Tiger tents discuss war by the Six Military Canons,
Scented bait is laid to draw the whale from the deep.
Among the three lands there are always gifted men,
And once more Luo of Jiangnan, Lu Xun, shows his worth.

Han Dang and Zhou Tai reported quickly that the Lord had moved camp and withdrawn toward Liang, then relayed the news to Lu Xun. Lu Xun rejoiced and led troops to observe the camp himself. He saw only a plain encampment of under ten thousand men, most of them old or weak, with a banner boldly marked “Vanguard Wu Ban.” Zhou Tai said, “I take these troops as a mere child’s play. I am willing to split off with General Han in two columns and strike. If we fail, I will obey the commandment as penalty.”

Lu Xun looked long at them, pointed with his whip, and said, “There is a sense of killing qi rising in the valley ahead. There must be an ambush below. Therefore, on level ground they have set these weak men to lure me. All of you must not leave.”

The generals all thought him timid.

The next day Wu Ban brought his men to the pass and invited a skirmish, posturing and blustering without ceasing, while insults flew. Many stripped off garments and armor, some even barefoot and bare-bodied, half sleeping, half sitting. Xu Sheng and Ding Feng entered the command pavilion and reported to Lu Xun: “Shu soldiers have greatly deceived us! We would all like to ride out and strike them!”

Lu Xun laughed. “You place your confidence in blood heat and brute courage, yet you do not know the military methods of Sun Wu. This is a plan to lure the enemy. After three days, we will see through the deceit.”

Xu Sheng asked, “If they have already shifted camp after three days, how can we strike them then?”

Lu Xun said, “I intend them to shift first.”

The commanders laughed derisively and withdrew.

After three days, the generals assembled at the pass and watched. They saw that Wu Ban’s soldiers had already pulled away. Lu Xun pointed and said, “Now the killing qi rises. Liu Bei must come out by the valley.”

Before he could finish speaking, all Shu soldiers appeared in full kit and harness, surrounding their lord and moving through. When Wu soldiers saw this, fear split them open.

Lu Xun said, “The reason I would not let you all strike the vanguard was for this. The ambush has now emerged; within ten days we will break Shu.”

The commanders said, “To break Shu should have been at first contact. We have camped for five or six hundred li, holding out seven or eight months; all key points are already fortified. How can we now break in?”

Lu Xun replied, “You do not know military law. Liu Bei is one of the foremost predatory heroes of this age, and he has far greater strategy. He assembled his army first with strict order. He has been waiting this long without giving us advantage; his soldiers are worn and his will hindered. The time to seize it is today.”

The commanders only then yielded in awe.

Later people praised him in verse:

Tigertent masters war by the Six Military Canons,
Laying fragrant bait to lure a whale from its bed.
Three states are indeed full of heroes,
Yet once again does Jiangnan’s Lu Xun stand high.

Lu Xun had already fixed his plan to shatter Shu, and he drafted a memorial to Sun Quan, reporting that the fall of Shu was to come the very next day.

Sun Quan read it and rejoiced: “Jiangdong has another extraordinary man after this; what cause have I to worry? Every general petitioned me saying he was cowardly, and I alone did not believe them. Now from his words he is surely not cowardly.”

He raised the full Wu force in support.

Now Liu Bei, at Xiao-ting, had driven the navy forward and down the river, following the current and camping at Zha camps along the Yangtze, penetrating Wu territory. Huang Quan remonstrated: “A fleet moving down the river can advance easily, but withdrawal is hard. Let me lead the vanguard. Your Majesty should stay in the rear ranks; then there is no chance of complete loss.”

Liu Bei said, “The Wu brigands have lost nerve. I shall charge ahead in full; what obstacle can stand?”

Many officials urged caution, but he refused, and split his troops in two routes. He ordered Huang Quan to command the troops on the north bank to guard against Wei raiders, and he personally led the Jiangnan force on the south bank, setting two lines of camps along the river to prepare for seizing ground.

Spies learned this and reported through the night to the Wei ruler, saying: “Shu’s army is invading Wu, tying stockades in extended camps, stretching in length across some seven hundred li, divided into more than forty camps, each beside mountain and woodland. Huang Quan now commands the army on the northern bank; each day he sends out patrols one hundred li or more, and we do not know his purpose.”

Hearing this, the ruler of Wei laughed upward and said, “Liu Bei will surely be defeated.”

The ministers asked why.

