Revisit the Three Kingdoms issue04

Revisiting the Three Kingdoms

At this year's Gen Con, Romancing Cathay shared booth-space with Sanguine Productions, Ltd. We did not advertise our presence on the program listing because we did not buy any booth space. We didn’t realize it was possible to advertise under the Sanguine Booth until we got there. Other companies were already doing this.

Compared to Origins 2002, Romancing Cathay did not sell as well at the previous convention. Though the joint project with Jadeclaw RPG was a sell out success (we started with two cases or forty-eight books). The sales could’ve been better if we had additional table space to demo the game.

Still, we found Gen Con 2002 to be a successful event because it allowed us to gain exposure and to talk to consumers and suppliers alike.

We have talked with Holistic Designs, Inc. on the cost of miniature making for RTK RPG. The estimated price is about seventeen thousand dollars to make three thousand (minimum quantity) sets of five painted miniatures with a street price of twenty-five dollars. Holistic Designs, Inc. also offered printing services from companies in Poland and China though the former print shop has exceptionally white paper. Though no price has been given, we suspect that it

will be somewhere around five to seven thousand dollars to print three thousand books.

At Origins 2002, GMT has a bigger presence than at Gen Con which we suspected that Origins is more devoted to war and board gamers than role-playing gamers. We have asked about their service to print the RTK board game. They would prefer to look at our game first before making any quotes. However, what is innovative about GMT is that on their website, they have Project 500 Series program. That is, they will list products that they are interested to make but have not. Consumers voted with their credit card about

Gen Con 2002 Observationby Chuan Lin

Volume I, Issue 4 Fall, 2002 www.romancingcathay.com

ContentsGen Con 2002 Observation 1Commence in Han Dynasty 20Dian Wei, E Lai Reborn 23Romance of the Three Kingdoms RPG in Tri-Stat Format 26Romance of the Three Kingdoms VII 28Review – Fvlminata RPG 30

2 Revisiting the Three Kingdoms Revisiting the Three Kingdoms 3

what games they are interested in seeing. Only when the tally reached five hundred will they charged everyone at once and use the amount to pay for the cost of productions. This is an interesting concept that I would like to try. But I am afraid that due to a small niche that Romancing Cathay has positioned itself in, that it will be quite a while to fill out five hundred pre-orders.

We have a chance to meet with a distributor and an editor of an European gaming magazine. A German distributor came to our booth and purchased both RTK TCG and a pair of Cookie Fu. He did not have his business card on him but he did take one from me. The Chief Editor of a French gaming magazine, Backstab, stopped by our booth. We gave him a copy of RTK TCG and X/Q FCG. Hopefully,

these will allow us to become known in the European market.

Surprisingly, talking with gamers at Gen Con, I found out about the release of RTK VII for PS2. Apparently, this game has been out for a month or two. I guessed it means that I am not as a dedicated RTK fan as I thought. And more importantly, a RTK tactical battle game for PS2 will also be available in winter quarter of this year. If so, this is a happening year for RTK fans. This also raises the question of why Koei of America was not informing the public about its product releases. Romancing Cathay would pursue an angle with Koei of America to see if there is a possible joint venture.

There are a few gamers who have asked about the RTK RPG. Though we anticipate a release at Gen Con 2003, we are hesitant to

make any public announcement. There are ideas being bounced around for the game mechanics of the RTK RPG, none of them have been selected yet. In our quarterly newsletter, we mentioned already two possible candidates for the underlying game mechanics. Still Romancing Cathay is on track to follow an internal schedule of having RTK RPG released by Gen Con 2003. Hopefully by January 2003 we are able to call for play-testers for our game.

Lastly, Romancing Cathay thanks those people who came to our booth and told us of how much they appreciated our quarterly newsletters. We are very grateful for the approbation and they fueled our commitment to continue to provide background information, player resources, and gaming materials to viewers like you.

Revisiting the Three Kingdoms

Volume I, Issue 4

Fall, 2002

Romancing Cathay

10050 Montgomery Road, #368

Cincinnati, OH 45242

USA

(513) 290-7419

Fax (949) 266-8395

www.romancingcathay.com

EMAIL: [email protected]

Romancing Cathay is a group of people interested in playing and introducing games about Ancient China. There are many impressive and exciting tall tales, legends, myths, and historical events that we believe will fascinate players world-wide. Our goal is to introduce these captivating stories in various game formats. In addition, we feel that through playing games, people would become more curious in learning more about China.

Newsletter Editor: Chuck Hildreth, Chuan Lin

Writers: Chuan Lin, Chuck Hildreth

Artworks: These artworks are copyrighted of Creator Workshop and Koei Company.


Part IV: Wine Toasted, Heroes Appraised

On the Second Year of Rebuilding Peace (197 AD), as Cao Cao initiated Garrison Farm policy and developed internally, Lu Bu and Yuan Shu, located in East and South of Cao Cao, formed military alliance against Cao Cao. As former leader of Southern Alliance, Yuan Shu had suffered Cao Cao blitzkrieg tactic at

Battle of Kaung-tíng (see previous issue’s article, Life of Cao Cao, Part II) and fled to South of Yangtze River. Fortunately, the South had been spared from conflicts that commonly occurred in the North during the twilight of Late Han Dynasty. There were plenty of supplies that Yuan Shu was quickly recovered. And Lu Bu had taken liberties over the role of Inspector of Xu Province and displaced Liu Bei to Xia-pei [City].

Yuan Shu, fearful of Lu Bu’s military prowess, had

initiated a military alliance through their children’s marriage. Lu Bu worried about Liu Bei and Cao Cao. He agreed to the military alliance. To test Lu Bu’s good faith, Yuan Shu sent General Ji Ling with thirty thousand infantry and cavalry to attack Liu Bei. Liu Bei requested helps from Lu Bu. Lu Bu called for a war council to debate the issue.

Liu Bei Fled West to Cao Cao

Nearly everyone agreed to take advantage of this situation to eliminate Liu Bei once and for all. This way, Lu Bu’s Inspectorships would be secured and Xu Province would be united. But Lu Bu disagreed. He believed that Yuan Shu had ties with petty warlords of

Cao Cao’s Ambition (4/9)

by Chuan Lin

Political Situation as of 197 AD

Map LegendCao Cao controlled Central Plain.

Lu Bu controlled Xu Prov-ince.

Yuan Shu controlled South-ern of Cao Cao.

Liu Bei controlled Xia-pei City.Courtesy of Koei


the North. Once he established the link to the North, Yuan Shu could coordinate attacks from North and South against Xu Province. He decided to assist Liu Bei.

General Ji Ling approached to the southern border of Pei Prefecture with his army, Liu Bei led his troops of five thousand troops to defend. But, Lu Bu arrived with his forces to mediate peace between the two. Liu Bei was quick to agree. Ji Ling was reluctant to comply to the co-leader of his lord’s alliance. To proof that his way was in accord with Dao of Heaven, Lu Bu successfully shot an arrow through a small ring of a halberd hundred and fifty paces away. Yuan Shu did not know whether to laugh or to curse Lu Bu’s folly.

However, Liu Bei appraised of situation and feared for Lu Bu fickleness which may change next time Yuan Shu attack. His own force might not survive the next assault. He instructed Guan Yu and Zhang Fei to secretly purchase horses and recruited troops. He wanted to prepare to separate from Lu Bu’s influence. Liu Bei's covet action have been uncovered by Sung Xian and Wei Xu of Lu Bu’s forces. They alerted Lu Bu who sent envoy to inquire of accusation. Liu Bei panicked and listened to Sun Gan’s advice. He abandoned Pei Prefecture in darkness and fled westward to Cao Cao.

Although they were enemy during Cao Cao's previous campaign against Xu Province, Cao Cao respected Liu Bei of his virtues as caring people and just administration. Not only had he treated Liu Bei as a guest of honor, but he also recommended to Han Emperor Xian to reinstate Liu Bei as official Inspector for Xu Province.

When Liu Bei had sought protection with Cao Cao, Xun Yu secretly met with his Lord and advised,

“Liu Bei has the making of an hero. He could not be controlled. It is best to eliminate him now then to regret it later.”

Cao Cao smiled at the suggestion but did not reply. After Xun Yu left, Cao Cao summoned Guo Jia and asked for his opinion of Xun Yu’s suggestion. Guo Jia did not agree with this idea. He explained,

“My Grand Lord raised righteous army to rid of villainy for the people. His most important criteria is trustworthiness which attracted talented and capable people. Liu Bei is a famous hero. He came to us in time of need. If we are to harm him, Heaven Below would whisper that our Grand Lord is jealous of able person. Then who would come to join us? Who would willingly to offer his service to us? It is true that Liu Bei can not be controlled. Yet, if my Grand Lord is able to accept him, then others heroes in Heaven Below would be more incline to join us. To eliminate one threat, yet, at the cost of blocking one's access to all other; I think it is not worth the price.”

Still later, Cheng Yu also suggested to Cao Cao,

“I have observed Liu Bei. He does not serve anyone. It is best to remove him soon.”

Cao Cao replied,

“Currently, Heaven Below is in great turmoil. A person

like Liu Bei is sorely needed. It is better not to remove one man, thus, lose support of the Heaven Below. My view is same with Guo Jia. Even if Liu Bei would betray me in future, I have no regrets.”

To prove his trust, he gave three thousand troops to Liu Bei and stationed him at the border between Xu Province and Yu Province. Liu Bei was given command to train his forces in preparation to retake Xia-pei [city] in order to challenge Lu Bu for the Xu Province.

On the Spring of Second Year of Rebuilding Peace (197 A.D.), Cao Cao had suffered a set back in his initial attempt to take over Yu Province from Zhang Xiu. He had to scale back the plan to expand eastward. Liu Bei was put in charge of defending the border of Yu and Xu Provinces and to keep an eye on Lu Bu’s troop movement. On the second month, Yuan Shu declared himself to be the Emperor Zhong-jia at Shou-chun [City]. He ennobled his followers, set up hundred of ministers, and established an ancestral altar to announce to Heaven and Earth. By March, an envoy was sent to his half-brother, Yuan Shou, and confirmed him the title of Grandee General. He also tasked his half-brother to rule in his stead of Yi, Qing, Yu, and Bing Provinces. In all matter, Yuan Shu had openly declared himself to be the enemy of Han Emperor Xian at Xu-dou.

Most sensitive to this was Cao Cao. He had already upheld the Emperor and had the title of Prime Minister of Han Dynasty. He could not overlook any usurpation. Therefore, Cao Cao issued a callings throughout provinces and commanderies to fight against


Yuan Shu. Even Yuan Shu’s ally, Lu Bu had received this summon.

Chen Deng Sell Out Lu Bu

Despite the fact that Lu Bu and Yuan Shu were related through marriage of their children, Yuan Shu's declaration of emperorship was too grave a situation for Lu Bu to openly support such cause. Therefore, when Cao Cao promoted Lu Bu to General of the Left, he gladly accepted and sent Chen Deng to thank Imperial Court (Chao-ting).

Chen Deng was son of Chen Gui, Perfect of Pei Prefecture. They were stout supporters of Liu Bei when he was Inspector of Xu Province. When Lu Bu took over Xu Province by force, Chen Clan had to submit. Yet, they were still pro-Liu Bei and were dissatisfied with Lu Bu. Since their reputation were prominent within Xu Province and maintained good connection, Lu Bu had to use them to help run the government.

When Chen Deng first met with Cao Cao, he said,

“Lu Bu is courageous but tactless. He often flip-flop and irresponsible with his words. This kind of people should be getting rid of at earliest convenience.”

Cao Cao agreed,

“Lu Bu is the ambitious wolf. He would not serve Chao-ting for long. Only you, sir, and your elder knew about his impending change.”

Cao Cao, therefore, increased Chen Gui’s salary to mid two-thousand stones and promoted Chen Deng to Grand Administrator of Guan-ling [Commandery]. Prior Chen

Deng’s return, Cao Cao instructed,

“The situation in the east is in you and your father’s hands.”

Chen Deng was commanded to gather up anti-Lu Bu forces to participate future attack.

Originally, Lu Bu wanted Chen Deng to ask Cao Cao for an official recognition of Lu Bu as Inspector of Xu Province. Instead, Chen Family had profited from increased salary and promotion. He got nothing in return. Lu Bu confronted Chen Deng and heatedly accused him.

“Your father asked me to assist Cao Cao and to break away from Yuan Shu’s marriage guan-xi. Now, I have nothing to show for, both father and son did reap the rewards. Is that the price of betrayal?”

Chen Deng calmly defended himself.

