Good day, Milady.
The crop is getting ripe soon.
The men ought to come home this year.
Otherwise, if it rains like last year, the wheat will...
Every year, all the farming and harvesting
are done by the women in the city.
With the men away at war,
women have to suffer at home.
After the Qin people
have been chased out of the land of Zhao,
the men will naturally come home.
We say that every year
but the world is constantly at war.
It simply never ends.
You're right, Granny.
But if the men of Zhao had not gone to war,
we would have been enslaved by other states.
Granny.
I share your view.
Please go back to work.
Day of Gold
Today is a festive day for the city of Luyi.
After drinking this wine,
you will be husband and wife.
My Lord, please untie the silk string on Milady's hair.
My Lord.
We just received a letter from the King of Zhao.
Qin has invaded the city of Shangdang in Wei.
Zhao is in dire straits.
The king has ordered all Zhao troops
to assemble along Changping
in a fight to the death against the Qin.
This has been my, your husband's,
life ambition.
Every man over the age of twelve
shall follow me to the campaign.
This is the last chance for Zhao to defeat Qin.
Anyone who violates this order
shall be put to death!
Ill-boding...
Correct?
Day of Wood
It's time to go home for harvest.
What? What are you talking about?
Harvest.
Time to go home for harvest.
You want to run away?
Deserters will be beheaded,
with their entire clan and lineage annihilated.
You stay here as an elite warrior.
You... you are a deserter?
You are a deserter.
You are indeed a deserter!
Freeze!
The King of Qin has ordered that
all absentees without leave
shall be decapitated on the spot!
This damn corpse
is pressing against the wheat.
It's you who are the deserter!
For harvest.
I need to harvest.
Stop bawling here.
Or the executioner will come
to chop off your head
and tie it around his waist
before annihilating all your kith and kin!
You bastard!
Come out.
Don't press against the wheat.
Why do you keep following me?
I'm just walking my own way.
Mind your damn business.
Bastard, you are following me.
Why do you deny it?
I'm following you?
I'm following my own feet!
Damn you!
Scram!
You bastard!
I'm going home for harvest.
Why're you following me?
No matter which war I'm fighting,
no matter which side is winning,
when the crop is ripe,
I shall go home.
After the harvest,
I'll go back to the battlefield.
The number of people I've killed
far exceeds the number of farts you've ever made.
Who am I?
An elite warrior!
There are only 500 elite warriors in a Qin army of 100,000 soldiers.
And you dared to draw your sword to my face?
You are a deserter.
Phew!
Such a low-life son of a bitch!
Hangu Pass, Qin Border
The King of Qin has ordered that
all absentees without leave
shall be decapitated on the spot,
with their entire clan and lineage annihilated.
Go further ahead.
Go further ahead and they'll catch you.
They'll whip you 200 times first
before they chop your head off.
You. Stop right there! Come here!
Why are you following me?
Who's following you?
I was hiding all right.
It's you who drew them here.
There's no way we can go back to Qin!
Nobody can sneak past that.
They already killed more than a dozen people.
I'm done for!
You low-life son of a bitch,
why don't you go back to war?
You might even be promoted if you kill some enemies.
I go back? Why don't you go back?
So many people were killed overnight.
There are ghosts everywhere.
I can see ghosts every time I close my eyes.
I'll die if I go back to war.
Even if I don't, I'll be eaten by the ghosts.
But I want to live!
As long as I can live, I can go anywhere!
I'm done for!
Don't leave me behind.
You're on your own now!
I cannot die.
Day of Water
Are these two people from Zhao?
I don't know.
Perhaps the war with the Qin is over?
Did you see my man?
He has a big mole on his nose.
He also has an arrow wound.
Say something. Will he live?
Send them to the Shaman's house immediately for treatment.
We'll ask them when they wake up.
You don't think they can be Qin men?
If the Qin can reach as far as here,
then all your men must have been dead already.
If they are really Qin men,
I'll cook and eat them.
I won't even put any salt.
As for me, I'll castratre them
and gouge their eyes out.
Then I'll keep them at home to do my chores.
You never know, maybe they're better than that cow.
I'll tie them to the tree by the river,
so the mosquitoes will suck their blood dry.
Wild cats will scratch them when the night falls,
and they will scream non-stop in pain.
I love to hear a man scream in pain.
Awake?
This is a Qin arrow.
He's injured by the Qin?
So they are Zhao people?
If they were wounded by the Qin,
then they can only be Zhao people.
You two
are Zhao men?
I'm asking you.
My man has taken my son
to fight against the Qin.
Do you know
if the Zhao has won?
Huh?
Where?
Changping.
The Zhao has won!
