Tag: BL (page 8 of 12)

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There was no quota for how many attendants there should be, it only depended on what Xiang Yu wanted.

Thus upon receiving his assignment, Lü Bu — who had just been stuffed into the army — went to collect a few sets of uniforms for Xiang Yu’s personal soldiers, then changed the temporary bunk next to Han Xin’s which he slept on last night into a permanent bunk. With this, he took up his post with a new look, and became a proper Attendant Sentry stationed in Xiang Yu’s tent.

Lü Bu still regretted that the opportunity to take Liu Bang’s head had slipped away, but as he relived his old days of being a personal servant, those emotions faded.

Xiang Yu had well-deserved confidence in his unparalleled martial skills, so except for a few special occasions, he wouldn’t ask his attendants to stay in the tent to add unnecessary ostentation.

Therefore, most of the time, the attendants would walk freely throughout the army and few people dared to call them casually.

Lü Bu — who hadn’t intended to do any real work in the first place — was particularly satisfied with this.

The difference was especially stark when compared with his cheap foster father Dong Zhuo — Chancellor Dong knew that he was hated by many, so he was careful in all things and cherished his life very much. Even when he went to take a dump, he had to call Lü Bu over to be a bodyguard and forced him to stare at his fat buttocks.

Lü Bu was standing next to the training grounds with his arms folded when he was called by Han Xin, who had come up behind him. “My dear brother,” Han Xin said, “you…”

Lü Bu absently turned towards him. “Huh?”

Han Xin hesitated, then said, “Your clothes are a little short, why don’t I take you to find someone to fix it?”

In the Chu camp, Lü Bu at almost two meters tall was like a crane among chickens, the only one who was close to his height was Xiang Yu. None of the uniforms fit him.

Lü Bu nonchalantly spit out the blade of grass hanging from his mouth and waved his hand. “The clothes are fine, Han-xiong doesn’t need to worry.”

He really couldn’t be bothered to deal with it.

It wasn’t as if he had never worn silk or satin in the past, especially after he gained power. However, in the end he came out of the army; those weren’t just chilly, they were so soft that it felt like he wasn’t wearing anything on his body. He didn’t like it nearly as much as tough cotton or iron armour which could at least block a few swords.

Those things were much better suited to little ladies with delicate skin and tender flesh, so he sent it all to them.

He didn’t care if he wore rough, used clothes, why would it matter if his new clothes were made of good materials or not? It was easier to mend like this, and besides, with how hot it was, his exposed limbs were cool enough even if it was a bit rude. Just leave it.

Lü Bu narrowed his eyes with a deep and unfathomable expression, and turned his gaze back to the soldiers who were sweating profusely under the scorching hot sun.

Tsk, tsk.

The more he looked the more satisfied he was, and the corners of his lips slowly curved upwards.

Although the people on the field were working hard, their skills were all mediocre and none of them would be able to go longer than three bouts with him.

Han Xin, whose kindness was rejected, did not leave. After pursing his lips for a while, he asked again, “How many words do you know?”

Although Lü Bu was a bit confused by the sudden question, he still replied frankly, “I’ve never counted, but it’s been enough.”

Han Xin seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, then slowly produced from his bosom a scroll of bamboo slips which he usually kept carefully hidden under his bedding. “Have you read this volume before?”

A little curious about this thing he suddenly took out, Lü Bu leaned closer for a look but then he instantly lost interest. “Thank you, Han-xiong, but I have already read it.”

Wasn’t this Sun Tzu’s Art of War? He had read it many times even before he had been appointed as a Registrar. He might not be able to boast that he could recite it by heart, but he was at least quite familiar with its contents.

Han Xin fell silent.

Seeing Lü Bu turn his attention back to the soldiers on the field in boredom, he hesitated for a moment, then asked, “My dear brother, do you want to go a few rounds in the arena?”

As soon as these words came out, Lü Bu, who had been watching for a long time, was indeed quite moved.

It’s just that before he could open his mouth to agree, he suddenly remembered something and turned with raised eyebrows to look at Han Xin’s expressionless face.

He was just wondering why it felt so strange — it was because Han Xin, who usually answered ten sentences with a single word to most people and ten words when speaking to Lü Bu, now took the initiative to chat, not to mention doing it three times!

Han Xin coughed lightly at being stared at by Lü Bu’s searching tiger eyes. “Brother?” he urged.

Lü Bu gave a noncommittal hum, still trying to figure out why he was behaving so uncharacteristically.

Let alone Lü Bu, who had only talked to him once or twice and otherwise only knew him from a few dozen lines in history and military books, even Han Xin himself hadn’t noticed his abnormality at all.

The reason was actually very simple. Han Xin wasn’t someone who was good at socialising — now after spending more than two years alone in the Chu army, he finally met someone who was friendly, had the ability, and wanted to work with him. He couldn’t have been happier.

It’s just that he was more introverted than others, so although his entire body was bubbling with joy and he wanted to take the initiative to talk, he didn’t know how to express himself.

Lü Bu thought and thought but couldn’t reach a conclusion, so he simply set the problem aside.

Anyway, there were so many things in the world that he didn’t know, for example, the inexplicable cancellation of the Hongmen Banquet…

Thinking of this, Lü Bu became even more depressed.

Forget it, what was there to watch here on the training field? When he fought against the Liu, Guan, and Zhang brothers at Hulao Pass, the trio cheekily went up at the same time in clear violation of the rules, but he had still been strong enough to match them evenly for quite a while.

As for the Chu soldiers in front of him, they might not be able to overpower him even if they all came at once.

And Han Xin… no way. Commanding soldiers like a god didn’t mean he had unparalleled martial arts, not to mention he couldn’t grab the cheap brother he just recognised and beat him up, right?

Lü Bu’s mouth cracked open in a wide yawn.

In the entire Chu camp, maybe only the Hegemon-King of Western Chu could give him a strong fighting spirit.

He clicked his tongue regretfully.

…Unfortunately, he couldn’t instigate a fight for the time being.

While he and Han Xin stared at each other, a sudden noise came from the camp’s entrance, which startled several captains and caused them to hurry there.

Lü Bu and Han Xin exchanged a quick glance, and in the next moment they tacitly went to check the situation together.

The one who caused the commotion wasn’t a fourth Han envoy in two days, but rather a gorgeously dressed Han person disguised as an envoy from the King of Chu, carrying a royal edict.

As for Li Yiji who had volunteered for this task, his face was already known to Chu as an important Han minister and it was impossible for him to pretend to be an envoy from Pengcheng, so he had to send another person in his place.

Although this person was also one of Liu Bang’s close ministers, he seldom showed his face, was inconspicuous, and had few achievements, so he was largely unknown to outsiders.

On the one hand, he had the courage to stand up in times of crisis, and on the other, Liu Bang had no other suitable candidates, so he had no choice but to nod and agree, treating a dead horse as if it were living.¹当死马当成活马医: to not give up, to try everything possible to remedy a hopeless situation no matter how outlandish

Once Lü Bu heard that they were sent by the King of Chu, he immediately lost interest.

He lazily watched them being brought into Xiang Yu’s tent, then turned around to keep wandering around.

In contrast, Han Xin, who also saw the scene just now, sighed uneasily.

“Why do you sigh?” Lü Bu asked casually.

Han Xin shook his head, unable to hide his regret. “We should have struck while the iron was hot.²一鼓作气、再而衰、三而竭: idiom attributed to Cao Gui, a general during the Spring and Autumn period; the original quote is “Fighting requires spirit. The enemy force had a great momentum at the first round of drum beating, had a weaker momentum by the second beating, and was exhausted by the third. We attacked when their spirits were exhausted. That’s why we won.” Wikipedia | Week in China It is a great taboo for military commanders to renege on orders, and the general has already done it once. If the attack against Han troops in the pass is successful then the gains would outweigh the loss, but the king’s envoy arrived so suddenly — it is obviously to protect the Han. Regardless of his authenticity, the army most likely will not be able to set off tomorrow as scheduled.”

They had been obstructed time and again, who knew what the long-term impacts might be.

Lü Bu slowly swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and asked solemnly, “Is it such a serious matter?”

Han Xin was silent.

“If it is,” he started, unable to sit idly by if the Han army wanted benefits, “brother, why don’t you speak to the general?”

“It’s just an attendant’s words…” Han Xin gave a self-deprecating laugh. “Maybe the general would be willing to listen if my surname were Xiang.”

He didn’t listen to the advice he offered, didn’t use the counsel he gave. This repeated countless times until Han Xin became thoroughly disheartened.

Lü Bu straightened when he heard this and his eyes gradually turned serious.

However Han Xin didn’t notice these subtle changes in his demeanour. He had been used to this state of affairs for a long time and was just about to enlighten Lü Bu of this fact when the latter unexpectedly stretched out an arm, hooked his shoulders, and exerted force, pulling and dragging him towards the main tent.

“Fengxian, what is this for?!” Han Xin asked anxiously as he was dragged several steps, completely unable to resist.

“Of course it’s to go offer advice,” Lü Bu said frankly. He was so powerful that he could easily manhandle someone as tall as Han Xin. “Although I am not learned and have only read a few books, I also know that a wise man will make mistakes if he thinks too much and a fool might gain a lot if he does the same. A mere attendant offering advice is still a pledge of loyalty. Rewards may not be given, but it is impossible to receive reprimand or punishments. As for the strategy itself, the general may or may not use it, but he can only make that choice after hearing it. Han-xiong, you don’t need to be discouraged just because a few strategies weren’t used, you will definitely succeed in the end if you give a few more.”

Unlike Han Xin, who chose to silently give up after suffering repeated setbacks, Lü Bu naturally saw things from Xiang Yu’s perspective… ahem, and also from his past self’s perspective.

