Chapter Summaries

Luo Ji led the Luo State army in a surprise cavalry and chariot attack that routed Bai Cheng’s Qin soldiers and drove them toward the main camp. Bai Cheng prepared to meet the assault with Qin’s elite troops as the battle continued.

• Luo Ji took advantage of the darkened sky and the Qin army’s unfinished defenses to lead the Luo State army into a sudden attack.
• Luo Ji’s Dare-to-Fight Warriors and the cavalry and chariots smashed through the Qin camp, killing many soldiers and routing nearly forty thousand.
• Luo Ji ordered his troops to drive the fleeing Qin soldiers toward the main camp and break them completely.
• Bai Cheng rejected a scout’s exaggerated report, ordered his army to assemble, and decided to lead the Great Qin Elite Soldiers into battle.
• Luo Ji’s forces reached the Qin main camp before Bai Cheng could assemble all his troops.

Luo Ji led the Luo State cavalry against Bai Cheng’s Qin army, exploiting its dwindling arrows and disorganized formations to destroy the force. After Bai Cheng took his own life, Luo Ji seized the Qin banner and declared victory, leaving the Qin army routed and nearly annihilated.

• Luo Ji drove the routed Qin soldiers toward their main camp, where Bai Cheng ordered his troops to shoot them down and prevent them from reaching the front.
• Bai Cheng led sixty thousand Qin troops out to fight, and Luo Ji sent cavalry in successive probing attacks to expose weaknesses in their divisions.
• Luo Ji concentrated arrows on vulnerable Qin formations as Bai Cheng repeatedly redeployed troops, opening a path toward the Qin army’s central banner.
• Luo Ji led the Dare-to-Fight Warriors through the Qin defenses and reached Bai Cheng, whose personal guards were killed.
• Bai Cheng took his own life, and Luo Ji beheaded him, cut down the Qin banner, and declared the Qin State defeated.

The States reacted to Luo State’s victory over Qin State with uprisings, plots, and political infighting, while Wang Jian assessed the damage to Qin’s army. King of Qin Zheng approved Wang Jian’s request for reinforcements, and Wang Jian began preparing for the campaign against Luo State.

• The King of Dai proclaimed a new state in northern Zhao and called on Zhao’s people to resist Qin, while the Crown Prince of Yan agreed to join him and proposed assassinating King of Qin Zheng.
• Han and Wei remained too subdued to mount resistance, the King of Qi celebrated Luo State’s victory in a drunken fantasy, and Chu State’s nobles rejected sending aid to Luo State as the Xiang Clan prepared to leave.
• Wang Jian learned that Bai Cheng had lost a hundred thousand troops, including fifty thousand elite soldiers, at Zhaobei and worried about how the losses would affect the campaign against Luo State.
• Wang Jian requested replacement troops from Xianyang, and King of Qin Zheng approved the reinforcements and urged him to focus on defeating Luo State.
• After receiving King of Qin Zheng’s reassurance, Wang Jian regained his composure and began arranging the coming battles.

As Qin’s overwhelming army approached Zhao City, Luo Ze explained to Luo Ji that the Luo people opposed Qin not simply out of loyalty to their ruling house, but because they rejected Qin law’s treatment of people and its suppression of thought. The chapter left the defenders cheerful despite knowing their state would likely fall, prepared to fight for their own convictions and righteousness.

• Veteran soldiers in Zhao City joked and brawled while recounting Luo Ji’s victory over the Qin Army.
• Luo Ze asked Luo Ji what the Luo Clan had accomplished most over the past thousand years, then said it had helped create people willing to think and risk their lives for their beliefs.
• Luo Ji explained that the Luo Clan rejected Qin law because its reforms offered a future that suppressed thought, dignity, and independence among the people.
• Luo Ze said the Luo people understood they faced certain defeat but fought for themselves and for righteousness, drawing strength from Mengzi’s teachings.
• A closing reflection described Ten Thousand Voices of Zhao City as a record of rank-and-file soldiers whose hopes and convictions endured on the eve of the Luo State’s destruction.

