XIÁN Gāo 弦高 = a patriotic cattle dealer from Zhèng 郑
LIÚ Shēng 刘生 = his friend, a fellow merchant from Qí 齐
MÈNG Míngshì 孟明视 = a general from Qí
XIÁN Gāo 弦高 was a small businessman in the state of Zhèng 郑, where he dealt in cattle. Once he went to the capital of eastern Zhōu 东周 (period 04c) to sell cattle. As he passed the Líyáng ford 黎阳津 , he ran into his old friend LIÚ Shēng 刘生, also a merchant, who had been living in the state of Qí 齐 for the last year and more.
Naturally the two retired to a tea house to get caught up on all the news. In the course of the conversation, Liú told Xián that his friend who worked in the palace of the king of Qí had told him that the king of Qí had decided to invade Zhèng, and that indeed the Qí army had secretly left Qí ten days ago to march on Zhèng and should arrive at the Líyáng ford almost immediately.
Xián Gāo was horrified, and after he left his friend he immediately drafted a letter to be carried to the king of Zhèng to warn him. Meanwhile Xián himself set out with 20 of his cattle to try to intercept the invading Qí army.
The general directing the Qí invasion was named MÈNG Míngshì 孟明视, and he had just reached the Líyáng ford. The army was quite surprised to be met by a man leading 20 fine cows, and brought Xián Gāo before General Mèng. Xián politely greeted him and said, “I am an envoy of the king of Zhèng. I have come to welcome you and to present you with these twenty cows, for my lord knows that you must be weary after your ten-day journey.”
General Mèng was startled. After all the efforts made to keep the invasion secret, it was clear that the king of Zhèng knew all about it, and even knew when they had set out. Obviously the element of surprise had been lost, and the small Qí force could no longer expect to wipe out the Zhèng defenders on Zhèng turf. He decided to abort the mission.
Smiling, General Mèng said to Xián Gāo, “You are very kind, but I fear you are mistaken about our mission. We are not on our way to Zhèng, but are just passing by. We shall be leaving the area in the morning. But thank you very much for the cows.”
And that is how the Xián Gāo, the cattle merchant of Zhèng, protected his homeland from an invasion by the forces of Qí.