Rui smiled at the man, a tinge of empathy sneaking through. "But the events that mold the Middle Kingdom require men to force them to happen," he pointed out genially as he swung his arm and again forced the column to shift formation without even looking at it. He didn't need to--he knew his subordinates would ensure his orders were carried out. "If there had been no Qin Shi Huang, would there have been an Empire?" he asked. "If there were no Zhao Gao, would the Qin have fallen as precipitously as it did?"Cao Chao wrote:"It seems that war is coming everywhere," replied the elderly gentleman, shaking his head sadly, "Blown by the winds of change. We mortals are but shadows and dust, powerless before the events that shape and mold the Middle Kingdom. Mere years after the Qin unified the Middle Kingdom there was a reckoning for their crimes against humanity. Now it seems that the crimes of Chu and its Hegemonic King will finally be judged by the Heavens . . . A reckoning will be had for Julu and Xianyang. Where there was once peace . . . there will be war once again. Perhaps Chu's hegemony will continue, perhaps it will not."
"Men may seem like insects in the face of the ripples of history, but a ripple only occurs because someone dropped a rock in a puddle, no?" he noted airily before tapping the flag to his chin pensively as he judged the formation in movement at the foot of the hill. "As for Chu's reign...," he gave a private, conniving smile. "Well, that's up to every person, no? Some will choose, blindly, to fight it head on, hoping to become martyrs and so inspire the rest to rise up--never realizing that it's not that simple."
He waved the flag again, and the column changed formation once more. "Others will seek more roundabout ways, like my first shixiong, should he ever decide to get involved," he noted. "Perhaps even empower Xiang Yu to the very top and then launch a coup," he guessed. "But the point is, sir, that without the will of men, what change would there be? We have an Empire now because Qin Shi Huang first managed to unite our people, if only through evil methods. Now that his example has been set, do you not think more people will seek to unite the land?"