Chapter 273: The Spear That Can Pierce Anything and the Shield That Cannot Be Pierced

"There's a story from Shangcai."

Watching the Qin soldiers clamber one after another onto the walls of Ruyin, cheering in triumph, Li You broke into a smile and said to Heifu: "They say a man from Chu was selling shields and spears at the Shangcai market. He boasted, 'My shield is so sturdy that nothing can pierce it.' Then he boasted of his spear, 'My spear is so sharp that there is nothing it cannot pierce.' Someone nearby asked, 'What if you use your spear to pierce your shield?' The man could not answer."

"Han Fei once said, a shield that cannot be pierced and a spear that can pierce anything cannot exist in the same world! I've always wondered — when the siege engines built by the Qin Mohists meet the city-defending techniques of the Southern Mohists, when that spear strikes that shield, what will happen?"

"As we can see now, when Mohist attack meets Mohist defense, the attacker still comes out on top!"

Although the repeating crossbow carts and other devices the Southern Mohists had set up on the walls caused the Qin army plenty of trouble, the Qin Mohist Cheng Shang, together with the Army Supervisor Zhang Han, had conscripted laborers and craftsmen to rush the construction of cloud ladders, assault carts, and other equipment, and they knew the city's defensive arrangements like the back of their hand. Thus, after Li You led thirty thousand men in a two-day siege, Ruyin finally fell.

Heifu flattered Li You: "Even the finest tools depend on the one who wields them. As the man holding the spear, Commandant, your strength was ample and your orders decisive. With the twenty thousand reinforcements from General Meng, you surrounded the city on three sides and left one open, draining their morale — only then could you shatter the feeble man holding the shield."

Li You was rather pleased with himself and, with the air of a victor, commanded: "Bring out the captive Xiangli Ge and let him behold this scene!"

……

After the great fire ignited by the flaming arrows was extinguished, the Qin army began forcing the survivors to clear the battlement. The bodies of Qin soldiers were carried outside the city, and under Xiangli Ge's identification, three Mohists were also found.

One old, one brawny, one gaunt — the three already lay dead on the battlement. Now they were lifted onto straw mats, their bodies mutilated, yet their faces utterly serene.

"Weren't there supposed to be thirty Mohists?"

Heifu looked toward Xiangli Ge. After Heifu had detained him, neither threats nor bribes, not even the threat of torture, had made him utter a single word about the city's defenses — a true man. Once the battle ended, he had been released, and he stumbled into Ruyin, where a brutal assault and defense had just concluded, searching for the bodies of his teachers.

At that moment, he turned back, his eyes red, and said: "The Southern Mohists were four in all. Three dead, one alive — all are here!"

"So that's how it is…"

Heifu understood. So the flame of the Southern Mohists had already dwindled to the size of a bean, yet they had not chosen to preserve their strength and await a changing world. Instead, they gave their lives in this city. Should he mock them as pedantic and inflexible, or should he admire their unflinching resolve?

Heifu was fortunate — over these two days, Li You had not singled him out to storm the walls. He had been tasked with covering the vanguard assault troops and had been watching the battlement the whole time, so he had some impression of all three.

The old man had calmly directed the soldiers and civilians on the walls to resist the enemy, and had died in the rubble of a collapsed corner tower, struck by a catapult stone. Xiangli Ge said this was Teacher Deng, who had imparted to them the Mohist principles.

That brawny man, wielding a massive spear shaft, had swept who knew how many vanguard soldiers off the walls. Xiangli Ge said this man was called Kuli, a simpleton whose brain didn't work quite right.

And that gaunt man with a mouthful of rotten teeth had operated the repeating crossbow cart, inflicting considerable casualties on the Qin army. Xiangli Ge said he had been an ordinary craftsman who had only joined the Mohists two years ago; his body was covered in blade wounds.

"Qichi said he had lived a mediocre life, and joined the Mohists only to be a hero for one brief moment."

Xiangli Ge bowed deeply to the three, a long ceremonial bow, tears sliding down his cheeks.

"He did it. The Mohists of the South have died a worthy death!"

Their hero is my foe. During the battle, Heifu had bitterly hated these three who had inflicted so many casualties on the Qin army. It was Kuli whom he had ordered Xiao Tao to concentrate fire on with the heavy crossbowmen, leaving him dead beneath a volley of arrows.

But now that the battle was over, facing their corpses, he felt little hatred. Li You had also given the order that the heads of the three Mohists were not to be counted among the decapitations, so that their bodies might remain whole.

