Lu Su visits Liu Bei and asks for him to give up Nanjun and Jiang Xia for their new governors who are eager to take up the new post. Zhuge Liang says, this appointment would place your generals directly under authority by my lord, are they willing to submit? Yes, yes, they are, not only that they will not be afraid of death and serve with loyalty.
Zhuge Liang holding a pair of chopsticks, goes: Please listen to me. Look, this is a pair of chopsticks, should you remove one piece, how do we eat with the single piece? Nanjun is the capital of Jingzhou, they are interdependent on each other, should you take one away, the other is redundant. As for Jiang Xia, it is in our backyard, think about it, a proper home, and you must raise an army behind someone's house, where is the reason in that?
Clap Clap, goes Lu Su, Kongming. well said. You don't intend to give them up for us? Zhuge Liang flatly rejects him. Not expecting to be able to obtain the two provinces anyway, Lu Su broached on the main purpose of his visit: The attack on Xu Chang, which Zhuge Liang agreed to. Thus Zhou Yu sent his army towards Xu Chang, once he was near Jing Zhou, he gave the orders to attack the city instead, as analysed by Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang from Zhou Yu's letter in 'borrowing the roads to pass by'. Zhuge Liang was ready for the attack and Zhou Yu's army suffered great losses.
Zhuge Liang's here was portrayed as a gentleman in his letter to Zhou Yu (in the old series, he was the direct cause of his death instigating the men to hurl insults and abuse at him everyday). 1. His stand on not using the army as a means of winning the battle. 2. Diplomatic ties with Dong Wu must not be absolved in the face of Cao Cao in the backyard ready to pounce. 3. If Jing Zhou had the men and resources, hmm, maybe a different story, however, although Zhuge Liang had cut off Zhou Yu's provisions and surrounded Zhou Yu, he did not pursue the latter.
His letter went:
''I take you as a brother, when I received your letter to send your army on an expedition to Xi Chuan, [假道伐蜀] (蜀 abbreviation for Si Chuan, one of the well known lands from the 3 Kingdom) so that we can simplify the matters of this city and Jingzhou. I am very grateful for your help and have prepared provisions for your army and am ready for your instructions.
However you have attacked our Jing Zhou, your sudden betrayal had bewildered me. Since the yellow turban rebellion, the Han dynasty is weak, Cao Cao is making use of the emperor for his own glory, and other warlords came into power. Jiang Dong faced great danger as well, if not for our alliance, we would not have a resounding victory at Chi Bi, saving the lives of millions of the people and avoiding a great catastrophe.
Cao Cao has dominated the middle plains and is a very threatening danger. Only with our alliance can we withstand this strong enemy from the north, with our coming together, comes two benefits, should we split, there would be 2 defeats. Today's battle was conducted in self defense, it was not what we wanted.
As a gesture of our friendship, I have recalled our army from the East and North, you may return home, I promise you our army will not pursue. In this battle you have lost many men and horses, we will return you for your losses. Hope that bro, you can let go of your hatred and our past misgivings and forge an everlasting alliance, do not make the same mistake of killing each other, and give Cao Cao any opportunity. The people have hopes for the Han dynasty, your bro, Liang, signing off with a 100 kowtows.''Zhou Yu recalled the entire army. Returning back to Jiang Dong, When Sun Quan asked who should take over him should anything untoward happen, Zhou Yu said, there is someone, who can see the big picture better than me, more talented than me, virtues higher than me, he can uphold Jiang Dong.
He recommends Lu Su as the next commander-in-chief. Zhou Yu laments, If heaven gave birth to me, why allow Liang to exist? He passes on shortly. Sun Quan understood that he caused his own death from his bitterness and petty heart, not being able to accept people that are higher talent than him.
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