Chapter 31

I was busy farming away in the heat, while the campaign had already come to an end with a crushing defeat of the allied forces by the Jin Kingdom. Yet the profound aftershocks of this battle were far from over. First, people began using prisoners of war in combat—a practice unprecedented before, which nations quickly adopted one after another. Second, I had set a terrible precedent. From then on, all etiquette vanished from the battlefield. Previously, armies would always line up neatly and exchange names before launching an attack. Ever since I initiated that surprise raid beneath the city walls, warfare across all nations ceased to follow the old, conventional rules. Even worse, throwing stones became the norm.