In his youth, Zhao Sheng had accompanied his grandfather and father on campaigns and had witnessed the Bai Family Army… The soldiers of the Bai Family Army all possessed a sharp and fierce aura that he had never seen in other armies of the Jin Kingdom, making them easily distinguishable.

“Let’s go!” Zhao Sheng said.

Zhao Ran led Zhao Sheng, whose body was half-soaked, through the dark and icy dungeon corridors toward the exit. The Great Liang generals imprisoned in the cells saw Zhao Ran and rushed to the prison doors, shouting, “General Zhao!”

However, Zhao Sheng, who regarded death as homecoming, didn’t turn his head back. He guessed… that Princess Zhenguo had the Bai Family Army bring him for interrogation, perhaps using the same methods his grandfather had once used against the Bai Family Army to deal with him, just as they had once dealt with his younger brother.

However, what surprised Zhao Sheng was that he wasn’t brought to a blood-reeking interrogation room, but instead to the military barracks where he had temporarily stayed when he had just recaptured the Qingxi Mountain Pass.

The legendary Princess Zhenguo Bai Qingyan, who was rumored to be near death, was kneeling at his desk, holding a lamp in her hand… carefully and slowly examining the maps found from his trunk.

Zhao Ran entered first to report to Bai Qingyan that Zhao Sheng had arrived. He also told Bai Qingyan: “After fighting fiercely all night, the defeated Great Liang generals have eaten all the flatbread we sent them… not even leaving a single crumb. But this Zhao Sheng hasn’t touched a single piece of bread.”

Bai Qingyan nodded, set down the oil lamp in her hand, and had Zhao Ran invite Zhao Sheng in.

After fighting fiercely all night, the exhausted Zhao Sheng had bloodshot eyes and stubble, appearing quite disheveled. In contrast, Bai Qingyan had changed into clean clothes. Although her eyes were also filled with red veins, and her naturally snow-white face made the dark circles under her eyes even more prominent, Bai Qingyan showed no sign of dishevelment whatsoever, maintaining a straight posture with a graceful and composed bearing.

Seeing Zhao Sheng enter, Bai Qingyan picked up the teapot warming on the small clay stove and poured him a cup of tea: “General Zhao, please.”

He walked to the opposite side of Bai Qingyan, knelt across from her with a desk between them, his gaze sweeping over the maps he had marked in detail, his palms tightening.

The Jin army’s assault on the city had come suddenly, and these were things Zhao Sheng hadn’t had time to destroy.

However, these maps weren’t anything remarkable—just a map encompassing Great Liang, Jin Kingdom, Xiliang, Wei Kingdom, the Rong and Di tribes, and Great Yan, with annotations marking each nation’s important passes.

“What does Princess Zhenguo wish to ask?” Zhao Sheng fixed his gaze on Bai Qingyan, his entire being disheveled yet still maintaining the pride of a fallen monarch.

“I’d like to ask General Zhao for a favor…” Bai Qingyan folded the map neatly and set it aside, meeting Zhao Sheng’s gaze directly as she spoke gently, “In the medical facility, some Liang soldiers infected with the plague refuse to take medicine… they’re determined to die for their Kingdom. I ask General Zhao to step forward and persuade them.”

Zhao Sheng was stunned. Ever since the Jin Kingdom and Great Liang had been afflicted with the plague, the price of medicinal herbs had multiplied again and again… Would the Jin Kingdom use their herbs on Great Liang prisoners?

Zhao Sheng had thought that, given Bai Qingyan’s character, after breaking through Qingxi Mountain Pass, she should have directly executed all plague-infected Liang soldiers and burned their corpses to avoid wasting food. Yet she… was giving medicine to Great Liang prisoners. What did this mean?

An absurd thought suddenly sprouted in Zhao Sheng’s mind. Almost without thinking, Zhao Sheng blurted out: “Princess Zhenguo, do you want my Great Liang soldiers to serve your Jin Kingdom?”

