[Lightscreen]
[The evaluation we are most familiar with, "A son should be like Sun Zhongmou," actually finds its origins in a rather surreal series of military maneuvers.
There is a curious anecdote recorded in the Shou Shen Ji, In Search of the Supernatural .
Legend has it that at Ruxukou, there was a sunken ship. When the tide receded, the wreckage would breach the surface.
Local elders called it Lord Cao's Vessel. It is said that fishermen who tied their boats to this wreck at night would hear the ghostly sounds of flutes and strings and catch the scent of fine rouge and powder drifting on the wind.
One fisherman even dreamed of being shoved away and warned, "Stay clear of the official courtesans."
When he asked the elders the next day, they told him, "That ship has been there for a hundred years. It was the vessel Lord Cao used to transport his harem of singers."
How did Cao Cao's ship end up sinking there? That brings us to the Battle of Ruxukou between Cao Cao and Sun Quan.
If you travel south by water from the cultural hub of Hefei, you reach Lake Chao. The waters flow through the Ruxu River and eventually merge into the Yangtze. The bottleneck where Lake Chao enters the Ruxu is known as Ruxukou.
To train his navy for this specific theater, Cao Cao went through the monumental effort of excavating Xuanwu Lake to simulate naval combat.
He then moved his recruits to the Guo River in Qiao County to practice inland river operations before shifting his forces through the Huai River and Shouchun to garrison at Hefei.
Sun Quan, feeling the mounting pressure, did not dare hesitate. He moved his capital to Nanjing once more, fortified the Ruxu mountains, and built the Ruxu Dock as a massive defensive bulwark.
The records of the battle itself are surprisingly sparse on both sides.
On the Wei side, Cao Cao marched in the winter of 212, arrived at Ruxu in early 213, broke Sun Quan's western camp, captured General Gongsun Yang, and by April, he was already back in Yecheng.
On the Wu side, Cao attacked, Sun resisted for over a month, and Cao Cao, impressed by the discipline of the Wu ranks, ordered a retreat.
The fighting ended that simply. But the psychological warfare? That was just getting started.]
"And then our dear brother-in-law got a big head, and two years later he became Sun Shinwan?" Zhang Fei ventured, offering a cynical guess at where this was heading.
"Judging by the historical record," Zhao Yun mused, "it sounds like Cao Cao achieved minor tactical gains but failed to break the strategic stalemate. Sun Quan likely suffered few losses but managed no counter-victory of his own."
Pang Tong nodded. "The waters of Lake Chao narrow sharply at Ruxukou. Cao Cao could not leverage his superior numbers. The Eastern Wu navy is elite. So long as they held the channel, the Wei forces were effectively toothless."
He narrowed his eyes. "So if this battle was so unremarkable, where does the praise come from? Surely the Traitor Cao did not simply decide to announce to the world that he wished Sun Quan was his son?"
Kongming's fan moved a fraction faster. He held a different view than Shiyuan. "The fall of Cao Wei was born of internal rot. While Sun Zhongmou's military record is lacking, his ability to consolidate Jiangdong and hold the Huai River at such a young age shows a political wrist no weaker than that of Cao Pi or Cao Rui."
The back and forth left Fa Zheng, Zhang Song, and Liu Ba somewhat dazed.
"Why is he called the Sun Shinwan?" Zhang Song asked, genuinely confused.
"Likely because Jiangdong possesses a hundred thousand elite troops," Fa Zheng guessed.
Zhang Fei let out a sharp chuckle. "Xiaozhi, you have got exactly half the answer right."
Fa Zheng's face filled with question marks.
[Lightscreen]
[The battle at Ruxukou lasted three months. Though Cao Cao broke one camp and captured a general, his original objective, to crush Jiangdong, remained unfulfilled.
For Wu, this was a victory worth shouting from the rooftops. Consequently, this brief war birthed two legendary accounts.
The first is the story popularized in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms .
Gan Ning's night raid with a hundred riders. The Chronicles of Wu claims Cao Cao boasted forty thousand men. Sun Quan ordered Gan Ning to strike. Gan Ning, bold beyond measure, led a hundred brave men, silently dismantled the perimeter defenses, and threw the Wei camp into such chaos that he escaped with minimal losses.
Sun Quan supposedly praised him, "Cao Cao has Zhang Liao, but I have Gan Ning. What do I have to fear?"
The second, story is today's real protagonist: Everyone's favorite son, Sun Zhongmou.
The Chronicles of Wu records that as Cao Cao attacked, Sun Quan repeatedly challenged him to open battle. Cao Cao, however, stayed behind his fortifications.
Frustrated, Sun Quan took a small boat to sightsee near the Wei naval camp. Despite it being night, Cao Cao apparently had the eyesight of an eagle. He recognized Sun Quan on the tiny vessel and ordered his men to hold fire and maintain high alert.
Sun Quan cruised around the naval gates for half an hour, rowing three kilometers back and forth, effectively taunting the entire Wei army while boosting Wu morale.
It was at this moment that Cao Cao supposedly sighed and muttered, "A son should be like Sun Zhongmou. The sons of Liu Biao are but pigs and dogs."
Sun Quan returned to his camp in high spirits and wrote a letter to Cao Cao. "The spring floods are coming, my Lord. You should leave quickly." Attached was a small note. "If you do not die, I cannot be at peace." Cao Cao, facing forty thousand troops, told his subordinates that Sun Quan would not lie to him, and he promptly retreated.
