Chapter 52 Reasons for Jing Ke's failure to assassinate Qin Qin

It was early morning in late autumn that Jing Ke and Qin Wuyang left the country of Yan. Prince Dan and several people who are qualified to know about this matter, all dressed in white clothes and hats, came to see Jing Ke off.They were sent to the bank of Yishui, and after offering sacrifices to their ancestors, Jing Ke and others boarded the carriage going west and prepared to set off. At this time, Gao Jianli started to set up the building, and Jing Ke sang a farewell song with Zhusheng in a desolate tone, and all the people who saw him off wiped their tears.Then Jing Ke sang loudly again: "The wind is rustling, the water is cold, and the strong man will never return once he is gone!"

The singing was so impassioned that all the people present widened their eyes when they heard it, and their hairs stood on end with excitement. After Jing Ke sang, he swung his whip and went west, never looking back. After coming to the state of Qin, Jing Ke first bought Yingzheng's favorite minister, the concubine Meng Jia, with a lot of money.Meng Jia then reported to Yingzheng: "The king of Yan is afraid of the majesty of the king, and dare not resist the army of the Qin State. Satisfied, I only hope that the ancestral temple of their ancestors will not be destroyed. Since King Yan is afraid of the king, he dare not come by himself, so he first sent someone to come to you with the head of Fan Yuqi and the map of the Dukang area of ​​​​Yan Kingdom. Your servant heard that , They put the heads and the map in the box, and when the envoy was about to leave, the king of Yan personally kowtowed to the envoy, and told the envoy to convey his greetings to the king, and asked the king to remember the filial piety of the king of Yan, and to receive the country of Yan envoy."

Ying Zheng was very happy and said: "This is a good thing! If all the princes in the world are as knowledgeable as King Yan, the common people can suffer less." So he changed into a formal dress and received Yan Guo in the palace with nine guests. messenger. At this time, the Qin State was very powerful, the palace in Xianyang was built tall and large, and the ceremony of the nine guests was designed to be extremely solemn and grand.As soon as Jing Ke and others entered the palace gate, they felt a kind of incomparable majesty, as if all the power in the world had been concentrated in this palace, and Ying Zheng, who was aloof from above, was no longer the monarch of the world, but the master of all things in the world.

This is the state of Qin! Jing Ke admired secretly, and at the same time reminded himself not to be intimidated by the superficial prosperity, but to keep in mind his mission.He walked in front holding the box containing Fan Yuqi's head, Qin Wuyang followed closely behind holding the map box, and went up the stairs one by one under the watchful eyes of the Qin officials. From the palace gate to the main hall, you have to go through three steps, each of which has seventy or eighty steps.On both sides of the steps, there are tall and mighty men with halberds. They are dressed in neat armor, with the same bun on their heads, with awe-inspiring and inviolable expressions on their faces.Jing Ke kept his eyes on the ground and walked steadily forward.Qin Wuyang was not so calm. From time to time, he secretly looked at the warriors on both sides, and glanced at the map case in his hand, his mind went blank.When he arrived at the steps of the main hall, Qin Wuyang's face was already pale, with sweat beading from his forehead, and his footsteps were crooked, as if he was about to fall.

This abnormal behavior of course caught the attention of the palace guards. According to the laws of the Qin State, only the king of Qin can wear a sword on the main hall, and the rest of the civil and military officials are not allowed to carry weapons, so the guards in the palace are only on duty under the highness.After Jing Ke was searched, he climbed up the steps of the main hall. He had just taken two steps when he heard a guard shout from behind him. Looking back, he saw that Qin Wuyang had been blocked from going up to the hall. Jing Ke was startled, but quickly calmed down, smiled at Qin Wuyang, took a few steps forward, and said loudly to Ying Zheng: "The villain in the northern barbarian land has never seen the majesty of the emperor. It is inevitable that he will lose his composure. I implore His Majesty to forgive him so that he can complete his mission."