Wang Jian weighed the political dangers of conquering Luo State and decided to attack Zhao City, while Wang Ben urged him to leave the consequences to Qin nobles. The siege began with Qin crossbows and catapults, but Luo State’s accurate heavy crossbows destroyed Qin weapons and killed the army supervisor, leaving the Qin troops in panic.

• Wang Jian told Wang Ben that he feared the consequences of conquering Luo State more than the battle itself, and Wang Ben advised him to let Qin nobles bear the blame.
• Wang Jian ordered the Qin army to attack Zhao City the next day and brought a vast supply of siege engines and heavy crossbows.
• Luo Ji recognized that the Qin army planned to bombard the city rather than engage directly, and Luo Ze ordered preparations for war.
• Wang Jian blocked the roads to Zhao City and sent two hundred thousand Qin troops to begin the siege.
• Luo State’s crossbow bolts destroyed two Qin heavy crossbows and killed nearby soldiers, despite the Qin supervisor threatening his troops.
• The army supervisor was suddenly severed at the waist, and panic spread among the Qin troops.

Luo Ji and the Luo State Ruling House resolved to answer Qin’s attritional siege with a bold night attack. After devastating a Qin camp, Luo Ji led the Dare-to-Fight Warriors toward incoming reinforcements.

• Wang Jian ordered the Qin Army to attack Zhao City cautiously and wear down the Luo People through rotating assaults.
• Luo Ji warned that Qin’s numbers would eventually exhaust the defenders, and the Luo State Ruling House agreed to fight on with a dramatic offensive.
• Luo Ji and the other sons of the Ducal House led more than ten thousand cavalrymen on a night raid against a poorly disciplined Qin camp.
• The Luo cavalry killed Qin soldiers, extinguished the camp’s lights, and set the tents ablaze as they charged through the disordered troops.
• Luo Ji ordered a retreat when Qin reinforcements arrived, then laughed at the lightly equipped soldiers and commanded the cavalry to trample them.

Luo Ji’s night raid on the Qin camp became a desperate breakout after Wang Jian’s forces surrounded the Luo cavalry. Luo Ji stayed behind with three thousand warriors so Luo Cheng and the rest could escape, and died fighting with his men.

• Luo Ji led ten thousand cavalry in a surprise charge through the Qin camp, but discovered heavily armored infantry holding their ground.
• Luo Ji realized the Qin had blocked the retreat routes and ordered the cavalry to break out through the southeastern corner.
• Luo Ji’s guards extinguished the Qin torches and opened a breach, but reinforcements closed in and threatened to trap the cavalry.
• Luo Ji ordered Luo Cheng to lead the survivors away while he stayed with three thousand warriors to hold the rear.
• Wang Jian’s troops surrounded Luo Ji’s group, and Luo Ji fought on foot until spears pierced him and he died.

Luo Ze mourned Luo Ji but welcomed the loosening of the Luo Clan’s centuries-old shackles as the Qin siege of Zhao City intensified. Wang Jian committed to wearing down the defenders through relentless attacks, and Qin troops stormed the city under King of Qin Zheng’s triple rewards for Luo heads.

• Luo Ze comforted Luo Cheng over Luo Ji’s death and said the Luo Clan’s shackles of the mandate of heaven were finally coming undone.
• The Dare-to-Fight Warriors gathered before Luo Ze, grieving for Luo Ji and the men who had died with him.
• Wang Jian dismissed Qin nobles’ accusations that he was deliberately sparing Luo State, defending his cautious siege strategy as necessary to preserve Great Qin’s standing.
• Wang Jian judged that Zhao City’s defenders were nearing collapse after three years of attrition and ordered a much more intense assault.
• King of Qin Zheng’s offer of triple rewards for each Luo head drove Qin soldiers to charge Zhao City’s walls and gates with renewed desperation.

As Qin forces captured Zhao City, Luo Ze mourned Luo State’s fall until Ji Zhao comforted him and urged him to lead his people to fight on. The Qin army found the city nearly empty, then discovered Luo nobles and children at the Repository of Classics as it burned.