“When I first saw Grand Cao, I have expressed, ‘to gain General Lu’s assistance is like maintaining a tiger, he must be fed. Else when a tiger became hungry, he would bite the feeder.’ Grand Cao laughed at my allegory as being inaccurate. He stated, ‘to gain General Lu’s assistance is like maintaining a hawk, he must feel hungry so he would serve loyally. Else when a hawk became sated, he would fly away.’”

Lu Bu was please that Cao Cao had thought highly of him so he let the issue dropped.

When Yuan Shu heard of Lu Bu’s betrayal. He became angry and committed his entire force to attack Xu Province. Zhang Xun and Qiao Rui were leading generals.

Sidebar Information:In reality, Yuan Shu had peaked at the battle of Kaung-tíng. Even though the South was rich with supplies, his troops were no match against Yuan Shou or Cao Cao. Then there was Lu Bu guarded Xu Province and Liu Bei defended Yu Province. If Yuan Shu was to establish a hegemony, he had to gain support from both Liu Bei and Lu Bu. That would not happen.

Maybe Yuan Shu knew his chance was quite slim and merely contended to establish a smaller kingdom in the South. Sending envoy to Yuan Shou was an act of bravado. There was already a deep schism between Yuan brothers. Yuan Shou would never submitted to his half brother. And since there were Cao Cao, Liu Bei, Lu Bu and other minor warlords in between Yuan Shou and Yuan Shu. It would not be possible for Yuan Shou to attack Yuan Shu for such insult.

Courtesy of Creator Workshop


Yuan Shu also activated military forces of Yang Feng and Wei Xian who have fled from Cao Cao during his claim for Han Emperor Xian. Number in several tens of thousand, their target was Xia-pei [city].

With Chen Deng’s assistance (See RTK 01, Lu Bu: East and West View), Lu Bu was able to convince Yang Feng and Wei Xian to join him with promise of Chao-ting’s leniency to their crimes and entire loot from Yuan Shu’s treasury. Zhang Xun’s force was totally annihilated. Then together with Yang Feng, Lu Bu attacked Huai-nan [Commandery] and went straight toward Yuan Shu’s main camp at Shou-chun. Yuan Shu had to personally lead his five thousand troops to defend by the Huai River. Lu Bu and Yuan Shu Alliance formally disintegrated.

After broke up the alliance between Lu Bu and Yuan Shu, Cao Cao still ordered Liu Bei to station at the border of Yu and Xu Provinces to watch Lu Bu’s troops movement. On the ninth month of the Second Year of Rebuilding Peace (197 AD), he gathered troops at south east area of Yu Province. Cao Cao personally led the troop eastward to conquer Yuan Shu. Upon hearing the situation, Yuan Shu dared not to face him. He ordered Qiao Rui to defend against Cao Cao at Zhan-yang [city]. Yuan Shu gathered his main force and crossed Huai River to flee south eastward.

Qiao Rui also was afraid of Cao Cao and did not want to defend against him. Once he saw Yuan Shu had crossed the river, he ordered general retreat southward. But he had not counted on Cao Cao’s troops to arrive so quickly. Qiao Rui’s army routed and he was killed in confusion.

Although Yuan Shu’s main force escaped safely, southeast of Huai-nan was experienced draught in addition to winter season. Yuan Shu’s main force could not gather enough supplies. Troops were soon deserting him. His main force was on the brim of collapsing.

Cao Cao annexed Yu Province.

Cao Cao’s Troops Faced Enemies From All Sides

On Third Year of Rebuilding Peace (198 AD), Cao Cao began his second campaign against Zhang Xiu (see RTK 03, Life of Cao Cao Part 3). His garrison troops were stationed on the North and the West to deter Liu Biao and Yuan Shao intervention. Yuan Shu persuaded Lu Bu to join him in retaking Yu Province.

Lu Bu sent Gao Shun, General of Gentleman-of-the-Household, and Zhang Liao, Grand Administrator of Northern Commandery, to attack Liu Bei at Pei Prefecture. Cao Cao sent Xiahou Dun to assist. He was beaten by Gao Shun. Liu Bei forced to abandon the city and retreated northwest Yu Province to establish new line of defense.u

Answered Lu Bu’s call, bandit kings at Qing Province were mobilized to threaten eastern front of Yan Province. They were led by Zang Ba. Cao Cao, once again, found himself surrounded by enemies from all sides.

At emergency military meeting, nearly every general suggested to strengthen defense by garrison troops on all sides. Only Xun Yu thought that the best defense is a strong offense. The army should join up with Liu Bei and to strike at the heart of this entire mess, Lu Bu.

Xun Yu elaborated,

“Yuan Shao maintained his hold in the North and has feud with Liu Biao and Yuan Shu. He also disliked Lu Bu. Therefore, he would never coordinate with them in attacking us. Liu Biao and Zhang Xiu are recently defeated. They are more likely to lick their wounds in peace than to renew attack against us. Lu Bu is courageous but tactless. His organization is loose. He flip-flop with Yun Shu that both side would not sincerely come to each other’s aid. This army is only good at taking advantage of a situation. If Lu Bu somehow becomes successful and links up with Qing Province. Then together with Yun Shu in the South, he would pose threat not only to Yu but also Yan Province. It is best to concentrate our effort in beaten off Lu Bu before the above scenario crystallized. Once Lu Bu’s troops suffered defeat, bandits from Qing Province and Yuan Shu troops will be powerless.”

Cao Cao agreed with Xun Yun’s analysis. Cao Hong and Man Chong were ordered to watch against Zhang Xiu. He led Cheng Yu and Cao Ren’s armies with Xun Yu and Guo Jia as his military advisors to rapidly advance to the frontline at East of Yu Province. He joined Liu Bei and Xiahou Dun’s forces at Liang City and set up camps at Peng City.

Liu Bei and Cao Ren were to pretend to be the main force and to pressure Pei Prefecture from Peng City. Cao Cao personally led his main rapid strike force to


the border between Qing and Yan Provinces. He defeated bandits from the Qing Province that attempted to link up with Lu Bu’s force. Once the threat from north east was no more, he quickly returned to join up with Liu Bei in attack Pei Prefecture.

Chen Gong had advised Lu Bu to lead the main force into Pei Prefecture to meet up with Gao Shun’s troops. Then together with forces from Zang Ba and Yuan Shu, they could attack Peng City from three sides. But when Lu Bu readied to act, the northeast battle had been overed. Cao troops were

marched toward Pei Prefecture. Yuan Shu declined to participate by citing that the opportunity has gone and needed time to rethink his strategy. Lu Bu was once again, face Cao Cao by himself.

Lu Bu’s Loss, Cao Cao’s Gain

Due to latest change of event, Lu Bu forced to have Chen Gong defended the north west Xiao-guan (Pass). He led the main force to Pei Prefecture to relieve Gao Shun and Zhang Liao’s forces. Chen Deng was instructed to go along with him and Chen Gui defended Xu

Provincial City.

Prior departure, Chen Gui spoke to Chen Deng privately. He said,

“Not too long ago, Grand Cao had mentioned that the situation in the east is in your hand. Now, the opportunity has arise, we must take advantage of it.”

Chen Deng replied,

“Outside this city, this Child1 will figure out. If Lu Bu’s force retreated back here, Father and Mi Zhu should hold on to the city and not let him in. This Child will find a way to extract himself.

Chen Gui expressed,

“Lu Bu’s wives and children are here. Then there are his personal guards. It would be hard to gain control of this city.”

Battle of Xu Province198 AD

Cao Cao was in perlious posi-tion as he was surrounded by all sides with potential en-emies.

A) Bandit kings from Qing Prov-ince in the Northeast.

B) Lu Bu from Xu Province in the East

C) Yuan Shu from Northern Yang Zhou

Cao Cao’s Solutions:

1) Joined up with Liu Bei

2) Dispersed bandit kings

3) Isolated Lu Bu’s force.


Chen Deng smiled,

“Do not worry, this Child has an ideas.”

Then Chen Deng went to main camp to seek audience with Lu Bu. There, he suggested,

“Cao Troops are at the peak of their awesomeness. Xu Province is at peril. Would it be better to relocate General’s wives, children, money and supplies to Xia-pei City to keep an escape route open.”

Lu Bu lacked conviction on deciding things on his own. He agreed to Chen Deng’s analysis and ordered Sung Xian and Wei Xu to escort Lu Bu’s wives, children, moneys and grains in addition to his personal guards to Xia-pei City.

Furthermore, Chen Deng advised Lu Bu that it would be best to coordinate attack with Chen Gong and Gao Shun. When Lu Bu’s forces arrive, they could surround Cao Troops and attacked from all sides. Then crisis at Xiao-guan Pass and at Pei Prefecture would be relieved all at once. Lu Bu agreed with his plan and slowed his troop movement. This gave time for Chen Deng to move ahead to contact both Chen Gong and Gao Shun; to coordinate their attacks.

However, Chen Deng stopped at Cao’s camp. There, he told them to watch for the fire at night. That would be the signal to ambush both the relieve force from Xiao-guan Pass and Lu Bu’s main force. Chen Deng returned to Lu Bu’s camp and told that tonight’s signal fire is the indication to pincer attack Cao Troops with Chen Gong’s forces.

That evening, Chen Deng entered Xiao-guan Pass and spoke to Chen Gong. He said,

“Cao Cao has found a back road and attacked Xu Provincial City directly. General Lu is defending the city. Xiao-guan Pass is on its own. It is not worth to defend when provincial capital is at risk. It would be best for Grand [Chen] to take his force to reinforce the Xu Provincial City.”

Panic by the news, Chen Gong did not have time to think clearly. Futhermore, he saw Lu Bu’s Military Command Writ on Chen Deng as validity of his claim. Chen Gong immediately ordered a withdraw to retreat to Xu Provincial City under the cover of night. Once they left the pass, Chen Deng ascended to top and lit the fire. When Lu Bu saw the fire, he ordered to immediately attack troops outside of Xiao-guan Pass. In darkness, his troops collided with Chen Gong’s forces. They fought each other and suffered casualties. Cao troops, stationed nearby, quickly moved into Xiao-guan Pass.

When Lu Bu found out he was tricked, Xiao-guan Pass was in Cao’s Troops. Lu Bu ordered Chen Gong to retreat together back to Xu Provincial City. But the city was under Mi Zhu’s control and would not open its gate. Lu Bu called for Chen Gui. Mi Zhu from top of the city wall replied,

“Chen Gui has been executed by me. Xu Provincial City now belongs to Chao-ting (government). Would General Lu be so kind to relocate his force elsewhere.”

Lu Bu called forth Chen Deng, but he was not to be found. Only then, Lu Bu realized that he had been tricked by Chen Gui and Son.

Chen Gong suggested to withdraw to Pei Prefecture to defend. Along the march, they met up with Gao Shun and Zhang Liao’s forces. Lu Bu was surprised to see them and asked why they abandoned their posts. Gao Shun replied,

“In General’s Name, Chen Deng reported that situation at Xu Provincial City is at peril. We are ordered to bring relief.”

Lu Bu immediately ordered a force march to Pei Prefecture. There, they saw Cao Ren’s banners adorned on top of city wall. While prepared to siege, they received reports of approaching army led by Cao Cao. Lu Bu had lost his will to fight. Together with Chen Gong, Gao Shun and Zhang Liao, they immediately withdrew to Xia-pei City.

Mutiny within Xia-pei City

Under Chen Gui and Chen Deng’s rally, all other Xu Provincial commanderies and prefectures broke away from Lu Bu and announced their support to Cao’s troops.

To Cao Cao, Cheng Yu sugggested,

“Loyalists to Lu Bu are all gathered within Xia-pei City. If pressed hard enough, they will be desperate enough to mount a break through. Once broken free, they would doubtless seek Yuan Shu’s protection. Then Yuan and Lu would unite once more and posed threat to our southeast. Would it be better to loose our siege and offer leniency for their surrender. That way, their troop morale would be shaken. Furthermore, send an army who can function


competently independent from your guidance to garrison Huai-si area and to cut off communication between Lu Bu and Yuan Shu. This will discourage Lu Bu from making a break-through.”

Cao Cao then sent Liu Bei to garrison Huai-si to cut off any attempt from Yuan Shu. Lastly, he sent an envoy to parley with Lu Bu with purpose of to point out futility of continual resistance and to negotiate a surrender.

Lu Bu saw defection from all other Xu Province commanderies and prefectures; Yuan Shu showed no sign of attempt rescue; and Liu Bei garrisoned Huai-si area to prevent his escape to Yuan Shu. He is amenable to discuss for surrender.

But Chen Gong steadily refused.