He said, “Liu Xuan­de does not understand the art of war: how can camps spanning seven hundred li hold back an enemy? To mass troops on terrain that blocks and binds itself is the great warning sign in war. Bei’de will lose to Lu Xun of Eastern Wu. Within ten days news will arrive.”

The ministers still did not believe him. They all asked that troops be dispatched against it.

Wei’s ruler said, “If Lu Xun wins, he will bring all Wu forces to seize Xichuan. If Wu army goes far, the realm is bare. I will withhold my troops now, and when the three columns strike in one moment, Wu will be taken in a trice.”

Everyone bowed and obeyed. He ordered Cao Ren to lead one force out through Nushu, Cao Xiu out through Dongkou, and Cao Zhen out through Nanjun: “Let this be the date when three columns of horse and men meet and strike Eastern Wu by stealth, while I follow behind to support.”

Arrangements done.

The narrative skips the Wei attack on Wu for now.

Ma Liang reached Shu and entered before Zhuge Liang, presenting the map and saying, “Now he has moved camps along both banks and crossed the river for over seven hundred li, with more than forty camps, each at the head of a stream and ravine, in places where woods are dense. His Lord ordered your plan map to be brought for the Chancellor to review.”

When Zhuge Liang had finished looking, he struck the table and cried, “Who taught his Lord to pitch this manner of camp? This man must die!”

Ma Liang said, “It was all done by his Lord himself, not another man’s scheme.”

Zhuge Liang sighed, “The mandate of Han has run out!”

Ma Liang asked the reason.

Zhuge Liang replied, “To block a valley and defend by the same obstacles is the great flaw in war. If they strike with fire, how could one answer it? And how can seven hundred li of linked camps refuse attack? Disaster is near. The reason Lu Xun holds and does not sortie is precisely this.”

“You must go quickly to see the Son of Heaven and change the camps. Not this way.”

Ma Liang asked, “If Wu men have now won, what then?”

Zhuge Liang said, “Lu Xun will not dare pursue. Chengdu can be kept safe.”

Ma Liang said, “Why does he not pursue?”

Zhuge Liang answered, “He fears Wei’s army striking his back. If his Lord suffers, we must withdraw to Baidi City. When I entered Shu, I already had ten thousand soldiers hidden at Yufupu.”

Ma Liang was startled. “I have gone to Yufupu many times and never saw a single soldier. Why would the Chancellor speak such a falsehood?”

Zhuge Liang: “Later it will be seen. Ask no further.”

Ma Liang obtained the memorial and raced back to the imperial camp.

Zhuge Liang returned to Chengdu and moved troops and horses to give support.

Lu Xun now saw that the Shu troops had become complacent and neglected to hold embankments and defenses. He gathered all officers and soldiers in the command, mounted and said, “Since my appointment I have not yet gone to battle. Now seeing Shu’s soldiers, I understand their motion and stillness; I want first to seize the fourth camp on the southern bank. Who dares go and take it?”

Before he finished speaking, Han Dang, Zhou Tai, and Ling Tong answered in turn: “We, for one, are willing.”

Lu Xun dismissed all of them and only summoned his lowest officer Chunyü Dan: “You and I, with five thousand troops, take the fourth camp on the southern bank, held by Shu commander Fu Tong. We must succeed tonight. I will bring reinforcements forward.” Chunyü Dan led his men off, and Lu Xun called Xu Sheng and Ding Feng: “Each of you takes three thousand men and camps five li outside the stockade. If Chunyü Dan returns in defeat and troops come rushing, you are to go out and rescue him. Do not chase farther.”

The two commanders went to their own battle fronts.

At dusk Chunyü Dan advanced with troops. By the time he reached the Shu camp it was after the third watch. He ordered his army’s drums and horns to thunder in. Fu Tong within the Shu camp rode out and charged, spear level, straight at Chunyü Dan. The officer could not hold and turned his horse to retreat.

Suddenly a roaring cry shook the air. A troop of soldiers intercepted the road; in front strode Commander Zhao Rong. Dan cut another way and lost half his force. As he was withdrawing, three roads of “barbarian” troops in the hills cut him off—at their head stood General Sha Mo Ke. Dan fought to break through and escaped only in hard slaughter; from behind, three columns came in hot pursuit.

When he was only five li from the camp, Wu generals Xu Sheng and Ding Feng came in from both sides and cut the Shu force away; they fled and rescued Chunyü Dan back to camp.

Dan entered before Lu Xun, bowing to confess guilt.

Lu Xun said, “It is not your fault. I only tested the enemy’s weakness and strength. My design to break Shu is fixed.”

