Please.
Stop.
General, this is the king of Jiujiang.
Where’s our Lord?
Wait here.
Our Lord asks to meet you.
Ying Bu is here for a visit.
My greetings, My Lord.
You’re Ying Bu. My pleasure.
I come here to discuss how we’ll attack Chu.
You travelled a long way. Xiahou Ying.
Yes.
Arrange for him to have a good rest in the guesthouse.
Yes.
Yes, My Lord. Please.
Ying Bu, why did you leave out so early?
The hell with you!
Ying Bu. Ying Bu.
Ying Bu, is this really your only option?
As the king of Jiujiang...
I betrayed Xiang Yu and came to join Liu Ji.
But see what his attitude is to me?
When I set off to your palace...
his attitude was sincere. I don't know why he showed us such behavior.
If you feel it’s me that fooled you, you should kill me.
If you feel Liu Ji insulted you...
you should talk with him...
criticize his behavior. You shouldn’t try to commit suicide as a craven.
I didn’t tell you...
while we were on our way here...
Xiang Yu attacked Jiujiang here,
and my warriors were defeated.
Xiang Yu killed all of my family members.
Did you know that? Now we’ve travelled a long way
but Liu Ji showed me nothing but disrespect.
I deserve it. Soon the world will know.
And I’ll become a laughing stock.
I know your sadness.
But I think you shouldn’t be impulsive.
I think you should wait and see. Probably, things will turn better.
If Liu Ji is such a man, then he will not be the king I thought he was.
And then, I’ll die with you. Please.
I know you once were tortured when you were at Lishan prison.
Even then, you never tried to commit suicide.
Now I know what I should do.
If Liu Ji doesn’t accept me, I’ll leave tomorrow.
-But-- -Enough.
As that’s how you feel, let’s talk again tomorrow.
Let’s go.
Oh, my! You’re leaving?
Go inside.
My Lord, what are you here for?
You travelled a long way to join me. I came here to visit you.
How did you rest?
I don’t deserve your concern.
Oh, you’re still quite angry with me, aren’t you?
Sit with me.
I've heard that you are arrogant and like insulting others.
But after I saw you yesterday, I began to believe it.
So you regretted?
To be frank, I did it on purpose.
Don’t you know why?
Sui He told me about how he killed the Chu emissary.
If he hadn’t done that, you wouldn’t have come to join me, right?
I’m not sure whether you really want to join me or are merely pretending.
So I've been a poor host purposely
to test if you were determined to stay.
If you leave my camp in anger,
it will prove you don’t really want to join me.
As you’ll leave me sooner or later, I’d rather have you leave now.
I really do want to join you in your quest to attack Chu.
Then why do you want to leave?
I came to join you and that angered Xiang Yu.
He attacked Jiujiang and killed all my family members. I must avenge them.
Really?
I understand your sadness.
Actually, I don’t know the whereabouts of some of my family at present.
Ying Bu, do you want to be my sworn brother?
I--
If you do...
Xiang Yu is also my enemy. If you join me, we can attack him together. Do you agree?
Well...
you can go to conquer Jiujiang first.
I hope you can win the war.
Tonight, I’ll give you a banquet.
Let’s go.
My Lord.
Xiang Yu led his men to help Zhongli Mei in Qi. They finally conquered Qi.
But they encountered the same problem yet again.
Xiang Yu only won the war but he didn’t claim himself the ruler.
The moment Xiang Yu returned to Pengcheng...
many rebels appeared in all around Qi. They ruthlessly attacked Zhongli Mei...
breaking through his defenses. Zhongli Mei was forced to leave Qi for Pengcheng.
Why is that the moment,
I leave Qi, you are defeated?
You're my General. It’s a disgrace for me to travel all this way to save you!
And now you’ve lost again and returned.
General, I don’t have any excuse for the defeat.
The reason I live
is that I have a request for our soldiers.
Request? What request?
General, when we were all in Qi together
we won battle after battle,
because you were there. Our soldiers, deep down they had hope
they hoped to return with you,
return to their homes, see their families again.