In his eyes, Chen Gongtai’s biggest problem was that he refused to speak, didn’t like to explain things, always lost his temper, and spoke sarcastically. As soon as Lü Bu suffered a loss due to not following his plans, he had to suffer passive-aggressive sour words, making him feel annoyed and aggrieved.

In comparison, Gao Fuyi was much better — he didn’t nag if Lü Bu didn’t listen, he only silently helped him clean up the mess afterwards. Then his yielding attitude made Lü Bu feel embarrassed, so he would be more willing to listen next time.

But even so, Chen Gongtai would only be depressed for a short while at most, he would still give advice when it was time to do so.

…From this point of view, Chen Gongtai was much easier to coax than Han Xin, even with his crappy temper.

Since Han Xin saw how important this matter was, especially as it related to the Chu army’s morale, how could he not give a reminder or two? It wasn’t as if Xiang Yu would be able to cook him with a wave of his hand just because he babbled a few more words, and he might even pay attention this time.

The more Lü Bu thought about it, the more he couldn’t help comparing Han Xin’s way of doing things with Chen Gongtai.

He thought that if Chen Gongtai deliberately hid things from him just because he was angry, not reminding him of important things because he would rather they be unlucky together, he would definitely blow his top!

Han Xin didn’t know his mental journey of a thousand miles. He was surprised when he heard what Lü Bu said, then he didn’t know how to react.

Rationally, he knew that Xiang Yu wouldn’t listen, but since Lü Bu was so persistent, he also had some thoughts of not giving up in his heart, so he softened his resistance and let Lü Bu forcefully drag him to the main tent.

Translator:
Glossary is live!

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• 1
  当死马当成活马医: to not give up, to try everything possible to remedy a hopeless situation no matter how outlandish
• 2
  一鼓作气、再而衰、三而竭: idiom attributed to Cao Gui, a general during the Spring and Autumn period; the original quote is “Fighting requires spirit. The enemy force had a great momentum at the first round of drum beating, had a weaker momentum by the second beating, and was exhausted by the third. We attacked when their spirits were exhausted. That’s why we won.” Wikipedia | Week in China

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Lü Bu was still unhappy about the unreasonably cancelled Hongmen Banquet and wondering what to do next when he was summoned by Xiang Yu.

After an entire day passed, Xiang Yu didn’t forget about the man who made great merits by bringing with him the means to give the Chu army a major turning point. He arranged everything then called him for an audience.

Han Xin led Lü Bu to the main tent again. Once he entered, he saw that there wasn’t only Xiang Yu this time. Two people sat on Xiang Yu’s left and right; both looked to be seventy or eighty years old, with one of them dressed more like a military officer.

Although they sat close to one another, their expressions were quite sullen. They had probably just argued and likely had a bad relationship.

Lü Bu took his time to glance around slowly.

Though the one on the left was old he could still stay in the barracks, so he could only be the famed Yafu; and the one on the right… it was hard to say, but his features were somewhat similar to Xiang Yu up on the main seat, so Lü Bu guessed that this was Xiang Bo.

As Lü Bu guessed, the identities of these two people were indeed Fan Zeng and Xiang Bo.

In order to buy time and find a way out for himself, Liu Bang had sent three envoys in a row, all bearing gifts and explanations for Xiang Yu.

Xiang Bo didn’t know that Liu Bang still had a hidden trick to move King Huai’s heart, but he did know that the situation was serious and he tried his best to cooperate; on the contrary, Fan Zeng didn’t want Xiang Yu, who had finally recognised Liu Bang’s treachery, to fall into a trap again, so he strenuously objected. Thus, every time a Han envoy arrived, it would be a verbal battle fought tit for tat, which annoyed Xiang Yu to no end.

As Xiang Yu saw it, one was a loyal counsellor, and the other was his trusted uncle. Both of them gave everything for Chu without hiding selfish intentions, but for some reason they just could not get along.

He wasn’t good at speaking let alone mediating arguments. Once he encountered this situation, he was at a complete loss and could only keep a blank face and turn a deaf ear as the two argued.

Lü Bu’s eyelids twitched.

This scene was too familiar to him.

It involuntarily reminded him of when Wei Xu and Gao Fuyi quarrelled, he always had no idea what to do…

“Greetings to the General.”

Lü Bu abandoned those messy thoughts, then saluted with a sonorous and powerful voice.

Although he was bowed, he could feel three pairs of eyes instantly focus on him.

Fan Zeng’s gaze was filled with kindness and the feeling that ‘this child can be taught’, Xiang Bo seemed calm but was in fact full of doubts, and only Xiang Yu’s eyes were full of appreciation as he silently let out a relieved breath.

“No need to be so polite,” Xiang Yu responded in a deep voice as he gestured to a seat, “Sit.”

“Yes.”

Lü Bu didn’t bother to refuse a few times like others might, he very straightforwardly dropped into a seat.

“I am overjoyed that Fengxian has come to me, as for the guarantee he brought…”

Here, Xiang Yu paused.

The title of ‘Attendant’ was already on his lips, but when he looked at the exceptionally heroic, dignified, and eloquent Lü Bu, he once again felt his admiration surge up and his lips inexplicably curved upwards.

Heroes were rare, they should not be constrained by common conventions.

It took only a moment to make up his mind. He didn’t blink an eye as he simply asked, “I’ll make you a lian’ao, what say you?”

Fan Zeng only listened calmly and didn’t react, but Xiang Bo looked at Lü Bu with more inquiry and surprise.

What kind of ability did this person have, what miraculous feat did he accomplish?! How could he get such grand appreciation from the proud Xiang Yu?

It should be noted that the position of lian’ao was a combination of lianyin and mo’ao, and ranked only behind the prime minister, their secretaries, the Grand Marshal, and the Left and Right Majors.¹ a military rank exclusive to the Chu state, specific responsibilities are unclear; no direct translation to English ranks suitable for lian’ao, lianyin, or mo’ao, you just need to know they’re quite high ranking It could only be called a middling position in the grand scheme of things, but for an unknown soldier like Lü Bu, it was practically reaching the sky in a single step.

For example, Han Xin had been in the Chu army for two years. He first followed Xiang Liang then Xiang Yu to participate in campaigns and fought many bloody battles, and only after accumulating merits for a long time was he promoted to Attendant.

His rate of promotion was already considered quite good.

Now Lü Bu overtook him in a single leap!

What surprised Xiang Bo the most was that for the first time, there was a hint of questioning in Xiang Yu’s tone — if this person was greedy and asked for a higher position, would he allow him to bargain or even agree?

Meanwhile, Lü Bu’s eyes were blank.

What’s a lian’ao?

He couldn’t be less familiar with official positions in the Chu state, which had been abolished for a long time during his own lifetime, three hundred years in the future. And although his cheap brother Han Xin gave a brief explanation, he had stopped at Attendant because he didn’t expect Lü Bu to skip so many grades. Lian’ao hadn’t been mentioned at all.

With bright eyes full of anticipation, Lü Bu asked, “May I ask, General, this lian’ao… how many soldiers do they lead?”

Xiang Yu was silent.

The corners of Fan Zeng’s eyes twitched as he kindly explained, “Although lian’ao do not command soldiers, they have the important task of supervising the transportation of grain.”

Lü Bu was dumbfounded.

Although they prettied it up, wasn’t it just a porter!

He refused!

He was used to being a general who gave orders. Although he did come to the Chu army intending to start as a little soldier, his purpose wasn’t to relive his old dream of rising through the ranks step by step, he was here for the life of his nemesis’ ancestor!

Seeing as he somehow lost a perfectly good opportunity to kill Liu Bang at the Hongmen Banquet, his most urgent task now was to find another way to get close to him.

Thankfully he asked about it, otherwise if he really became a little official helping transport food and grass, who knew how many years it would be before he could touch a hair on Liu Bang’s head!

With that much trouble, he might as well join the vanguard as a foot soldier!

Seeing his wide-eyed, dissenting appearance, Xiang Bo who was already very worried about the threat to Liu Bang’s life finally couldn’t contain his irritability. “You’ve just arrived, although you’ve got some good points, you haven’t been to the battlefield and don’t have any merits to your name. You think you could reach anywhere as high as lian’ao without the general’s appreciation?” he ridiculed. “No matter how eager you are, you can’t be so presumptuous.”

He didn’t know what kind of miraculous achievement this little boy named Lü did, but he shouldn’t act so arrogant, he really didn’t know his place!

Lü Bu narrowed his eyes.

People like Xiang Bo, who were so brazen yet had no self-awareness, would inevitably remind him of the mediocre Wei Xu whom he treated favourably because he was his wife’s uncle. Yet in the end, love and hatred intertwined and Wei Xu betrayed him faster than anyone else.

Since it was just a traitor speaking nonsense, why should he care?

He said slowly, “Left Governor has misunderstood, I was only unclear on what a lian’ao is, how could I despise it for being too low a rank? I also know that my merits are few and it would be difficult to convince others that I deserve it… I deeply admire the prowess the general showed at Julu. If General does not mind, please make me your Attendant Sentry, so that I can stay by your side, and also keep Han-xiong company.”

The abacus in Lü Bu’s heart rattled as he said these beautiful words.

Being a sentry by Xiang Yu’s side naturally had its own advantages: he could chat with Han Xin, his cheap brother and colleague, in his spare time, and it would also be easier for him to monitor the Han army’s movements.

Besides, apart from the vanguard troops, the person most likely to meet Liu Bang was Xiang Yu himself.

A vanguard soldier had to kill a bloody path forwards and still may not be able to glimpse Liu Bang. But if Liu Bang’s brain twitched and he wanted to have a meeting with Xiang Yu, it must be a special event where he had little armour and few weapons — it would be far easier for him to act then.

