Fan Zeng was a man over 70 years old. On weekdays, he had to give advice to Xiang Yu, who refused to listen most of the time, and at the same time, he had to guard against Xiang Bo, who seemed to have ulterior motives. While engaging in intrigues with Xiang Bo, he also had to achieve his goals in a roundabout way without angering Xiang Yu too much... After a day, he felt exhausted.
That morning, he watched helplessly as Xiang Bo used a bunch of nonsense to appease Xiang Yu and cancel the resolution to attack and destroy Han. He was so angry that he almost vomited blood on the spot.
However, the matter was done, and his words were destined to be less weighty than those of Xiang Bo, the patriarch of the Xiang clan and a blood relative of Xiang Yu. He was unable to persuade the deceived Xiang Yu to change his mind.
What's more, going back on one's word is a very bad thing for a military commander.
After much thought, he had no choice but to make another plan. He tried to eliminate Liu Bang at the farce-like Hongmen Banquet by relying on people like Xiang Zhuang, who were loyal to Xiang Yu and more useful.
Fan Zeng knew that if this matter was to succeed, he had to keep it a secret from Xiang Bo; and to keep it a secret from Xiang Bo, he had to keep it a secret from Xiang Yu first. Unless it was absolutely necessary, not a single word could be revealed.
Of course, hiding things from the master and doing things on one's own is a taboo for a minister, but facing such a good opportunity, he couldn't care less.
So after Fan Zeng returned to his tent with a lot of anger, he didn't even have the appetite for lunch. He rushed to find Xiang Zhuang and others, and after some painstaking persuasion, they finally reached a secret agreement.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he returned to the tent, he was summoned by Xiang Yu.
The timing was so perfect that Fan Zeng couldn't help but feel alarmed. He wondered if Xiang Yu had secretly sent someone to spy on him.
However, Fan Zeng reacted quickly: he believed that he was sincerely loyal, and even if he did some small tricks in private that went against Xiang Yu's orders, it was also for the overall interests of the Chu army.
Even though he was really being followed, he should not be frightened. Instead, he found it hard to believe that Xiang Yu, who was proud by nature and disdained to do anything, would suddenly change his temper.
Fan Zeng thought so and walked into the main tent with an open mind.
As soon as he entered, he keenly noticed that for some reason Xiang Yu's expression was even gloomier than yesterday when he was provoked by Liu Bang and was furious and wanted to send troops.
"General."
When Fan Zeng was about to salute, Xiang Yu raised his hand to stop him, and tried his best to speak in a gentle tone, saying politely, "Father, please take a seat."
—It really is just a coincidence.
Fan Zeng made a quick judgment.
If Xiang Yu was dissatisfied with his little action, he would have chosen to attack him on the spot instead of being so polite.
He was still able to maintain his composure, which shows that the source of his anger was not himself, but others.
He secretly guessed the reason why he was summoned, but his face did not show it at all. He sat down slowly as he was told.
Just at this moment, the corner of his eye inadvertently swept over the black and red object on the small table. A closer look immediately startled him. He stood up on the spot and said in horror: "This is-"
How could there be a hideous-looking head with its entire mouth covered in black blood
Xiang Yu was quiet, as if in deep thought. After Fan Zeng quickly came to his senses and sat down again, Xiang Yu briefly told him the origins of the head and the small gold medal.
Fan Zeng was also stunned.
While he was still digesting this information, Xiang Yu, expressionless, threw out the blood-stained shirt he had just sent someone to dig out and said calmly, "What do you think, father?"
He was in a very bad mood at the moment, and although he tried hard to restrain himself, a bit of anger was still revealed in his simple movements.
Fan Zeng was accustomed to Xiang Yu, who was often angry but rarely smiled, and he also knew that the other party's anger was not directed at him, so his whole attention was focused on the human head, which looked terrifying just now, and the small gold medal next to it.
—The specific origin of this blood-stained shirt has to start from the day when the Qin Palace incident happened.
After entering the Pass, although Liu Bang was very envious of the beautiful palace maids of the Former Qin Dynasty and the countless treasures in the treasury, he still tried his best to restrain himself for the sake of long-term ambitions after listening to the analysis of the overall situation by his advisers. Except for moving out the treasures, he basically adopted a noble attitude of not harming the people and not disturbing them.
In order to vent his excess energy, in addition to working extra hard to screen out the rebellious ministers of the Former Qin Dynasty, he also held military meetings all day long, worrying about how to deal with the angry Xiang Yu.
How could he have expected that while he was still hesitating about whether to execute King Ziying of the Former Qin Dynasty, someone had already taken the lead and made the decision for him
When Liu Bang learned from the horrified guards that Ying Ziying, who was imprisoned in the palace, had been assassinated and his head had been brutally cut off, he was horrified.
