Chapter Seventy-One: Possibly Flawed Reasoning x Choices Grounded in Reason

Page 1/3

Wang Luo felt his mind in utter confusion. Before, when the battle began, all his previous thoughts could be cast aside. But now, he could not shake them off: the political struggles, the conflicts among enemy officers, the likely loyalties and fundamental interests of enemy soldiers, the feasibility of achieving the ultimate goal, and the very nature of the battlefield itself... These thoughts constantly surfaced in his mind, weaving tangled webs around him. No, he must not dwell on them now. There was only one thing to do—seize victory, crush the enemy!

Clashing at the front lines, positions shifted as thousands of soldiers wielded their weapons amid the chaotic battlefield. Such confrontations inevitably differed from prior plans. The troops on the flanks, though attacked, held firm and were not driven back by the Han forces; yet in the center, the unit ordered to advance and encircle the enemy was stalled, blocked from progress. After initial contact, the main forces of both armies were drawn together like two magnets with opposite poles.

Some soldiers spontaneously surged forward, and Wang Luo could not order them to retreat; instead, he had to direct the surrounding troops to advance alongside them. Some advantageous positions were lost, forcing combat in unfavorable terrain. In areas with heavy casualties, there was no choice but to dispatch reinforcements.

The battle lines writhed like a serpentine wave, surging like a tide. Here the enemy was repelled and pursuit began, only to suddenly find themselves encircled by enemy forces; there, a seeming collapse was reversed as the enemy was driven back.

Thus the turmoil, entanglement, and slaughter continued—the most brutal confrontation among humans: war. It had occurred countless times before and would occur countless times again. Now, here—perhaps real, perhaps imagined—it raged fiercely.

Is it evil, something to be stopped? Many weak, naive, and childish souls misled into such beliefs say so. But is that truly the case?

To me, war is like humanity itself: sometimes just, sometimes evil, sometimes ordinary or neutral.

When barbarism triumphs over civilization, when regression overcomes progress, and humanity suffers great setbacks, war is evil; when taken to extremes, leading to extinction and total destruction, it is evil.

However, to blindly brand all wars as evil without discerning the just, positive, and progressive aspects reveals only the foolishness of the speaker.

In primitive times, when food was scarce and two groups fought for it, notions of good or evil were irrelevant. You die or I die—such struggles for survival defy petty moral judgments.

But in civilized eras, the situation differs.

When long-settled peaceful humans begin to rot and decline, war arises as a natural corrective—like a surgeon’s knife excising physical decay, it removes the negative elements within the human spirit.

Was the Spanish invasion of the Americas cruel? Mad? Greedy? Yes. Yet it nonetheless represented humanity’s overall progress.

Page 2/3

Were the Indigenous peoples of the Americas weak? Innocent? Pitiful? Yes. But they committed the greatest crime of all—they rejected progress.

That is the gravest sin a human collective can commit. No matter their excuses, beliefs, or wealth, this crime faces the judgment of fate, and the sentence is destruction.

This is the greatest positive value of war—as the human collective pursues two core goals, survival and development. When these are balanced, wars are destructive and evil; when the collective deviates from this path, war becomes just, necessary, and indispensable.

When certain groups reject these objective laws—like Confucianism, which has value but, after establishing itself, clings to fleeting comfort and stability, refusing progress and development, stagnating in a pitiful quest for eternal permanence—then war that destroys them, praised or not, is absolutely beneficial to humanity as a whole.

What are the Han’s crimes? What caused the deaths of forty million? The destruction of overall balance... No, even if all this is true, now is not the time for such thoughts!

The revolutionary forces were beginning to falter; the front lines steadily fell back.

As expected, several fierce Han generals led relentless assaults on the revolutionary lines. The red-faced, long-bearded warrior wielding a crescent blade; the black-faced, crude man brandishing a spear—they were both present. Though unable to decide the outcome in large-scale clashes, they continuously inflicted casualties and pressure on the revolutionaries.

Wang Luo began reallocating troops. Except for a few reserves who had to remain, many units in the rear were sent to reinforce more pressured fronts according to his orders.

Yet some descended into chaos, forgetting their training and discipline, blindly fighting.

Faced with this, there was no remedy. The only option was to have nearby soldiers cover and utilize them. Without the ability to deliver a decisive blow instantly, they had to persevere—persist, persist, and persist again! To show enough patience and resilience, to demonstrate determination to overwhelm the enemy, to reduce their own stamina consumption while exhausting the enemy’s, and to wait for the enemy’s collapse.

——

“Shall we strike now?”

In the Han center, the Wu State team was spread across several relatively safe positions, occasionally launching attacks.

Seeing the stalemate despite slight advantages, Red Lightning glanced behind. Was the captain nearby? Previously, at similar moments, heavy fighting broke out—would she choose to act now in such a passive situation?

No sign of movement. Perhaps she deemed the timing unsuitable and planned to wait for another opportunity.

Then they would continue waiting. Even in adversity, she should maintain her judgment and know what to do.

Indeed, this was the battlefield. Though they had been outwitted and suffered losses, the situation remained favorable.

Page 3/3

Because we stand on the side of victory.

Red Lightning narrowed his eyes.

He recalled the recording Ling’er had given him, and his refusal.

This enemy might be cunning and shrewd, adept at reading human nature and manipulating us like puppets; we had indeed lost to him.

But he had chosen the wrong side! The tide of this battle favored the Han’s victory and the Yellow Turbans’ destruction; the era’s trend was chaos, destruction, and endless conflict.

If that opponent also acted in accordance with the greater trend, then siding with him was not impossible. But since he did so, he was doomed to lose!

Lin Feirui—despite her minor flaws and bad habits—stood firmly with the tide.

As captain, she remained outstanding. He recalled past victories, shared glories, and honors...

Compared to all that, her mere quirks, even if they caused some discord or occasional mistakes, were acceptable.

Was it necessary to list every flaw before demanding perfection? To betray her over a trivial fault?

Absolutely not. With this resolve, Red Lightning activated his innate skill: Red Glow.

Red Glow: When cast on allies, it consumes a portion of their health to temporarily boost their attack and aggression for ten minutes. Afterward, their attack power decreases for half an hour.

When cast on enemies, it inflicts damage and slightly reduces their movement speed and attack power.

A red light flickered across the dozens of men before him. They roared in fury and charged into battle with renewed vigor.