History Awesome / RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms

** And the time before his death (also Chapter 104) when he orders the army not to mourn, so that his star will not fall, held up by his ascended spirit and thus keeping Sima Yi fearful and suspicious. Even when it does fall, Sima Yi fears that Zhuge Liang simply ''got the gods to fake it'' and thus doesn't attack in force.

* Zhuge Liang is basically a living embodiment of CMOA. Everything he does until his failed final campaigns against Wei (whose failure was not his fault at all) kicks ass. Including his death, where in Chapter 104 ''his wooden statue'' scared Sima Yi into holding off an attack long enough for the Shu army to retreat.

---> The best part is how Zhuge Liang manages to predict that there's going to be a thick fog in the first place in order the plan to succeed .

** Zhang Fei also gets the drop on him, turning an enemy officer to take numerous passes with such speed that he actually manages to get to the pivotal battle point first. See above.
* Jiang Wei, just for holding his own against [[OldMaster Zhao Yun]] in personal combat ''and'' actually confounding Zhuge Liang in the field; Zhuge Liang acknowledges his genius and ends up having to concoct a scheme involving Jiang Wei's mother, an escaped prisoner, and even a body double to finally corner Jiang Wei. When he surrenders, Zhuge Liang declares that he's finally found a protege who can inherit his knowledge and legacy.

* Guan Yu calmly playing a game of Go with one arm while the other is operated on without anaesthetic.

* Zhao Yun charging right into the middle of Cao Cao's ranks just to rescue Liu Bei's infant son, making off with one of Cao Cao's personal swords in the process and using it to cut his way out, killing several enemy officers in the process... and Liu Bei, angry at nearly trading a loyal follower for a mere kid, [[AbusiveParents dashes the kid to the ground.]] [[WhatAnIdiot (The son eventually grew up to be an idiot and lost his dad's kingdom along the way.]] [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Way to go, Liu Bei.)]]

* Guan Yu plowing his way through six generals and their five "gates" (checkpoint forts) on his journey to meet back up with his sworn brother Liu Bei... only for Cao Cao, whose service he'd been leaving, to let him keep the famous stallion Red Hare (after Guan Yu had explicitly said that he would use it to reach Liu Bei!), offering him gold to cover expenses and then a robe when that was refused, and [[KarmaHoudini letting him off the hook every step of the way]] (except by not giving those commanders the heads up...). Oh and by his sheer awesome he gets a would-be ambusher to betray the plot and gets followers, including Zhou Cang and Guan Ping (portrayed alongside him in many a depiction) and later Zhao Yun, in the course of things! (The "awesome" is mildly averted [[spoiler:posthumously, when a priest who in life had warned him of an ambush by one of those generals, then calls Guan Yu's ghost on them and all of his other victims]].)

* Zhou Yu pulls off an epic [[spoiler: FeedTheMole]] plot, that causes Cao Cao to [[spoiler: mistakenly execute his admirals.]] Part of the scheme involved him getting drunk and doing a crazy sword dance at a banquet.

* Zhuge Liang is basically a living embodiment of CMOA. Everything he does until his failed final campaigns against Wei (whose failure was not his fault at all) kicks ass. [[spoiler: Including his death, where in Chapter 104 ''his wooden statue'' scared Sima Yi into holding off an attack long enough for the Shu army to retreat]].

** During the battle of Chi Bi, Zhou Yu plans to kill Zhuge Liang worried he becomes a threat after he found out his scheme easily. See above. So he ask him to make 100,000 arrows in ten days. However, somehow he tells him that Cao Cao would attack soon so he suggest three days instead. Knowing that it's impossible to create that much arrows in ten days and Zhuge Liang knows Zhou Yu's real intentions, [[spoiler: the night of the second day, he ''borrows'' arrows from Cao Cao's camp by placing straw dummies in the boats he brought and faking an attempt to attack Cao Cao while Cao Cao's armies swarm them with arrows assuming they're luring them to an ambush due to the thick fog. As dawn rises, Zhuge Liang's soldiers ''thank'' Cao Cao for the arrows.]] Thanks to that, he manage to get more than 100,000 arrows.

