The first few letters from my brother Meng Bo were very happy, but after following the royal army to set foot in Teng Kingdom, and even after fighting two large-scale wars with the Teng Kingdom army, the atmosphere between the lines in the letter gradually became heavier.

Waiting until early November, when winter was approaching, Meng Zhong was about to take his mother Ge to Zhuangziju to stay for another winter. Suddenly, Meng Hu rushed into the yard and shouted: "A Zhong, A Zhong, some tribe members who went to the battlefield are back."

When Meng Zhong heard this, he followed Meng Hu to the east of the township.

From afar, Meng Zhong heard a tragic cry, which made his heart skip a beat.

Sure enough, in the crowded crowd, more than a dozen carts were parked, and the carts were filled with corpses. More than a dozen sisters-in-law and aunts in the clan were lying on the bodies in the car, howling and crying.

"I've seen it if Brother Mengbo is not there."

Meng Hu secretly told Meng Zhong that he seemed to feel relieved when he looked relieved, and Meng Zhong also secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Suddenly, a child of the Meng family, who was about five or six years older than Meng Zhong, walked up to Meng Zhong and asked, "You are Meng Bo's younger brother Meng Zhong, right?"

"Who are you……"

Meng Zhong looked at the visitor carefully and saw that the other party was wearing armor, his eyes were deep and his eyes were deep, his face was gray and expressionless.

"I am Mengzhi. Your brother asked me to bring you some letters, and he asked me to tell you that those letters should not be seen by others." As he said that, the brother of the tribe who claimed to be Mengzhi took a package from the horse-drawn cart and handed it to Mengzhong.

"It turns out that he is the clan brother who had a conflict with Uncle Meng Zhi because of questioning this war."

Meng Zhong suddenly realized and thanked him after taking the package.

Meng Zhi nodded and left on his own.

Only then did Meng Zhong notice that the clan brother limped while walking, as if he was seriously injured in his leg.

After taking a look at the package in his hand, Meng Zhong looked up at the dozen horse-drawn carts filled with corpses.

There were about forty corpses on these horse-drawn carts, all of which were the corpses of his Meng family. Only the corpses of the Meng family were carried back to their hometowns in a cart. As for the corpses of the other family slaves and refugees, most of them had been buried on the spot in the Teng Kingdom area.

Because Meng Zhong didn't see any of them.

At this time, the elders Meng Jian, Meng Hu and others in the clan were coming forward to appease the women in the clan who had lost their son and husband. Not long after, the sect leader Meng Hu also appeared with the young sect leader Meng Wu. Everyone was in a very depressed mood, whether it was Meng Zhong, Meng Hu, or the Meng clan people watching.

Not daring to continue to stay in that sad place, Meng Zhong came to his own field and in the thatched hut next to the field, he opened the package brought by his brother Monberto Mengzhi.

As he guessed, the package was also a thick stack of letters from home with cloth as a vehicle, which was obviously the letters sent back last time.

Article 1:

"On August 19th, in the past ten days, we destroyed three villages and killed hundreds of unarmed Teng people. Meng Chun, a brother from the west of the village, left his weapons and said that this was a violent killing. He was scolded by Shi Dan. He asked Uncle Meng Qing to punish Meng Chun. The young people in the clan stood up angrily, scaring that Shi Dan looked ugly. In the end, Uncle Meng Qing stopped the incident, but the morale of the tribe was getting lower and lower."

Article 2:

"On August 21st, today we were attacked by a Teng Army. I killed two Teng soldiers. Finally, I could slaughter innocent Teng people without having to slaughter the innocent Teng people without conscience. I breathed a sigh of relief. When I checked the bodies after the war, I found that the Teng soldier I killed was holding a bunch of hair in my hand, and suddenly felt very uncomfortable. In his hometown, this Teng soldier who was killed by me, perhaps a young woman was praying for him day and night, praying that he could return safely."

Article 3:

"On August 23, the resistance of Teng Kingdom became increasingly fierce. Due to the slaughter of our Song people, more and more Teng Kingdom people fled to Teng City. Under the leadership of Teng Hu, they resisted us together. Teng Hu is Teng Hong's son, and now the monarch of Teng Kingdom."

Chapter 4:

"On August 25, we attacked the 'gongqiu'. The one who guarded the city was Sima of Teng's Kingdom. When attacking this city, the military and civilians of Teng's Kingdom in the city joined forces to resist us. In addition, there were some men wearing cloth clothes and bald feet. These barefoot men were all very powerful. A sword alone could prevent three or five infantrymen from getting close. But in the end, these people were shot to death by our bows and arrows. Uncle Meng Zhi called them "Mozhe". Who was that? Was he the helper invited by Teng's Kingdom?"

Chapter 5:

"On August 29th, today we captured Gongqiu. The Sima of the Army ordered the slaughter of all the men in the city who had participated in helping defend the city. I followed Uncle Meng Zhi and met a team of Teng people, two men, three women, one man, two women, three children under ten years old. They were protected by three or four ‘Momen’s hands holding sharp swords. One of them asked Uncle Meng Zhi, ‘Why do you want to help the raging King of Song to poke the innocent people in Teng’. Uncle Meng Zhi did not answer, but only told the Momen that they did not belong to this war and could leave. But the Momen did not leave, saying that it was to protect the group of Teng people and was willing to sacrifice themselves. Finally, we killed the Momen and the men in Teng. From the body of one of the Momen, I found a few pieces of cloth with many words written on it, mostly the remarks of a man named ‘Juzi’. I secretly hid it and didn’t dare to tell others.”

