Conqueror Chapter 2

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Although Liu Bang was far less powerful than Xiang Yu, as a rabble-rousing upstart, he was definitely more glamorous than Liu Bei, his unfortunate great-grandson of however many generations later, who sold straw mats for a living. He used the fact that he entered the city first to take advantage of the King of Chu’s eccentric heart to suppress dissent, controlled an army a hundred thousand men strong, and had a group of loyal and capable ministers willing to help.

Lü Bu wanted revenge, not death.

He’d also considered joining the Han camp then slowly getting in contact with Liu Bang and waiting for an opportunity there.

But he had a rare opportunity to live again. Could it be that for a single moment of joy when he cut off his enemy’s head, he had to endure many years of life and death battle for the sake of his nemesis’s ancestor?

What a joke!

Besides, Lü Bu was self-aware — he was able to bend and stretch, but not nearly as much as that big-eared traitor Liu who put on airs, had a honeyed mouth, and played tricks everywhere.

To make him suffer for several years and pretend to be loyal while hiding among thousands of smart people, it would not only be a great shame but also very hard to do.

If someone connected the clues and took care of him in secret, wouldn’t that be losing both the chickens and the rice!¹lit. wanting to steal chickens but failing and losing the bait as well; a total loss

Therefore, in order to ensure the success of his ultimate goal of killing Liu Bang, Lü Bu had to wrack his brains for a plan.

This was also a last resort for him. He somehow time travelled alone to three hundred years in the past and became a solitary commander, with nary a shadow of anyone to advise him around — wasn’t this forcing him to step up?

He used to think that Chen Gongtai,²courtesy name of Chen Gong, advisor to Lü Bu after defecting from Cao Cao’s camp; executed at White Gate Tower. Wikipedia who used to buzz around him saying can’t do this and can’t do that, was very annoying, not to mention that workaholic Gao Fuyi³probably referring to Gao Shun (couldn’t track down if his courtesy name is Fuyi), known as the most capable military officer serving under Lü Bu, commander of a 700 man unit nicknamed the ‘formation breakers’ for their destructive charges; executed at White Gate Tower. Wikipedia who refused to go away even after being kicked a few times…

But when he really was alone, didn’t know what to do, and was willing to listen to their nagging, no one was there.

Anyway, since he’s already been killed with a single word from that big-eared thief, he hoped that those two old mothers would understand the situation, not make fools of themselves, and quickly submit to Cao Cao.

With Cao Cao’s love of talents, they wouldn’t suffer no matter how much they nagged.

…Hopefully they weren’t stupid enough to throw away their lives.

Thinking like this, even someone like Lü Bu who had always been heartless couldn’t help but feel a little uncomfortable.

He absently picked up a branch and squatted at a piece of sandy ground, and after messing around a bit, he quickly locked on to the Hegemon-King of Western Chu,⁴西楚霸王: referring to Xiang Yu, a warlord during the end of the Qin dynasty who engaged in a long struggle for power with and ultimately lost to Liu Bang, known as the Chu-Han Contention. Wikipedia who was well-known in the history books for many things but especially for the Hongmen Banquet.⁵鸿门宴: a major inciting incident of the Chu-Han Contention, now used colloquially to mean a trap or a situation ostensibly joyous but in fact treacherous. Wikipedia

In his early years, he had been a Registrar working under Ding Yuan⁶inspector of Bing Province during the late Eastern Han dynasty, killed by Lü Bu who had been bribed by Dong Zhuo. Wikipedia — he definitely wasn’t the muscles for brains illiterate thug some people thought he was.

However, books were precious and rare. He had been willing to study when he was young, but there were few books to be found due to his family’s poverty; later when he became successful, he had countless books to choose from but lost his studious urges.

In any case, he had always been better at military books, and most of his study focused on military logistics and tactics. He rarely touched history books and something like the Book of Songs was even less likely to come into his hands.

It was only because there were ample historical records of the power struggle between the Hegemon-King of Western Chu and Liu Bang, the King of Han, that he was able to read about it a few more times and remember the general gist of it, but if someone asked him about the details, then he would only be able to stare blankly.

But no matter how bad his memory was, it was absolutely impossible to forget the Hongmen Banquet.

If he remembered correctly, Liu Bang only brought a hundred or so guards and four generals.

Wasn’t this a heaven-sent opportunity!

When he thought of this, Lü Bu’s eyes couldn’t help but light up, and he rubbed his hands in excitement.

He couldn’t miss this chance!

After clarifying this point, he knew that the next problem to solve was how to infiltra… join the Chu camp, and it would be best to be of a status eligible to attend the Hongmen Banquet.

However, he was once a commander too, so he knew exactly how suspicious a lord would be upon meeting him.

