The side hall had been warm and comfortable after a good meal and wine, but the moment the lightscreen started talking, the whole room felt like it dropped ten degrees. A cold wind seemed to sweep right through the place.
"Those Jiangdong rats, you can never trust them! Sun Damn Quan, I swear I will kill you with my own hands!" Liu Bei shot to his feet, face purple with rage, and it took every bit of Zhuge Liang's calm reasoning to pull him back from the edge.
"My lord, please do not worry."
It had been two years since Zhuge Liang left his thatched cottage to follow the three sworn brothers, and by now he understood the bond between them better than anyone.
"Think about it, my lord. If what this lightscreen shows is the future that has not happened yet, then is this not a warning passed down by the ancestors of Han? Are they not telling you to help Yunchang avoid this disaster before it unfolds?"
That string of clear logic finally snapped Liu Bei out of his rage. He also felt the letter from his second brother tucked against his chest, a solid reminder that Guan Yu was currently out there fighting alongside Zhou Yu at Nanjun. Alive and kicking. Probably yelling at someone right this moment.
Once Liu Bei calmed down, a different kind of worry crept in.
"Kongming... are we going to end up labeled as rebels and traitors in the history books?"
Zhuge Liang had no answer for that one.
The lightscreen just kept rolling along at its own steady pace, completely unbothered by the existential crisis playing out right in front of it.
[Lightscreen]
[So here is the deal, folks. Sun Wu was basically built by Jiang-Huai outsiders cracking down hard on the local Jiangdong gentry. The whole setup worked like this. Guys like Cheng Pu and Han Dang got all the best positions while the powerful local clans got treated like crops to harvest whenever needed.
Official records say Sun Ce was killed by three retainers of Xu Gong. But think about it. How did those three guys sneak all the way into Jiangdong? How did they find Sun Ce out alone? Who gave them their weapons? The history books skip over those details. But we have every reason to believe the Jiangdong gentry had a very dirty hand in that whole affair.
Sun Quan was nothing like his bold brother Sun Ce. He had none of that decisive energy, and his approach leaned way too much on soft persuasion. The Jiangdong clans never forgot the blood debts owed to the Sun clan, and Sun Quan was never going to hand them real power or trust anytime soon. That constant tension right there? That is the root of every single rebellion Sun Wu ever faced.]
"Spot on," Zhuge Liang muttered, scribbling notes like a man who had just found water in the desert.
He had felt that rot inside the Sun Wu regime firsthand, and hearing someone say it out loud hit differently.
Before the Battle of Red Cliffs, Jiangdong's internal politics were already a powder keg. The Jiang-Huai faction and the local gentry hated each other so much that peaceful coexistence looked like a fantasy. The Jiangdong clans did not care if their ruler was named Sun or Cao. It was Sun Quan, Zhou Yu, and the rest of the outsider clique who insisted on fighting Cao Cao to the very end.
Back then Zhuge Liang had been sent as an envoy to Jiangdong.
He talked circles around every scholar in the room and managed to temporarily rope the local gentry onto Sun Quan's war wagon.
That was the only reason Red Cliffs ended with a victory at all.
[Lightscreen]
[So how did that fragile balance between locals and outsiders finally fall apart? To get there, you need to look at a guy everyone overlooks when talking about Red Cliffs. Pang Tong, the Fengchu, the genius ranked right alongside Zhuge Liang the Wolong.
Everyone knows Pang Tong's story from the novels. He handed Zhou Yu the chain link strategy that made the fire attack work, then jumped ship to Liu Bei, and ended up getting killed at Luofeng Slope. Died way too young. A real tragedy.
What the stories do not always mention is just how deeply Liu Bei valued him. When Pang Tong was struck by a stray arrow at Luocheng at only thirty-six years old, Liu Bei wept every time he spoke of him. He granted Pang Tong a posthumous title and even promoted his father to high office. He personally picked the burial ground at Luofeng Slope, a gesture that meant more than any official decree could ever say. And Pang Tong's legacy did not end there. His son Pang Hong would go on to become Governor of Fu, proof that the Fengchu's spirit lived on in his bloodline.]
Heaven above, this was wonderful news. Pang Tong would actually come work for him? Liu Bei could not help but grin from ear to ear. He had spent his whole life hungry for capable people and always felt like he was one top tier advisor short of what he needed.
He remembered meeting Sima Hui long ago and the old scholar telling him, "Right here in this land you will find the Wolong and the Fengchu." And would you look at that. Both were destined to serve under his banner.
As for dying young at Luofeng Slope? Irrelevant. He did not care one bit. He would just give a clear order: stay far away from that place. Problem solved.
Luofeng Slope. What a cursed spot. Even the name sounded doomed. How could Shiyuan ever be so careless? Liu Bei was already sighing in sympathy for his future loss.
