Chapter 3 (1/2)
Fan Li was originally a native of Wan, in the Kingdom of Chu He was not a man concerned with the details of etiquette Often, he did things beyond the expectations of other people People of his ho caistrate of Wan, he heard of the Fan Li’s reputation He sent subordinates to summon Fan Li The subordinates said, “That Fan Li is the fa he doess different, other people always say that he is mad When he has a superior opinion, the common of ill call hi went to visit Fan Li himself, but Fan Li avoided hiive up so easily, so he borrowed some proper clothes from his brother When Wen came back, Fan Li was ready The two talked and found that they had much in common
They both felt the kingdoe, but chaotic The only kingdoms which could rise to coned his position and went to the kingdo of Wu’s favourite was Wu Zhixu The two lived in the capital for a few month and saw that Wu Zhixu was indeed a wise man They were not necessarily better than him
After soh Yue was a sdom, but they could put their talents to use there Goujian received theh positions
Then Goujian ignored the advise of Wen Zhong and made ith Wu His ar River Goujian was surrounded at Kuaiji Mountain and aldo and bribed the Prime Minister of Wu Fuchai then listened to the Prireed to a peace treaty Goujian lived in Wu as a hostage for a few years, but he was released later Then Goujian slept only on beds made of thorny branches and tasted the bitter juice of beef gall bladders to remind hi’s Nine Methods to subvert Wu and strengthen Yue
The Nine Methods were One, pay respect to the Gods and spirits Two, give Fuchai vast a soft in luxury Three, borrow food fro faive Fuchai beautiful wo, so Fuchai would be paying more attention to the beautiful woive Fuchai engineers so he started building expensive palaces which drained the economy of the country Six, bribe the ministers of Wu Seven, distance Fuchai from his wise ministers The wise Wu Zhixu was eventually forced to coht, hoard food so the kingdoreat reserve available Nine, make weapons, train soldier and wait for the chance
Eight reat difficulty Everyone could tell that the eight warriors of Wu were better than anyone Yue could produce Fan Li told Wen Zhong the results of the contest Wen Zhong frowned, “Brother Fan Li, the sharpness of their swords is a ether in groups in accordance to Sunzi’s Art of War” Fan Li said, “Yes, decades ago, when Sunzi helped the King of Wu They destroyed Chu, the dom in the world at the time In his book, it’s said, “If I concentrate mented into ten parts then I can use ments Then I will outnumber my enemy and the battle will be over” Wu used this principle to achieve local superiority against our swordsmen”
When they talk they arrived in front of Goujian Goujian was staring at the gift sword After a long while, Goujian lifted up his head and said, “Minister Wen Years ago, Wu had the husband-wife tea and Mo Ye Yue had Ouyezi Now, all three have died Wu still have great sword smiths, yet we have no one to succeed Ouyezi”
Wen Zhong said, “I have heard that Ouyezi had two students One is na Huzi is in the kingdom of Chu Xue Zhu is still in Yue”
Goujian becao to Chu with gold so we can get Feng Huzi here as well”
The nextreported that he already sent soranted Xue Zhu an audience and asked, “Your ed five swords How do you grade those five swords?”
Xue Zhu said, “I have heardThree large swords and two se, Defeater of Evil, Fish Intestine and the Great Tower Now, the Tre Reed is in Chu Defeater of Evil and Fish Intestine are in Wu Your Majesty still have Pure Edge and Great Tower”
Years ago, the Prince Helu of Wu heard of the swords and asked Goujian’s father for soht of Wu and gave Helu Tre Fish Intestine, Helu assassinated his cousin the king and took the throne Tre of Chu King of Qin heard of this and asked for it Even after a fears, the King of Chu still refused to give it up
Xue Zhu said, “My master said, of the five swords, Defeater of Evil is of the highest grade Pure Edge and Tre Reed are next Fish Intestine is lower and Great Tower ranks last When Great Toas forged, the alloy was not pure, so it was only a sharp sword and not a truly precious sword”