A Thousand Pieces of Gold (24 page)

During the summer of 1996, Jiang Zemin invited eight leading Chinese historians to the seaside resort of Beidaihe and asked each to present his views on Chinese and world history. “If a person does not know Chinese history,” Jiang proclaimed, “he will never comprehend the principles governing the evolution of Chinese society.”

Although Jiang’s term of office will end in the fall of 2002, it is expected that his will be the dominant voice in selecting the forthcoming fourth-generation Chinese leader, doubtless once more taking into account the candidate’s
san lao
qualities. Jiang’s designated successor appears to be fifty-nine-year-old Vice President Hu Jintao, who first came into prominence in 1992, while Deng Xiaoping was still alive. Transition of power is scheduled to take place toward the end of 2002, and Hu is expected to become President of China in the spring of 2003.

One of the prefectural
san lao
s, His Excellency Duke Dong, came to Liu Bang and said, “Your Majesty has the intention of defeating Xiang Yu. In order to win, you must convince everyone that you are fighting for a just cause. Xiang Yu has acted in a cruel and inhuman fashion. He has murdered his lord, Emperor Yi, for no reason. Make clear to All Under Heaven that Xiang Yu is a wrongdoer. Your enemy can thereupon be conquered without difficulty.”

Grasping immediately the significance of the
san lao’
s suggestion, Liu Bang agreed wholeheartedly and ordered that everyone in his army should wear white mourning garments to commemorate the death of Emperor Yi. He himself rode around in a plain coach drawn by white horses, uncovered his arm, and wailed loudly while his whole army mourned and lamented.

After three days Liu Bang sent messengers to all the nobles, saying, “All of Us Under Heaven together placed Emperor Yi on the throne as our sovereign. Now Xiang Yu has banished and murdered him without cause. This was
da ni wu dao,
‘treason and heresy of the worst kind.’ We and our troops are all wearing mourning garments to lament his loss. We are sending soldiers to sail southward down the Yangzi River toward the state of Chu and would like to unite with you, nobles and kings, to attack the one in Chu who has committed this inhuman act and murdered our emperor.”

In his attack on Chu, Liu Bang was joined by five other kings who had previously been crowned by Xiang Yu. With Xiang Yu away in Qi, Liu Bang sailed down the Yangtze River with a great army totaling half a million troops and easily captured Pengcheng, Xiang Yu’s home city and the capital of Chu.

Liu Bang and his men took over Xiang Yu’s luxurious palaces, gardens, treasures, and beautiful women. Night after night they feasted at great banquets and enjoyed themselves.

Receiving the news that Liu Bang had taken Pengcheng, Xiang Yu took immediate action. Leaving his generals to continue the siege of Chengyang in Qi, he picked only 30,000 of his best troops and rode night and day by way of unfrequented paths back to Chu. At dawn he made a surprise attack against the Han army of Liu Bang and fought a great battle at Pengcheng. By noon he had already crushed it. So many officers and men were killed that the river became blocked with corpses and would not flow. It was estimated that over 100,000 Han soldiers died.

Liu Bang himself was surrounded by Xiang Yu’s soldiers and about to be captured. Suddenly a great wind arose from the northwest, toppling trees and blowing away houses, stirring up so much sand and gravel that the day became dark and it was difficult to see anything. During the confusion Liu Bang quickly escaped with a few cavalrymen. He went by way of his hometown of Pei, hoping to find his family. But his family had already fled.

On the road west back to the Land Within the Passes, Liu Bang happened to see his two children hurrying along in panic among a crowd of refugees. It had been four years since he had last seen them. At first they were all delighted to see one another, and Liu Bang carried them into his chariot. But Xiang Yu’s cavalrymen continued to pursue them. Liu Bang pushed the two children onto the road so that his chariot could travel faster. But his driver and personal assistant Xia (the same man who rescued General in Chief Hahn Xin from execution) gathered them back into the chariot. He looked reproachfully at Liu Bang and said, “Even though this road is fraught with hazards, by continuously whipping the horses so fiercely you will not make them run any faster. Neither should you throw away your own children!”

Liu Bang’s wife and father were trying to flee by unfrequented paths, but they were captured. Xiang Yu placed them under guard and held them hostage, taking them with him wherever he went.

