Fan Ju Forces Old Debts to Be Paid

In the last episode, Fan Ju escaped death in Wei, entered Qin under another name, and finally won over King Zhaoxiang.

But for a man like Fan Ju, survival is only the first stage.

Rising to office is only the second.

The third is what you do with the debts you carry once power is finally in your hands.

And Fan Ju had no intention of forgetting.

Before Settling His Own Grievance, He Helped the King Recover Power

Once trusted by the king, Fan Ju did more than offer external strategy. "Ally with the distant and attack the near" told Qin how to move outward, but a state cannot push in one direction if authority inside it remains fractured.

At that time, Qin was strong, but King Zhaoxiang did not yet hold complete power.

The queen dowager stood above him in influence.

Wei Ran stood beside him.

Too many major affairs still passed through other hands.

Fan Ju spoke to the king without softness.

When he had lived in the eastern states, he said, he had often heard of Qin's queen dowager and Qin's chancellor. He had heard much less of the king himself.

The king could only listen.

Because he knew it was true.

With Fan Ju encouraging and guiding, he gradually cut down the power of Wei Ran and the maternal clan, drawing scattered authority back into the royal hand.

Only then did Fan Ju truly become more than an adviser.

He became one of the hands steering Qin itself.

Once Qin Was Better Ordered Inside, Fan Ju Turned Its Blade Toward Wei

As the king's personal authority increased, Qin could strike more boldly outward.

Han had already suffered.

Now the blade turned toward Wei.

The court of Wei immediately wavered. Some urged resistance, some peace. But this was no longer the Wei of Marquis Wen and King Wu, the old power that had once pressed Qin hard. Its strength was declining, and so was its confidence.

In the end, the wish to compromise won out.

Wei decided to send envoys to Qin and seek peace.

The man chosen for the mission was Xu Jia.

That detail changed everything.

Because the moment Fan Ju heard the name, every old account came rushing back.

Fan Ju Did Not Strike at Once

Xu Jia arrived in Xianyang already uneasy. He was a representative of a weakening state coming to bow before a stronger one. Yet he still had no idea that in this city lived the man he believed long dead.

When Fan Ju learned of Xu Jia's presence, he did not immediately summon him in full official glory.

He chose a crueler method.

He dressed in old, poor clothing and went to see him as if he were a ruined and forgotten man.

Xu Jia nearly lost his soul when he saw him.

In his mind, Fan Ju should have died long ago under that beating.

Fan Ju lightly recounted how he had feigned death, survived, and reached Qin. Xu Jia, seeing the poor clothes, slowly relaxed a little. Perhaps, he thought, Fan Ju had survived, but survived only into obscurity.

Then one small thing happened that would save Xu Jia's life.

One Old Robe Bought Mercy

As they sat drinking, Xu Jia noticed that Fan Ju's clothes were thin and damp and that he was trembling with cold.

Xu Jia still had not become a complete monster.

He ordered a coarse old robe brought and personally had it placed on Fan Ju.

The garment was not precious.

But it mattered.

Because to Fan Ju it proved that Xu Jia, though guilty, had not lost every shred of humanity.

Later in the meal, Xu Jia began probing the real issue. He explained that he had come to Qin seeking peace and hoped somehow to gain access to the all-important Qin chancellor Zhang Lu.

Fan Ju listened inwardly with contempt.

Yet outwardly he agreed to help, saying that though he had no official standing, his master had ties to the chancellor and could guide him.

Xu Jia thought luck had suddenly smiled on him.

He Thought He Was Being Guided to the Chancellor

After the banquet, Fan Ju himself drove Xu Jia's carriage.

All along the road, people in Xianyang stood aside and bowed. Xu Jia mistakenly thought they were honoring an envoy of Wei.

He had no idea that the respect was for the man holding the reins.

The carriage stopped at the chancellor's residence.

Fan Ju told him to wait outside while he went in to announce the arrival.

Xu Jia waited.

And waited.

At last he asked the servants when Fan Ju would return.

The reply froze him:

What Fan Ju?

That was our chancellor.

Only then did Xu Jia understand that the shabby man who had drunk with him and driven him there was none other than the powerful Fan Ju himself.

He Crawled In Bare-Backed to Ask Forgiveness

There was no use fleeing now.

