I Read the Victory Report and Knew My Son's Courage; the Prime Minister Examined the Records and Suspected His Achievements Were False

"I investigated Zhao Cheng's life, Your Majesty, and submit this report:

"Zhao Cheng was precocious by nature, bright and quick-witted even in childhood.

"By the age when children lost their baby teeth, while other children were still playing and fooling around, he could already manage the farm work for his mother, chopping wood in the mountains and catching fish in the river to help support the household.

"At the time, village women and children often whispered about his parentage. When he was a boy, he once debated a group of women in the village square. His words were sharp as knives, and none could argue back; they fled in disarray.

"He also once fought eight village boys. Though they beat him until his head was split and bloodied, he still chased them to their homes. When one boy's father came out to berate him, Zhao Cheng stole into the house at night with a knife, pressed it to the man's throat, and shouted at him until the man knelt for a long time, begging forgiveness.

"From then on, the village was cowed. His peers and even those nearing adulthood treated him with respect, choosing him as the leader of the children.

"When he was nine, his maternal uncle returned from the army and became the village head. The lives of mother and son grew a little easier.

"Not long after, his mother, Lady Zhang, died of illness, leaving behind a hundred mu of farmland and a household estate.

"At twelve, the boy was left to shoulder the household alone. He kept the farm in perfect order and practiced carpentry, roofing, fishing, hunting, and every other skill, day and night without rest. His bearing grew increasingly extraordinary.

"Yet his constitution was unlike other people's. He ate enough to fill a granary.