What, when, where and who
This series is base on a very famous historical period: at the end of the Qin Dynasty. There were many rivals during that period, who are fighting for the throne. Among them, two good friends Lau Bong (Adam Cheung) and Hong Yue (Kong Wah) are the most popular ones

Kong Wah has a lot of ambition, he wants to take over Qin Dynasty. But, he ends up committing suicide at the Wujang River. In contrast, Adam Cheung was only a low-class guy, who has no political ambition. Ironically, Adam conquers the country. Their different endings suggest that personality determines one's success, rather than the times or fate.

Kong Wah has many good helpers, including Father Fan Tsang (Law Lok Lam) and his cousin Hong Chong (Wong Chak Fung), but Kong Wah's arrogance drives them away one by one. On the other hand, Adam makes good use of his helpers. Many good warriors and intelligent politicians, like Hon Shun (Wayne Lai), Cheung Leung (Ram Tseung), Chan Ping (Gilbert Lam), Siu Ho (Lo Chun Shun) and Fan Fai (Ai Wei), who are willing to devote their life to Adam.

There is always a woman behind a hero, Adam's wife Lui Chi (Maggie Cheung) helps him immensely. Maggie has lots desire for fame. Similarly, Kong Wah has a beautiful woman Yue Kei (Melissa Ng), but she brings lots trouble for Kong Wah.

Series Links
Story summary and episode guide (Chinese)

THE FACTORS
- Dislike Factor
Kong Wah's Voice
Kong Wah's favorite line: "Yue Kei! Yue Kei!" (I can't tell if he is yelling at Melissa, or he is just calling her name) Kong Wah's second favorite line: "Ya Fu! Ya Fu!" (That refers to Father Fan, again, I really can't tell if he is yelling or just calling name) So, in case you haven't get my point yet, you will get it when you watch the series, about 99.99% of the time, Kong Wah is yelling his lines, that means, Kong Wah does not speak his lines, he yells. Why? Well, in real history, King Hong Yue is very strong, very rude (that explains why Kong Wah has the beard), and he has a very very powerful voice. So, everytime Kong Wah speaks, he needs to show how powerful his voice is, then, he has no choice other then yelling his lines. You might not notice too much of that at the beginning, but after a while, you will start to realize this, soon later, Kong Wah's voice becomes the number one thing you don't feel comfortable with. It seems like Kong Wah has to take a deep breathe, and then yells his lines, I am sure this makes him tired, and I feel tired too, poor Kong Wah. I am wondering did Kong Wah ever lost his voice during the filming?

Kong Wah and Melissa Ng's love relationship
Every time when you are listening to Kong Wah and Melissa's conversation, you will hear the following lines:
Melissa: "My King, I am an unlucky person."
Kong Wah: "I will prove to people that you are not an unlucky person. Even though if you are, I don't care!"
Basically, these two lines will be repeated over and over again throughout the entire series, and the lines will start to lose affects. Once it start to lose affects, you will hate to listen to Kong Wah and Melissa's conversations. So, every time they are about to start a conversation, you will be like, "oh no, here goes again!" As a result, fast-forward might be a good option for you...

Maggie Cheung
I hate Maggie's character so much! This character is so ambitious, she is also fears nothing. I don't like the way she talks, Maggie uses too much of body movements to show how emotional she can be.

- Love Factor
Wayne Lai's Hon Shun
Hon Shun is a very interesting character, because you will love him because of his intelligence, but you will also hate him because of his intelligence. In the history, Hon Shun was the one helped Lau Bong conqueror the country, without Hon Shun, there is no Han Dynasty. However, Lau Bong killed Hong Shun after Lau Bong becomes the emperor. The reasons why? Reason 1, Hon Shun is too smart, he can come up with the best strategies ever, you can say, he is the best General in Chinese history. When you are too smart, the emperor will do anything to against you. Reason 2, also the most important one, Hon Shun is too arrogant, he always wants the king to respect him. This is a very big mistake for Hon Shun, which also leads to his tragic death. Ok, enough of history, let's talk about Wayne Lai, I think he is perfect for playing the character of Hon Shun. At the beginning, you will love his intelligence, you will love the strategies he used. But, after a while, he becomes more and more proud of himself, and start to ignore the importunes of the king, you will began to dislike him, however, you will also realized the change of his character is a must. At the end, his death will satisfy your needs, because if you were Lau Bong, you will also kill him! Wayne Lai did an excellent job, especially when he is being arrogant. I love his lines, his strategies, even the way he points at people! The most important of all, because of Wayne's wonderful performance, you will love & hate this character at the same time, this is not easy!

