Zhou Yu

Meets Sun Ce at Linyang with troops of his own - the sworn friend two months his junior - and immediately delivers the 'two Zhangs' of Guangling to the cause. He takes Que by surprise through Chen Wu's treachery, rescues the Shenting melee, flanks Wang Lang at Shanyin, and designs the reed-marsh trap that takes Taishi Ci alive.

Zhou Yu; arrives at Chaisang from the western front in time for Sun Ce's funeral; receives the formal mandate to manage external affairs and brings in Lu Su, Zhuge Jin, and others to staff Sun Quan's new court.

Argues down the hostage demand - 'to send a hostage is to be forced into joining Cao Cao' - is made Supreme Admiral over all Wu's forces, and overrules mourning-etiquette on the Huang Zu war: 'vengeance should not be postponed; it cannot wait upon times and seasons.'

Commander-in-Chief and Supreme Admiral, drilling the naval forces on Poyang Lake as the South Land builds its fleets.

Present only as the answer to the crisis: the dying Dowager's remembered charge - 'in Zhou Yu's counsels you safety find' - closes the chapter and points to the man who will decide the war.

Plays surrender-minded to every faction in turn - pacifists, generals, trimmers - then erupts at the doctored ode: 'you old rebel, this insult is too deep!' Before Sun Quan he dismantles Cao Cao point by point (unsubdued rear, cavalry traded for ships, winter, malaria), takes sword and supreme command, and by night explains away the million: sick central troops and doubtful Yuan men - 'I could smash them with fifty thousand.' In his innermost heart, though, the guest who reads minds 'will have to be put out of the way.'

Twice tries to kill his allies before fighting his enemy - the Iron Pile Mountains errand meant for Cao Cao's ambush, and fifty hidden executioners waiting on a dropped cup until Guan Yu's face sweats the plan out of him. He beheads Cao Cao's letter-bearer over an arrogant superscription, wins the first river battle and quails at the hundred-mile line of northern campfires - then turns his old schoolmate into a postman: the feigned drunkenness, the forged Cai Mao-Zhang Yun letter, the staged midnight whispers. 'Those two were my only source of anxiety. Now they are gone.'

Sets the ten-day arrow trap - materials quietly withheld - and hears his victim ask for three; when the hundred thousand arrive he sighs 'he is better than I; his methods are more than human.' He matches palms on 'Fire', turns Cao Cao's false deserters into his own information pipe, and stages the flesh-suffering ruse: fifty strokes on a veteran's bared back, the table kicked over, the officers cowed - and one gleeful confession to Lu Su: 'then I have deceived him for once.'

Chuckles at the second coming of Jiang Gan - 'success depends upon this man' - stages the anger, the exile hut, and the lamplit cabin, and lets his gullible schoolmate deliver Pang Tong to Cao Cao like a prize of his own finding.

Watches the chained fleet maneuver 'steady as dry land', sees Cao Cao's yellow flag topple into the river and laughs at the omen - then a corner of his own flag flicks his cheek, the thought behind everything strikes home, and he falls back with a cry, blood on his lips: the fire plan needs a southeast wind that winter will not blow.

Tests the 'physician' and bares his secret when the sixteen characters name it; builds the altar - and the moment the flags stream northwest, decides its builder must die: 'his methods are beyond the ken of god or devil.' The assassins miss by a boat-length. He sacrifices Cai He to the black standard, unrolls the six-pronged deployment and the four fire squadrons, and sends Huang Gai's twenty tinder-ships into the wind.

Zhou Yu; commands the Wu pursuit; ends the chapter chasing toward Nanjun for the next-chapter race with Liu Bei.

Promises Liu Bei the leavings - 'if we do not take it, then, Sir, you may have it' - and pays for the words: Jiang Qin's repulse, the Yiling detour, and a poisoned crossbow bolt in the left side inside Cao Ren's emptied city. He fakes his own death from the sickbed, springs the four-sided ambush on the night raid - and rides to Nanjun's wall to find Zhao Zilong on it. Two more couriers finish the tale: Jingzhou and Xiangyang both gone to forged orders. His wound bursts open with the cry.

Recovers from the burst wound swearing to settle accounts with Zhuge Liang, is talked down by Lu Su twice - and then ordered away entirely: Sun Quan's Hefei siege is failing, and the fleet marches east, Cheng Pu ahead, the grudge unpaid.

Recovering at Chaisang, his fleet split between Gan Ning at Baling and Ling Tong at Hanyang, the rest gone to Hefei under Cheng Pu.

Reads the IOU for the humbug it is, then builds the counter-trap on a funeral: offer the tough sister, lure the widower to Nanxu, and ransom him for Jingzhou. 'Instead of marrying a wife, Liu Bei will find himself a prisoner' - but the first silken bag turns his secret into town gossip, and the Dowager turns his decoy into a genuine marriage.

Salvages the failed trap with a subtler one - drown the adventurer in luxury until his brothers' affection curdles - and nearly succeeds: a year passes. When the couple bolts he has Xu Sheng and Ding Feng already camped on the road, then leads the fleet pursuit in person - into Guan Yu's gully ambush at Huangzhou. Fleeing to his ship he hears the bank jeering 'General Zhou Yu has given Uncle Liu Bei a wife and lost his soldiers!' - and the wound reopens as he falls.

Takes the poisoned governorship of Nanjun, spins the borrowed-road scheme - march 'for Xichuan' through Jingzhou, take the host unprepared, assassinate the greeter - and sails smiling at the thought of finally having Zhuge Liang. At the silent wall Zhao Zilong names his ruse back to him, the scouts report four armies converging with orders to take the Commander-in-Chief - and he falls from the saddle with a great cry as the wound reopens a third time.

Blocked at Baqiu by Liu Feng and Guan Ping, he receives Zhuge Liang's letter proving the western expedition hopeless - writes his dying memorial recommending Lu Su, sighs the famous line to heaven ('O God, since you made Zhou Yu, why did you also create Zhuge Liang?'), and dies at thirty-six. Sun Quan weeps aloud, buries him in his native place, and takes his three children under his care.

Zhou Yu; named in passing - long dead.

Zhou Yu; named in passing - already dead; the old generation.

Zhou Yu; named in passing - already dead; in recap.

Zhou Yu; named in passing - the old generation.

Zhou Yu; named in passing - the old generation.