Xiangli Ge found a hand-pulled cart abandoned beneath the city wall by the defenders. He carried the bodies of his three teachers onto it one by one, but no matter how he tried, he could not budge Kuli's enormous frame. In the end, the Qin Mohist Cheng Shang came over to lend a hand, and Heifu also sent his men to help them.

"I will not offer thanks."

Xiangli Ge looked at Heifu, and at the Qin Mohist Cheng Shang beside him, his emotions deeply conflicted.

"That is only natural." Heifu smiled. "The Qin army killed your teachers; of course you would hate us."

Xiangli Ge, however, shook his head. "Nor will I bear resentment. Our Master once told me that Mohists have only duty and principle. When the city holds, duty is fulfilled; they take their leave and return, accepting no reward. When the city falls, principle has been served; there is no need for excessive resistance. For Mohists, in war, you attack and I defend — victory and defeat hold no resentment. A former opponent, encountered again afterward, should be treated as a stranger on the road."

"Now, Centurion Heifu, Cheng Shang — you are to me as strangers on the road."

With that, he pulled the heavy handcart and walked away from the city, moving against the tide of Qin soldiers pouring into Ruyin to occupy it.

Li You, wishing to display the Qin army's "magnanimity" by letting him go with a victor's air, now stood upon his war chariot at the city gate, watching Xiangli Ge with some satisfaction.

Xiangli Ge halted his steps, yet still offered not a single word of thanks for sparing his life. He raised his head stubbornly, more concerned with something other than his own life: "General, your native place is also Shangcai in Huaibei, practically a neighbor to Ruyin. I have also heard that Qin military law is strict and clear. At the very least, you will not allow your soldiers to burn, kill, and plunder the local Chu people, will you?"

Li You's face hardened. "For the Qin army, those who submit live; those who resist die! All who resist may be killed. You, Master Xiangli, were detained in my centurion's camp and did not harm a single Qin soldier — that is why I spare your life. If you swear to resist the Qin army no longer, I shall let you go!"

"That depends on whether any weak or young ones come seeking my help."

Xiangli Ge revealed a smile. "Though I alone remain of the Southern Mohists, the Mohist principles are still mine to bear. If the Commandant wishes to kill me, then kill me!"

"Fool."

Death could not frighten Xiangli Ge; perhaps he even wished to die a martyr here alongside his teachers. Finding it all rather dull, Li You cursed once, then waved his hand, ordering Heifu to take men and drive this fellow out!

Outside Ruyin, passing through the dense clusters of Qin and Chu corpses beneath and atop the walls, the cart was constantly blocked by bodies, so Xiangli Ge walked very slowly. The Qin Mohist Cheng Shang, as though ashamed of some wrongdoing, pushed the cart from behind to help him.

Only when they reached the place where the Qin siege engines had been stationed earlier did Xiangli Ge finally stop. He sighed to Cheng Shang:

"The other day, Sir Cheng, you told me that the Qin Mohists wish to make all voices issue from a single mouth, thereby eliminating war and ultimately realizing the principle of unifying all under Heaven."

"This method seems simple and direct, yet its harms are endless. Master Mozi also said: If feudal lords do not love one another, there will surely be open warfare. If heads of houses do not love one another, they will surely usurp each other. If people do not love one another, they will surely harm each other. If ruler and minister do not love one another, there will be no benevolence or loyalty. If father and son do not love one another, there will be no kindness or filial piety. If brothers do not love one another, there will be no harmony. If all under Heaven do not love one another, the strong will surely coerce the weak, the many will surely plunder the few, the rich will surely insult the poor, the noble will surely scorn the humble, and the cunning will surely deceive the simple. All the calamities, usurpations, resentments, and hatreds under Heaven arise from the failure to love one another."

He pointed at the corpses piled like mountains on and below the walls. "Unifying all under Heaven in this manner absolutely cannot make the people of Chu and Qin love one another — it will only make them hate each other! Furthermore, blindly clinging to power and relying on the King of Qin will never achieve the Great Unity of all under Heaven."

"The King of Qin covets the fame of conquest and victory; not a year passes without a campaign. I have heard that once he succeeds, he annihilates his enemies entirely, sketches the terraces and pavilions of the feudal lords, and launches massive construction projects to build palaces in Guanzhong. Even if it has not yet greatly damaged the livelihood of the Qin people, that is only because it is compensated by plundering the six states. But if the six states are all destroyed and the King of Qin's greed and avarice do not cease, and he continues to wage war abroad, what then? To prepare for war, he must extract ever more wealth to recruit soldiers, buy horses, and equip weapons. I dare say today: the King of Qin will surely levy heavy taxes on the remnant peoples of the six states, violently seizing the people's wealth for clothing and food, robbing the people of their resources, and destroying the people's welfare. The common folk will toil without rest. If this persists, though the state be vast, its love of war will surely lead to its doom."