When the other nobles saw that Liu Bang had been defeated, they all fled and some even defected back to Xiang Yu. Liu Bang encamped at the city of Jungyang and replenished his troops and provisions. He built a walled road connecting the city to the Yellow River in order to be supplied with grain from the Ao Granary nearby.

Xiang Yu several times invaded and captured the walled road of Han, thus depriving the Han army of food. In June of 204
B.C.E.
Xiang Yu besieged Liu Bang at the city of Jungyang. Liu Bang begged for peace, suggesting that Xiang Yu should rule the area east of Jungyang while Liu Bang would govern the territory west of Jungyang. Xiang Yu was tempted to accept, but his Second Father, Old Man Fan, objected. “Don’t do it!” Old Man Fan advised. “You have him cornered, and he needs peace desperately to survive right now. If you do not take this golden opportunity to destroy him, you’ll regret it one day.”

Liu Bang was very much worried about Old Man Fan’s cunning and decided to adopt a special plan devised by an adviser called Chen Ping. Chen Ping was a brilliant thinker who had defected from Xiang Yu after the latter accused him of being disloyal. He was familiar with Xiang Yu’s paranoid tendencies.

Liu Bang gave a war chest of 40,000 catties of gold to Chen Ping to carry out his plan. With this gold, Adviser Chen Ping bribed the officers in daily contact with Xiang Yu and told them to spread the rumor that Old
Man Fan was planning to rebel and was in secret contact with Liu Bang. The next time Xiang Yu’s messenger arrived at Liu Bang’s camp, a most sumptuous banquet with the best foods, including pork, lamb, beef, and wines, was laid out in front of him. As soon as he walked into the room, Liu Bang pretended to feign surprise and exclaimed, “I was told that Old Man Fan’s messenger was lunching with me! But are you not the messenger of Xiang Yu instead?” Thereupon Liu Bang ordered that the best dishes be removed, replacing them with inferior fare.

The messenger returned and reported everything to Xiang Yu. Liu Bang was entirely successful in his
fan jian ji,
“stratagem of sowing discord between his enemies.” Xiang Yu began to suspect Old Man Fan of treason and started to strip away his power. The two quarreled frequently and were now often at odds with each other. Feeling unappreciated, Old Man Fan finally said angrily, “Since all the major matters under Heaven have already been settled, I’m sure Your Majesty will be able to decide everything for yourself from now on. I beg to be allowed to retire and spend the remaining years in my village home.”

Xiang Yu readily gave his consent. Old Man Fan left in a huff, full of anger and resentment. Halfway south on the road to Pengcheng, he developed a malignant ulcer on his back and died.

In spite of this, Liu Bang’s predicament within the city of Jungyang was becoming desperate. It was July, and he had been besieged for three months.

One night Liu Bang sent out more than 2000 armor-wearing women by the east gate. Xiang Yu’s troops attacked them from all sides. Meanwhile, one of Liu Bang’s officers, named Ji, mounted the king’s imperial chariot, with its distinctive yellow canopy and plumes of pheasant feathers attached to the bit of the left outside horse, saying, “Our food is finished. I, the King of Han, hereby surrender!” Hearing this, Xiang Yu’s soldiers all called out, “Long live Our Majesty!” and rushed to the east gate to surround the imperial chariot and capture the pretended King of Han.

In the confusion, Liu Bang slipped out of the western gate with a few cavalrymen and fled.

Xiang Yu approached the imperial coach, recognized Officer Ji, and asked, “Where is Liu Bang?”

Officer Ji replied, “He has escaped and is no longer in the city.”

Whereupon Xiang Yu burned Officer Ji to death.

Back in the Land Within the Passes, Zhang Liang advised Liu Bang to deploy various generals to attack Xiang Yu on several fronts simultaneously. For a whole year Liu Bang kept Xiang Yu scurrying hither and thither fighting one battle after another. Finally, in July 203
B.C.E.
, Xiang Yu stormed the city of Jungyang and captured its defender, Grand Secretary Zhou, alive.

Xiang Yu said to Zhou, “If you agree to defect to my side, I will make you a top general and appoint you with an income of 30,000 families.”

But Zhou derided him and said, “Unless you surrender to Liu Bang forthwith, you will soon become his captive. You are no match for him.”