Changping.
The Zhao has won in Changping!
The Zhao has defeated the Qin in Changping!
Where?
Changping.
What happened?
The Zhao has won the battle.
Perhaps our men will come home in a couple of days!
The Zhao has won!
Those two men said so.
Those two men told me in person!
The men are coming home!
The Zhao has defeated the Qin!
The Zhao has won!
Yan'er!
I'm here.
Yan'er!
Did you hear that?
Yan'er!
Did you hear that?
I did.
We the Zhao have defeated the Qin.
Did you hear that?
I did.
Who was yelling in the street just now?
Looks like Shaman's cook.
Go ask the Honorable Shaman to come here. Hurry up!
Yes, ask the cook to come too.
Forget it.
Let me go myself.
Impossible! Absolutely impossible!
Absolutely impossible!
We are in Zhao!
You don't want to live!
They have mistaken us for Zhao people.
They want to cook and eat us.
They said they wouldn't even add salt!
From this moment on,
We are Zhao men!
Before we can escape from here,
don't ever tell anyone
we are Qin men.
We are Qin men.
Zhao men!
We are Zhao men!
We are Qin men.
No! We are Zhao men.
Your facial features
do not look like Zhao men.
Frankly speaking,
both of us
are from Wusui
in Zhao.
Yes, Wusui.
You are from Wusui?
Wusui should be on the south of Luyi.
Yes.
No.
Wusui is a small city on the northernmost part of Zhao,
on the north shore of Shuihe.
It's only a few miles away from the state of Yen.
That's exactly correct.
Risking your lives fighting in the battlefield till today
wasn't all that easy.
I've prepared some simple food and drinks
in my residence for your enjoyment.
Wusui.
What's the matter? What Wusui?
Those two men are from Wusui.
Wusui? Where is it?
No idea.
Anyhow, a Zhao city.
After the Zhao has won the battle,
the two men were heading home for harvest
when they encountered some routed Qin soldiers.
They killed more than a dozen of them.
Eventually, the man called Zhe was injured.
The other man, Xia, dragged Zhe into the river together.
They were then carried downstream from the mountain to here.
Our Zhao masters have won the battle,
but how come our men are still not home?
When are the men coming back?
How do the two masters look like?
On hearing the news of the victory,
the King of Zhao invited Lord Ju Cong
and other masters in Luyi
to a celebration banquet in Handan.
Yes.
That sounds like what I heard.
How did our masters beat the Qin?
Tell us
She isn't done talking yet. Let her finish.
I'm done.
They didn't talk about the battle.
Lady Li has invited them to her residence for drinks.
Haven't I come out?
I'd better rush back to listen to them.
Wait.
This way.
If the two warriors are not tired yet,
please tell us
how our Zhao army defeated the Qin.
You tell her
how the Qin won the battle.
I meant the Zhao.
It's such a big victory.
The King of Zhao hasn't made a proclamation yet?
Correct.
The King must have been so happy he forgot.
He's forgotten.
A Qin general called Wang Jian
with an army of 400,000 men
had seized 17 cities in the state of Wei.
After invading Shangdang,
he planned to encroach into Zhao.
The King of Zhao sent General Lian Po
to personally lead an army of 300,000 elite soldiers.
He arrived just in time
and lined his troops horizontally right in front of the Qin.
The Qin tried several times to break
the battle formations of the Zhao,
but they were as strong as gold.
Here I come!
How was it?
Hurry up and tell us.
The Qin had sent someone called Wang
to lead an army of a million
which seized half of Wei.
The Qin
failed to invade the Zhao camps.
The Zhao
failed to break up the battle formations of the Qin.
This stalemate
lasted more than a year.
Anxious.
Qin.
The King of Qin was anxious.
He found General Wang impotent
and dispatched a bigger general, Bai Qi,to command the troops.
He's also a Sir something.
Sir Wu An.
That's it.
He's called Sir Wu An.
He's the most capable general in Qin.
The King of Zhao was wiser.
He sent General Zhao Kuo with a reinforcement of 600,000
and besieged the Qin.
General Zhao said,
besiege but do not annihilate.
Starve them to death.
Thirst them to death.
The people they mentioned
sound like those Lord Ju Cong told us before.
We heard that before.
One day,
I
saw carcasses
being discarded
outside the Qin camp.
When I looked at them carefully,
I discovered that
the flesh on the hips and legs of the carcasses
was gone.
Each and every single bone was exposed.
I immediately reported that to General Zhao.
Me too.
We went together, remember?
True.
You too.
On hearing that, General Zhao
broke into laughters.
The Qin had run out of food.
They started eating human flesh.
General Zhao
commanded
everyone in the army to be on the alert.
