Wuz
Since: Jun, 2013
#2: Sep 2nd 2017 at 8:19:21 PM
If nobody minds, I will just dump all the old tropes here, in case anyone needs them.
Tropes of the Three Kingdoms:
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- The Ace: Huangfu Song, one of the last great generals of the Han Empire, was known to be a skilled horseman and archer, a clever and capable military man as well a well-read and intelligent scholar. He was also A Father to His Men, insisting on making sure his men were fed before he himself ate anything or having his own tent set up only after his men were properly sheltered.
- Deng Ai found success in almost every post he was given.
- Guo Huai was one of the most successful soldiers on any side, becoming such a successful general that enemies were known to surrender or flee on his approach and the one time he went AWOL (to rescue his wife from bandits) he received no punishment for it.
- The Alcoholic: Sun Quan was a notoriously awful drunk, whose drinking problem got so bad that he had to issue an order that any executions he ordered while drunk were absolutely not to be obeyed.
- When Cao Cao was deciding who would succeed him, he had difficulty deciding between Cao Pi (his oldest surviving son after Cao Ang died in battle) and Cao Zhi. Both were known to be highly intelligent and noted poets. However, Cao Zhi was unfortunately prone to drinking to excess, which came back to bite him during Guan Yu's Fancheng campaign. Cao Cao summoned Zhi, intending to have him lead reinforcements to aid the besieged city of Fan. Cao Zhi showed up so drunk he wasn't able to receive his orders, and a disgusted Cao Cao sent him away.
- Always on Duty: The armies stationed to the north of the Han Empire always had to be ready to deal with raids by the Xiongnu or Xianbei barbarian tribes, who would launch raids to kidnap people or steal supplies and goods whenever they saw an opportunity. Even during the chaos following Dong Zhuo taking power, those forces remained in the north to defend against any opportunistic raiders.
- The general Xu Huang was noted for never relaxing or fostering close friendships with his fellow generals.
- Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Guan Yu. His arrogance was so great that when he was offered the rank of General of the Front, he initially rejected it because a general he didn't recognise (Huang Zhong) was concurrently made General of the Rear, and Guan refused to accept any rank that meant he'd be roughly on the same level as some no-name he didn't know. Note: Generals of the Front, Right, Left and Rear were roughly on the same level, though General of the Front was considered first among equals.
- In his youth, Ma Chao accompanied his father Ma Teng on campaign against ally turned enemy Han Sui. When challenged to a duel by Han Sui's general Yan Xing (this occasion being one of only two duels that historically occurred), Ma Chao arrogantly accepted. Yan Xing proceeded to completely dominate Ma Chao, who was lucky to survive his injuries.
- Armchair Military: Most of the Han's generals were this during the Yellow Turban Rebellion, as they were generally political appointees who were normally well-educated, but lacked practical experience. The exceptions, such as Huangfu Song, Zhu Jun, Dong Zhuo and Sun Jian, were experienced soldiers and much more successful.
- Zhuge Liang was an absolute genius at civil affairs and was a noted and prolific writer and scholar. However, even the historian Chen Shou (who was otherwise showered Zhuge with praise) observed that Zhuge lacked flexibility in strategy and so was unable to achieve much military success.
- Averted by the more successful warlords. Cao Rui, the second Emperor of Wei, for example was well aware that he was nowhere near as talented as his grandfather Cao Cao and entrusted the actual fighting to competent subordinates like Sima Yi, Guo Huai or Chen Tai. Sun Quan occasionally personally commanded campaigns, but he left the actual day-to-day command to men like Zhou Yu or Lü Meng.
- Altar Diplomacy: Very common, since it was a good way to cement bonds between influential families. It wasn't unusual for a warlord to marry someone from a powerful local family in order to gain their support. It was also performed in order to strengthen alliances. For example, Cao Cao arranged for one of his sons to marry the daughter of Yuan Tan as a sign of their alliance, and he also arranged a marriage between one of his relatives and one of Sun Ce's relatives as well.
- Warlords sometimes arranged marriages between their children and those of powerful or favoured subordinates, thus tying the families together through familial bonds. Sometimes, this was to show the trust and affection between both parties (such as the marriage of Xiahou Dun's son Xiahou Mao to Cao Cao's daughter the Princess of Qinghe), while in other cases it was to ensure the loyalty of particularly powerful followers (such as Sun Quan marrying his daughter Sun Luban first to the son of Zhou Yu, and after his death Sun Quan married her to Quan Zong).
- One of the most famous examples of the era was Liu Bei's marriage to Lady Sun, Sun Quan's younger sister. While dramas, movies and the like have the pair falling in love, historically both parties were fully aware it was a marriage of politics, and Lady Sun left Liu Bei immediately once relations with Sun Quan broke down.
