Chapter 124: A Knight-Errant

"After you leave Waihuang, do not go to Jiyang, nor to Taoqiu. I've heard from my retainers that those two places are currently under siege by Qin's Henei and Dongjun armies — it's not safe."

One day in late February, outside the north gate of Waihuang City, Zhang Er was bidding farewell to his father-in-law, his wife, and his eight-year-old son Zhang Ao.

Zhang Er was in his prime, around thirty-seven or thirty-eight, with a dark face and a long beard. He wore a light gauze robe, a small leather cap bound over his topknot, and a long sword hung at his waist.

He was a native of Daliang in Wei, of humble origins and poor circumstances. As a youth he became a minor wandering knight in the Liang markets, idling his days away on the streets. Because he delighted in championing righteousness, he earned a reputation for "loving justice."

Zhang Er's fate was changed in the thirtieth year of King Anxi of Wei (247 BC).

At that time, Wei was under fierce assault by Qin forces and on the brink of destruction. At the Wei king's repeated entreaties, Lord Xinling — who had fled to Handan after stealing the tally to save Zhao — finally ended his ten-year exile in Zhao.

Amid the hopes of Wei's soldiers and people, the prince returned to Daliang and shouldered the heavy task of forging a vertical alliance to resist Qin!

Those were the days that, recalling them now twenty years later, still made Zhang Er's heart race with longing. Lord Xinling accepted the Wei king's appointment as Supreme General. He contacted the various states east of the mountains, forming a five-state coalition of Wei, Chu, Zhao, Han, and Yan to jointly attack Qin. They dealt the Qin army a crushing defeat east of the river, forcing the Qin general Meng Ao to retreat and hold Hangu Pass. For several years, the Qin did not dare venture eastward.

The success of this allied strike against Qin made Lord Xinling's name resound across the realm once more, and his gates were thronged with guests!

The hot-blooded knight-errant Zhang Er, relying on his "loving justice" reputation, was able at that very time to defeat many competitors and throw himself under Lord Xinling's patronage, becoming his retainer!

Though he was only a minor guest, mingling among Lord Xinling's thousands of dependent scholars. Not only could he not compare to the once-renowned state scholars Hou Ying and Zhu Hai, he had even only glimpsed Lord Xinling's face from afar a few times.

In Zhang Er's eyes, his patron Lord Xinling, whom he could only look up to from a distance, was growing thinner and thinner.

Lord Xinling's spirit was lofty, but the reality of the Wei king's suspicion forced him to abandon himself to wine and women. He grew weaker by the day, until at last he passed away...

After Lord Xinling's death, apart from some guests who insisted on keeping vigil at his tomb, the remaining thousands of guests scattered almost overnight.

Having lost his patron, Zhang Er also lost his livelihood. He dispersed among the common folk and once again became a neighborhood knight-errant. But by this time, Wei was declining day by day under Qin's pressure. The livelihood of wandering knights who did not engage in productive labor grew ever harder, and conflicts between different knight factions became increasingly sharp — over turf disputes, blood was shed and lives were lost at the slightest provocation.

Ten years ago, while acting as a knight-errant in Daliang, Zhang Er accidentally killed a man. He was forced to strike his name from the registers and flee, hiding out in Waihuang County two hundred li to the east.

This was the place where his fate changed for the second time.

Waihuang lay two hundred li east of Daliang. The most famous wealthy family in the city was the Huang clan. Old Man Huang had a daughter, a renowned beauty throughout the Waihuang area. It was only a pity that she was matched with the wrong man — Old Man Huang had married her to an old associate of the Huangs, a scholar of noble birth but utterly mediocre character.

The virtuous daughter of the Huang clan was not only beautiful, but also proud and ambitious. Unable to endure her husband's mediocrity and foolishness, she did something that shook Waihuang County: she ran away!

She fled to the home of one of Old Man Huang's retainers. As it happened, Zhang Er was also hiding from Wei officials at that same retainer's house. This retainer was on good terms with Zhang Er and intended to play matchmaker. He said to the Huang woman: "If you truly seek a worthy husband, apart from Zhang Er, no man is fit to match a virtuous lady!"