The Qin
would try to break the siege.
They were eating human flesh.
The Qin would be breaking the siege.
The Qin
was starting to
break the siege.
That General Bai Qi
led 5,000 elite soldiers
and rushed out of the Qin camps.
Wang led another army and dashed out from the opposite side.
The two armies killed indistinguishably.
The sword I was wielding
was broken into three pieces.
The elite forces of the Qin were formidable.
You could not succumb them with your swords.
Even with their heads chopped off,
they would still hold on to you relentlessly.
All the way,
I kept killing and slaughtering,
until I got to the forefront.
I looked ahead
and found General Zhao standing in front of Bai with his sword.
Bai was flabbergasted.
I raised my bow and grabbed my arrow,
only to realize there's no more arrows left.
I dashed forward,
raised my bow and grabbed my arrow.
I shot an arrow.
Bai Qi
fell down from his horse.
Behind him,
the Qin became leaderless.
The 400,000 Qin soldiers
could only but surrender.
And then?
What and then?
Tell us.
And then,
General Zhao commanded that
all the Qin prisoners of war
were to be locked up in ten camps.
Long live the King of Qin!
When night fell,
every Zhao soldier tied his head with a white cloth.
Long live the King of Qin!
We were given the command
to kill all the Qin soldiers
overnight.
All of them were to be killed.
Buried alive.
Their heads were chopped off
and their bodies dragged to the river.
The whole river was tainted red with blood.
The heads were piled up into a high platform.
All young soldiers under the age of 15
should not be killed.
Soldiers under the age of 15 should not be buried alive.
They should be sent home alive.
Anyone who disobey this shall be put to death!
They shall watch
until every Qin men
is killed.
General Zhao said,
Send them back to Qin.
Watch.
Cry out loud!
Long live the King of Qin!
Long Live!
Let everyone in Qin remember
that the Zhao
is formidable,
the most formidable.
Right.
Because of this war,
we Zhao people
have waited too long.
Lift them.
Let's go.
The men are coming home!
Long live the Zhao!
Long live Lord Ju Cong!
Long live the Zhao!
Long live Lord Ju Cong!
I like the smell of alcohol on their bodies!
Mine... Mine...
Our Qin men
killed 400,000 Zhao men overnight.
My sword was bad.
After chopping off barely a few heads,
it turned blunt.
I couldn't pull it out
Wrong!
It's the Zhao men who killed 400,000 Qin men overnight.
Right.
Buried alive, with heads chopped off.
Right, with heads chopped off.
The bodies were dragged to the river,
tainting the whole river red with blood.
The whole river was tainted red with blood.
The heads were piled up into a high platform.
Into a high platform.
More than 200 Qin soldiers were spared their lives.
Spared their lives.
They were made to watch
till every Qin man was killed.
Everyone was killed.
General Zhao said,
send them back to Qin
and ask them to tell everything they've seen
to the King and the masses of Qin,
so that they will never dare to go to war with the Zhao anymore.
Right.
So that the future generations of the Qin will remember
Zhao is formidable,
the most formidable.
Day of Fire
In the past, whenever we had a victory,
Lord Ju Cung would send someone to deliver the good news.
The King of Zhao would also proclaim it to the world.
How comes this time...?
I find it odd too.
But the story told by the two Wusui men
appear to be faultless.
Perhaps...
Look at your people.
They're as ecstatic as if the Lord had returned triumphant.
Don't kill me.
Who are you?
It's me...
What's going on?
Where's this place?
Where are we?
I don't know.
This is frigging Zhao!
Huh?
I drank a lot, right?
And said a lot too?
What did I say?
What on earth did I say?
Soldiers under the age of 15 shall not be killed.
Why are there only women in the street?
We've killed all the men.
What should we do?
Flee.
How do we flee? And where to?
Let's first get out of the city.
No.
We should seize the city.
Then we will be knighted.
With one head chopped off,
we get one level higher in knighthood.
What if we seize one whole city?
But how do we seize it?
Have all these women
killed.
No.
We can't kill them all.
Just have all the ugly old hags
killed.
We'll keep the youngest and the prettiest
as my women,
as... our women.
We'll live like nobility.
What do you think?
Say it again.
I didn't hear it too well.
Living like nobility.
Lower your voice.
Just think.
Even if we manage to flee,
we probably will be killed
before we're halfway through.
Even if we can return to Qin,
so what?
Farming,
labor,
banishment.
We are both deserters.
If worse comes to worse,
we'll get our whole clan and lineage annihilated
and all our neighbors exterminated.
I really under-estimated you.
Even scoundrels
as gutless as you
actually dream of living like nobility?