That’s the very reason why we could win the war.
But after you left
Tian Heng led Qi warriors to attack us wildly fearlessly!
They were also protecting their homeland, protecting the land of their ancestors!
But our men don’t care about that.
Why do they have to stay in foreign land? They just want to go home!
They just want to end the war, General!
Excuses!
You just fear death.
General, please allow me to finish my point.
Then I’d kill myself here to beg your forgiveness!
I won’t allow you to die! You must keep your life.
You must conquer Linzi.
General, I hope you can think over what I said.
Guards.
-Yes. -Yes.
Take him away.
Yes.
-Move, move. -General.
Move.
General...
from his ratty hair and messy clothes, don’t you believe his loyalty?
Though he lost the campaign,
I think… what he said is actually reasonable.
I wonder whether our strategy is correct?
Who do think you are?
I have fought this long and I know why he lost.
I’m not interested in that land at all.
But I can’t tolerate any disrespect from Qi. Get it yet?
But, General!
If we attack, then leave...
we’ll never end the war.
It wastes our men’s strength!
I don’t believe that Tian Heng can defeat my 100,000 warriors.
Do not kill Tian Heng. Just catch him alive.
I want a look at what kind of man he is.
General, I heard you’ll go to attack Qi again.
-Yes, I must. Don’t try to dissuade me. -But you shouldn’t.
I must wipe out Tian Heng. I’ll not allow him to make trouble for us.
General, now is the right time to attack Liu Ji.
We should concentrate our forces to attack Liu Ji. We should not do such a--
such a long-distance attack. What Liu Ji wants, is to be emperor.
Tian Heng is not a threat for us. You should know this well.
But I can’t tolerate the insult.
I have no reason to fear Liu Ji.
He wants to rule the world with just Han Xin? Is Han Xin my match?
Liu Ji is wrong, not to mention him.
General, you know in the south, Ying Bu betrayed.
And in the north, many states are in precarious situations.
If we don’t take effective action, we may suffer a great loss.
Mr. Fan, I think the older a man is, the more timid he becomes.
It has nothing to do with my age.
Aggressiveness is not the only way to win the world!
The reason why my warriors are invincible is that we have aggressive morale.
What if I followed my ancestors’ footsteps
and tried to ally other six states? What would happen then?
Then I could only just die in regrets and sadness like them.
Mr. Fan, I know what you want to say.
You want to say, Chu once conquered Qin by forming a strategic alliance, right?
Listen to me, Mr. Fan. It’s not that I despise military strategy,
but that I’m not as interested in it as you. And strategy alone can’t work.
During Pengcheng’s battle, I gave Liu Ji’s 500,000 allied forces
a hard attack.
How can he be my match?
General, things are constantly changing.
I’d rather go to attack Qi first. I’ll not tolerate the insult from Qi.
-Good advice is harsh. Please consider-- -Enough. I've decided!
General, there are many Tian Heng. But there is only one king like you!
Right. I’m the only king.
Mr. Fan, I might as well tell you...
I’ve got an idea about how to defeat Liu Ji.
General, Xiang Yu is coming. Everyone’s running away. Hurry to flee.
Flee my ass!
Where’s his troop now?
Only a stone’s cast away from us.
We can’t protect Aocang. We’ll not protect the provisions here.
If we don’t leave now, we may be killed.
If you go on talking like that, I’ll kill you!
-Let’s leave. We must leave. -Right. We must leave.
Where are you running? Don’t run. Stand right there.
-Stand right there. -We must leave.
If anyone dares to retreat, I’ll kill him.
Zhou Bo, you’ve come!
Fan Kuai, our Lord ordered you to reorganize our soldiers.
Deploy them along our paved path. If it's lost, our Lord will kill you.
Don’t worry. Ain’t no one takin’ our path!
Listen. Gather our cavalrymen and hide along the phalanx.
No one is allowed to leave our camp until he hears my order.
Yes.
So long as I’m alive, our paved path will remain ours!
