Li E
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Li E (Chinese: 李萼; born 730) was a Chinese Hidden One who lived in the Tang dynasty during the 8th century.
Biography
Massacre at Duling village
In 754, Li E followed the trail of a massacre that occurred in Duling village just before the annual Flower Festival that was to be held in Chang'an.[1] The village was well-known for its exquisite flower farms, which were highly sought after for the contest for the grandest fleet at the festival.[2] Although Chancellor Yang Guozhong had already secured victory every year due to his vast wealth and influence, he also resorted to unscrupulous means to reinforce his chances.[1] This amounted to even the hiring of a gang of common city thugs to coerce the residents of Duling village into turning over peonies to Yang without compensation,[1][3] an act of robbery that culminated in the deaths of seventeen villagers.[4] Li E was outraged by this atrocity and was determined to avenge those innocent lives.[1]
Meeting a legendary poet
He arrived in Chang'an in time for the festival and, by chance, encountered the famous poet Li Bai on a balcony in what would be the first of many meetings. The Assassin did not pay Li Bai much heed, but the poet, then in a drunken stupor, rambled on freely about the affairs of the day: how the festival was the only day of the year that commoners were allowed into the imperial city, how Yang Guozhong's victory was inevitable, and how not even the finest peonies could compare with the beauty of Yang Guifei. He droned on about his distaste for court life, having once experienced it himself, and how he had once dreamed of being a xiake before finally revealing that he had only come to Chang'an to see off his friend Abe no Nakamaro for his return to Japan. Having received news of Abe's demise in a shipwreck on his journey home, Li Bai was then wallowing in his grief for his lost friend.[1]
Li E, who had been on the balcony to survey the streets and find his target, sighted a lone wagon being transported by three men, a wagon full of the very peonies violently seized from Duling. Before lowering himself onto the street to tail the cart, he at last gave Li Bai some acknowledgement, rhetorically asking "how many families have been destroyed for the sake of one peony", given the saying that "one peony is worth a thousand gold". At that, Li Bai got a sense for the kind of individual this youth beside him was, but Li E did not give him a straight answer as to his purpose in Chang'an, parting only with the words "nothing is true, everything is permitted".[1]
Assassin in a capital of flowers
Blending in with the throng of city life, Li E sneaked up to the wagon unnoticed. His ambush was swift and sudden, killing one man from behind, dragging his corpse with him into the wagon of flowers, then slaying another from cover. Before the third could react, he had pulled him onto the bed of peonies as well, so as to interrogate him on the whereabouts of his boss. Though this last henchman answered truthfully that his boss had already entered palace grounds, Li E coldly rejected his plead for mercy, citing his and his colleagues' lack of mercy for the Duling villagers. Upon executing him, he picked up a single peony from the cart, which he would carry until he had completed his mission.[1]
Within the imperial city, Li E located the ringleader behind the massacre, who was simultaneously the organizer for Yang's flower fleet as his flower envoy. Gazing at the bandit with contempt from afar, he narrowly attracted his target's attention, but the dense crowd of excited festival-goers kept him well-hidden. When the opening ceremony of the festival began, Yang Guozhong was declared the victor, much as Li Bai had foretold, and the flower envoy and his team were invited into Hua'e Tower to receive their honors and rewards.[5]
Li E did not strike immediately but rather waited into the night to make his move. All the while, the gang leader and five of his men were also kept waiting by Yang Guozhong outside in the courtyard, leaving them especially vulnerable to the Assassin. In the evening, he casually settled himself at Chenxiang Pavilion, still fiddling with the peony he had picked up earlier and knowing full well that his targets would wander right into his position. Making no effort at subtlety, he greeted them by dispassionately asking for their lives, with the intent to provoke a direct confrontation.[6] He made his motives clear when he explicitly declared the seventeen lives of Duling as his only concern, and the shocked and infuriated thugs rushed him with their daggers drawn.[4]
Dispatching two of the men in front with ease, he taunted his remaining foes that he would only use his blade once, before swiftly killing the rest of the henchmen. This was all without drawing a single weapon, for he kept his Hidden Blade concealed with the peony. As the leader tried to flee, Li E leapt at him, unleashed his Hidden Blade through the peony in his hand, and plunged the blade into his target's throat.[4]
Escape from Chang'an
- He Shi: "Can you hear those sounds?"
- Li E: "What sounds?"
- He Shi: "The sounds of lamenting people. The people who have been viciously beaten. People who have been cheated, humiliated. People who have been dragged off to the battlefield to lose their lives. People who have lost their homes. The desperate cries of the people. Do not miss even the faintest sounds. Do not forgive the smallest injustice. Tamghaj, are you ready?"
- —He Shi and Li E[src]
It was not long before the bodies of the dead criminals were discovered by Yang Guozhong's servant. The chancellor issued a call for the Yulin imperial guards to hunt and arrest the assassin but with strict orders not to raise the alarm or alert even the Emperor, lest they cause a mass panic and ruin the festivities. Li E took to the highest roofs, where the guards did not think to search, and seized upon this moment's respite to recall the lesson shared by his senpai He Shi when she was preparing him for his first Leap of Faith. Concentrated on her words, to "not miss even the faintest sounds", he synchronized with his eagle companion to scout the palace grounds for guard positions and an escape route, spotting two carriages of flowers passing along below him. Her mantras invigorated him, for they bespoke of the Hidden Ones' fearlessness in the face of death while they "worked in the dark to serve the light". Thereupon, he performed what was in form and function a flawless Leap of Faith onto the second carriage—only he made a serious miscalculation.[3]
Not only had the roof of the carriage failed to support his weight, sending him crashing inside, but he had mistaken it for an empty clean-up transport for throwaway flowers. In reality, he had fallen quite literally out of the sky onto the carriage floor in front of the young Yan Jiming, son of Taishou Yan Gaoqing of Qinghe Commandery.[3]
Gallery
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Closeup of Li E -
Li E in the crowd of Chang'an -
Li E's Hidden Blade
Appearances
References
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