When Zi Shou heard that Li Jing had entered Chaoge and casually cut someone down along the way, he beamed with delight and nearly jumped for joy.
Although Li Jing had stabbed him in the back last year, completely overshadowing his execution of Marquis Li by the sword, he was still entrusted with important duties.
Precisely because he could carry out reforms!
And the shadow Zi Shou saw in Li Jing was not Shang Yang, but the fiercer, more radical Wu Qi.
Wu Qi's reforms in Chu were less reforms than a revolution. Compared with them, Li Kui's reforms in neighboring Wei were practically a gentle little girl. Even Shang Yang's practice of moving a wooden pole to establish public trust had been borrowed from Wu Qi.
The lives Wu Qi's revolution threatened were those of Chu's great nobles.
Zi Shou had read the bamboo slips from Sleeping Tiger Ground on Cloud Dream Mountain. They were all "supplementary provisions" targeting the nobility. Clearly, Li Jing's revolution threatened the lives of Great Shang's feudal lords and nobles.
And how had Wu Qi ended up?
After five years, his reforms had died young.
Although the old nobility and entrenched powers had suffered heavy blows during the reforms, they had not lasted long enough for their gains to be fully consolidated. Before long, everything had reverted to its old ways, sliding downhill all the way to destruction.
Some said it was because King Dao of Chu had suddenly kicked the bucket, leaving Wu Qi unable to hold on.
But in reality...
Wu Qi had touched land ownership too early, inflaming conflicts too quickly. The power of the hereditary clans in the Qin State was far weaker than in Chu, yet even Shang Yang had waited eighteen years before daring to dig up their