• Qin soldiers breached Zhao City’s walls, but the Dare-to-Fight Warriors fought them back in bloody close combat.
• Luo Ze wept at the Ancestral Temple until Ji Zhao told him Luo State lived through its people and urged him to fight beside his ancestors.
• Luo Ze ordered Luo Cheng to take the underage Ducal House children to the Repository of Classics and burn it if Qin soldiers arrived, while the others prepared to die at the Ancestral Temple.
• Qin soldiers entered Zhao City and discovered that most residents, including the women and children, were gone.
• Wang Jian and Wang Ben realized that the city had been abandoned and worried about the fate of Luo State’s Ancestral Temple and Repository of Classics.
• Qin soldiers pursued the Luo State Ruling House to the Repository of Classics, where the Dare-to-Fight Warriors escorted the children inside and the building erupted in flames.

As Qin forces attacked Zhao City, Ji Zhao activated the Peach Blossom Spring Item and rescued twenty young direct descendants of the Luo Clan from the burning Repository of Classics. The Qin general believed they had died and ordered the ruins searched, while the story left the clan’s fate hidden from the invaders.

• Luo Ling gathered twenty uncapped descendants of the Luo ruling house in the Repository of Classics as the fire closed in, and told them their elders would not come.
• Ji Zhao activated the Peach Blossom Spring Item, which sent peach blossoms into the Repository and carried the sleeping children away.
• A pillar of light appeared over the Repository, drawing Qin troops and generals toward the burning ruins.
• Qin soldiers reported that twenty young Luo descendants had entered the Repository, and the Qin general concluded they had died in the fire.
• The Qin general ordered his troops to cool the ruins, search beneath them for tunnels, and find the treasure to present to the King.

Luo Ze and the people of Luo State made their final stand against Qin at the Ancestral Temple, where Luo Ze set the grounds ablaze and died with his warriors. Luo State fell, but the shackles constraining the Luo Clan broke, leaving its descendants free to roam the world.

• Luo Ze told the kneeling people that Luo State's final battle would proclaim its last words before the state ceased to exist.
• Prince Ying demanded King Yu's Nine Tripods for Qin, and when Luo Ze refused, Prince Ying ordered the assault on the Ancestral Temple.
• Luo Ze and the Dare-to-Fight Warriors fought as the Qin army pushed into the temple, while Luo Ze's younger brother and many Luo people died.
• Luo Ze set fire to the Ancestral Temple, trapping the Qin army inside and launching a final charge with the surviving Dare-to-Fight Warriors.
• Luo Ze and the remaining warriors died in the flames, the shackles on the Luo Clan dispersed, and Luo State fell.

After King Yu's Nine Tripods vanished in Zhao City, King of Qin Zheng accepted their loss and continued his conquests, destroying Yan and taking Qi. The King of Qi refused to surrender and died as Qin turned its attention to Chu State.

• King of Qin Zheng ordered Wang Jian to transport King Yu's Nine Tripods to Xianyang, but the ship carrying them capsized in the Luo River, and Wang Jian eventually obeyed the order to return without them.
• Crown Prince Dan of Yan arranged for the King of Dai to be killed and sent Jing Ke to assassinate King of Qin Zheng, but the attempt failed and Qin redirected its army against Yan.
• Wang Jian defeated Yan State, and the King of Yan surrendered after Crown Prince Dan of Yan was killed and his head presented to Qin.
• The King of Qi rejected his nobles' demands to surrender, while the Qi Chancellor led them in submitting Qi State to Wang Jian.
• When Qin troops reached Linzi, the King of Qi set fire to his palace and died drinking wine; Qin took Qi without a battle, and King of Qin Zheng ordered Wang Jian south to attack Chu.

Wang Ben presented He Shi Bi to the King of Qin Zheng, who decided to make it Great Qin’s imperial seal and began imagining the grandeur of a unified empire. After Wang Jian returned, he agreed to lead the campaign against Chu, and two years later he marched south with six hundred thousand troops.