Xu Sheng and Ding Feng said, “Their army is vast and hard to break; we only bleed and lose men.”

Lu Xun laughed: “My design here can fool no one but Zhuge Liang, and Heaven has favored me that this man was absent; thus I can make a great success.”

He assembled all officers and soldiers and ordered: send Zhu Ran by water to advance. Tomorrow afternoon, with the southeast wind rising, load the boats with haystraw and follow the plan. Han Dang leads one force to attack the north bank. Zhou Tai leads one to attack the south bank. Each man carries one bundle of straw, with sulphur and match powder hidden inside, each has a fire source, each holds spear or saber, and all mount and move at once.

But when they reached the Shu camp, with the wind in their favor they set the fire. Of the forty Shu camps, twenty burned; each pair of camp burned one camp. Every unit carried dry rations and was forbidden to fall back even for a moment.

Day and night they pursued and harried, stopping only when they had seized Liu Bei himself.

The generals heard the orders and left at once.

Liu Bei in the imperial pavilion pondered his plan to break Wu, when he saw the central military banner before the command tent collapse as if from no wind.

He asked Cheng Ji: “What omen is this?”

Ji said, “Not this night could Wu men come and plunder the camp?”

Liu Bei answered, “After last night’s slaughter, how dare they come again?”

Ji said, “If this is Lu Xun’s test of the enemy, what then?”

While speaking, a runner arrived saying that from the mountain top one could see Wu soldiers moving all along the ridge, all toward the east.

Liu Bei said, “This is a feinting force.” He ordered rest and said to Guan Xing and Zhang Bao: each should lead five hundred riders to patrol.

At dusk, Guan Xing returned and reported that fire had started in a north bank camp.

Liu Bei hurriedly sent Guan Xing toward the north bank and Zhang Bao toward the south to probe the truth. “If Wu troops arrive, return at once.”

The two followed command.

By the first watch, a sudden southeast wind rose. The left pavilion of the imperial camp burst into flame. As rescue was attempted, the right pavilion also burst. Wind tightened, the flames surged, trees all caught. Shouts thundered.

Two camps, horse and men, came out together and ran from the pavilion. Soldiers in the pavilion trampled one another; the dead were beyond count.

Behind them, Wu soldiers arrived, and no one could tell how many horse there were. Liu Bei mounted in haste and rode toward Feng Xi’s camp; in that camp fire and sparks rose to the sky. He looked south and east and saw the riverbank blazing like day, south and north equally.

Feng Xi, flustered, scrambled up and mounted, taking several dozen riders and running off. He met Ding Feng’s arrival and was held in hard fighting.

Liu Bei saw this and pulled his horse to flee westward. Ding Feng let go of Feng Xi and pushed troops in pursuit.

Liu Bei, in panic, saw ahead a column blocking his way; it was Wu commander Ding Feng. The two sides attacked together. The lord was struck with shock. With no road in four directions, he was trapped.

Then came a great cry. A unit of troops broke into the encirclement, and it was Zhang Bao, who rescued Liu Bei and drew the imperial bodyguard away running.

While they were still moving, another unit came up ahead: Shu commander Fu Tong as well. They joined troops in one mass. Wu soldiers pursued from the rear.

Liu Bei came to a hill called Ma’an Mountain. As Zhang Bao and Fu Tong urged Liu Bei up the slope, shouts rose from the foothills again: Lu Xun’s main force was encircling Ma’an. Zhang Bao and Fu Tong held the pass and the mountain gate. From above, Liu Bei looked over the entire field and saw unending firelight in all directions, with piled deadmen and the river choked below.

The next day Wu soldiers set fires all around the mountain, and soldiers in the ranks scattered in panic. Liu Bei was already in full panic when a figure broke through the flames with several riders and rode up the mountain. It was Guan Xing.

Guan Xing knelt low and said, “The fire from all sides closes in and cannot be endured. Your Majesty, ride quickly for Baidi City; then you may gather what troops you can.”

Liu Bei asked, “Who will cover the rear?”

Fu Tong reported, “Your servant volunteers to die for it.”

At dusk, Guan Xing rode in front, Zhang Bao in the middle, and Fu Tong held the rear and defended as Liu Bei withdrew off the mountain.

Wu soldiers saw Liu Bei fleeing and each vied for merit, each bringing greater force, sky- and earth-covering, all chasing to the west.

Liu Bei ordered his soldiers to remove all robes and armor, blocking paths and setting them alight to break up the pursuing rear guard. As they ran, a thunder of voices rose: Jiang commander Zhu Ran led a force down from the riverbank and blocked the way.

