Lu Wan, what are you doing?
-Lu Wan, what are you doing? -Get out of my way. Get out of my way.
Get out of my way. Han Xin, you damned... Get out of my way.
Lu Wan.
Han Xin, when we were defeated in Pengcheng,
our Lord urged you to return.
But you refused him many times. Why? Do you want to betray him?
Lu Wan, don’t blame our general-in-chief.
Lu Wan, we can talk about it when we see our Lord.
How could he face our Lord now?
Han Xin, do you think you can threaten our Lord because of your military power?
Remember it was our Lord that made you general-in-chief!
Were it not for our Lord, you would be nobody!
Lu Wan.
That’s not the fault of our general.
If we set off, we would’ve been attacked from behind.
Stop it! Don’t give me that!
And what about you? In Pengcheng, you didn’t come to save our Lord.
You didn’t come to save our Lord either.
Did you forget us?
Now you only respect him and forget our Lord?
-You are damned assholes. -Lu Wan, don’t talk nonsense.
What did you say just now?
You’re an asshole!
You dare repeat it?
-So what? Let me go! -Set him free. Say that again.
Lu Wan, Lu Wan, what are you doing?
So you dare to kill me?
Stop.
Mr. Xiao.
Xiahou Ying.
Yes.
Report to our Lord that General Han Xin has arrived.
Yes.
General...
follow me.
Move.
Our Lord’s orders:
Only Han Xin can enter.
My Lord, my apologies.
Apology? What did you do?
My Lord, you urged me to return,
but I didn’t return as you as ordered. I apologize to you, My Lord.
So you know you disobeyed me? Then you did it in purpose, didn’t you?
Yes.
Why?
Explain.
Since you appointed me general-in-chief, I have never slacked in my duties.
We lost Pengcheng and I didn’t come to your immediate aid.
That was my fault.
But I felt no matter what,
I wanted to preserve your forces.
That’s all that we have!
I know when Xiang Yu conquered Pengcheng,
you only had your guards.
But if I had led our warriors
to Pengcheng at the time,
all of them might have been killed.
Fine. Let’s forget Pengcheng.
Tell me.
Did you receive my letters?
-Yes. -Why did you come back so late?
What's wrong?
Mr. Zhang, we...
Do you know what I did in these three months?
I stationed in Jushui and recruited warriors.
I reorganized our forces.
Mr. Fan eyed us covetously and stared at us every day.
I know you worried.
But if Mr. Fan learned of my plan,
he would have tried to attack me.
Thus all my efforts would be in vain.
As a general, I must be rational!
My Lord...
in our camp, new warriors were outnumbered by aged ones, they needed training.
If I had divided
our warriors then,
Mr. Fan might have taken the chance to attack us. All our forces would lose.
But now our warriors are well trained,
and provisions are sufficient,
so I think it’s the proper time for me to meet you
and explain my plan to you.
Finished?
Finished.
They are coming out.
Han Xin, you need not return in such a hurry.
You’ve traveled a long way.
You should stay in Xingyang for a little longer.
I’ve got a lot to talk with you about.
And...
if you hear some complaints,
don’t mind them.
I can’t be with you to attack Chu warriors.
Just take my sword with you.
With the sword,
you can do anything on my behalf.
Take care of yourself.
Liu Ji appointed himself king? How absurd!
He hasn’t learned anything from defeat.
Probably he thought as a king,
he could gather powerful warriors
to defeat me. He’s living in a dream.
You shouldn’t belittle him.
He’s recruiting soldiers in Xingyang.
And he has large stores of war supplies in Aocang.
Don’t you know his purpose? He’s telling the world,
that he is determined to have a showdown with you.
What’s the use of his words? We won the world by action,
not with words.
He may use Xingyang as his shelter,
but it’s still just a city.
His way of defending Xingyang is just asking for death.
If he can’t see it, I’d rather lead my warriors
to teach him a lesson or two!
-I-- -General.
Mr. Fan.
Things are bad.
General Mei’s warriors are besieged in Qi.
Qi warriors betrayed us.