Listen, try your best to protect our path. Never give up!
Guys, fight.
-Fight. -Guys, fight.
Xiang Yu is leading his warriors himself?
-Yes. -Are you sure?
I also worried that Zhou Bo might be wrong so I sent scouts.
And I saw that Xiang Yu really is coming.
You witnessed him?
You saw him, or his banner?
-Banner. -Banner. You didn’t see him?
Hmm.
See how terrified you are! That’s just a bluff!
Lu Wan,
days ago our scout reported...
that Xiang Yu is leading armies to attack Qi again.
I think he is now mired in the struggle against Qi.
So how could he come back this quickly?
And now at such a time,
Mr. Fan uses Xiang Yu’s banner to attack us. What does that tell us?
That means they’re afraid. They fear we’ll attack them while Xiang Yu is away.
Mr. Fan is trying to divert our attention.
-Then what should we do? -Obviously we attack them!
Mr. Fan has dropped an opportunity in our laps!
We attack! Now we have more warriors than they do.
We’re sure to defeat them! Attack them.
Tell Zhou Bo and Fan Kuai...
when they defeat our enemy, bring me back Xiang Yu’s banner.
-Yes. -No delay.
I’ve got it.
Mr. Zhang...
if we win this battle...
our morale will be greatly enhanced. We need this.
Mr. Fan, with the banner of our General,
we gave them a hard beating.
Within two days, we can cut off their paved path.
It’s only a stopgap to fool them that our General is in the camp.
That could only fool Zhou Bo. I think soon Mr. Zhang will know our trick.
Don’t worry, Mr. Fan. Within half a month, we’ll conquer Aocang.
Reporting. Mr. Fan.
Yes.
Han's relief troops are on the way. We aren't sure of the size of the troops.
-You can leave. -Yes.
Mr. Fan, could it be that Liu Ji learnt that our General is not in the camp?
It’s a pity that our forces are weak.
If only we could conquer Aocang.
But now they are determined to attack us.
Please give us order. I’d like to lead our warriors to meet the enemy.
No. Just lead a small group of warriors to meet them...
and put away our General’s banner. Then retreat.
Why?
We shouldn’t allow Liu Ji’s men to catch our General’s banner.
At your command.
I’ve got a chunk of meat and a whole bunch of wine.
Here. Have some.
What? Why so glum?
You needn’t be so depressed. We need not fear Xiang Yu at all.
I’d rather have a face-to-face attack with him.
Huh.
Oh geez.
If you don’t control yourself...
and undermine our military morale, I’ll behead you.
Our morale is severely undermined. Do I need to undermine it?
What-- what do you mean?
Listen. Zhou Bo is playing his ocarina.
That’s his old habit.
You knew him earlier than I.
When was the last time you heard him play?
For a long time.
He hasn’t played it...
since Han Xin joined us.
Why? Lu Wan, what do you mean after all?
Well, are they our relief warriors?
Look at them. Can they withstand Xiang Yu’s attack?
So Zhou Bo feels disappointed. He’s playing it as an escape.
I also feel disappointed.
Is it that bad?
Use your head. And you’ll know how serious it is!
I don’t want to think about that.
Our Lord ordered we can’t retreat. Otherwise we’ll be beheaded.
I’d rather stay here
to kill as many Chu warriors as I can.
If all of our warriors were one-track minded like you,
we would easily defeat Xiang Yu.
-Drink. -Drink.
Our west wing warriors were attacked!
Now they are in this area.
That’s impossible.
Is it that Zhou Bo’s men are on the paved path?
I’m also bewildered.
My orders, tell General Pu,
to attack immediately the left rear of their force.
They must cut off their paved path...
even if it takes every last one of them,
take that road!
Yes, sir.
Report!
Reporting, General Pu is besieged. Han troops got many relief warriors.
What’s strange is, relief warriors are holding Liu Ji’s banner.
Liu Ji’s banner?
Are they nuts?
Mr. Fan, I think Liu Ji sent all his warriors in Xingyang to attack us.
