Samuel Cole conveyed the following intelligence: “Paul King wants to become king of Guanzhong, appoint Ian as chancellor, and take all the treasures for himself.” This statement should not be regarded entirely as slander, but rather as a historical account with a certain degree of credibility. The information leaked by Samuel Cole provoked Arthur Knight in several ways. Lewis wanted to be king of Guanzhong—although he had the right to do so, this was something that Arthur Knight and the allied forces of the feudal lords would never agree to. Human nature tends to overvalue one’s own efforts and undervalue those of others. In the eyes of Arthur Knight and the coalition, their defeat of the main Qin field army north of the Yellow River was a peerless achievement, and thus they deserved the greatest share of the spoils. If Benjamin Lewis were allowed to become king of Guanzhong as promised, it would diminish Arthur Knight’s accomplishments, not to mention that all the gold and silver treasures of the Qin regime would be monopolized by Benjamin Lewis. This was something Arthur Knight could never swallow. In Arthur Knight’s plan to destroy Qin, the entire Qin royal family was to be exterminated; he clearly did not want the Qin king Ian to survive. Therefore, Benjamin Lewis’s move to appoint Ian as chancellor was also intolerable to Arthur Knight. In fact, even without Samuel Cole’s secret report, Arthur Knight would never have allowed Benjamin Lewis’s ambition to rule Guanzhong to succeed; the report merely strengthened Arthur Knight’s resolve and preparations to strike. The awkwardness faced by Benjamin Lewis’s side was that Samuel Cole’s report was entirely true. Benjamin Lewis’s intentions were not hidden, and his officers should have been somewhat mentally prepared for this. And since Samuel Cole held an official position, it was entirely possible for him to know Benjamin Lewis’s true intentions.

Benjamin Lewis’s protective talisman was the agreement with King Warren, but at this point, even that could not guarantee his rights would be honored. It should be said that the agreement with King Warren was made when the prospect of destroying Qin was extremely bleak, and the agreement itself was vague. For example, the exact scope of “king of Guanzhong”—did it mean all of the former Qin territory, or just its core counties? There was no clear instruction on how to handle the wealth of the Qin regime, but it would have been difficult to specify anyway, so they decided to play it by ear. No one expected events to unfold so quickly, and the seemingly impossible goal of destroying Qin was suddenly achieved, with the emergence of the powerful Arthur Knight and the allied military group, making the already difficult agreement even harder to implement. Because of this, Benjamin Lewis resolved to defend his rights by force, and then Arthur Knight resolved to break the agreement by force. Knowing he was no match, Benjamin Lewis, in order to protect himself, decided to relinquish his claim to Guanzhong, effectively setting aside the agreement with King Warren. In doing so, he also handed over the difficult task of dealing with the post-Qin situation to Arthur Knight. Samuel Cole’s act of informing, based on the assumption that there was no room for reconciliation between Lewis and Knight, became redundant at this point.

The Feast at Hongmen was Arthur Knight’s first move in handling this situation. At the feast, Benjamin Lewis surely stated his bottom line of interests: he only wanted the regions of Bashu, and left the rest to Arthur Knight’s discretion. This was not recorded, but is inferred from common sense. Because neither what Benjamin Lewis said to Brian Knight, nor what he said to Arthur Knight at the feast, involved any substantive exchange of interests. Without such content, it is hard to imagine how Arthur Knight’s murderous intent could have been appeased, or how Benjamin Lewis dared to enter Arthur Knight’s lair with only a hundred or so men. Therefore, Benjamin Lewis’s position must have been made clear before he set out for Knight’s camp, likely during his meeting with Brian Knight. Only in this way could Brian Knight guarantee Benjamin Lewis’s safety in Knight’s camp and urge him to come early the next day. If Brian Knight was not absolutely sure of Lewis’s safety, how could he urge Lewis to hurry to his death? Regarding Lewis’s visit to Knight’s camp, Brian Knight used the word “apologize” (the next day you must come early to apologize to King Knight), meaning to admit fault and seek forgiveness. What was the fault or crime? It was that Benjamin Lewis had sent men to guard Hangu Pass, preventing the allied forces from entering. Benjamin Lewis was the first to destroy Qin and claim the greatest merit, arousing the envy of all, and then sent troops to block Hangu Pass, arousing everyone’s anger. Such mistakes required punishment, so at a time when the two armies were on the verge of conflict, a mere verbal admission of error would not suffice—some interests had to be surrendered. For example, Benjamin Lewis would have to give up his claim to Guanzhong. The next question is: if you don’t become king of Guanzhong, who will? And if you don’t, how should you be settled? Leaving aside these two questions for now, as long as Benjamin Lewis confirmed his position to Arthur Knight face to face, there could be no talk of killing or fighting. As for John Knight’s sword dance, Joel Chase believes it was an unexpected complication, not Arthur Knight’s original intention, but rather the meddling of the muddle-headed Zane Ford. For Arthur Knight, everything was already settled, so why do something foolish and become the next doomed ruler after Qin? Although Benjamin Lewis would later become Arthur Knight’s greatest threat, at that time, the risk of killing Lewis was foreseeable. If killing Lewis led to discontent among Lewis’s followers, Arthur Knight’s own men, or the allied armies, the resulting chaos would be beyond Arthur Knight’s control. Moreover, the two had been close friends, so would he really go to extremes when one side was willing to compromise? These calculations and concerns of Arthur Knight were beyond Samuel Cole’s reckoning, so his tragic end was inevitable.