- Oddly, while this was a quick way to confirm alliances with other warlords or with powerful clans, Cao Cao preferred to Marry for Love. Cao Cao's first love was Lady Ding, and after she left him following Cao Ang's death he married Lady Bian. This was notable because Lady Bian was not of any noble status (the term used to describe her can be translated to anything from a songstress to a euphemism for prostitute).
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: Many generals were aggressive and preferred to go on the offensive, which sometimes didn't end well. For example:
- Yuan Shao's Guandu campaign against Cao Cao was this, as Yuan wanted to take advantage of his huge army to simply crush Cao. However, Cao Cao managed to negate Yuan's numerical advantage through a defensive stance and an aggressive policy of searching and destroying Yuan's supply convoys and depots. Without supplies, Yuan's army imploded.
- Dr Rafe De Crespigny, an expert in the Three Kingdoms, put forward the theory that rather than a wild attempt to crush Cao Cao, Yuan Shao's strategy was to focus all his power into one blow in order to break through Cao's defenses. He actually came close to victory, but once his supplies were destroyed his forces retreated in disarray.
- Jiang Wei's repeated Northern Campaigns were basically straightforward attacks against entrenched positions. He also launched these campaigns pretty much annually, whether or not there was any chance of actually succeeding.
- Two of the best examples of his lack of imagination were his campaigns in 254 and 255. In 254, the commander of the fortified city of Didiao offered to surrender to Shu, and so Jiang Wei led his forces there. As promised the city surrendered without a fight. Instead of consolidating his gains, however, Jiang Wei opted to continue advancing until he encountered Wei forces in a ferocious battle that resulted in over 50% casualties to his forces. He was forced to abandon Didiao because he no longer had the forces to hold the city.
- In 255, he launched an attack to retake Didiao. The commander of the city tried to intercept him, but was defeated and forced back into the city, which then came under siege. The Wei supreme commander Chen Tai feared that Jiang Wei would seize a nearby supply depot that would give him all the food he'd need for the duration as well as entice various tribes living in the area to ally with him. Luckily for Chen, Jiang Wei completely ignored the depot and opted instead to hammer away at Didiao, eventually fleeing once Wei reinforcements arrived.
- Cao Cao described this mentality as Xiahou Yuan's greatest flaw, as Xiahou often preferred to aggressively pursue action against his enemies. Xiahou was skilled enough that he could pull this off successfully, but in 219 he was lured into an ambush and killed in combat partly for this reason.
- Yuan Shao's Guandu campaign against Cao Cao was this, as Yuan wanted to take advantage of his huge army to simply crush Cao. However, Cao Cao managed to negate Yuan's numerical advantage through a defensive stance and an aggressive policy of searching and destroying Yuan's supply convoys and depots. Without supplies, Yuan's army imploded.
- Authority Equals Asskicking: Many generals achieved their position due to being excellent fighters. Zhang Liao and Gan Ning, for example, never commanded campaigns the way Cao Ren or Lü Meng did, but they nevertheless achieved high rank due to how much ass they could kick.
- Awful Truth: For those who started out this piece of history from medias like Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Dynasty Warriors, it's definitely this trope when they realize characters lauded as heroic or virtuous in those medias were actually worse or could be inefficient in real life. After learning this, usually either they have a Broken Pedestal moment, or they managed to persevere by separating on how history isn't meant to be nice, and fiction can be different and character likability shouldn't be 100% proportionate with history and its accomplishment, as Rule of Fun exists after all.
- Back from the Brink: Liu Bei, for all his faults, was good at this. No matter how thoroughly he was thrashed, he'd find a way to claw himself back up to a position of power. This ability of his finally failed him after the Yiling Campaign, where he died with the knowledge that Jing Province was now forever denied from him, a big chunk of his military power had been expended for nothing, and a full half of his territory was rebelling.
- When Cao Cao was part of the Guandong Alliance (the name given to the Anti-Dong Zhuo forces because Guandong means "East of the Mountains" and all the alliance leaders came from the east), he was one of the only leaders to take direct action against Dong. Unfortunately, Dong's general Xu Rong absolutely destroyed him, forcing him to leave the Alliance in order to try to rebuild. While his initial army was funded by his family's wealth, he was now left with nothing and was only able to scrape together a small band of 500 soldiers. With those 500 soldiers, however, he managed to destroy a particularly powerful band of bandits. This made his name, and he was invited into the city of Yanzhou to become their new leader. From there, he only grew in power til he was the single most powerful man in the empire.
- Cao Cao's rule was this for the Han Empire, as it was after he took the Emperor in that the situation stabilised. By the time of his death, Cao had effectively rebuilt the Han Empire from the ground up, restoring much of its former glory.
- Badass Beard: Since Confucian custom looked down on shaving (the reasoning being that since you received your body from your parents, throwing any part of it, like hair, away was showing disrespect to your parents), beards were all over the place.
- Guan Yu was known for his magnificent beard and even wore a special bag to protect it in battle.
