Liu Bei and his new wife try to flee from the murderously angry clutches of Sun Quan and Zhou Yu.

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Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This is episode 68.

Last time, Liu Bei and his new wife, Lady Sun, decided to try to flee back to Jing Province. So on New Year’s Day, they slipped out of the city of Nanxu (2,2) while Sun Quan was busy partying with his officials.

It turned out that the party was a good time to run away, because Sun Quan got really hammered and passed out drunk in his private quarters. After the party broke up, some of the officials got word that Liu Bei and Sun Quan’s sister had fled. By now, it was starting to get dark. These officials wanted to tell Sun Quan right away, but he was passed out and no one could wake him, and you weren’t gonna grab the lord of the Southlands by the shoulders and shake him from his drunken stupor. So they let him sleep, and it wasn’t until 7 o’clock the next morning that he woke up.

When Sun Quan finally heard that Liu Bei and Lady Sun had left, he quickly assembled his staff.

“If he gets away, it will cause trouble sooner or later,” his adviser Zhang Zhao said. “We must chase him down.”

 

So Sun Quan ordered two officers, Chen (2) Wu (3) and Pan (1) Zhang (1), to lead 500 crack troops and go bring back Liu Bei. After the two officers set out, though, Sun Quan was still seething over Liu Bei’s departure, so much so that he grabbed the jade inkstone on his desk and hurled it to the ground, smashing it into a million pieces.

“My lord,” the veteran general Cheng Pu said, “even though your rage may shake the heavens, I don’t think Cheng Wu and Pan Zhang will be able to catch Liu Bei.”

“They would not dare to disobey me!” Sun Quan said.

“Your lordship’s sister has had a fascination with martial arts all her life,” Cheng Pu explained. “She is severe, resolute, firm, and forthright, so much so that all the officers are wary of her. If she has left with Liu Bei, then she must have gone willingly. When the two officers catch up to them and are confronted by her, how can they move against her?”

When Sun Quan heard this, he became even angrier. He gave his sword to two other officers, Jiang (3) Qin (1) and Zhou (1) Tai (4), and told them, “Use this sword to bring back the heads of my sister and Liu Bei. If anyone disobeys, execute them at once!” So Jiang (3) Qin (1) and Zhou Tai (4) led 1,000 soldiers and went on their way.

As for Liu Bei and company, they were moving at double time, stopping only twice to rest over the course of the night. As they were approaching the borders of the city of Chaisang (2,1), they saw a huge dust cloud behind them in the distance, accompanied by word from the soldiers in the back that they were being chased.

“What should we do?” Liu Bei asked his general Zhao Yun.

“My lord, you go on ahead. I will fend them off,” Zhao Yun told him.

So Liu Bei hurried on ahead, but as soon as he went around a hill, he saw a squad of soldiers blocking the path up ahead. The two generals at the head of this roadblock shouted sternly, “Liu Bei, dismount and surrender now! We have been waiting for you on Commander Zhou’s orders!”

So as it turns out, Zhou Yu, who, if you’d remember, was recuperating from his injuries in Chaisang at the time, figured that Liu Bei might try to make a run for it.