The worst part is Zhongli Mei’s warriors are divided into small groups
and he can’t concentrate his troops to attack.
Before I returned to Pengcheng, we had conquered Qi, correct?
Qi warriors are rattlesnakes.
In order to cause confusion, they figured out a cunning strategy.
They broke up their troops and dispersed into different towns and villages.
They only wear the clothes for commoners.
So we can’t differentiate them with commoners. Much less we can kill them all.
And to be worse, while our warriors are heading to the northern side,
these Chu warriors suddenly appeared and surrounded our warriors.
Tell Long Ju and Ji Bu to meet me. We’ll go to Qi
and after we conquer Qi, I’ll go to attack Liu Ji, the rascal.
We can’t get much in Qi.
We should tell Zhongli Mei to withdraw and join forces to conquer Liu Ji.
Zhongli Mei is my sworn brother.
I must go save him.
Mr. Tian of Qi is a filthy little rat.
His battle strategy is an insult to me. I’ll not tolerate it.
Ziqi, get prepared. We’ll set off to Qi right away.
Yes.
Guys, after today between Chu and Han,
I can’t allow neutrals.
Either they’ll be my friends
and join me to attack Chu warriors,
or they’ll be my enemies,
and I’ll kill them whoever they are.
Han Xin.
My Lord, I worry that once we kill one of them,
others will resist us.
You mean they may unite to attack me?
It’s not entirely impossible.
The late Qin was conquered in just this way.
No. What happened in Pengcheng tells us
that no vassal state is reliable, doesn’t it?
Do you actually think that Xiang Yu will just sit by
and watch as we go attack other vassals?
Once Xiang Yu learns our purpose,
he may help those vassals and his actions may pose a great threat.
I agree. What should we do in your opinion?
We should stay in Xingyang.
We should stay in Xingyang? Why?
Xingyang is easily guarded. And we have plenty of provisions here.
I think here is the right place to defeat Xiang Yu.
The problem now is
how we can lure Xiang Yu here.
I’m afraid we have only one choice.
You want me to be the bait?
Then I can go destroy all the other vassals.
Why do you beat about the bush?
You’re right. If I stay in Xingyang,
Xiang Yu will come to kill me.
My Lord, I think it’s far too dangerous. We can’t afford any mishaps.
You don’t know Xiang Yu.
For him, to conquer his enemy is more important than his own life.
So long as he learns that I’m in Xingyang,
he’ll rush here without any hesitation.
When he is busy rushing toward me, Han Xin,
you can go take some men and destroy other vassals.
But I wonder if I’m endangered in Xingyang,
can you rush here in time
to save us?
I pledge my life to protect you, my Lord.
That’s good.
My Lord, one more thing.
Wei Bao pretended to return to the land of Wei,
but he stationed his warriors in Linjindu. He means to oppose us.
Likewise, you’re aware, that when we were endangered in Pengcheng,
he didn’t send any of his warriors to help us.
Wei Bao is truly a pain, the ass.
As we must concentrate our efforts on attacking Xiang Yu,
I think we should make an ally of Wei Bao.
I’d like to be an emissary to his camp.
I’ll persuade him to join us.
Can you… persuade him?
I’d like to give it a try. If he happens to agree,
that would be a big boon for us.
He’s always swinging his attitude.
I don’t have any hope for him. But give it a try.
Mr. Li, try to persuade him with some of our men.
If he doesn’t agree, come back right away to safety.
Yes.
Han Xin,
you can follow hard upon Mr. Li’s footsteps.
Once you see Mr. Wei try to pull a fast one, you kill him.
Yes, sir!
-What? -He’s already in our camp.
I’ll leave.
-Mr. Fan! -Hmm.
Mr. Fan, why do you come here at such a late hour?
I come for your safety.
No big deal. Mr. Fan, you shouldn’t leave Pengcheng to come here, should you?
Everything's okay in Pengcheng.
I disguised myself to hide the fact that I’m not in Pengcheng.
Wei Bao is an opportunist. He’s always on the side that may win the war.
But this time he decided
to join you and attack Liu Ji.
Mr. Wei is just a rat.