Enraged, Xiang Yu boiled Zhou to death.

Mad Master, Li Shiqi, now approached Liu Bang and said, “I have noticed that Xiang Yu has one glaring weakness. He does not pay enough attention to the question of food. An army fights on its stomach, and no hungry army survives for long. Now Xiang Yu has taken the important city of Jungyang. Just outside Jungyang is Chengkao and the huge Ao Granary, which contains enough grain to feed the entire state of Qin for at least two years. Having captured this vital edifice, Xiang Yu does not seem to recognize its significance.

“He who can pick out the essence of what is most important will be able to possess All Under Heaven. If one lacks that ability, then there is no possibility of long-term success. To a king, the support of his people is the essence of what is most important. But to the people,
min yi shi wei tian,
‘the essence of what is most important is food.’ Therefore, of Everything Under Heaven, nothing is more important than food.

“As for the Ao Granary, I hear that its capacity is immense and the grain there plentiful. Xiang Yu neither pays attention to the Ao Granary nor guards it with care. He has transferred his best troops eastward and left only a few soldiers with disciplinary problems to man the granary. Xiang Yu’s lack of perception is Heaven’s gift to us. You must get the Ao Granary back as soon as possible and never allow it to be retaken again.”

As mentioned previously, after I recovered from pneumonia at the age of thirteen, my stepmother allowed me to recuperate at home for one week. I was still weak and spent a lot of time resting in the room I shared with my grandfather. Neither of us realized that it would be our last summer together.

To while away the time, we used to play chess hour after hour. At one point, during a hard-fought game, while my attention was diverted in trying to capture one of his knights, he checkmated me. Immediately he took down his copy of
Shiji
from the bookshelf and read me the section containing the biography of Mad Master Li Shiqi.

“I have often thought that life is similar to a game of chess,” Ye Ye said. “According to Mad Master, ‘He who can pick out the essence of what is most important will be able to possess All Under Heaven.’ In playing chess, the king is the most important piece and must be guarded at all times. Before you make a move, any move, look and see whether your king is being threatened. Protecting your king, and taking the opponent’s king, is the essence of the game of chess. If you lose your king, you lose the game even though all your other pieces are intact.

“In life, health is the essence of what is most important. By the word
health,
I include physical, mental, and emotional health. Think of life as a number. Health is represented by the number one. Delineate the rest of life by adding a zero for each attribute you attain: education, spouse, friends, money, car, house, and so forth. You end up with a number such as 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. No matter how many zeroes you manage to accumulate, when you lose your health, the number one gets erased. What do you end up with? A big bunch of zeroes!”

After the death of our father in 1988, our stepmother, Niang, summoned her five stepchildren back to Hong Kong to attend his funeral. Of her own two children, one had died from polio at the age of thirteen and the other she had disowned after a quarrel fifteen years earlier. By 1988 Lydia had already successfully poisoned Niang’s mind against me, but I was not aware of it.

They wished to involve my brother James in their plot, so Niang told everyone that Lydia was staying with her at her flat on Magazine Gap Road during Father’s funeral. In actuality, Lydia stayed with James at his flat. My two other brothers and I were put up in a small hotel nearby.

Throughout the week that I was in Hong Kong, I believed that Lydia was staying at my stepmother’s flat. By obeying Niang’s commands and keeping Lydia’s lodging place during that period a secret from me, James was forced into playing their vicious and soul-destroying game. Worse than that, he had to involve his wife, his children, and his servants in the falsehood.

I only found out the truth years later, from Niang’s two live-in maids, who assured me that Lydia never stayed with Niang while she was in Hong Kong. The
knowledge saddened me greatly. I asked them to speculate why Niang resorted to such lengths to involve James in perpetuating so meaningless a lie.

They said,
“Min xiu zhan dao, an du Chen Cang!
‘Ostensibly repairing the plank roads, in actuality crossing via Chen Cang!’”

It must have sounded pretty harmless and trivial when Niang first mentioned to James her plans to deceive me. My poor brother probably had no idea that Niang and Lydia were in the midst of hatching an elaborate
fan jian ji,
a “plot to sow discord and create enmity.” By including James in their fraudulent conspiracy, not only did they drag James down to their level, they also managed to destroy the trust between my brother and me.