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WARNING: THE WATER YOU ARE DRINKING HAS BEEN TAMPERED WITH. BE INFORMED. OH YEAH, AND THERE MIGHT BE SPOILERS HERE TOO.
So now it's Chapter 49. You may have noticed a bit of a pattern developing throughout the novel thus far. In Chapter 1, or 11, or 21, etc., a story arc was introduced. And by Chapter 9, 19, 29, etc. the arc was more or less resolved. Case in point, Lu Bu killed Dong Zhuo in Chapter 9. He himself was defeated and executed by Cao Cao and Liu Bei 10 chapters later, in chapter 19. Well, this chapter is number 49. So you know what that means? That's right, folks! It's dramatic-conclusion time! Duh da duhm!
You will likely have noticed that in recent chapters, Zhuge Liang journeyed to the Southland to gather support for the forging of an alliance between Liu Bei and Sun Quan. Probably the single most important alliance in the entire story. Having made this Alliance happen through clever manipulation of....well...just about everyone, Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu, now allies, went to the Red Cliffs, Chi Bi, to stand their small armies (primarily Southland troops) against the military juggernaut that is the army of the Prime Minister, Cao Cao.
Now, Zhou Yu is far from stupid. He's one of the most intellectually gifted characters in this great saga, and he knows Zhuge Liang for what he is, a Dragon in his own right, fully capable of swallowing all if allowed. Even Zhuge apologists like myself have to admit that Zhuge Liang was not endowed with the same inflexibility of character as his master, Liu Bei. He has no qualms about getting down to some dirty tactics if it will serve his purpose. His rallying of the Southland probably provides good early evidence of this.
So Zhou Yu, all the while utilizing Liang's talents in the quest to thwart Cao Cao's southern advance, also secretly nurses a desire to murder Zhuge Liang, and eliminate a major threat to the security of the Southland. I'm normally a pretty staunch Shu-Han guy, but I really can't fault Zhou Yu's reasoning. If I found myself in opposition to someone like Zhuge Liang, I'd seek to eliminate him too. He was, as I understand, a very, very, very, very undesirable opponent to have. Unless one was named Sima Yi, I guess. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
At any rate, for the next several chapters, you're going to see a major clash of wills, between Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang. I really kinda feel bad for Zhou Yu. He was brilliant, and had he lived longer, he might have accomplished very many great things. But the author(s) of this novel have seen fit over the centuries to use him as a prop to make Zhuge Liang famous. This they accomplished, but at the cost of making Zhou Yu seem the fool on a number of occasions. The series of confrontations and maneuvers between Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu, I find resembles an old Bugs and Daffy cartoon, or Wily Coyote and the Roadrunner would be even more accurate. Zhou Yu's the poor coyote, and Zhuge Liang evades all his traps, albeit with quite a bit more intelligence than the Roadrunner. :p
Now this little, I don't know, Cold War between Yu and Liang is set against the backdrop of one of the biggest battles in history. Supposedly, there were over a million troops in total participating in the Great Battle of Chi Bi. It might just be the biggest naval battle in the history of the human species, though I'd have to check into that one.
So you can understand why one might find it more than a little amusing that during all this, Zhuge Liang and Zhou Yu are ally and enemy at the same time. Talk about interesting plot-development!
Of course, the big plan of Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang, that of burning Cao Cao's fleet via a false-defection ploy involving veteran Wu Officer Huang Gai, is still contingent upon whether or not they can get the wind to change direction. It has been said that this novel is like 70% fact and 30% fiction. The means employed of obtaining the requisite change in winds is generally considered to be part of the fiction part, but I'm not so sure. I've seen quite a bit of evidence over the years to suggest that magic is very real, and those who master it are fearfully powerful indeed. It's entirely possible that Zhuge Liang really did manage to make the wind change direction by ritual prayer, as crazy as that sounds...
So you've got the winds, which had previously been blowing directly into the faces of the Wu-Shu Coalition's soldiers, changing direction and now blowing towards Cao Cao's encampment, something which was supposed to be impossible that time of year. You've got a whole series of deceptions masterminded by Zhou Yu, and served up to Cao Cao via Kan Ze, as well as his own officers, Cai He, Cai Zhong, and Jiang Gan. Also, there is that little matter of Huang Gai's defection to Wei. What do you get when you add all these together? Well, you get the end of Cao Cao's southern advance, and the birth of the era of the Three Kingdoms.
Enjoy this, the forty-ninth chapter of the Sanguo Yanyi Audiobook, and thank you for listening.