As a man of unknown origin, no matter how powerful he was in martial arts, he had no background and no friends to vouch for him. Even if he joined using his strength, he could only start as an ordinary soldier and climb up step by step by earning merits.

By the time he reached a level able to attend the Hongmen Banquet, that ship would have long sailed.⁷The specific phrase used here is 黄花菜都得凉透了 (lit. even the daylilies are cold), which is a mocking criticism of people or things that come too late. I won’t go into the specifics but you can take a look on Zhidao.

And while the resurrected Lü Bu wanted his revenge, it wasn’t to the point where he was willing to throw his pride away — maybe if the one standing here was the him of ten years ago, he might have repeated his old tricks, at worst, he would have shamelessly acknowledged a cheap adoptive father to quickly gain their trust.⁸Lü Bu is kinda (in)famous for killing his adoptive fathers (albeit it’s in the fictional Romance of the Three Kingdoms), first Ding Yuan then Dong Zhuo.

It would be best to convince Xiang Yu to take advantage of his strength and quickly get rid of that bastard named Liu!

Lü Bu, who hadn’t yet realised that just persuading Xiang Yu would be as hard as going against the sky, suddenly froze.

How old is Xiang Yu now? Twenty or so?

…With his own tender shell just turning twenty years old, there was no way his face was thick enough to call a kid who barely had any hair ‘foster father’.

This wouldn’t work and that wouldn’t work, so after much deliberation, Lü Bu decided to imitate the style of those bandit heroes and try to get a guarantee before going there.

Thus from that moment on, he had his eye on the head of former King Ziying of Qin.

He thought through all this while leaning against the tree stump, and by the time night fell and it was time to sleep, he had determined his course of action.

He picked some herbs that would repel insects and snakes and sprinkled them around, then slept comfortably all night after extinguishing the fire.

It wasn’t until the first crack of dawn that he opened his eyes energetically.

Now that he rested his spirits, he took advantage of the hazy morning light to rinse his mouth with the remainder of the water in his waterskin and freshened himself up with morning dew.

After casting a leisurely glance towards Hangu Pass, he mounted his horse and continued on his way to the Chu camp.

Compared with Lü Bu, who had a big heart and could sleep well even while hugging a human head to his chest, Xiang Yu — famous for his victory at the Battle of Julu⁹battle between Qin and Chu armies, ended in a decisive victory for Chu; marks the decline of Qin military power. Wikipedia and commander of the coalition army to whom all kings bowed in admiration — had a gloomy face every day, was full of anger, and had none of the vigour of someone who had just won a battle.

Ever since his uncle Xiang Liang died in battle, he had been restrained and troubled by the King of Chu¹⁰referring to Xiong Xin, also known as Emperor Yi of Chu/King Huai II of Chu. Wikipedia who was supported by the Xiang clan, and it had reached a point where he was unable to bear it any longer.

First was his inexplicable decision that ‘the victor is whomever first enters Guanzhong’, then he forced him to go rescue Zhao Xie in the north where he confronted the main force of the Qin army yet left the defenceless Guanzhong to Liu Bang.¹¹As according to Wikipedia: In the winter of 208 BC, another rebel force claiming to restore the Zhao state, led by Zhao Xie, was besieged in Handan by Zhang Han. Zhao Xie requested reinforcements from Chu. King Huai II granted Xiang Yu the title of “Duke of Lu” (魯公), and appointed him as a second-in-command to Song Yi, who was ordered to lead an army to reinforce Zhao Xie. At the same time, the king placed Liu Bang in command of another army to attack Guanzhong, the heartland (capital territory) of Qin. The king promised that whoever managed to enter Guanzhong first will be granted the title “King of Guanzhong”.

He exerted all his effort and braved the gates of hell to wipe out the main Qin army and make all the other lords surrender, but because of this, Liu Bang’s forces faced only a soft target and arrived a full two months earlier, and they even blocked him outside the pass!

Xiang Yu suppressed his anger and immediately reported Liu Bang’s villainous behaviour to the King of Chu, but not only did the king not reprimand Liu Bang, he even replied lightly with just two words: as agreed.

As agreed? Ridiculous, whether it was Xiong Xin or Liu Bang, neither paid effort or price, they just wanted to pick the biggest peach!

What gave them the right!

Xiang Yu used unparalleled martial arts to kill countless opponents on the battlefield and was now a high-ranking nobleman but had been treated unfairly time and time again, how could he swallow this breath?

When he received a secret report from Liu Bang’s general Cao Wushang which stated ‘The Duke of Pei¹²referring to Liu Bang, due to his earlier post as a law enforcement officer in Pei county wishes to be King of Guanzhong and appoint Ziying as chancellor, seizing all riches for himself’, he was angered beyond belief, and declared on the spot that his soldiers would feast every day in preparation for defeating Liu Bang’s army!

