"What a line. One night, and he lost three of his most cherished men!" Zhang Fei roared with laughter, the sound bouncing off the rafters of the Chengdu manor.
In truth, he had no idea who these three men were, but the context of a single night's escapade? That was a language every soldier understood.
Liu Bei, however, fell silent. A familiar ache stirred in his chest. As a lifelong rival, he understood better than anyone the ideals the younger Cao Cao once held.
But time and power had a way of twisting men. The Duke of Wei today was a ghost of that loyal Han official who had once wanted nothing more on his tombstone than General of the West.
Liu Bei even caught himself feeling a flicker of envy. If the realm were truly at peace, having two sons with such extraordinary literary gifts would be enough to bring honor to any family name for generations.
Unfortunately, the road Cao Cao had taken was a narrow one. A throne seats only one. It has no room for two ambitious heirs.
Pang Tong, meanwhile, was scrutinizing the details of the other protagonist in the Wancheng incident. "Zhang Xiu," he mused, tapping his chin. "Did his entire lineage not end in blood?"
Kongming nodded. "They fell in the second year of Jian'an. Zhang Xiu surrendered again in the fourth year. Word reached us that he died four years ago on the campaign against the Wuhuan. His son, Zhang Quan, got himself entangled in Wei Feng's rebellion eight years later. The entire clan was executed."
Mi Zhu shook his head. He could not fathom Zhang Xiu's choices. "He would have been better off joining our Lord. At the very least, his descendants would still be around to offer sacrifices at his grave."
As the veterans spoke, Fa Zheng, Zhang Song, and Liu Ba could only listen like students hearing tales of a bygone age. A sudden and sharp sting of provincial shame settled over them. Living tucked away in Shu, with Zhang Lu sealing off all news from the north, they truly had not known what titans walked the earth beyond their mountains.
Fa Zheng, in particular, felt a fresh surge of ambition surge through him.
Crush Zhang Lu.
Tear open the gates to Hanzhong.
Return to Mei County in Fufeng in a blaze of glory.
[Lightscreen]
["A dragon among men, whose very gaze commands the winds and clouds." That was the praise later generations once heaped on Sun Quan.
"A son should be like Sun Zhongmou." That was the definitive stamp of approval from Old Cao himself.
These two evaluations serve as the perfect summary of the first half of Sun Quan's life.
He rose to power at nineteen, facing rebels on every border and daggers within his own halls.
The mystery of his brother Sun Ce's death was still cold, and his other brother, Sun Yi, was soon assassinated. It was a textbook definition of internal strife and external threat.
Under these conditions, he pulled together his brother's old guard.
He showed real political instinct, bowing to Zhang Zhao in all civil matters and honoring Zhou Yu in all military ones.
Once the interior was stable, he crushed Huang Zu and seized Jiangxia.
He personally raised up talents like Zhuge Jin, Lu Su, and Lu Xun, a chain of choices that led, step by step, to that spectacular victory over Cao Cao at Red Cliff.
During this period, Sun Quan still moved in the shadow of his brother, Sun Ce. Ambitious. Aggressive.
But he had learned to temper that fire with a careful balance of force and diplomacy. His actions in those years earned every word of that high praise.
From a historical perspective, however, this version of Sun Quan died with Zhou Yu.
After that, the bold expansionist vanished, replaced by a man who refused to gamble on anything.
But if you look closer at the record, you start to see the truth. Even in that golden age, Sun Quan was never the one driving. Zhou Yu was. Sun Quan was simply being pulled along in his wake.
Take the Battle of Red Cliff. Zhou Yu gave a masterclass in persuasion to steel Sun Quan's resolve against Cao Cao.
Zhou Yu breathed a sigh of relief when the decision was made, and then he asked for fifty thousand elite troops.
Sun Quan's response? "Gongjin, you do not realize how expensive it is to run a household. You get thirty thousand. Not a man more. You go ahead and fight. I will sit back here in the rear. If you cannot win, I will come down personally and settle things with the Traitor Cao."
Zhou Yu probably did not even have the energy to curse at that point.
Did Sun Quan think Zhou Yu did not know exactly how many troops Jiangdong had?
That "settling things personally" bit was transparent. Sun Quan wanted to keep a reserve so that if the battle was lost, he would have enough bargaining chips to negotiate a comfortable retirement with Cao Cao.
Even the well-known friction between Zhou Yu and his second-in-command, Cheng Pu? That was no accident. Sun Quan had placed Cheng Pu there to keep Zhou Yu on a leash, and Zhou Yu accepted it without protest.