And so, through the retainer's introduction, the Huang woman met Zhang Er. Although Zhang Er was of humble birth and a fugitive from justice, he was handsome, tall and broad-shouldered. Moreover, having spent time under Lord Xinling's patronage, he was widely experienced and his conversation was remarkably refined. He captured the Huang woman's heart in an instant...

During the Warring States period, customs were open, relations between men and women were relatively free, and marriage did not carry the later virtue of lifelong fidelity. A husband taking the initiative to cast aside his wife, or a wife taking the initiative to leave her husband — both were common occurrences. People parted on good terms, and no public opinion condemned them.

And so the virtuous Huang daughter ended her marriage to her mediocre former husband and remarried Zhang Er.

Zhang Er was a fugitive in Waihuang, destitute and without support. Now a beautiful woman from a wealthy family was willing to humble herself and marry him — it was truly a pie falling from the sky. He immediately agreed to the match.

Wei could not compare to Qin. Though it had written laws, personal connections were everywhere. As long as enough money was spent to grease the joints of the Daliang court, even a murder charge could be absolved.

And so, with the Huang family smoothing things over inside and out, Zhang Er was actually cleared of his crime!

Not only that — he also began to leverage his advantage as a former retainer of Lord Xinling. With the generous financial backing of his wife's family, he distributed wealth and championed justice, broadly befriending heroes. Light-limbed youths from near and far all came to pledge themselves to him. Thus Zhang Er, once a minor guest under Lord Xinling, became a patron himself, acclaimed as the foremost knight-errant of Waihuang.

By this time, Zhang Er's ambitions swelled further. Not content to be merely a underworld boss, he entered politics with the vocal support of his wife's family and his retainers. Through bribery and lobbying, he was actually appointed by the Wei authorities as Prefect of Waihuang!

The fugitive of yesterday had, in the blink of an eye, become the father-and-mother official of Waihuang. Something absolutely impossible in Qin was, in the Six States, not strange at all.

For the Six States differed from Qin. Beneath the aristocratic officialdom, the vast common society was a relaxed one, with an extremely strong knight-errant culture. Wandering knights traveled back and forth between the states, attaching themselves to noble patrons, fostering the custom of keeping scholars in every state.

Apart from the Four Great Lords who had already passed away, there were men like Crown Prince Dan of Yan. These men — whether royal princes or high officials from great houses — resided in the state capitals, held separate fiefs, practiced chivalry and kept scholars. Their retainers, numbering in the thousands, came from across their own states and even from abroad. They were knight-patrons whose power could rival a state — they could be called state knights-errant.

The next tier of wandering knights were men like Zhang Er. They were either native-born magnates or wandering scholars closely tied to magnates. Residing in commanderies and counties, possessing ample assets, they attracted the wandering knights of a county to their gates, numbering in the dozens or hundreds. They could be called county knights-errant.

In the Six States, the distance from county knight to county magistrate was not far. Zhang Er, a county knight who in Qin would have been destined for wanted posters and arrest, moved like a fish in water through both the underworld of knight-errant youths and the officialdom of the law. His fame not only surpassed Waihuang County and reached the Wei capital Daliang, but further transcended state borders, making him a celebrated notable renowned throughout Liang, Chu, and Zhao.

It was only a pity that Zhang Er's good days did not last many years. Now, the third turning point of his fate was about to arrive.

In the first month, the Qin general Wang Ben attacked Wei, and Daliang was besieged.

In the second month, Qin's Zhonggeng Qiang Hui led a flanking force eastward. By mid-second month they had occupied Chenliu and were detaching troops to assault neighboring counties.

Waihuang County, no more than fifty or sixty li from Chenliu, could not escape.

Zhang Er had also heard that Qin hated wandering knights most of all — especially influential county knights like himself, who were directly regarded as one of the "Five Vermin" harming the state, denounced with: "Scholars confuse the law with letters; knights violate prohibitions by force." After all, the knight-errant ethos was rooted in human nature's free and unrestrained impulse, an innate unwillingness to be bound by social groups — it was simply the natural enemy of Qin's legal codes and official governance!

Once the Qin army occupied Waihuang, Zhang Er would certainly be arrested, and might even lose his head.

And so, before the Qin troops arrived, Zhang Er wavered endlessly between leaving and staying.

