Lü Meng

Brings Sun Quan the Gan Ning dossier from Dragon Gorge - the Silk-sailed Pirate wants to defect but fears his welcome - and brokers the recruitment that decides the war. As Van Leader at Xiakou he drops into a small boat to fire the drifting warships and chases Chen Jiu ashore, striking him down at the water's edge.

Comes with Gan Ning to sound out Zhou Yu on war or peace, and is paired with Taishi Ci over the third army.

Takes three thousand men into the Black Forest behind Gan Ning, the support for the depot fire.

Fires the grass in ten places on Gan Ning's signal, then chases Cao Cao out of the Black Forest - 'Cao Cao, stop!' - held off by Zhang Liao's rearguard.

Argues Gan Ning must be saved, proposes leaving Ling Tong to hold the camp, and lays the felled-tree barricade on the bye road - the trap that dismounts Cao Hong's fleeing officers and nets five hundred horses.

Shares the Rear Guard of Zhou Yu's fifty thousand with Ling Tong.

Proposes the Ruxu rampart against the doubters ('one must prepare against possibilities') — the wall that decides the campaign is built day and night on his word.

Lays the Lukou contingencies with Gan Ning — bomb signal if Guan Yu brings troops, assassins if he comes alone — and dares not move either when Lu Su ends up in the guest's grip; afterwards counsels open war.

Points the campaign at Huancheng first ('take it before Hefei's help arrives — attack at dawn and the city falls before noon'), and throws himself sword-and-shield between Ling Tong and Gan Ning at the banquet.

Extracts Ling Tong from the fifty-bout duel, escorts the rescued Sun Quan to the ships, and holds the bank with arrow-fire until his quivers run dry — saved by Lu Xun's arriving fleet.

The shadow over the victory — Wang Fu names him at Lukou, long hungry for Jingzhou, and the beacon towers are built against his crossing.

The chapter belongs to him: argues Jingzhou over Xuzhou for command of the Great River, feigns illness when the beacon towers stall him, resigns so the unknown Lu Xun can flatter Guan Yu blind — then sails the eighty ships in merchants' white, buys and bags the beacon-keepers, opens Jingzhou's gates from inside without a fight. His discipline makes the conquest: death for any robbery, officials retained, Guan Yu's household guarded — and his own fellow villager beheaded over a commandeered rain hat, then buried with the general's tears. Objects to sharing command with Sun Jiao and to leaving Fu Shiren in Gongan; right both times.

Closes the net he wove: appears under Nanjun's wall at the perfect moment to take both turncoats, then wins the war without fighting it — every Jingzhou family protected and provisioned, physicians free of charge, the letter-bearer feted and loaded with 'all is well' messages that melt Guan Yu's army man by man. Answers the reproach letter with silken regret, and the divination with a promise: 'even if Guan Yu had wings to soar to the skies, he would not escape my net.'

His masterpiece and his death in one chapter: designs the capture to the mile — north gate left open, Zhu Ran at seven miles, Pan Zhang at Linju — and at the victory feast, cup in hand above the salt, is seized by the dead man's spirit: he hurls Sun Quan to the floor, roars 'I am the Lord of Hanshou, Guan Yu!' in the hero's own voice, and falls dead with blood streaming from the seven orifices. Buried Governor of Nanjun and Lord of Chanling.

Dead but doing diplomatic work: Zhuge Jin lays the whole Jingzhou attack on him ('it was Lu Meng's doing, and his enmity has died with him'), Zhao Zi cites his appointment as proof of Sun Quan's clear-sightedness, and Sun Quan mourns him as the last of the three great successors.

The dead man everyone blames: the mutinous Jingzhou soldiers curse his 'vile machinations,' the turncoats plead his trickery at the altar, Bu Zhi lists him first among the five Liu Bei hated — and Kan Ze names him the last pillar before Lu Xun.

Named in passing only, and long dead, as Sima Yi's precedent for releasing every Shu prisoner unharmed: 'Let them go back to their own and praise the kindliness of the Wei leaders. That will slacken the desire of their comrades to fight against us. That was the plan by which Lu Meng captured Jingzhou.'

Named in Wang Su's advice as the model for breaking a rebellion without fighting it: he took Jingzhou by winning over Guan Yu's officers through their families, and Wang Su proposes the same handling for the Huai garrisons, whose families are all in the Middle Land.