Chapter 203

【Act VII: Lifespan Over a Hundred, The Strategist Saint Returns to Heaven】

Jiang Shang lived a long, long time.

Experiencing King Wen, King Wu, King Cheng, King Kang... it is said he lived to be over a hundred.

In his later years, he wrote books and established theories, recording his lifelong strategy and military insights (the "Six Secret Teachings" later attributed to him).

Finally, he spent his peaceful later years in the Qi State, passing away without illness.

From a marketplace butcher to a founding father, from a Wei River fisherman to the originator of military strategy.

His life was an epic of strategy.

Coming out of the mountains at eighty is not late, dying at a hundred, what he left behind is enough for later generations to ponder for thousands of years.

【Heavenly Screen General Review: "This old gentleman is a bug."】

【Others play strategy, playing chess within the rules; he comes up, directly flips the chessboard, redraws one, and incidentally sets new rules.】

【He can endure, living in poverty in the marketplace for decades, his ambition not reduced;

He can decide, resolutely coming out of the mountains at eighty, assisting a wise lord, setting a grand plan;

He can plan, clipping wings, waiting for opportunities, step by step;

He can fight, the Battle of Muye, attacking the heart as the priority, crushing everything;

He can govern, adapting to local conditions, enriching the people and strengthening the country.】

【He is a strategist, a military strategist, a statesman, and the founding ancestor of the strategist trade.

All later military strategists and strategists have benefited from him to some extent.

Zhuge Liang compared himself to Guan Zhong and Yue Yi, but for Jiang Ziya, he was worshiped like an ancestor tablet.】

【Half a life of hibernation, flying into the sky in one go; patching the sky with one hand, stabilizing the tripod for eight hundred years.】

【This merit, this legend, this ultimate interpretation of the two words "strategy," made him sit firmly in the third chair, unshakable by anyone.】

【Third Place on the List of the Ten Great Strategists of History—Jiang Ziya, Review Completed!】

【Heavenly Dao Blessing: Thirty-six years of lifespan added! Awarded one hundred thousand catties of "corn" seeds, a heavenly harvest! Awarded one hundred thousand catties of "potato" seeds, a treasure of the earth!】

(Note: Jiang Shang's merit covers a thousand ages, his lifespan exceeds a hundred, and he is nearly fulfilled. Granting lifespan adds to his legend; granting high-yield grain seeds "corn" and "potato" fits his governing philosophy of enriching the people and strengthening the country, allowing the people of his Qi State and even the world to have more fullness and warmth, benefiting for generations, merit in the present, benefit for a thousand autumns.)

Ying Zheng had already stood up.

He looked up at the figure of the white-haired old man on the heavenly screen, a hot thing colliding in his chest.

Jiang Ziya... this is the ultimate form of a strategist in his mind!

No, this has already transcended a strategist!

This is an imperial teacher, a founder, a sage who can play against heaven and earth and open peace for all generations!

"Great talent... no, it's sage talent!"

Ying Zheng's voice trembled a bit, it was excitement, and also a kind of sudden enlightenment.

"I only knew the strategies of Shang Yang and Fan Ju in the past, thinking that planning for the country was nothing more than that. Today I know, the extreme realm of strategy is in Jiang Shang! In stabilizing the world, in creating a new dynasty!"

He turned around sharply, looking at Li Si, Wei Liao, and Wang Jian behind him, his eyes burning like fire: "Did you all hear? Did you all see?"

"We heard! We saw!"

The named important officials responded in unison, each with a flushed face.

They were experts, and they knew even better what that combo punch of Jiang Ziya meant.

It was almost opening a door to a new world for them—no, it was providing a ready-made, top-tier luxury reference manual for the great cause they were currently engaged in: "unifying the world"!

"Write it down! Write it down for me word for word, in detail!"

Ying Zheng almost roared, "The profit of salt and iron, the system of soldiers and people, the policy of farming and war, the strategy of diplomacy... what Jiang Shang did is exactly what my Great Qin needs right now!"

"No, what my Great Qin wants to do is bigger and stronger than him! But this path, this principle, is connected in one vein!"

He turned his head sharply, looking at the calm "Guo Shi" Gu Shanhe on the high platform, his gaze burning as if it were about to burn:

"Guo Shi! This list... this list is great! Jiang Shang's strategy is the right path to enrich the country, strengthen the army, and unify the world! I... have been taught!"

It was not just Ying Zheng.

At this very moment, in the myriad worlds, any monarch with ambition and any minister with talent for governing the world,

Were all shocked, attracted, and... frightened by Jiang Shang's huge, precise, cold, and efficient "hegemony system."

Emperor Wu of Han, Liu Che, would think of the Salt and Iron Debate, thinking of the economic blockade against the Xiongnu.

Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, would ponder the logic behind the Fubing system and the Equal-field system.

Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang would ponder how to better control salt taxes and the Weisuo military system.

Even the great masters on the grassland were thinking about how to deal with this kind of "soft knife killing" economic warfare.

Jiang Shang was ranked third.

Then, the top two who could surpass this "originator of military strategy" and "chief engineer of the founding of the Zhou Dynasty"...

Everyone, without exception, held their breath and continued to look up at the heavenly screen.

【Second Place Among the Ten Great Strategists of History: Zhang Liang (Courtesy name Zifang)】

【Era: Late Qin → Early Han】

【Titles: Strategist Saint, Imperial Teacher, First of the Three Heroes of the Early Han】

The right part of the heavenly screen slowly revealed a poem:

"Scattering thousands of gold for revenge, planning a strategy to settle the universe.

Can advance to Hongmen to fight the heroes, can retreat to the mountains to accompany the white clouds."

The heavenly screen's voice rose slowly.

【Zhang Liang, courtesy name Zifang. In the strategist trade, he is an "immortal."】

【It's not that he really became an immortal, but that he could always maintain a detached clarity in the bloodiest games, and find the simplest winning path in the most chaotic times.】

【Others rush for fame and profit; he set off for revenge, paused for "choosing a master," and finally floated away for "escaping."】

【His life was a precise calculation, calculating not only the grand trends of the world, but also the scale of human hearts and the trajectory of his own fate.】

Below are a few major events in his life:

【Act I: Five Generations as Han Chancellor, A Strike at Bolangsha】

The scene comes to the capital of the Han State at the end of the Warring States period, a noble mansion.

The young Zhang Liang was dressed in brocade and jade, exceptionally intelligent, his family having been Han chancellors for five generations; he was a refined noble son born with a silver spoon, destined to inherit his father's and grandfather's career and assist the King of Han.

However, the black flood of the Qin army crushed all this.

230 BC, Qin destroyed Han.

Zhang Liang watched with his own eyes as the ancestral temple of his country collapsed and the glory of his family vanished into smoke.

He went from a noble son to a man of a destroyed country.

Family wealth? Scattered! Servants? Dismissed!

He sold everything he could sell, leaving only one sentence:

"Qin is a tyranny, destroying my country; this hatred is irreconcilable!"

He began his exile, while secretly visiting dead soldiers who could kill the First Emperor of Qin.

Finally, he found a warrior capable of lifting a tripod and had a large iron pestle weighing one hundred and twenty catties forged for him.

218 BC, the First Emperor of Qin toured the east.

Zhang Liang found out the route and ambushed with the warrior at Bolangsha (modern-day Yuanyang, Henan).