In the past, he was Thief Dong’s²referring to Dong Zhuo, a warlord of late Han/early Three Kingdoms infamous for being a tyrant and all around bad person; it’s said that after his death, his corpse was left on the street with a lit wick placed on his navel, which burned for several days on the fat of his body. Wikipedia godson³义子 (yìzǐ), and its counterpart 义父 (yìfù), are less foster/adoptive/familial relationships and more of a mentorship, as in yizi would respect & revere the yifu as they would their father, while the yifu is responsible as a mentor & moral guide; it’s similar to godparents without the religious connotations. More detail in siumerghe’s Tumblr post. in name but had duties similar to a personal servant so he was very familiar with this job, it would be far easier to handle than moving grain.

Xiang Yu had heard a lot of flattering words lately. Not only were his ears calloused, he rarely took it to heart.

But it was different when the praise and admiration came from this straight-faced young man whom he appreciated.

The corners of his mouth rose slightly and his mood visibly improved.

What’s more, he had originally wanted to grant Lü Bu this position. In addition, he knew when to advance and retreat, and his arguments were well-founded, so Xiang Yu was even more satisfied and nodded without another word.

Hearing this, Fan Zeng labelled the man in front of him with the word ‘clever’. A lian’ao involved in grain transport was indeed ranked higher, but it was difficult to progress further. Instead, it would be better to be a sentry who was at Xiang Yu’s side day after day, where he could more easily be noticed.

Lü Bu was unaware that he had been stamped with an unprecedented ‘clever’ on his head. After leaving the main tent, he reluctantly plucked up his energy and went to get the uniform and seal for an Attendant Sentry.

But in the Han camp was Zhang Liang, a truly clever person. Seeing that the envoys had all returned in failure and disaster was imminent, he had to make some adjustments to his plans — namely, to quickly forge an edict from the King of Chu and send it to the Chu camp with people disguised as envoys from Pengcheng.

At this, Liu Bang was first shocked, then hesitant.

Whether it was the difficulty of forging a royal edict or their fates if it were discovered, this was a much more serious matter than the bloody clothing, not to mention that the clothing had already failed.

“General, please rest assured. As long as the king does not expose it, it will become a real edict,” Zhang Liang said calmly.

They only had two days. Even if the envoys whipped their horses all the way, they would only barely be able to reach Pengcheng.

Waiting for the King of Chu to decide on a response and send his own envoys would take another two days — by that time, the Han army might already have been exterminated and any rescue would only find dregs.

Since they couldn’t delay it, they could only forge a royal edict.

They only needed to send it openly and frankly. Even if Fan Zeng had doubts, determining its validity would take time, time which they could use to prepare. And if Xiang Yu became furious due to this, all the better; his anger would be directed at the King of Chu who was biased towards the Han, giving them some breathing space.

The key to the edict’s authenticity lay in the King of Chu alone.

And if the King of Chu wanted to stop being a puppet of the Xiang clan and to check and balance the powerful Xiang Yu, he couldn’t lose Han support — thus, he could only silently cover things up for them.

Liu Bang wavered at his words. “Then the one who will send the royal edict…”

He was reluctant to send his beloved generals to their doom, but this was a matter of life or death for the Han army and they couldn’t afford any mistake.

Before Zhang Liang could say anything, Li Yiji⁴a political advisor to Liu Bang. Wikipedia stood up. “I request the general to give an order, I am willing to take this edict to Chu.”

Translator:
Vote if you would like a glossary/character list, I can put more trivia in there than the footnotes.

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• 1
   a military rank exclusive to the Chu state, specific responsibilities are unclear; no direct translation to English ranks suitable for lian’ao, lianyin, or mo’ao, you just need to know they’re quite high ranking
• 2
  referring to Dong Zhuo, a warlord of late Han/early Three Kingdoms infamous for being a tyrant and all around bad person; it’s said that after his death, his corpse was left on the street with a lit wick placed on his navel, which burned for several days on the fat of his body. Wikipedia
• 3
  义子 (yìzǐ), and its counterpart 义父 (yìfù), are less foster/adoptive/familial relationships and more of a mentorship, as in yizi would respect & revere the yifu as they would their father, while the yifu is responsible as a mentor & moral guide; it’s similar to godparents without the religious connotations. More detail in siumerghe’s Tumblr post.
• 4
  a political advisor to Liu Bang. Wikipedia

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Lü Bu could make fun of the situation, because of course he wouldn’t be cooked.

Right now, the one so anxious as if he was being cooked was Xiang Bo. He paced in his tent anxiously with a forehead covered in sweat.

Even if Fan Zeng had deliberately concealed it, the Chu army’s movements were so obvious that it was impossible for Xiang Bo, who was the Minister of the Left,¹左尹: traditionally 2 people occupy each of the more important court positions, which is why in dramas etc. you see people being called things like ‘left prime minister’ or ‘general of the right’. As far as I can tell, 左尹 is a title exclusive to the Chu state which is more or less equivalent to a prime minister’s undersecretary not to find out.

He really couldn’t figure out what slander Fan Zeng filled Xiang Yu’s ears with while he was busy elsewhere. His persuasion had held steady until this morning, but that guy suddenly changed his mind!

Xiang Bo’s mood went up and down, making his face look very ugly.

In the tent, it wasn’t as if he couldn’t tell that Xiang Yu was also in a bad mood. Xiang Bo was too scared to persuade him too much, he tentatively asked for an explanation but even this made Xiang Yu turn away angrily, and his every word showed that his mind was set.

Compared to his decision a few days ago, this time he was indeed much more serious. Not only did he summon his generals and hold emergency military meetings, he also arranged the basic formations for deployment. In just two days, the army would set off towards the Han army in the pass.

Xiang Bo turned pale with fright and wracked his brains to stop him, using excuses like ‘it is impossible to build trust if you go back on your words’, but Xiang Yu just ignored him and politely sent him out.

Having never been treated like this before, Xiang Bo was scared stiff and naturally didn’t dare to insist on staying.

Xiang Yu never suspected that his beloved uncle had colluded with the Han, he just thought that he had felt furious enough when he realised he had been fooled by the cunning and sly Liu Bang, and there was no need to make his uncle go through the same humiliation.

He also specifically chose a time when his uncle wasn’t present to hold the meeting in order to spare him the pain of betrayal.

He didn’t know how to pretend, didn’t want to say the truth, and also didn’t want to lie, so he simply mumbled a few words before sending Xiang Bo away.

But it was this ambiguity that made Xiang Bo — who already felt guilty — nervous.

If not for his knowledge of Xiang Yu, he would have thought that his nephew already knew of the agreed marriage of his and Liu Bang’s children, and his delicate position in this matter.

Since he was still safe for the moment and only excluded from the battle situation for an unknown reason, the first thing he should do was to inform Zhang Liang of the situation.

Xiang Bo was very worried about the danger Liu Bang was about to face. He originally wanted to go himself, but in order to prevent unexpected complications in case Fan Zeng had sent anyone to stare at him, he instead sent a confidant to rush through the pass overnight to the Qin Palace.

At this moment, Liu Bang sat opposite Zhang Liang as they discussed countermeasures for the dangerous Hongmen Banquet tomorrow. He definitely wasn’t expecting to hear such bad news.

“Is this true!” Blood drained from Liu Bang’s face. He stumbled and crawled to the messenger, not even caring about his appearance, and clutched the man’s shoulder as he asked repeatedly, “Xiang Yu will really bring his army to break through the gate in two days?!”

“There is absolutely no falsehood.”

The confidant sent by Xiang Bo was also very nervous. He repeated what Xiang Bo told him to say, then refused to stay a minute longer and quickly left.

Even if Liu Bang wanted to ask about the movements of the Chu army in detail, he didn’t know much because Xiang Bo had been kept far away from the decision-making process.

So even though he was eloquent and let go of his airs, he couldn’t get any information other than the terrible news that the Chu army would march into Hangu Pass in two days.

“It’s over, it’s over.”

A single Hongmen Banquet already scared him out of his wits, but now although he didn’t have to go to the banquet, there was an even more terrible disaster!

His temperament had always been very resilient, but at this time he had a feeling that heaven wanted him dead. He had hardly celebrated escaping from the pan before falling into flames, causing him to be quite depressed.

Where on earth did the flaw come from?

Zhang Liang’s first suspect was Xiang Bo, who was supposedly a central Chu figure yet acted more intimately towards Han.

There must be a devil in the works of anything abnormal. Could Xiang Bo be not a fool who mixed up private and professional interests and betrayed his master for ‘righteousness’, but a spy sent by Fan Zeng? He would gain Liu Bang’s trust to set up this dead end of a Hongmen Banquet, then use the King of Qin as an excuse to wipe out the entire Han army.

Everyone knew that Fan Zeng and Xiang Bo were at odds, but if it was all an act…

Zhang Liang shook his head and rejected his own guess.

If Xiang Bo’s urgency that night were actually performed by a man with a sweet mouth and a sword in his belly, that would be too amazing.

The most important thing was that if Xiang Yu was determined to attack Liu Bang, then according to his previous actions, he would likely choose to fight fair and square out in the open.

Their strengths had a great disparity and there was a ready-made excuse — the Han army didn’t allow the Chu army to enter Hangu Pass, so the Chu army could take this as justification to march.

It would be too easy for the Chu army to exterminate them.

Why bother to force the Chu’s left governor to go into the Han camp alone?

Even if they insisted they were in the right afterwards, they would inevitably be criticised for attacking allies.

However, when the distribution of land was imminent, one less Liu Bang was one less lord to contend with. In that case, the feudal lords would only be too happy to watch on the sidelines, at most they would write a few articles.

As for Xiang Yu, he only recently executed over two hundred thousand Qin soldiers, so he presumably didn’t care for rumours.

