Zhou Yu and a couple other wise men of Dongwu spin an elaborate ruse for Cao Cao to faceplant into.

* Transcript

* Graph of Key Characters and Relationships

* No new map this week; we’re still camped out in the Three Rivers area.

Transcript

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Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This is episode 58.

Last time, with his army in a staredown against Dong Wu’s forces on opposite sides of the Yangzi River, Cao Cao sent two low-level officers to pretend to defect to Dong Wu so as to act as spies. Dong Wu’s commander, Zhou Yu, was not fooled but played along. He and the old general Huang (2) Gai (4) then planned to have Huang Gai pretend to defect in order to carry out an attack by fire against Cao Cao. To make this happen though, they had to convince Cao Cao that Huang Gai was defecting for real, so Zhou Yu found some excuse to give Huang Gai a vicious public beating.

After that beating, Zhou Yu’s confidant Lu Su went to see Zhuge Liang and asked why he did not intercede on Huang Gai’s behalf when Zhou Yu was doling out his punishment. Zhuge Liang, however, saw through the charade and explained to Lu Su that he did not want to get in the way of Zhou Yu’s scheme. He also asked Lu Su to not tell Zhou Yu that he had seen through the scheme, since the last time that happened, Zhou Yu tried to find an excuse to kill him.

After Lu Su took his leave of Zhuge Liang, he went to see Zhou Yu in his tent and asked, “Why did you come down so hard on General Huang today?”

“Are the other officers grumbling about me?” Zhou Yu asked.

“They are mostly unsettled,” Lu Su answered.

“What about Zhuge Liang?”

“He also complained about how uncompassionate you were,” Lu Su said, keeping his promise to Zhuge Liang this time.

“So I’ve fooled him as well this time,” Zhou Yu smiled.

“What do you mean?” Lu Su asked.

“My beating Huang Gai today was a scheme. I want to have him pretend to defect, so I must first make him suffer so as to fool Cao Cao. Then we will have the opportunity to launch a fire attack and come out victorious.”

At this point, Lu Su was secretly impressed with Zhuge Liang’s keen insight into Zhou Yu’s mind, but he did not say anything, lest Zhou Yu’s blood starts to boil again and he starts getting more ideas about killing his supposed allies.

 

Now let’s check in on the guy who received the beating. As he laid in his tent recovering from his wounds, Huang Gai received visits from all his fellow officers. When they inquired how he was doing, he did not say anything and just let out some deep sighs. Then, his men said that an adviser named Kan (4) Ze (2)had come to visit. Huang Gai immediately invited him in and dismissed everyone else.

Now, this Kan (4) Ze (2) was a good friend of Huang Gai’s. He grew up poor but was very studious. When he did work for other people to scrounge a living, he would often borrow their books. He only needed to read a book once, and he would be able to memorize the whole thing. He was also an eloquent speaker and had been a courageous man ever since his youth. Seeing his talents, Sun Quan retained him as a consultant.

So Kan (4) Ze (2) came in and asked Huang Gai, “General, was there bad blood between you and Commander Zhou?”

“No.”

“Then … was your punishment part of a scheme?”

“How could you tell?”

“I guessed as much from Commander Zhou’s expression.”

“I have received great kindness from three generations of our lord’s family and have no way to repay him,” Huang Gai said.