Liu Bei cried, “I will die here!”

Guan Xing and Zhang Bao leapt and charged and were struck back by a storm of arrows, each with grave wounds, unable to break through.

Again the cries rose behind: Lu Xun arrived with a great force from the valley.

In Liu Bei’s most anxious moment, dawn was near. He saw ahead a cry that shook the sky; Zhu Ran’s force fell into ravines and over rocks, and a troop surged in to rescue the royal carriage.

Liu Bei was overjoyed. Looking, he recognized Zhao Zilong of Changshan. Zhao Yun had been in Jiangzhou on the river, and when he heard of Wu and Shu joining battle, he had raised troops and advanced. Now, seeing the fire in the southeast as a wall into the sky, he had looked from afar and found Liu Bei trapped. He rode with desperate courage into the crush.

When Lu Xun learned it was Zhao Yun, he ordered his troops to pull back.

Zhao Yun, in the midst of killing, suddenly met Zhu Ran and exchanged blows. Before long they had not closed more than once before a single spear impaled Zhu Ran from beneath his horse, scattering the Wu soldiers and rescuing Liu Bei, then he turned toward Baidi City and escaped.

Liu Bei said, “Though I have escaped, what of my officers and men?”

Zhao Yun said, “The enemy remains in the rear; we cannot delay. Your Majesty should enter Baidi City to rest. I shall lead troops back now to rescue and support them.”

Only a little over a hundred men entered Baidi City with Liu Bei at first.

Later people praised Lu Xun in verse:

Straw raised in flames to break linked camps,
Xuande in flight at last to Baidi City.
One shout makes his name feared by Shu and Wei—
Does not the king of Wu now honor the scholar too?

Fu Tong, holding the rear, was besieged on all eight sides by Wu troops. Ding Feng shouted: “So many of you have fallen, and many have surrendered. Your lord Liu Bei is already captured. Why not submit now?”

Fu Tong barked, “I am a Han commander. How can I kneel to a dog of Wu?”

He threw spear and mounted, leading Shu soldiers in stubborn slaughter. For more than a hundred rounds he crossed and recrossed; he could not break free. Finally he sighed deeply, “Now I can rest.”

When he finished, he spewed blood and died among the Wu soldiers.

Later people composed a poem in praise of Fu Tong:

At Yiling, Wu and Shu fought in mighty battle;
Lu Xun’s design used fire to burn it down.
Even at death he still cursed the dogs of Wu—
Fu Tong did not betray the honor of a Han general.

Shu remonstrance minister Cheng Ji rode alone to the riverbank and called the navy to come into battle; Wu soldiers came on in pursuit, and the navy scattered in flight.

The commander of the Jiang division shouted, “Wu soldiers have arrived! Cheng Ji, run now!”

Cheng Ji answered in fury, “Since my lord took the field, I have never turned from battle and run!”

Before the words ended, Wu soldiers came in sharply. With nowhere to go, Cheng Ji drew his sword and slit his own throat.

Later people praised him in verse:

Fierce in courage, Shu’s Minister Cheng,
He leaves one blade to answer the king’s call.
In peril he never abandoned his old resolves—
Thus he won a name of unfading fragrance.

At this time Wu Ban and Zhang Nan had long besieged Yiling City. Feng Xi arrived then and reported Shu was defeated, and moved troops to rescue the Lord. Sun Huan had only just slipped away. As Sun Huan and Feng Xi rode, Wu soldiers came at them from the front, and from behind Sun Huan struck out from Yiling City, attacking from both sides. Zhang Nan and Feng Xi fought hard but could not break free. They died in the chaos.

Later people praised it in verse:

Feng Xi keeps one loyalty, Zhang Nan one fierce sense of right;
On the field each chooses battle and dies willingly.
Their names remain with fragrance through the histories.

Wu Ban broke through the siege and again met Wu pursuit. He was fortunate to be overtaken by Zhao Yun and was carried back to Baidi City.

At that time the barbarian king Sha Mo Ke, running one horse, met Zhou Tai; they fought for more than twenty rounds and were killed by Zhou Tai.

Shu commanders Du Lu and Liu Ning all surrendered to Wu. All Shu camps’ grain, equipment, and arms disappeared utterly; the surrendering soldiers were countless.

At this time Lady Sun was in Wu. Hearing of the defeat at Xiaoting, wild reports said the Lord had died in battle. She drove her carriage to the riverbank, looked west and wept aloud, then cast herself into the river and died.

