Chapter 1707: 12. The other shore of good and evil(24)

Good and evil.
This is the eternal proposition of intelligent creatures.
To outline and distinguish the black and white good and evil of various behaviors with countless invisible lines, build a minimum trust relationship by restricting behaviors, and maintain the social structure and operation.
It is precisely because there is a relative boundary that you understand what can be done and what will be punished for order to exist. As for how to consolidate and maintain it later, it is another matter. First, there must be a clear dividing line.
Having said that, in fact good and evil are only abstract relative concepts, and the boundary is not always clear.
Goodness supported by millions of tons of blood; sacrifice of hundreds of thousands of evils to protect tens of millions of people;
Which side is more in line with the definition of good and which side is closer to the standard of evil?
Faced with such a keen problem, no one can easily assert the boundary between good and evil unless they have extremely clear values ​​and hard hearts from the start, and I am afraid that people will continue to argue for thousands of years.
Roland and Minerva and others faced similar problems.
The rebellion against the imperial dominance may be more in line with the image of "a hero who rises up against the power" in the impression of most people, and is closer to the definition of justice and goodwill by most people. But in turn, this is a war with little chance of victory, destined to pass away many lives. Their resistance will inevitably make the war more protracted and cruel. Many lives that did not have to die have to suffer sacrifice and pain. From this result, they are undoubtedly "evil".
It was foreseeing this that Roland smiled bitterly and said that later generations of historians would rebuke them.
The value of peace is defined by how much human lives are sacrificed? Or is it defined by whether the concept is lofty or not? Machiavellians and realists will definitely choose the former one, idealists will not necessarily insist on the latter option, but will tend to the latter option.
From Roland's own point of view, both options have their own reasonableness, and it is not a responsible practice to bias either party or come up with a compromise.
Perhaps because the existence of a victim can highlight the importance of peace, the deceased can be infinitely sacred and absolute, and even the value of peace can be measured by the number of lives lost. Is this too much for people living under peace? Harsh? The deceased’s expectations should not be to increase the value of peace with his own death, but to hope that those living in peace can be happy?
Being able to treat incompetence and cowardice as a sin is peace. This is what Li Lin once said.
Even though such harsh words are still reasonable. However, Roland believes that as long as fathers, brothers, husbands, and sons are not allowed to carry guns to the front, there is no need for the elderly, women, and children who stay behind to worry and wash their faces every day. They will not let children just over ten years old sit on special rockets. It serves as a human brain guidance device or rushes towards the crowd with a bomb. This is the value of peace.
Therefore, even hypocritical and temporary peace is better than a million times "a war dedicated to truth and justice."
In order to keep the peace of only one generation, he is willing to bear all the misunderstandings and infamy, whether it is stone, saliva, rotten eggs, he does not care.
but.
Roland didn't expect that he would be asked by an extremely simple question.
"I don't understand Dadao, but... people can accept such peace, can they understand the value of peace, and can the freshness of peace be maintained?"
After listening to the entire negotiation process, I wonder if it was because of unrest or imperial thinking based on a lack of trust in human nature. Marseille issued such a question.
After the negotiations between Roland and Li Lin were reached, all members of the "Liberty Legion" left Bonn through a third-party channel, and they will leave under the full surveillance of the empire (actually, deportation in disguise).
This is not to sell the face of the Republic. It is simply that since a compromise has been reached, continuing to pursue the issue of the "Legion of Freedom" will inevitably lead to the Republic and cast a shadow on the agreement that has been negotiated. Rather than spend more time dealing with trouble, simply send this group of guys abroad for later resolution.
Among these people, Marseille and others, as "republican diplomats involved in emergencies," were able to continue to stay to witness the signing ceremony of a series of subsequent agreements. After listening to the entire process of the negotiations from Roland and Minerva, Anrietta and Louis were relieved at the end of their mission, but Marseille couldn't help but ask the previous question.
For areas where politics, strategy, and technical difficulties are not areas of expertise, Marseille did not dare to speak easily, but he has some personal views on what the average person would think of this joint meeting.
Only those who have experienced war will understand the value of peace.
The emperor once said, "It's a good thing that war is so cruel, otherwise people will love it." Conversely, people have not experienced the cruelty of war and experienced the pain and destruction brought about by war, so that people can so easily hang "war" and "dedication" and so on. He said lightly, "What will happen even if the whole country is turned into scorched earth", "Compared with the truth of the truth, no matter how little is sacrificed," and so on.
