Chapter 406: The Noble Man Hides a Weapon in His Person

Zhang Liang got sprayed in the face with spittle by Lu Goujian. Not angered, he wiped it off and blocked the doorway.

Lu Goujian drew his sword and pointed it at him, rebuking him just as he had once furiously berated Jing Ke: "Brat, move aside!"

Zhang Liang did not move. He said, "I saw with my own eyes Master Gao striking the zhu and singing in Songzi City, and then resolutely letting himself be arrested. Afterward, when I heard that his assassination attempt had failed and he was torn apart by chariots at Xianyang, the feeling I had was exactly the same as yours, Hero Lu, when you heard that Jing Qing had failed to kill Qin — I wished I could have taken his place!"

"Though Jing Qing died, he made the tyrant's heart quake and his vision swim for a long while — he is a model for our generation!"

"Though Master Gao is dead, the words he shouted are enough to make all under Heaven rush to follow his example."

This was a secret matter, one Lu Goujian did not know. He froze. "What words?"

Zhang Liang had only recently learned of this through someone who hides in the Xianyang court, providing information to anti-Qin patriots. He spoke, deliberately spacing each word: "Master Gao furiously denounced the tyrant: 'When will this sun perish? I will die with you!'"

It is said that this was the curse uttered by the people of Xia, who hated Jie of Xia for styling himself the sun, expressing their oath not to coexist with him. When Tang of Shang marched to punish Jie of Xia, he also wrote these words into his oath...

After Lu Goujian grasped the meaning of these words, he lowered the sword in his hand, silently recited them, and sighed several times in lament.

These words, one could say, shouted out the hearts' cry of those who sought to restore their kingdoms. Their kin and friends had died by Qin soldiers' blades, their heads cut off, their altars and homes destroyed. The Qin court's stance of exterminating every wandering knight left no possibility of reconciliation between the two sides.

Seeing that Lu Goujian had calmed down somewhat, Zhang Liang continued, "Though the cause of assassinating Qin and restoring the kingdoms must go on, one must also choose the right moment."

"After Master Gao's failed attempt, Zhao Zheng has grown ever more paranoid. He keeps no one from the feudal states close, and his movements have become even more unpredictable. Even the Chancellor and the Imperial Secretary cannot know his itinerary in advance. Only on the very day of departure will the Grand Coachman and the Prefect of the Central Chariots inform the accompanying officials. But where he will stop the next day, which road he will take — that still remains unknown..."

Under such circumstances, laying an ambush in advance is exceedingly difficult. What's more, the First Emperor's carriage has already passed Juzhu. If Lu Goujian let his blood run hot and led the hard-preserved anti-Qin men of Zhao territory charging over from Julu, they would likely never even make it past the Taihang Mountains before being captured by the Qin officials of the commanderies and counties!

So Zhang Liang earnestly and patiently urged Lu Goujian: "If one died trying to assassinate the tyrant, died to deliver all under Heaven from hanging upside down, that would be one thing. But to die at the hands of some village clerk or neighborhood warden — would that not be a wrongful death? By then, what vengeance, what kingdom-restoring — it would all become a joke!"

Lu Goujian also knew that even if he recklessly charged over with his retainers, never mind assassination — they probably would not even find the First Emperor's carriage. He could not help but feel deflated. "Then what do you say we do?"

Zhang Liang answered him with a line from the Book of Changes.

"The noble man hides a weapon in his person, awaiting the time to act. What disadvantage could there be?"

"That brat cannot be planned with."

As he walked out of Lu Goujian's courtyard, Zhang Liang sighed helplessly, feeling a deep, profound sense of powerlessness.

Han had been destroyed for eleven years. His own younger brother had also been killed by the Qin people for eleven full years.

The uprising of the old Han nobility had failed, and it had already been seven years since he left Xinzheng.

In those seven years, Zhang Liang had wandered between Han, Liang, Chen, and Qi, watching helplessly as Wei, Yan, Chu, and Qi were destroyed one after another, powerless to do anything. At his lowest, he had no choice but to do as Confucius once said: "When the Way does not prevail, take a raft and float upon the sea." He boarded a boat and journeyed far, going to the land of Hui by the Eastern Sea, seeking refuge with Canghai Jun.

But Zhang Liang ultimately could not resign himself. He came back, linking up with Zhang Er and Chen Yu of Huaiyang to the south, and connecting with Lu Goujian of the Dalu Marsh to the north, wanting to build an anti-Qin network spanning the former territories of the Six Kingdoms. The primary objective remained the assassination of the First Emperor of Qin, to achieve the goal of cutting off the head so that Qin would fall into chaos without a fight.