After thinking things over many times, Zhang Liang vaguely realised that it was the bloody clothes Liu Bang gave which were the fly in the ointment.²actual phrase is adding legs to a snake (画蛇添足), meaning doing superfluous things (derogatory); for the specific origin story, you can go to www.tutormandarin.net

However Ying Ziying’s assassination happened too suddenly, and with Xiang Bo’s visit also coming unexpectedly, they didn’t have the time to think of a perfect response. Fan Zeng had always been on guard against them, it wasn’t unusual to stumble here.

In any case, it was no use to speculate on the past. The most urgent task now was to deal with the Chu army’s imminent attack in two days.

Liu Bang looked panic-stricken as if he were mourning a wife. In his mind, this was no different from his end.

After he recovered, Zhang Liang reminded him of what he did in the past few days and he realised how stupid he had been: how could a hundred thousand Han soldiers emerge victorious against four hundred thousand high-spirited Chu soldiers led by Xiang Yu? Not to mention the other lords and their own armies waiting in the wings.

He feared that the only way was to replace the elite Han soldiers with Qin troops who had surrendered in the palace before the Chu army could react, then bring the ten thousand elite soldiers to flee towards Ba County or Shu County.³both are around modern day Chongqing, which is middle of China ish. Wikipedia

The Bashu area’s terrain was treacherous and difficult for pursuers to enter. Xiang Yu was unlikely to sacrifice his army to go deep into the hinterlands, so he should be safe with just these few elite soldiers.

But although it was hard for pursuers to enter, it would also be hard for him to leave.

In this way, it was tantamount to trapping himself in the former Qin dynasty’s back yard; it would be hard just to survive, let alone realise the grand plan of unification in his heart.

But after a while, he made the sober decision to take only his trusted soldiers to escape and abandon his other people.

After Zhang Liang heard his plan, he fell silent, then suddenly said, “When in adversity, retreating to Bashu is indeed a good way out.”

His eyes were sharp, he knew that it was impossible for the Han army as they were to compete with Xiang Yu, who was so powerful that hundreds answered his call.

Right now, he just wanted to appease Xiang Yu so that later, they could be granted a fief that wasn’t too terrible, with which they could accumulate strength, develop allies, and slowly make plans.

Liu Bang’s eyes brightened.

How could he fail to understand what Zhang Liang meant? This was saying that the Han army still had a way out!

“Sir, please teach me!”

The situation was urgent, Zhang Liang wouldn’t make things difficult for him. He revealed his entire plan and immediately asked Liu Bang to do two things.

First, to urgently send envoys to the Chu capital of Pengcheng, to escort the King of Chu — who had proclaimed ‘the one who first enters the pass is king’ and been subsequently ignored by Xiang Yu — here.

Second, to also send envoys to the vicinity of the Chu camp and delay them at all costs until the King of Chu arrived.

The Xiang clan had supported the King of Chu to his high position, but Xiong Xin now turned against them because he was unwilling to be a puppet, and this was what gave Liu Bang the opportunity to rise.

If he wanted to maintain his power, he had to contain Xiang Yu, who was flourishing and at the height of his power — and considering all the lords, Liu Bang was his best and most useful choice.

There was no doubt that he would use everything in his power to protect the Han army from Xiang Yu.

Liu Bang also understood this point. As he thanked Zhang Liang profusely, he also hurriedly summoned his confidants and assigned the two important tasks to them.

His strategy had been implemented, but Zhang Liang still felt uneasy.

There were simply too many variables in such a hastily formulated plan.

The most difficult thing to grasp was the amount of restraint the King of Chu still had on Xiang Yu, or rather… how much more Xiang Yu could endure.

If Xiang Yu was driven to the edge and became determined to eradicate the Han army even if he had to blatantly disobey the King of Chu, then they really would have to flee to Bashu in embarrassment.

At this time, how could Lü Bu know that his casual act of getting a token of guarantee had turned into a boulder thrown into a placid lake from which countless waves arose, disrupting many people’s plans.

After he had a comfortable nap on a temporary bunk in the barracks tent, he was full of energy and looking forward to seeing Liu Bang at Hongmen, only to find to his surprise that the banquet which should have been settled had actually been cancelled!

“That’s outrageous!!!” Everything had been prepared and even his sword was newly sharpened, but upon hearing the bad news, Lü Bu’s eyes widened and he shot to his feet, dislodging the shortsword on his lap which fell to the ground with a clang.

How could he care about that crappy sword now, his whole head was about to fall apart from disbelief!

“What’s going on! How can Heaven be so unreasonable!” Lü Bu roared as he stomped his feet violently.

Was it big-eared Liu’s treacherous ancestor who was too dishonest, or did Lord Grand Historian⁴referring to Sima Qian, a major historian in Chinese history and author of Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji) which is a general history of China covering 2000+ years from the Yellow Emperor to Emperor Wu of Han (Liu Bang’s great-grandson). Wikipedia deceive him? Which goddamn bastard did it, who had so little conscience that they completely got rid of the entire thing!

Damn, what a mess!

Lü Bu, who had no idea that he was exactly that ‘unconscientious bastard’, was so indignant that he agitatedly paced back and forth, all the while muttering “That’s impossible,” and “Who the hell did this.”

A man who had been perfectly fine just now turned into this as if he had nothing to live for when he heard such an irrelevant matter. Han Xin, who was the one who told him about it, was stunned when he saw this and completely unable to understand.

Han Xin stood at a loss for a while. “…General Xiang is generous. Although he hasn’t given a position to my virtuous brother yet,” he comforted, remembering the way Lü Bu picked through the rough food with disgust in the mess tent earlier, and thinking he now knew the crux of the matter, “for mere meat and wine, you need only to ask.”

What’s more, in his opinion, Lü Bu with his unclear identity might not be allowed in even if there was a banquet held for Liu Bang.

Lü Bu’s face was numb. He lifted his face to the sky and let out a long cry, then fell motionless to the ground.

The hell did he care about the banquet’s food for! He just wanted the head of that guy named Liu!

Author:
Lü Bu: I’ll scold myself and lose my life’s goal by the way.

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• 1
  左尹: traditionally 2 people occupy each of the more important court positions, which is why in dramas etc. you see people being called things like ‘left prime minister’ or ‘general of the right’. As far as I can tell, 左尹 is a title exclusive to the Chu state which is more or less equivalent to a prime minister’s undersecretary
• 2
  actual phrase is adding legs to a snake (画蛇添足), meaning doing superfluous things (derogatory); for the specific origin story, you can go to www.tutormandarin.net
• 3
  both are around modern day Chongqing, which is middle of China ish. Wikipedia
• 4
  referring to Sima Qian, a major historian in Chinese history and author of Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji) which is a general history of China covering 2000+ years from the Yellow Emperor to Emperor Wu of Han (Liu Bang’s great-grandson). Wikipedia

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From beginning to end, what Xiang Yu valued most was strength.

He disdained to play political tricks. In his eyes, those were aberrant thoughts, unworthy of a true lord.

Due to his good upbringing, he was willing to address Liu Bang as the Duke of Pei, he was willing to acknowledge the man’s efforts to reach his current power, and he was also willing to respect the talented civil and military officials he’d gathered around him.

But this didn’t mean that he recognised Liu Bang as an opponent comparable to himself.

With his four hundred thousand Chu soldiers, he won a great victory over the Qin army at Julu, made Zhang Han and the other generals surrender to him, and all the lords sincerely supported him as the leader of their alliance.

He made his name with iron and blood, but look at Liu Bang. He relied on just one hundred thousand Han soldiers to simply stroll through Hangu Pass, what a joke!

This was just a monkey playing at king while the tiger was away. To have someone who hardly knew his place take the King of Chu’s words as justification to sit on Guanzhong’s throne, that wouldn’t just be trampling all over his military achievements, it would be the shame of his life.

To put it bluntly, the reason why he so easily believed Xiang Bo about Liu Bang’s willingness to reconcile wasn’t only due to his trust in Xiang Bo, it was also because of the disparity between their two sides.

The gap was so large that it was hard for him to accept that he seriously wanted them to become enemies.

…Unless Liu Bang went crazy, or thought Xiang Yu was retarded.

It was exactly because Xiang Yu had never regarded Liu Bang as an opponent worthy of attention that now, when he realised that Liu Bang might actually have those intentions and may be secretly proud of toying with him in the palm of his hand at this moment that he felt like a tiger being fooled by a monkey, and his anger grew ever higher.

Concluding that he was being made to seem a fool, his face turned dark as the bottom of a pot and he thumped his hand on the table!

“How dare he!!!”

He had the strength to lift a cauldron¹鼎: vessels used throughout Chinese history for ritual purposes, comes in 2 variations: 1) round with three legs, or 2) rectangular with four legs. Known to be heavy (they’re solid bronze), and lifting one was a way of showing off. Wikipedia single-handed. With the addition of his anger, this strike directly cracked the solid wood in two.

Seeing him so angry, Fan Zeng slightly lowered his eyelids to hide the smile in his eyes.

In his view, no matter what intriguing role Xiang Bo played in this, now that Xiang Yu had directed his fury towards the Han army, there was no need to pursue it.

The important thing was that Xiang Yu had recognised Liu Bang’s evil intentions and once again planned to send troops.

How could Lü Bu have known that just choosing a token of guarantee could lead to so many chain reactions.

He couldn’t remember when exactly the Hongmen Banquet would take place, but estimated that it would be around this time.

Right now he could only wait, it was no use for him to be anxious. He happily followed Xiang Yu’s personal soldiers to a ramshackle hut, where he washed himself quickly with the water in the tank, roughly towelled himself off, and changed into a new set of casual clothes.

Although Xiang Yu had kept him, he hadn’t conferred an official position, so he wasn’t given a specific uniform.

After he changed, the soldier politely asked him if he wanted to eat or rest first.