Xiang Bo¹³uncle of Xiang Yu, best known for preventing another nephew of his from assassinating Liu Bang at Hongmen Banquet; attempted to reconcile the Chu-Han warring factions. Wikipedia was shocked when he heard this.

While euphemistically persuading Xiang Yu to stop, he had no choice but to take great risks to travel overnight to see his close friend Zhang Liang¹⁴courtesy name Zifang, posthumously titled Marquis Wencheng; a key advisor for Liu Bang; contributed greatly to establishing the Han dynasty. Wikipedia…

Lü Bu had to spend a few more days on his journey as he detoured around Han soldiers guarding Hangu Pass. Once he arrived at the Chu camp, he discovered that it was at a time that was both unfortunate and fortunate.

If one said it was unfortunate, that would be because Xiang Bo had met with Zhang Liang just the night prior. Not only had he revealed the entirety of Xiang Yu’s plans, Liu Bang’s rhetoric was very effective on him and they had even agreed on a marriage between their children. After returning to the camp, he recounted Liu Bang’s nonsensical ‘explanation’ to Xiang Yu, with embellishments.

Xiang Bo has been the patriarch of the Xiang clan since Xiang Liang’s death, and Xiang Yu deeply respected and trusted him. He easily used a sentence of ‘you have recently made great achievements, it is unrighteous to attack others’ to win Xiang Yu’s trust, calmed his anger, and completely eliminated a battle which should have brought Liu Bang to catastrophe.

But fortunately, although Lü Bu had been delayed a few days, he finally arrived four hours before the banquet.

It was doubly good that Lü Bu, who hardly ever read history books, was ignorant of the many things that happened during his detour, otherwise he would definitely beat his chest in hatred.

When he trekked all the way and finally arrived in front of the Chu camp, the poor horse which had brought him through the mountain roads for several days finally couldn’t hold on, and it collapsed on the ground foaming at the mouth.

“Who’s there! Stop!”

Lü Bu — carrying only his guarantee wrapped in cloth — got off the horse, stood lazily, and calmly replied to the vigilant Chu soldiers, “I’m a warrior who admires the majesty of Lord Xiang. I’ve travelled thousands of miles yet receive such a scolding, is this the way Chu people greet others?”

He was slender yet around two metres tall,¹⁵specifically, a bit more than 1.84m tall; raws use 8 chi, which when converted to metric values 1 chi is 0.23m during the Han dynasty. Wikipedia with sharply defined muscles — even his civilian clothes couldn’t conceal his arrogance and strength.

Even in front of the majestic Chu soldiers, he stood out like a crane among chickens. He was absolutely worthy of calling himself a warrior.

The soldiers were suppressed by his aura and took a while to come back to their senses. When they spoke again, their stances weakened a little and their tone became more polite. “If you truly wish to join us, please give your name.”

Lü Bu liked to be straightforward and indulged himself in this after gaining power, but his rough early life did teach him some tact.

The aggressiveness just now was unprovoked, but after all he wasn’t here to find fault but to ingratiate himself. Seeing as the soldiers had softened, he also took a step back and said smoothly, “This one is named Lü Bu, courtesy name Fengxian. I am here with a guarantee, please allow me to see Lord Xiang.”

As soon as these words came out, the expressions on the Chu soldiers’ faces became subtle again.

After years of chaos, many people had been displaced. Not many could afford to read, and even fewer had courtesy names.¹⁶Courtesy names (aka style names) were bestowed at adulthood, typically by their teacher. Almost exclusively a male phenomenon, though some women were given a courtesy name upon marriage. Wikipedia

However, things like giving guarantees was something done by shameless, unscrupulous bandits… it was very contradictory to the impression this person gave.

What was more incredible was that this nameless wanderer actually asked to see General Xiang as soon as he opened his mouth!

Even if he did have some ability, that was too impudent.

What’s more, this wanderer rode in with just a pathetic horse — what rare treasures could he offer!

If it were anyone else, they would have simply scoffed at him for being ignorant and kicked him out.

They didn’t know that if they really did this, they would be beaten on the spot by Lü Bu, who was barely restraining his violent temper.

It’s just that it wasn’t easy to treat this person normally, what with his extraordinary stature, courage, and aura.

Just when they were in a dilemma and didn’t know who to report this to, they caught a glimpse of someone passing by. Feeling overjoyed, they quickly stopped him.