I can’t take him seriously.
The reason I united with him is I want him to stop Liu Ji
in case he goes through Wei to attack us.
You are right.
Why the hell didn’t Ying Bu come here?
He said he’s ill.
He’s really a selfish dog. I ordered him two times to help me before.
But he only sent me 2,000 old, weak and wounded warriors.
When we went to conquer Pengcheng, he only sent me 1,000 infantrymen.
Now, he refuses to send anything.
That’s disloyalty, isn’t it? Guards!
Oh, don’t do that, General.
Mr. Fan, why do you stop me yet again?
General, you should be cautious.
You are totally consumed by war.
You forgot that everyone has his desires.
But some desire too much.
Like Liu Ji; you can never satisfy him.
If you give him a bag of rice, he’ll want a granary.
You give him one, and he’ll want 100. No end in sight.
But Ying Bu is a different type.
You should try to satisfy him.
What he desires can be easily satisfied.
I think you might as well satisfy him.
Don’t mind him.
You mean I should just compromise? I should just tolerate his insolence?
Ying Bu’s attitude is arrogant,
but betraying you isn’t in his interest.
Don’t forget that in Xianyang,
when you granted fiefs at the beginning, he disagreed with you.
His attitude changed after you gave him a desolate Jiujiang county and a woman
and won great loyalty. Obviously he’s easily satisfied.
It’s not the problem of whether it’s easy or hard to satisfy him. It’s…
It’s an insult! It’s disrespect! Don’t you see?
If you’re angered and impulsively raise your fist, it will slow us down in Qi.
Why should Ying Bu just give his chin for you to strike? Right?
We should preserve our forces
and focus the attack on our real enemy.
As for Ying Bu, we should swallow our pride.
Send some emissaries to coax his support.
We should hear his complaints
and learn his desires and bargain a bit.
For one, he may show you respect.
For another, he can get rewards from you.
We must keep him from going… to join Liu Ji.
I should swallow my pride?
General, you must use your authority, to influence him.
Satisfy his desire with your grace.
Win more victories to terrify him.
Warn strategists with a wise emissary.
Of course, you should not expect that he will show you any gratitude.
Ying Bu was once a prisoner in Lishan. He knows little about gratitude.
He’s only like a maggot. He doesn’t have the heart of a man;
just avarice, cruelty, and… cowardice and selfishness!
Should I tolerate him as I tolerate a maggot?
In the past, he had nothing to his name.
So he didn’t fear death and can go fight ruthlessly.
Like a big, brutal beetle.
Now as he has his fief,
he begins to value his life. So he’s now a maggot that’s lost its wings.
He’ll not be strong enough to be your enemy just yet.
But this kind of maggot,
if he’s convinced to join Liu Ji’s side, what will happen?
Liu Ji is very skillful in winning the support of such men.
Ying Bu might become a gigantic, terrifying, ferocious... maggot.
His wings will grow back with a vengeance!
Wings? A ferocious maggot?
Wings?
Yes.
Mr. Fan, now you’re speaking my language.
In the past, you always preached. I almost went insane!
I think only with such vulgar words,
can you understand me.
I see. Though, in the past, I understood your teachings, I didn’t like them.
You didn’t like it?
Mr. Fan,
I’ll send an emissary to Ying Bu at once.
I’ll tell him that I value him very much
and I’d like to share more fiefs with him.
Mr. Fan, you need a good rest.
Tomorrow morning, you can set off to Pengcheng.
-Okay, okay. -Great.
All right, all right.
Good night.
We’ll soon reach Daliang.
My wife, what are you doing?
Stop! How dare you? You dog!
Mr. Wei, he’s just a fortune-teller.
Fortune-teller, can you tell my fortune?
My wife allowed you to read her appearance.
But you don’t need to read her so vigorously.
It’s most unusual indeed. In all my years,
I never saw such a noble fortune.
Madam, your son will become an emperor.
Madam, you’ll be the most respected woman in the land.
Emperor? Bullshit! Where’s the emperor?
My Lord, I’m not lying.
If you don’t believe me, we can wait and see.