Lü Bu had been too lazy to go hunting after he finished the rabbit leg last night, so with this reminder, he suddenly felt hungry. He chose to fill his belly first without hesitation.

It was already dark, this was the busiest time for army cooks. And the mess tent was right next to the hut.

Youthful and handsome yet not inferior to any general, Lü Bu was also unnaturally tall, and so of course he attracted the attention of all the Chu soldiers.

And ever since eight hundred years ago… or rather three hundred years in the future, he’d long been used to this. He unceremoniously ordered enough food for three people, calmly walked past many curious eyes, and sat his ass down next to Han Xin, who seemed to be isolated in no man’s land.

Han Xin seemed to be concentrating on eating, but in reality his mind had flown far away into his own little world.

He had always been reticent and reluctant to talk to people. After numerous communication failures, the Chu soldiers gave up and no longer stuck their hot faces on his cold butt.

A mere sentry²previously translated as halberd-bearer was so arrogant, why shouldn’t they curry favour with someone else instead?

Lü Bu didn’t care at all about the increasingly strange gazes shot towards him; he hummed a little ditty under his breath, and after sitting next to Han Xin, he only raised an eyebrow and greeted his doubting expression with a “Yo.”

Han Xin couldn’t help hesitating for a moment.

…Should he say ‘yo’ back?

Just when he was hesitating, unsure how to call him, Lü Bu lowered his head and pushed around the food a few times with a disgusted look on his face before gulping down the unpalatable food.

Indeed, it was easy to go from frugality to extravagance but hard to go from extravagance to frugality.

He completely swept away a meal for three. Although his belly bulged by the time he was finished, he felt that it wasn’t as good as the unsalted roasted game he hunted in the wild for the last few days.

That wasn’t even mentioning the delicacies he’d tasted back then.

Never mind, never mind.

Lü Bu quickly adjusted his mentality. Anyways, he didn’t come to the Chu camp to eat or enjoy life, he came only to obtain Liu Bang’s head.

“Thankfully Attendant Han introduced me earlier,” Lü Bu grinned at Han Xin, “in the future, I will definitely return the favour.”

Han Xin paused for a moment, then said coldly, “No need.”

If it were someone else, they might have been dissuaded by Han Xin’s apathetic response, but Lü Bu was different, he was even full of curiosity towards this man. He knew that Han Xin would be known as a ‘god of war’ in the future.

Lü Bu didn’t expect to have a heart-to-heart talk in their first meeting. But by relying on his own knowledge and his understanding of Han Xin’s skilled tactical prowess, he could always hit on a few topics Han Xin was interested in and have a little chat.

It was fortunate that Han Xin wrote military books and not poetry books, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to have a conversation even if his face was as thick as a stone wall.

But talking about marching and fighting? That was his specialty! Whether it was the military books he read or the battles he personally witnessed, he could easily speak for days and nights without end.

And although this Han Xin was talented, he was still young and had little experience — he was by no means the future Han Xin who would command and use soldiers like a god.

Therefore, it was easy for the battle-tested Lü Bu to fool him.

The Chu soldiers who had been secretly watching them from the corners of their eyes were surprised to find that Han Xin, who usually cherished his words like gold, hardly spoke once in a day, and kept people a thousand leagues away, suddenly turned into a chatterbox!

From a cautious beginning to letting go, he was so happy that he gestured with his chopsticks as he seriously discussed something with the newcomer.

Oh gods above and below, the sun really came out from the west!

Lü Bu didn’t care how surprised they were. When he felt that the time had come, he mentioned becoming brothers. “To be honest with you, I’m new to Chu and not familiar with anything here, I can’t help but feel uneasy. Fortunately, both you and General Xiang have taken care of me, so this trip hasn’t been in vain. And after our conversation just now, I feel like we’re old acquaintances.”

Hey, big-eared Liu knew how to use these tricks, and so did he.

It’s just that before, he recognised foster fathers to get ahead, this wasn’t so different!

Han Xin didn’t notice Lü Bu’s thoughts at all.

Ever since he joined the army, no one took him seriously no matter how many enemies he killed or how earnestly he advised the lord; the frustration in his heart was beyond words.

He was surrounded only by impulsive soldiers with shallow thoughts, there were no like-minded people around him.

His deep loneliness and disappointment was what made him so withdrawn.

Han Xin stared at Lü Bu, slightly lost in thought.

This person in front of him had been different from the beginning, he was particularly suited to his tastes.

He was able to come out without a hair out of place after meeting with General Xiang, which indicated that he would be promoted in the future, which meant that the two would likely become colleagues.

The most special thing was that Lü Bu was the only one in the camp who could talk to him on equal footing, and vaguely gave him great satisfaction…

Thinking up to here, Han Xin of course wouldn’t repudiate him. He naturally followed with, “I think so as well. May I ask when you were born?”

This usually unremarkable question stunned Lü Bu.

His birthday was three hundred years in the future, if he said it, it would be stranger if he wasn’t considered crazy.

Seeing his hesitation, Han Xin instantly misunderstood, thinking that although Lü Bu was born a scholar, perhaps his background was rough, or he had some unspeakable secrets, so he couldn’t even name his birth date.

Thus, he considerately gave an excuse. “From a glance, I seem to be a few years older. If you don’t mind, you can call me your foolish older brother.”

Lü Bu originally intended to take advantage of the situation to accept the future god of war as a little brother.

However, he’d forgotten about his newly rejuvenated shell’s tender skin and was pitted.

He had troubles he couldn’t say, but he quickly recovered after a brief moment of awkwardness.

Forget it, anyways, he’d already recognised two foster fathers, it wasn’t too much of a loss to be unable to call Han Xin his little bro.

…No matter who was older, his pillar would always be the bigger one.

After miraculously finding a psychological balance, Lü Bu enthusiastically accepted reality and said cheekily, “I can’t ask for more! Thank you, brother, I hope you can teach me more in the future.”

Although they hadn’t seriously burnt incense and worshipped each other as brothers, only calling each other so, Han Xin still felt that he had invisibly become closer to Lü Bu.

Earlier, he hadn’t asked about the head in order to avoid suspicion, but he was actually very curious.

Now that he was brothers with Fengxian, he took the opportunity to ask while there were few people around them on their way to the barracks.

Lü Bu had no intention of hiding it from him, not to mention that he didn’t consider it a secret at all. “It’s Ying Ziying.”

A calmly spoken sentence struck Han Xin like a bolt of lightning.

The former King of Qin, Ying Ziying?!

“Fengxian really…” Han Xin was dazed and hardly moved for a long while, until he finally murmured, “You have Minister Qing’s talent!”

Minister Qing, that is, Jing Ke.³ lived during the Warring States period, famous for his assassination attempt on King Zheng of Qin, who later became Qin Shi Huang. Wikipedia

Previously, he’d judged from Lü Bu’s healthy body that he should be quite strong.

And now he found that he went into the depths of the Qin Palace alone, slipped through the Han soldiers like a ghost, and brought out Ying Ziying’s head without suffering a single scratch, showing both courage and strategy. He couldn’t help but look at him with admiration.

Lü Bu chuckled a few times, trying to get this topic out of the way.

First he duelled three generals at once at Hulao Pass,⁴a fictitious battle in Romance of the Three Kingdoms; Lü Bu is ordered to defend Hulao Pass from the coalition army, he defeats 4 generals in succession then fights 1v3 for 80+ bouts before retreating. Wikipedia then later defeated the hundred-thousand-man strong Heishan army with only 800 light cavalry;⁵honestly couldn’t find this army, the closest are the Heishan bandits but Lü Bu never fought them. with these two battles that made even him exhausted, he really didn’t think it was much to take care of a weakling like the former King of Qin.

Moreover, he was rebellious to his bones and didn’t like to be compared to Minister Qing or whatever — it would be one thing if Jing Ke had succeeded, but he failed in his assassination attempt and was even executed, that was too inauspicious.

Thinking of this, Lü Bu rubbed his intact neck as he recalled the feeling of being strangled to death.

Seeing that Lü Bu had no intention of going into the details of his infiltration, Han Xin admired his humility and composure even more.

“The former King of Qin has a long-standing blood feud with the general, no wonder you were so confident coming here with his head.” This was why Xiang Yu didn’t mind him even as he was in a bad mood.

Hearing this, Lü Bu proudly raised his chin and humbly didn’t say anything more.

Yes, he was very proud of his skills, and they were why he dared to go alone into the Han and Chu camps.

If they fought head-on, he might lose to the Hegemon-King of Western Chu.

But if he only wanted to escape, and relied on the element of surprise, there might not be anyone who could stop him.

Of course, he couldn’t just say that.

“If I accidentally offend General Xiang, and he orders me to be cooked,” Lü Bu said casually, “I still need to remind you of one thing.”

Han Xin raised an eyebrow and waited patiently for his next words.

“I’m so big that I might not fit in one pot,” he smirked lazily, like a ruffian, “you’d need one with a bigger opening.”

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• 1
  鼎: vessels used throughout Chinese history for ritual purposes, comes in 2 variations: 1) round with three legs, or 2) rectangular with four legs. Known to be heavy (they’re solid bronze), and lifting one was a way of showing off. Wikipedia
• 2
  previously translated as halberd-bearer
• 3
   lived during the Warring States period, famous for his assassination attempt on King Zheng of Qin, who later became Qin Shi Huang. Wikipedia
• 4
  a fictitious battle in Romance of the Three Kingdoms; Lü Bu is ordered to defend Hulao Pass from the coalition army, he defeats 4 generals in succession then fights 1v3 for 80+ bouts before retreating. Wikipedia
• 5
  honestly couldn’t find this army, the closest are the Heishan bandits but Lü Bu never fought them.

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Fan Zeng was already quite elderly, yet he still had to spend his days advising Xiang  Yu who usually refused to listen, guarding against Xiang Bo who had a dark heart, and in the process of the above, he also had to avoid angering Xiang Yu too much… After an entire day, he was both physically and mentally exhausted.

