The Bai Family Army’s military song had a simple melody, but it was magnificent and grand. The moment the singing began, it made people so excited that goosebumps rose all over their bodies, as if countless forces surged from the soles of their feet to their hearts, making their blood boil and their eyes fill with tears, wanting to grasp long blades to kill enemies and defend rivers and mountains to protect the people.
The originally noisy and festive Fanque Tower suddenly quieted down, with only the passionate and resonant singing of those young wastrels upstairs, making people feel heroic and tragic, yet deeply inspiring.
After the singing and music stopped, the lingering, soul-stirring echoes left Fanque Tower quiet for a long time.
“Hahaha…”
Suddenly, an inappropriate cold laugh rang out in Fanque Tower.
“What Bai Family Army! What a Bai Family Army military song! While you’re here praising the Bai Family Army, have you thought about how the eldest daughter of the Bai family killed one hundred thousand surrendered prisoners from Xiliang? She made our Jin Kingdom into a wolf-like nation feared by all countries!”
A disheveled man pushed away the beauty sitting in his lap, stood up, and looked at the patrons and courtesans around him who were half-drunk and tearful.
“The most venomous woman’s heart – the ancients truly didn’t deceive me! One hundred thousand people! One hundred thousand sons of Xiliang means one hundred thousand families! They also have parents and children! That woman killed them at will! If there are wars in the future… which Kingdom would dare spare Jin’s surrendered prisoners?! Our Jin Kingdom’s fine sons who risk their lives to protect home and Kingdom will in the future have their bones scattered because of that woman’s fire at Weng Mountain! Yet you’re still celebrating here!”
“Exactly!” A man from Great Wei, leaning in a beauty’s embrace, laughed: “You Jin people have become notorious among all nations for massacring surrendered prisoners! If there are wars in the future, other countries slaughtering your Jin prisoners would be perfectly justified.”
The Wei man played with the beauty’s delicate hands, laughing softly: “You Jin people shouldn’t glare at me like that! Our Great Wei is far from the Jin Kingdom, with no conflicts between us. I’m just speaking the truth. After all… no Kingdom’s grain comes for free. Which Kingdom would be willing to waste so much grain feeding prisoners? Just kill them and be done with it! Don’t you think so?”
Jin Kingdom’s position was delicate – except for Wei, it bordered all other nations.
So these words would be inappropriate coming from any other nation’s people, but coming from a Wei person who shared no borders with Jin and had never been at war… had the effect of startling the Jin people.
The Jin people who had just been fired up with passion, some immediately calmed down and became thoughtful, while others laughed and said: “We have Xiao Bai Commander of the Bai Family Army. Why would we fear defeat?”
“But even if the Bai family’s eldest daughter is as invincible as Duke Zhenguo was back then, she’s still just one person! Your Jin Kingdom borders the Rong and Di tribes to the east, Great Yan to the west, Xiliang to the south, and Great Liang to the north. If all four nations start wars, can this Bai eldest daughter clone herself?” The Wei man squinted and smiled as he took a sip of wine: “It’s a pity that if Duke Zhenguo and all the Bai sons were still alive, perhaps your Jin Kingdom wouldn’t fear even if all four nations went to war. But Duke Zhenguo’s entire household of men were killed by Prince Xin, who had them demoted to commoners!”
The Wei man seemed to have drunk too much, his eyes hazy and smiling: “So this time your Jin Kingdom’s great victory over Xiliang by burning one hundred thousand prisoners – who knows if it’s a blessing or a curse. However, as a Wei person, I’m naturally happy. Our Wei Kingdom’s borders have repeatedly suffered Xiliang raids and city massacres. This time burning Xiliang’s elite forces, presumably they won’t be able to come burn, kill, and plunder in my Wei Kingdom for some time.”
“Bai Qingyan killed one hundred thousand Xiliang prisoners, so in the future all nations will kill one hundred thousand, two hundred thousand, three hundred thousand, four hundred thousand… or even more of our Jin people!” The disheveled man from earlier smiled as he looked at the crowd, immersed in their drunken stupor: “Yet you’re still happy here? You think the Bai Family Army is mighty – you’re celebrating Jin Kingdom’s future slaughter!”
Upstairs, Lu Yuanpeng, who had drunk too much, heard the words from the Jin man and Wei man downstairs and was already furious. He directly smashed the wine cup in his hand, leading a group of wastrels to look down from the second floor, rolled up his sleeves and charged downstairs.
“Among those one hundred thousand Xiliang soldiers, weren’t there children? When their children grow up, won’t they want to avenge their fathers? When that time comes… how many children in our Great Jin will lose their fathers, how many parents will lose their sons…”
“Go to hell!” Lu Yuanpeng led the charge downstairs, kicking the disheveled Jin man who was still talking eloquently to the ground, stepping on the man’s chest.
Sima Ping grabbed the Wei man, pulling him out of the Fanque Tower beauty’s embrace, raising his fist and beating him savagely.
The companions who had come with the disheveled Jin man and the Wei man were beaten by the capital’s wastrels until they screamed continuously.
The usually peaceful and festive Fanque Tower was filled with constant screaming.
When Lu Yuanpeng was at home, he had heard his grandfather say that Left Chancellor Li Mao and others were doing inhuman things… memorializing to request the Emperor punish Bai Qingyan, essentially feeling that burning prisoners was cruel and worrying that if they encountered warfare in the future, others would also kill Jin soldiers without mercy. These people knew how to worry about things that hadn’t even happened to the Jin Kingdom yet.
“You know what? I hate you types the most – useless at everything, spending all day drinking and whoring like us wastrels, greedy for life and afraid of death, not daring to go to the battlefield to sacrifice for the Kingdom. When others win battles, you sit here spouting shit and pointing fingers, saying this is wrong and that is wrong… If you’re so capable, why don’t you go? With you and that shameless villain Li Mao, if thrown on a battlefield you’d probably be so scared you’d shit and piss your pants! Yet you have the nerve to criticize others for killing prisoners! You take fifty thousand troops and go fight Xiliang’s hundreds of thousands!” Lu Yuanpeng stepped hard on the man’s nearly naked chest: “If you don’t kill prisoners, then go win one battle!”
The man being stepped on by Lu Yuanpeng immediately spat out blood. Sima Ping was even more red-eyed with rage, throwing the drunken Wei man out of the private booth, smashing the screen as he fell: “Damn it, future nations killing our Jin sons?! The future war hasn’t even been fought yet, and you can already calculate and predict! If you’re so afraid of death, go roll back to the Wei Kingdom!”
The courtesans at Fanque Tower feared being implicated and screamed while hiding everywhere. Some timid patrons rushed outside.
The pimps and Fanque Tower’s thugs blocked people at the door, afraid that some would take advantage of the chaos to run without paying. The madam stood on the high platform where dancers performed, jumping anxiously and waving her handkerchief while shouting hoarsely: “Stop fighting! Stop fighting! Oh, my little ancestors! Stop fighting! Don’t smash things!”
That night at Fanque Tower was extremely lively. First, several of the most famous wastrels in the capital smashed Fanque Tower to pieces and nearly caused deaths. Later, they alarmed the patrol battalion, who finally restrained the wastrels.
Patrol Battalion Commander Fan Yuhuai came angrily, but when he saw that these were all little ancestors from the capital’s powerful families, his head immediately ached.