Then Zhou Yu drafted his grand plan to divide the realm by taking Shu. To soothe Sun Quan's paranoia, he even offered to bring Sun Quan's cousin, Sun Yu, along on the campaign and install him as governor of Yizhou afterward.
Sun Quan agreed with a warm smile.
Then he turned right around and lent Jiangling, the very springboard Zhou Yu needed for the invasion, to Liu Bei.
The proverb "Zhou Yu's clever plan settled the world, but he lost the Lady and his soldiers" exists for a reason.
The details may be exaggerated, but everyone knew exactly what kind of help Sun Quan provided.]
"Sun Polu can rest in peace," Liu Bei remarked, a hint of genuine envy coloring his voice.
Zhang Fei leaned in, testing the waters. "Does Big Brother also think a son should be like Sun Zhongmou?"
Liu Bei smiled and shook his head. "If Adou were to imitate Sun Quan and lose his sense of benevolence and righteousness, would that not be chasing the branch and losing the root?"
Pang Tong snorted with disdain. "The man is nothing more than a bi fu. A petty, narrow-minded man."
Zhang Fei, curious about the specific insult, asked, "What exactly is a bi fu?"
Zhang Song, eager to prove that Yizhou scholars were not just decorative furniture, stepped forward. "A bi fu, from Analect of Confucius, A man who worries about gaining what he has not got, and then worries about losing it once he has it. And once he fears losing it, there is no length to which he will not go. To keep what is in his hands, he will sacrifice everything else."
Liu Bei reflected on this for a moment and sighed. "Is that not the truth?"
Pang Tong ignored the commentary, his eyes fixed on the images of Zhou Yu appearing on the screen. The man depicted was a paragon of martial elegance. Though he looked different from the Zhou Yu in his memory, the aura of heroic spirit was identical. It stirred something in Pang Tong's chest.
"Zhou Gongjin was a true hero. It is a pity."
Whether he meant it was a pity that Zhou Yu died young or a pity that he served the Sun clan, Pang Tong did not say. Everyone understood it no longer mattered.
"Without Zhou Gongjin's talent, where would we be today?" Liu Bei mused, still honoring the memory of the Red Cliff victory.
Liu Ba finally let out a startled "Ah" as if a lamp had just flickered to life in his mind. "Jiangdong actually intended to invade Yizhou?"
Zhang Song smiled and countered with a question of his own. "Zichu, did you really think the Lord executed Li Yi on a trumped-up charge?"
Liu Ba went red-faced and speechless. He had honestly thought it was just a convenient excuse to purge a local general. Liu Bei laughed gently and waved the matter aside.
"Sun Quan of Sun Wu is no true sovereign. Zhou Yu had the talent of a titan but lacked a master worthy of him. What a tragedy."
In the Ganlu Hall, Li Shimin opened with a massive "Area of Effect" burn. His ministers were used to it.
Fang Xuanling ignored it.
Zhangsun Wuji agreed with it.
Hou Junji claimed Sun Quan was not worth even one thousandth of the current Emperor.
But.
"Your Majesty's words are somewhat uncharitable. They lack the grace expected of a ruler." Wei Zheng rose, his voice steady and unyielding.
Li Shimin let out a cold laugh. He was not in the mood to be lectured. "Does my dear minister wish to serve a master like Sun Quan, then?"
The question was a needle driven straight to the heart. Wei Zheng's face flushed. He opened his mouth to retort, but Hou Junji grabbed his arm and pulled him back. "Minister Wei, this is not the imperial court. We are just chatting about ancient history for fun. Why make a fuss?"
Du Ruhui and the others jumped in to smooth things over, and the tension eventually simmered down.
Fortunately, Li Shimin was a man of his word. Though he was annoyed, he had no intention of actually punishing Wei Zheng. He was holding himself to a high standard of tolerance lately, partly because if Wei Zheng was mentioned in the future omen, he must have some use.
Though, Li Shimin thought privately, I hope his talent is not just having a temper like a stubborn mule.
[Lightscreen]
[The version of the Jiangdong Lord we are all familiar with, the one who was treacherous and focused only on profit, is Sun Quan's second form.
The Sun Quan of this era was a battle-hardened veteran whose combat experience was vast but whose tactical consistency was nonexistent.
He backstabbed Guan Yu.
Failed at Hefei.
Burned Liu Bei at Yiling.
Resisted Cao Pi.
Triumphed at Shiting.
