Not every era was as peaceful as the more than two hundred years since the founding of the Great Liang Dynasty.

A long, long time ago, before there was a Great Wall in the Northern Frontier, before there were wardens, the demon race from the north could march south whenever they wished. Within human territory, there were demons everywhere, choosing people to devour.

That dynasty was called the Great Jin.

Perhaps because the founding emperor of the Great Jin had seized the throne by usurping it from his lord, he never truly won the people’s support. It even seemed as though heaven itself disapproved. The founding emperor had just passed away when the new emperor who ascended the throne actually turned out to be a fool.

Even in the annals of history, such absurdity was a rare occurrence.

For the ruler of a nation to be a fool was disastrous for the realm, but for the feudal kings stationed across the land, it was an opportunity. Soon enough, the land descended into chaos. Seven or eight feudal kings raised their banners in rebellion, plunging the entire realm into turmoil.

The common people already lived difficult lives. With war raging everywhere, there was truly no path left for survival.

Fortunately, the court still had capable ministers. In the face of the rebellions, they remained composed, raised armies, and fought against the insurgents. After a full ten years, they finally suppressed the widespread uprisings.

By quelling the rebellions of the feudal kings, they at least prevented the dynasty from collapsing in its second generation. In a sense, they preserved some dignity for the ruling house.

But ten years of warfare had emptied the national treasury and inflicted immense suffering upon the people.

When a state runs out of money, it either targets merchants or the common people. Years of war had already ruined the merchants, leaving them with nothing to exploit, so they could only set their eyes on the common people.

Thus, in those years, taxes on the common folk became unbearably heavy. Many labored in the fields for an entire year, only to end up without enough food to survive.

From that point on, more people starved to death than were devoured by demons.

At the time, had the demon race chosen to march south, humanity might have been wiped out entirely, their lands falling under demon rule henceforth. But perhaps the demons found humans too weak to even bother conquering, allowing them to eke out a meager existence.

It was precisely this indifference from the demon race that allowed humanity to endure its darkest days, until a wise ruler finally arose on that land.

The fourth emperor of the Great Jin ascended to the highest seat of power.

He took the throne at the age of twenty and immediately set about saving the realm. He reformed taxes and eased punishments. In just over a decade, he restored vitality to the land.

But just as he was about to realize his grand ambitions, the demon race marched south.

It was said that upon hearing this news, the emperor cursed the villainous heavens in his palace for half a day, and that very night, he died of anger.

The crown prince naturally succeeded to the throne. Facing the demon race, this young emperor did not choose to surrender from the outset. After all, his father had left him a realm that was still in relatively good condition.

Thus, he organized the army and prepared to wage a proper war against the demons.

But he had still greatly underestimated the demon race. The army of the Great Jin were defeated from the very beginning. The demons were not hindered in the slightest and simply continued marching south. At that time, the imperial city fell completely into chaos.

The officials were scattered in spirit, the common people were filled with fear. It was only with great difficulty that a court session was convened, yet fewer than half of the usual ministers attended.

In the great hall of deliberation, the young emperor whose face still carried traces of youth forced himself to remain composed. Looking at the panicked officials before him, he said coldly, “It will not be so easy for the demon race to march south. Our Great Jin has hundreds of thousands of armored troops. No matter what, we still have the strength to fight.”

Although the young emperor’s expression was grim and his words steady, not a single official present was willing to believe him.

A tall, thin civil official stepped out from among the court officials. Facing the young emperor, he knelt and said, “Your Majesty, the overall situation is already lost. We are no match for the demon race. At this moment, the most important thing is to relocate the capital. We should move south, where it will be safer, and then send envoys to negotiate with the demons. Their march south is only to obtain certain things, they will not truly wish to fight us to the death. Although they have the power to destroy us, they would not pay such a heavy price just to wipe us out.”

The official spoke bluntly, leaving the emperor no room for dignity. The court officials present were alarmed, yet remained silent, unable to find any reason to refute him.

The young emperor flew into a rage. “The realm passed down by our ancestors, are we abandoning it just like that? How do you want Us to face Imperial Father after death? How to face the ancestors?!”

The official looked at the emperor and sighed inwardly, but still said, “Your Majesty, the current situation is not one that can be resolved by merely giving up some land. If this continues and we provoke the demon race, it will not be just a matter of losing territory, the entire realm will collapse, and countless common people will suffer. Even if not for yourself, Your Majesty must consider the people of the world. For their sake, Your Majesty must leave!”

In the end, the official still left the young emperor a shred of dignity. With matters brought to this point before the court, the young emperor no longer insisted and agreed to move south.

“For the sake of the people... this is the only way.”

The young emperor’s voice echoed through the hall in the end.

The court officials hurried back home to pack their belongings. The imperial dragon carriage had been waiting for a long time. The young emperor walked out of the great hall, stood before it, and wept for a long while.