He expressed,

“Cao Cao led a large troops from afar to attack us. His army is huge and must consume even larger amount of supplies. The winter is about to deepen, Cao troop’s supply can not be maintained for long. General could lead main force outside of Xia-pei City. Gao Shun and I will hold the city. If Cao troops attacked General’s encampment, I will lead troops to attack them from behind. If Cao Troops attacked the city, then General can attack from their behind. Cao troops’ Awesomeness would be blunted, thus their morale will drop. That and lack of supplies will force them to withdraw within ten days.”

Lu Bu agreed to his analyst and commanded Gao Shun to defend the city with Chen Gong. He prepared to move his main force outside the city to harass and cut off Cao’s supply routes. But secretly, Lu Bu’s wife, Mistress Yen, pleaded,

“Chen Gong never worked well with Gao Shun. Once General leaves the city, what guarantee both would work together to defend the city. If something happen, how can General come back into the city? Especially the fact that Cao Cao treated Chen Gong like part of his flash and blood, still Chen Gong betrayed him. How does General’s relationship with Chen Gong measured up to Cao Cao? When General leaves the city and there is something happened within

Scene of city siege during Three Kingdoms period - from Japanese Magazine, Warlords of Three Kingdoms


the city, General may not be able to see his wives and children again.”

Lu Bu decided to stay put and defended the city. Soon, Cao troops surrounded it.

Yuan Shu saw the Awesomeness of Cao troops, and Huai-si area being garrisoned by Liu Bei. He could only make threaten gesture but never advanced forward. Even He-nei Commandery Grand Administrator Chang Yang, who enjoyed closed relationship with Lu Bu, could not get near Xia-pei City.

By wintry October, Cao troops still could not break the stalemate; lacking adequate supply, troop morale began to sap. Cao Cao thought it would be best to withdraw troops back to Yan Province and to replan their strategy. Both Guo Jia and Xun Yu objected. Guo Jia pointed out,

“Lu Bu was known for his brute not for his tact. Now he had suffered defeats and already lost his edge. Three armies are reflection of the leading general. If the leading general lost his awesomeness, the entire troops lost their will to fight. Chen Gong was good at stratagem, but he often hesitated and unable to adjust rapid changes. Current weather does not favor attacking troops. However, Lu Bu’s awesomeness has not yet recovered, Chen Gong plan has yet to crystallized. With a rapid assault, they can be defeated. Once this opportunity is lost, they will bring more troubles in future.”

Cao Cao ordered to flood Xia-pei City and to cut off communication

to and from the city. A month later, Season enters full winter, supplies at Xia-pei City are running crucially low. According to Chen Gong’s analysis, the situation would be even worse at Cao’s troops. Therefore, he suggested Lu Bu to ask the city and troops to carefully ration their supplies and endure the hardship together. It would not be long that Cao’s troop would force a withdraw. Thus, Lu Bu gave command, entire army was to cut back on their consumptions of rations and no celebration.

One of defending officer, Hou Cheng lost his prized horse, but soon recovered it. His fellow officers offered gifts to congratulate. Hou Cheng divided his meat and wine and offered some to Lu Bu.

But Lu Bu angrily stated,

“I have just order a ban on celebration. Yet, you bring me wines and meat. Is that not a blatantly display of ignoring my command?”

He ordered Hou Cheng's execution.

Sung Xian, Wei Xu and others begged for leniency and reduced the punishment to caning. The schism between officers and Lu Bu widen daily. He became short temper and other officers were frightened to be around him. This created a shadow of mutiny.

On early December, Hou Cheng’s force mutinied. Sung Xian and Wei Xu followed. The Northern and the Western Gates were breached. Gao Shun and Chen Gong were captured. Zhang Liao led his force and made a successfully break. Lu Bu and his personal guards retreated to White Gate Tower and prepared to fight street-to-street.

By midnight, Cao Troops surrounded the tower. Lu Bu saw his Awesomeness was no more. He commanded his personal guards to behead him and use it as prize to Cao Cao. His guards refused. Together, they decended the tower to surrender to Cao’s Camp.

A Statement from Liu Bei, Lu Bu Lost His Life

“Today, the battle has ended, the fate of Heaven Below has been decided,” Lu Bu stated in presence of Cao Cao.

“How is that so?” Cao Cao asked.

“The person who Enlightened Lord feared is none other than Lu Bu. Now, that Lu Bu has submitted. If you but commanded Bu to lead vanguard, he would surely pacify Heaven Below for Enlightened Lord.” Lu Bu replied.

Cao Cao was amused by it but did not immediately reply.

Seeing Liu Bei sat on guest seat, Lu Bu cried out,

“Xuan De (Liu Bei’s personal name), now that you are the most honor guest, Bu being the captive. I have been fastened too tight, my body is numb. Why don’t you said something for me.”

Cao Cao saw Lu Bu begged, and thought about receiving his submission. He laughed,

“To restrain a tiger, it is better to be too tight than too loose.”

He ordered his Left and Right


(guards) to loosen rope on Lu Bu.

However, Liu Bei intervened,

“Does Enlighten Lord forget how Lu Bu served under Ding Yuan and Dong Zhou?”

Cao Cao suddenly shook from oblivion. He ordered for Lu Bu’s immediated execution.

As he was being pushed out, Lu Bu turned around and shouted,

“Big ear freak! You are the most untrust worthy. Have you not forgotten the Shooting Halberd at Yuan Gate that saved your sorry butt?”

Guards brought up Chen Gong.

Cao Cao spoke to Chen Gong.

“Gong Tai (Chen Gong's personal name) used to pride himself on cunning wits. How does he explain today’s situation?”

Chen Gong replied,

“It is Lu Bu who did not listen to my plans that resulted in today’s event. Has he used but a tenth of my stratagems, it would still be debatable as who would got the Deer2.”

Cao Cao asked,

“If Gong Tai does not submit, who would take care his elderly mother?”

Chen Gong answered,

“Chen Gong heard, To govern Heaven Below with Filial Piety, one would not harm another’s elderly. My elderly mother’s fate is on Enlighten Lord’s hand and not my decision to make.”

Cao Cao continued,

“What about your wife and child?”

Chen Gong responded,

“To govern Heaven Below with Benevolence, one would not end another’s lineage. The safety of wife and child is also depended on Enlightened Lord’s whim, not me.”

Cao Cao still hesitated. Chen Gong requested for execution. Cao Cao stammered. Chen Gong turned around and walked toward execution site. Cao Cao thought of years of services and felt his tears dropped.

Gao Shun also insisted on not surrender. Along with Lu Bu and Chen Gong, they were strangulated.

Cao Cao sent servants to take care of Chen Gong’s mother for rest of her life. He ordered restitution to Chen Gong’s wife and children that they lived better than under Lu Bu. Cao Cao make sure Chen Gong’s daughter had married into a wonderful life.

Zhang Liao brought his force to surrender. Cao Cao cherished his capability and promoted him to General of Gentleman-of-the-Household.

Zang Ba had ordered disperse of his followers and fled on his own. He was captured by Cao Cao along with other bandit kings, Yin Li and Sun Guan. When they capitulated, Cao Cao gave them official position and commanded them to safeguard Qing Province and to assist Cao troops in future. Now, Cao Cao had complete mastery over Provinces of Yan, Xu, and Yu and south of Qing Province.

Previously at Yan Province, Cao Cao had promoted Xu Xi and Mao Hui to generalship. When Lu Bu

attacked that province, Xu and Mao joined him. After this campaign, Xu Xi and Mao Hui fled to Zang Ba. Cao Cao asked Liu Bei to negotiate with Zang Ba for their heads.

Zang Ba expressed to Liu Bei.

“Ba was able to become recognizable in Shandong Region by maintained Principle of Righteous. I am forever in Grand Cao's debt and would not dare to disobey his request. But even more I afraid to disobey Principle of Righteous. Else I will not be able to assist my Lord in defending this place and maintain his influence. If General can please convey

“The person who Enlightened Lord feared is none other than Lu Bu. Now, that Lu Bu has submitted. If you but command Bu to lead vanguard, he will surely pacify Heaven Below for Enlightened Lord.” Lu Bu replied.



my respectfully decline.”

Liu Bei reported back to him. Cao Cao sighted,

“Since antiquity, Principles of Trust and Righteousness have been prized. If Zang Ba has them, then this it is all I ever wanted.”

He did not press the issue. Later, when Cao Cao fought against Yuan Shao at Guang-du, Zang Ba was able to safeguard Eastern Qing Province. Armies of Yuan could not get through to put pressure on Cao’s right wing.

Part V: Assassination Attempt

Cao Cao was raised from eunuch family, his respect for imperial authority was not as great as scholars as expressed in the open stanza of his favorite poem

“Of Heaven and Earth, Man is most cherished.Lord’s duty is to shepherd his people;His behavior guides others to follow…”

Cao Cao had already separated the authority to govern a nation from emperor personal authority. His enthusiasm in politic was more concern with the welfare of people and the stability of a nation. Even in his speech, he did not equate emperor as the symbol of righteousness in Heaven Below like Xun Yu. For him, royal authority was merely a tool for people to grasp the concept of rulership. Therefore, Cao Cao’s respect for emperor was more toward profitability than ideology.

This strengthened the notion that Cao Cao was a Legalist.

Uphold Emperor, Slight Imperial Court

In early years, Wang Fen, Inspector of Yi Province, had solicited Cao Cao to overthrow Han Emperor Ling (early 180 AD). Cao Cao strongly opposed it. In his reply, he based his argument on profitability. The success rate to overthrow the emperor is slim and if successful, it would not have stabilized both the government and the people. Therefore, he decided against it. So early on, Cao Cao did not uphold the emperor in term of being right and proper.

When Dong Zhou propped up Han Emperor Xian, Cao Cao was first to raise army against it. Even then, his oppositions were because Dong Zhuo had disrupted the norm of political order and procedure. Not because he cared or supported of Han Emperor Xian. That was the same attitude he had currently.

Xun Yu and Cheng Yu lobbied Cao Cao to support Uphold the Emperor stratagem. Not only did they did it on the ground of loyal Hans subjects to their emperor, but also based their argument on profitability as,

“Honor Lord to accord People’s wish, great accord;Behave Righteousness to subdue Heaven Below, great stratagem; Maintain Great Principle to attract talents, great virtue...”

Obviously, Xun Yu knew Cao Cao was more interested in cost analyst than morale obligation.

With this kind of setting, it would be inevitable that a schism existed

between the lord and his minister, and a violent undercurrent political power struggle ensured.

From August of the Inception Year of Rebuilding Peace (196 AD) when Han Emperor Xian had been welcomed to Xu-dou to the end of Second Year of Rebuilding Peace (197 AD) was considered to be the honeymoon period between Cao Cao and Han Emperor Xian factions. During that time, Cao Cao not only build palace complex for Han Emperor Xian and provided funds to run Imperial Court (Chao-ting); he also requested a new ceremony to perform to represent the renewal of Han Dynasty.

But Cao Cao was more used to doing things his way and dislike the imply formality of Imperial Court (Chao-ting). Since the Second Year of Rebuilding Peace (197 AD), he gradually stayed at Luo-yang and making fewer visits to Han Emperor Xian at Xu-dou. And because of Cao Cao behaviors, his rank and files also began to distant themselves or to give Chao-ting a cool reception. They performed their request tasks and did not attempt to acquaint with members of Chao-ting.

Likewise, initially, Han Emperor Xian, nobility and ministers appreciated Cao Cao’s help when they were rescued from danger, hunger, and impoverished. They were able to endure pity stare from Cao Cao’s camp. But once their lives have been settled down, these indigent noble wanted to have a more opulent setting. Hence, their demand for more funding increased more urgently. To these parasites, Cao Cao’s officials began to feel impatience and their attitude became more contempt and disparagement.


The animosity between the two factions gradually built up through daily contacts.

During Spring of the Fourth Year of Rebuilding Peace (199 AD), Cao Cao and Han Emperor Xian conducted the Spring Ceremonial Hunting Ritual. There were arguments: on how the troops or followers were organized and how the order of shooting ceremony to be performed. It escalated between the Minister/Nobility camp and the Cao Cao’s camp. Seriousness of this situation have involved both Cao Cao and Han Emperor Xian. In Romance of the Three Kingdoms novel, Chapter 20 focused exclusively on this event to reflect the villainy of Cao Cao. Needless to say, the situation was intensely uncomfortable. Han Emperor Xian felt slighted by the incident.