Ying Zheng didn't pay much attention to it, but he kept his eyes open and said, "He doesn't need to come up. You can bring up the map in his hand and Fan Yuqi's head and show it to the widows." Jing Ke then took the map from Qin Wuyang and displayed it in front of Ying Zheng together with the head box.Ying Zheng had a head test and recognized Fan Yuqi, so he was more than half wary and ordered Jing Ke to show him the map. Jing Ke suppressed the ecstasy in his heart and presented the map to Ying Zheng.Ying Zheng grabbed one end of the scroll, Jing Ke grabbed the other end of the scroll, and slowly unfolded it.When the map was displayed to the end, Mrs. Xu's dagger hidden inside was revealed.

Ying Zheng said "ah", and it was too late to say that, Jing Ke grabbed his sleeve with his left hand, and stabbed at Ying Zheng with a dagger in his right hand.Ying Zheng stepped back instinctively, his sleeve was torn off, and then he reached out for his sword, but unexpectedly, the sword was too long and he couldn't pull it out all at once.But Jing Ke missed the first blow, and the second hit came again.Ying Zheng had no choice but to hold the scabbard to block it, and then drew the sword, but the sword seemed to be stuck in the scabbard, and he couldn't pull it out no matter how he pulled it out.

Ying Zheng had no choice but to hide around the pillars, and Jing Ke chased after him.Due to the sudden incident, the officials in the hall were shocked at first, and then became a mess.Some came forward to help, but they had no weapons in their hands, so they were not Jing Ke's opponents; some called for warriors to go to the palace, and the laws of the Qin State clearly stipulated that only the King of Qin himself could call for warriors to go to the palace, and the warriors did not dare to make mistakes.Seeing that Ying Zheng was about to be caught up, a palace doctor named Xia Wuqiu rushed forward and hit Jing Ke with the medicine bag in his hand.At this time, someone shouted: "Your Majesty, push the sword behind your back and pull it out!" Ying Zheng suddenly came to his senses, pushed the scabbard behind his back, and pulled out the sword.

Ying Zheng had a long sword, and Jing Ke had a short blade. This time, the host and guest changed positions. Ying Zheng stepped forward, and cut off Jing Ke's left leg with one sword.Jing Ke collapsed to the ground and threw the dagger in his hand at Ying Zheng.Ying Zheng hurriedly dodged, the dagger flew over his scalp, and nailed to the copper pillar behind him.Ying Zheng was furious, and stabbed Jing Ke several times, turning him into a bloody man. At this time, Jing Ke knew that the matter could not be done. He endured the pain, sat up against the pillar, and said to Ying Zheng: "The reason why today's matter did not succeed is because I wanted to hijack you from the beginning and force you to join us. Sign a contract to repay the crown prince..." Before he finished speaking, he died of anger.And His Highness Qin Wuyang has long been chopped into meat sauce.

Ying Zheng saved his life, but he was frightened and depressed for a long time.Afterwards, he rewarded him for his meritorious deeds, and specially rewarded Xia Wuqie with two hundred yi of gold (one yi is about twenty-four taels). Jing Ke's assassination of the King of Qin is undoubtedly the most exciting assassin story in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods.Sima Qian wrote "Biography of Assassins", which successively wrote the stories of Cao Mo, Zhuan Zhu, Yu Rang, Nie Zheng and Jing Ke.But in Chinese history, Jing Ke's popularity is much higher than the first four, which may be related to his song "The wind is rustling, the water is cold, and the strong man will never return when he is gone".

