Lu Su

Lu Su's debut - recruited by Zhou Yu; presents Sun Quan with the first comprehensive plan for the South Land (very similar to Zhuge Liang's later Longzhong Plan): secure the Yangtze, take Jingzhou, then contest the empire.

Lu Su; arrives at Jiangxia ostensibly to mourn Liu Biao but really to scout the Liu Bei / Liu Qi position. Becomes Zhuge Liang's escort back to Sun Quan's court.

Coaches Zhuge Liang three times not to reveal Cao Cao's numbers - and watches him inflate them to a million and a half. But his own quiet speech outside the council door is the chapter's hinge: a servant who submits keeps his village and office; a lord who submits gets one carriage, one horse, ten followers. 'Determine to play a bold game!'

Welcomes his friend home, argues surrender down to his face not knowing it is a pose - and, made Assistant Commander, immediately talks Zhou Yu out of killing Zhuge Liang: 'it is self-destruction to make away with your ablest officer before Cao Cao is destroyed.' Try the brother instead.

The shuttle between the two geniuses: carries Zhou Yu's murder plans away and Zhuge Liang's counsel back, twice talks his commander out of killing the ally ('think of the country's good first'), fails to save Cao Cao's beheaded messenger, and is sent at the end to sound out whether Zhuge Liang saw through the letter trick - of course he did.

Promptly betrays Zhuge Liang's 'don't tell Zhou Yu' - then keeps the secret that matters, lending the twenty screened boats without a word to his chief. Terrified in the fog while his passenger drinks, he ferries between the geniuses all chapter, piqued and enlightened by turns.

The original sponsor: he had recommended Pang Tong to Zhou Yu and carried the Young Phoenix's first counsel - fire, but only if the ships are fastened together - the sentence the whole chapter exists to deliver.

Lu Su; with Zhou Yu when he collapses.

Ferries Zhuge Liang to the sickbed for the sixteen-character diagnosis, is sent down from the altar before the praying starts, and twice more holds Zhou Yu's dagger-hand: 'at least wait till Cao Cao is done with.'

Rides to Youkou at Zhou Yu's side, stammers when Liu Bei names him witness to the 'you may have it' wager - the reluctance of the one man who sees the trap his commander is talking himself into.

Talks Zhou Yu out of attacking his allies - fight near home and Cao Cao profits - then carries the demand to Jingzhou himself, only to be checkmated by a living heir: the cities are Liu Qi's patrimony. He extracts one concession - 'should he die, then you ought to return these cities' - and guarantees the half-year wait to his seething commander.

Greeted by his dismounted lord before the whole army - and answers the honor with ambition: nothing is enough until Sun Quan 'plays his part as emperor.' At chapter's end he is announced again: coming to mourn Liu Qi, and to claim the promise.

Comes to mourn and to claim, is silenced by Zhuge Liang's genealogy-and-gratitude broadside, and leaves holding the famous IOU: Jingzhou 'temporarily occupied' until the west is won - with his own signature on it as guarantor, extracted with a smile. Zhou Yu reads it and stamps his foot: 'you have been victimized.'

Squeezed between his signature and his lord's shout, he sails to Jingzhou to collect - and meets scripted weeping and Zhuge Liang's brotherly-blood argument; 'really the first of generous people,' he consents to plead for delay. Zhou Yu turns him around with the borrowed-road ruse, and he carries THAT to Jingzhou too, delighted at how easily it is accepted.

Named successor in the dying memorial and appointed Commander-in-Chief - but immediately tries to give the post away: Pang Tong is the abler man, 'not inferior to the old Guan Zhong or Yue Yi.' When Sun Quan rejects the ugly genius, Lu Su redirects him to Liu Bei with a letter - and a mission: keep the two houses at peace against Cao Cao.

Writes the appeal to his friend at Jingzhou and receives Zhuge Liang's serene reply: 'lay aside all anxiety... if the northern army approach, they will be forced backward at once.'

Lu Su; sets the banquet trap to extort Jingzhou back; Guan Yu's hand-holding gambit neutralises it. The trap that doesn't spring.

Lu Su; with Sun Quan.

Lu Su; named in passing - long dying year approaching.

Lu Su; named in passing in the recap of the Wu-Shu alliance.

Lu Su; named in passing - already dead; in the recap of the broken alliance.

Lu Su; named in passing - the old generation.

Lu Su; named in passing - the old generation.