Wu Qi, God of War

Name: Wu Qi, God of War
Author: Interesting Plantain

兵戈之神吴起

by Interesting Plantain (有趣的車前子)

Status: Completed
Length: 433k Words
Genre: Historical
Subgenre: Historical & Ancient
Updated: 9mo ago
Source: Fanqie

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Synopsis

He was once the son of a wealthy merchant in the State of Wei, but he gave away his entire fortune, endured ridicule from his neighbors, and ultimately killed a man in a bloody confrontation, biting his arm as he swore: “If I do not become a high minister, I will never return home!”

To pursue an official career, he stayed away even when his mother died, prompting a Confucian master to denounce him as “worse than an animal.” To gain military power, he killed his wife to prove his resolve, earning a name reviled for generations. He was Wu Qi, a lone wolf cast out by both his era and morality.

Yet it was this very lone wolf who forged the fearsome Wei Warriors in the State of Wei, routing an army of five hundred thousand Qin soldiers with only fifty thousand new troops, reaching the Yellow River and conquering a thousand li of territory to create an undefeated legend in the Western River region. Suspicion and intrigue followed him like shadows, forcing him to flee once more. Looking back at the land, he made a blood-wrought prophecy: “The Western River will surely be lost, and Wei will decline!”

Then he met the ruler destined for him, King Dao of Chu. A bloody reform that swept across Chu began: abolishing hereditary privileges, curbing the nobility, training elite soldiers, pacifying the Baiyue in the south, and striking fear into the Central Plains in the north... He transformed a languishing southern giant into a hegemon that made the other states tremble. His achievements towered over his ruler and his power dominated the court. He reached the pinnacle of his life, but placed himself within striking distance of every old aristocratic clan.

King Dao of Chu died suddenly, and the mourning hall became a trap. Facing a storm of arrows from the nobles’ private troops, Wu Qi made the last, and most ruthless, calculation of his life: he threw himself over the king’s corpse. Arrows pierced his body and blood stained the coffin, but with his life he exacted his final revenge: “Let’s see who dares to murder the king!” More than seventy noble families were buried alongside him.

His life made him both a god of war and a devil, a master reformer and a moral abyss. He pursued extraordinary achievements by the most extreme means, only to be consumed by the blaze he had ignited. This is a story about ambition,

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