Seeing this scene, some palace attendants turned their heads away, unable to bear watching it.

The eunuch closest to the emperor looked at him and gently consoled, “Your Majesty, do not be too upset.”

With tears filling his eyes, the young emperor choked out, “Thinking that We may never return in this lifetime, how can it not be heartbreaking?”

......

......

In the end, the imperial carriage departed. The palace attendants also followed south. The imperial city, aside from a very small number of those left behind, was left empty.

“Do you think he should be considered weak?”

Chen Chao, who had been observing coldly all along, finally spoke to Lu Ji, who stood beside him and appeared no more than middle-aged.

Chen Chao pondered the question for a long time before saying, “If he fought, he definitely wouldn’t win. But if he didn’t fight at all, it still feels lacking.”

Lu Ji looked at Chen Chao and asked, “What if it were you?”

Chen Chao was not in a hurry to speak.

“Fight a battle with no chance of victory, at most, more people die. If we don’t fight, the cost may also be great, but in the end, some people might still survive. Do you think that’s acceptable?”

Lu Ji looked at Chen Chao before him, as if he truly wanted to hear an answer from this young Lord Warden Commander.

Chen Chao shook his head. “If it were me, I would definitely fight. Even if I couldn’t win, I would still fight. I have no way to decide who should die and who shouldn’t. If we fight, then everyone faces it together - who dies, dies. If we don’t fight, the people in the north suffer first. After that, when negotiating peace, who becomes the sacrifice? To those who were chosen, it wouldn’t be fair to them either.” 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

Lu Ji frowned. “So you think everyone dying together is better than selecting a portion to die?”

Chen Chao nodded. “Yes.”

Lu Ji fell silent. This kind of question, there were probably very few in the world who could even make such a choice, and those who could likely would not choose as Chen Chao did.

There was only one Chen Chao. Only he would choose like this, furthermore, do so without hesitation.

“You truly are a rare kind of person.”

Lu Ji lamented with vicissitudes of emotion, “Someone like you, if the nation is strong enough, you would be a great ruler of an era. But if the nation is not strong enough, you would only be a foolish ruler.”

Chen Chao said calmly, “Reputation is not frightening. I won’t change my way of thinking.”

“But have you considered, you still have to face the demon race, yet you are not the one whose word decides everything.”

Lu Ji said with concern, “If one day the person who does have the final say disagrees with you, what will you do? You can’t just cut him down with a saber, can you?”

Chen Chao smiled. “If that day really comes, I’ll put my saber on his neck and cover his mouth. Then everyone will have to listen to me.”

Lu Ji was left speechless, unsure what to say.

Chen Chao suddenly joked, “But Senior, when you were young, you probably weren’t very handsome either. If you had a daughter, I wouldn’t be able to bring myself to marry her.”

Lu Ji frowned and said angrily, “What do you know? Back then, a princess almost married into this old man's family!”

Chen Chao laughed. “Probably a princess no one else wanted.”

Lu Ji was furious and was just about to speak when Chen Chao said, “Look ahead.”

In the palace corridor ahead, a woman in court attire was holding a sword to her neck, her face cold as she looked at the surrounding attendants. “His Majesty may abandon the nation, that is beyond my control. But I cannot leave. I can only die here, together with the legacy of our ancestors!”

Hearing the emperor’s consort speak like this, the attendants all wept.

The sound of crying grew loud.

Chen Chao said, “Look, the emperor is not even as resolute as a woman.”

Lu Ji said, “But this doesn’t accomplish anything.”

Chen Chao looked at Lu Ji very seriously and shook his head. “Senior, many things in this world are useless, but they must still be done. Because if no one does these ‘useless’ things, then this world will truly become irredeemable, beyond saving.

“Many people could have lived, yet still died. Many know their actions won’t change anything, yet still act. It’s not because they’re foolish, but because they know it will have meaning - not now, but in the future.”

Lu Ji frowned. “Can blood really make people remember?”

Chen Chao shook his head. “It’s not blood, it’s backbone.”

“Why did the Great Jin fall? Because its backbone was broken. Like a stray dog without a home, even if some backbone remained, it was no longer in the men, but in the women. How could such a dynasty not fall?”

Chen Chao said, “What Senior wanted me to see should be the most tragic period in human history, right?”

After seeing all this, Chen Chao had already guessed some of it. What Lu Ji wanted him to witness was that time when the land was collapsing, when all of humanity was in its darkest era.

Lu Ji nodded. “To you, these things may be nothing more than a dream. But to me, they truly happened, every bit of it real. On those nights, I think of these things again and again. I can’t forget them, and I don’t dare to forget.”

Chen Chao sighed. “It truly is difficult.”

What he meant by difficult was that he could not imagine how the common people of that time had managed to live through it, it was simply too hard. [The title Yellow Millet makes no sense, but I think it's likely referencing 黄粱一梦. an ancient story called "The World Inside a Pillow" 枕中记]