Ram Tseung's Cheung Leung
Like Hon Shun, Cheung Leung is also very smart, he can predict the right actions for the future. He reminds me a lot of Zhu Ge Liang of the Three Kingdom period. Unlike Hon Shun, Cheung Leung knows how to be a good official who works for the emperor. Ram is a great actor, he also did really well to play this intelligent character.

Law Lok Lam's Father Fan
Kong Wah calls him "second father", because Kong Wah treats him as a father. Father Fan is a pity character, he is also ambitious, just like Kong Wah, who believes they can conqueror the destiny, conqueror the country. However, Kong Wah didn't listen to him. When Father Fan wants to kill Adam, Kong Wah refused. When Father Fan wants to kill Melissa, Kong Wah protected her. When Father Fan wants to kill Wayne Lai, Kong Wah didn't care. Father Fan was right, these three person are the key factors of Kong Wah's destiny, but Kong Wah didn't listen.

The Story
Well, I can only say about 75% of the story was in the real history, the other 25% was changed or doesn't even happened. For example, Adam didn't meet his second wife (Cerina) until he becomes the king, but in the series, Cerina shows up a lot more earlier. Also, Wayne didn't really wants to fight against the king, it was Maggie, who makes up the fake evidences, so that she has enough excuses to kill Wayne. However, in the series, it shows Wayne is really against the king. There are also a lot of other small events or big things are not real in history, however, you will forgive those factors, because it was the story that will drag your attention. If you don't change the history a little bit, the story-line will becomes little dragging. I think the producer did a good job to show us a more interesting story rather than just history...

- How Come Factor
The Chair Factor
The number one mistake in this series is the chair! In that period of the time, chairs are not developed yet! People only sits or kneels on the floor. But, in this series, you see lots of chairs, and it is wrong. This is a very big mistake, how come the tvb producer didn't catch that?

THE BEST SCENES
1. When Adam really wants to keep Ram with him, when Ram's "ex-boss" came to ask Ram back, Adam was pretending to be sick, so that he doesn't have to give Ram back to the guy. That scene was funny.
2. Episode 15 - Hong Men Dinner: Many of you should know about this famous event of Chinese History. Seeing it once again on TV is really exciting.
3. Episode 19 - Wayne Lai's strategies to help Adam Cheung get out of the Region Shu. These strategies are really famous in history. The casts, as well as the producer of the series did a great job for showing us these wonderful strategies.
4. Episode 28 - When Adam and Kong Wah agreed to divide the country into half, it was nice to see the two "brothers" finally changed back to friends again. However, soon the friendship will be destroyed...

THE COMMENTS
- The Performances
A great history series needs a number of great casts who can play the historical characters. This series is excellent because of the casts, especially the supporting casts. Let me talk about the supporting casts first, because they are the ones stand out the entire series. First, I will like to give the best actor award to Wayne Lai, congratuations, it is not usual for me to give away best actor award to a supporting cast. I believe Wayne did the best job in the entire series. His performances made me love him, hate him and pity him at the same time. Second, I will like to give special honor recognitions to Ram Tseung, Law Lok Lam, Gilbert and Ai Wei, all these casts are great! Without them, Adam can never becomes the king. Ok, let's talk about the main characters now. I think Adam Cheung did a great job, but I didn't give the best actor award to him because I dislike his character, he is too useless! Kong Wah also did good, but he tries too much to yell his lines. What about the female casts? Well, I didn't think the female casts had too much of impact on this series. I didn't find Maggie's character nor Melissa's character interesting enough.

- The Storyline
It is hard to make a history series, it is even harder to make the history series interesting, TVB did an excellent job for this one, so it really surprised me.

- Worth Watching?
A BIG "YES"! If you don't know Chinese history, you should watch it, because you will learn something from it. If you know Chinese history, you have to watch it as well, because it reminds you so many things, and you will know many famous sayings and stories from that period of time.