Yuan Shao, the father of Fanghua in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1115 Persistence
When Lu Lingqi asked this question, she was helping to organize military intelligence. Ever since she gave birth to a child, perhaps because she was too tired from taking care of the child, she often fell asleep immediately. As a result, over the past two years, her tinnitus and insomnia symptoms have improved a lot and rarely occur.

However, correspondingly, her ears and eyes are not as sharp as before, which means that it will be difficult for her to make any major breakthroughs in martial arts in the future.

Lu Lingqi felt a little regretful at first, but Yuan Xi counselled her: "Do you want to be tortured like this until you grow old?"

"Moreover, Zilong, Ziyi, and even Yang Feng, who is a woman like you, did not follow your path, but they still became masters, didn't they?"

Lu Lingqi's mind suddenly became clear. She had stayed in Bingzhou for two years and had become much calmer. After returning to Jicheng this time, seeing that the stubborn illness that had troubled her was cured, she asked to go on another expedition with Yuan Xi.

Yuan Xi thought that he had to deal with hundreds of military intelligence reports from the five states under his jurisdiction every day, and he was indeed short of people around him, so he brought Lu Lingqi to Yijing to take charge.

Now, Lu Lingqi saw Yuan Xi holding a letter in his hand, as if he was thinking, so she curiously leaned over. After she finished reading the letter, she understood the details of the massacre. She was speechless for a while, and finally said: "This kind of thing is very common in Cao Cao and Sun Quan's side, but it's the first time for your husband, right?"

Yuan Xi sighed and said, "Yes, I also hope this is the last time."

He slowly placed the letter on the table. The letter was written on silk, very light and thin, but in Yuan Xi's hand, it seemed to weigh more than a thousand pounds, and even the table seemed unable to bear it.

Lu Lingqi opened her mouth and was about to continue her previous question about Pang De, but she heard the guards outside report that Yang Feng wanted to see her.

Lu Lingqi was startled. "Isn't she in Montenegro this time?"

"My husband transferred her here?"

Yuan Xi asked the guard to bring Yang Feng in, and shook his head: "No, I don't know why she came here at this time."

Then he smiled bitterly and said, "I hope it's not what I guessed."

Lu Lingqi understood and snorted coldly: "My husband is too indulgent to her. As a lieutenant of Black Mountain, she left her post without permission. What if Black Mountain is attacked by the enemy?"

While the two were talking, Yang Feng strode away. When he saw Yuan Xi, he angrily asked, "Did you do the massacre in Xiliang?"

After hearing this, Yuan Xi sighed and said, "Sure enough, you came here for this reason."

"No wonder. You are in charge of all the spies in the Heishan Procuratorate. The intelligence to Bingliang was also transmitted through Heishan. How could such a thing be hidden from you?"

With a swish, Yang Feng pulled out the knife from his waist, pointed at Yuan Xi and shouted, "What did you say back then?"

"You betrayed your promise. I can kill you now!"

The guards around Yuan Xi were shocked and were about to draw their swords to stop him, but Yang Feng kicked them back and sent them flying.

However, Lü Lingqi was annoyed. She picked up her short halberd and knocked the blade of Yang Feng that was pointing at Yuan Xi off balance with a clang. She then blocked Yuan Xi with her halberd and shouted, "Yang Feng, how dare you be disrespectful to your husband!"

"He is your lord, how dare you fight him with swords!"

"Bullshit lord!" Yang Feng said angrily, "He promised me that if he did anything unjust, I would kill him!"

"Now that he has done this, how can he live up to his promise?"

Yuan Xi's slightly tired voice rang out, "Put away your weapons first and wait for me to say a few words. It won't be too late to take action after I'm done."

Seeing that Yang Feng was still holding the knife, Lu Lingqi didn't want to retreat, so Yuan Xi had to say, "Lingqi, go get the letter about the massacre in the three counties of Jizhou."

Yang Feng snorted coldly: "I know that Ma Chao's army must have harmed the people, but is this a reason?"

"He eats shit, so you have to eat shit?"

Yuan Xi was amused by this, "Of course I won't eat it."

"But that doesn't stop me from smearing shit on his face."

Yang Feng gritted his teeth, but Lu Lingqi brought over dozens of bamboo slips, threw them at Yang Feng, and said coldly: "Look for yourself."

Yang Feng casually grabbed a bamboo slip that had not yet fallen to the ground and glanced at it casually. His expression, which had seemed nonchalant at first, then changed drastically.

She looked at it a few more times before putting it aside. She looked at the bamboo slips on the ground at her feet, hesitated for a moment, then slowly bent down and picked up another bamboo slip.

As the bamboo slips were turned over one by one, Yang Feng's face became worse and worse. Finally, she saw a sentence written on one of the bamboo slips.

Men and women were ripped open and impaled on sticks, and babies in swaddling clothes were not spared. The tree branches were filled with the corpses of young children. The Xiliang bandits even strung them on spears and threw them at our soldiers in battle. It is difficult to describe what they did.

Yuan Xi said: "In the past few months, tens of thousands of people in the three counties of Jizhou have been killed, tens of thousands of women have been abducted, and dozens of villages have been massacred."

"The reason why you don't know what's happening here in Montenegro is that I intentionally blocked the news. After all, this kind of thing is already commonplace on the other side. But if the soldiers and civilians on my side knew the details, I'm afraid they would not be able to resist taking revenge on their own and would end up dying in vain."

Yang Feng's body trembled slightly. She opened her mouth and wanted to say something, but nothing came out. Yuan Xi sighed and said, "When I first saw these letters, my reaction was even worse than yours."

"A village of thousands of people was wiped out overnight. Nothing was left."