• Wang Ben presented He Shi Bi, recovered from the family of the former King of Dai, to the King of Qin Zheng.
• The King of Qin Zheng declared that He Shi Bi would be carved into a seal bearing the words “Mandated by Heaven, may longevity and prosperity endure forever.”
• The King of Qin Zheng promised Wang Ben a marriage to a noblewoman of the Ying Lineage, and Wang Ben asked to wait until Chu State was destroyed.
• Wang Jian returned to Xianyang and discussed the upcoming campaign against Chu with the King of Qin Zheng.
• Qin’s armies rested, refitted, and farmed for two years before Wang Jian led six hundred thousand troops against Chu.

Chu State’s nobles refused to let Xiang Yan command their army, so he led the Xiang Clan’s forces against Qin on his own. After Qin general Wang Jian defeated Chu’s armies and captured New Ying, Xiang Yan continued resisting until Chu State was utterly destroyed.

• King Cheng of Chu asked his ministers to resist Qin, but they rejected Xiang Yan as commander and the Lingyin volunteered to lead the army.
• Xiang Yan denounced the nobles, refused to join their deployment, and gathered the Xiang Clan’s troops and peasant soldiers to fight Qin independently.
• Xiang Yan warned that Wang Jian’s retreat was a feint, but Chu’s army pursued and suffered a devastating defeat as New Ying fell and King Cheng was captured.
• Xiang Yan rejected Wang Jian’s surrender edict, enthroned Lord Xincheng, and fought on as Wang Jian’s forces drove the Chu army from one stronghold to another.
• After a prolonged siege, Wang Jian breached Xiang Yan’s final city and Qin forces destroyed Chu State’s remaining resistance.

Ji Zhao chose Luo Ling to prepare the Luo Clan for the coming collapse of Qin and used the Origin Tripod and other items to transform him into a genius with exceptional political and military abilities. Luo Ling awoke with his natural lifespan intact, and Ji Zhao left him ready to enter the world.

• After Qin Shi Huang united the world, he took the title of Emperor while most people expected him to grant royal and noble titles beneath him.
• Ji Zhao worried that the Luo Clan lacked an exceptional talent for the struggles following Qin’s eventual fall and chose Luo Ling for his resilience and suitable age.
• Ji Zhao offered to remake Luo Ling into a genius, and Luo Ling accepted despite his grief over Luo State’s destruction.
• Ji Zhao used the Origin Tripod, a Seven-Orifice Exquisite Heart card, and ten Medicine Talismans to enhance Luo Ling while removing the card’s shortened-lifespan side effect.
• Luo Ling awoke with Political Maneuvering and Military Strategy at 99, felt well, and Ji Zhao left him prepared to range freely across the world.

Luo Ling learned that the First Emperor had abolished enfeoffment and ordered Qin institutions and script imposed across the empire, while he prepared to extend the Luo Clan’s influence in the former Chu lands. In Xianyang, Meng Cheng challenged the Qin script, and the First Emperor exposed the conflict between Qin rule and Luo State’s cultural influence.

• Qiao Yun told Luo Ling that the First Emperor had abolished enfeoffment and established commanderies and counties, prompting Luo Ling to plan to influence local officials and contact the Xiang Clan.
• Qiao Yun reported that the First Emperor had ordered standard weights, measures, axle widths, and writing throughout the former eastern states.
• Qiao Yun said Confucian scholars in Xianyang opposed Qin script and favored Luo script, whose use reflected Luo State’s broad cultural influence.
• Meng Cheng urged the First Emperor to adopt Luo script, arguing that it was more convenient and would let many scholars serve as clerks.
• The First Emperor asked whether Qin had destroyed Luo or Luo had destroyed Qin, as he confronted the strength of Luo State’s influence and the Sage King’s worship among common people.