At that time, Han Emperor Xian was nineteen years old, his emotion was unsteady and rebellious as a teenager. He had suffered hardship nearly all his life. Even though he was the Emperor and received homage from his ministers every day. However, privately, he felt constraint by Cao Cao. In addition, Yuan Shao of the Northern Hegemony had expressed interested to Upheld him which caused his value to further increase. Nobility around him urged him to break free from Cao Cao’s confinement. These factors built up the resentment Han Emperor Xian had against Cao Cao. The incident at Hunting Ceremony might seem trivia to Cao Cao who would soon forget about it. But to Han Emperor Xian, the humiliation fueled his bitterness and resentment to his benefactor.

The negative impression soon became political hostility. The

fused was lit on the Spring of Fifth Year of Rebuilding Peace (200 AD) with Dong Cheng Incident. Cao Cao and Imperial Court began a long term of political belligerency.

Blooded Writ: Secret Decree to Assassinate Cao Cao

The leader of anti-Cao Faction was more likely Imperial Father-In-Law, Fu Wan, whose daughter was Empress Fu. Though Fu Wan had the recognition and the position, he lacked military strength. The only person with military control and not in Cao’s Camp is Imperial Uncle, Dong Cheng.

It was said that Dong Cheng was summoned by Han Emperor Xian one day to discuss court event. Afterward, he awarded Dong Cheng with a luxurious silk robe. Dong Cheng did not know the reason why, but suspected it must contain a secret. When he took it home and inspected more closely, he could not figure out the whereabouts of the message. Getting weary, he accidentally knocked over a candle stick. It landed on the robe and soon caught fire. Dong Cheng quickly put it out. Afterward, he spotted blood prints within the robe. He took a knife to cut it open to retrieve the blood print. It was Blood Writ from Son of Heaven that stated,

Zhen (emperor’s pronoun) heard of all relations, the father and son is the greatest. Of all propriety, the emperor and subject is most serious. Nowadays, Rascal Cao had manipulated power, oppressed his lord and elder; organized thugs, and disrupted the propriety

of the court. The choice of to reward or to punish had been forcibly taken out of Zhen’s hand. Zhen worries day and night, and afraid that Heaven Below will soon be in danger. Ling (minister’s pronoun) are the pillar of this nation, and dear relative of Zhen. Your task will be no less difficult than that the Founding Emperor Gao had experienced during his establishing of Han Foundation. Go gather up all loyal and righteous warriors

to get rid of this den of evils, to return social equilibrium and to honor your ancestors. This writ was made through broken finger and bloody notes for Ling. Please be cautious and do not fail Zhen!

Fourth Year of Rebuilding Peace, Spring, Writ

If the writ was written in blood, it meant that the emperor was under surveillance and did not have access to brush pen. This bloody writ also symbolized Han Emperor Xian’s commitment to do away Cao Cao if he willing to write down the dispatch with his blood.

Another support for the existence of Bloody Writ was the fact that it would be hard for Dong Cheng to talk Liu Bei into taking great risk by joining the conspiracy.

Within Xu-dou, Cao’s camp force had upper hand. It would be difficulty for Dong Cheng to do a

A trivia event for Cao Cao but a great slight to Han Emperor Xian



successful coup. Dong Cheng had been frustrated for couple days to think a perfect plan. To further compound the issue, Dong Cheng could not be sure that his troops would follow his command when push came to shelve.

First he got General Wang Fu involved. General Wang Fu had the most potential and well-like among Dong Cheng’s camp. General Wang Fu introduced Chong Ji, Colonel of Zhang-shui District, and Wu Shuo, Advisory Gentleman-Of-the-Household to Dong Cheng. Still, that would not be enough to face Cao Cao’s force or even getting closer to Cao Cao himself. Hence Dong Cheng thought of Liu Bei.

It was said that when Cao Cao brought Liu Bei to pay respect to Han Emperor Xian. A lineage search indicated that Liu Bei was the descendant of Liu Sheng, King of Zhong-shan Qing Commandery; he was a distant relative. And according to seniority, Liu Bei was the elder to the two. Han Emperor Xian was joyed to see another kinsman and promoted Liu Bei to Imperial Uncle title. Liu Bei, born of poverty and was never close to powerful people, was moved by Han Emperor Xian’s hospitality. This could be why Liu Bei would take such risk to part-take Cao Cao’s assassination.

However, it was very risky to get Liu Bei involved. To majority of Chao-ting, Liu Bei was relatively unknown and with even fewer connection. Liu Bei’s charisma and easy-going personality played a part on group of strangers who decided to include him into conspiracy. Undoubtedly, Dong Cheng also did some background checking of his own. Only after, he knew of relationship of Liu Bei to

Han Emperor Xian and Cao Cao, the invitation was extended to the distant imperial relative.

Of Heroes in Heaven Below, Only Lord and Cao are Equal

Liu Bei jointed the conspirators to assassinate Cao Cao. To hide his intention, Liu Bei focused on growing vegetables in the backyard of his resident at Xu-duo. One day, as he was working on his backyard, a sudden request for his presence from Cao Cao. Liu Bei was surprised and unable to refuse. He attended to Prime Minister’s Compound.

Never did he expect that Cao Cao was specifically entertained him at the rear garden. It was obvious that Cao Cao want to have Liu Bei to serve him. This was one of Cao Cao’s characteristics; he always tried the hardest and was most patient to court those he knew they would not submit to him.

Even though Cao Cao knew that Liu Bei would not serve him, he still tried to get him to become a partner on the same side. Therefore, he often invited him to small personal party to express his sincerity to Liu Bei. That day was one of those special occasions.

When Cao Cao saw Liu Bei, he wholeheartedly greeted him and took his hand to the rear garden. And smilingly he asked,

“Is it unusual for Xuan De5 to practice gardening.”

Liu Bei was not sure where Cao Cao was going with that statement, he simply replied,

“It helped pass time by.”

Cao Cao laughed and pointed to plum trees,

“Those plums reminded me of my earlier campaign against Yuan Shu. Due to our rapid cavalry movement, my troops did not have time to drink water. That day was hot and dry, officers and soldiers mouths were dried and tongues inflamed. Seeing them on the brim of exhaustion, I came up with an idea. Pointed to a distant forest, I shouted, ‘In front of us is a plum forest.’ When troops heard about it, their mouth watered at the thought of those tasty plums. They were no longer in thirst and morale was boosted. With one breath, we chased Yuan Shu across nine rivers. It was very fortunate that I have thought of that scheme. Now, seeing those plums, it would be a waste not to enjoy them. With the wine ready, I thought it would be great to have Lord Liu over at the gazebo for a meet.”

Liu Bei saw Cao Cao being heartfelt and sincere, he calmed down and followed to the gazebo. He saw it was already set up for a small wine boiler, 2 cups, and a dish of plums. Two men sat across each other and drank to their heart content.

In midst of their wine enjoyment, they saw the weather changed before their very eyes. Dark clouds gathered, forewarned storm to come. Cao Cao and Liu Bei observed the approaching dark clouds from a distant. Cao Cao felt inspired, he turned to Liu Bei and asked,

“Does Lord know about dragon’s transformation?”

“Don’t believe that I know the complete story.”


“Dragon can enlarge or shrink; it ascends or descends. In its enlarge state, it creates cloud and generates fogs. In its shrunken state, it hides between and changes shape. In its ascension, it flies through galaxy. It its descend, it traversed beneath the waves. Now in deep of spring, dragon takes advantages to transform like men who aspired to reach across four seas. Dragons, though creatures, are often compared to heroes of our times. Xuan-de has been worldly and met numerous men. He must know about heroes of our time, care he name a few?”

“Bei is but an ordinary folk, how can he distinguish heroes?”

“Lord, you are overly humble.”

“Through your grace, Bei receives government post. Heroes of Heaven Below are unmet.”

“Though not met, surely have heard of them!”

“Yuan Shu of Huai-nan, with plenty of troops and supplies, is considered a hero?”

“Skeleton in the grave, I will capture him sooner or later.”

“Yuan Shao North of Yellow River, three generation of meritorious services out of four, a noble house with lots of associates and plenty of ties. Now, he controlled Yi Province and has plenty of able followers. He is considered to be a hero of

our time.”

Cao Cao laughed,

“Yuan Shao loved a show of forces, but he did not know any better. Love to plan but afraid to act. He has ambition but cherishes his comfort even more. He did not have the courage to pursue big. Yet, he willing to forgo his principles for small profits. This person is not worth to be the hero.”

“Liu Biao of Jing Province has awed nine provinces. People called him one of Eight Talents, can be considered a hero.”

“Liu Biao only has the name not the substance, not a hero.”

“Sun Ce South of Yangtze River is known for his blood and guts and leader of all he surveyed, worthy of a hero.”

“Sun Ce based his fame from his father’s effort, unworthy of a hero.”

“Is Liu Zhang of Western Yi Province considering a hero?”

“Though Liu Zhang came from imperial line, he is more of a guarding dog, not a hero.”

“Zhang Xiu, Zhang Lu, Han Sui…”

“Such petty folks, not worth the effort.”

“Besides these people, Bei does not know anyone else.”

“By definition, hero must contain ambition in his heart, stratagems within his navel. He is equipped to contain the universe and able to swallow

Sidebar Information:Zong Shi-lin of Nan-Yang was Filially Pious and Incorrupt3 at the same year as Cao Cao. He did not like Cao Cao’s overly ambition, therefore he refused to associate with him. But Cao Cao really like Zong Shi-lin’s ability and personality. He was especially fascinated with Zong Shi-lin’s interpretation of Lao-zi philosophy. So he constantly send envoy to inquire Zhong Shi-lin’s intention or political aspiration. When Cao Cao became Minister of Work, again he inquired about Zhong Shi-lin’s political intention. Zhong Shi-lin replied, “My ambition is like that of pine and cypress4”

Still, Cao Cao was persistence. Zhong Shi-lin was eventually called to become Grand Administrator of Han-zhong Commandery. When Cao Cao became King of Wei, Zhong Shi-lin officially became his political advisor and became an important cabinet members during Cao Cao’s twilight years.



heaven and earth.”

“In present day and age, who has those criteria?”

Cao Cao pointed to Liu Bei then back to himself,

“Nowadays, the people who best qualify to be Heroes of Heaven Below are only between 2 people, Lord Liu and I, Cao Cao.”

When Liu Bei heard it, he felt shocked, and the spoon dropped from his hand. At the same time, thunder struck. Liu Bei quickly composed himself and calmly picked up his spoon. Deprecated himself, he laughed,

“Thus, I display the awe of one thunder.”

Cao Cao saw Liu Bei’s lost composure and jokingly asked,

“Elder man6 fear of thunder?”

Liu Bei replied,

“Even the sagacious man declared to change color at the sudden thunder and fierce wind, how can I pretend otherwise.”

The awkward situation was negated by this comment. Cao Cao saw Liu Bei over-reaction and thought that he had came to him in needs. Liu Bei must have felt pressure, so he did not pursuit the subject.

As Cao and Yuan Struggled, Liu Bei Benefited

The conspiracy to assassinate Cao Cao was headed by Dong Cheng, General of Chariot and Cavalry. Others included Chong Ji, Colonel of Zhang-shui District, Wu Zi-lan, General, Wang Fu, General, and

Liu Bei, General of the Left and Inspector of Xu Province. All but Liu Bei were also court ministers. Why would they pick Liu Bei who was at Cao Cao’s camp during that time? It demonstrated that Liu Bei had maintained his independence from Cao Cao’s influence and also his heroic reputation. For these reasons, Dong Cheng felt Liu Bei was the only one who could stand against Cao Cao.

To be situated in midst of enemy camp, Liu Bei had to think of a way to extract himself from the danger. Even if Cao Cao would not kill him, there was not guarantee that Cao Cao’s loyal followers would not.

At that time Yuan Shu began to feel being surrounded by hostile forces after his request for alliance with Sun Ce had been rejected. He was thinking about going north to rejoin his brother, Yuan Shao. Even though both Yuan were enemies, they were also brothers. Now the situation has changed, both Yuan would more likely to work together than to fight among themselves. Cao Cao was very interested to prevent that from happened.

Saw this as an opportunity, to Cao Cao, Liu Bei suggested,

“If Yuan Shu is to join up with Yuan Shao, he has to travel through Xu Province. Though it has been recently pacified, the defense is still weak. I know more about Xu Province and maintain good rapport there. Why don’t I lead an army to Xu Province to prevent Yuan Shu from going north. This would eliminate the possible threat of having two Yuan reunited.”