As a former citizen of the Charlemagne Kingdom and a fourth-class citizen of the Empire, now a citizen of the Republic, Marseille knows this very well.
For those who have had enough of the overall war and are no longer willing to bleed because of unnecessary disputes, peace under the framework of the new order is certainly not satisfactory, but it is better than reigniting the war. But for those who have not experienced the craziness and cruelty of war personally, and feel that there is not enough blood to shed, such peace is worthless. Rather than enduring such a false peace, it is better to set off the war and use iron and blood to get everything you want.
"I know it cannot be generalized. There are some people who just follow the trend, some people know that the war will not burn themselves, and some people are purely willing to burn themselves for the realization of their ideals. Everyone has their own reasons to oppose the new Peace under order. If they don't care, sooner or later--"
"A new war will erupt."
Roland nodded, his eyes fixed on Marseille and said:
"This is not a hypothesis, but something that will happen sooner or later."
"That's it..."
"The emperor knew this too."
Stopped by the unexpected answer, Marseille couldn't help but feel a little dazed, and then suddenly two expressions of enlightenment and horror appeared on his face at the same time.
How could the emperor not think of a question that even he could think of. Since the emperor knew this situation long ago, he still insisted on pushing the situation in the established direction. The reason...
"He is waiting for someone to jump out and challenge the new order. If anyone dares to take the initiative, he will definitely use that country to demonstrate the consequences of challenging the new order. If everyone can suppress the impulse, he is also convinced that people will bear it. The next day, by that time, the empire had already completed preparations for the war, and it just happened to detonate the situation in one breath, starting the full-scale war they had already planned."
Roland's calm tone was mixed with depression and unhappiness, and Minerva on the side dropped his eyes and stared at the ground.
Li Lin will not say these words. The above is completely the conclusion drawn by Roland and Minerva through discussion and analysis, which is largely subjective. But if someone asks whether Li Lin will really do this, no one will deny it.
Li Lin never had expectations of human nature. He believed in the effectiveness of the alliance under the city more than the negotiated agreement. In fact, it is also true. History has repeatedly proven that bayonet and cannon are more reliable guarantees than moral preaching and expecting others to be honest and trustworthy. The famous proverb "Truth is always within the range of the cannon" is a straightforward statement of the facts.
As an international system that actually harms the interests of other countries, the most effective and effective way to allow other countries to honestly abide by the various agreements and treaties in the system is to wait for a certain spike to jump out and hang it Have a good meal. Other countries that are eager to try will naturally settle down after seeing such a situation.
"‘Because of the cruelty of war, peace is more valuable
— that guy would probably say that. Actually, it’s true, just—

Roland frowned, as if to spit out the dirt in his mouth:
"His proposition is certainly correct~EbookFREE.me~ but because it is too correct, it is even more unpleasant."
The teenagers on the side couldn't help but smile a little, and the leader of the "Liberty Legion" who can always objectively comment on the emperor will also have this emotional expression. But when he thought of his comment on the emperor, everyone was relieved.
The emperor is indeed always correct. In terms of results, every choice of the emperor has indeed avoided unnecessary bloodshed and really compressed the sacrifice to a minimum. But such a behavior that is supposed to be welcomed by all people is so cruel in its expression that the first thing people think of is not respect for human life, but meanness and ugliness. Feeling unhappy about this contradictory and unified phenomenon can be said to be an extremely normal reaction. The relationship between Roland and Li Lin is already very strong, which makes him feel three to five times as uncomfortable as ordinary people.
Roland did not indulge in unhappiness, and soon he switched his thinking back to the answer to Marseille.
"Although I don’t want to describe the people like this, for people outside the empire, even if they have always been "courageous" and always have a "rebellion consciousness", they are very clear anyway, as long as they hold high "hit the empire", The banner of "loyalty to patriotism", their government will not take them as they are. But no matter how strong and irresponsible the heroic fantasies are, it is not enough to be a reason for laissez-faire, let alone in their own country. In the absence of guarantees, hastily promoted a fierce conflict between the state and powerful forces."
Roland's words are only here, it seems that he does not intend to continue to explain, and it seems that he wants Marseille to understand and think.
Marseille, who is thinking hard, understands the deep meaning hidden under the seemingly careless explanation, and he will have to wait a few months to truly understand the meaning.