He thinks that we’re not his match.
Mr. Fan, we should get out of here!
Mr. Fan, we should evacuate!
-Let’s go. -Let’s go.
-Get the banner. -Yes.
Fight. Fight.
Enemies. Enemies. Hurry. Leave. Enemies.
Geez, I never would’ve thought...
XIANG
after all that
we still didn’t catch Fan Zeng and we didn’t kill many enemies.
We only got this ugly banner. What for?
I agree with you. And we lost many of our warriors.
So what is this victory for? Was it that we’re nuts?
In my opinion,
we should chase that Fan Zeng. Kill all his men.
We should whoop his ass so he cries like a baby.
But now
we’ve just got this banner. Might be useful in the toilet.
Mr. Zhang.
Generals, I know you have complaints.
But I think there're two objectives.
Firstly, the commoners could now believe our capability of protecting them.
Secondly, our morale is greatly encouraged.
Look, do you think that our warriors will still be scared by Chu warriors?
Generals, our Lord is waiting for you.
-Mr. Zhang. -Please.
-Please.
General, we lost the battle but it’s not Mr. Fan’s fault.
Please forgive him.
Liu Ji sent all his warriors in Xingyang to attack us.
It’s a very rash way to fight battles, and stupid!
I think he won the battle by luck.
I beg you to forgive Mr. Fan, general.
In your eyes, we’re not affected by the defeat?
Our forces are not affected.
True.
I agree with Zhongli Mei.
Rise. Come. Rise.
I didn’t actually expect Mr. Fan to conquer Xingyang or Aocang.
I think he only wanted to win me some time since I was in Qi.
And he thought he would warn Liu Ji.
You don’t blame Mr. Fan?
Mr. Fan did well! How can I blame him?
We lost and a banner’s gone. But I wasn’t even there.
It’s only an ugly cloth.
If we lost it, we lost It doesn’t matter.
But once, I’ve conquered Qi...
I’ll return to wipe out Liu Ji’s troops.
Never mention the defeat in Xingyang
in front of Mr. Fan.
Otherwise, I’ll behead you.
Yes.
General, it’s my fault. I accept any punishment.
Mr. Fan, rise. Rise.
I know you’ll not blame me. But I can’t forgive myself.
Mr. Fan, I know it’s not your fault.
Don’t blame yourself. Please get up.
No. No. No. I’d rather kneel.
You can leave now.
Yes.
-General, don’t kneel! -No. Listen to me.
It’s my order.
It’s not your mistake.
You sent our warriors to attack Xingyang.
I know you intended to win me time. Now I’ve conquered Qi.
You won me the time in Qi. So actually you won. Rise, Mr. Fan.
No. It’s a defeat. A nasty defeat.
I lost your banner. It will negatively impact our morale.
That’s only a piece of cloth.
Is our morale decided by that cloth?
No. It’s me that will affect our morale.
So as long as I ride my horse and fight on the battlefield,
our forces will not be defeated.
Don’t blame yourself, Mr. Fan. Rise.
No. No.
All right. To be frank...
you’ve accomplished great military deeds.
-I-- -Great military deeds.
You are teasing me.
Mr. Fan, you forced Liu Ji to abandon Xingyang
and send all his warriors to meet your attack.
Why?
Because he feared you...
so he staked everything he had in a single throw.
He’s lucky this time. But next time he’ll not be so lucky.
Hey, know yourself and your enemy, to defeat them, right?
Mr. Fan, this time you helped me know Liu Ji’s forces more clearly.
He’s doesn’t have that much.
And I know this because of you. That’s a great military deed.
You have succeeded!
Mr. Fan, come on.
Rise.
They might not get you, but I do. From now on,
let’s just forget this ever happened.
I’ll escort you to your tent.
-You need a good rest, Mr. Fan. -Thank you, general.
Dad. Dad.
Look. It’s-- is that?
Dad. Dad. Dad.
-Mr. Liu. -Dad.
-I don’t want to live this way-- -Don’t speak like that.
