Chapter – 05
“The crimes the Najie army committed against the people of Zhenbei City were abhorrent and unforgivableāto call them inhuman would be an understatement!”
“So, when the front-line soldiers captured over ten thousand surrendered Najie prisoners of war, Emperor Jingwu directly ordered them to be buried alive!”
On the celestial screen, Liu Sanqi suddenly let out a cold laugh:
“Right after Emperor Jingwu announced this decision at court, a number of officials jumped up to oppose him. One hypocrite raised the banner of ‘killing captives brings ill fortune,’ claiming that Heaven loves all living things and that Emperor Jingwu should adopt a policy of benevolence toward the Najie prisoners, to better display his magnanimity as the ruler of a great nation.”
“To this hypocrite, so full of talk about righteousness and morality, Emperor Jingwu’s response was to walk right up to him and slap him hard across the face.”
“According to various historical records, all the ministers in court were stunned by that slap. After all, they had disagreed with Emperor Jingwu before, but this was the first time he had ever laid hands on a minister.”
“And after slapping the official, Emperor Jingwu even smiled and asked him whether he was angry nowāsince someone as kind and magnanimous as him should consider being slapped no big deal, and shouldn’t be so petty about it.”
On the celestial screen, Liu Sanqi’s livestream comments section was filled with a flood of laughter.
[Awesome! You really have to fight fire with fire!]
[LOL, not only did Emperor Jingwu want to slap that guyāwhen Sanqi was telling the story, I felt my own hands itching too!]
[How did such a massive idiot even get to be an official? He talks about being merciful toward the Najie people, but those same Najie people carried out the horrific massacre of Zhenbei City! Those victims weren’t even soldiersāthey were unarmed civilians!]
…
Liu Sanqi clearly noticed the comments in her livestream and smiled as she said to everyone:
“Darlings, calm down. Because after Emperor Jingwu slapped that guy, he immediately dismissed him from office and ordered him to take off his official robes and go home. The reason was straightforward: the Great Jing Dynasty had no need for officials who only knew how to grandstand but couldn’t empathize with the people!”
“However, precisely because of his handling of the Najie tribe, Emperor Jingwu has always been a subject of considerable controversy and criticism in history.”
“Because, aside from ordering the burial of those over ten thousand Najie prisoners, Emperor Jingwu never showed any mercy to the Najie tribe in the following decades. He used every means at his disposal to systematically break the Najie tribe apart.”
“In the end, during Emperor Jingwu’s later years, the once-fearsome Najie tribeāwhich had struck terror into the hearts of manyācompletely vanished from the annals of history.”
Beneath the celestial screen, in the palace, even the Jingming Emperor couldn’t help but feel stirred by Liu Sanqi’s words.
As the sovereign of the Great Jing Dynasty, he was well aware that the Najie tribe had always coveted their land, ready to tear a chunk of flesh from the Great Jing Dynasty at any opportunity.
In his eighteen years of rule alone, the Great Jing Dynasty had fought some twenty battles with the Najie tribe, large and small.
Although the Najie had appeared relatively subdued in recent years, the Jingming Emperor didn’t believe for a moment that a hyena that had tasted flesh would ever switch to a vegetarian diet.
His greatest fantasy before this had been to completely subdue the Najie tribe, to make them afraid to constantly harass the border cities.
But now, Liu Sanqi on the celestial screen was telling him that in the future, there would be an emperor of the Great Jing Dynasty who could eliminate the Najie threat once and for all.
At this moment, the Jingming Emperor was overwhelmed with excitement, his earlier frustrations over Yin Rui’s disgraceful behavior completely swept away.
However, Liu Sanqi suddenly frowned and looked into the camera:
“I know that among Emperor Jingwu’s many fans, there is a small group of people who have always felt that his order to bury the Najie prisoners alive and his later extermination of the Najie were too ruthless. They see it as a stain on Emperor Jingwu’s otherwise brilliant life, one that mars his image as a sage monarch.”
“But in truth, I believe Emperor Jingwu was fully aware of the criticism his actions would attract.”