When he hurriedly arrived at the palace where Ziying died, and looked at the two elite Han soldiers outside the door who had calm expressions and were obviously killed by someone who had their cervical vertebrae broken before they could react, he felt a chill at the back of his neck.
Although it is unknown what enemy the basically useless former Qin king provoked to end up being assassinated and beheaded in the palace...
Just looking at the decisive, cruel and ruthless means made him feel frightened.
What would happen if this killer, who had such a meticulous plan, the courage to sneak into the heavily guarded palace, and who came and went without a trace and had extremely high martial arts skills, was targeting him
Although Liu Bang knew rationally that he was surrounded by many guards and that Jing Ke would have little chance to take advantage of him even if he were still alive, he still broke into a cold sweat.
Compared to Liu Bang who was secretly frightened, Zhang Liang, who arrived a step later, was stunned at first, but then quickly calmed down in front of the headless corpse that had completely lost its temperature.
Unlike others who identified the headless body as Ying Ziying simply by looking at the clothes it wore, he was obviously much more cautious.
In order to prevent someone from using another corpse with a similar body as a substitute, he first summoned the former Qin palace maids one by one, asked them about Ziying's physical characteristics, and then had them check them one by one.
After some trouble, they soon got a clear answer: it was indeed Ying Ziying.
Zhang Liang couldn't help but frown.
He knew very well that it was meaningless to waste troops to track down the assassin who had already disappeared. The current focus was to strengthen the guards around Liu Bang, and then how to deal with the aftermath.
After all, everyone knows that Xiang Yu, who displayed great prowess in the Battle of Julu, was stopped outside Hangu Pass, and the one guarding Guanzhong was none other than Liu Bang's 100,000 Han troops.
If the world knew that the seemingly tight Han army was actually incompetent in defense, and that the Former Qin King Ziying was assassinated by an assassin right under Liu Bang's nose... even if it was not a disgrace, it would not be glorious at all.
Since the assassin could not be found, Liu Bang simply complied with the wishes of the princes and personally killed the last bloodline that symbolized the Former Qin Dynasty, and acknowledged the matter to the outside world.
Liu Bang suddenly felt uneasy: "Do you really want to admit it?"
He originally wanted to use Ziying as a puppet prime minister to demonstrate the benevolence of the Han army and to make it easier for him to absorb the soldiers of the Former Qin Dynasty. When they were exhausted, he would secretly get rid of them.
As a result, when he woke up, not only did his beautiful plan go down the drain, but he also had to accept the responsibility of killing Ziying, which was really hard for him to accept.
Seeing Liu Bang's hesitation, Zhang Liang could not help but give him some more advice: "It has never been advisable for Ziying to be the prime minister. You must know that after Qin conquered the six kingdoms, the bloodlines of the countries surrendered and were all persecuted. The one who defeated Qin was King Huai of Chu, who was sympathized by the people of Chu. How could he save his life? The blood debt of our ancestors is numerous. If Ziying wants to live and not pay it back with his death, how can the general calm the anger of the people of the various countries? Moreover, the palaces in Qin's capital are huge and out of order. Using the palaces that imitate the palaces of the six kingdoms to imprison the palace ladies of the six kingdoms is such a great shame and humiliation, how can the princes easily forgive it
"Zifang is right." Liu Bang knew that his idea was bad, so he said with a bit of embarrassment, "It's a pity that I originally wanted to use Ziying as a pretext to anger Xiang Ji and make him make a mistake, but now it doesn't work."
Zhang Liang frowned and disagreed, "Xiang Yu's army is strong and powerful. With your strength, they are definitely no match for the Chu army. If you rashly provoke him, you may bring disaster upon yourself."
Not to mention that Xiang Yu had 400,000 highly motivated Chu troops at that time, while Liu Bang only had 100,000. In terms of the main general's ability to strategize and charge into battle, he was no match for Liu Bang.
Liu Bang nodded, but secretly curled his lips, showing his disapproval.
It was not until three days later that Xiang Bo visited Zhang Liang overnight and told him that Xiang Yu was furious and wanted to send troops to attack Han. Only then did Zhang Liang panic and realize that a disaster was imminent. He grabbed Zhang Liang's hand and asked repeatedly "What can we do?"
Although he felt helpless and disappointed that Liu Bang did not listen to advice, exposed his true ambitions too early, and was rash and blinded by greed, Zhang Liang felt relieved when he saw that he was willing to repent in time.
Since there was this fool Xiang Bo who came to him on his own initiative, he let go and pressured him with "righteousness". In addition, Liu Bang put aside his pride and shamelessly cooperated with him. Finally, they worked together and temporarily got away with this fatal disaster.