Under the bright candlelight, Bai Qingyan’s expression remained composed, her gaze profound, her voice extraordinarily calm and natural: “Hundreds of years ago, we had already… unified wheeltracks, unified writing, unified conduct. The various states were originally one family—where’s the need to distinguish between your Kingdom and my Kingdom?”

Zhao Sheng’s heart felt as if massive waves were surging within.

Unified wheeltracks, unified writing, unified conduct—these were the foundations of unification. Was Princess Zhenguo telling him… that the Jin Kingdom intended to unify the world, or… that she had the ambition to unify the world?

“Are you saying that this time Jin Kingdom sent Princess Zhenguo out of retirement for… destroying my Great Liang?” Zhao Sheng deliberately put on a mocking expression, yet lacked confidence entirely. The more he raised his voice, the more he was covering up his inner weakness.

With Great Liang’s first stronghold, Qingxi Mountain Pass, fallen, if Great Liang had no formidable generals and soldiers to resist further advance, and if the Jin Kingdom was united in purpose, it wouldn’t take many years before Great Liang would perish.

Bai Qingyan’s lips carried a faint smile. This smile held no killing intent, appearing calm and composed, unconsciously making one want to lower their guard. She said: “General Zhao, we military officers… what are we ultimately fighting and campaigning for? Have you ever considered this?”

Without waiting for Zhao Sheng to answer, Bai Qingyan continued: “It’s to protect the nation and secure the people, to gain benefits for the Kingdom, is it not?”

Zhao Sheng pressed his lips tightly together.

“But just to fight over a single city, to fight over a patch of fertile land, how many soldiers must die? Which soldier isn’t someone’s child, and which soldier isn’t someone’s father? Fine young men who take over ten years to mature are conscripted into armies, either dying courageously for national interests or fighting desperately on battlefields to protect their people! Watching your subordinate soldiers die one by one in battle… doesn’t General Zhao feel heartache?” Bai Qingyan lifted the teacup beside her, her voice carrying a sigh, “Take Yushan Pass for example—Great Liang and Jin Kingdom have fought over that single Yushan Pass for a hundred years. How many Liang soldiers’ bones are buried there, General Zhao surely knows, and how many Jin soldiers’ fresh lives are buried there, I also know very clearly.”

Did he feel heartache for the soldiers who died? Undoubtedly… Zhao Sheng did feel heartache!

He still remembered when he was young, the first time he went to battle with his grandfather, they faced the Bai Family Army. The uncle who had watched him grow up since childhood, to save him, was pierced through the throat by Bai Qishan’s arrow, and killed instantly!

In his youth… on that journey of campaigning, the young men who had played cuju and frolicked with him, who weren’t much older than he, later fell one by one in pools of blood, never able to return home. Zhao Sheng felt heartache for them too!

But besides the heartache, he also felt this was the soldiers’ duty, that the battlefield was the soldiers’ best destination!

But today, Princess Zhenguo’s words stirred up an intense contradiction within him!

Hundreds of years ago, when the world was unified, they were all people of the same nation, with unified wheeltracks, unified writing, and unified conduct. They even celebrated the same seasonal festivals. What exactly were they fighting for? What were they struggling over?

Were they protecting their homeland and defending their Kingdom, or were they… fighting for territory and profit for their monarchs and royal families?

“If the world were reunified as one family, no longer with various states governing separately, no longer with generals fighting countless battles… only for their motherland’s benefit, wouldn’t there be no more warfare in the world, with the entire nation at peace, the four seas tranquil, no more flesh and blood separated, no more elderly without support, no more families destroyed and people killed, no more nine out of ten households empty!” Bai Qingyan gazed at Zhao Sheng, whose pupils trembled lightly, and continued: “Common people busy with farming, merchants focused on trade, scholars peacefully studying, the world as one nation, all people under heaven as citizens of one nation, the seas calm and rivers clear, the world at peace… such days, doesn’t General Zhao want to see them?”