Two Peaches Kill Three Warriors
In the Spring and Autumn Period, there were three proud warriors in Qi kingdom. They were all exclusively brave and good at battles. Thus the king held special favor for them. However, their arrogance made the Prime minister Yan Ying angry at them.
One day, the king was holding a banquet dining the king and ambassador from the neighboring kingdom. Lu Prime minister Yan suggested that the three warriors should present in the dinner. Meanwhile, he was planning a cunnning trap for them.
When the dinner came to its mid-way, Yan suggested that the peaches in the backyard were ripe enough to have a taste. Then the king asked some servant-girls to pick some up for tasting. However, Yan volunteered to pick on his own, because, he said, ripe peaches in this season were few and far between and the peaches in the backyard of our respectable king’s palace were even more precious. Let me go and pick some.
Before long, Yan returned with six peaches on tray, but there were seven people presenting at that moment. The king asked:”Aren’t there any more peaches? Why didn’t you get some more?” “Because the others are not ripe enough to eat.” Yan answered, bowed and handed over one peach to his king and another to the king from the Lu country.
The king was extremely happy with the little pretty and delicious peaches. He asked the abassador and his Primier to have one respectively and they accepted respectfully. This time, there were only two peaches left on the tray. Yan proposed that the bravest two would be rewarded the peaches, and the king gave the permission.
One of the three worriors stepped forward and said he once killed a tiger that attacted the king when they were hunting in the forest. ”Aren’t I worth the peach for rescuing our respectable king?” Yan gave his agreement immediately and gave him the peach together with a cup of wine. The first worrior stepped aside infatuatedly.
On seeing there was only one peach on the tray, another warrior stepped forward and hurried:”A tiger is just a piece of cake compared with the huge sea turtle I killed when I was companing the king across the yellow river. It dragged the horse into the billowy water and nearly got our king drowned. Hadn’t I jumped into the water, unimaginable things could have happend. Aren’t I deserve the peach?” The king agreed immediately that his life was save by him and alloted him the last peach.
The last warrior was desparated seeing all the peaches gone. He shouted that it was unfair because he was the bravest one of them all. He successfully captured over 5000 enemies in a battle, so he thought he deserved the highest prize. The current situation was a insult to him and his contributions to this country. He killed himself on the spot.
The other two felt deadly regret and sorry for his death. What’s more, they realized they were not as brave as the third one at all, so they killed themselves too, so as to relieve their guilt for killing their once comrade -in- battles.
Following is a picture drawn in Han Dynasty as a record of this famous story.
