Even though Ling Qingyu had made a solemn promise in the vehicle, the journey had already begun the day she transmigrated into this world.
It started within a city, gradually expanded to a province, and would soon envelop a country—judging by her actions so far.
Even when only glimpsing the surface—re book covers, not the depths—Ling Qingyu felt a growing resistance to accepting everything as the universal law of the strong preying on the weak.
What Xiao Yue had said earlier shed light from a different perspective. The saying "You can never truly understand another unless you've experienced it yourself" struck deeper in Ling Qingyu's heart than ever before.
She had long understood the essence of that phrase since arriving in this world. Now, it illuminated her thoughts even more.
As Xiao Yue ntioned, in ancient tis, suffering was downplayed—for both n and won.
Most tales revolved around main characters, glorifying their deeds and achievents while ignoring the corpses that paved their path.
Even sufferings, most of the ti, were highlighted on n. It wasn't surprising since history had shown won were considered as decorations or pets, not human beings in the old era.
Nobody knew or told these won's lives afterward. What was the living condition and experience after surviving the tragedies?
Even those who were sold as tributes, their situations could only be imagined from a bystander's eyes.
In addition, ancient armies were starkly different from today's ideologically grounded modern militaries—though not all modern nations adhered to such ideals.
Country E, for example, was a clear case of a failed military institution: one that oppressed its civilians and abused its power. Other poorer nations with low living standards were likely similar.
Historically, military forces rarely existed to serve and protect the public. To put it politely, they were the obedient dogs of the elite.
This sentint was echoed in old sayings comparing the military to bandits—so even claiming the military was worse.
After all, from the people's point of view, bandits stole quickly and often feared retaliation from the "official gang." But the military?
They looted thoroughly and shalessly, especially during tis of war.
That's why war often ca hand-in-hand with famine and disaster. And looting didn't stop at food or money—it extended to human beings, for slavery, exploitation, or even consumption.
Sexual tools to indulge in the soldiers' pleasure to vent their stress. Or pure cannon fodders to use as human shields, taking in damages from enemies' attack to preserve strength.
The worse case referred to cannibalism.
The common people suffered doubly—first from war, then from the skyrocketing cost of food due to manipulated markets.
Ironically, the very soldiers who stole their food would often return as sellers, peddling it at extortionate prices to the sa victims they had just bullied.
In the end, everyone endured tornt—everyone except the aristocrats, who enjoyed the luxuries paid for by the blood of others dying in their wars.
Ling Qingyu didn't have to look too far back into history. Modern conflicts still bore the sa grotesque patterns.
Reports and footage of war cris were still surfacing in various parts of the world.
Many cases showed a column of soldiers storming into a village under the pretense of hunting down enemies.
They might retaliate their losses on the weak and justify their vengeance while committing cris.
Too many to count where soldier raided villages and rampaged everything. Loots, pure killings to sadistic desire or to find won.
The villagers had no moral ground to protest or legal ans to resist. What could they do at gunpoint?
That was why most village leaders, in tis of conflict, tried to appease whichever soldiers ca—regardless of allegiance.
They'd offer food, money, or, in the extre cases, even willing won—anything to pacify the soldiers and spare their people further suffering.
Willing or volunteers as in everybody knew how that worked in reality.
Out of the public eye, tragedy attracted no pity or justice. When reports finally surfaced, the dead beca just numbers—enemy body counts or propaganda to sway international opinion.
The innocents always bore the brunt of it, despite international laws and humanitarian standards.
In this world, at least, the World Governnt took more vigorous actions to prevent such horrors.
But unless the atrocity reached an intolerable scale, the World Governnt often had little incentive to intervene.
And more often than not, cris were well-hidden, buried without a trace—until a whistleblower cracked open the silence.
Yet out of the many atrocities, how many ever ca to light? People could only guess and extrapolate upwards.
According to Athena, Ling Qingyu had read a report from a year ago that had shocked the international community.
Four teachers, working near a separatist conflict zone, had been raped and murdered.
Protests erupted. The governnt first denied the charges, blaming the separatists. But too many eyes and ears on the ground contradicted their story.
Still, the regi stuck to its narrative—until mounting protests and pressure from the World Governnt demanded justice.
Even then, they only ordered the military to investigate itself. Naturally, no evidence was found. Just so "ordinary cris" unrelated to any soldiers.
Such outcos were all too common. How many victims continued to suffer in silence around the world?
In war, no one was truly spared—except for a select few with vision, superior status, or foreknowledge to avoid danger or send others to die in their place.
Ling Qingyu had studied the history of her past world, where World War I and World War II brought unprecedented casualties and devastation in remarkably short spans of ti.
Civilian deaths from direct violence, war-related famine, disease, and genocide numbered in the tens of millions.
Even World War I, often seen as less devastating to civilian populations due to the manner in which it was waged, still resulted in 10 million deaths.
World War II, on the other hand, claid over 40 million civilian lives.
These numbers only reflected civilian casualties—excluding military deaths entirely.
Statistics showed that civilian deaths often outnumbered military ones. Estimates placed civilian fatalities at 60 to 65 percent of total war-related deaths.
The numbers might never be perfectly accurate, but the scale remained valid.
A/N: Please support on Webnovel, if you are reading from other sites to support the author's poor life. After all, I'm also depending on my lovely readers to eat. Sorry, my 700 anniversary is about gloomy topics (!~v~!)
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