SEAL OF EVIL

treatment there. He suggested that Yan should try to assassinate the
King of Qin and proposed that Jing Ke be given the honor of making
the attempt.
In a famous incident Jing Ke failed in his attempt to assassinate Ying
Zhen with a dagger concealed in a map he was about to show the king.
He slipped at a critical moment and was cut to pieces by the King and
his soldiers. In a fury the King of Qin dispatched more troops and
attacked Yan. Ji, the capital of Yan, quickly fell and the king of Yan
and Prince Dan fled. Four years later Yan was finally conquered and
its king captured.
In 225 BC General Wan Ben laid siege to Daliang, the capital of the
State of Wei, and diverted the Yellow River to flood the city. Three
months later the city’s walls were breached and the King of Wei
surrendered.
In 224 BC the King of Qin ordered General Li Xin to attack Chu with
200, 000 troops. Chu was the most powerful of the states, apart from
Qin, and the old General Wang Jian had previously advised the King
of Qin that an army of at least 600, 000 was necessary to defeat Chu.
The king disagreed. However, Li Xin suffered a huge defeat when he
underestimated the enemy and advanced recklessly.
Wang Jian was then begged to come out of retirement to take
command of the Qin army. The size of the army was increased to 600,
000 men as required by the General. Wang Jian used the tactic of
“waiting leisurely for the enemy to relax” and refused to engage the
Chu army in battle. When he judged the right moment had arrived he
ordered his men to attack an ill-prepared enemy and took the Chu
capital, Shouchun, in a lighting strike and captured Fuchu the King of
Chu.
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