The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

"There is a story in Shangcai."

Looking at the Qin soldiers who climbed up to the top of Ruyin City and cheered for victory, Li You smiled and said to Hei Fu: "It is said that a Chu man was selling shields and spears in the Shangcai market, and he praised, 'My shield is so strong that nothing can penetrate it.' He also praised his spear, saying, 'My spear is so sharp that nothing can not be penetrated.' Someone else asked, 'How about using your spear to penetrate your shield?' This person could not answer."

"Han Fei once said that an invulnerable shield and an invulnerable spear cannot exist in the same era! I have always been curious about the siege equipment made by Qin Mo, and the city defense skills of Mo in the south, and the use of his spear to attack his shield. What will happen?"

"Now it seems that the attack is better, Mo attacking and Mo defending!"

Although the crossbows and other equipment arranged by Nanfang Zhimo on the top of the city caused a lot of trouble for the Qin army, Qin Mo Cheng Shang and the military commander Zhang Han also asked the civilians to make ladders, attack vehicles and other equipment, and they knew how to defend the city. So after Li You led 30,000 people to besiege for two days, Ruyin finally fell.

Hei Fu flattered Li You and said: "No matter how good the tools are, they depend on the people who use them. As a spearman, the captain has sufficient strength and decisive orders. With 20,000 reinforcements from the general, he surrounded the city with three missing one and lost their morale. Only then can he defeat the weak shield-holders."

Li You was a little proud and ordered in the posture of a winner: "Bring out the detained Xiang Lige and let him see this scene!"

...

After the fire caused by the smoke arrows was extinguished, the Qin army began to force the survivors to clean up the top of the city. The bodies of the Qin soldiers were carried outside the city, and under Xiang Lige's identification, the three Moists were also found.

One old, one strong, and one thin, three people had already died on the top of the city. At this moment, they were carried to the straw mat. Their bodies were incomplete, but their faces were very peaceful.

"Didn't they say there were thirty Mohists?"

Heifu looked at Xiang Lige. After being intercepted by him, this man did not say a word about the defense of the city even though he was coerced and bribed, and even threatened with torture. He was a real man. After the war, he was also released and stumbled into Ruyin City, which had just ended a brutal offensive and defensive battle, to find the body of the commander.

At this moment, he turned his head and said with red eyes: "There are four people in the Southern Mohists, three dead and one alive, all here!"

"So that's it..."

Heifu understood that the flames of the Southern Mohists were already as weak as beans, but they did not think of preserving their strength to wait for changes in the world, and still paid their lives in this city. Should we laugh at their pedantry and inflexibility, or should we admire their determination?

Heifu was lucky. He was not named by Li You to attack the city in the past two days. Instead, he was responsible for covering the vanguard troops and had been watching the top of the city. Therefore, he had some impression of these three people.

This old man calmly commanded the soldiers and civilians in the city to resist the enemy on the top of the city. In the end, he was hit by a slingshot and died in the rubble of the collapsed corner tower. Xiang Lige said that this was Mr. Deng who spread the morality of their Mohists.

The strong man, holding a huge spear, swept countless vanguards off the top of the city. Xiang Lige said that this man was called Ku Li, and he was a fool with a poor brain.

And the thin man with rotten teeth also operated the mechanical crossbow cart, causing a lot of casualties to the Qin army. Xiang Lige said that he was an ordinary craftsman who had only joined the Mohists for two years and had a lot of blade wounds on his body.

"Qi Chi said that he had been mediocre all his life and joined the Mohists only to be a hero for a short moment."

Xiang Lige bowed to the three people and tears slid down his cheeks.

"He did it. The Mohists of the South died a worthy death!"

Their heroes are our enemies. During the battle, Heifu hated the three people who caused a lot of casualties to the Qin army. It was he who asked Xiao Tao to lead the crossbowmen to shoot and kill Kuli.

But after the battle, facing their corpses, there was not much hatred. Li You also ordered that the heads of the three Mohists would not be counted in the beheading, and leave them a whole body.