Cao Cao wanted to impress Liu Bei, so he agreed. He assigned

fifty thousands men to Liu Bei and accompanied by Zhu Ling and Lu Zhao for immediate departure. Once Liu Bei has received the order, he quickly organized troops and rounded up supplies for speedy decampment. Dong Cheng accompanied Liu Bei to the Pavilion at Ten Li (tradition ritual of escort honor guest prior arrival or departing the host city). They reaffirmed their goals and made additional arrangement. Then Liu Bei force marched to Xu Province.

When Guo Jia and Cheng Yu returned from setting up taxation system at Yu Province and heard about Liu Bei’s departure to Xu Province, they came to prevent it. Cao Cao asked his personal guards leader, Xu Zhu, to take the army writ and intercepted. But Liu Bei’s force was far ahead than they have expected. The interception failed. Though Cao Cao regretted his decision, he thought Liu Bei was still within his reach. So he did not pay much attention afterward.

Yuan Shu attempted couple of times to move northward. Each time, Liu Bei blocked the access. Yuan Shu forced to flee southward. But his stress and depression were too much. He died on June of the Fourth Year of Rebuilding Peace (199 AD) of spitting blood. His army dissolved. Some fled to Sun Ce at East of Yangtze but majority of them joined Cao Cao.

Once mission accomplished, Liu Bei sent Zhu Ling and Lu Zhao back to Xu-dou to claim the credits. He would lead the main force to safeguard Xu Province. He worked hard to settle and to comfort people who experienced year long ravages of war.

Cao Cao secretly tell the co-


Inspector of Xu Province, Che Wei, to assassinate Liu Bei when opportunity rose. But Chen Gui father and son knew about it and passed the information to Liu Bei. Liu Bei ordered Guan Yu to attack Xu Provincial City and killed Che Wei during the process. Guan Yu redeployed to garrison family members and supplies at Xia-pei City. Liu Bei and Zhang Fei garrisoned the Pei Prefecture by the border of Xu and Yu Province to prevent Cao troops from invading. This officially broke any ties between Cao Cao and Liu Bei. Soon, from Xu-dou, news reportedof Dong Cheng attempted assassination and conspirators being rounded up for execution.

Planning Year Around, Without an Action

The conspiracy dragged over a year without any concrete action. This had to do with the difficulty of executing such plan. And it get exposed before any exploit could be made. In official historical texts such as San-guo Zhi’s Wei Emperor Wu Cao Chapter, it had only stated that Bei and Dong Cheng planned revolt. And under Fore Master Liu Bei Chapter, it stated, “conspired with (Dong) Cheng, along with Zhang-shui District Colonel Chong Ji, General Wu Zi-lan, and Wang Fu. Planned but no action taken. Being detected, Deng and other were executed.”

Another historical record, Zi-zhi Tong-jian (Thoroughly Inspection of Capital Government), had two brief entries. Fourth Year of Rebuilding Peace (199 AD) entry indicated, “conspired with (Dong) Cheng, along with Zhang-shui District Colonel Chong Ji, General Wu Zi-lan, and Wang

Fu.” Fifth Year of Rebuilding Peace (200 AD) entry showed, “First month of Spring, Dong Cheng Conspiracy revealed; Cao Cao executed (Dong) Cheng, Wang Fu, Chong Ji and their three generations.”

But it is lot more theatrical to read Romance of Three Kingdoms edition of this event. According to the novel, Ma Teng, Xi-liang Commandery Grand Administrator, and Ji Ping, Grand Physician, have also played part of the conspiracy. There is no way to validate Ma Teng involvement. Unless Ji Ping had played a major role, normally, the Grand Physician position is too low to be included in the succinct historical records.

Ma Teng was the surviving leader of Xi-liang Faction. He could very well know of Dong Cheng while they were in Chang-an. Not to mention the fact that Dong Cheng did come from Xi-liang Faction. Therefore, it was possible for Dong Cheng to ask Ma Teng for help. Then the possible explanation of why Ma Teng was untouched would be that once the conspiracy had been discovered, Cao Cao wanted to limit the possible political fall-outs. So he focused majority of blames on Chong Ji, Dong Cheng and Liu Bei. Cao Cao did not want to use this as a direct confrontation with Han Emperor Xian. And he was definitely not ready to fight another warlord over this incident. Therefore, even if Ma Teng had involved, Cao Cao would not publicly accuse the Leader of Xi-liang Faction.

Cao Cao was well known for having migraine. The situation worsened during the change of season. Hence, it was not unreasonably for Dong Cheng to recruit Ji Ping for possibly poisoning Cao Cao.

Of course, there were lots more to it just to assassinate Cao Cao. Problems with the military and the political stability were also need to consider. Liu Bei and Ma Teng did not have sufficient force to pacify the military nor to face Yuan Shao who would fill in the power vacuum at the capital. These may explain why Dong Cheng took over a year to plan out his conspiracy.

In actually, there were many people who were interested to see Cao Cao dead. Zi-zhi Tong-jian had record of one such incident. Xu Chi was one of close personal bodyguard of Cao Cao. Either, he was an agent of Yuan Shao or more likely, bribed to assassinate his master. During Battle of Guan-do (detailed in next issue), Xu Chi attempted to assassinate Cao Cao. But he was discovered by Xu Zhu (two different Chinese characters for Xu’s and no blood relation between the two), colonel of Cao Cao bodyguard (a position inherited from Dian Wei). Xu Zhu

One of Mystery from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, did Ma Teng participate with Dong Cheng conspiracy?



killed Xu Chi on the spot.

Long Night Many Dreams, Hidden Plot Revealed

A popular Chinese proverb, Long Night Many Dreams, described that the more people involved and the longer time it takes, greater is the chance of being expose.

On Spring of the Fifth Year of Rebuilding Peace (200 AD), Cao Cao finally got wind of this conspiracy. But since this conspiracy had yet to acted, few people were involved. It would be hard to investigate any other people who were in with Dong Cheng. Not want to escalate the conflict between Han Emperor Xian and him, Cao Cao did not probe the reason behind. Everything was blamed internally on Dong Cheng, Chong Ji, Wang Fu, Wu Zi-lan and other noble or ministers who were punished by executed three generation of their family lines. Externally, all blames fell on Liu Bei. For that, Cao Cao announced retribution.

The astute political side of Cao Cao could be seen brilliantly handled this entire situation. He cleverly covered up the link between this conspiracy and Han Emperor Xian. Even the possible leader of this conspiracy, the Imperial In-law, Fu Wan, was untouched. Yet, all these people witnessed first hand again what happened to those who opposed him. In addition, this gave Cao Cao legitimate excuse to eliminate the remaining military threat at capital by absorbed it into his army. This also prevented other warlords from rally around To Rescue Emperor banner. And gave them no righteous reason to attack Cao Cao.

Externally, there were bound to be allies of Dong Cheng waiting for the call or sympathize to Dong Cheng’s cause. But Cao Cao chose not to press the case and concentrated his attention on Liu Bei at Xu Province. There would be no repeat of making too many enemies and be like Dong Zhou during early days. This would defeat the purpose of to Uphold Emperor policy. Liu Bei was an ideal candidate for his meteoric rise to warlord status was seen as freak accident by more established warlords. And the fact that Liu Bei was under Cao Cao’s protection when he joined the conspiracy also make it easier for other warlords to look the other way. Therefore, when Cao Cao announced retribution against Liu Bei, no one objected. Liu Bei was indeed the ideal scapegoat for Cao Cao.

Prevent Yuan Shao or Attack Liu Bei

After absorbing Dong Cheng’s military force, Cao Cao was ready to personally lead the attack against Liu Bei.

However, Yuan Shao had shown signs of being ready to focus his attention southward. Cao Cao had visited several times to Guan-du and build up fortification there. Already, he had in mind about that was the place for the eventual north-south conflicts. The tension was high on anticipated attacks from the north.

At a military meeting, nearly every generals opposed to attack Liu Bei. Many people agreed that,

“the only worthy opponent for Enlightened Elder is Yuan Shao. Nowadays, Yuan Shao is prepared to advance

southward. We ought to prepare defense, instead of, to conduct an eastern campaign. What if Yuan Shao takes advantage of our situation, then Yan Province would be in perils.”

But Cao Cao disagreed,

“Liu Bei is a hero among men. If he is not eliminated today, tomorrow, he will become formidable threat. And what if he is to ally with Yuan Shao and attack us eastward while we are busied defending against the north?”

Guo Jia, agreed with Cao Cao, said

“Yuan Shao’s personality is not very responsive and often hesitated. He would not attack so quickly and so impromptu. Liu Bei has recently rebuild Xu Province. There is not much solidarity yet. If attack now, his force will splinter. Therefore, it is important to attack Liu Bei first then focus our attention on Yuan Shao.”

Soon after, Cao Cao organized nearly hundred thousand troops. They were led by Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan, Xu Huang, Zhang Liao, and Yu Jin to make five prong attacks to Xu Province.

Due to his smaller forces, Liu Bei was no match to Cao Cao. Thereby, he sent Chief Advisor, Sun Qian, to request aid from Yuan Shao. Tian Feng, Yuan Shao’s chief advisor, strongly advocated to take the advantage of situation by to attack Xu-dou immediately. This would help stop the invasion to Xu Province. But Yuan Shao could not concentrate on military affair. He was distraught by his youngest


son’s measles and whose life might be passing away anytime soon.

Tian Feng lament,

“Rarely has an opportunity such as this come by, but because of a child’s illness, we watch it flee from our grasp. Such tragedy! Such Misfortune!”

Lack of reinforcement from Yuan Shao, Liu Bei was unable to defend against Cao Cao. Xu Province’s main military force had been resentful of Liu Bei’s inability to govern and saw how large of Cao Cao’s forces; they rebelled against Liu Bei’s command. Liu Bei only able to control two prefectures: Pei Prefecture with Zhang Fei, and Xia-pi City by Guan Yu. Even Sun Gui father and son expressed their neutrality from Xu Provincial City and did not want confrontation with Cao’s Troops.

To speed up the situation in the east, Cao Cao baited Liu Bei to come out and fight. He pretended to send majority of his forces to siege Xia-pi City. With smaller troops, he stationed outside of Pei Prefecture City. Liu Bei took the bait; he attempted a nightly ambushed. Instead, he fell into Cao Cao’s trap. Liu Bei’s main force had been disbursed. He lost contact with Zhang Fei. Liu Bei fled to Qing Province. There, he met Yuan Tan, Yuan Shao’s eldest son, Liu Bei went to Yuan Shao. Upon hearing his arrival, Yuan Shao personally led the welcoming committee 30 li outside of Ye Commandery City to receive Liu Bei. He temporary situated Liu Bei in Yi Province.

After defeating Liu Bei, Pei Perfection immediately fell. Chen Deng yielded Xu Provincial City. Guan Yu, defended Xia-pie City,

saw the situation was over. In order to protect Liu Bei’s wife and lady, he negotiated with Cao Cao for conditional capitulate his force. Cao Cao, though he cherished Guan Yu’s personality and ability, was barely agreed to terms of surrender. This concluded the Dong Cheng Incident.

Footnotes1This Child, an ancient custom of son refer to himself when spoken to his father

2 Deer is often referred to the highest political aspiration, rulership

3 Normally, 2 candidates were recommended by kingdom or commandery Grand Administrator to the central government.

4 Pine and cypress - meaning to be upright and unyield to temptation.

5 Liu Bei’s personal name

6 the word, zhangfu, means husband in modern day. In ancient time, it also denote a man who is in prime of his adulthood.


CommenceThere have been relatively little changes in economic and social structure within 400 years of Han Dynasty. During this period, the pendulum of government interfer-ence moved widely from less to rigid and back to less. And in this final state, a runaway extravagance and widespread consumption of luxurous goods and services have occurred. Yet, these exuberance of wealth were concentrated among large cities and capital itself.

Copper coins (chien) became the only form of monetary unit used during Late Han Dynasty. Folks may collate them in ten, hundred, or thousand of cash string forms. Yet, everything was still referred to base money unit. The use of cash was so prevalent that during a nature disaster, instead of send-ing rice and supplies, government gave out grant of cash strings to stricken families for supplies and burials. Trusting that the versatil-ity of cash could expedient flows

of goods and services to disaster area. Mandatory labor services from local peasants were gradually transformed into monetary taxes. From this period onward, mea-surement of wealth were stated in cash vale as opposed to number of lands, servants, livestocks, bolts of silks, and etc.

Periodically, government severely curtailed merchants with heavy taxes, standardized price of com-modities, limited their dress code, and have severe punishment. Then there were time when government faternalized with merchants to create state monopoly or to bor-row money. As a part of society, merchant class was in a strange and peculiar position. According to both law and culture, farmers and craftsmen were much more honor and prestiges than mer-chants. Yet, in reality, it was totally opposite. Still, merchants attempt-ed to transform themselves into respected members of society by became gentry landowners.

