The ancient Chinese soldiers firmly adhered to this creed, and they often poured all their money (including their lives) back to their confidants to meet the standard of the scholars, and eventually produced many such touching deeds. The assassin Nie Zheng used his life to interpret the creed that a soldier died as a confidant, which was recorded by Sima Qian in the "Records of History".
After Nie Zheng killed people, he evaded the official government and fled to the State of Qi with his mother and sister to engage in the profession of butcher. However, some local people knew that Nie Zhengyong was very martial, and he came to the local area to avoid the enemy family. Puyang Yan Zhongzi was not a tired opponent of Han Xiangxia in South Korea, and he had to escape from Korea after the failure of the political struggle, but he was not dead-hearted, so he always wanted revenge. After Yan Zhongzi arrived in the State of Qi and learned about Nie Zheng, he took the initiative to prepare a generous gift to wish Nie Zheng's mother a happy birthday. Nie Zheng wondered why Yan Zhongzi had prepared such a generous gift, so he pushed hard, and Yan Zhongzi told him about his situation. Nie Zheng resigned on the grounds that his old mother was alive, and Yan Zhongzi did not accept the gift returned by Nie Zheng, and finally left.
After his mother's death, Nie Zheng went to Yan Zhongzi to express his efforts for his confidant, and also refused Yan Zhongzi's suggestion to equip him with helpers. Therefore, Nie Zheng single-handedly broke into the South Korean Xiang mansion to kill Han Xiangxia and killed dozens of people, and then took advantage of the situation to destroy his face, goug out his eyes, cut open his belly, and bleed out his intestines, so he committed suicide. After Nie Zheng's death, South Korea exposed his body to the street and offered him a heavy reward for his identity; it was not until his sister Nie Rong recognized the body that The Koreans knew that Nie Zheng had killed Xia Tired, and Nie Rong was stunned by the people in the street, and after shouting "Heaven" three times, he died next to Nie Zheng's body. The deeds of the two brothers and sisters amazed the people of Jin, Chu, Qi, and Wei, and also made them lament yan Zhongzi's wisdom.
Looking back on this matter, it can be summed up simply in one sentence: Yan Zhongzi used hundreds of gold to buy Nie Zheng's mother's life. Filial piety and righteousness were involved: Nie Zheng had been honestly serving his mother when he was alive, so he knew that Yan Zhongzi would have a plan for others, and he did not take any action; he always remembered Yan Zhongzi's affairs, so he went to avenge Yan Zhongzi after serving filial piety.
Yan Zhongzi, as the secretary of state of Korea, befriended Nie Zheng after he arrived in the State of Qi, and Nie Zheng, who had a low status, had nothing else to repay, so he had to repay his life. This kind of death of a soldier as a confidant also reflects a phenomenon in the society at that time, that is, the role of etiquette in the whole society, that is, you salute me, and I pay tribute or even life. Especially when the status of the two sides is very different, this situation of returning their lives is easy to happen, such as Zhu Hai and Zhi Bo's minister Yu Rang when Xin Lingjun stole the charm to save Zhao.
With the accumulation of time, China has formed a unique martial arts culture, as Han Feizi said, "the hero violates the prohibition with martial arts", and many of them are associated with the profession of butcher, so there is a sentence of "fighting righteousness and slaughtering more dogs". Gradually, the spirit of martial arts also became a part of the bones of the Chinese, forming a unique jianghu culture, and such chivalrous people have repeatedly emerged in later generations.