** There's also the time the time in Chapter 95 where [[spoiler:in response to Sima Yi's march towards the city of Xicheng and Zhuge Liang's army of 2,500 outnumbered ''60 to 1'', he publically sits on the castle wall playing the lute as if nothing is wrong, the city with its gates thrown open and completely defenseless... but thanks to Zhuge Liang's reputation as a military commander and strategist, Sima Yi fears an ambush and ''turns his 150,000-man army around'']].
*** This also works because [[spoiler:Sima Yi knows that in Zhuge Liang's long career he's mastered ambushes, fire, hiding his numbers, and snatching victory from the jaws of overwhelming odds again and again and again, but he has never, ''ever'' bluffed.]]
** And the time before his death (also Chapter 104) when he [[spoiler:orders the army not to mourn, so that his star will not fall, held up by his ascended spirit and thus keeping Sima Yi fearful and suspicious. Even when it does fall, Sima Yi fears that Zhuge Liang simply ''got the gods to fake it'' and thus doesn't attack in force]].

* The minor Wu officer Kan Ze's only major role can be a CMOA. Why? At Chi Bi, Huang Gai has the task of [[spoiler: making a false defection to Wei in order to set fire to their ships]]. He has his old friend Kan Ze deliver the letter to Cao Cao. He does so, but Cao Cao believes it to be a trick ([[spoiler:which it is]]), and orders for Kan Ze to be beheaded. Kan Ze's response? He ''laughs.'' ''At Cao Cao''. And when Cao Cao asks why, Kan Ze ''starts insulting him.''

** But the icing on the cake? Cao Cao ends up believing him, and lets him return to the Wu camp to help Huang Gai in his 'defection'. Which means that without Kan Ze, the [[spoiler: Wu-Shu victory]] at Chi Bi might have never happened.
* Another CMOA comes from Chapter 33, and is performed by Wei strategist Guo Jia (who some believe had the potential to match the likes of Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi). Two of Yuan Shao's sons, Yuan Xi and Yuan Shang, have fled to Liaodong, ruled by Governer Gongsun Kang. Meanwhile Guo Jia has just passed away, but has left a letter for Cao Cao. Cao Cao reads it, but keeps the contents secret. Many of the Wei officers then repeatly asks Cao Cao why he doesn't attack the two Yuans and Gongsun Kang before they become a threat. Cao Cao merely tells them all to wait. A few days later, there arrives for Cao Cao a wooden box, sent by Gongsun Kang, containing the heads of Yuan Xi and Yuan Shang. The officers of Wei are surprised, but Cao Cao merely presents to them the contents of Guo Jia's dying letter:
-->[[spoiler: Yuan Xi and Yuan Shang are going to Liaodong. Illustrious Sir, you are on no account to attack, for Gongsun Kang has long lived in fear lest the Yuans should absorb his country. When they arrive, Gongsun Kang will hesitate. If you attack, he will save the Yuans to help him; if you wait, they will work against each other. This is evident.]]

* Sun Ce gets ambushed and a guy shoots him in the cheek with an arrow. Sun Ce pulls the arrow out, takes out his own bow, shoots the arrow back at the guy, and kills him.

* Zhao Yun charging right into the middle of Cao Cao's ranks [[InfantImmortality just to rescue Liu Bei's infant son]], making off with one of Cao Cao's personal swords in the process and using it to cut his way out, killing several enemy officers in the process... and Liu Bei, angry at nearly trading a loyal follower for a mere kid, [[AbusiveParents dashes the kid to the ground.]] [[WhatAnIdiot (The son eventually grew up to be an idiot and lost his dad's kingdom along the way.]] [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Way to go, Liu Bei.)]]

** Actually, this troper heard that Zhao Yun caught the boy just before he hit the ground. If he let the baby fall then perhaps a better [[WhatIf successor]] would have been found.
*** Liu Bei [[spoiler:on his deathbed]] allowed for just such a successor -- Zhuge Liang himself.

** To this troper's knowledge, only Liu Qi (in one of the more strangely humorous moments in the story) and Jiang Wei ''ever'' preempt and surprise him.
*** Actually, in Chapter 102, Zhuge Liang comes up with a plan to attack across the River Wei and Sima Yi sees through the plan completely and beats it back at every turn, costing Zhuge ten thousand soldiers. Just a temporary setback, but still, for anyone to get the best of him like that ''automatically'' makes it the CMOA for the other guy.

