The Silver Tongue

Jiang Chen, a modern chief negotiator, opens his eyes to find himself exiled as a county magistrate in a border region doomed to die. The northern barbarian army is pressing the city, threatening massacre, and his colleagues are waiting in despair. But he goes alone into the enemy camp and speaks his first words to the barbarian general: "Kill me, and your son won't live through tonight." Three sentences make the barbarians retreat thirty miles; one conversation makes the enemy chief treat him as an honored guest. But when his fame reaches the imperial court, a secret letter from powerful officials arrives at the border: "This man must either be used by us, or... die." Jiang Chen looks at the threatening letter and smiles: On the negotiation table, I have never lost.