Article 6:

"On the fourth day of the ninth month, I made a mistake a few days ago. That 'Jiuzi' is not a name, but a leader of the Mo family. The men called the 'Mozi' are disciples of the Mo family. This is a group of righteous men who advocate both love and oppose war. When they learned that our Song Kingdom was attacking Teng Kingdom, they gathered from all directions to Teng Kingdom, and did not ask for anything to protect the Teng people to resist us. It is said that the earliest leader of the Mo family, "Mozi", was also a native of my Song Kingdom."

Chapter 7:

"On the sixth day of the ninth month, I secretly looked at the cloth that was the cloth that recorded the remarks of "Jiuzi". Mozhe was really a group of righteous men who sacrificed themselves for others... As soon as I learned, the Confucian saint "Mencius" now lives in seclusion in his hometown "Zou (zōu) Kingdom". Today, his disciples "Wanzhang", "Gongsun Chou", "Chen Zhen (zhēn)" and others came to the army, as if they were persuading the army Sima (Jing Qian) to stop attacking the Teng Kingdom. It is said that the army Sima was very unhappy because of this, but because he respected Mencius' reputation and did not dare to make things difficult for them, he sent these people to see the King of Song, saying that it was difficult to disobey the king's order. If these people could persuade the King of Song to stop this war, he would immediately withdraw his troops."

Chapter 8:

"On the eighth day of the ninth month, we followed the king's army to the capital of Teng's State of Teng. According to Sima, Tenghu, the monarch of Teng State, has summoned Teng people from all over the country and Mo people who came to help, ready to defend the city. Meng Zhishu said that it doesn't matter whether Teng people or Mo people are actually. What he is worried about is the attitude of Qi and Lu. It is said that Lu is a big country in the north of Teng State, which seems to be comparable to our Song State; while Qi is a country stronger than Lu State. Meng Zhishu said that if the troops of Qi and Lu countries intervene in this war, it will be difficult for us to win. However, in private, the clan brothers are no longer concerned about whether they can win this war. We hope to end the war as soon as possible and return to the hometown of Jingbo as soon as possible."

Article 9:

"On the ninth day of the ninth month, we were defeated by the army led by Sima Bi Zhan of Teng. Because the people in the army miss their hometowns more and more, they resisted this war more and more. Not only us, but the tribesmen of other families such as Hua and Le were the same. It is said that the army Sima originally wanted to punish us, but Uncle Meng Qing and the family Sima of other families united to resist, and made the army Sima give up the punishment for us, but we must assist the king's army to capture Tengcheng. It is said that the army Sima told Uncle Meng Qing and others that if he was defeated, the King of Song would kill him, and before that, he would order us to be executed. Uncle Meng Qing had no choice."

Article 10:

"On September 11th, we defeated the army of Sima of Teng's state today, but I was not happy at all, because Uncle Meng Zhi said that the military and civilians of Teng's state and the Mo people who helped Teng's state were all desperate and fearless, but our army was depressed. If we could not break through Teng City as soon as possible, we might not be able to support Teng's state. I think Uncle Meng Zhi was right, because I already hated this war."

Article 11:

"On September 14th, there was no war today. Since several clan uncles who were "Car Officials" had died in battle, Uncle Meng Zhi recommended me to be a chariot officer and took a clan army to patrol and guard nearby to prevent the Teng people from sneaking attacks us. During this period, while drinking water by the river, I suddenly found that my appearance had changed a lot. My eyes seemed to be dead, and I felt afraid that when I saw it myself, I was afraid that when I returned home the next day, my mother and my brother would not recognize me."

Article 12:

"September 16th, today is the first battle to attack Tengcheng. Tengcheng is the capital of Teng Kingdom. The walls are very high. The king's army built many ladders for climbing the city, but they never attacked the city wall. I saw that there seemed to be a woman on the wall. Even the women of Teng Kingdom began to bravely resist us. Can we still conquer this city? In this battle, the clan brother Meng Zhi's right leg was injured. In fact, many people suspected that he was injured by himself, because like Meng Chun and other clan brothers, he had been doubting this war, but now everyone understands that

It’s us who are unrighteous, not Teng Kingdom. Despite the doubts, no one went to expose it. Uncle Meng Qing asked Meng Zhi to take the corpses of his tribe back to his hometown. Everyone else was envious. I was going to ask him to bring these letters back. Afterwards, my brother Meng Heng asked me privately whether Meng Zhi was injured by himself. I said I didn’t know. I was also thinking whether I could hurt myself, because I could go back to my hometown because I was injured, but I finally gave up because there was too much blood from Teng people on my sword. I was afraid that their blood would drill into my body and would curse me."

『…』

Seeing these twelve family letters, Meng Zhong was speechless for a long time.

Those who benefit from the war will always be just a small group of people. The parties involved in the war, whether they are the Song people or the Teng people, are actually the victims.
Chapter completed!