That morning, he personally watched Xiang Bo calm Xiang Yu’s anger with a bunch of nonsense and persuade him to cancel their attack on Han. He had almost spit out a mouthful of blood in anger.

However, this was inevitable. His words definitely were not considered as important as those of the patriarch of the Xiang clan, not to mention that Xiang Bo was also Xiang Yu’s close uncle. It was impossible for him to change the deceived Xiang Yu’s mind.

What’s more, it wasn’t good for a military commander to be indecisive.

After thinking about it, he made another plan to use those loyal to Xiang Yu and able to be moved, such as Xiang Zhuang, to eliminate Liu Bang during that farce of a banquet at Hongmen.

Fan Zeng knew that for this to happen, he had to hide it from Xiang Bo — and to hide it from Xiang Bo, he had to first hide it from Xiang Yu. Not a word was to be revealed unless absolutely necessary.

Of course, it was a serious taboo for courtiers to hide anything from their lord and do things on their own, but in the face of such a great opportunity, he couldn’t care much about it.

So after returning to his tent with a belly full of anger and without even the mind to eat lunch, he rushed out in search of Xiang Zhuang, and after painstaking persuasion they finally came to a secret agreement.

Unexpectedly, Xiang Yu summoned him as soon as he got back to his tent.

The timing was so coincidental that Fan Zeng couldn’t help but be surprised, wondering if Xiang Yu had sent spies to keep an eye on him.

But he soon refuted himself — he was sincere and loyal, and even if he did some things in violation of Xiang Yu’s orders, it was for the Chu army’s greater good.

He had no reason to be frightened even if he was being watched, but it was hard for him to believe that Xiang Yu, who was proud and disdained to play tricks, would suddenly change his habits.

Thinking up to this point, Fan Zeng calmly went to the main tent.

As soon as he entered, he noticed that Xiang Yu’s expression was dark for some reason, even darker than yesterday when he received Liu Bang’s provocations and was about to send troops in his rage.

“General.”

Fan Zeng was about to salute when Xiang Yu raised his hand to stop him. He was evidently trying to gentle his tone as he said, “Yafu, please sit.”

It really was a coincidence. Fan Zeng judged this quickly.

If Xiang Yu was dissatisfied with his small actions, he would definitely choose to attack on the spot instead of being so polite.

He could maintain his demeanour, which meant that the source of his anger wasn’t on himself but something else.

He secretly guessed at the reason for summoning him but didn’t show it on his face, he only sat down in an unhurried manner.

It was at this time that he inadvertently caught a glimpse of a red and black object placed on a table in the corner of his eyes. Upon closer inspection, terror swept through him and he jumped up, exclaiming in horror, “This is–”

How could there be a hideous human head covered in gore here!

Xiang Yu was quiet and seemed to be in deep thought. Only when Fan Zeng recovered his senses and sat down again did he briefly tell the origin of this head and the small gold plate.

Fan Zeng then became stunned.

While he digested that information, Xiang Yu tossed out the bloody jacket — which he received earlier that day, and sent someone to dig out — with a blank face, asking lightly, “What does Yafu think?”

He was currently in an extremely bad mood. Although he did his best to restrain himself, his few simple movements still revealed his fury.

Fan Zeng had long been used to Xiang Yu who was often angry and seldom smiled, and knew for a fact that this anger was not directed at himself this time, so all his attention was on the human head with its terrified expression as well as the small golden plate next to it.

As for the bloodied clothes, this matter started from the incident which occurred at the Qin Palace that day.

Although Liu Bang had been very greedy for the countless treasures and women within the Qin Palace Complex, he listened to his counsellors’ advice regarding the overall situation and, for the sake of his long-term ambitions, controlled himself. Except for sweeping up all the valuables within, he conducted his army peacefully and refrained from disturbing the people.

In order to vent his excess energy, he spent his time either investigating the former Qin ministers or holding military meetings all day long, wracking his brains to think up a way to stand up to the furious Xiang Yu.

How could he have expected that just as he was hesitating about whether to kill Ying Ziying, the former King of Qin, someone would make a move first and decide for him?

When some soldiers told him that not only had Ying Ziying been assassinated in his cloistered hall, he had been cruelly decapitated and his head gone missing, Liu Bang shuddered.

When he hurried to the palace where Ying Ziying lost his life and saw the two guards still on each side of the door with peaceful expressions on their faces — evidently killed by someone crushing their necks before they could react — Liu Bang felt ice slide down the back of his own neck.

He didn’t know who this useless prince had provoked for him to be so brutally assassinated…

But just looking at the results of that decisive, ruthless act gave him lingering fears.

What would happen if such a meticulous killer who dared to penetrate deep into a heavily-guarded palace yet left no trace, and had such excellent martial skills, targeted him instead?

He knew rationally that there were many guards around him and it would be difficult for any assassin to find an opportunity, but Liu Bang still broke into a cold sweat.

Compared to Liu Bang who was secretly afraid, Zhang Liang, who had arrived a step later, also saw the headless body but quickly calmed down after only a brief shock.

Unlike the others who directly identified this headless corpse as Ying Ziying, he was much more cautious.

In order to prevent a possible substitution plot, he first summoned the former servants of the Qin Palace and asked them for Ying Ziying’s physical characteristics, then sent people to check them against the body one by one.

After a lot of tossing around, they quickly arrived at the conclusion — this was indeed Ying Ziying.

Zhang Liang frowned.

He was very clear that there was no meaning to sending troops to chase the assassin now, not when there was nary a trace of their coming or going. The current focus should be to increase protection around Liu Bang, then on dealing with the aftermath.

After all, everyone knew that Xiang Yu, who had shown great power at the Battle of Julu, was barred from entering Hangu Pass by none other than Liu Bang’s army of a hundred thousand men.

If the world was to hear that the seemingly impenetrable Han army was too incompetent to prevent the former King Ziying of Qin from being killed under their own noses… even if it didn’t discredit Liu Bang wholly, it in any case wasn’t a glorious thing.

Since they couldn’t find the assassin, then just let it be known that Liu Bang had heeded the wishes of the lords and kings, and personally cut off the last of the Qin bloodline. 

“Must we admit it?” Liu Bang asked uneasily.

His original plan was to set up Ying Ziying as a puppet prime minister to show his benevolence and also make it easier to absorb the Qin army into his own forces, then quietly dispose of him once his use was exhausted.

And the result? Not only did this plan go up in smoke, he also had to grit his teeth and claim that he killed Ying Ziying. He truly wasn’t reconciled.

Seeing his hesitation, Zhang Liang persuaded him some more. “It has never been appropriate for Ying Ziying to be the prime minister. You must know that after Qin conquered the six kingdoms,¹The Qin’s wars of unification were a series of military campaigns launched in the late 3rd century BC by the Qin state against the other six major Chinese states: Han, Zhao, Yan, Wei, Chu and Qi. Wikipedia the kings all surrendered, yet which didn’t receive devastation in return? Even King Huai of Chu who is most sympathetic to us would never stand for keeping Ying Ziying’s life. Our ancestors’ blood debts are heavy. If Ying Ziying would live and not pay with his death, how would you pacify the people’s wrath? What’s more, could they accept that this palace — which was built based on the palaces of their homeland, as if in mockery — be used by him?”

“What you say is true.” Liu Bang knew his idea was bad and, embarrassed, he objected softly, “It’s a pity, I originally wanted to use Ying Ziying to provoke Xiang Ji²Xiang Yu’s birth name into making a mistake, but it seems it can’t happen now.”

Zhang Liang frowned in disagreement. “Xiang Yu’s army is powerful. With our current power, we are definitely not his opponent. If we rashly provoke him, it may invite disaster.”

Not even mentioning the fact that Xiang Yu had four hundred thousand men in high spirits while Liu Bang had only one hundred thousand, just their generals’ respective abilities in strategizing and leading the charge were incomparable.

Liu Bang nodded but secretly curled his lips, internally disapproving. 

It wasn’t until three days later when Xiang Bo rushed to their camp overnight and informed them that Xiang Yu was in a rage and intended to send his troops to attack Han that he realised disaster was imminent, panicked, and clasped Zhang Liang’s hands, repeatedly asking what he should do.

Although Zhang Liang was disappointed in him for revealing his ambitions too early and his reckless refusal to listen to advice, he still felt relieved that he was willing to repent in time.

Since that fool Xiang Bo sent himself to their door, he used ‘righteousness’ to pressure him to their side. With Liu Bang also lowering himself and trying his best to cooperate, they finally worked together to muddle through this disaster.

Liu Bang had a flash of inspiration. In order to gain Xiang Bo’s trust and at the same time draw out the spy who leaked the news, he handed Ying Ziying’s blood-soaked robe to Xiang Bo and said, “…As for the matter of establishing Ying Ziying as prime minister, that can only be a traitor’s lies! Sir, your family has a deep hatred for the Qin, how could I reuse him? I had long ordered for his execution. The corpse hasn’t yet been buried, you can see it in the coffin at any time.”

Though if Xiang Yu requested to see the body and they could only hand over a stinking headless corpse, he would definitely be suspicious.

But they would be able to get away with this by relying on Xiang Yu’s arrogance and certainty that no one would dare play him for a fool.

Zhang Liang felt somewhat uneasy as he watched Liu Bang hold out the bloody cloth — the double-edged sword — but he could do nothing but smile thinly.

It should be fine…

After all, he reflected, seeing Chu’s reaction, Xiang Yu is still quite restless. He still sends envoys every day to scold us and continuously mentions Ying Ziying’s murder.

If the assassin was a member of the Chu army, Xiang Yu, as the instigator, should have been very happy to have avenged his ancestors’ grievances, and be even happier to humiliate Liu Bang for having seemingly impenetrable but actually scattered defences.

