a letter to Gao Shun, a senior official in Bingzhou.

When the official of the School Affairs Office heard Yuan Xi's request, he immediately took the order and took Yuan Xi's letter and rushed to Jinyang, Bingzhou. After traveling for seven or eight days and traveling thousands of miles through the post stations along the way, he finally arrived in Jinyang City.

Gao Gan and Gao Shun were both in their official residences in the city at the time. When they heard Yuan Xi's message from thousands of miles away, they thought it was some major military mobilization. However, after reading the letter, they were both stunned.

Try to use the most cruel means to retaliate against the families of Ma Chao and his Xiliang soldiers?

Gao Gan said to Gao Shun: "Although I have only met the King of Jin once, his words and deeds at that time were indeed worthy of being a dragon among men, a great man of the time. Such a person should have his eyes on the whole world, even if it is just a state or a county, Your Majesty should not worry about gains and losses."

"So I can't understand why such a person would be so obsessed with such trivial matters."

Gao Shun thought for a long time before speaking: "Perhaps in the eyes of the lord, this is not a trivial matter."

(End of this chapter)