Yet two years had been wasted. The black sable furs were worn out, the hundred catties of gold were spent, yet he had not even had a chance to glimpse the First Emperor's carriage. This time, hearing that Confucian scholars and fangshi were vigorously urging the First Emperor to tour the east, he had thought it was an opportunity. Who would have guessed that the First Emperor would instead turn and travel north, heading to the northern lands...

Zhang Liang could only return once more, having achieved nothing.

That was nothing. But through this planning, he discovered that the so-called "heroes" of Yan and Zhao were mostly men whose blood boiled hot, ready to rebel against Qin and assassinate the emperor, yet without any meticulous plan. Cooperating with them, the chance of success was very low, and once the affair was exposed, they might all be caught in one sweep.

"It seems, if I want to accomplish anything, I must still act alone."

Thinking thus, Zhang Liang had already reached the outside of Lu Goujian's courtyard.

Inside the courtyard, the Yan and Zhao patriots Lu Goujian had recruited were eating their meal. But at this very moment, they had all set down their bowls and chopsticks, staring dumbfounded at a brawny man sitting cross-legged on the ground, eating directly from a pottery li cauldron he held in his arms...

The brawny man had an enormous appetite and a very ugly face. Clamped under his right armpit was a large iron hammer, estimated to weigh forty to fifty catties. Even when eating, and even when cupping his hands in salute, he never set it down for a moment. The iron chain attached to the hammer's handle was folded and coiled around it; if fully extended, it would likely be over a zhang long!

This brawny man had come together with Zhang Liang, and the iron hammer was a weapon Zhang Liang had spent a great sum of money to have forged for him. The warriors of Yan and Zhao asked out of curiosity, but he rarely conversed with anyone, and his speech sounded like the barbarian chirping of birds.

But the Yan and Zhao patriots did not dare provoke him either, because on the very first day he arrived, they had seen this man smash a Dalu Marsh wild ox to death with a single blow of his hammer! Their host Lu Goujian, ever competitive, had once wanted to test his strength against him, but when the two stripped off their upper garments and wrestled, he was thrown to the ground within three bouts!

As for the other Yan and Zhao retainers who grappled with him, none could last even a single exchange.

None of them knew where exactly Zhang Liang had found such a man. When asked where his home was, what his surname and given name were, he gave no answer...

And so, everyone could only give him a nickname to use as a substitute. But he quite liked it, and in the end, even Zhang Liang called him by it.

"A man born extraordinary must have a use!"

Zhang Liang thought to himself, a smile appearing on his face. He walked over and called out to the strongman:

"Big Iron Hammer, let's go!"

Lu Goujian's decision to abandon the assassination was wise, because before they could even set out from Julu Commandery, the First Emperor's carriage had already crossed Upper Juzhu Mountain and arrived at Yanmen Pass...

Standing atop the small but strategically vital Yanmen Pass, gazing west at Juzhu Mountain, "crafted by Heaven, wrought by the gods," and looking east at the soaring peaks of Maji Mountain, which resembled sharp hairpins, the First Emperor could not help but be awed by the rugged terrain. He asked Li Si, "Commandant of Justice, I recall that you participated in the compilation of the Lüshi Chunqiu back then, did you not?"

When Li Si heard these words, his heart and liver could not help but tremble. Being a retainer of Lü Buwei and killing Han Fei — these were two periods of his past he had always strenuously avoided. But at this moment, he could only steel himself and acknowledge it.

Fortunately, the Emperor did not deliberately make things difficult for him. He merely said, "I particularly remember that there is a chapter in it called 'The Beginning,' which mentions the Nine Passes of All Under Heaven. Which nine passes are they?"

Li Si had not lost his old professional knowledge and immediately said, "Reporting to Your Majesty, they are: Dafen, Ming'e, Jingruan, Fangcheng, Xiaohan, Jingxing, Lingci, Juzhu, and Juyong. Among them, Juzhu refers precisely to this Yanmen Pass!"

Yanmen, Yanmen — it is said that every year when spring comes, wild geese from the south fly north, carrying reed leaves in their beaks. They circle above Yanmen for a long while, and only when the leaves fall can they pass through the pass. Hence the saying, "Yanmen Mountain is where wild geese fly out from." This place is the vital throat passage from Taiyuan to Daibei.

After Qin unified all under Heaven, it launched a thunderous campaign of demolishing city fortifications and opening up pass barriers, destroying many river defense obstacles artificially set up by the Six Kingdoms in the Central Plains. For example, although Fangcheng Pass and Ming'e Pass were difficult to dismantle in a short time, they were already in a state of semi-abandonment.