[Lightscreen]
[But once you strip away all the dramatic flourishes from the novels, Pang Tong was a genuine Jingzhou local. He was nephew to the famous Pang Degong and came from one of Xiangyang's most powerful clans. His official title was Merit Evaluator, which technically made him Liu Biao's subordinate.
Then Cao Cao swept in with eight hundred thousand troops and several Jingzhou commanderies switched sides without even putting up a fight. When Zhou Yu marched to take Nanjun, Pang Tong simply ended up serving under him. You see what was really going on there?
Exactly. Pang Tong changed sides smoother than butter on a hot pan. Dig a little deeper and the truth becomes clear. This was the Jingzhou gentry officially pledging their loyalty. After Red Cliffs, Zhou Yu's name shook the whole land and everyone knew better than to stand in his way. What other choice did they have? Remember, Zhou Yu and Sun Ce once crushed the Jiangdong clans like a wrecking ball. Jingzhou was right next door. Those people knew exactly what the Sun clan was capable of.
But then Zhou Yu passed away not long after. Pang Tong traveled a thousand li all the way to Jiangdong just to attend the funeral. And right after that, he came straight over to join Liu Bei.
The full story is easy to piece together. Pang Tong most likely went as the Jingzhou faction's representative to negotiate terms, and the talks just fell apart.
Quick side note. The novel gives us that whole "Zhuge Liang angered Zhou Yu three times" storyline. We all know by now that is nothing but fiction. The real Zhou Yu was generous of heart and noble in character. People called him a hero among men and the most talented gentleman of the south.
As for how he died, official records say Zhou Yu took a stray arrow during the battle for Nanjun. The next year, while marching to seize Shu, he fell ill and died at Baqiu. Most likely the wound got infected, never healed properly, and eventually took his life.]
"What? Why would I anger Zhou Yu three times?" Zhuge Liang blinked. "What kind of made up plot is that? Why on earth would I ever try to provoke him? The man is currently Grand Commander of Sun Wu, fresh off crushing Cao Cao and about to seize Nanjun from Cao Ren. He is riding the highest wave of his career. Meanwhile our side, saying we have very little would be generous. We are basically living in an empty house with four bare walls. There is absolutely zero reason to pick a fight with Zhou Yu."
"Zhou Yu is going to die that soon?" Liu Bei murmured.
The lightscreen had covered a lot of ground but never once mentioned Zhou Yu's fate until this moment. Liu Bei had wondered about it. Turns out the man would be gone way too soon. Without Zhou Yu, Sun Quan would lose his strongest pillar, and keeping the Jiangdong gentry under control would become even more of a nightmare.
Zhao Yun sat off to one side, carefully writing down every word the screen said. He never offered opinions unless someone asked.
[Lightscreen]
[Zhou Yu's death set off a whole chain reaction. For example, the Jingzhou gentry who would once have groveled like loyal dogs in front of Zhou Yu suddenly had the nerve to negotiate with Sun Quan as equals.]
"Groveled like loyal dogs is quite the way to put it." Liu Bei shook his head.
He wanted to call it absurd but settled on something more polite. "A little undignified for learned scholars."
"Whoever is showing us these things must be from a future era," Zhuge Liang said, fanning himself even though the room was cool.
A faint smile touched his lips. "Just as people in pre-Qin times did not lose sleep worrying over the mistakes of King Zhou or King You, perhaps the great clans of our time simply look small and distant to those who come long after us."
[Lightscreen]
[So what did the Jingzhou gentry actually want? Every powerful clan throughout history has wanted the same thing. Enough freedom to run their own affairs. Imperial authority never really reaches deep into the villages, and that arrangement suits them perfectly fine.
And honestly, they had pulled it off once before. When Liu Biao died, Cai Mao and Zhang Yun pushed Liu Cong, the son of Lady Cai, into the Governor's seat.
That gave the local clans full control over Jingzhou.
Now Zhou Yu is gone, and Sun Quan will never grant the Jingzhou gentry that kind of freedom. So the Jingzhou bigwigs found themselves a new candidate. Liu Bei.
At the time, Liu Bei had almost no one of real standing on his side. Taking over Jingzhou meant he had no choice but to lean on the local gentry whether he liked it or not. And what happened to Liu Biao could easily happen to him too.
So once Pang Tong joined Liu Bei, the whole "borrowing Jingzhou" story basically wrote itself. The Jingzhou gentry paid lip service to Sun Quan while doing whatever they wanted.
Sun Quan, for his part, was happy to dump that headache onto someone else so he could focus on the total chaos that exploded back home after Zhou Yu's death.
From 208 to 219 AD, Liu Bei went on an absolute roll. In territory, he took Yizhou. In talent, he picked up Huang Zhong and Ma Chao. In battle, he won big at Hanzhong where Huang Zhong cut down Xiahou Yuan on the field, and Guan Yu flooded the Seven Armies and shook the whole empire to its core.
