Saturday, 21 January 2012

诸葛亮字孔明 Zhuge Liang XIII by plaedes

Chapter 58:

Zhuge Liang attends Zhou Yu's wake, mourning, crying, and composing a poem in remembrance for Zhou Yu. Lu Su sees him as a hyprocrite, telling Lu Su that this is a strategist, to save the country, one must have this type of thick skin, it is obvious he caused Zhou Yu's death yet here he is, crying like he lost his parents and in more pain than any of us.

The generals at the front of the wake pulled out their swords on seeing Zhuge Liang, but on his words, sadness and tears, they dropped their swords, (yes, at the same time) giving Zhou Yu credit for the work that he had done for Jiang Dong, the hero he is, how the world had lost a great pillar of support, etc etc.

[Translation... is tiring work, Chinese is a beautiful language that, encompasses the essence of the meaning, and beyond, in the use of 4 words idioms, Zhuge Liang, is a scholar after all, I am not, am tired, so had briefly summarised]

Pang Tong's First Appearance


drunk, and scolding the person who just gave credit to Zhou Yu in the battle for Chi Bi. He said Zhou Yu, although also a hero, is hard to achieve things with his pettiness. Pang Tong claimed credit for trapping Cao Cao to chain his ships together, so that Zhou Yu succeeded in using the fire attack. I don't know why soldiers need to be told when to take drunk men spouting insults at a wake away, but they needed to be told so.

Known to be Feng Chu, Zhuge Liang Wolong, termed Wolong Fengchu, it is said that with one of these men, a ruler can dominate the world with their unearthly insights.



Zhuge Liang sends a man to check the whereabouts of Pang Tong, so does Lu Su, whom have been searching for him for many months, recognizing his extraordinary brilliance. Zhuge Liang goes to an inn to chat up with him as they are old friends, but an ambitious (and drunk) Pang Tong finds Liu Bei's army too small for his capabilities. Lu Su succeeds in bringing him to meet Sun Quan, but Sun Quan's mother finds him a drunk wreck. Apparently, he was testing Sun Quan's magnanimosity by insulting Zhou Yu. He tells Lu Su, when he spreads his wings, it is akin to the winds of the 9 skies 1000 miles away. When Lu Su asks a leaving Pang Tong to stay, his reply was, have you ever seen a bird on a tree for 2 days? not to mention a phoenix, and storms off.

Later Lu Su finds out that that an hour ago, Sun Quan's sister visited her mother with Sun Qian, and concluded it was Zhuge Liang's doing to piss off the 'Empress Dowager'. Pang Tong decides to leave for Jing Zhou with only 1 wen. He tells the boatman should he agree to take this amount of money, someone will give him 100 wen when they arrive. They leave for Jing Zhou.

The story is continued from Liu Bei's perspective under Liu Bei, Chapter 58.

Chapter 66: Pang Tong's Death at Phoenix's Fall Slope



Continuing the story from Liu Bei, Chapter 66,

Prior to his arrival to meet Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang observed the stars of the big dipper inclined to the west and had sent repeated messengers to Liu Bei to recall the army, but Pang Tong, wanting to claim some credit for himself advises Liu Bei otherwise. Zhuge Liang is summoned to reinforce Liu Bei who had decided to go to war with Liu Zhang. Liu Bei plans to attack Xichuan. He advises Liu Bei that Sichuan can be easily guarded against danger, with 绵竹 (Mianzhu county city in Deyang, Sichuan) as a protective screen. He knows that the provincial officer, Li Yan does not have 10,000 men and is no match against Liu Bei's army. I feel that it will be best for Liu Zhang to surrender of his own accord, in this case we will not become enemies with the Xichuan people.

Shortly, Ma Chao attacks 葭萌关. Zhuge Liang knows if they were to lose 葭萌关, they will be attacked from the front and rear and impossible to advance their army into Chengdu. Liu Bei says, only Yi De can stand up to Ma Chao, Zhuge Liang nods his head.

Zhang Fei arrives with Liu Bei outside the city gates and meets up with Ma Dai, easily beating him off his horse in a moment. He spites Ma Dai to bring forth Ma Chao, telling him he wants to enter the city with Liu Bei to drink, which he did. The next day Ma Chao arrives, but falling on deaf ears not to engage the enemy when they had just arrived and morale was high, Zhang Fei ventures forth to duel with Ma Chao. It turned out to be an exciting battle between 2 renowned warriors to the cheers of both armies, Zhuge Liang commented that their fight will leave a story in history in times to come.

Liu Bei expressed his worry to Zhuge Liang that if this were to continue, he was afraid that there would be a party to perish. (What the fuck was he talking about? One is his sworn brother which he talks about righteousness and integrity all the time). Should his worry not be on Zhang Fei's life instead?

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