Rebirth: The Journey of an Heiress-Chapter 784 - 781: Strong Contradiction_1

Once, in his youth, Zhao Sheng went on expeditions with his grandfather and father. He had seen the Bai family’s army.

The soldiers of the Bai family had an unmistakable sharpness about them, something he couldn’t find in other Jin Kingdom armies. It made them easily identifiable.

"Let’s go!" Zhao Sheng said.

Zhao Ran led Zhao Sheng, half-soaked, out of the dark and cold dungeon. As they passed the cells, the captured Daliang commanders spotted Zhao Ran and crowded to the gates, shouting General Zhao’s name.

But Zhao Sheng, facing death with equanimity, did not turn his head. He guessed... that the Princess of Zhen might interrogate him using the same methods his grandfather once employed against the Bai family army. He expected something similar to what his brother had faced.

However, much to Zhao Sheng’s surprise, he was not brought to a blood-smelling interrogation room. Instead, he was taken to the barracks at Qingxi Mountain Pass, the very place he had recently recaptured.

The supposedly dying Princess of Zhen, Bai Qingyan, was kneeling at his desk, holding an oil lamp and carefully examining the maps he had stored in his chest.

Zhao Ran entered first to report that Zhao Sheng had arrived. He also informed Bai Qingyan, "Last night was a fierce battle. All the defeated Daliang soldiers have eaten the sent biscuits without leaving any crumbs. Yet Zhao Sheng here, has not touched a single one."

Bai Qingyan nodded, set down the oil lamp, and asked Zhao Ran to bring in Zhao Sheng.

After a night’s battle, the exhausted Zhao Sheng looked disheveled, with bloodshot eyes and a stubbly beard. In contrast, Bai Qingyan had changed into clean clothes. Although his eyes were also red-rimmed, his fair and snow-like face made the dark circles under his eyes more prominent. But Bai Qingyan showed no sign of disarray. With a straight back, his demeanor was calm and elegant.

Seeing Zhao Sheng enter, Bai Qingyan lifted a teapot from the red clay stove and poured him a cup of tea. "General Zhao, please."

Zhao Sheng walked over, knelt opposite Bai Qingyan across a desk, and his gaze swept over the meticulously marked maps. His palms tightened.

The Jin Army’s sudden city assault had left him no time to destroy these.

However, these maps were not of much consequence. They were merely maps of Daliang, Jin Kingdom, Xiliang, Wei Kingdom, Rong, and Yan, marking the important passes of each country.

"I wonder what the Princess of Zhen wishes to ask?" Zhao Sheng stared intently at Bai Qingyan. Despite his disheveled state, he remained proud like a fallen king.

"I would like to ask General Zhao for a favor..." Bai Qingyan folded the map and set it aside, meeting Zhao Sheng’s eyes and speaking gently. "Some of the Daliang soldiers in the treatment center have contracted a plague and refuse treatment. They are resolved to die for their country. I hope General Zhao could persuade them to take the medication."

Zhao Sheng was taken aback. Since the onset of the plague in Jin Kingdom and Daliang, the price of medicinal herbs had skyrocketed. Would Jin Kingdom really use such herbs on Daliang’s captured soldiers?

Zhao Sheng had thought that given Bai Qingyan’s character, once Qingxi Mountain Pass was breached, all plague-infected Daliang soldiers should be executed and their bodies burned to save resources. But she... was giving medicine to Daliang’s captured soldiers. What did this mean?

A ludicrous idea suddenly sprouted in Zhao Sheng’s mind. Without much thought, he asked, "Princess of Zhen, do you want Daliang soldiers to serve Jin Kingdom?"

Under the bright candlelight, Bai Qingyan’s expression was calm and steady, his eyes deep and profound, and his voice was extraordinarily calm and natural. "Several hundred years ago, we already had—same vehicle tracks, same written language, same rituals. The kingdoms were all one family. Why differentiate between your country and mine?"

Zhao Sheng’s heart was in turmoil.

Same vehicle tracks, same written language, same rituals. This was the foundation of unification. Was the Princess of Zhen telling him that... Jin Kingdom had the intention of unifying the world, or was it... her ambition?

"So, this time, Jin Kingdom sent the Princess of Zhen... to destroy my Daliang?" Zhao Sheng deliberately put on a mocking face, yet he had little confidence. The louder his voice, the more he tried to conceal his nervousness.

With Qingxi Mountain Pass, Daliang’s first major gateway, lost, if Daliang didn’t have strong soldiers to resist and Jin Kingdom united in its efforts, it wouldn’t take many years before Daliang would fall.

Bai Qingyan’s lips curled into a faint, non-threatening smile. This composure unconsciously made people lower their guard. She said, "General Zhao, we warriors... in the end, what do we fight for? Have you ever thought about it?"

Without waiting for Zhao Sheng’s answer, Bai Qingyan continued, "Isn’t it... to protect the country and secure peace, to bring benefits to the nation?"

Zhao Sheng tightly pressed his lips.

"Yet for the sake of seizing a city, a piece of fertile land, how many soldiers perish? Which soldier isn’t someone’s son, or someone’s father? Good sons who have grown up in over a decade are recruited into the army, sometimes sacrificing their lives for national interests, or dying on the battlefield to protect their people! Don’t you feel heartache watching your soldiers fall one by one?" Bai Qingyan sipped the tea, her voice filled with sighs. "Take Yushan Pass, for example. Jin Kingdom and Daliang have fought over it for a hundred years. General Zhao knows how many Daliang soldiers’ bones are buried there. And I know how many Jin soldiers’ lives were lost there."

Did he feel heartache for the fallen soldiers? Undoubtedly, Zhao Sheng did feel heartache!

He still remembered the first time he went to battle with his grandfather. They faced the Bai family army. His uncle, who had watched him grow up, was killed by an arrow from Bai Qishan, piercing his throat and killing him instantly!

In his childhood, those slightly older boys who accompanied him through the expedition, playing football with him, all fell one by one in pools of blood, never to return home. Zhao Sheng still felt the heartache!

Yet, alongside the heartache, he believed this to be the soldiers’ mission. The best end for a soldier was the battlefield!

But today, the Princess of Zhen’s words stirred a strong contradiction within him.

Hundreds of years ago, when the world was unified, they were all one people. Same vehicle tracks, same written language, same rituals. What were they fighting for? What was the gain?

Were they protecting their home and nation, or were they... fighting for the monarch, the Imperial Family, for territory and profits?

"If the world were united again, no longer divided among the kingdoms, and generals no longer fought a hundred battles solely for their motherland’s benefit, would there then be no more wars? Would the entire country be at peace, and the world peaceful, with no more family separations, no more elderly with no one to rely on, no more homes broken, no more ten households with nine empty?" Bai Qingyan stared into Zhao Sheng’s trembling eyes and continued, "People would focus on farming, merchants on trading, scholars on studying, and if the world were one, all people of the world would be one nation’s citizens. With seas calm and rivers clear, peace would reign... Wouldn’t that be the kind of life General Zhao wishes to see?"