* This troper has always considered the minor Wu officer Kan Ze's only major role to be a CMOA. Why? At Chi Bi, Huang Gai has the task of [[spoiler: making a false defection to Wei in order to set fire to their ships]]. He has his old friend Kan Ze deliver the letter to Cao Cao. He does so, but Cao Cao believes it to be a trick ([[spoiler:which it is]]), and orders for Kan Ze to be beheaded. Kan Ze's response? He ''laughs.'' ''At Cao Cao''. And when Cao Cao asks why, Kan Ze ''starts insulting him.''

** The incident gave rise to a Chinese saying: "Cross five gates, kill six generals", used to describe a string of crushing victories.

* Liao Hua, an Officer of Shu, gets one for his longevity, and the fact that he lived to see the rise and fall of the Three Kingdoms. While a specific age is never given, he is stated to have been part of the Yellow Scarves Rebellion back in approximately 184 AD, and is stated to have died in 264 AD. This means that, at the time of Shu's demise in 263 AD, a year before his death, ''and whose military he was still a part of at the time'', he must have been ''in his late 80's'' at the very least, and almost certainly into his ''early, possibly late 90's.'' He stands alongside Huang Zhong and Zhao Yun/Zilong as an OldSoldier.

* Although he's best known for losing at Guan Du, Yuan Shao gets one when Dong Zhuo threatens and bullies the Ministers to depose the Emperor and install a new one. He's the only one to stand up and protest it seeing through his plan. When Dong Zhuo draws out his sword Yuan Shao without hesistating draws his own out as well claiming his sword is sharp as well. Perhaps if he hadn't been so indecisive as later chapters would show, he may've been the one to unify China instead.

* Liao Hua, an Officer of Shu, gets one for his longevity, and the fact that he lived to see the rise and fall of the Three Kingdoms. While a specific age is never given, he is stated to have been part of the Yellow Scarves Rebellion back in approximately 184 AD, and is stated to have died in 264 AD. This means that, at the time of Shu's demise in 263 AD, a year before his death, ''and whose military he was still a part of at the time'', he must have been ''in his late 80's'' at the very least, and almost certainly into his ''early, possibly late 90's.'' He stands alongside Huang Zhong and Zhao Yun/Zilong as an [[OldMaster Old Master]] and a [[BadassGrandpa Badass Grandpa.]]

* Cao Cao is typically portrayed in the novel as a mere SmugSnake, but his CrowningMomentOfAwesome was at the Battle of Guan Du, where he beat Yuan Shao's forces through strategy despite being outnumbered 10 to 1.

* Huang Gai and Zhou Yu: The former for taking severe corporal punishment in order to [[FakeDefector fool Cao Cao into thinking he was defecting]], then [[IncendiaryExponent leading a squad of fiery ships into the much larger enemy fleet at Chi Bi for the win]]; the latter for coming up with it in the first place. [[RealityRetcon (Historically speaking, Zhuge Liang had nothing to do with it.)]]

* Guan Yu calmly playing a game of go with one arm while the other is operated on without anaesthetic.

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** On the battlefield in duels, anyway. When it came to strategy/tactics, or off the battlefield... not nearly so much. (Correspondingly, in the video game series of the same name, he is ''far'' less "[[GameBreaker broken]]"/useful than in the ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'' series. This troper has (as Cao Cao) held off multiple invasion attempts by Lu Bu in ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI'' just by having units cast Misinform... causing him to turn around and go back the way he came ''every time''.)

** In Chinese, an expression involving him runs thus: "(When) Shu has no major generals around, Liao Hua shall lead the vanguard".

** On the battlefield in duels, anyway. When it came to strategy/tactics, or off the battlefield... not nearly so much. (Correspondingly, in the video game series of the same name, he is ''far'' less "[[GameBreaker broken]]"/useful than in the ''DynastyWarriors'' series. This troper has (as Cao Cao) held off multiple invasion attempts by Lu Bu in ''Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI'' just by having units cast Misinform... causing him to turn around and go back the way he came ''every time''.)

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