Xiang Lige found a human-powered chariot abandoned by the defenders under the city wall, and carried the bodies of the three division commanders one by one, but he could not drag Kuli's huge body. Finally, Qin Mo Chengshang came to help, and Heifu also asked his men to help them.

"I won't thank you."

Xiang Lige looked at Heifu and Qin Mo Chengshang beside him with complicated emotions.

"Of course." Hei Fu smiled and said, "The Qin army killed your commander, so you will naturally hate us."

Xiang Li Ge shook his head and said, "I won't hate him either. The Master once told me that Mohists only have duties and morals. When defending a city, the duty is done, and you can say goodbye and go home without receiving any benefits; when the city is broken, the morals are done, and there is no need to resist too much. For Mohists, in war, you attack and I defend, and there is no resentment in victory or defeat. When you meet the previous enemy again afterwards, you should treat it as a passerby."

"Now, Hei Fu is the leader, Cheng Shang, you and me are just passersby."

After saying that, he pulled the heavy human-powered chariot and went out of the city with the Qin army that poured into Ruyin and occupied the city.

Li You wanted to let him go as a victor, and also show the "leniency" of the Qin army. At this moment, he stood on the chariot and looked at Xiang Li Ge with some pride at the gate of the city.

Xiang Lige stopped, but still did not say a word of thanks for sparing his life. He raised his head stubbornly, but he was more concerned about his life: "General, your hometown is also Shangcai in Huaibei, and we are neighbors with Ruyin. I also heard that Qin has strict military law. At least, they will not let the soldiers burn, kill and plunder the local Chu people, right?"

Li You said with a straight face: "For the Qin army, those who obey live and those who resist die! Anyone who resists can be killed. Xiang Lizi was detained in the camp by my leader, and he did not kill or injure a Qin soldier, so I spared your life. If you swear not to resist the Qin army, I will let you go!"

"It depends on whether there are any weak people who ask me for help."

Xiang Lige smiled: "Although I am the only Mohist in the south, I also have the righteousness of Mohists. If the captain wants to kill me, just kill me!"

"Pretentious man."

Death could not scare Xiang Lige. Perhaps he even hoped to die with his commander. Li You felt a little bored. After cursing, he waved his hand and asked Hei Fu to lead people to drive this guy out!

After leaving Ruyin, passing by the dense corpses of the Qin and Chu armies on the city walls, the carriage was blocked by corpses from time to time, so Xiang Lige walked very slowly. Qin Mo Chengshang helped him push the carriage from behind as if he had done something wrong.

Xiang Lige finally stopped when he reached the place where the Qin army's siege equipment had stopped. He sighed to Cheng Shang:

"Mr. Cheng told me the day before yesterday that Qin Mo wanted to make all the voices come out of one voice, so as to eliminate the war and finally realize the righteousness of unifying the world."

"This method seems simple, but it has endless harms. Zi Mozi also said that if the princes do not love each other, they will fight in the wild; if the heads of the family do not love each other, they will usurp each other; if people do not love each other, they will rob each other; if the monarch and the ministers do not love each other, they will not be loyal; if the father and the son do not love each other, they will not be kind and filial; if the brothers do not love each other, they will not be harmonious. If people in the world do not love each other, the strong will oppress the weak, the majority will rob the minority, the rich will insult the poor, the noble will be humble, and the cunning will deceive the foolish. The reason why the world's disasters and resentments arise is because of not loving each other."

He pointed to the piles of corpses on the top and bottom of the city and said: "If we unify the world in this way, we will never make the people of Chu and Qin love each other, but hate each other! Moreover, if we only rely on power and rely on the King of Qin, we will not achieve world peace."

"The King of Qin is greedy for the reputation of victory, and he will conquer every year. I heard that once he succeeds, he will destroy all his enemies, write about the princes' pavilions, and build palaces in Guanzhong. Even if it does not cause much damage to the livelihood of the Qin people now, it is compensated by looting the six countries. If the six countries are destroyed, but the King of Qin is greedy and continues to fight against foreign countries, what will happen? To prepare for war, we must squeeze more money to recruit soldiers and buy weapons. I dare to say today that the King of Qin will collect a lot from the people, violently deprive the people of their food and clothing, deprive the people of their use, and abolish the people's benefits. The people will not be able to eat when they are hungry, wear clothes when they are cold, and rest when they are tired. In the long run, although the country is big, it will perish if it is warlike."