He was a man who could take thirty thousand men and decapitate ten thousand enemies, yet also take a hundred thousand men and lose to eight hundred.
He fought over a dozen major battles and countless skirmishes.
During this period, Sun Quan's constant side-switching was enough to give his teammates a stroke.
In the span of five years, he surrendered four times and rebelled four times.
He danced between the cracks of the Three Kingdoms until he waltzed his way from the Great Wei King of Wu to the Great Emperor of Wu.
If you want to know why he became this way, one could say Zhang Liao ruined him. Just kidding.
The root of the problem was the Jiangdong military system.
The Hereditary Command System was a price neither Cao Cao nor Liu Bei could afford to pay.
Sun Ce used it to unite the old guard from the North, and Sun Quan promised it to the powerful local clans of the South to hold Jiangdong together.
This system turned soldiers into private property, which is why Sun Quan never lost a defensive war on his home turf. But it also meant his generals were pampered aristocrats.
They were never going to risk their lives, and their family's inheritance, to charge a city wall in an offensive war. This is why Sun Quan's dreams died at Hefei, birthing Zhang Liao's legend of making children stop crying at the mention of his name.
With his northern ambitions strangled by Zhang Liao, Sun Quan had a sudden awakening.
I cannot beat Cao Cao, but surely I can backstab my teammates?
To be fair, the Sun Quan who personally held the bridge at Xiaoyaojin showed a final flicker of his youthful heroism.
That battle was not the shame of his career. When Cao Pi died and Cao Rui took the throne, Sun Quan sneered, "Cao Pi was not a ten-thousandth of his father, and Cao Rui is even worse than Cao Pi."
It sounded just like Guan Yunchang famous "I see you all as heads on sticks waiting to be sold."
Yet, in the year 234, while attacking Hefei, Sun Quan heard that Cao Rui was personally leading reinforcements. He did not even wait for the dust to settle. He turned tail and fled at the mere sight of the flags.
The grand showdown many had hoped for, the Emperor of Wu against the Emperor of Wei at Hefei, while Kongming faced Sima Yi at Wuzhang Plains, never happened.
The Star Falling at Wuzhang Plains leaves one with nothing but a sigh for what could have been. And with the death of the Prime Minister, Sun Quan's life officially flipped to its final chapter. Senile decrepitude.]
Though the 'teammate-blasting' life philosophy of his brother-in-law was enough to make his teeth itch, Liu Bei took it in stride.
His brother-in-law was already a punchline for the ages. What more could he ask for?
In the future Chengdu, the incense at the Zhaolie Temple would burn forever, and later generations would still remember his name with reverence.
Zhao Yun looked up, contemplating the military system described on the screen. He understood it instantly.
"In Jiangdong, military power became a family asset. Only by staying alive can one enjoy wealth and status. To die in battle is to lose everything for one's descendants."
He could almost see the young Jiangdong officers on the battlefield now. You want me to be the first one over the wall? Are you mad? Do I have a son yet? Is he grown? Has he been to war? Can he catch mountain rebels? If the answer to any of those was 'no', they were not going anywhere near the front line.
"So that is it," Zhao Yun said, thinking of the likable young Gan Gui.
"No wonder Gan Ning is having such a hard time in Jiangdong right now. Sun Ce favored the old guard from the North, while Sun Quan favors the local clans of the Jiangdong. Gan Xingba is caught in the middle with no luck at all."
Pang Tong nodded. "That is why, under Zhou Gongjin, Gan Ning was a brilliant general, equally skilled in letters and war. But by the time of the Ruxukou campaign, he was ordered into a night raid as a mere brawler. His intellect was no longer needed."
He had worked with Gan Ning under Zhou Yu and held a high opinion of the Yizhou native who looked like a pirate but thought like a scholar.
Zhang Fei never missed a chance to stick the boot in. "And this guy has the nerve to say Cao Pi was not a ten-thousandth of his father? I would say our brother-in-law is not even a hundred-thousandth of his own big brother."
Pang Tong patted Kongming on the shoulder. "Kongming, you really were held back by that guy for your entire life, were you not?"
Kongming remained silent, burying a few decidedly un-gentlemanly thoughts deep within his heart.
Though much of the future terminology was still a blur, Fa Zheng looked over the notes he had transcribed. A theory was forming in his mind.
"Sun Quan actually took a hundred thousand men to hunt down eight hundred? How can a man win so shamefully?"
Liu Bei and the others froze for a second. They looked at each other. And then the room exploded into a chorus of delighted, mocking laughter.