Zhou Yu gets visits from Liu Bei and an old school chum, and he cannot not be happier to see them.

* Transcript

* Map of Key Locations

* Graph of Key Characters and Relationships

Transcript

PDF version

Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This is episode 56.

Last time, Sun Quan had agreed to join forces with Liu Bei to resist Cao Cao. However, his field commander Zhou Yu had a strange notion of alliance, because he kept trying to kill his allies — first Zhuge Liang, and then when that failed, he set his sights on Liu Bei himself. He sent an invitation for Liu Bei to come visit his camp. During the welcome banquet, Zhou Yu was going to throw his cup as a signal for a bunch of armed soldiers to storm in and kill Liu Bei.

 

Liu Bei had an inkling that it could be a trap, so he brought his brother Guan Yu along. They took about 20 men with them and sailed down river toward Dongwu’s camp. As they approached the camp, Liu Bei was quite impressed by the orderly deployment of the ships and troops, which made him happy since it meant he might actually stand a chance against Cao Cao now.

When Zhou Yu got word that Liu Bei had arrived, he asked how many ships he brought with him. When the answer was just one, he laughed and said, “He is destined to meet his end!”

So Zhou Yu set his ambush and came out to greet Liu Bei and escorted him and his entourage to the main tent. After the usual formalities, Zhou Yu asked Liu Bei to take the first seat.

“General, your name is renowned across the realm,” Liu Bei said. “How dare an unworthy man like me accept such an honor from you?”

After the prerequisite back-and-forth “Oh no, I am so honored to have you here” and “No no no, I insist,” they arrived at a mutually agreeable seating chart, and the welcome banquet began.

While all this was going on, Zhuge Liang happened to be in the area. When he heard that Liu Bei had come to meet with Zhou Yu, his spidey sense began to tingle and he hurried to the main tent. As he stood outside the tent and peeked in, he could see Zhou Yu’s murderous intent on his face, and oh yeah, the armed soldiers hiding behind the curtains.

“What should I do about this?” Zhuge Liang thought with some panic. But just then, he glanced over at Liu Bei and saw that he was quite at ease as he talked and laughed. Behind Liu Bei stood a man with his hand on his sword. This was none other than Guan Yu.

“My lord is safe,” Zhuge Liang said with relief and delight. He was so confident, in fact, that he just turned around, left the camp, and waited on the bank of the river.

 

As for Zhou Yu, after a few rounds of wine, he stood up to offer a toast and, presumably, to chuck his cup and spring the trap. But suddenly, he noticed the guy standing behind Liu Bei with a hand resting on his sword. He immediately asked Liu Bei who this was.

“My brother Guan Yu,” Liu Bei replied.

“The one who slayed Yan (2) Liang (2) and Wen (2) Chou (3)?” a surprised Zhou Yu asked.

“The very same.”

This answer left Zhou Yu so frightened that cold sweat rolled down his back. He kept his composure, though, and offered a toast to Guan Yu. But the whole throwing-the-cup-and-killing-Liu-Bei plan evaporated right then and there.

Momentarily, Lu Su joined the banquet, and Liu Bei asked him if he could invite Zhuge Liang to the tent, but Zhou Yu again said no.