Madam, My Lord, I’ll leave now.
My Lord, he’s talking nonsense. We should kill him.
No. Let him go.
Yes.
And give him 10 thousand coppers.
Yes.
Is that good luck or back luck?
My Lord how can you believe such a fortune-teller?
Right. It’s good luck. I bet it is.
He said my son will be an emperor.
Then who am I? I’m the emperor’s emperor!
Emperor’s emperor!
Urgent!
Mr. Wei, Liu Ji’s emissary Li Yiji is waiting for a visit.
Kill him.
Yes.
Wait.
We might as well let him in.
I have surrendered to Xiang Yu.
If I meet an emissary from Liu Ji,
and Xiang Yu finds out, he’ll behead me!
Whether you die or not, depends.
Let him in.
Yes.
My wife, what should I tell him?
Tell him anything you want.
Tell him everything I want, oh my, oh my...
Great. Great.
-Come on. Sit down. -Come. Come on. Sit down.
Our Lord is great.
Hey! We are all from Pei County.
We’ve not been together for a long time.
Come on. Drink!
Drink. Drink.
Cao Can, I know you have some complaints.
But forget them for now. Just forget them.
Lu Wan. Fan Kuai, listen,
you should know that it was me
who sent Cao Can and Zhou Bo to stay with Han Xin.
Do you know why I sent them?
They're loyal to me, can tell right from wrong and have been through with us.
They loyally carried out my orders.
So that’s not their mistake.
I hope you don’t blame them.
But I have to explain why Lu Wan and Fan Kuai are so angry with you.
They shouldn’t be blamed either.
You should know...
that I contacted Han Xin thrice but he neither replied nor returned.
How could I tolerate that? Could I hide my frustration?
I think they saw my anger,
so they passed it on to you.
In the end, that’s not your fault.
It’s mine. I’ve done wrong.
Here, I’d like to drink this wine to apologize!
My Lord!
My brothers,
you know we’ve suffered a lot of hardship.
Fortunately, we’re still alive.
And to my relief, besides that, we can fight together to win the world.
It’s true, we cannot decide our life and death.
But we can control how we complain.
Why complain?
We are all from Pei County. You are all my sworn brothers.
I’ll rely you to help me to win the world.
With your help, I’ll rest easy.
So, no more complaining.
All right, okay, let’s toast to our brotherhood.
Come on. Cheers. Drink.
My Lord, cheers. My Lord, cheers. Drink.
-Good. Zhou Bo. -Yes.
From now on, you can stay with me
-Fan Kuai. -Yes.
Cao Can and you should go to assist Han Xin.
Don’t worry, my Lord. If Han Xin dares to betray you, I’ll behead him.
Bullshit! I ordered you to assist him, not to spy on him.
I see. I see.
-Come. Let’s drink to our reunion. -Come on.
Come on. Drink!
Come on!
-Great. -Drink.
As a king, Liu Ji doesn’t respect laws. Nor does he respect Confucian scholars.
His attitude seems totally inappropriate,
but you know, ritual laws presuppose stability in the world.
With the world in chaos, we’d should focus on cutting out the superfluous.
As a scholar, how can you speak such words?
I have the freedom to express my idea. I don’t expect your agreement.
Mr. Zhang.
What you said is only a glib talk. That is not the doctrine of Confucius.
I think interpretation of a doctrine should be based on the time we live in.
As for me, scholars are foolish if they don’t adjust...
themselves to social change.
You are Sui He?
Yes, I’m Sui He.
You’re really an eloquent man.
The king of Wei is coming.
How vexing!
My wife...
I just met the old emissary, Liu Ji sent
and he said Liu Ji will forgive my past misdeeds if I join him.
Poppycock! Do I need him to forgive me?
I heard already.
Just now, our messenger told me
Han Xin’s warriors have arrived at Linjindu.
In your mind, who is stronger?
Of course the invincible one is really Xiang Yu.
Then why do you hesitate?
My wife, what do you mean?
Your decision is a little strange.
In the past, you always disagreed with me.
Right, my wife?
I’m an ordinary woman. You shouldn’t always turn to me for help.