The reason why Jing Ke's assassination of the King of Qin failed was firstly because Prince Dan acted too hastily and did not trust Jing Ke enough.Employers do not suspect, suspects do not.Now that Prince Dan had entrusted Jing Ke with the important task, he urged Jing Ke to leave again and again, which to a large extent disrupted Jing Ke's plan, forcing him to rush into battle without sufficient preparation. Secondly, Qin Wuyang, who was acting as the deputy, performed abnormally.Prince Dan chose Qin Wuyang because he "killed people at the age of thirteen, and people dare not disobey him." He thought he was a bloody man who was not afraid of anything, but he was just a murderer who had never seen the world. The legs are weak, and it doesn't play its due role at all. Finally, it is Jing Ke's own problem: Shen Yong is more than enough, but not good at martial arts.When the map unfolded, Ying Zheng was unprepared. Jing Ke held a sharp blade, but missed the opportunity. It wasn't because he wanted to hijack Ying Zheng, but because he didn't move fast enough.After Ying Zheng flicked away, he couldn't pull out his sword for a while, Jing Ke chased after him, but he never stabbed him, which showed that Jing Ke was actually mediocre in martial arts. In fact, Jing Ke's old acquaintance, Lu Goujian from Handan City, once heard that Jing Ke failed to assassinate Qin, he once sighed with emotion: "It's a pity, if Jing Ke had improved his swordsmanship, this would not be the result!" The courage still expressed his admiration, saying: "At the beginning I didn't know that he was such a man, but even scolded him, it's no wonder he had a problem with me." It is conceivable that after this incident, Qin State accelerated the pace of attacking Yan State. In October 226 BC, Wang Jian's army broke through Jicheng.Yan Wangxi and Prince Dan abandoned the city and retreated to Liaodong.Qin general Li Xin led his army to follow and launched a fierce attack on the remnants of Yan State. In desperation, King Yan followed Dai Wang Jia's advice and killed Prince Dan in exchange for peace with Qin.Of course, this was wishful thinking. Ying Zheng didn't even want to look at Prince Dan's head, so he ordered the Qin army to attack as usual.Five years later, under the leadership of Wang Ben (son of Wang Jian), the Qin Army finally cleared the remnants of the Yan State in the Liaodong area and captured Yan Wangxi. However, until then, Ying Zheng still had lingering fears about Jing Ke's assassination of him.After the Qin Dynasty unified the world, he also ordered the arrest of Prince Dan and Jing Ke's accomplices.As the most wanted criminal in this case, Gao Jianli had to hide his identity in Songzi County (now Zhao County, Hebei Province) and work as a long-term laborer for others. One day, Gao Jianli was tired from work, and heard a guest from the master's house building in the hall.Gao Jianli listened for a long time, but he was reluctant to leave, and suddenly said: "This guest, Jianzhu, is quite pleasing to the ear, but there are several places that have not been handled well, and it is a bit blunt." When someone heard this, he went up to the hall and told the host: "There is a guy who seems to know the rhythm, and he made a comment there, saying that the guest's building is a bit blunt!" Before the master could say anything, the guest shouted: "That's right, I just learned this piece, and I can't play well in a few places. Please ask this guy to teach me a little bit." Gao Jianli was then invited to the hall and performed a piece of music, which was applauded by all the guests.The host was very happy and ordered someone to pour wine for Gao Jianli.Gao Jianli was an alcoholic in the first place, after drinking two or three glasses of good wine, he became full of pride, went back to the room, took out his clothes, changed into the clothes he was wearing, and went back to the hall.The people present were shocked when they saw his outfit, they hurried down to salute him, and pushed him to the upper seat.Gao Jianli was also not polite, and played a few more songs, singing loudly while beating the building, as if he had returned to the era when he was singing with Jing Ke.The sound of the building is far away, and the singing is solemn and stirring. The guests were all moved to tears when they heard it. This matter quickly reached Ying Zheng's ears.Ying Zheng was very interested and ordered Gao Jianli to be summoned.Gao Jianli played a piece of music in the palace, and someone immediately recognized him and said, "Isn't this Jing Ke's friend Gao Jianli?" When Ying Zheng heard this, he felt very embarrassed.According to the order he gave at the beginning, people like Gao Jianli would be beheaded.But Gao Jianli's performance was so nice that he cherished his talent and wanted to keep Gao Jianli in the palace.Finally, Ying Zheng came up with a way to blind Gao Jianli and ordered him to build for himself every day.Every time Yingzheng listened to it, he praised it with admiration, gradually relaxed his vigilance, and sometimes even sat next to Gao Jianli to listen. One day, Yingzheng was fascinated by what he heard, when Gao Jianli suddenly raised the building and threw it at him fiercely, but he missed Yingzheng, but hit the pillar, which made a deep dent in the copper pillar.It turned out that Gao Jianli had poured lead into Zhuli, turning it into a murder weapon. Gao Jianli was executed on the spot.After this incident, Ying Zheng no longer dared to approach people from the original six kingdoms of Shandong.He is becoming more and more like a high god, ruling the world only by thunder and lightning, of course, this is a later story.