Cheng Shang was slow to speak but quick to act. He could only say with a gloomy face: "It won't come to this. Qin Mo will strongly advise the king to rest with the people and eliminate the war..."

Although he said so, in fact, this is also what Qin Mo is most worried about. This King Qin has the most ambitions among the six generations. His determination is rare and they can never control it.

"Well, it's done, there's no point in saying more."

Xiang Lige sighed, "Perhaps, in the end, you and I, the Mohists, are just tools. The Chu people use us as shields, and the Qin people use you as spears. The contradictions attack each other and both sides are damaged."

He looked back at Ruyin City for the last time, full of sadness: "The morality of the Mohists may be gone with the wind in this city! Mr. Cheng, take care! I also hope that the world is really as you said, unified under Qin, and there will be no more wars from now on. I also hope that we Mohists will never have a place to use our skills again!"

...

Xiang Lige tried his best to pull the human sedan chair and slowly left. There were four people when he came, and he was the only one who survived the battle. The sunset stretched his back long, looking extremely lonely and desolate.

Hei Fu also walked to Cheng Shang, who had been silent for a long time.

"Do you think Xiang Lige's words make sense?"

Cheng Shang was startled: "This is just his speculation."

However, Cheng Shang also thought that Xiang Lige's last sentence was right. The original intention of the Mohists was to prevent wars, but now, they have been used repeatedly to play the role of spears and shields in wars. Unconsciously, their skills seem to exist for wars. If wars are really eliminated, Mohists may really have no place to use their skills.

The Mohists in the south have a narrow social foundation that they cannot accommodate.

And the Qin Mohists, who are attached to the Qin regime, will be abandoned at any time once they lose their value.

The Mohists have been a popular legend for the past two hundred years, but now, perhaps they will really fall like a superstar and cannot be continued.

Hei Fu sighed in his heart. After this incident, Xiang Lige's idealism seemed to be disillusioned. What he said under pessimism was unfortunately true.

Unification did not end the war. After the demise of the six kingdoms, the seeds of hatred were planted and grew rapidly, and new turmoil would still follow.

But this is the painful birth process of the unified empire, and the only one who can slightly alleviate the pain of this process is perhaps only oneself?

"Don't say such depressing words so early. Although the ink in the south is extinct, don't you still have the Qin ink?"

With this thought, Hei Fu patted Cheng Shang who was in confusion and said, "Excuse me for being frank, the inkmen can also be used in other places besides war! For example, your skills in making offensive and defensive equipment are used to build tools for drawing water and pounding rice. Would it be worse than that of ordinary craftsmen?"

"That's what the commander meant."

Hei Fu smiled and said, "The inkmen may know something about the water mill in Nanjun!"

...

In early March, after the southern army broke through Ruyin, Meng Wu left 10,000 people in Ruyin, and 10,000 people went south to threaten the Huai River. He also led Li You and six other commanders to cross the Ying River and defeated the 10,000 people deployed by the Chu State there, and began to implement Wang Jian's encirclement plan.

Xiang Yan also sensed the danger and continued to lead the Chu army in a battle and retreat, but when they arrived east of Chengfu, they found that Meng Wu's 60,000 troops had appeared behind them!

On the chariot, the scouts of the Nanjun soldiers, who were the vanguard of the Southern Army, reported that they had contacted General Wang Jian in the west. The 100,000 Chu troops had been pressed by the Central and Southern Armies to a low-lying swamp and had to set up camp.

"Where is this place?"

Hei Fu asked Ji Ying, who was in charge of the map.

"Qinan!"

Ji Ying spread out the map and replied: "This place is 40 miles away from Qicheng, and it is called Qinan!"