The night raid is one thing, but the second story strains all logic. Cao Cao was the attacker, yet he stayed on the defensive? Was he taking a page out of the Prime Minister's book and planting wheat?
And Sun Quan was the defender, yet he was begging for a fight? The story of the solo boat cruise sounds like Sun Quan was Cao's long-lost secret child.
To fix this, later records in the Weilüe changed the small boat to a large ship and "holding fire" to "volleys of arrows." In that version, Sun Quan's ship took so many arrows on one side it began to tilt, so he turned the ship around to let the other side get hit until the weight balanced out and he could sail home.]
"This General Gan, his courage seems almost comparable to General Zhao," Zhang Song exclaimed. To the people of Yizhou, Zhao Yun's hundred-rider charge was already a myth.
"It might be a fabricated record," Fa Zheng noted coolly.
Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun conferred for a moment before Zhang Fei nodded. "The night raid is plausible. Gan Xingba is a man of extraordinary nerve. You can judge a man by his actions. Those of the Gan bloodline are prone to the extraordinary."
Liu Bei agreed. Gan Gui, the general's son, had left a deep impression on him as well. "If it was only a hundred men, slipping through the perimeter at night by removing obstacles and moving in silence is entirely possible."
Zhao Yun summarized, "And according to the record, they only took a dozen heads. It was a failed night raid followed by a tactical retreat. Perfectly normal."
However.
"Sun Shinwan-ge only has Gan Xingba to raid a camp," Zhang Fei sighed. "Meanwhile, the Traitor Cao's, Zhang Wenyuan actually broke a Sun Shinwan-ge camp with eight hundred men."
The three men of Yizhou stared, their eyes bulging. Eight hundred against a hundred thousand? Were the generals of the outside world all this terrifying?
Liu Bei, meanwhile, was shaking his head at the other account. "If Cao Mengde were truly that naive, would we be in this predicament?"
Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun nodded grimly. They remembered Changban Slope. That was not a game of holding fire. That was a desperate scramble for survival.
Pang Tong joked, "Our Lord is Cao's greatest enemy, while Sun Quan is treated like his own flesh and blood. How can you compare the two?"
Liu Bei laughed, but then his expression softened into something more melancholy. "Passing over the elder for the younger. Brother Jingsheng brought that disaster upon himself."
Pang Tong sighed. "Kongming is not wrong. The disaster of the Cao clan was self-inflicted. If his sons were even half as capable as Sun Zhongmou, the Sima clan would never have had their chance."
Zhang Fei curled his lip. "What use is a pretty reputation? He could not take Hefei. He declared himself a vassal. He betrayed his oaths. He is a laughingstock for the ages."
He looked at Liu Bei with a mischievous glint. "Oh, by the way, Big Brother. Do you not want to be a Sun Polu yourself?"
Liu Bei choked on his words before replying softly, "Adou is still young."
Watching the Light Screen was still a novel experience for Hou Junji. He offered his critique. "This Gan Xingba has a fraction of the nerve of our Emperor."
The other ministers nodded. Their Emperor's military record was beyond reproach. Countless victories against superior numbers, all of them characterized by sheer and fearless aggression.
Li Shimin himself gave the screen a dismissive glance. A failed night raid? Nothing to brag about.
But as for Cao Cao's lament, Li Shimin was not buying it. "All his life, he did nothing but guard his inheritance in Jiangdong. He is not even fit to shine my Crown Prince's boots."
Li Shimin remembered the century of prosperity. Even if he laid the foundation, it took his sons and grandsons to maintain it for eighty years. That meant his immediate heirs were competent. He felt a surge of pride. I am the Emperor of the Ages. My son is a wise expander of the realm. My grandson is likely a sage. Cao Aman and Sun Zhongmou? Do not try to sit at my table.
The ministers showered him with flattery, and Li Shimin laughed heartily.
In the back, Yan Liben's brush was flying so fast he felt he needed an assistant. Next time, he thought, I am bringing my disciples.
[Lightscreen]
[While the Chronicles of Wu clearly tries to polish Sun Quan's image, Cao Cao's exclamation is actually quite logical. He was truly being blocked at Ruxukou by Sun Quan.
This year, Old Man Cao was pushing sixty. He could feel the weight of his years. Facing the thirty-two-year-old Sun Quan, who was in his prime and radiant with energy, it was only natural for Cao to desire such an heir.
More importantly, after the disaster at Wancheng where he lost three of his most cherished men in one night, the question of succession had become a chronic headache for him
By the time of the Ruxukou campaign, Cao Ang and Cao Chong were dead. Cao Cao was forced to choose between Cao Pi and Cao Zhi.
Before the campaign, he had left the twenty-one-year-old Cao Zhi in charge of Yecheng, a blatant test of his capability. Cao Zhi failed it.
The court officials reported that while Cao Zhi was a literary genius, he was impulsive and had a severe drinking problem. Cao Cao was disappointed.
And what about the twenty-six-year-old Cao Pi?
He was wandering around, sightseeing on horseback. Cao Cao took him to the Guo River to train the navy, but Cao Pi showed zero interest, instead writing the Ode to the Guo River from the riverbank.
So, while Cao Cao was praising Sun Quan, he was actually taking a swing at his own sons. Learn from Sun Quan, and stop acting like the spoiled brats of the Liu Biao family.
This is why, later on, when Sun Quan offered his surrender, Cao Pi was so intoxicated by the ego boost that he ignored repeated warnings and threw away the chance to unify the world.
There is no drug quite like having the perfect child from next door finally bow down to you.]