(a)

In the last year and a half of your life, you have been moving farther and farther away from me. The more sick you are, the farther away you will be from me. Even the approach you get around the city is gone.

As your front moves further and further north, so does the news about you. A lot of the time, people don't talk about you anymore until the new good news comes back. People are used to your battles from afar, to your victories, to your absence.

During that time, Liu Shen put a large map in his study, and on that map, the grasslands in the north were placed very large. Every once in a while, the place is marked with a new place name. Gradually, it became densely populated with many new place names. That is your footprint, that is, the area where you pacified and unified Liu Shen's new dynasty, and that is the area that has returned from a state of war to a peaceful time.

Liu Shen often looked at this map. I see him a lot, looking at this map with all my attention. I know that what he is thinking about is how to govern these newly annexed areas, how to spread prosperity and laughter to these areas. I watched how he consumed himself for this, how he was so exhausted about it.

I also accompany him a lot, looking at this map.

For me, that's just proof that you're still alive as you get farther and farther away.

And so, day by day, you are approaching the end of your life. I am far away, on the map, watching you towards the end of your life.

The time with you is the most beautiful time of my life.

Even in a story, you can give me so much courage to face all kinds of unbearable endings calmly.

(b)

The last days of your life were very hard.

You are going through those days and nights in pain that is getting more and more intense, more and more intense, and more and more prolonged.

In these last years and a half, you have more time not to fight the enemy, but to fight yourself.

Just when the war on the north and south fronts was going smoothly and the overall situation was initially decided, your war against fate had reached the point when you ran out of ammunition and food.

After Liu Shen returned from the Northern Front, you were still sick in the base camp of the Northern Front for more than 60 days, and it was not until the early summer of the Han Land that you regained your mobility and went into battle again.

Subsequently, you and the Begi fought a series of battles on the northern edge of the steppe, including the larger battles, the famous Battle of Entu and the Battle of Sulong.

In the Battle of Entu, the Han army, relying on the speed and excellent endurance training of the Arabian blooded horses, pursued the main force of the enemy army for 536 kilometers for a long distance, and then fought a decisive battle with the main force of the enemy army fighting the trapped beasts on the grass beach of Entu.

The desperate enemy launched a spectacular white-knuckle charge with a decisive heart that could not retreat and escape, causing the central array of the Han army to pay a huge price of 20% killed.

Yang Biao, who led the central array, was almost killed in this battle when he was pierced through the chest by the enemy's stray arrows.

When the central array of the Han army was in an unpredictable stalemate with the enemy, you personally led the reserve to launch a full-line charge against the enemy from the left flank, and you led the charge with the twelve-layer fast archers, and completely suppressed the enemy's counterattack with a continuous volley of neat and powerful bows and crossbows, and then the horse team rushed into the enemy formation to strangle, passed through the enemy formation, and then counterattacked back.

After your reserve has penetrated the enemy's line and then fought back from behind the enemy's central array, you order the reserve to fire a storm of continuous rows of arrows at the enemy's back until all the arrows you carry with you are gone, and then charge with a strong horse team.

Under your continuous powerful blows, the enemy army fell to the ground and died one after another, with a death rate of up to 70%, and the enemy's will finally collapsed.

The fierce battle ended with the total annihilation of the enemy's main force and the overall casualty rate of 15% of the Han army's participating units.

This was the heaviest battle in which the Han army suffered the heaviest casualties since the beginning of the war.

After the battle, the corpses and wounded soldiers of both sides crisscrossed the vast pastures, and the whole land was filled with the smell of blood, and the scene was poignant and tragic.

All the military doctors of the Han army devoted themselves to the intensive work of rescuing the wounded, but many people still died because they could not be treated.

You ordered that all the analgesics of the military medical department should be used for surgical anesthesia, and that wounded soldiers should be treated, and not a single star should be left.

However, Wu Shun quietly disobeyed your military order, and he privately ordered Commander Liu of the Military Medical Department to leave you a dose of Filsan once.

With the help of Fissan's analgesic effect, the military doctor gave Yang Biao an emergency thoracotomy and removed the wolf tooth arrow that pierced his heart, saving one of his lives.

After the war, you repeatedly complained to Liu Shen, bitterly blamed yourself for the 15% death rate, and asked to be stripped of the throne of the king of Lingnan and fined for five years to pay the bereavement of the fallen soldiers.

After Liu Shen's repeated persuasions, he adopted your opinion, cut off your prince, changed your title to a second-class duke, and allowed a fine, and at the same time, gave preferential treatment to the soldiers who were killed and wounded in the battle.

After the Battle of Entu, Yang Biao was sent back to Wangyuan Pass to recuperate, and the heavily injured Yang Biao was also rotated to the south to replenish and recuperate, but did not participate in the battle on the southern front. And Sun Zhanming was transferred back from the southern front and joined the battle on the northern front.

(c)

Wu Shun brought Xie Shuangcheng in and brought a steaming drink.