As Han Government slowly lost

grip on monopolies of salt and iron and market regulations, merchants began to take over. They started at regional trade level and at trade on everyday necessities. Merchants sold goods and services at shops at designated urban marketplace. Traders formed caravans to trade between cities and with foreign countries (see table 1).

There were many books on arts of trades being published during Late Han Dynasty. One such book taught how to take in account of agricul-tural activity by selling seeds at high mark-up during eighth month which was traditional planting

Commence in Han Dynastyby Chuan Lin

Table 1 - Exports from various part of China/World

Western China

Bamboo

Southern China

Camphor All Part of China

Iron

Timber Catalpa Copper

Grain Ginger

Middle Eastern

Wines

Gemstones Cinnamon Spices

Eastern China

Fish Gold Horses

Salt Tin Wollen Furs

Lacquer Lead

Oversea

Pearl

Silk Cinnabar Jade

Northern China

Horse Rhinocerrous Horn Lapis

Oxen Tortoise Shell Lazuli

Sheep Pearl Glass

Rug Ivory

Rome

Rhinocerrous Horn

Furs Leather Tortoise Shell

Horns Ivory

Ancient Han Character for Commerence or Shang


season; and to buy wheats dur-ing fifth and sixth months when wheats were recently harvested. An astute dealer could apply the same concept to other situation. During crisis of conflict, a horse trader was able to sold horses at premium of up to 2 million cash per steed. A money lenderw was able to lend out money to finance military at high interest rate.

ManufactureManufacture broke down into state controlled and private enterprise. Government, in an attempt to be-come self sufficient and indepen-dent from merchants, have their own manufacture sector located in capital and at local commander-ies. This was further broke down by each bureau: one department would focus on weapons, bronze vessels, and mirrors; another bu-reau would made utensils, weap-ons and armors; and then another bureau built funeral objects. If there were excess goods, these were then sold on public market. If there were shortage, goods were purchased from public sector to fill necessary quota.

FarmingDespite technological boomed in ag-riculture development, there were still disparity between rich land-owner and poor farmers which was not unlike small American farmers have experienced during 80s.

New tools and methodology like new iron plowshares to plow deeper and more efficient when combined with two pulling oxen. Pottery bricks were used to build well for irrigation. Books on study of soil to determine best time and type of crops for maximum yields were available.

Unfortunately, most of them came at premium prices. Many poor farmers were victims of changing technology and economic modal. Small land-owners were unable to afford newer tools and advance methodology.

This was more poignant since gov-ernment had lost the monopoly on iron and could not subside farm-ers with artificially deflated price. Small farmers began to incur debts as they needed to keep up produc-tion in order to pay for the debt. A bad harvest or two would further force the small farmers to down-

ward spirals that eventually, they forced to sell off their lands and to work for larger and richer land-owners as indenture servants.

Government have often step in to help. But frequent bad harvests, dwindle monetary reserves and po-litical infighting have caused more people to fall through the crack.

InfrastructureTo ensure rapid communication and movement of troops and sup-plies, road were being build and maintenance by conscripts. There were three types of roads. The best maintained and well-kept were the imperial roads. These connected major cities from the capital. All could use roads, but be prepared to yield the central lane to more worthy travelers. There were some checkpoints along these roads to prevent smuggling of contrabands and criminals. These check points resided more closer to capital city than anywhere else.

Besides roads, canals were built to maintain connection to the south. They were mostly dug to connect smaller cities in the south. Most of

Map of Silk Roadcourtesy from Library.Thinkquest.com


them were branched off Yangtze River and Yellow River. It took three years of conscript workers to com-plete the canal, or man made river to connect Chang-an and Yellow River.

Not only roads and canals were build and maintained, but other amenities were added. For ex-ample, a local government was in-structed to maintain Pao-yeh road that connected the commandery to Lou-yang, the capital. This involved 623 trestles, 5 large bridges, 258 li (107 km) of road and 64 buildings like rest houses, post stations, and relay stations.

As Late Han moved toward its dusk, interregional trades became a reason to build infrastructures. There were occassions that rich traders paid out of his pocket to maintain these infrastructure.

Most common sight on the road was people travelled on foot. Farm-ers used oxen to pull cart or wagon of goods to city. Traders operated a train of oxen carts for interprov-ince trades or camels for Silk Road. Officials and men of wealth trav-eled on horseback or on chariots.

Postal ServiceHan Dynasty inherited its commu-nication and transportation system from Qin Dynasty. Like its predeces-sor, Han Dynasty found itself occu-pied a large piece of land and the necessity to have a system of com-munication from central to local government. Qin Dynasty already provided standardization of com-munication that Han Dynasty could adopt with little modification.

Postal Delivery Law was a product of Qin Dynasty and may have been one of earliest recorded legisla-tion on this subject. It defined two types of documents: urgent letter from the imperial court that de-manded for immediately delivery; and non-urgent letter from govern-ment official that could be sent away in a given day. Both method of communication require time

and location stamp to keep track of their progress.

System of reward and punishment has put in place for people who lost or temper the document and for those who recover them. This ensured the safety and rapidness of delivery system.

There were post pavilions or more precisely, official pavilions (Guan Ting), along four major routes (SE route, NE route, NW route, and SW route) radiated from the capital.

One of its purposes was to serve as refreshment center for distant im-portant guest. The importance and the honor of guest were shown by how far out at the official pavilions the hosting ministers or rulers have waited for the guest (3, 10, or 30 li). Then together, they would travel toward the host city.

Post pavilions were also more com-monly referred as horse stations (Ma Ting) because they provided fresh horses, carriages, refresh-ment, and men. These were about 200 li (100 km or 62.4 mi) apart. Upon showing legitimate docu-ment, mail carrier (Zhi-yi) would able to take a brief rest while men prepared fresh horse or car-riages for the next leg of delivery. Of course, if the document was marked urgent, then a new mail carrier would get on to the horse and immediately depart for the next post pavilion. This is very much similar to the Pony Express in American Old West. Post Pavil-ions were reserved for government communication.

In addition of being classified as ur-gent or not, the document also cat-egorized as Announcement or For

Your Eyes Only. With former, the of-ficial at the post pavilions would be-gin to scribe the original document and then subsequently distributed through local tributaries. Needless to say, officials add their chops to the original letter to indicate that they have read and acted upon. This ensured accountability.

On civilian front, there was no uni-fied system of postal delivery. At most, it was done as a city to city by a traveling merchant caravan or escort. At minimum, a traveler who happened to go to the same direc-tion. A night of shelter was used as barter for the service.

Enterprising shop-keeper established an inn or a tavern next to official pa-vilion to attract weary wayfarers.

MediumThe main reason that communi-cation had not expanded greatly during these days was due to type of documentation. Paper has yet to be perfected for mass produc-tion. It was still expensive and time consuming to create it. More com-monly, people still used bamboo or wooden slips for writing material. Bamboo slips were especially use-ful to write announcement type documents. Wooden slips were


used for document retention. Only toward the end of Three Kingdoms period and the early Jin period that paper began to became the official recorded medium.

Once the writer finished the letter, he tied up with ropes. A wooden slip denoted the receiver. The let-ter would be sealed to prevent accidental open. The forward document was made of wooden slip about 1 chi (33 cm or 13 in) accompanied this letter gave the holder permission to travel to the destination and to allow inspecting official to place their stamps of ap-proval and the date. This acted as primitive letter registration. Both the letter and the forward docu-ment were given to the recipient upon arrival.

Ministry of Transport (Tai-pu) was in charge of providing steeds and maintaining post pavilions.

Mode of Transportation

The odometer started appearing in China during the Later Han Dynasty (25-220 AD)

Bibliographyhttp://202.106.185.132/upuxx/posthistory/china/121.htm China Post website

http://202.106.185.132/upuxx/posthistory/china/122.htm China Post website

http://202.106.185.132/upuxx/posthistory/china/123.htm China Post website

http://www.sciencevictoria.org.au/ord497.htm - The Past and Future of Intelligence Transporta-tion System

Loewe, Michael, Everyday Life in Early Imperial China, 1968 Tran-sworld Publishers Ltd

Twitchett, Denis, The Cambridge History of China Volume I the Ch’in and Han Empires, 221 B.C.- A.D. 220, ©1986, Cambridge University Press

http://library.thinkquest.org/13406/sr/ (Silk Road Map)

Dian Wei, E Lai Rebornby Chuan Lin

In the East it is common knowledge that Cao Cao had “as many advisors as clouds in the sky, as many warriors as rain drops.” We look now to Cao Cao’s Dian Wei. He was not great general, but he was the premier warrior who saved Cao Cao’s life numerous times. In fact, Cao Cao felt more sorrow at the news of Dian Wei’s death than that of his first born son, Cao Ang.

By reading this article, hopefully, you will find Dian Wei an interesting character. Below is the translation of Dian Wei from San-gú-zhì, The Ambitions of Three Kingdoms (ATK), the official historical records.

Pre Cao Cao TimeDian Wei came from the Chen-liu Commandery, Yi-Wu Prefecture (in modern day He-nan Province, south east of Ning-ling Prefecture). He was well built and his strength was rarely surpassed. He had many aspirations. He was renowned for his chivalry and righteousness as an ideal knight-errant.

There was a story that he had a friend whose surname was Liu and who had been wronged by Li Yong. Liu had asked Dian Wei to avenge him. Since Li Yong had been a Grand Administrator of Fu-chun Prefecture, his household was very well defended. Dian Wei rode

a carriage and brought with him fowls and wine to disguise himself as a distant guest. Once the door was opened, Dian Wei charged in with a dagger. He killed Li Yong and his wife. Then he calmly walked to the outside and took his blade and short halberd from the carriage. He then walked away. Li Yong’s home was at the center of the city and the entire city had heard of the incident. They were frightened of him. Though there were around a hundred men who pursued him, none dare to approach. Dian Wei walked 4 – 5 li (8 km or 5 miles) and met up with his friends. Together, they escaped. Since then, Dian Wei was well known among


local nobility.

Serving Cao CaoDuring the Year of Early Peace when the Han Emperor Xian had been enthroned, Zhang Miao called forth a militia to rebel against Dong Zhuo’s tyrant. Dian Wei went to him and became an officer (shi). He was placed under Zhao Chong, a platoon captain or Liang Si-ma. The banner he was employed to carry was big and heavy. Not many people could lift it. Dian Wei could easily hold it with one hand. This impressed Zhao Chong and Dian Wei’s fame began to spread.

Later, Dian Wei placed under Xia-hou Dun’s command. He received recognition and awards every time he went into battle. He was a platoon captain when he became noticed by Cao Cao.

At that time, Cao Cao was at Pu-yang fighting against Lu Bu. Lu Bu had an army garrisoned 40 – 50 li (est. 103.5 km or 64.3 miles) west of Pu-yang city. Cao Cao conducted a nightly ambush and was successful. When he returned in the early morning, Cao Cao was in turn, being ambushed by Lu Bu. Cao’s force was surrounded by three sides and Lu Bu personally attended the attack. From morning until dusk, they fought. The situation became more critical. Cao Cao asked volunteers to form a suicide squad to spearhead Lu Bu's line. Dian Wei was first to volunteer and was followed by scores of others. They wore double layers of armor, no shield, and used both spear and spear-ax for battle. Then, the west side was getting dangerous. Dian Wei was sent to reinforce it and he decided to break from there. Enemies shot many arrows like rain from the sky. Dian Wei did not bother to dodge them. He told his followers,

“let me know when the enemy is about ten paces away.”

Enemies were approaching; his followers reported to him,

“Enemies are ten paces away.”

Dian Wei ordered,

“Report again when enemies are five paces away.”

His followers were frightened,

“Enemies have arrived!”

Dian Wei armed with 10 spear axes, gave a mighty shout, and charged forward. He knocked down those who opposed him. He had punctured a hole in Lu Bu’s defense for Cao’s force to escape. By then, the night had arrived. Cao’s force had safely returned to base.

For his effort, Dian Wei promoted to lieutenant colonel or du-wei. Cao Cao took him under his command and gave him the task of guarding him. Dian Wei hand-picked hundreds of followers and set up a rotation to guard Cao Cao’s camp. Since he was a husky man, his troops were also similarly built. In every battle, he was first to charge into combat. Quickly, he rose to the rank of colonel or xiao-wei.