Later they set a temple on the riverbank and called it Xiaojī Shrine. Later chroniclers wrote this verse:

The Lord’s troops return to Baidi City;
Wife hears of war, casts off life alone.
To this day a stone by the river remains,
Still bearing across ten thousand ages the name of a chaste wife.

Lu Xun, having gained complete victory, moved on with his winning force and pressed west in pursuit.

Not far beyond Kui Pass, Lu Xun was in the saddle and saw near the river by the mountain a mass of killing qi rise and crash toward heaven. He reined in and told his men, “There is surely an ambush ahead. The entire army must not advance lightly.”

He withdrew ten li and formed ranks on open ground to oppose enemy approach. He sent scouting riders forward. The scouts reported no camp there. Lu Xun doubted and dismounted, climbed a hill to look. The killing qi rose again.

He ordered another careful investigation. Riders returned: there was not one rider, not one soldier in front.

Seeing the sun near sinking west, with the threat rising, he felt uneasy and told his aide to inspect again. The report came: along the river there were only eighty or ninety piles of broken stones, no men or horse.

Lu Xun asked the local men why and what stone heaps carried this killing qi from within.

Some soon came. He asked, “Who piled these stones? How could killing qi rise from these piles?”

They answered, “This place is Yufupu. When Zhuge Liang entered Shu, he drove soldiers here and arranged the stones into formations on the sandbank. From then onward, there is often a qi like clouds rising from within.”

Lu Xun, after hearing, mounted and came with several riders to inspect the stone array. He set his horse on a hillside, and on all four sides he saw openings and doorways.

Lu Xun laughed: “This is only trickery to confound people. What use is it?”

He brought several riders down from the slope and entered the stone formation directly.

An officer said, “It is evening now, please, Commander, return soon.”

Lu Xun was about to leave when a wild gale struck. In a moment sand and stone flew, sky-dark and land-sealed. Strange stones stood jagged, jagged like swords; earthen ridges rose like hills; and the river roar roared like drumbeats of weapons.

Lu Xun cried in alarm: “I have fallen into Kongming’s calculation!” He tried to retreat, but there was no path.

In this panic, an old man appeared before his horse and said, smiling, “General, do you wish to leave this array?”

Lu Xun said, “I beg the elder to lead me out.”

The old man moved slowly with staff, passed directly through the stone array without obstruction, and escorted him to the hilltop.

Lu Xun asked, “Who are you, elder?”

The man answered, “I am Huang Chengyan, father-in-law of Zhuge Kongming. In the past, when this little son-in-law came into Shu, he laid this stone array here and called it the ‘Eight-Array Diagram.’ Repeating the eight gates of Dunjia—Xu, Sheng, Shang, Du, Jing, Si, Jing, and Kai—it changes with each season and hour and can rival ten thousand elite soldiers in force. Before he left he told me: ‘If later some commander from Eastern Wu becomes lost in it, do not bring him out.’”

“I happen to stand on this ridge and saw you enter by the gate of Death. I figured you would not know the array and would surely be entrapped. I am by nature kind and could not bear to see you sink into it, so I led you out by the birth gate.”

Lu Xun said, “Have you learned this array method?”

Huang Chengyan said, “Its changes are endless; one cannot learn it.”

Lu Xun hastily dismounted and, with bows of thanks, returned.

Later Du Gongbu made a poem:

Triumph covered three states, and fame became the Eight-Array map.
The river’s stones refuse to turn, a lingering sorrow: he failed to swallow Wu.

Returning to camp, Lu Xun sighed, “Kongming is truly a Sleeping Dragon. I could never reach him!”

He then ordered retreat.

His assistants said, “Liu Bei’s forces are beaten and cornered in a single city. This is the moment to strike while we have fortune. Why withdraw after seeing this stone array?”

Lu Xun replied, “It is not fear of the array that makes me withdraw. I calculate Cao Pi of Wei; his fraudulence and cunning are no less than his father’s. He will know I pursue Shu and then ride in on the gap. If I press deep into Xichuan, I will be hard pressed to return.”

So he assigned one officer to block the rear and led the main army home.

Within two days of beginning to withdraw, three separate messengers came flying: Cao Ren from Nushu, Cao Xiu from Dongkou, and Cao Zhen from Nanjun. Three routes, several hundred thousand men and horse, had arrived by night—purpose unknown.

Lu Xun laughed. “Exactly as I expected. I have already ordered troops to hold against it.”

And it is written:

His great heart longs to swallow Xichuan,
Yet still he must endure and defend the northern court.
How this turned out will be told in the next chapter.