“Because when Emperor Jingwu decided to order the burial of those Najie prisoners alive, many officials privately suggested that they could take responsibility for carrying it out, so that if anyone objected, the criticism would fall on them as ministers.”
“However, Emperor Jingwu declined their kind offers, saying that he acted with a clear conscience and feared no rumors or slanderāhe didn’t need others to bear the blame on his behalf.”
“Moreover, historically, after confirming that the last remnants of the Najie tribe had been completely crushed, Emperor Jingwu openly declared in court with great satisfaction that the Najie would never again be a concern for the Great Jing Dynasty!”
Liu Sanqi’s words clearly sparked a wave of responses from netizens in the livestream, and the comment section once again became lively:
[Heh, it’s still the same old questionādo good people deserve to have guns pointed at them? Those who sympathize with the Najie prisoners, why don’t you first pity the people of Zhenbei City who were almost completely slaughtered by the Najie army?]
[I feel like those who criticize Emperor Jingwu over the Najie are just like those idiots who talk about ‘letting go of historical baggage’ and ‘forgiving the Japanese’! The Japanese still haven’t acknowledged the crimes against humanity they committed in history, and now we’re supposed to force the victims to be kind and magnanimous? What utter bullshit is that?!]
[In my opinion, every single move Emperor Jingwu made against the Najie was absolutely correct! A great man once said, ‘Strike once to avoid a hundred strikes!’ Before Emperor Jingwu crippled the Najie tribe, they were the greatest threat to the Great Jing Dynasty’s northern border. But after he dealt with them, the north enjoyed nearly a hundred years of peace, and other tribes, witnessing the Najie’s fate, chose to submit to the Great Jing Dynasty!]
[Speaking of which, I remember my history teacher mentioning in class that in Emperor Jingwu’s later years, those formerly impoverished border cities in the north had developed into prosperous and famous towns, with thriving border trade and stable, peaceful lives for the people!]
[I feel Emperor Jingwu’s thinking really resembles what Professor Ai once said: ‘Better to bear the condemnation of an age than to let future generations suffer!’]
…
Beneath the celestial screen, Yin Ning, reading these comments from later generations, also felt a strong curiosity and anticipation toward this Emperor Jingwu.
She felt that Emperor Jingwu’s approach and attitude were completely to her liking.
However, what puzzled Yin Ning was that after mentally going through everyone she knew, she couldn’t find a single person who matched the description of Emperor Jingwu.
“Fame invites troubleāan exemplary sage monarch like Emperor Jingwu naturally has his fair share of haters in the history circles. I’ve observed this group for a while, and I’ve found that their favorite thing to criticize Emperor Jingwu about is the massacre of Zhenbei City by the Najie army.”
“In their view, the Zhenbei City massacre was half the Najie army’s fault and half Emperor Jingwu’s.”
Even though she was livestreaming, Liu Sanqi rolled her eyes without reservation as she spoke:
“Yes, darlings, you heard that right. In these people’s twisted logic, Emperor Jingwu is supposed to bear half the responsibility for the Najie army’s massacre!”
“Their reasoning is laughableāthey say that because Emperor Jingwu’s stance toward the Najie was too tough…”, if he had been willing to negotiate and even make concessions, perhaps the massacre could have been prevented.”
“Darlings, let’s set aside the exorbitant reparations the Najie demanded for a moment. Let’s just talk about the seven thousand young maidens, the two thousand able-bodied men, and the people in those three additional cities the Najie demanded be cededāaren’t they all living, breathing human beings?”
Beneath the celestial screen, although Liu Sanqi was posing this question to the livestream viewers, some people in Zhenbei City couldn’t help but show expressions of shame.
Since time immemorial, death has been a universal fear of humanity.
So when they heard the Najie threatening a massacre to coerce Emperor Jingwu into signing the treaty, some people had indeed wished in their hearts that Emperor Jingwu would give in to the Najie’s demands to save their lives.
But they also knew that this wish was extremely selfish and despicableāsaving their own lives at the expense of others.
Emperor Jingwu’s choice was actually the reasonable course of action.
