Zhou Yu presents Zhuge Liang with an invented problem. Zhuge Liang delivers an outside-the-box answer.

* Transcript

* Graph of Key Characters and Relationships

* Text of the poem about the fog on the Yangzi River

* No new map this week since we are still sitting in the Three Rivers area

Transcript

PDF version

Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This is episode 57.

Last time, Zhou Yu had just tricked Jiang Gan, an envoy from Cao Cao, into thinking that he had uncovered a conspiracy within his own ranks. As a result, Cao Cao executed his naval commanders Cai Mao and Zhang Yun, the two guys whose knowledge of naval warfare was keeping Zhou Yu awake at night. But Zhou Yu had hardly finished patting himself on the back when he couldn’t help but wonder if Zhuge Liang saw through his little trick. So he sent his friend and adviser, Lu Su, to see.

Lu Su went to Zhuge Liang’s little boat. Zhuge Liang welcomed him into the boat, and once they sat down, Lu Su said, “I have been too busy with military matters to come receive your instruction.”

“On the contrary,” Zhuge Liang replied, “I am the tardy one. I have yet to congratulate Commander Zhou.”

“Congratulate him for what?” Lu Su asked.

“The thing that he sent you here to see if I know about.”

“How, how do you know that?”

“This scheme can only work on Jiang Gan. Although Cao Cao was momentarily fooled, he no doubt has realized his mistake. He just won’t cop up to it, that’s all. With Cai Mao and Zhang Yun dead, the Southlands have nothing to worry about. That is ample cause for congratulations. I have heard that Cao Cao has put Mao (2) Jie (4) and Yu (1) Jin (4) in charge of the navy. Those two are going to send that navy to its doom.”

 

This left Lu Su speechless. After a little more small talk, he took his leave. But before he left, Zhuge Liang said to him, “Please do not mention to Commander Zhou that I saw through his scheme. I worry that he might get jealous and try to harm me again.”

Lu Su agreed and left. But when he went back to Zhou Yu, he promptly reported the truth, with predictable results.

“We cannot leave this man alive! I am determined to kill him!” a stunned Zhou Yu said.

So first, I’m not sure why Zhou Yu is so taken aback by the fact that Zhuge Liang saw through his scheme, since he was half-expecting it BEFORE he sent Lu Su to go sound out Zhuge Liang. Second, here comes that murderous impulse again. Zhou Yu just has issues with that, doesn’t he?

Lu Su tried to talk him off the ledge.

“If you kill Zhuge Liang, Cao Cao might laugh at us,” he said.

“I will find a way to kill Zhuge Liang fairly, so that he can have no grounds for complaint,” Zhou Yu said.

“What do you mean ‘fairly’?”

“Don’t ask. You’ll see tomorrow.”

 

So, the next day, Zhou Yu invited Zhuge Liang to join a staff meeting in his tent and asked him, “We are about to engage Cao Cao’s forces. When we fight on the water, what should be our primary weapon?”

“On the Yangzi River, bow and arrow should be your weapon of choice,” Zhuge Liang replied.

“You took the words out of my mouth,” Zhou Yu said. “But right now, we are short on arrows. I would like to trouble you to supervise the production of 100,000 arrows for the coming battle. This is a matter that concerns the state. I hope you will not refuse.”