“I’ve been thinking about a question since then.”

"Although the Xiliang soldiers are also considered Han people, how can I see them?"

"Use the Chinese law?"

"Isn't what the Xiliang soldiers have done over the past few decades the result of the Han court's connivance?"

"This matter troubled me for several days, until one day I suddenly figured it out."

"People who slaughter people like animals are animals themselves."

"Since we are treating animals, there is no need to be cautious about the methods we use."

Yang Feng moved his lips and uttered a weak "but" and couldn't say any more.

Yuan Xi said, "I know what you want to say."

"Their families are innocent."

"But I don't think so." "In my opinion, since the beast has cut himself off from human beings, he should be aware that he and his family are not treated as human beings."

"If you want to wash away this sin, you can only pay with the lives of your entire family."

Yuan Xi stood up, walked to the window, looked at the sky, and said leisurely: "I can't imagine what the world will be like in the future if I forgive them."

"The children of the butchers and the children of the victims went to the same free school and walked on the same street. Then they said to the latter, 'My father killed your whole family, but I am innocent. You should not bear grudges. It's all over.'"

"If you were the latter, how would you react?"

"Is this kind of world peace fair to the latter?"

"The saddest thing is that this kind of scene is almost impossible to happen, because there is a high possibility that the children of the victims were also killed!"

He turned around and faced Yang Feng. "Tell me, in this peaceful and prosperous world, the murderer's children live a happy life, while the victim can only rot in the ground. Is this fair?"

It was the first time that Yang Feng saw Yuan Xi's face so ferocious. In her memory, Yuan Xi always seemed to be confident, with a calm face. Even when he was assassinated by her in the Battle of Black Mountain, he had never lost his composure like this.

Yuan Xi walked closer and said, "Actually, I am very grateful for this chaotic world."

"A huge empire, after thousands of years, has long been filled with cancer and pus."

"The emperors and ministers of all dynasties dared not use a knife to cut this mess, for fear of bleeding to death. They could only patch it up or even cover it with a layer of powder to make it look good."

"But a time of great chaos is a good opportunity to cut out the poisonous sore and drain the pus and blood. This thing has always been there, and it has remained there even when dynasties changed. If we don't dig it out now, when will we?"

"It doesn't matter if he dies. At worst, we can just establish a new dynasty!"

"I was just worried about finding a good excuse!"

Yang Feng murmured, "After all, you still want to be the emperor."

"That's right!" Yuan Xi opened his arms and walked closer step by step, "I have never concealed my ambitions!"

"But think about it, is this really good for a king?"

"As a qualified king, shouldn't you win over the hearts of the people, including the useful tools like Xiliang soldiers, and turn them into a sword in your hand in the future?"

"Anyway, the entire families of those massacred people have died, so who among the remaining people would want to go against the Xiliang Army?"

"Why would I, when I have nothing better to do, do something so thankless and seemingly meaningless for the dead people?"

"My family will not be harmed. My action will drive the Xiliang Army completely crazy and put my family in danger. What benefit can I get from this?"

"why?"

Yang Feng asked unconsciously: "Why?"

Yuan Xi took another step closer and looked at Yang Feng face to face. The two were only one foot apart. Yang Feng's momentum had been completely overwhelmed and he unconsciously took a half step back, "Why?"

Yuan Xi stood up straight, "For fairness!"

"There is no absolute fairness in the world, but if we cannot settle the sins and eradicate the roots of these evil deeds as much as possible, then even if we change dynasties, it will only be like wrapping a rotting corpse in a gorgeous shroud!"

"Why should the descendants of murderers be able to live a good life?"

"Is it fair to the people who sacrificed their lives to usher in a peaceful and prosperous era?"

"The perpetrators will not be grateful, and the victims will be resentful. This kind of problem will still erupt decades or hundreds of years later. Blood feuds, blood feuds for killing our ancestors, how can they be eliminated so easily?"

"If the reckoning is not thorough, then it is no reckoning at all. The descendants of the evildoers will strike back sooner or later. It may take hundreds of years, or even decades. At that time, will the descendants of the victims have to suffer a painful experience again?"

Yuan Xi slowly raised his hand, "So I have to do this."

"As a king, I must seek justice for my ministers. Even if my hands are stained with blood, and I bear all the sins, and my descendants are retaliated against or even exterminated, I must do it."

"If I don't do it, who will?"

“Should we leave it to future generations to do?”

Yang Feng took another step back unconsciously. She wiped the spit from her face and said with difficulty: "But this wound has been opened."

Yuan Xi said decisively: "I dug the river bank, so I will block it."

"If I can't stop it, I'll use my own life to fill it."

Yang Feng slowly put the knife back into the sheath, turned around and walked out. Yuan Xi asked, "You want to go back?"

Yang Feng's tired voice came, "The Hongnong Yang family's life and death are unknown in the massacre. I took my adopted sister away and let Yang marry Ma. This is my karma."

"No matter what, I have to go and see if the person is dead or alive."

After Yang Feng left, Lü Lingqi behind Yuan Xi breathed a sigh of relief and threw away the short spear in her hand: "My husband said it happily, but I have been worried all the time. At such a close distance, if she attacks, I really can't protect my husband."

Yuan Xi also wiped the cold sweat from his head and said, "I know, that's why I didn't retreat but advanced instead."

"If you want to convince her, you can only tell the truth with a little bit of a lie mixed in. I have died countless times in front of her."

Lu Lingqi sneered: "Then your husband still keeps her?"

"You're not really into her, are you?"

Yuan Xi sighed, "She is a mirror to me."

"If I can't even convince her, how can I convince myself?"

(End of this chapter)