秦の始皇帝が中国を統一してから2年が経った紀元前219年。故国である韓を滅ぼされた張良は、始皇帝を討つという目的のため、東方の蛮地・滄海の村を訪れ、その途中で1人の赤子を拾い、黄石と名付けた。村に唯一残っていた若い男である窮奇の協力を得ると、張良は巡遊中の始皇帝を博浪沙で暗殺しようとするが失敗。辛くも始皇帝の追手から逃れる。
張良らは偽名を使い、下邳に潜伏。侠客として配下となる者を増やしていた。始皇帝は病に倒れ、秦帝国は謀をもって胡亥を二代皇帝に建てた李斯と趙高が専横するようになり、国は乱れていった。陳勝・呉広の乱が起きるが、反乱の規模が大きすぎ、また頭目の器が小さいことを理由に、張良は動かなかった。項羽が叔父の項梁と共に乱を起こしたことも張良の耳には入っていたが、こちらは下邳から遠すぎる。黄石の言に従い、西へと向かう途中で、敗走中の劉邦率いる軍と出会う。黄石が劉邦の器を「愚かな龍」と見抜いたこともあり、張良は劉邦の下に就くことを決意する。弱兵ぞろいの劉邦軍を精鋭にするため、張良は窮奇と樊噲を争わせ、窮奇にわざと倒れさせて樊噲を勇将として兵たちの士気を上げた。
In 219 BC, two years after the First Emperor of Qin unified China, Zhang Liang, whose homeland of Han had been destroyed, visited a village in the barbarian land of Canghai in the east with the goal of defeating the First Emperor. On the way, he found a baby and named it Huangshi. With the help of Qiongqi, the only young man left in the village, Zhang Liang tried to assassinate the First Emperor at Bolangsha while he was on tour, but failed. He barely managed to escape the First Emperor’s pursuers.
Zhang Liang and his men hid in Xiapi under false names. They increased the number of subordinates as knights. The First Emperor fell ill, and the Qin Empire fell into chaos as Li Si and Zhao Gao, who had schemingly installed Huhai as the second emperor, became tyrannical. The Chen Sheng-Wu Guang Rebellion broke out, but Zhang Liang did not take action because the rebellion was too large in scale and the leader was not of a high calibre. Zhang Liang had heard that Xiang Yu and his uncle Xiang Liang had started a rebellion, but this was too far from Xiapi. Following Huang Shi’s advice, he headed west and encountered the retreating army of Liu Bang. Since Huang Shi saw through Liu Bang’s character as a “foolish dragon,” Zhang Liang decided to serve under Liu Bang. In order to turn the weak Liu Bang army into an elite force, Zhang Liang set Qiuqi and Fan Kuai to fight, deliberately causing Qiuqi to fall, and made Fan Kuai a brave general to raise the morale of his soldiers.