Zhuge Liang went to Sun Quan with the intention to provoke him. He challenged Sun Quan to either confront Cao Cao or surrender. Sun Quan in turn questioned why Liu Bei hadn't yield despite suffering a defeat.
Zhuge Liang responded by suggesting Sun Quan joined forces with Liu Bei and defeat Cao Cao by water. Undecided, Sun Quan summoned Zhou Yu. Zhou Yu was secretly in favour of going to war, but deliberately wanted to test Zhuge Liang. So, he pretended to advise Sun Quan into submission. Zhuge Liang chuckled and recited a poem (below) by Cao Cao's son, Cao Zhi.
He would have the 2 Qiaos, these beautiful ladies of Wu,
That he might rejoice with them morning and evening.
Zhuge Liang explained that Cao Cao's expedition was to take possession of the daughters of the State Patriarch Qiao. So, he theorised that if Sun Quan were to send the 2 women to Cao Cao, he would surely withdraw his army.
It turned out the younger Qiao was in fact Zhou Yu's wife, while the elder Qiao was Sun Ce's wife. Zhouge Liang had known this all along and deliberately used this provoke the men...and it worked.
Sun Quan made Zhou Yu the Commander-in-Chief to lead Lu Su and Zhuge Liang by water to the Three Gorges to build a stockade in preparation for the battle with Cao Cao.
- Compiled from The Three Kingdoms
No comments:
Post a Comment