If a good person does one bad thing in his life, then in the eyes of the world, he is an out-and-out bad person.
If a bad person is recorded in history or widely known by the world because of a good deed, then he is a good person.
In other words, if a general who is good at fighting suffers a defeat in his later years, his reputation in the eyes of future generations will definitely plummet.
Take the case of Bai Qi for example. Although he won the battle, he killed the captives.
Years later, when the old Qin people read this history, they will say that Bai Qi was a butcher and executioner.
Not worthy of being sung by the world.
Unless he can atone for his sins with his death.
As the Minister of War, Cao Cao certainly didn't want this to happen.
That's why he said that in order to protect Bai Qi, he came to the History Museum and found the Grand Historian Sima Qian.
The latter said seriously: "You are late, I have already written it."
As he spoke, he handed a few pieces of paper to Cao Cao.
He took it and looked at it, then frowned deeply.
It read: [On November 3rd, the sixth year of Chengping, Bai Qi, then the garrison commander of Yunzhou, killed and captured 20,000 people in the city without any reason...]
"This sentence cannot be written in history books."
Cao Cao said this in a very forceful manner.
Upon hearing this, Grand Historian Sima Qian chuckled and said, "Are you the historian, or am I the historian? Do I need you to teach me how to write history?"
Cao Cao said in a deep voice: "If this sentence is written in the history books, how will future generations view Wu'an Jun?
How will Your Majesty deal with Wu'an Jun in the future to give an explanation to the world?
Wu Anjun is fighting for the Great Qin, and I say without a doubt that it is because of him that you can sit here and write the history of our dynasty."
Sima Qian also took a firm stance. "I am a historian. I must write history truthfully and not deceive future generations. This is my bottom line as a historian."
Cao Cao glared at him for a long moment before he said helplessly, "Change it a little. At least, Wu'an Jun didn't kill the prisoners without reason."
Sima Qian refused to back down and said, "You can change it. Tell His Majesty that I am dismissed from my position. However, even if I write unofficial history while I am away from home, I will write it truthfully."
Cao Cao was furious and said, "What you are writing is not history, but the future of a general who should have had a bright future and swore to defend the country's borders until his death!
You really should go to the front line and see how those Jin soldiers kill our Qin people and slaughter our people. After you see it, you can decide whether this prisoner should be killed or not!
But the historians of Jin will not record the ugly deeds they committed. They can even write about their invasion of our Great Qin as a just war!"
After saying this, he threw the paper away and left.
Sima Qian looked at his departing back, picked up the paper thoughtfully, and sat in his seat.
After a long time, he used ink to completely erase the line of words and then wrote again:
[Chengping... The Yunzhou garrison commander, Bai Qi, the Marquis of Wu'an, feared that the captives would rebel and interfere with the defense of the city, so he buried them alive, numbering several hundred thousand...]
If the writing style is changed, future generations’ evaluation of him will be different.
After finishing writing, Sima Qian smiled bitterly and said, "I will revise my writings in the future, so why are you so angry?"
He was referring to Cao Cao.
This is indeed the case.
As a historian, the first thing to do is to record what is happening truthfully.
Then wait until the future, when changes are needed, and make some adjustments.
For example, if a historian in later generations, following orders from his superiors or on a whim, wanted to write a separate biography for a certain person, he would make further revisions based on the historical materials written previously.
"If you can kill the captives today, you can kill them tomorrow. Do you really think the historian's words are worthless?"
Sima Qian sighed.
In this world, the most expensive words may be those written by historians.
When they recorded a person's achievements and wrongs, one extra word or one missing word was enough to influence the judgment of future generations.
Later, when Cao Cao learned of Sima Qian's changes, he seemed quite happy and said to Cai Jing with a smile: "It seems that Sima Qian is not so pedantic after all."
Hearing this, Cai Jing had nothing to be happy about. Instead, he felt a little worried.
"Bai Qi has really gotten himself into a big mess this time. I just don't know how His Majesty will deal with him."
Cao Cao said, "Your Majesty is wise and would not punish a meritorious official. Moreover, Your Majesty is well versed in military treatises and would understand that those 20,000 men had to be killed."
Cai Jing sighed, "However, Bai Qi's move is tantamount to pushing our Great Qin to the forefront of public opinion. It is a troublesome matter."
Hangu Pass.
Huo Guang is reporting this matter to Ying Yuan.
Since Ding Baiying chose to stay in the city, she became Ying Yuan's personal bodyguard and maid.
After Huo Guang finished explaining Bai Qi's killing of prisoners, he cautiously asked, "How will Your Majesty deal with Wu'an Jun?"
Since the expedition, his relationship with Bai Qi has been relatively good.
Naturally, he didn't want to see Bai Qi get into trouble.
But this time, the noise made by the other party was really too loud.
After all, there has never been any news of killing prisoners among the nations.
Now that there is a precedent, who knows how many times this will happen in the future.
And the culprit of all this is Bai Qi.
Ying Yuan hadn't yet realized the seriousness of the situation, and subconsciously asked, "Disposal? We won the battle, why are we disposing of them?"
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