The First Emperor ordered a sweeping crackdown on rival schools and the histories of the six states to unify Great Qin under Legalist rule. Luo Ling learned of the edicts and prepared to protect the Meng Clan and the Luo settlements while assessing the First Emperor’s next military move.

• Meng Cheng challenged the First Emperor’s attempt to govern all under heaven as though they were Qin people, and the First Emperor decided to suppress dissent and erase the histories of the six states.
• The First Emperor told Li Si that the Sage King had unified thought through conquest and that he would unify it through Legalist teachings.
• The First Emperor ordered the arrest of critics and occult practitioners, the collection of books and histories, the creation of the Great Qin Academy, and the reduction of the six states’ nobles to commoners forced to build his mausoleum.
• Luo Ling warned Qiao Yun that the book collections risked destroying the Hundred Schools’ works and asked him to aid the Meng Clan without exposing the Luo Clan.
• Luo Ling told Qiao Yun that the Luo Clan would make way if the First Emperor attacked Nanyue, but would fight if Qin troops came for the Luo settlements.

Meng Cheng condemned Confucian scholars who agreed to alter history for Qin appointments and was taken away to die for his principles. Meanwhile, a Chu soldier learned that Qin’s conscription and military campaigns would extend far beyond Nanyue, leaving him anxious about his family and the wars ahead.

• Qin soldiers and Confucian scholars came to arrest Meng Cheng, who denounced their plan to rewrite history to gain places in the Great Qin Academy.
• Meng Cheng rejected their accusations about his birth and condemned their pursuit of office, and the soldiers dragged him away as he declared he had no regrets about dying for the Way.
• A Chu soldier wrote home from Nanyue but replaced forbidden references to Taiyi and the Sage King after his brother warned him of punishment.
• An older soldier told the Chu man that Qin was building a northern wall and preparing to attack the Xiongnu as well as fighting in Nanyue and Lingnan.
• The Chu man lay awake, troubled by the old soldier’s matter-of-fact acceptance of war and death.

The First Emperor continued his tour, seeking immortality while tightening Qin’s control over resistance in the former states. Luo Ling met Xiang Liang and Xiang Yu to build ties with the Xiang Clan, and the chapter left the two young leaders sizing each other up.

• The First Emperor discussed his plans with Li Si, including visiting Wu-Yue and obtaining the Elixir of Immortality after the Feng and Shan sacrifices.
• Luo Ling recognized that Qin’s harsh rule was driving people toward banditry and weakening local government, so he traveled to contact the Xiang Clan.
• Qiao Yun told Luo Ling that Xiang Liang had rebuilt his influence in Kuaiji and still sought a worthy descendant of Chu’s ducal house to rally behind.
• Xiang Liang knelt in tears upon meeting Luo Ling and welcomed him as a surviving member of the Luo Clan Lineage.
• Xiang Liang introduced his nephew Xiang Yu, who had lifted a cauldron, and said he admired Duke Wu and sought to command tens of thousands of troops.
• Luo Ling praised Xiang Yu’s bearing as a king, and Xiang Yu looked at Luo Ling with curiosity.

Luo Ling encouraged Xiang Yu to pursue kingship rather than remain bound by the Xiang Clan’s loyalty to Chu, while Xiang Liang reconsidered his assumptions. As the First Emperor continued his tour, a staged prophecy appeared on a meteorite, and Luo Ling used it to undermine Qin’s authority.

• Xiang Yu said he could take the First Emperor’s place, but Xiang Liang reminded him that the Xiang Clan had no right to the throne.
• Luo Ling argued that the Xiang Clan had repaid its debt to Chu and that Xiang Yu’s double pupils marked him as destined to rule.
• Xiang Liang recognized that Luo Ling wanted the Xiang Clan to abandon the former states’ rulers and began questioning his own beliefs.
• The First Emperor left Kuaiji and set out toward the eastern sea after hearing that an elixir of immortality could be found there.
• A report described a meteorite bearing the prophecy, “Qin shall destroy Zhou; Luo shall exterminate Qin's clan,” and Luo Ling’s plan to weaken Qin through prophecies became clear.