What are you doing? Let go of me! You dare? What are you doing?
Lord…My Lord! My Lord! How can you kill an emissary?
Even if you want to fight Liu Ji, you should let me go. You shouldn’t kill me.
Don’t pee your pants. Didn’t you say you don’t fear death?
You can beg me for mercy!
You... Let me go!
Let go of him.
If you talk nonsense, or else you won’t return.
Go and tell Liu Ji
that I’ll never ever join him, so there!
If he wants to attack me, bring it on!
Return me my goblet.
You emissaries do nothing
but cry, fawn and act shamelessly.
Don’t you see?
That’s what my forte! Don’t try to make a spectacle of yourself.
I’ve lived this long,
I’ve never seen a man
so complacent while in great danger.
Make hay while the sun shines! Eat and drink your fill before you die!
Here is your wine goblet. Take it!
You silly old coot! How dare you curse me! Humbug!
Sui He, as I recommended you to our Lord,
I hope you’ll not fail us, and try find a way to persuade Ying Bu,
we need him on our side.
I don’t know what promise we can give to Ying Bu.
So long as you can invite him here, just promise whatever he wants.
As for our Lord, I’ll try to persuade him.
With your words, I’ll spare no efforts to persuade him.
Good.
I wish you immediate success. Good luck.
See you.
As you predicted,
Mr. Wei arrayed his soldiers along Linjindu to stop our soldiers.
It’s really like what I predicted. Who is his general-in-chief?
Bai Zhi.
He’s a man of no honor, no strategy, nor courage.
When he met Qin warriors, he turned tail and ran.
They call him “Assman.”
He’s no match for Han Xin. Just wait and see, Han Xin will teach him a lesson.
I think our Lord doesn’t know what danger we’re in.
It’s not Bai Zhi that made Mr. Wei arrogant. It’s the river.
General, we only found seven boats that were functional.
Almost all boatmen and fishermen were captured by Mr. Wei.
If we can’t get enough boats to cross the river, we’ll be in a passive position.
Assman! Listen to me! You thought that I would fear you?
Just wait! I’ll cross this river and kick your ass!
General, what should we do now?
-How many boats did you say we have again? -Seven.
It’s enough. Seven is enough.
Mend these boats and get ready to cross the river.
And try to collect a lot of small-mouthed jars.
-General, what’s the use of those jars? -The more, the better. Hurry and get them!
Yes.
-General. -Force crossing is a mere disguise.
When we get enough jars, we can make rafts.
Then at day break, you lead men to cross,
conquer Linjindu, and kill Mr. Wei.
Yes, sir.
Hey there, Assman! Just wait! I’ll kick your ass, and cut off your flesh!
Han Xin conquered Wei in Linjindu.
He ordered his warriors
to tie jars together with wood, and thus made many wooden rafts.
Then they secretly crossed the river
and defeated the king of Wei.
What are you waiting for?
Now, you don’t make me pack my bags.
It’s too late. Liu Ji’s warriors have arrived.
Then why haven’t you taken your life yet?
The king dies first, followed by his women. Don’t you know the rule?
I... Ladies first?
Why do you defer with so many excuses?
All right, I’ll cut my throat first.
Darling. I don’t want to leave you.
Why don’t you want to leave me?
If I were you,
at such a moment, overcome in battle, I wouldn’t feel disgraced!
You’ve not been captured or humiliated
and can die as a king. Aren't you pleased?
Stop.
-Don’t come close. -Freeze. Put down your sword.
Wait here.
Kneel down.
I must see Liu Ji.
Who do you think you are?
Don’t touch me!
You are a faithless dog.
You joined our Lord and promised to attack the man that killed Emperor Yi.
But you betrayed us and joined our enemy! And you stationed in Wei to attack us.
Your family should be killed.
Where is Liu Ji?
Our Lord arrives!
Wei Bao.
It’s a man’s responsibility to fight a war, why did you tie up a woman?
-Untie her. -Yes.
Don’t touch me!
Wei Bao,
do you want to live or die?
Subtitle translation by Hwee Lin Wong