Sun Qian thought Jiang He would hide somewhere to calm down.
Unexpectedly, when they found him, he was looking at maps of Jing'an and Fengcheng as if nothing had happened.
Sun Qian leaned closer curiously, "What does the commander-in-chief want to do?"
"What are you doing here?" Jiang He glanced at him.
Sun Qian is brave but not smart.
He'll charge into battle without fear of death, but if you ask him to use his brain, it'll kill him.
Seeing that Jiang He did not intend to answer his question, Sun Qian was not annoyed.
He's just a bit older than Jiang He.
He is inferior to me in every way.
"Commander! Let's drink." Sun Qian magically produced a flask of wine from behind his back.
Jiang He then looked away from the map.
The two of them sat on the ground and drank from one cup to the other.
Jiang He asked, "Have you killed civilians and massacred cities before?"
Sun Qian said, "We haven't even captured Nanning, so where are we going to massacre the city? We can't exactly massacre the people of Daqing."
Jiang He breathed a sigh of relief.
After all, the southern border is more than a thousand miles away from the capital.
They might do something utterly heinous and manage to conceal it if they wanted to.
“However…” Sun Qian changed the subject, “Although we have never massacred a city, we have done plenty of burning, killing, and looting.”
Jiang He's heart sank, and his expression turned solemn. He knew the cruelty of war.
But hearing these things still made him feel bad.
Sun Qian took a swig of wine and continued, "On the battlefield, it's either you or me. Sometimes, in order to win, we have to resort to certain means. But you, Commander, are different. You have the world in your heart, and everything you do is for the sake of the common people."
But not all generals are like you; some would even steal food from ordinary people just to survive.
Jiang He sighed: "I just hope to reduce the number of innocent casualties. War is inherently cruel; if we can achieve victory at the lowest possible cost, why not?"
Sun Qian nodded slightly in agreement. After a moment of silence, the two continued drinking.
"Let me tell you a story!" Sun Qian looked at Jiang He, and seeing that he did not object, continued.
"Three years ago, Sun's army also captured Jing'an City."
Jiang He looked at Sun Qian, quite surprised.
Jiang He believed he had gathered comprehensive intelligence on the battle situation in various locations.
"Take Jing'an City?"
"Yes, this news didn't reach the capital. At that time, Sun Yuan was still under Sun Qi's command."
"You know Sun Qi, right?" Sun Qian asked.
"A very famous person," Jiang He replied.
"Heh, but they died silently." Sun Qian said dismissively.
Because of Sun Qi's misjudgment, he also lost his life.
This is an unspeakable secret within Sun's army.
"His death is an insurmountable obstacle for the Sun family army," Sun Qian continued.
"After his death, Sun Chi finally had the opportunity to take over Sun Qi's position, and it was from this point that the Sun family army split into two factions."
Jiang He didn't interrupt, and just listened quietly.
I have heard about Sun Jiadong's history.
It's simply that there's no direct descendant and they don't submit to the collateral branches.
The capital always kept Sun Qi's death a secret.
Jiang He didn't know much about his death either.
Anyway, they died. People always die in wars.
“The emperor intended to suppress the Sun family, and Sun Qi was well aware of this. The Sun family army in the southern border region urgently needed a victory to prove their loyalty to the emperor.”
“Sun Qi did indeed succeed. During those days, we were all holding our breath, determined to march all the way to the southern barbarians’ homeland, Jing’an City, and we took it down.”
The soldiers were overjoyed and ready for a major operation. In the past, we would secretly infiltrate villages to steal food, but the grain supplies from the capital were never timely, and the grain grown by the soldiers was never enough to meet the court's needs. At those times, we would raid enemy villages.
This time we can go all out and grab it.
Sun Qi used to turn a blind eye to things, but this time he has strictly ordered us not to take a single grain of food from Jing'an City.
Sun Qi wanted to win over the hearts of the people as well.
But the people of Jing'an already hated us to the core. After we took control of Jing'an, the people hid Nanning soldiers in their homes and poisoned the water sources near our camps, including the elderly, women, and children.
Sun Qi gave the order that we cannot kill a single civilian, so that the people can rest assured and continue to work as usual.
How could the people of Jing'an believe that, incited by the soldiers from Nanning, they had even poisoned the plants and trees on the mountain with slow-acting poison?
The poison didn't take effect until three days later, and by the time we discovered it, the Nanning soldiers had already launched a large-scale attack.
The soldiers were all poisoned and were no match for the people of Nanning.
Even Sun Qi was kidnapped by them.
The fact that an army's general had become a prisoner of the enemy was a fatal blow.
Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Sun Qi could not drag down the remaining Sun family army.
So he simply slit his own throat.
With the commander-in-chief committing suicide, Sun's army was utterly routed.
Upon hearing the news, Sun Yuan rushed over and risked his life to retrieve Sun Qi's body. He couldn't let Sun Qi's corpse become a military achievement for the enemy general.
The hard-won city of Jing'an was returned to the hands of the people of Nanning in less than three days.
At this point, Sun Qian glanced at Jiang He's expression.
It seems that Jiang He remains unmoved.
Sun Qian continued, "Sun Yuan held Sun Qi's body and wept bitterly. He was filled with regret and self-blame. If he had discovered the enemy's plot earlier, perhaps this tragedy could have been avoided."
He also blamed Sun Qi for being too kind. If he had ordered the massacre of the city, Sun Qi would not have died, and those despicable people would not have colluded with the Nanning soldiers. That time, Sun's army suffered a great loss of strength.
Fortunately, Sun Qi did not rush to send the news of the captured city back to the capital.
The news of his suicide was also suppressed.
The news reported to the capital was that Sun Qi had been killed in battle.
This is a heavy blow to the Sun family.
At this time, the Sun family was being purged by the emperor, and the members of the Sun family were afraid that they might be wiped out and their entire clan would be exterminated if they were not careful.
Sun Qi's death caused almost no stir, because many in the court believed that the Sun family deserved to die.
"You're also blaming General Sun for not ordering the massacre of the city, just like today you actually support the massacre, right?" Jiang He suddenly said.
Sun Qian opened his mouth, but in the end said nothing.
“Even if we massacre the people of Jing’an, General Sun cannot come back to life. Moreover, my decision not to massacre the city does not mean they will not pay the price,” Jiang He said.
Sun Qian immediately said, "I knew you wouldn't let the people of Nanning off so easily."
"General Sun has atoned for his mistake with his death, how long will you continue to resent him?" Jiang He looked at Sun Qian and asked, word by word.
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