Strategists of Shu. Note that the numbers between ( ) refer to the year in which they are born and there might be an margin of error of plus 1 or minus 1 for the life span figure due to the month of birth/death unknown. Bits and pieces of information will be added and errors corrected as time goes by.
|
A master tactician. Also known as Kongming and alias "The Sleeping Dragon". Zhuge Liang lived a peaceful and tranquil life in Longzhong village in the countryside until Liu Bei managed to meet him in person on his third visit. Touched by Liu Bei's sincerity as well as Liu Bei's adoption of his plan for setting up a kingdom in the west and allying with East Wu at the same time, Zhuge Liang left his humble abode to serve Liu Bei in what would be a major turning point for Liu Bei. Zhuge Liang was then a 27 year old chap and Liu Bei 47 years old.Initially Guan Yu and Zhang Fei cannot accept the fact of taking orders from a young chap thinking how can their elder brother Liu Bei trust a young and inexperienced chap like Zhuge Liang so much as to giving him full command of the army in the battle against Xiahou Dun. However Zhuge Liang's uncanny anticipations of the enemy movement which resulted in a complete victory over the Cao troops on his first command proved Guan Yu and Zhang Fei wrong.
However the second attack wave proved too much to handle and Liu Bei led the populace of Xinye to retreat to Xiangyang but was chased away by Liu Cong. Having no alternative Zhuge Liang led a small band of soldiers to JiangXia to request reinforcements from Liu Qi. To ensure Liu Bei's survival against Cao Cao's impending invasion, Zhuge Liang volunteer to head for East Wu to personally sway Sun Quan into an alliance with Liu Bei and resist Cao Cao together. Liu Bei and Sun Quan's armies dealt a heavy blow to Cao Cao and Liu Bei captured the territories of Jingzhou as war spoilts.
Sharing the same idea as Pang Tong that Jingzhou cannot be defended long term, Zhuge Liang remained behind in Jingzhou while Liu Bei together with Huang Zhong, Wei Yan, Pang Tong and Guan Ping headed for Xichuan. Unfortunately the subsequent death of Pang Tong in the westward expedition as well as Liu Bei's entrapment in Xichuan left Zhuge Liang no choice but to lead troops to Xichuan to rescue Liu Bei as well as to capture Xichuan.
Later when Liu Bei passed away, Zhuge Liang managed to hold off five armies initiated by Cao Pi. Under Zhuge Liang, the Shu kingdom became more properous and militarily stronger. He subdued the southern barbarian king Meng Huo and later on led six expeditions against Wei in an attempt to fulfil Liu Bei's wish of restoring the Han Dynasty.
Zhuge Liang's greatest worry is his arch nemesis Sima Yi. If it wasn't for Sima Yi, Zhuge Liang would have captured Luoyang and accomplished Liu Bei's goal of restoring the Han Dynasty. The overworked and stressed Zhuge Liang fell seriously ill on the six expedition. He passed away on the plains of Wuzhangyuan but before dying recommended Jiang Wei to succeed him. The death of Zhuge Liang is a great loss for the Shu kingdom.
|
Fledging Phoenix is his alias and he is widely regarded as Zhuge Liang's counterpart. Sima Hui told Liu Bei that he can conquer the world if he possess any of these two men. Originally intended to serve Sun Quan but Sun Quan rejected him due to his ugly looks.Prior to the battle of Chibi, Cao Cao adopted his proposal of chaining his warships together. By connecting up the warships with metal chains, the ships would be stable on rough waters and thereby reduce the number of soldiers falling sick due to the ill effects of the rough waves over the Yangtze river. Although cautioned by Cheng Yu against the risk of a fire attack on the chained ships, Cao Cao brushed aside his advise stating that an attack by fire was not possible due to the wrong wind direction. However Cao Cao was wrong and being fooled into implementing Pang Tong's plan of chaining up his fleet proved disastrous when the wind direction changed suddenly on a particular day. A day where he witness the destruction of his mighty armada. Pang Tong was nowhere to be found when the attack commences.
Zhuge Liang gave a letter of recommendation to Pang Tong and told Pang Tong to present the letter of recommendation should he decide to serve under Liu Bei. However Pang Tong wanted to serve Sun Quan and even though he was recommended by Lu Su, Sun Quan rejected him due to his ugly looks so Pang Tong went to see Liu Bei instead. Reluctant to use Zhuge Liang and Lu Su's letter of recommendation, Pang Tong was assigned a small official post as the magistrate of a small county by Liu Bei. Zhang Fei was enraged when he heard that Pang Tong was neglecting his official duties.
This time instead of being impulsive and bashing Pang Tong up, Zhang Fei gave Pang Tong a chance to explain himself. Pang Tong's remarks about the insignificance of the work expected from this minor magistrate post and thereafter proceeded to settle all the cases/disputes over the past hundred days within a single day. Zhang Fei was deeply impressed and brought him to see Liu Bei right away. Liu Bei appointed him as his deputy director general after seeing Zhuge Liang and Lu Su's letter of recommendation. When asked by Liu Bei as to why he did not present the letters of recommendation Pang Tong replied that he do not want to rely upon connections to obtain a high post.
Later when Liu Zhang request that Liu Bei go and reinforce Xichuan against Zhang Lu's attacks, Pang Tong urged Liu Bei to make use of this chance of entering Xichuan to seize control of it instead. However Liu Bei flatly refuse to stoop to this unscruplous tactic to gain control of Xichuan. Moreover Liu Bei regarded Liu Zhang as his distant relative. But is a shame Liu Zhang does not feel the same way as Liu Bei. When Liu Bei requested supplies and reinforcements what he got was only a fraction of the supplies and weak,old soldiers.
Infuriated by this ungrateful treatment from him when he is giving all his best to defend his land, Liu Bei declares war on Liu Zhang and Pang Tong presented Liu Bei with three options. They are as follows:
Liu Bei chose the third option and subsequently Fu Pass was captured with ease. The capture of Fu Pass paved the way for the capture of Luocheng. The army advanced along two routes to Luocheng. Pang Tong volunteered to go by the narrow route which leads to the west gate. Before setting up, Pang Tong ws thrown off his stead and Liu Bei offered Pang Tong his horse. Pang Tong was touched by Liu Bei's kind gesture but little did he know the disaster that will befall upon the rider of this white horse.
- Abandon the objective of capturing Xichuan and retreat hastily back to Jingzhou
- Advance towards Chengdu and attempt a very risky assault to capture it with their limited troops.
- Seize control of Fu Pass so as to secure a safe passage back to Jingzhou and at the same time providing a path for more reinforcements from Jingzhou to passage through.
Zhang Ren was prepared and led three thousand troops to lay an ambush at the narrow path. Wei Yan's troops was ignored and the ambush was sprang on what Zhang Ren assume was Liu Bei's forces which in fact was Pang Tong's. Zhang Ren assumed the man riding the white horse is Liu Bei and ordered a barrage of arrows on that rider of the white horse. With arrows falling like rain, Pang Tong had no escape and perished. Before his last breath, he passed the map of Xichuan to one of his man and ordered it to be delivered to Liu Bei. The death of Pang Tong deeply saddens Liu Bei and one of the cause for Zhuge Liang's leading of troops out of Jingzhou to rescue Liu Bei's badly battered forces.