But in the end, he chose to stay.

"Since I was appointed Prefect of Waihuang by the King of Wei, eating Wei's salary grain and wearing Wei's seal and official robes, I cannot abandon the city and flee."

Zhang Er said this to his wife, children, and retainers.

"I shall be as faithful as Weisheng, who would rather die clinging to a pillar amid the raging waves than abandon his post and cling to a wretched life!"

Yet behind this righteous grandeur, Zhang Er also had his own selfish motives.

He had learned one thing from Lord Xinling: what you take, you must give; every kindness must be repaid — that is righteousness. What you promise, you must fulfill; to save others from peril, you do not shirk from death — that is trustworthiness. Righteousness and trustworthiness — these are the foundation upon which a knight-errant survives in the world. Without these two, they are worth less than dog shit.

To Zhang Er, what was more terrifying than death or exile was the ruin of the reputation he had painstakingly built over many years.

Therefore he had to stay, to resist at least for a while, to let the world know that the famed knight Zhang Er had not betrayed Wei!

But his wife and children — they had to be sent away first.

After his long reminiscence ended, Zhang Er patted his first wife's hand and continued his instructions: "First go to Yangwu County. It is still safe there. Hide yourselves in the county. If the Qin army occupies that place too, do not panic. The Qin have come suddenly and will surely find it difficult to immediately ascertain the household registrations of every locality — just pretend to be locals. Once the fighting subsides, Chen Yu will send someone to bring you to Zhao..."

Chen Yu was also a man of Daliang, fond of Confucian learning, and a sworn friend to Zhang Er unto death. Because he was over ten years younger than Zhang Er, he served him as a father.

Chen Yu was now in Zhao, where he had some local renown, along with fields, houses, and property. He was the person Zhang Er trusted most in his life, one to whom he could entrust his wife.

After seeing his wife off, Zhang Er did not linger long outside Waihuang's walls. He had his trusted men guard the secret escape tunnel, then headed back toward his residence himself.

Since he had decided to stay and resist, he had to at least beat back the Qin's first wave of attack. But Zhang Er knew that Waihuang County's own military strength likely could not stand against those Qin soldiers.

Wei's main forces had already been routed back in the first month by Wang Ben's army returning from Chenying. The remaining tens of thousands were trapped in Daliang, unable to save themselves. Lord of Ningling, Wei Jiu, had gathered a few thousand men and retreated to hold Suiyang, but he too could hardly come to Waihuang's aid.

The several thousand able-bodied men in the city were mostly untrained. Though they could drum up noise and bluster, once the real fighting started, they could not be relied upon.

So what Zhang Er had at his disposal were only the county's two hundred county soldiers. If he added the two or three hundred retainers under his command, perhaps they could barely put up a fight...

Zhang Er had to persuade them! Persuade those light-limbed knights who had come from Liang, Chu, and Qi to lay down their lives for him!

An hour later, inside the Zhang residence in Waihuang, Zhang Er had his servants unseal every jar of wine in the mansion. He slaughtered pigs and sheep, gathered all his retainers in the courtyard, set out wine, and raised his voice in song. Yet he did not speak of resisting the enemy. Instead, with deep emotion, he recounted the deeds of Lord Xinling in years past.

"The Prince treated others with benevolence and humbled himself before scholars. Whether a scholar was worthy or unworthy, he was always courteous and dealt with them with propriety, never daring to use his wealth and rank to lord it over them. Because of this, scholars from thousands of li around vied to flock to him, so that his household retainers numbered three thousand…"

Zhang Er raised his wine cup and sighed, "At its height, my own household held only three hundred — far short of the Prince… Though the Prince is gone, whenever I think of him, I feel that the more one looks up to him, the loftier he seems!"

"The more one looks up to him, the loftier he seems" — Zhang Er had picked up that phrase from Chen Yu, who was fond of Confucian learning.

The household retainers and wandering knights all beat their chests and stamped their feet, lamenting, "The Prince was truly a hero among men! What a pity that we never got to see his face."

Zhang Er smiled, then brought up another matter.