In order to gain Xiang Bo's trust more effectively and to find out the traitor, Liu Bang had an idea. He handed Ying Ziying's blood-soaked robe to Xiang Bo and said, "... As for the appointment of Ying Ziying as prime minister, it was a lie made up by the traitor! Qin and the general's family have a deep blood feud, how could I use him? I ordered his head to be beheaded long ago. His body is still in the coffin and has not been buried yet. You can examine it at any time."
Otherwise, if Xiang Yu asked to see Ying Ziying's body, but they could only hand over a stinking headless corpse without the head, he would definitely become suspicious.
He could only try to get away with it by taking advantage of Xiang Yu's arrogance and his belief that no one dared to fool him.
Zhang Liang was watching from the side, feeling vaguely uneasy, but he was unable to stop Liu Bang from handing over the blood-stained shirt which was like a double-edged sword in his eyes. He could only smile faintly.
It should be fine...
Zhang Liang thought to himself that after all, judging from the reaction of the Chu army during these three days, Xiang Yu was still anxious and uneasy. He sent messengers every day to condemn and scold Liu Bang, and every time he mentioned the execution of Ziying.
If the assassin was from the Chu army, then Xiang Yu, as the instigator, should have felt very pleased with himself for avenging his ancestors, and even humiliated the seemingly tight but actually scattered defenses of Liu Bang's army.
There is really no need for this, nor is there anyone who is so cunning as to pretend to be ignorant about this matter.
Since it was not the work of the Chu army, such sharp and skillful skills must have been performed by some hermit master who lived in seclusion and came to the Qin Palace specifically to kill his enemy.
"Since it is a misunderstanding, I will clarify it with General Xiang on your behalf."
Xiang Bo nodded in confusion and carefully took the bloody shirt. Liu Bang was overjoyed and held his hands. He said sadly: "I hope you can speak a few words for the general on my behalf. Don't listen to the slander of the villain and ruin my sincere heart!"
Regardless of whether Xiang Bo really didn't know or was pretending to be confused, when he returned to the Chu camp and talked to Xiang Yu, he certainly did not let down his "brother Liu", his future in-laws.
When Xiang Yu saw Ziying's blood-stained clothes and knew that his ancestral enemy had been killed, his expression eased a little. Thanks to Xiang Bo's painstaking mediation, he agreed to Liu Bang's request to come to Hongmen for a banquet the next day and explain in person.
—The blood-stained shirt that proved Liu Bang's "innocence" and that he personally killed Ying Ziying was the one lying in front of Xiang Yu and Fan Zeng.
Fan Zeng's mind raced, and he had already decided to take advantage of this matter. He also had a strong desire to meet the brave and skilled warrior who dared to sneak into the Qin Palace alone and easily take the head as a token of his loyalty.
He raised his eyes, looked up at Xiang Yu, who was tall and had a dark and cold face, and said calmly: "The general only summoned me here, so I believe he has already made up his mind, but he just doesn't want to believe it."
Ying Ziying only had one life, but someone insisted on "claiming" his merits by dividing them into two parts. This is ridiculous.
One of the two must be false: either Liu Bang was playing tricks, or the warrior was greedy for credit and claimed it for himself.
Although the former spoke sweet words, he actually guarded the Hangu Pass tightly and refused to let anyone pass. All he could produce was a blood-stained shirt which was difficult to distinguish between the real and fake. The latter spoke little, but came to the Chu camp alone, carrying Ziying's head and token.
Comparing the sincerity of the two, the difference is immediately apparent.
Fan Zeng did not doubt that the warrior surnamed Lu was a spy sent by Liu Bang: If the other party really wanted to get close to Xiang Yu at the instruction of Liu Bang, the Han army would not have been able to cooperate in time, so how could there be such a contradictory thing as the bloody clothes, which led to the trap being exposed
With the overwhelming evidence now available, the lie was self-defeating and even Xiang Yu, who was extremely politically insensitive, could not be deceived.
In response to Fan Zeng's question, Xiang Yu frowned and remained silent.
He was well aware of the discord between his father-in-law and his uncle, so he deliberately ignored Fan Zeng's hint.
However, although he did not think that he had told his uncle Xiang Bo about this matter, he did not think that Xiang Bo was involved in the scam...
But he knew clearly that if Lu Bu had not taken the initiative to surrender, which became the biggest flaw in their plan, Liu Bang would have successfully played the uncle and nephew in the palm of his hand.
Who knows, Liu Bang might be sitting with one leg crossed, laughing at him smugly for being so easy to fool!
Thinking of this, Xiang Yu's pupils were filled with burning anger.