Cheng Shang was slow of speech but quick in action. Now he could only darken his face and say: "It will not come to that. The Qin Mohists will forcefully remonstrate with the Great King, to let the people rest and to quell the calamity of war…"

Though he said this, in truth, this was precisely what worried the Qin Mohists most. This King of Qin, whose ambition was the greatest in six generations and whose resolve was rarely seen, was not someone they could sway.

"Enough. Matters have come to this; more words are useless."

Xiangli Ge sighed. "Perhaps, in the end, Mohists like you and me are all just tools. The Chu people use us as shields; the Qin people use you as spears. Spear and shield clash, and both are broken."

He turned his head to look at Ruyin one last time, his gaze filled with sorrow. "The principles of the Mohists, perhaps, will scatter with the wind at this city. Sir Cheng, take care! I too hope that this world truly becomes as you say — unified under Qin, with no more calamity of war thereafter. And I hope that we Mohists will never again have a battlefield to prove our worth!"

……

Xiangli Ge mustered all his strength and slowly pulled the handcart away. Four had come; after the battle, he alone survived. The setting sun stretched his silhouette long behind him, making him look incomparably lonely and desolate.

Heifu also walked over to Cheng Shang, who had remained silent for a long while.

"Do you think Xiangli Ge has a point?"

Cheng Shang started. "That is merely his speculation."

Yet Cheng Shang did think that Xiangli Ge's final words were correct. The original purpose of the Mohist school was to stop war, but now, time and again, they were exploited by others, playing the roles of spear and shield in warfare. Without realizing it, their skills all seemed to exist for the sake of war. If war truly ceased, the Mohists might indeed have no battlefield to prove their worth.

The Southern Mohists — the social ground they stood upon was too narrow to even accommodate them.

And the Qin Mohists, attached to the Qin political system, would be discarded at any moment once they lost their usefulness.

The Mohist school, for the past two hundred years, had been a legend on everyone's lips. But now, perhaps it truly would fall like a giant star, never to rise again.

In his heart, Heifu sighed secretly. After this ordeal, Xiangli Ge's idealism seemed to have shattered as well. The words he spoke out of pessimism had, unfortunately, hit the mark.

Unification did not end the chaos of war. After the six states perished, the seeds of hatred that had been planted would swiftly grow, and new turmoil would follow one after another.

But this was the historical process of a great unified empire's painful birth — and the only one who might slightly ease the pangs of that process was perhaps himself?

"Don't speak such disheartening words so early about the firewood burning out and the flame dying. Though the Mohists of the south are gone, are there not still you Qin Mohists?"

At that thought, Heifu patted the bewildered Cheng Shang on the shoulder and said, "If I may be blunt, Mohists have places to put their skills to use beyond warfare! For instance, if the craft you use to build siege and defense engines were turned instead to constructing clever devices for drawing water or hulling grain — could you possibly be inferior to ordinary artisans?"

"The Centurion means…?"

Heifu laughed. "The water-powered trip-hammers of Nan Commandery — perhaps the Mohists could learn a thing or two about them!"

……

In the first ten days of the third month, after the Southern Army had broken through Ruyin, Meng Wu left ten thousand men to hold Ruyin and sent ten thousand south to threaten the Huai River. He then personally led Li You and six other Commandants across the Ying River, smashed the ten thousand Chu troops deployed there, and began executing Wang Jian's predetermined envelopment plan.

Xiang Yan too sensed the danger and continued to lead the Chu army in a fighting retreat. But when they reached the area east of Chengfu, they discovered that Meng Wu's sixty thousand troops had already appeared on their flank and rear!

Aboard a war chariot, scouts from the Nan Commandery troops serving as the Southern Army's vanguard reported back that they had already made contact with General Wang Jian to the west. The Chu army of a hundred thousand men had been pressed by both the Central and Southern Armies to the edge of a low-lying marsh and had no choice but to pitch camp and form ranks.

"What place is this?"

Heifu asked Ji Ying, who was in charge of the maps.

"Qinan!"

Ji Ying spread out the map and replied, "This place is forty li from Qi City — it is called Qinan!"

PS: Three chapters today, begging for monthly tickets~

(End of chapter)