Rise of the Poor

Chapter 430: This Person Must Not Be Underestimated

Liu Bei is thick-skinned, Cao… and Sun Quan is both thick and dark!It was the first time Zhang Siwei had ever heard such a comment about the Three Kingdoms. The words struck him as both novel and strangely inevitable. As he paused to reflect, a faint understanding seemed to flicker in his mind, yet it was a notion he could not quite put into words.

So, instinctively, Zhang Siwei rolled up his sleeves once more, preparing to tidy the bookshelf—a gesture that screamed, I will trade labor for knowledge. But just as he bent over, Zhu Ping’an grabbed his arm.

“No rush, no rush. Rest a little, it won’t hurt,” Zhu Ping’an said, shaking his head with a gentle smile. That earnest boy was just too… sincere.

“Thick… thick in what sense? And dark, what does that mean?” Zhang Siwei blurted out, unable to contain his curiosity after being pulled back.

“Remember this: you still owe me a bookshelf,” Zhu Ping’an said, holding up a single finger.

“All right!” Zhang Siwei rolled his eyes but nodded vigorously. He had just thought Zhu Ping’an had shown a rare flicker of kindness—enough to make his heart skip a beat—only to realize it had simply been recorded as a debt! All those warm feelings, wasted!

“Heh heh heh,” Zhu Ping’an laughed calmly, as if nothing had happened, before continuing, “The so-called ‘thick’ refers to thick-faced, or in other words, shamelessness. Think about Liu Bei in the Three Kingdoms. His shamelessness was unparalleled. To control one-third of the realm, a thick face was his strongest weapon.”

“Liu Bei, shameless?” Zhang Siwei’s brow furrowed slightly. At first, he had assumed “thick” referred to magnanimity or a kind-hearted nature.

Remove Ads“Of course. In the Three Kingdoms, there was a classic insult: ‘a slave of three surnames,’ referring to Lü Bu’s habit of jumping between lords—Ding Yuan, Dong Zhuo, and so on—before betraying them. But Liu Bei, my dear friend, had not merely served three; he had aligned himself with Cao Cao, Lü Bu, Yuan Shao, Liu Biao, and Sun Quan, and when the moment came, his betrayal was always sharper than the last. From Cao Cao, he turned against him with the infamous ‘Clothing Edict’ to swallow his troops; from Lü Bu, he persuaded others to execute him; from Yuan Shao, he seized Runan; from Liu Biao, he waited for his death before taking Jingzhou; from Sun Quan… he ‘borrowed’ Jingzhou. Old tales recount Liu Bei’s shamelessness vividly. He cried at the right moments, using tears as tools to achieve his aims—tears during the Clothing Edict, tears when summoning Zhuge Liang, even tears to trick Sun Quan into giving up Jingzhou. Ridiculous, perhaps, that tears alone could divide the realm into three, but it illustrates one truth: Liu Bei had a remarkably thick face. While men are said not to shed tears lightly, he defied that maxim.” Zhu Ping’an sipped his tea and elaborated with playful exaggeration, his eyes gleaming with mischief.

Zhang Siwei had never heard anyone speak this way before. In modern eyes, Liu Bei was canonized as the paragon of righteousness, so Zhu Ping’an’s audacious claim that “Liu Bei was shameless” felt revolutionary, almost heretical.

“‘Dark,’ on the other hand, means having a black heart. In the Three Kingdoms, if we rank ruthlessness, no one dared claim first place over Cao Cao. He never hesitated to strike—he held the emperor hostage, executed the empress, killed ministers loyal to the Han, and even betrayed his own allies without mercy. When fleeing for his life, the sound of sharpening blades would prompt him to kill Lü Bo-sha’s entire family; in battle, when supplies ran short, he would tell responsible officers to offer themselves up as collateral; when sleeping, fearful of assassination, he would pretend to slumber while secretly killing a guard for covering him. Later, he executed Kong Rong, Yang Xiu, Dong Cheng, and others with cold calculation. ‘It is better that I betray others than be betrayed myself’—this perfectly captures the darkness of his heart.” Zhu Ping’an finished his recounting, poured himself another cup of tea, and blew on it before drinking.

“Indeed,” Zhang Siwei nodded. Cao Cao’s ruthlessness was well-established in historical accounts. He had read the widely circulated Romance of the Three Kingdoms not long ago. Though some stories strayed from strict historical sources, he agreed wholeheartedly with the depiction of Cao Cao’s black-hearted cunning.