Wu Shun said: "General, drink this." ”

You sit up from the bed and look tired. You say, "What is this?" ”

Wu Shun said: "It is a drink made by the military medical department with the old mountain newly given by the King of Han to participate in the honey. This ginseng is very expensive and is said to be worth millions of gold. Drinking a little every morning and evening can protect the heart and pulse, resist fatigue, and improve dizziness and night sweats. ”

You look at the drink, face the direction where Yunzhou is located, bow for a while, then hold the bowl with both hands and drink it respectfully. You put the bowl back on the tray.

Wu Shun said: "The king of Han is still a conscience. ”

You say, "How can you talk about King Han in such a tone?" ”

Wu Shun said indignantly: "Why can't you talk about him like this?!" How can there be a reason in the world to win a battle, but still cut the knight and punish him? ”

You said, "Don't blame the king, these punishments are all what I have repeatedly asked for from the king of Han." ”

Wu Shun was surprised: "Huh?! Why should the young master ask for punishment? ”

You said: "Since the resumption of the war, the Han army has been invincible, and over time, arrogance will inevitably breed from top to bottom, and most of the soldiers think that they are omnipotent, thinking that the world is fought by themselves." If it is not vigilant and restrained in time, in the future, there will definitely be people who look down on the peaceful ministers in the court, and even have disrespect for the king of Han. In the long run, this force that created peace may evolve into a force that hinders the peace of the world. ”

You said, "Entu won the battle, and I asked myself to belittle, which is to set a rule for the future court." In the future, those who are not as successful in war as I am will find it difficult to be proud of their achievements and despise the imperial court. If anyone dares to do this, they will definitely be pointed at by thousands of officials. ”

You asked Wu Shun: "Are there still many people in the army who have such emotions about the resentment against the King of Han that you just muttered?" ”

Wu Shun bowed his head and said, "Yes." As soon as the will of the king of Han arrived, many soldiers in the army were indignant for the general, believing that the king of Han was jealous of the general's merits, and deliberately sought to belittle the general's merits and inhibit the development of our Han army. ”

You say, "Go and give an order, and gather the generals of all the ministries to the big tent of the Chinese army, and I have something to say to them." ”

(iv)

The Great Tent of the Chinese Army. You addressed the generals.

You say, "I know that after the decree of the king of Han was announced, there was a little indignation in everyone's hearts. However, there is one thing that I want to make clear to you today, and I hope you will not blame King Han. ”

"This derogation is something I have repeatedly asked myself to take. Here are my three remarks to the King of Han, you can pass them on. ”

In the face of the buzzing discussion in the tent, you continued: "Why should I ask the king of Han to belittle me? This raises another question: what kind of battle is a victory? What kind of battle is not considered a victory? As generals, what kind of outlook should we have? ”

"No matter how the outside world judges the outcome of the war, in my heart, since the Jinfeng Zhai Alliance, there have been two wars, which are very failures. One is the Battle of Drew Lake; The second is the Battle of Entu. Why do I say they are failures? Because the casualties on both sides are too heavy. The accumulation of human lives has long exceeded the value of victory in the war. To exchange so many lives for victory in the war is the incompetence of the main general. It's my incompetence. ”

"Every corpse that fell on the battlefield, they are the brainchild of their parents who have worked hard for many years, and some of them are husbands and fathers, and they have also been pampered by their parents in every way. They grew into such men who stood up to the sky and the earth, and it took so many years for them to die in battle, that is, in an instant. When they fall, what a deep mourning they leave behind them. ”

You say, "I am often told that if I think about this all the time, I will not be able to fight." But that's not how I see it. I think that only people who can always think about this are qualified to fight. Because, it is the reality of war. The truth after all kinds of disguises have been removed. ”

You say: "A soldier can be like a pawn on a chessboard, hot-headed, blood boiling, murderous, and not understanding the reality of war." However, as generals, every decision we make on the battlefield means the survival of human life, and we cannot but face the reality of war at all times, and we cannot but make every decision based on the reality of war. Every thought in our minds is the survival and destruction of thousands, if not hundreds. How can you be cautious? How can you not be exhausted? ”

"I hope that you will not judge the victory or defeat of a war by the traditional view of victory or defeat, but by the index of the destruction of human lives and the sorrow of the people. You can use the index of human life destruction and people's grief to re-evaluate all the battles we have experienced, and re-evaluate our own victories and defeats. This new standard helps us to leave the intoxication of false victories and return to a sober evaluation of ourselves. ”

On that day, at a meeting of Han generals after the Battle of Entu, you said a passage that would later go down in history.

You say, "What makes a good general?" A good general is someone who can stop the war as quickly and at the least cost as completely as possible, and make it impossible for it to reappear for many years afterward. Otherwise, it should not be called excellent. We need to have such sobriety. ”

You say, "I have not lost a battle since the beginning of the war." But am I a good general? ”

You say, "I don't think I'm and I don't deserve it." In the future, you may engrave this sentence on my tombstone. I'm not. I'm not worthy either. ”