But Yanmen Pass, as a key border stronghold, was not only not abandoned to waste — on the contrary, with the court's edict of "Garrison the Frontier and Open Wasteland," it gained much fresh blood. Many households from the Central Plains were successively relocated here.

By order of the First Emperor, Meng Tian, who had overall command of military affairs in Yanmen, Yunzhong, and Dai Commanderies, learned that the imperial carriage had arrived and also hurried to welcome it, meeting the First Emperor at the northern foot of Juzhu Mountain.

The First Emperor was far more lenient with Meng Tian than he was with Li Xin, and had him board the carriage to report in detail.

"Yanmen Commandery was originally the land of the Loufan. To this day, there is still a county named Loufan. It was over a hundred years ago, after King Wuling of Zhao adopted barbarian attire and mounted archery, that he inflicted a great defeat on the Loufan and established Yanmen Commandery in that region. Half of the Loufan people migrated west to the lands south of the Yellow River, while half remained in their original place, submitting to Zhao and becoming Zhao's barbarian cavalry, aiding in the conquest of Zhongshan..."

Loufan cavalry — these were the powerful Zhao riders who had exerted tremendous pressure on Qin's Shang Commandery decades ago. The First Emperor had also heard of them. Now, this powerful armed force had instead been incorporated by the Qin court...

Yanmen Commandery borders the barbarians and has been raided many times. Therefore, its people are fierce and combative, fond of valor, and often act as wandering knights and commit crimes, not engaging in farming or trade. Moreover, its people are mixed and uneven, exceptionally bold and aggressive. Though they share characteristics with Zhao territory, they also have their own distinct nature.

For example, their loyalty to Zhao was far less than that of Handan or Julu. And among them, the Loufan people, even more so, followed whoever gave them milk, swearing fealty only to the strong and the wealthy. Back when Qin and Zhao fought bitterly in Yunzhong and Yanmen, a single Loufan tribe would often pledge allegiance to both states, playing the role of mercenaries.

Historically, even in the Chu-Han Contention, both the Chu and Han armies contained large numbers of Loufan mercenaries...

The First Emperor looked outside the carriage. The northern foothills of Juzhu Pass were in the season of warm summer and blooming flowers. Even the sky in this season seemed especially high, distant, clear, and refreshing. The fragrant grass was like a carpet, rippling like waves under the long wind. Flocks of sheep, like white clouds, flowed across the grassy slopes, soothing the heart and spirit — this place, like Beidi Commandery, was half agricultural and half pastoral.

The Emperor's procession traveled through such scenery. And on either side of the tightly guarded escort, there were also some barbarian light cavalry in barbarian attire, bows and arrows slung across their bodies, accompanying them on both flanks, their horse hooves light and brisk. These were the world-renowned "Loufan Cavalry."

"Heifu incorporates the Rong cavalry in Beidi, Li Xin incorporates the Qiang cavalry in Longxi, Feng Jie incorporates the Baizhai cavalry in Shang Commandery, and you incorporate the Loufan cavalry here."

The First Emperor shook his head. "Four lands, four generals — different approaches but equally satisfactory results?"

This was also a matter of necessity. War was about to be launched, and the border commanderies had sparse populations to begin with. They could not possibly use Qin people exclusively; they were bound to employ Rong and Di warriors who were adept at riding, shooting, and familiar with the terrain.

But out of the belief that "those not of our kind are sure to have different hearts," Qin Shi Huang also felt that relying too heavily on Rong and Di cavalry in this war was not a good thing.

By comparison, Qin Shi Huang was more appreciative of Heifu's proposal built on this foundation: "Use the Rong and Di as hunting hounds, and the sons of good families from the northern lands as the hunting bow."

The sons of good families from west of the pass were the group the authorities trusted most. Rebuilding an elite cavalry force equipped with high saddles and stirrups around them as the core was a fine choice...

As they spoke, Loufan County came into view. Outside the small county seat, the local officials, residents, and a group of inland migrants who had only just arrived were kneeling to welcome the emperor's arrival.

As Qin Shi Huang's carriage drove past, Ban Yi, a man of Chu, was also kneeling at the back of the crowd, not daring to so much as breathe.

He had originally been a herding clerk at Fuli Fortress in Sishui Commandery. The ancient plain of Fuli Fortress was the source of the poem "Lush, lush the grass on the plain, each year it withers, each year it thrives." With abundant grass, the livestock were sturdy, and so the Ban clan had raised livestock for generations, amassing a fortune of a hundred gold, with dozens of herdboys and hundreds of cattle and sheep under them.

