You Tanzhi attacks Xiao Feng with a bag of lime

You Tanzhi attacks Xiao Feng with a bag of lime in a failed revenge attempt that brings the aftermath of the battle at Juxian Manor into Xiao Feng’s new life in Liao. Disguised among Song captives, You Tanzhi presents himself as a bearer of military intelligence, then turns the encounter into an ambush; Xiao Feng’s quick response defeats the trick, but the youth’s revealed identity turns the confrontation into a personal reckoning over the deaths at the manor.

Background and Stakes

The encounter takes place after Xiao Feng has been appointed Lord of the Southern Chancellery and gone to Nanjing with AhZi. He had accepted the post out of regard for his sworn brother YeLu HongJi, though he remained reluctant to lead a campaign against Song, the country where he had grown up. The city’s streets and markets felt familiar to him and AhZi, and the presence of Song people in Liao made the boundary between the two states immediate rather than abstract.

The political crisis that preceded Xiao Feng’s appointment had exposed how much power rested in Liao’s inherited institutions. YeLu ZhongYuan had once been positioned to succeed his brother YeLu ZongZhen, but relinquished the throne; later, YeLu HongJi compensated him with the title of royal emperor uncle and supreme command of the army. ZhongYuan’s son YeLu NieLuGu became Prince of Chu and Lord of the Southern Chancellery, with control of military affairs there. When NieLuGu rebelled and proclaimed his father emperor, the proclamation called YeLu HongJi a false ruler and threatened to divide the loyalty of the army and the people. Against this background, Xiao Feng’s new office placed him inside a state already strained by competing claims to authority.

The danger of that office also sharpened Xiao Feng’s personal conflict. He considered leaving Liao rather than helping it conquer Song, but thought that an immediate resignation would betray YeLu HongJi’s trust and damage their sworn-brother bond. He decided to go to Nanjing first and seek release later. The raid on Song villagers that sets up You Tanzhi’s attack thus occurs within a political and moral predicament Xiao Feng has not resolved: he holds Liao authority while remaining reluctant to make war on the people among whom he was raised.

Captives and the Feigned Secret

During a patrol near Zhuozhou, a Liao captain reports that his men had raided beyond the border for provisions, but had stopped raiding nearby since Xiao Feng arrived. The captured Song villagers appeal to the new prince for release. Among the hundreds who kneel, one youth remains standing. He is about sixteen, and claims to have a secret that must be told privately. Xiao Feng suspects the boy might know something about Song military movements, although he regards a Song person who betrays such information to Khitan as contemptible. He nevertheless agrees to hear him out.

The youth asks Xiao Feng to cut the thick ropes binding his hands so he can produce an object concealed in his clothing. Xiao Feng draws his sabre and cuts only the ropes with a precisely controlled stroke. The youth recoils in shock, while Xiao Feng sheaths the weapon and asks what the object is. Having secured his hands, the boy approaches and says Xiao Feng will understand when he sees it. The apparent confidence of this exchange gives way to an attack at close range.

The Quicklime Ambush

The youth hurls a small cloth bag at Xiao Feng’s face. Xiao Feng knocks it down with his whip before its contents reach him; white powder spills from the bag and is identified as quicklime, a substance the narration describes as capable of permanently blinding someone if it gets into the eyes. The attempt fails because Xiao Feng reacts in time, not because the threat is harmless. The concealed weapon also clarifies that the youth’s claim of possessing a secret was a pretext to bring Xiao Feng within reach.

Xiao Feng recognizes that the attack is not the work of a political informant. He asks the youth his name and why he wants to harm him, and promises to spare his life if he tells the truth. The youth initially refuses to speak, then explains that he has failed to avenge his parents and has nothing left to say. When Xiao Feng asks whether he really killed them, the youth names Xiao Feng’s former identity, Qiao Feng, and accuses him of killing his father, mother, and uncle. His accusation turns the ambush from a seemingly opportunistic attack into an act of revenge rooted in the earlier conflict at Juxian Manor.

Identity and the Unfinished Revenge

The youth identifies himself as You Tanzhi, nephew of the You brothers of Juxian Manor. Xiao Feng recognizes the family and identifies You Ju as You Tanzhi’s father. He recalls that at the manor he was surrounded by numerous fighters and forced to fight, and says You Ju and his brother died by suicide after losing their defensive advantage. His response does not erase You Tanzhi’s loss: the two understand the same deaths through opposing accounts, one as the consequence of a desperate confrontation and the other as a family catastrophe for which Xiao Feng must answer.

You Tanzhi declares that he does not need Xiao Feng to kill him and reaches for a short knife hidden in his clothing, intending to take his own life. Xiao Feng catches the knife with his whip and prevents the attempt. You Tanzhi protests that even suicide is being denied to him, while Xiao Feng continues to treat him as someone whose life can still be spared. The failed attack therefore ends not in a settled reconciliation but in a shift of immediate power: Xiao Feng has thwarted both the quicklime and the knife, while You Tanzhi remains alive and unreconciled to the man he holds responsible.

AhZi arrives beside Xiao Feng and urges a harsh response, pointing to the quicklime and proposing that You Tanzhi be blinded before they decide what to do with him. Xiao Feng does not accept her suggestion. Instead, he turns to the Liao captain and asks for the Song captives. The captain readily agrees, and Xiao Feng orders the soldiers to return to his residence for rewards after handing them over. The exchange places the failed revenge attempt beside an act of release: although You Tanzhi has attacked him, Xiao Feng’s response to the captured villagers is to free them rather than use them as instruments of war.

Significance

The episode binds a political frontier, a family grievance, and Xiao Feng’s contested identity into one encounter. The young captive approaches him as a supposed source of intelligence, but the secret he carries is personal: he knows Xiao Feng as Qiao Feng and comes seeking revenge for his family’s deaths at Juxian Manor. The quicklime bag makes that concealed history physically consequential, while Xiao Feng’s controlled cut of the ropes and swift defense show the contrast between his readiness in combat and his restraint after the danger has passed.

The ending leaves the central disagreement unresolved. You Tanzhi’s account of the deaths and Xiao Feng’s recollection of the fighting coexist without either changing the immediate facts of the encounter: the attack fails, the suicide attempt is stopped, and the captives are released. Xiao Feng’s position as Liao official does not dissolve the older enmity; instead, the meeting shows how the consequences of his former life continue to reach him even as he tries to act with restraint in his new one.