Dian Wei was a loyal and dedicated person. He was cautious and meticulous in his performance. When he guarded for an entire day, he slept nearby Cao Cao’s camp at night. He rarely went home to rest. He enjoyed wine and was able to consume great quantity of it. Every time he was invited to Cao Cao’s parties, he always enjoyed eating and drinking. He had an appetite of five men. Cao Cao admired Dian Wei’s grand and heroic behavior.

Dian Wei’s favorite weapons were pair of short halberds and a large heavy saber. Therefore, in the army, a popular saying went,

“Under Grand Cao’s camp is Colonel Dian. His pair of short halberd weight 70 jin (14 kg or 38.4 pound) each.”

During Cao Cao’s campaign at Yu Province in summer of the Second Year of Rebuiling Peace (197 AD), he advanced his force to

the Wan Prefecture. There, Zhang Xiu surrendered. Cao Cao was very pleased. He invited Zhang Xiu and his follow generals and commanders to the celebration. When Cao Cao personally went to each guest to pour the wine, Dian Wei stood behind him with a great axe which had 2.3 meter (7.5 ft) long blade. As Cao Cao poured the wine, Dian Wei would stare at the guest with the great axe in ready position. Until the end of party, Zhang Xiu and his followers dared not to raise their heads.

Within scores of days, Zhang Xiu rebelled and ambushed Cao’s camp. Cao had to retreat to regroup his army. Dian Wei and his followers guarded the main gate of the camp. Rebel troops could

Side InformationE Lai was a great generals in service to King Zhou of the Shang Dynasty. E Lai’s force survived the destruction of the Shang Dynasty and caused many problems for the new Zhou Dynasty. E Lai’s descendants founded the Qin State which eventually became the Qin Dynasty.


not approach the front and had to disperse to enter through side gates. With numbers in the teens, Dian Wei’s followers were ready to die with him. For every one of them that died, ten of the opposing troops died with him. Dian Wei was armed with the long spear-axe; he attacked left and right. Each strike took out 10 troops. Yet, more and more enemies poured through. Eventually, Dian Wei was by himself and had suffered many wounds. His spear-axe became dulled from hacking people. Abandoned it, he grabbed two soldiers from the other side and swung them around. Others dared not to approach him. Dian Wei then charged them and killed more. But because of blood loss, he finally fell. In his final moments he could be heard cursing out his enemies. Only when he was dead, his enemies dared to approach him to remove his head.

Cao Cao retreated to Wu-yang [City]. Once he heard about Dian Wei’s death, he became very upset and asked to have his body back for proper burial. Cao Cao personally went to pay respect at Dian Wei’s grave. The body was sent to Yi-wu Prefecture as its final resting place. Dian Wei’s son, Dian Man, was then promoted to Gentleman-of-the-Household. And every time Cao passed Yi-wu Prefecture, he ordered offerings of lambs and boars made at Dian Wei’s gravesite.

Later, to keep Dian Wei’s memory alive, Cao Cao promoted Dian Man to major or si-ma in order to serve him better. When Cao Pi became king, he promoted Dian Man to lieutenant colonel or du-wei and honored him with the nobility, Marquis of Guan-nei Prefecture.

ConclusionChén Shòu (the author of San-gú-zhì) critiqued of Dian Wei as follow:

“Dian Wei, whose spearhead broke enemy ranks, was

equivalent to a Great Warrior of Han.”

There was much similarity between Zhang Fei and Dian Wei. Both were famous for their bravery and chivalry. They were very loyal to their master or oath to a brother who also in turn valued Zhang Fei/Dian Wei highly. They were impressive bodyguards. Zhang Fei and Dian Wei were ferocious in battle. And they both loved to drink.

There were also a few differences between Zhang Fei and Dian Wei. Dian Wei was famous prior to serving under Cao Cao; Zhang Fei became famous after serving Liu Bei. Dian Wei was meticulous at his job; Zhang Fei tended to get drunk and abused his subordinates. Zhang Fei had more exposure than Dian Wei at leading troops to attack. Dian Wei, as a bodyguard, was used only in case of emergency. Cao Cao had other generals to be used as a spearhead or when great fighters where necessary. Dian Wei died while defending his master; Zhang Fei died prior to avenging his oath brother.

BibliographyChén Shòu, San-gú-zhì

http://www.threekingdoms.net

Dian Wei’s AbilityLeadership 4

Decisive 8Fighting 9

Observation 4Reputation 7

Stamina 8Warfare 5

Propriety 9


IntroductionLast issue, we had looked at how Romance of the Three Kingdoms the Role-Playing Game (R3K RPG) would be like in Fudge format. This issue, we are looking at how the R3K RPG would be like under the Tri-Stats System by Guardians of Order (GOO). And in the next issue, we will look how R3K RPG fares under Open Gaming License.

Tri-Stats System is developed by Guardians of Order for its Big Eyes Small Mouth Anime RPG. It has proven to be a popular system and as a result GOO has become a suc-cessful company. In March 2002, GOO announced a new program or division called Magnum Opus. The idea behind it is that GOO granted license of all or some part of the Tri-Stats System and other GOO game mechanics, its customer base, and distribution channels to companies who signed up for Magnum Opus Program. This allows use of their Tri-Stats Sys-tem as possible game mechanics. Throughout this article, it will be referred to as Tri-Stats Romance of the Three Kingdoms the Role Play-ing Game or Tri-Stats R3K RPG.

Additional information about GOO can be found at their website, http://www.guardiansorder.com.

Character & Character Traits

Character traits in Tri-Stats R3K RPG are defined as stats, attributes, defects and skills. Character Points (CP) are used to spend on stats, and attributes; they are gained from acquiring defects or writing impressive background stories.

Skills required are separated in a set of points called Skill Points (SP) and are increased or decreased by selected attributes or defects.

Stats are defined as Body, Mind and Soul, which reflect character base capabilities. They are ranged from 1 to 12 with 4 being defined as average human.

Attributes are special talents or abilities that a character is born with, known for, or acquired throughout his lifetime. They are ranged from 1 to 6.

Defects are character disadvan-tages. The character gains either 1 or 2 CP based upon seriousness of a particular selected defect.

Skills are character specializations due to his extensive training or exposure to particular fields. They are ranged from 1 to 6.

There are two different sets of scales to define these traits. For stats, there are 12 (or 13 if one in-cludes 0) as a scale or level. These are defined as in Table 1.

For attributes and skills, there are 6 levels with no descriptor. Howev-er, it is reasonable to extract from 12 stat descriptors and apply to 6 levels of attributes/skills. Then these are defined as in Table 2.

This helps reinforce the fact that people with a particular attribute or skill are better than those who do not have them. Therefore it jus-tifies the cost of purchasing them.

Character CreationUnder the Tri-Stats System, it is en-couraged to have both player and GM work together to help design a game. This is probably true is most

point-based systems as opposed to a level-based system. Here are 8 steps for character creation.

1. Discussion with GM - to discuss what kind of character a player wants to play.

2. Character Outline - there are 8 archetypes of career templates for players to choose from. And optionally, there are 4 different cultures other than Han Chinese for the player to choose from.

3. Background Points - Now that player has an idea of what he wants for his character, he can optionally write a brief background story, de-scribe an important event, or a pic-ture for bonus Character Points (1 - 3) to create his character.

4. Assign Stat – the player re-ceives 35 Character Points to build his character’s stats of Body, Mind, and Soul; he can place them anywhere between 1 to 12 with 4 being normal adult male. It is recommended that player spends no more than 2/3 or 24 points on Stats assignment.

5. Character Attributes - With the remaining points, a player can pur-chase Attributes or Talents. These

Romance of the Three Kingdoms RPG in Tri-Stat Formatby Chuan Lin


are scaled from 1 to 6. Some ex-amples of Attributes include mar-tial art styles, schools of literati, or element of magic.

6. Character Defects - Player has the option to take Defects that hin-der his character during play to get additional character points to pur-chase Attributes or convert to Skill Points at 1 CP : 10 SP ratio.

7. Select Skills - Based on charac-ter concepts and templates, play-ers now have an idea of what skills are needed for his character to sur-vive in R3K world. Player receives 30 Skill Points to purchase skills.

8. Derived Value – With the select-ed Stats, Attributes, and Skills, now it is possible to calculate second-ary stat or Derived Value. These are Attack Combat Value, Defend Combat Value, Health Point, Shock Value and optionally Energy Points (for spell caster).

Character StatsUnder the Fudge R3K RPG, there are 9 character stats. Tri-Stats R3K RPG is the other extreme; there are only 3 Stats: Body, Mind, and Soul. These Tri-Stats are easily adopted into traditional Chinese concepts of Heaven, Earth, and Man that re-sides within a person.

Heaven governs the Mind that defines how easily a character is aware of his situation, absorbs new information, and adapts to his advantage.

Earth governs the Body that defines

how easily a character can manipu-late physical objects; exerts strength to change solid material, and to en-dure impact of tangible things.

Man governs the Soul that de-fines the connected link between Heaven and Earth; the willpower to manipulate Mind and Body; and act as a beacon to attract other of similar minds.

Game MechanicTri-Stats System use 2d6 to de-termine the success of an action. There are three conditions when these dice are called for. These are defined as the check against char-acter stats, the check against char-acter skill, and the check against attack/defend value.

Skills are considered internal bonuses that increase the target number equal to level of skill in-vested. If the circumstances or item used has been previously declared to be of favorite use, the character gains an additional +1 to the target number.

External factors modify the tar-get number by increasing or de-creasing it and may include such examples of time pressure, being in public, or in a strange circum-stance, or being assisted.

The difference between the die roll and final target number represents the degrees of success or failure.

Tri-Stat System recommended sev-eral reasons that call for die roll-

ing. These are

• The unpredictability of dice adds to the excitement of the game

• The action is foreign to the char-acter in question.

• The action has been a weakness of the character in the past

• The character is distracted or cannot concentrate

• Another character or an NPC is working directly against the char-acter in question.

• Only pure luck is involved

• The action is not of trivial diffi-culty to complete.

• Outside forces influence the ac-tion in question.

• The player and/or GM wants to roll some dice

Here are some recommendations of when not to roll dice

• Roll would reduce the enjoyment of the game

• Routine action for the character

Table 1 : Stat Rating0. Completely and utterly useless

4. Adult human average 8. Extremely capable

1. Inept 5. Above adult human average 9. Best in the land2. Significantly below adult human average

6. Significantly above human average

10. World-class ability

3. Below adult human aver-age

7. Highly capable 11. Legendary ability

12. Best in the universe. Un-equaled.

Table 2: Skill Rating1. Above human average2. Significantly above human average3. Highly capable4. Extremely capable5. Best in the land.6. World-class ability.


• The action is performed by an NPC and will have no impact on any PCs or significant NPC in play.

• The action requires trivial amount of talent compared to the character Stats or Skill Level.

With active oppositions, both player and NPC roll their die and compare. Whoever has the larger degree of success is the winner of that contest.

Tri-Stats System also used d6 to determine combat initiative and the effect of critical hit.

WoundsWith the Tri-Stats System, the derived stats are used to calcu-late how much wounds or Health Points a character has before being killed as well as his Shock Value.

The later is the sum of Body and Soul. Every time a character takes damage equal to or greater than the Shock Value, a roll against his Soul stat is required for a charac-

ter to maintain full consciousness. Failures mean that the character becomes stunned and is unable to act or perform any action for 1 round. And each subsequent round requires additional Soul checks to determine if he comes out of shock.

In addition, damages taken are subtracted against a character’s Health Point which is 5 times the Shock Value. As long as a charac-ter receives damage less than his Shock Value and his Health Points remain positive, he is fine. Natu-rally, when a character’s Health Points drop to 0 or less, that char-acter is dead.

To calculate damage, the following formula is applied:

(Attack Combat Value + Relevant Attributes + Weapon Damage)

– (Armor Defense Level + Shield Defense Level)

= Amount of Damage

A typical NPC has a derived Shock

Value of 8, and is able to absorb 40 Health Points before dying.

ConclusionThe Tri-Stats System offers in-teresting game mechanics for the R3K RPG campaign. The use of Body, Mind, and Soul is very practical and elaborate. The game is possible to play with just Stats and Attributes. However, skills do add color and variety to a charac-ter than just Stats and Attributes. Thus the Tri-Stats System presents itself as a worthy candidate for the underlying game mechanics of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Role Playing Game.

First of all, I want to congratulate Koei for attempting to reach its audience once again by releasing the Romance series on the Playstation 2. For a while I was skeptical of their United States release schedule as they have put hardly any effort into advertisement as well as importing their products. If anyone is unaware, Koei hordes a battalion of video games for PC and console alike for the Chinese and Japanese market. I would encourage anyone to take a look

at Koei's vast video game library from their Japanese launch site (http://www.koei.co.jp).