I want to die now.
Dad, you should look at the positive side.
I don’t want to live this way. I don’t want to live this way.
Listen to me, Dad. Death is easy.
But we should not die here.
But I don’t want to your burden.
I-- I’ll go to them for an answer.
Wait.
Do you want to ask for an insult?
He’s Liu Ji’s father.
Liu Ji is his sworn brother.
How can he treat an old man this way?
Will he listen to you?
-I’ll fight it out with them. -Ms. Cao.
I’d rather die. Let me die.
Wait.
Let me go.
Tell me, do you want to die or live?
I escaped death once. I don’t fear death at all.
Listen to me. It’s my fault.
You might have escaped the misfortune.
Lyu Zhi, I’ll repeat,
I’m also Liu Ji’s mistress.
His father is also my father.
You are his wife...
so I take you as my sister.
Even if I don’t accept it, it’s a fact.
For his wife and his father, I’d rather risk my life.
You shouldn’t die.
You must keep your life.
You should live for your son.
You must take care of your son...
and bring him to Liu Ji.
Just remember.
In this world, not only you, but I also would rather die for him.
What’s more, my son may pose a threat to you in the future.
That’s the thing we can’t decide.
But you must remember what I told you.
Where are we?
We’re in Xiang Yu’s capital city.
Xiang Yu can’t wait to kill Liu Ji.
He has a deep hatred for Liu Ji.
And he also hates all those related to Liu Ji.
How can you go to beg him?
Then what should we do? How can we just stand here and be tortured to death?
Listen to me. We must try to escape.
What?
Listen. Take care of your son.
I’ll make an arrangement.
Hurry. Go. Go. Hurry.
Don’t delay. Hurry. Hurry. Hurry.
-Hurry. -Hurry.
-Don’t delay. -Hurry. Hurry.
Hurry. Hurry.
Dinner is ready. Hurry.
Your dinner. Come over.
Hurry. Hurry.
Queue up. Hurry.
Don’t delay. Hurry.
Hurry up. Those at the back.
Okay.
Hurry. Hurry. Hurry.
I’m so hungry. Hurry.
Give me more.
What are you doing?
Nothing.
What’s in your hand?
Damn you.
Wait.
Sir.
My fellows, look what’s in your bowl!
We’re human beings! But he gave us food that is worse than that for a dog.
We work so hard every day.
But we have to suffer hunger. Should we tolerate this?
We can’t. We can’t. We can’t.
If you go on with your nonsense, I’ll kill you.
-You-- -What are you quarrelling about?
General.
What’s wrong?
General, he’s asking for trouble.
Lyu Zhi, as you’re Liu Ji’s wife,
Xiang Yu ordered us not to make things difficult.
But you must know...
that you are not guests...
but slaves.
You should manage your men.
Otherwise I’ll not be so polite.
Thank you, general. I’ll reprimand him.
Just do what you’re supposed to! Don’t stir up trouble!
Yes.
That’s good.
Just have your dinner. Then go on with your work.
Have your dinner. Have your dinner.
You always bring me trouble.
Never do that again!
Yes.
Go to have your meal.
Yes.
Madam, he’s our county fellow in Fengyi. Now he’s a handyman in Chu camp.
My respects, madam.
No bother. Please rise.
Have a seat.
Madam, you’re right.
Yong Chi is very cruel but he’s very stupid.
Every night, he beats me
but now he allows me to walk freely in the camp.
So I found him.
He can help us.
They have a strict defense.
Every noon, a batch of provisions is carried into the camp.
And I carry all the sewage...
in the camp to the west gate.
Then their servants will carry the sewages away.
You mean to leave here we have to stay in the dung tub?
No. It’s impossible.
But a hundred meters away to the west gate,
there is a wall under construction.
There's a little hole in the wall. You can leave the camp from the hole.
Say no more. We can’t afford delay.
We believe you.
Take this.
It’s-- It’s written with blood?
We’re entrusting you
with our lives.
Subtitle translation by Hwee Lin Wong