The Ban clan had been living perfectly well in Sishui Commandery, but who could have guessed that this time last year, a fellow named "Heifu" would submit a "Memorial on Establishing Military Farms and Garrisoning the Frontier" to Qin Shi Huang. Heifu suggested dividing the whole realm into several major service regions: Hebei, West of the Pass, Huai-Han-Jiangnan, and the Central Plains. In this way, northerners would not need to garrison the south, and southerners would not need to garrison the west, saving a great deal of travel cost for garrison duty and lightening the burden on conscripts.

And the commanderies of the Central Plains, as the region where half the realm's population converged, would, aside from being assigned to different frontier commanderies for service based on geographic distance, also have a portion of their people conscripted to migrate and settle the frontier, farming and garrisoning there...

Most unfortunately, Sishui Commandery, where Ban Yi lived, though part of Western Chu, was also classified as "Central Plains," and the quota for migrating to garrison the frontier fell squarely on his head.

And so Ban Yi's entire family, young and old, and even the herders and herdboys under him, were all relocated north to Yanmen Commandery — the authorities had taken a fancy to his livestock-raising ability and sent him here to raise cattle and sheep, especially the Qiangzhong sheep that the Qin court had recently planned to introduce in large numbers for shearing wool to weave clothing...

Ban Yi was groaning inwardly in misery but dared not resist or flee. Today, hearing that the emperor was visiting the small county of Loufan, he was outside the town supervising the herdboys grazing. He could only hurriedly have them drive the flock far away, while he himself knelt by the roadside, awaiting the imperial carriage with both reverence and fear.

When the emperor's "Gold Root Carriage" and several auxiliary carriages drove past, Ban Yi slightly raised his head, wanting to witness the majesty of Qin Shi Huang.

But he was stunned to discover that on the grass across the road, one of his own lambs, whether frightened or for some other reason, was bleating and about to run and collide with the imperial carriage!

Ban Yi was dumbstruck, his heart about to leap out of his throat!

Fortunately, at the last moment, that herdboy of his house called "Xin" came scrambling and crawling over, and before the lamb could be speared to death by the Gentlemen-of-the-Palace guards by the road, he desperately grabbed hold of it. Then, Xin pressed his head to the ground on the grass, kowtowing unceasingly toward the imperial carriage...

The Gentlemen-of-the-Palace guards, who had already drawn their sharp blades, saw it was only a herdboy of about ten years old and paid him no mind, driving him away.

Ban Yi finally breathed a sigh of relief, grateful both that the lamb had not collided with the carriage and that the Qin officials had not gone to interrogate the herdboy.

He only thought that this little herdboy "Xin," who had been brought two years ago by a famous scholar from Huainan and entrusted to him to hide, was the descendant of a Chu general who had died in battle. He never imagined that Xin's identity was far more extraordinary...

On the grass across the road, the gaunt Xin sat slumped on the ground holding the lamb, watching the wolf-like Qin emperor's carriage drive past. The lamb was trembling, and so was he.

The hatred of a conquered nation? "I can take his place"? "A true man should be like that"? "He who would wear the crown must bear its weight"?

Xiong Xin dared not harbor any of these thoughts in the slightest.

He was, after all, a lamb that had barely survived the jaws of the wolf-like army, wandering in exile, hiding his clan name, which he could not let anyone know!

Because Xiong Xin was of the Chu royal clan, the descendant of the youngest son of King Huai of Chu, Xiong Huai — a legitimate grandson of the Chu king! Though young in years, his seniority was high; Lord Changping and King Fuchu of Chu both had to call him "Uncle"...

If his identity were exposed, death might not be the outcome, but he would very likely be forcibly relocated to live within the pass, becoming a prisoner like his grandfather, King Huai of Chu.

But the irony was that fate had played a colossal joke on Xiong Xin: the Ban Yi he had sought refuge with had, by sheer coincidence, been selected by the Qin officials to migrate and garrison the frontier!

There was no way to flee, and so Xiong Xin followed Ban Yi, trudging a thousand li, and arrived at Loufan County in northern Dai. The princeling who once wore brocade and ate jade was now reduced to a shepherd boy living among the Rong and Di...

The despairing Xiong Xin had no way of knowing that, had Heifu not offered that proposal, he would never have had to endure this ordeal.

The black butterfly's wings fluttered gracefully, and the wind they stirred grew ever stronger. History had not merely taken a small bend; many details had already deviated from their original course...

What could Xiong Xin do? The young boy, clutching the lamb and shivering, could only keep firmly in mind the admonition of the elder who had painstakingly sought him out, helped him change his appearance, and placed him with the Ban household:

That elder called "Fan Zeng" had spoken these words to him.

"The superior man conceals his weapon within himself and bides his time to act!"

(End of Chapter)