It was unnecessary for him to pretend to be ignorant on this matter.

Since it wasn’t someone from the Chu army, then with such skill, he feared that it was done by a hermit who only came to the Qin Palace to kill his enemy with his own hands.

“As this is a misunderstanding, I must ask my virtuous brother to clarify things with General Xiang.”

Xiang Bo nodded dazedly and carefully received the bloody clothes. Liu Bang, overjoyed, gripped his hands, then said dejectedly, “I hope you can say a few words for your foolish little brother to the general, don’t let him be swayed by villainous slander!”

Regardless of whether Xiang Bo truly didn’t understand or was pretending not to, upon his return to the Chu camp, he indeed lived up to the expectations of his ‘Brother Liu’, who would also be his in-law in the future.³According to Wikipedia: during their meeting, “[Liu Bang] treated Xiang Bo with respect and expressed his intention to marry his daughter to Xiang Bo’s son. Xiang Bo was touched and promised to help Liu Bang resolve the misunderstanding with his nephew.”

Seeing the bloody clothing and knowing that the descendant of his ancestors’ enemies had been killed, Xiang Yu’s face turned a little gloomy, but under Xiang Bo’s earnest persuasions, he agreed to meet Liu Bang at Hongmen to let him explain himself.

The bloody garment which proved Liu Bang’s ‘innocence’, that he had personally killed Ying Ziying, lay in front of Xiang Yu and Fan Zeng now.

Fan Zeng’s thoughts turned, determined to take advantage of this, and even more than that, he wanted to meet the brave man who dared to go into the Qin Palace alone and easily took a head to use as a token of guarantee.

He raised his eyes, looking at Xiang Yu who was tall, mighty, and was obviously in a bad mood. In a neither hurried nor anxious tone, he said, “As Sir has called for I alone, you must have a conclusion in your heart, only you do not wish to believe it.”

Ying Ziying had only one life, yet it had been claimed by two individuals. The very notion was absurd.

Of the two, one must be false — either Liu Bang was playing tricks, or the wandering warrior was being greedy for profit.

The former had rhetoric on his side, however in reality, he held onto Hangu Pass and refused to allow them passage and could only produce a piece of bloodied cloth which might or might not be genuine; on the other hand, the latter spoke few words but came to the Chu camp alone and brought with him Ying Ziying’s head and identity plate.

It was obvious who was more sincere.

Fan Zeng did not suspect that the man surnamed Lü was a spy sent by Liu Bang. If he aimed to endear himself to Xiang Yu on Liu Bang’s orders, the Han would only be too happy to cooperate with the head in his hands, instead of paradoxically sending bloody clothes as well which instead gave them reason to doubt.

There was a mountain of ironclad evidence testifying to the truth, to the point that even Xiang Yu, who was notoriously insensitive to politics, could no longer be deceived.

In response to Fan Zeng’s words, Xiang Yu only frowned, noncommittal.

He was well aware of the discord between his Yafu and his uncle, so he deliberately ignored Fan Zeng’s hints.

Only, while he didn’t think his uncle knew the truth when he conveyed this matter, and nor did he participate in the deception…

He understood very well that if Lü Bu hadn’t come with the head and become the biggest flaw in Liu Bang’s plan, the man may very well have succeeded in playing his tricks.

Maybe Liu Bang was lounging back and laughing triumphantly right now, laughing that he was so easy to fool!

Thinking of this, Xiang Yu’s double pupils flared with anger.

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• 1
  The Qin’s wars of unification were a series of military campaigns launched in the late 3rd century BC by the Qin state against the other six major Chinese states: Han, Zhao, Yan, Wei, Chu and Qi. Wikipedia
• 2
  Xiang Yu’s birth name
• 3
  According to Wikipedia: during their meeting, “[Liu Bang] treated Xiang Bo with respect and expressed his intention to marry his daughter to Xiang Bo’s son. Xiang Bo was touched and promised to help Liu Bang resolve the misunderstanding with his nephew.”

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This official named Han spoke lightly, because though he had been with Xiang Yu for over a year, he wasn’t valued highly.

Although this warrior in front of him seemed extraordinary at first glance, in the end he didn’t really know his depths.

He definitely wouldn’t simply lead him to General Xiang, especially as the general had been in a foul mood in recent days due to the issue of entering Hangu Pass. Anything might set him off.

So he turned slightly and instead went towards the tent where Fan Zeng was.

Lü Bu was alone in the unfamiliar Chu camp, but he was still calm and relaxed.

According to his thinking, no matter how many people were in the camp, none of them were a match for him.

Even if they couldn’t come to an agreement, it wouldn’t be difficult for him to break out and leave by force.

He had intended to have a few words with Attendant Han, but unexpectedly, the man not only had a stiff and indifferent face but also cherished words like gold, reminding Lü Bu of Gao Fuyi, that dull-mouthed gourd.

“We’re here,” Attendant Han murmured. If Lü Bu hadn’t had such good ears, he wouldn’t have heard it at all. Then he straightened, raised his voice, and said, “Please announce that a warrior has come to join us with a guarantee, we request to see Yafu.”

Yafu? Fan Zeng?¹advisor to Xiang Liang, then to his nephew Xiang Yu; Xiang Yu respected him greatly and addressed him as his ‘Second Father’ (亞父; Yafu). I prefer to translate everything, including titles, but no matter how I do it Second Father just reads awkwardly. Wikipedia

Lü Bu came back to his senses in an instant. He didn’t object; if he couldn’t see Xiang Yu, he should still be able to achieve his goal by meeting Fan Zeng.

Unexpectedly, the guard immediately replied, “Yafu isn’t in the tent right now, you can come back later.”

This wasn’t a prevarication — just after noon passed, Fan Zeng hurried out of the tent with two others without telling anyone where he was going.

So unlucky?

Attendant Han was quite surprised. He frowned, then shot Lü Bu a slightly embarrassed look.

If Lü Bu had read history books properly instead of just regurgitating dates, he would have been able to deduce that Fan Zeng had gone in search of Xiang Zhuang,²Xiang Yu’s cousin; little is known about him except for his role at the Hongmen Banquet. Wikipedia in order to set up a plot to assassinate Liu Bang during the banquet.

At this moment, he only lamented at his bad luck. It wasn’t hard to guess what Attendant Han was being hesitant about, so before he could chase him away, Lü Bu swung his burden off his back, held it in his right hand, and said bluntly, “To tell you the truth, I really don’t have much funds right now, and this guarantee is probably worthless to many people.”

He nodded slightly and gestured at the attendant, indicating for him to put his hand on the bundle.

Although Attendant Han was sceptical, he followed his words and put his hand forward without hesitation. As a result, his eyes instantly changed.

He had been in the army for over two years and had killed not a few enemies with his own hands. Even across many layers of fabric, it wasn’t difficult to discern that the contours against his palm belonged to a face.

This was a human head.

Lü Bu’s tiger eyes had been staring at his face; after capturing his subtle change, he narrowed his eyes slightly and raised his lips, adding, “But in the eyes of General Xiang, it may be worth ten thousand taels.”

Attendant Han was silent.

“I’ll be troubling Sir to lead the way,” Lü Bu spoke again heedlessly.

His self-confidence came not from recklessness but from careful consideration.

The reason why Ying Ziying’s head caught his eye was because he remembered the deep blood feud between the Xiang family and the Qin dynasty: King Huai I of Chu was held hostage by Qin and died in captivity, and in more recent years, whether it was Xiang Yu’s grandfather Xiang Yan or his uncle Xiang Liang, they all died in battle against the Qin.

As long as Xiang Yu wasn’t a Buddhist-minded person who ate only vegetarian fare and recited scriptures all day long, he must have an inexhaustible hatred for Qin royal blood. Comparing the two of them, Lü Bu deeply hated Liu Bei who cut off his last path of retreat which he threw away his pride to obtain; how could Xiang Yu not feel anything for a grudge accumulated through generations?

Attendant Han only nodded. He didn’t ask more questions before turning and going directly towards Xiang Yu’s military tent.

If this person was just being arrogant, General Xiang probably wouldn’t let him leave alive, at best he would have to pay a heavy price.

And what the warrior said just now was hard for him to refute — if he was making a mistake, Attendant Han would at most get a scolding.

If this person was somehow telling the truth, it would be even more correct to bring him to General Xiang.

In his eyes, it was already worthy of respect to straightforwardly request to see General Xiang.

Fan Zeng’s tent wasn’t far from Xiang Yu’s tent. The two quickly arrived after a short, silent walk.

This time, Attendant Han personally went in to report. He entered with an expressionless face, and when he came out, his face was still expressionless. He only nodded slightly to Lü Bu, “Go in.”

Lü Bu bowed back and was about to enter when he suddenly remembered that he’d never asked for this person’s name.

If everything went well in the tent, they might have to work together for a while, so he casually asked, “Thank you, sir, I wonder if I may have your name?”

Attendant Han, obviously also thinking that they might be colleagues in the future, pulled his mouth into a reluctant smile. “I am General Xiang’s halberd-bearer, named Han Xin.”

After speaking, he bowed, turned, and left.

Yet Lü Bu, whose eyes were previously dull, slowly opened his mouth in shock, and almost couldn’t hold back a burst of swearing.

How could he have guessed that this ash-covered dull gourd with a dejected face was actually a brilliant military strategist who would go down in history!

As expected of the Hegemon-King of Western Chu, he had crouching tigers and hidden dragons all around him, anyone you bumped into might be an amazing person.

Lü Bu clicked his tongue.

At any rate, he had also once been a ruthless master of many — he had beheaded everyone from the former King of Qin to the lowest foot soldier, and now he wanted to take the head of Liu Bang, the founding emperor of the Han dynasty. Therefore, he quickly regained his composure after his brief surprise.

