During the Warring States period, the six kingdoms were locked in endless warfare, with battles raging across the land.
After the Qin army crushed the Zhao forces at Changping, they demanded six cities from Zhao as the price for peace, refusing to relent otherwise.
The state of Zhao was thrown into panic, and King Zhao hesitated, torn by indecision. In desperation, the king turned for advice to Lou Huan, a newcomer who had recently arrived from the state of Qin.
Lou Huan initially declined repeatedly, but after persistent requests from the King of Zhao, he first recounted the story of Gongfu Wenbo's mother to illustrate how the same words carry different weight depending on the speaker's identity. Then he said, "I have just come from Qin. If I advise against giving, it's not a good solution. If I advise giving, Your Majesty will suspect me of acting for Qin's benefit. So I dare not speak. But if I truly consider your interests, it would be better to yield to Qin."
Minister Yu Qing of Zhao heard this and went to court to see the King of Zhao, cutting to the chase: "This is Lou Huan's sophistry to conceal his true intentions." He believed that after the Battle of Changping, Qin was exhausted and withdrew. If Zhao agreed to cede six cities, it would actually help Qin obtain what it could not otherwise gain.
King Zhao of Zhao relayed Yu Qing's words to Lou Huan. Lou Huan replied, "Does Yu Qing truly understand the limits of Qin's military power? If he knows for certain that Qin's strength is exhausted, then those six cities are no more than pellets of dirt—we can simply refuse to give them. But if Qin attacks again next year, the price of peace won't be six cities; it will be vast tracts of fertile land from the heart of our kingdom."
King Zhao asked, "If we follow your advice and cede six cities to Qin, can you guarantee that Qin will not attack Zhao next year?"
Lou Huan replied with great subtlety, "This is not something I can guarantee. In the past, the three states of Han, Zhao, and Wei were all friendly with Qin. Now Qin has set aside Han and Wei to attack Your Majesty alone—it must be that Your Majesty's service to Qin has been inferior to that of Han and Wei."
Lou Huan calmly shifted the blame onto the King of Zhao.
"The idiom 'a pellet-sized piece of land' uses the tiny pellet shot from a slingshot as a metaphor to describe an extremely small area."
Source: *Strategies of the Warring States*, "Strategies of Zhao III"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "弹丸之地" came to describe an extremely small area.