Secondly, you probably want to know the dirt on the RTK7 release in America. Well, let’s get to it.

RTK7 returns as we all know and love it with some great additions and a major subtraction. Unfortunately in this episode of the Chinese warfare-strategy epic you do not have access to play with anyone, but yourself. The

Romance of the Three Kingdoms VIIby Chuck Hildreth

Courtesy of Koei


multiplayer is completely gone. For some avid gamers, that is not a problem. So let’s continue forward. By leaving the option of multiplayer behind, you now have the ability to make RTK into a combination of RPG and strategy where you can develop a single general from ronin to emperor.

From the start of your journey into China's wild frontier, you will have the ability to choose what type of character you'd like to start out as. If you've created a new character, you would begin here, by selecting him and the move on to the profession choices.

Or, if you simply want to get into the action or play as one of your favorite heroes – anyone from Cao Cao to Zhuge Liang – you can choose them too.

After you've made up your mind on character selection, you will then decide to start out as a ronin or an emperor. If you should make your character a ronin, he will be able to quickly or slowly rise in rank to emperor by moving around China's many cities, meeting with rulers, and making a name for himself by the use of fame points.

The more famous you are by helping the people of the land, winning tournaments, slaying tigers, or even chatting with generals and emperors, the more likely you will be recruited to an army.

Once you have made a name and gained a rank of officer, you will be appointed to tasks, much like you gave to your officers as an emperor in previous RTK games.

If you cooperate and do as you are asked, then you may someday rule a single city of your own. The more popular you become and the more time passes, the better your chance

of becoming an emperor are.

However, if you want to rise to the seat of power faster, you may befriend your liege and overthrow him with the generals you've turned against him. Now the power is in your hands to turn the fate of China.

You will develop your character even more outside of the rank system as you have four different attributes and a variety of skills to enhance and learn. The attributes are, WAR (your ability to fight), INT (your ability to advise), POL (your ability to perform political duties) and CHA (your charisma).

You can raise the initial stat numbers by requesting tutelage of other skilled generals that you are friends with. Most of the skills will rise naturally; training is just an alternate way to help that.

Among all the wonderful additions to RTK7 the control on game flow is the most excellent. In older RTK titles, you would have to watch many of the cut scenes, the wars fought, and if you didn't disable it, the emissary routes. In RTK7 you can skip everything very quickly.

You can play 40 years of a characters life in about four hours if you aren't careful. Trust me; the want for a perfect character will make you rapidly repeat turns to increase your abilities. Be careful of this if you are an emperor, the computer is much more aggressive in this game. If you wait around till everyone dies of old age the computer will take the initiative and wipe everyone clean. At least the ending credits give you some proper identification as you now grow rice for China's newest emperor.

The battle sequences are now settled in a similar manner of Final Fantasy Tactics or any turn based,

hexagon map strategy game. You will move your combat units around the board to try and outwit your opponent by seizing his outposts (various towns and camps around the battle map causing demoralization if captured). Wars are not settled as quickly as you might have hoped in this version of RTK. I still believe the best version of war in a RTK series is given to RTK6 on Playstation.

Everything about RTK is fantastic from its game play to its story. It has a very rich background for each character as well as many scenarios to start from. You can even attempt to have your character participate a fictional version of the story where he would be given historical tasks in place of other generals. If you want the true story though, you have the option to watch it from wherever your kingdom is or wherever your feet take you as a ronin.

Without a doubt Romance of the Three Kingdoms 7 is a must own title for any RTK or Koei fan. You will be overwhelmed with the amount of options and replay ability Koei has in store for you with this new title. Be sure to explore every aspect of the game, especially starting out as a ronin and working your way to the seat of emperor. I guarantee that no path will guide you there the same way twice.

C. Hildreth


Review – Fvlminata RPG

Of all games presented in Gen Con 2002, I looked forward the most is Fvlminata Role Playing Game by Thyrsus Games (http://www.fvlminata.com).

Fvlminata belongs to the same genre of historical fantasy RPG as Pendragon RPG and Sengoku RPG. Since I am in midst of preparing materials for Romance of Three Kingdoms (R3K) RPG, I am very interested in how other company presented their historical fantasy game.

Thyrsus Games is a small publishing company in New Jersey. They have schedule release of supplements and a GM screen to support their core product. I believed Fvlminata RPG had been released in Gen Con 2001. In fact, there is a review of this book in RPG.Net. Fvlminata RPG in my hand is the second edition though it is not visibly apparent.

BackgroundFvlminata RPG is about alternate Roman Empire in the year 248 AD, exactly one thousand year after the birth of Rome. In 79 AD, history departed from the norm with invention of Terra Fvlminata (Earth Armed with Lightning) or gunpowder. The inventor was a sole survivor of volcano eruption that destroyed city of Pompeii. He became obsessed with such earthly destructive power. By 248 AD, use of gunpowder had kept Roman Empire strong and vigorous.

The book is breaking down into chapters that specifically focus on a particular aspect of Roman Life.

What is refreshing and interesting part of this book is at Chapter 1, Salve, where it defined the meaning of Roman Way by its virtues: Duty, Respect, Dignity, Nobility, Harmony, Culture, Courage, Piety, Tenacity, and Hard Work. These are different to current Western Judeo-Christian virtues: Faith, Hope, Love, Tolerance, Wisdom, Justice, Forgiveness, Courage, Moderation, Integrity, and Perseverance. Or how they differed from historical Chinese Confucian virtues: Kindness, Righteousness, Propriety, Knowledge, and Good Faith. The book further struck home by giving couple scenarios of Roman Virtues, like Duty and Respect, but interpreted differently by Roman during that time frame and us, in the 21st century. These examples help give players appropriate mindset to play this game. This ideas is something to think about. Also useful information on Chapter 1 is the pronunciation of Latin. Now, aren’t some of you glad to have taken Latin during your high school days?

Other chapters gave more background information of Roman Empire during that time.

Imperium defines known world of Roman Empire.

Res Publica explains history, government and law.

Pax Romana details daily life, religion, economy and medicine of that period.

Ludi describes Roman festivals, gladiatorial combat, chariot racing and theater.

Bellum disentangles the Roman Art of Warfare.

Arcana illustrates the mystery of magic and gunpowder.

Fabulae reveals how to write and run adventure.

Game MechanicA player’s character or persona is created by defined his social status (senators, equestrians, plebeians, freedmen, foreigners or slaves), his occupation (from actor to watchman, a total of 24 career paths), his attributes (intelligentia, agilitas, pietas, and vis), skills (from administrate to wrestle, a total of 70 variety), and 4 humors (melancholicus, sanguinicus, flegmaticus, and cholericus).

Both social status and occupation are per player’s choice. There is no cost associated to it though occupational choice is limited by one’s social status. So don’t expect to see a senator in sandy

By Chuan Lin


field of gladiatorial combat nor expect a slave to give speech at the gathering of senators.

For attributes, player receives 42 points to assign values to each. The minimal value is 5 and maximum is 15. Average adult male is 10. The point cost is one-to-one. At high value and low value of attributes, bonus/penalty modifiers have effect on the effect of dice rolled.

To purchase skills, another set of 42 points given to player to purchase his skills. This is also at the cost of 1 to 1 ratio.

A persona’s social standing gives bonus to certain skills (mostly to language and custom appropriate to their rank).

His occupation recommends some appropriate skills. Skills are scaled from 0 to 10 with average (journeyman) being 5.

An interesting feature is that each skill is associated to a particular roman deity. For example, Apollo is god of healing, divination and arts. Skills associated to him are chirurgy, divine, medicine, music and poetry. Starting character can not purchase skills above 5 level except in skills associated with his patron deity (to level 6). Later skills can be purchased up to 6 level.

At character creation, each person receives 3 points to indicate they have imbalanced humors. Each imbalanced humor has a particular effect on physical, emotional and mental state of a persona.

For example, a severe imbalance in Humors, Sanguine produces a joyful physical temperament, a gullible mental temperament, or a lecherous emotional temperament. This is all depend on whichever is the lowest character attributes.

However, despite what the book stated about restoring balanced humors being not an easy thing to do. Game mechanic-wise, it costs 1 skill point to remove 1 point of humors imbalance. So it is relatively easy to restore the imbalance.

The game is quite cavalier about equipment and wealth. It assures that whatever players want for their characters, they have it (if appropriate). But by making wealth an abstract concept rather than a game mechanic weaken this system because it eliminates one of game/persona motivation: to acquire enough wealth to elevate to a senator.

Roman Empire allowed social mobilization despite stringent requirement. A game mechanic of keeping track each player’s wealth can be useful and appropriate to the genre. And it does not have to be as detailed as keeping track of every As (base Roman monetary value) earned or spent.

To play Fvlminata , a special set of dice is required. They are called Tali and are basically 8-sided dice. Instead of 1..8, it has pair of I, III, IV, and VI. Player rolls 4 tali dice to get a result below or equal to his attribute + skill, target number. The result of I, I, I, I are always a success; and the result of VI, VI, VI, Vi are always a failure.

Regardless of success, players then roll 4 Tali die to determine the effect of their action. Now, the result is more like poker in a sense that players tries to get at least a VI (marginal success) called Senio, to all the way to Vultures which is Four of A Kind (overwhelming success). Character’s attribute modifier then adjust the level of success.

There are five different scale of success in all. Beside qualitative level of success, there is also a quantitative level of success as the effect multiplier to a result such as combat damage, time takes to complete a task, or how much being paid out as result of haggling.

Combat is just a series of applying Tali game mechanic extensively. The book defines the person who attacks first as the Attacker and his target as the Defender. After attacker and defender have been determined, the game uses the Tali mechanic to determine the result

and the effect level.

It could be possibly that defender got a better result than the attacher. Thus, defender has successful ly score a hit on the attacker.

For persona who wants to perform multiple action, each action beyonds the first incurs additional -2 penalty to the target number. This does not limit to just additional attack but also amount of time to complete a task, i.e. reload pilum would normally take 5 action round to complete. Player can choose to speed up the process by performing multiple actions of 5 actions (-8 to all five rolls) in one round, 2 actions (-2 on both rolls) per round for first 2 round, or any other combination. This does do away the nagging question of how many actions a character can perform.

The biggest surprise I have with the game is the concept of using social rank to determine order of combat. Apparently, senator goes first before anyone else. This concept works well under a non-combat situation which social rank does indeed play a factor in determine who has the right of way first. It does not make sense during combat. In midst of conflict, social rank is discarded in favor of combat speed and skills.

Alternatively, rank in Pietas is used to determine order rank. This is more applicable since Pietas is also defined as a character’s intuition.

Fvlminata has a small selection of arms and armors. Weapons are rated according to both the type of damage and the base damage it does. Damage type is categorized as blunt, edge, or pilum (gunpowder). The base damage is multiplied by quantitative effect modifier.

32 Revisiting the Three Kingdoms

Likewise, armor is rated according to its stopping power against blunt, edge, or pilum (gunpowder).

Amount of time need to recover from a wound varies depend on the wound.

Pilum (gunpowder) wound takes the longest to heal and lots of roll in between.

Blunt wound is quickest to recover with minimum roll.

Edge wound is in between of the both.

For every 2 wounds a persona has, he receives -1 to his skill roll.

Looking over the amount of damage a weapon can cause and compare to amount of damage an armor can absorb, it is sufficient to say, Fvlminata RPG is a realistic and deadly world to be.

SupportsThis game is expect to be run by an experience GameMaster. Not much of holding hand nor explaining how to run a good game to novice GameMaster. The Fabulae section opens with a brief adventure. Then it explains how to write adventure or fabulae using the included story as guideline or example.

At the end of fabulae, players receive 2 – 4 skills points as rewards, depend on degree of success. These skills points are used to improve a persona’s skill, attribute, or improve one of four humor. Or these points can be saved for future usage. The book also encourages GameMaster to get feedback from players.

So far, the company has produced one supplements to go with this system, the Tali die. Basically, it is an 8-sided dice with pair of I, II, IV,

and VI etched into the die. Other supplements such as GameMaster screen, British Isle source book, Parthia the Eternal Enemy source book, and Sicart the Silk source book are mentioned in their website as future release.

ConclusionAs a historical fan, this book is a must have even if it deviate part of the actual history. It contains a wealth of background information about Roman Lifestyle at that specific time period. Its game mechanic is unique and appropriate to this genre. However, lack of rule mechanic for monetary wealth does deny the use or the play of Greed as a major persona’s motivation.

Entertainment & Humor

Revisit the Three Kingdoms issue04