While their respective states are sizing each other up for conquest, the Jin and Wu commanders at the borders are getting along famously.

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Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This is episode 152.

Last time, we left off with the kingdom of Jin (4), aka the kingdom formerly known as Wei, sizing up the kingdom of Wu with hungry eyes. But far from worried, the tyrant of Wu (2), Sun Hao (4), was entertaining fantasies of conquering the empire. So both sides garrisoned troops in the area around the city of Xiangyang (1,2) in Jing Province. The Jin troops were led by the commander Yang (2) Hu (4), while the Wu forces were under the command of Lu (4) Kang (4). Both commanders were aware of the other’s talent, so the two sides remained in a stalemate.

One day, Yang Hu (4) and his officers went hunting, and as luck would have it, so did Lu Kang and his entourage. Instead of letting this turn into some kind of skirmish, Yang Hu ordered his men to stay on their side of the border, and so they did, never once setting foot on Wu territory while they hunted. When Lu Kang saw this from a distance, he sighed and said, “General Yang is disciplined. We must not encroach.”

At the end of the day, Yang Hu returned to his base and tallied up the day’s catch. Among them were some game that had been shot by the Wu hunting party, and Yang Hu ordered all those animals be returned to the Wu camp. The Wu soldiers were delighted and reported this to Lu Kang. Lu Kang summoned the courier and asked him, “Can your commander hold his liquor?”

The courier replied, “If it’s good wine, he will drink.”

Laughing, Lu Kang said, “I have a gallon of wine that I have stashed away for a long time. Take it and present it to your commander. I personally brewed this wine for my own use. I am offering some to him as a thank-you for what he did at yesterday’s hunt.”

After the courier left with the wine, Lu Kang’s officers all asked him what he meant by giving the wine to Yang Hu. Lu Kang simply replied, “Since he did right by me, how can I not return the favor?”

Oh, ok. His officers were all kind of surprised. I mean, Yang Hu WAS commanding our enemy’s army after all. We just thought you were playing some four-dimensional chess here, but ok sure.

 

Meanwhile, the Jin courier returned to base and told Yang Hu that Lu Kang had sent him some wine. Yang Hu laughed and said, “So, he also knows about my capacity for drink!” And he immediately ordered  the wine be opened and served. One of his lieutenants said, “This could be a trick. Commander, don’t be too quick to drink it.”

But Yang Hu laughed and said, “Lu Kang is not one to resort to poison. There is no need for suspicion.”

Yang Hu then tipped the wine jug and drank straight from it. From that day forth, he and Lu Kang maintained regular correspondences to see how each other was doing. It’s almost like they weren’t enemies or something.

One day, Yang Hu received a messenger from Lu Kang and asked him how his commander was doing. The messenger told him, “My commander has been bed-ridden for a few days with an illness.”

“I suspect he has the same illness that I had,” Yang Hu said. “Here, I have some pre-made medicine. Let him have it.”

So the messenger returned and presented the medicine to Lu Kang. Lu Kang’s men said, “Yang Hu is our enemy.