Xu Jia knew that if he were merely a private man, he might try it. But he was an envoy of Wei, and to run in panic might provoke even greater disaster for his state.

So he stripped to the waist in a sign of guilt and crawled into the residence.

There he saw Fan Ju seated in the full robes of the Qin chancellor, guards standing at attention on both sides.

Fan Ju looked down coldly and asked whether Xu Jia knew his crime.

Xu Jia could only bow and confess.

Fan Ju then laid out the old debts one by one.

You slandered me before Wei Qi.

When Wei Qi beat me almost to death in your own house, you did not stop it.

When I lay half-dead and was thrown beside a latrine, you showed no pity.

Any one of these might have justified immediate execution.

Xu Jia lowered himself and waited for death.

Fan Ju Wanted a Greater Head

Yet Fan Ju did not kill him on the spot.

Part of the reason was the old robe.

The deeper reason was that Xu Jia, though hateful, had never been the true center of the account. The man Fan Ju really wanted was Wei Qi.

So he sent Xu Jia back with a message.

If Wei truly wanted peace with Qin, let it send the head of Wei Qi.

That was the real demand.

The man who had truly driven him toward death should now pay.

The Price of One Head Threw Wei Into Disorder

Xu Jia returned and reported everything. The king of Wei was appalled.

To surrender his own leading minister was no small matter.

Yet this was not merely a personal demand. Through Fan Ju, Qin was testing how far Wei would bend.

The king hesitated and spoke with Wei Qi.

Wei Qi did not intend to surrender his neck. He fled by night and took refuge first in the house of Lord Pingyuan of Zhao.

At that point the matter ceased to belong only to Wei.

Wei's court could now tell Qin that the man it wanted had escaped to Zhao.

This suited Qin perfectly.

Because Qin and Fan Ju were no longer merely hunting one man.

They were using the man to test how far Zhao and Wei themselves could be pressed.

Qin Used Lord Pingyuan and Pulled Zhao Into the Account

King Zhaoxiang summoned Lord Pingyuan to Qin.

This was not a request in any meaningful sense. The king of Zhao dared not refuse outright and could only persuade his younger kinsman to go.

At Qin, King Zhaoxiang first entertained him courteously. Then he turned and asked directly for Wei Qi.

Lord Pingyuan answered with real pride. A desperate man had taken refuge with him; if he sold such a man out, how could any gentleman or retainer still trust him afterward?

The answer was noble.

It was also dangerous.

The king detained Lord Pingyuan and sent word to Zhao:

deliver Wei Qi, or your kinsman does not return.

The king of Zhao panicked and searched the house.

Wei Qi had to flee again.

Even Loyalty Has Limits Under Qin's Pressure

Wei Qi next escaped to the house of Yu Qing, Zhao's chancellor. Yu Qing proved loyal enough to abandon even his office and flee together with Wei Qi toward Wei, seeking aid from the famous Lord Xinling.

That was an enormous gesture.

A minister of Zhao was willing to lose his own place rather than betray a fugitive friend.

Yet when they reached Lord Xinling, the mood changed.

Lord Xinling was far less welcoming than Lord Pingyuan or Yu Qing had been. In his eyes, Wei Qi was not merely an unlucky man. He was a man finally paying for the cruelty he had once inflicted on others while dragging whole states into the consequences.

The judgment was harsh.

It was also true.

Wei Qi finally understood that if he kept running, he would only keep pulling more people into danger.

The Head Sent to Xianyang Signaled More Than Personal Revenge

At last Wei Qi killed himself.

Wei hurried to send the severed head to Qin and close the affair.

Fan Ju, of course, felt satisfaction.

But to read the event only as private vengeance is to see too little.

Through this one head, King Zhaoxiang and Fan Ju had publicly bent both Wei and Zhao.

Wei could not protect its own minister.

Zhao could not fully protect its own great prince.

Even figures as celebrated as Lord Pingyuan, Lord Xinling, and the chancellor Yu Qing found themselves retreating under the expanding pressure of Qin.

So when Wei Qi's head arrived in Xianyang, it brought more than the death of one enemy.

It brought open evidence that the eastern states were learning to bow.

That is what made Fan Ju's revenge so frightening.

He used a private grievance to stage a public demonstration of Qin's growing supremacy.