"When Qin crushed Zhao at Changping, the Lord of Pingyuan begged Wei for aid, but the King of Wei refused to send it. Lord Xinling pleaded bitterly, yet knew in the end he could not persuade the King of Wei. Unwilling to live while letting Zhao perish, he summoned his retainers, mustered over a hundred chariots, and intended to charge the Qin army with his household guests alone — to die together with Zhao!"

"At that moment, Hou Ying cut his own throat to see the Prince off, and Zhu Hai swung his golden hammer to slay Jin Bi — and thus came about the deed that shook the realm: Lord Xinling stealing the tally to save Zhao!"

The retainers once again burst into praise, each rising to his feet. Most were of humble origin and their words were coarse, but summed up, it came down to two lines that later ages would know.

Though they die, their knightly bones shall be fragrant; they need not blush before the heroes of the world!

Seeing the mood grow increasingly fervent, Zhang Er knew the moment was ripe. He raised his wine and cried out in exhortation, "Gentlemen! Though the deeds of Lord Xinling can never be seen again, today Qin besieges Daliang and has sent detached forces to strike the various counties. I have already received word from my scouts: a Qin force of over a thousand men has closed to within twenty li of Waihuang and will arrive tomorrow!"

He said fiercely, "As Magistrate of Waihuang in Wei, I have a duty to hold the soil for our great king — that is fidelity. I must shield the common people from the poison of the Qin brigands — that is righteousness. Therefore I cannot abandon the city and flee, clinging cravenly to life. Now I wish to follow Lord Xinling's example: I summon all my retainers to hold Waihuang, resist the Qin army, and perish together with the city! Are you willing to follow?"

The retainers who moments before had been brimming with heroic spirit now stared blankly. The locals of Waihuang were one thing — they had some desire to defend their homeland — but those retainers who hailed from Chu, Qi, and Zhao began to hesitate and waver. Not every one of them possessed fidelity and righteousness; most were here simply to earn their keep. Serving as Zhang Er's hired muscle was one thing, but laying down their lives for him — that required some weighing up.

Seeing this, Zhang Er sighed softly and set down his wine cup. "In former days, when the Zhao general Lian Po fell from power, all his old retainers left him. When he was reappointed as general, the retainers returned. Lian Po was indignant, but a retainer told him, 'The dealings between men under heaven are no different from doing business at market. When you have power, I follow you; when you lose power, I leave…'"

He smiled bitterly. "I never thought that I, Zhang Er, would one day see such a day."

At these words, the retainers were instantly mortified — he was calling them faithless and unrighteous.

A tall-nosed, handsome-bearded man rose angrily to his feet. He was in his early thirties and, being habitually fond of drink, was already half-drunk, his face flushed crimson.

Wiping the dregs of wine from his beard, the man spoke loudly in his distinctive Chu Pei-Si accent:

"I have always revered the name of Lord Xinling. Hearing that Lord Zhang was once a retainer of Lord Xinling and carries on the Prince's purpose, I came here from Pei to eat at Lord Zhang's table. I have been a household retainer for only a few months, but a true man must honor his promises and keep faith and righteousness. Now that our patron is in peril, how can a retainer abandon him and leave?"

He cupped his hands and declared loudly, "If Lord Zhang means to lead us against the Qin brigands, Liu Ji of Pei County is willing to follow! Even in death, I shall not regret it!"

With those words spoken, the other retainers could hardly object and had no choice but to rise in chorus and pledge themselves. Though this Liu Ji had only arrived a few months ago, his bold and generous nature gave him considerable influence among the retainers.

That said, what Liu Ji was thinking in his heart was not dying in loyal service, but rather…

"This is a bad business. The Qin army is overwhelming — a little county like Waihuang can hardly hold out. I'll just kill a Qin soldier or two to repay Zhang Er for these months of wine and meat, then find the right moment to slip away!"

…

PS: When Qin destroyed Daliang, Zhang Er was living in Waihuang. When the Gaozu was still a commoner, he several times visited Zhang Er and stayed as a retainer for some months. — Records of the Grand Historian, "Biographies of Zhang Er and Chen Yu"

PS: Phew, just made it. Reporting in: first-day subscriptions 7,300 — very pleased, thank you all. I'm nearly collapsing from writing today; tomorrow's update will come a bit late, not until ten in the morning.

(End of chapter)