"About that gentleman, what else do you know? We can hardly pay him a visit knowing nothing about him. That would be terribly rude."
Sitting in the carriage, Li Si spoke to Ding Wu with some exasperation.
"What could I possibly find out in so little time?" Ding Wu shook his head with a wry smile. "Even what I know now took some effort to learn. He only arrived in Chenggao a few days ago."
Li Si sighed. "Very well. Tell me what you do know first. Knowing something is better than knowing nothing."
He and Ding Wu were on their way to visit the gentleman who had made such "wild claims" a few days earlier. Li Si thought back to Ding Wu's home, where news had arrived from the front that the five-state allied army had suddenly withdrawn. Every literatus in the courtyard had been astonished, Li Si included.
The news had come so abruptly that it not only put an end to their conversation but left everyone uncertain whether to believe it. Yet Chenggao lay in Three Rivers Commandery, where the Qin Dynasty bordered the states of Shandong. The men there belonged to Literati Clans with connections in every direction. An afternoon and an evening were enough to verify the report.
The next day, more news arrived from the front and confirmed the rumors. The literati of Chenggao could no longer sit still. Some hastily packed their belongings and left the city with their families and servants that very day. The Han Kingdom officials who had only just arrived were especially quick to go. Their chairs had scarcely grown warm before they hurried off again—as rushed in leaving as they had been in coming.
Others from great clans, however, greeted the news with delight. They waited for the