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WARNING: THE FOLLOWING COMMENTARY MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. BUT YOU WANT TO READ IT ANYWAY, BECAUSE MY WORDS JUST, YOU KNOW, LIKE, HYPNOTIZE PEOPLE AND SHIT...
And here it is. Come one, come all, and listen to Chapter 31 of the Sanguo Yanyi, I know it's a bit late (I blame Daylight Standard Time. :p), but nonetheless, better late than never.
So the first quarter of the story was pretty much building up to the great Battle of Guan Du. Now that Guan Du is over (almost), the focus of the story begins to shift, rather, to the south, where two strong powers stand poised in control of the lands below the Yangtze River. Sun Quan, newly ascended to the office held by his Brother Sun Ce, and his father Sun Jian before that, controls the southeast with a strong and well-trained army. In Jingzhou, Liu Biao, a member of the Imperial Family, holds the office of Imperial Protector (Governor, pretty much). He also has an army of decent size, and capable officers such as Cai Mao, Kuai Liang, Kuai Yue, Wen Ping, Wei Yan, Gan Ning, Huang Zhong, and Yi Ji, to name but a few.
Up to this part of the story, Cao Cao's quest for conquest has been focused first in the Central Plains, where he battled against Li Jue, Guo Si, Tao Qian, Yang Feng, Lu Bu, Yuan Shu, and Yellow Turban Rebels by the legion. Then, in the climax of the first quarter, his focus turned toward the north, where Yuan Shao, having overcome Gongsun Zan and a whole host of minor regional leaders, stood poised to attack the Capitol, Xu Chang.
Now, however, Cao Cao's pretty much broken Yuan Shao's back. Guan Du was the first and the biggest of the nails in Yuan Shao's coffin, and now, though Yuan Shao endures for a time, he is nonetheless doomed to fall. His finest officers, Wen Chou, Yan Liang, Tian Feng, Ju Shou, Zhang He, and Gao Lan, are all either dead or defected to Cao Cao.
Liu Bei also has flown the coop, with all of HIS officers. And all Yuan Shao has left is a few backstabbing and small-visioned advisors (like Guo Tu), a scheming and self-serving wife, and some less than capable relatives (Yuan Shang, Yuan Tan, Yuan Xi, and Gao Gan might not have been the most incompetent leaders and warriors in the land, but they were far from being capable enough to defeat Cao Cao in the long run. Cao Cao is the master of "Divide and Conquer", and the maneuvering of Shao's wife results in division between his sons.
During this time, of course, power has been consolidated in the South. Liu Biao is a veteran of several clashes with Cao Cao, and he's even managed to win a few of them (thanks to Jia Xu's help earlier in the story). Now Liu Bei, defeated and expelled from Ru Nan, has come to Liu Biao seeking shelter. I wish I could say that his arrival there is like the proverbial "giving wings to a Tiger", but it really isn't.
At this point in his career, Liu Bei has been defeated so many times consecutively that his faith in himself is completely shaken. One of the reasons Cao Cao has been able to work miracles is because he believes he can do it. Liu Bei no longer has such faith. So, for at least a couple chapters, Liu Bei, for the first time in the novel since maybe the beginning, has taken the status of...gasp....a mere officer of another power. No, Liu Bei! How can this be? You, the only one besides himself, of all the people of the land that Cao Cao has called a Hero...
So begins the build up to the next of the great battles of the Sanguo period, the Battle of the Red Cliffs, Chi Bi, and beyond, the establishment of the Three Kingdoms...
Enjoy. And thanks for listening. Subscribe to my RSS feed.