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Chapter 50 of Romance of the Three Kingdoms – titled “Guan Yu Releases Cao Cao at Huarong Trail” – concludes the epic Battle of Red Cliffs not with a final blow, but with an act of moral complexity that reshapes history.
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Chapter 49 of Romance of the Three Kingdoms – titled “Zhuge Liang Borrows the Eastern Wind; Zhou Yu Launches the Fire Attack” – marks the dramatic climax of the Battle of Red Cliffs, where meteorology, mysticism, and military genius converge to shatter Cao Cao’s dream of unification.
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In the autumn of 208 CE, as Cao Cao’s massive army marched southward to unify China under his rule, the fate of the realm hung in the balance.
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Chapter 46 of Romance of the Three Kingdoms – titled “Zhuge Liang Borrows Arrows with Straw Boats; Zhou Yu Beats Huang Gai in a Feigned Punishment” – presents two of the most celebrated stratagems in Chinese military lore, both instrumental in paving the way for the decisive fire attack at Red Cliffs.
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In Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Luo Guanzhong invented many plot points, such as the noble sacrifice of Lady Mi, the killing of Liu Cong mentioned earlier, and Cai Mao, the protagonist of today’s article, who was also killed by Cao Cao, among others. There are quite a few similar examples.
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Chapter 44 of Romance of the Three Kingdoms – titled “Zhuge Liang Provokes Zhou Yu; Sun Quan Vows to Resist Cao Cao” – marks the dramatic crystallization of the Sun-Liu alliance against Cao Cao, while simultaneously planting the seeds of a rivalry between two master strategists: Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu. With Eastern Wu…
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In Chapter 44 of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, titled “Zhuge Liang Uses Wit to Provoke Zhou Yu,” one of the novel’s most celebrated episodes unfolds. Seeking to solidify the fragile Sun-Liu alliance against Cao Cao on the eve of the Battle of Red Cliffs, Zhuge Liang employs a daring rhetorical gambit: he deliberately…
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In Chapter 43 of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, as Zhuge Liang arrives in Chaisang to persuade Sun Quan to form an alliance against Cao Cao, he is confronted not by soldiers, but by scholars.