As the old saying goes, you worry when your friend is struggling, but you REALLY start sweating with envy when your friend pulls up in a brand new carriage. So Liu Bei's dear brother-in-law Sun Quan started getting seriously nervous.
Lu Meng and Lu Xun cooked up that infamous scheme, the White Robes Crossing the River.
They launched a sneak attack on their own ally, caught everyone completely off guard, seized Jingzhou, and cut off the heads of Guan Yu and his son Guan Ping.
The same year Guan Yu got betrayed and killed, Lu Meng also very conveniently passed away.
So when Liu Bei launched his revenge invasion two years later, Lu Xun was literally the only commander left to lead the defense.
After Lu Xun burned eight hundred li of linked camps at Yiling, Sun Wu started sliding toward the inevitable fate of every regime where the servants grow more powerful than the masters. The struggle between the Jiangdong gentry and the Sun royal house kept getting uglier and uglier right up until the kingdom finally fell.
A government too busy fighting itself to hold itself together? How exactly is that supposed to unify the land?]
Liu Bei stared at the vivid images playing across the lightscreen, his mind racing.
He saw a handsome Zhou Yu lying in Xiao Qiao's arms, breathing his last and sighing, "Since Heaven gave birth to Zhou Yu, why did it also give birth to Zhuge Liang?"
He saw a plain-looking Pang Tong take an arrow to the chest, gaze up at the sky, and breathe his final words. "My death today is Heaven's will."
He saw another version of himself looking every bit the true Emperor, crowned in Chengdu.
Then the scene shifted to Sun Wu soldiers disguised as merchants crossing the river. The Guan banner flying over Jingzhou was hacked down and trampled into the mud.
He saw his second brother's head cut off on Sun Quan's orders and sent as a grim gift to Cao Cao. He saw another version of himself raging and marching to war, only to stand before the burning ruins of Yiling with all color drained from his face.
The scene shifted one last time.
A pale and weary Liu Bei whispered his final words to Zhuge Liang. "If my son is worthy, then guide him well. If he is not, then you may take the throne for yourself."
[Lightscreen]
[So from this host's perspective, once Yiling was done, Sun Wu lost any shot at ruling the whole land. Full stop.
Alright, that wraps up this episode. Hit follow and smash that like button so you never miss an update.
Next time, we will break down exactly how the Cao clan also lost their grip on the world.]
"Is this really my future? And the true fate of the Han?" Liu Bei's voice came out rough and dry.
An ally's knife in the back. His second brother murdered. Himself dying of grief and heartbreak after watching everything he built go up in flames. The opening of the screen had already made it clear. The Shu Han he would establish would last only one generation before fading away. The land would split three ways, yes, but in the end, the Jin Dynasty would sweep it all.
"My lord, you really should hit follow and like right now," Zhuge Liang said, organizing his messy notes. Those strange words seemed to be the key to keeping the ancestor's messages coming.
Liu Bei looked confused but gave it a try. He mimicked the hand gesture he had seen on screen, raising his fist with the thumb extended upward. "Like this?"
The lightscreen flashed gold, and a line of text appeared. [Next update in one month.]
Liu Bei let out a breath. Looks like he had stumbled onto the right move by accident.
But then a new thought hit him. "Kongming, should we prepare offerings or something?"
"My lord, no need for that." Zhuge Liang thought for a moment, then answered with quiet confidence. "Whoever is behind this screen belongs to a future era. That would make us his ancestors in a way. So the usual sacrificial animals would not be appropriate."
"Makes perfect sense." Liu Bei slapped his palm on the table. After all, he had studied under the great Lu Zhi, and the logic clicked right away. He looked around, then unbuckled the fine jade pendant from his waist.
"Since we are dealing with a descendant, formal offerings do not really fit. Better to keep things simple and sincere."
He grabbed a sheet of paper, dipped his brush, and wrote a short message. Then he held both the note and the jade pendant up toward the lightscreen.
"To our descendant in the future. Everything you have shown us tonight is beyond valuable. We only hope you will keep showing us more. This jade pendant is nothing extraordinary, but please take it as a small token of our deepest thanks for now."
The screen seemed to understand. A bright flash later, and the jade pendant had vanished from Liu Bei's hand.
Once things settled, Zhuge Liang frowned at the stack of notes in his hands and spoke in a low, serious tone.
"My lord, with revelations this big, we should recall Yunchang and Yide immediately. Whatever comes next needs careful planning."
"I was thinking the exact same thing." Liu Bei understood perfectly what it meant to hold foreknowledge of the future. For the first time in ages, a fierce fire lit up his eyes.
"Kongming, we will NOT let my brother's tragedy play out the way it did before."