As he strode into the tent, he couldn’t help remembering his lowborn past. Although he had strong martial skills, he still had to sacrifice his pride and recognise two adoptive fathers to get ahead.

But in Xiang Yu’s case, famous ministers and generals proactively came to his doorstep.

He couldn’t not be sad when he thought of the sharp contrast between them.

The tent was brightly lit, and in the center a person sat quietly with a cup of wine in his hand.

The cup was half full. The liquid within swayed slightly as if they were meditating on something.

This person was at least two metres tall,³至少在九尺开外: specifically, 9 chi, so at least 2.07m; as a reminder, 1 chi is 0.23m and his height was evident even when he was sitting. He wore not armour but a black brocade robe over similarly black inner garments, embroidered with gold thread to show a great roc⁴actually a peng, a mythological bird transformed from a kun (giant fish); linguistically, it symbolises greatness — both great promise and great accomplishments. Wikipedia with outstretched wings. His waist was tied with an ivory belt, and hanging from it was a jade ornament and the Eight Treasures.⁵aka the Eight Precious Things; popular symbols often depicted in art/charm accessories, for things like happiness, a just & upright life, wealth, etc. Wikipedia Looking lower, his boots were decorated with leopards and tigers, and a scabbard made of fish skin sheathed his Longyuan Sword.

Even though he sat there quietly without a word, his neat clothing couldn’t conceal his broad shoulders and waist, nor his powerful muscles and tendons.

What a mighty man!

In the Chu camp, there was only one man who could be described with this temperament and majesty: the one and only Hegemon-King of Western Chu, well-known through the ages.

As Lü Bu approached, his gaze slowly swept upwards.

Xiang Yu’s skin was a sun-tanned wheat colour which looked translucent under the candlelight. Upon looking closer at his face, the most eye-catching thing wasn’t his full forehead, nor his sharp eyebrows or aquiline nose and thin lips, but his pair of mysterious ink-black double pupils.⁶ indeed, Xiang Yu is recorded as having double pupils (polycoria) in one of his eyes, thus he was seen as an extraordinary person because double pupils are the mark of a king or sage in Chinese tradition; in reality it’s a rare condition that results in decreased eye function. Wikipedia

Although it was his first time seeing the famed double pupils, Lü Bu didn’t care much about his appearance and only took a single glance before calmly looking away.

He didn’t have any literary words to describe him. After seeing Xiang Yu’s appearance clearly, he could only sigh that this man was not only born tall and strong but was also strangely handsome.

Thinking of those years, he hadn’t been too shabby either.

Lü Bu, feeling proud, pushed his chest out further.

But what moved him the most was that when Xiang Yu met with a stranger, he left not a single guard inside the tent.

By acting like this, it was obvious that he had confidence in his martial skills, and had no fear that his guest had evil intentions or might be an assassin.

Ha, back then wasn’t I just as cool?

Xiang Yu didn’t get angry at his blatant staring, he calmly let him look.

Since he was a child, he had been very ambitious and wanted to learn from a thousand teachers; after he grew into adulthood, he was very skilled in martial arts, to the point that no one in the camp could compare to him. No one was even close to being his opponent, not even Long Qie, Ying Bu, or Zhongli Mo, whom he favoured.

However, he had always cherished talents and respected soldiers.

Although Lü Bu appeared young, he had a handsome yet imposing appearance and his every move revealed himself as a capable practitioner, which immediately won his appreciation.

Lü Bu bent to salute, and after reporting his name, Xiang Yu — who became more satisfied the more he looked — had more or less decided to keep him.

Commoners had no courtesy names, and neither did kings. Those who had courtesy names were mostly scholars.

Of the old clans, there weren’t many with the Lü surname, but it also couldn’t be said to be a rare name. The only question was which family he came from.

He nodded slightly and motioned for Lü Bu to sit, then immediately asked politely, “Why have you come?”

His was a deep voice, husky and powerful and easily commanding attention.

“I have a blood feud with Liu Bang of Han.” Lü Bu resisted the urge to scratch his ears which were itchy for no reason, sat down, and got straight to the point. “However, it is difficult for me to avenge my hatred alone, and so I am willing to serve General Xiang with my life. I have brought with me a guarantee of my loyalty, and hope to receive a position in the army.” And it would be best to be in the vanguard, so that he could reach Liu Bang faster.

Of course, Xiang Yu had no way of knowing Lü Bu’s inner supplement.

He didn’t mention the specific reason for his enmity with Liu Bang, so Xiang Yu didn’t ask either, he just nodded to show his understanding. Then his gaze moved to the cloth bag that Lü Bu had randomly put somewhere on the low table in front of him. “Open it, then.”

“Yes,” Lü Bu responded seriously as he pulled on the bag’s knot.

…He couldn’t open it.

Neither of the two in the tent expected this.

Xiang Yu silently shifted his eyes to Lü Bu’s face.

Lü Bu didn’t change his expression, he only pulled harder — but maybe because he’d just randomly tied it at the beginning, not only did it not loosen, it even became tighter.

Damn it!

He secretly cursed at the bag for dropping the link at this important juncture but still didn’t move a muscle in his face. Pulling at the bag again, this time he used over half of his strength.

With a sharp noise of tearing fabric, the rough cloth was instantly torn apart, and because of the excessive force, Ying Ziying’s head — open-eyed and terrified — bounced out and fell towards the ground.

Thanks to Lü Bu’s keen eyes and quick hands, he didn’t let it fall. He simply hooked it with the toe of his boot as if it were a ball, and tossed it back into his hand.

Fortunately, the weather hadn’t been too hot these days so it wasn’t rotten, but the smell truly couldn’t be described as pleasant.

“General Xiang, please see,” Lü Bu said solemnly.

Xiang Yu resisted the urge to kick the stench away — after all, it was his first time receiving a head as a guarantee — and slowly blinked his twitching eyelids as he stared at it expressionlessly.

It’s just that although his Xiang family had a bloody feud with the Qin, he had never set eyes on Ying Ziying himself before, and naturally he couldn’t recognise which unlucky ghost this head belonged to.

Sensing some meaning from his silence, Lü Bu took out the gold identity plate he had taken for insurance against just such a situation and proffered it with both hands as he explained concisely, “This is Ying Ziying’s head.”

Xiang Yu breathed deeply.

His eyes stopped on the gold plate for a moment as he said in a tone that was difficult to distinguish joy or anger, “Ying Ziying?”

Lü Bu nodded seriously. “I swear to heaven and to earth, this is he.”

Unless Ying Ziying was even more amazing than he who’d come back to life and travelled to three hundred years in the past, and grew a second head.

However, Xiang Yu’s reaction made him uncertain what was going on.

Xiang Yu stared at the gold plate, pondered for a while, then he looked at the head a few more times. His expression was a little disbelieving, as if he still had doubts…

A while later, he seemingly remembered that Lü Bu was still waiting patiently for a response. “You have come a long way, the journey is hard and you must be exhausted. Please, avail yourself of our baths.”

Lü Bu himself didn’t expect anything to be decided on the spot, besides, he had once also been a lord, he knew that the more cautious they acted now, the more likely he was to succeed in the end.

So he readily agreed, and was led out of the tent.

As soon as he left, Xiang Yu’s expression darkened. With his eyes filled with renewed anger, he shouted, “Come, call Yafu and…” He bit off the word ‘uncle’ before he could voice it, then continued, “Call Yafu for a discussion.”

Author:
Right now not only Han Xin, Chen Ping is also in service to Xiang Yu.

Translator:
Due to the peculiarities of rank in historical China, there’s no good way to translate 王 into English. It literally means king and is translated as such by Wikipedia — but functionally it’s for someone like… a prince of the imperial court and/or lord of a significant area (one or the other or both), who may or may not be related to the emperor and may have been bestowed that title or claimed it for themselves (not the done thing but probably did happen, particularly by rebels). 王 is also used for foreign kings, since the emperor (皇帝) ruled all under heaven this implied the foreign monarch was inferior. A (non-comprehensive) explanation of historical Chinese titles can be found at nyanovels.com.

Using the King of Chu as an example: his personal name is Xiong Xin (熊心), and when the Chu state was resurrected as an insurgent state against Qin imperial rule he was installed as a puppet ruler. During his reign, he was known as King Huai of Chu (楚怀王); people might also call him King of Chu (楚王) or King Huai (怀王) — Chu is his territory and Huai is his title, like how in the British system a Duke of Cornwall wouldn’t be called Duke Cornwall for example. Historically he was later ‘promoted’ to emperor but we won’t get into that here.

Trying to keep a historical tone, not sure if I succeeded. It’s hard because Lü Bu’s self-narration is very casual.

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• 1
  advisor to Xiang Liang, then to his nephew Xiang Yu; Xiang Yu respected him greatly and addressed him as his ‘Second Father’ (亞父; Yafu). I prefer to translate everything, including titles, but no matter how I do it Second Father just reads awkwardly. Wikipedia
• 2
  Xiang Yu’s cousin; little is known about him except for his role at the Hongmen Banquet. Wikipedia
• 3
  至少在九尺开外: specifically, 9 chi, so at least 2.07m; as a reminder, 1 chi is 0.23m
• 4
  actually a peng, a mythological bird transformed from a kun (giant fish); linguistically, it symbolises greatness — both great promise and great accomplishments. Wikipedia
• 5
  aka the Eight Precious Things; popular symbols often depicted in art/charm accessories, for things like happiness, a just & upright life, wealth, etc. Wikipedia
• 6
   indeed, Xiang Yu is recorded as having double pupils (polycoria) in one of his eyes, thus he was seen as an extraordinary person because double pupils are the mark of a king or sage in Chinese tradition; in reality it’s a rare condition that results in decreased eye function. Wikipedia

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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.