“Sun Quan, though thick, is not as thick as Liu Bei, and though dark, is not as dark as Cao Cao. Yet he possesses both traits—shameless and cunning—and stands as a remarkable hero of the Three Kingdoms. He allied with Liu Bei, resembling the camaraderie of Qin and Jin, yet he crossed the river in white robes to seize Jingzhou and even killed Guan Yu. His dark-heartedness could rival Cao Cao, though not fully. Then he sought peace with Liu Bei. He bullied the orphans and widows left by his brother Sun Ce. Though ruling a third of the land, comparable to Cao Cao, he acknowledged Cao Cao as his superior, demonstrating a thickness of face approaching Liu Bei’s, but still slightly inferior. Later, he broke ties with Wei. In short, Sun Quan may not match Cao Cao in darkness, nor Liu Bei in shamelessness, but he combines both—truly a hero of his age.”

“Actually, this is not limited to the Three Kingdoms. Take the early Han period: Xiang Yu, a man who could lift mountains and whose aura dominated the world, became famous for his desperate last stand at the Battle of Gaixia. Surrounded by brilliant generals and strategists, he could have easily eliminated Liu Bang at the Hongmen Banquet if he had followed Fan Zeng’s advice. Yet Xiang Yu spared him. And what happened? Xiang Yu ended up dying by the Wu River, his head severed and his body destroyed. Why? Because he lacked both shamelessness and a black heart.”

“And Liu Bang? He possessed both. For instance, when fleeing, he kicked his son off the carriage multiple times because the boy sat too heavily and slowed the horse. When Xiang Yu threatened to boil Liu Bang’s father to coerce him, Liu Bang shamelessly replied: ‘Make sure you cook him well, don’t spare the spices, and give me a bowl of the meat broth afterward.’”

After reviewing Sun Quan, Zhu Ping’an continued with the iconic figures of the Chu-Han struggle, Xiang Yu and Liu Bang, before concluding, “The study of thick-face, black-heart methods is simple in theory yet divine in effect. Small applications yield small results; grand applications yield vast outcomes. Xiang Yu ignored thick-face, black-heart and perished; Liu Bei or Cao Cao, with half of it, secured one-third of the realm; Liu Bang, fully applying it, conquered everything.”

Zhang Siwei felt a profound resonance with these words. Just as he opened his mouth to respond, a mocking laugh echoed through the library.

“Absurd! Zihou, your words are extreme and dangerously misleading! By your reasoning, would the entire world not become shameless and ruthless? Zihou, don’t corrupt Siwei!”

Two figures had appeared at the library door, seemingly out of nowhere. One, the speaker, was Yuan Wei, who now scorned Zhu Ping’an; the other, standing silently at the threshold, was Zhang Juzheng, his gaze sharp as a blade, studying Zhu Ping’an with deep contemplation.

This was not a person to be underestimated.

Listening to Zhu Ping’an’s discourse, Zhang Juzheng could not help but see him in a new light. His piercing gaze fixed upon Zhu Ping’an, mentally filing this man’s presence away. Clearly, aside from Gao Gong, this was another formidable individual. And the young man by his side, Zhang Siwei, also could not be overlooked. Zhang Juzheng silently placed Zhu Ping’an and Zhang Siwei onto an unnamed mental list of influential figures.

“Thick-face, black-heart has no inherent distinction between good and evil. It is like a sharp blade: used to punish thieves and bandits, it is a noble act; used to slaughter innocents, it is vile. Good or evil depends on the wielder, not the tool itself. Thick-face, black-heart works the same way—used rightly, it is good; used wrongly, it is evil. Its morality is determined by the user, not by the method itself.”

Hearing this pointed critique, Zhu Ping’an could not help but smile.

“You are twisting logic,” Yuan Wei shook his head, his face flushed, and he exhaled with force.

Remove Ads“All right, Master Yuan, Master Zhu, let us pause this debate. Matters of urgency take precedence. Master Li of the Academy rushed in from the Western Garden, saying there is an urgent matter requiring all of us to assemble in the main hall.”

At that moment, Zhang Juzheng stepped forward, bowing slightly to Zhu Ping’an and Zhang Siwei, explaining the reason for him and Yuan Wei’s arrival.