This person’s surname was Han, and he was an attendant.¹⁷郎中: during Qin/Han dynasties, langzhong is a general term for an emperor’s attendants, with duties including guarding, accompanying, advising, etc.; however if you search it up, most results translate langzhong as ‘doctor’, this is because during the Song dynasty people in the south began to call doctors langzhong as a sign of respect. Although he was born tall and strong, and with an extraordinary appearance, he was actually a dull gourd who couldn’t get a word out for half a day. He was very withdrawn and taciturn.

The reason they remembered him was because he was Lord Xiang’s halberd-bearer, and was often sent on errands for the lord.

Halberd-bearer Han was only passing by yet was stopped for no reason, he couldn’t help frowning.

After listening to them, he looked over and met eyes with Lü Bu, who was staring without bothering to conceal anything.

The two looked at each other for a moment. Lü Bu raised his eyebrows and smiled, causing Attendant Han to be slightly taken aback.

For some reason, he nodded and let Lü Bu follow him.

Translator:
I foresee a lot of footnotes, this is based on real historical events after all and most RAW readers would already have the background knowledge. On the bright(?) side, I was obsessed with Three Kingdoms when I was younger and now there’s the perfect excuse to foist useless trivia on unsuspecting readers! This novel takes more from the Romance than true historical accounts.

Note: I often use dynasties as a time reference in the footnotes, the relevant portion of the timeline goes like this: Qin -> Chu-Han Contention (novel setting) -> Han -> Three Kingdoms (Lü Bu’s lifetime)

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• 1
  lit. wanting to steal chickens but failing and losing the bait as well; a total loss
• 2
  courtesy name of Chen Gong, advisor to Lü Bu after defecting from Cao Cao’s camp; executed at White Gate Tower. Wikipedia
• 3
  probably referring to Gao Shun (couldn’t track down if his courtesy name is Fuyi), known as the most capable military officer serving under Lü Bu, commander of a 700 man unit nicknamed the ‘formation breakers’ for their destructive charges; executed at White Gate Tower. Wikipedia
• 4
  西楚霸王: referring to Xiang Yu, a warlord during the end of the Qin dynasty who engaged in a long struggle for power with and ultimately lost to Liu Bang, known as the Chu-Han Contention. Wikipedia
• 5
  鸿门宴: a major inciting incident of the Chu-Han Contention, now used colloquially to mean a trap or a situation ostensibly joyous but in fact treacherous. Wikipedia
• 6
  inspector of Bing Province during the late Eastern Han dynasty, killed by Lü Bu who had been bribed by Dong Zhuo. Wikipedia
• 7
  The specific phrase used here is 黄花菜都得凉透了 (lit. even the daylilies are cold), which is a mocking criticism of people or things that come too late. I won’t go into the specifics but you can take a look on Zhidao.
• 8
  Lü Bu is kinda (in)famous for killing his adoptive fathers (albeit it’s in the fictional Romance of the Three Kingdoms), first Ding Yuan then Dong Zhuo.
• 9
  battle between Qin and Chu armies, ended in a decisive victory for Chu; marks the decline of Qin military power. Wikipedia
• 10
  referring to Xiong Xin, also known as Emperor Yi of Chu/King Huai II of Chu. Wikipedia
• 11
  As according to Wikipedia: In the winter of 208 BC, another rebel force claiming to restore the Zhao state, led by Zhao Xie, was besieged in Handan by Zhang Han. Zhao Xie requested reinforcements from Chu. King Huai II granted Xiang Yu the title of “Duke of Lu” (魯公), and appointed him as a second-in-command to Song Yi, who was ordered to lead an army to reinforce Zhao Xie. At the same time, the king placed Liu Bang in command of another army to attack Guanzhong, the heartland (capital territory) of Qin. The king promised that whoever managed to enter Guanzhong first will be granted the title “King of Guanzhong”.
• 12
  referring to Liu Bang, due to his earlier post as a law enforcement officer in Pei county
• 13
  uncle of Xiang Yu, best known for preventing another nephew of his from assassinating Liu Bang at Hongmen Banquet; attempted to reconcile the Chu-Han warring factions. Wikipedia
• 14
  courtesy name Zifang, posthumously titled Marquis Wencheng; a key advisor for Liu Bang; contributed greatly to establishing the Han dynasty. Wikipedia
• 15
  specifically, a bit more than 1.84m tall; raws use 8 chi, which when converted to metric values 1 chi is 0.23m during the Han dynasty. Wikipedia
• 16
  Courtesy names (aka style names) were bestowed at adulthood, typically by their teacher. Almost exclusively a male phenomenon, though some women were given a courtesy name upon marriage. Wikipedia
• 17
  郎中: during Qin/Han dynasties, langzhong is a general term for an emperor’s attendants, with duties including guarding, accompanying, advising, etc.; however if you search it up, most results translate langzhong as ‘doctor’, this is because during the Song dynasty people in the south began to call doctors langzhong as a sign of respect.