- Badass Bookworm: Since many generals came from good families and were well educated, there were no shortages of these. Among the more notable ones:
- Cao Cao was the single most successful warlord of the era, and he was also a notable poet, politician and musician.
- Lü Meng was originally just a straightforward warrior, but after encouragement from Sun Quan took up studying and quickly became known for his intellect, as well as his military prowess.
- Xiahou Dun is most famous for losing his eye in battle, but while he was a physically powerful man he loved to study and was known to invite his teachers along on campaigns so he could study in his downtime. He was one of the most successful governors of the era.
- Wang Ping was unable to read (he was genuinely unable to understand written characters), so he had books read to him instead and became a capable scholar in his own right.
- Badass Decay: How Yu Jin's surrender to Guan Yu was viewed by some of his comrades. Even Cao Cao was surprised to hear that Yu Jin had surrendered, while newly joined general Pang De fought to the end and forced Guan to execute him rather than surrender.
- Huangfu Song was one of the Han's best generals and served with distinction during various battles with the northern tribes and later against the Yellow Turbans. He also became political and military rivals with Dong Zhuo. When Dong Zhuo later took power, he called on Huangfu Song and found that his old rival had lost his fire.
- Bad Boss: The cause of Zhuge Ke's downfall. He led an army of 200,000 soldiers to invade Wei and successfully marched all the way up to Hefei, but despite the city being undermanned at the time the Wu forces were unable to take it. As had happened during previous invasions of Hefei by the southerners, disease spread throughout the army (quite possibly through the water). Zhuge Ke's response was to accuse the sick soldiers of cowardice and faking illness, and even began executing them. While soldiers stopped complaining, they still grew ill and died. Worse, his treatment of his own men caused morale to plummet. When he was finally compelled to admit defeat and begin withdrawing, he also abandoned the sick and wounded who were unable to keep up, leaving them by the roadside to be captured or killed by pursuing Wei forces. Despite being incredibly popular before, his treatment of his men destroyed his standing in Wu and he was assassinated.
- Sun Chen, who became the regent of Wu in 256, dispatched the generals Wen Qin and Zhu Yi to assist the Wei general Zhuge Dan, who'd rebelled against Wei in 257. Wen Qin and his 30,000 men arrived in time to join Zhuge in the city of Shouchun before it was encircled by Wei forces, and Zhu Yi tried various methods to break the siege. Unable to do so, Zhu withdrew and awaited reinforcements. Sun Chen himself arrived and gave Zhu additional soldiers, but after repeated battles that ended with the main Wu supply depot destroyed Zhu was forced to admit failure. Sun Chen nevertheless demanded he go on the attack, but Zhu refused, pointing out that his soldiers no longer had any food and were exhausted. A short time later, Sun Chen ordered Zhu Yi to meet him in his tent, and when Zhu arrived had him seized and beaten to death.
- After his defeat at Guandu in 200, Yuan Shao rallied his forces at Liyang. While there, he was reminded of his adviser Tian Feng, who'd repeatedly warned him about the campaign and who was imprisoned at Yuan Shao's command for refusing to quiet down. His other advisors (like the unscrupulous Pang Ji) feared Tian would be forgiven and so told Yuan that Tian was pleased at their defeat at Guandu, as this meant that Tian was right and Yuan was wrong. An enraged Yuan Shao had Tian Feng executed.
- There was precedent for this: back in 199, Yuan Shao had his single best general Qu Yi killed, believing that the man had gotten too arrogant from all of his success.
- Batman Gambit: Many strategies were crafted and executed (and succeeded) due to the planners having an accurate idea of what their opponents would do. For example:
- When Cao Cao invaded the northern provinces following the death of Yuan Shao, his advance became bogged down as he fought against Yuan Shao's sons Yuan Tan and Yuan Shang. Following the suggestion of his advisors, he withdrew, knowing that since the two brothers were political rivals (Tan was the oldest son and thus traditionally should've succeeded his father, while Shang was his father's favourite and succeeded him thanks to trickery on the part of some of Shao's advisors) they would quickly turn on each other. This came to pass, and Tan actually allied with Cao Cao against his own brother.
- Part of the reason Zhuge Liang's Northern Campaigns were quickly quashed by Wei's generals was because they were able to predict his route of advance and prepare accordingly. While this wasn't difficult (there were only so many ways to move large numbers of troops through the territory), Wei's generals also had an unfortunate tendency to notice weak points in their defense and shore them up just as Zhuge Liang's forces arrived to take advantage of them.
- Wei general Man Chong decided to tear down the fortress at Hefei and rebuild it in a better location. Knowing that Sun Quan would not be able to resist launching an attack on Hefei in the meantime (Sun had launched repeated failed attacks against Hefei, and very nearly lost his life at least twice during one of his invasions), he took precautions. Sure enough, Sun launched another invasion, but thanks to Man Chong's foresight it was repelled.
- When the general Meng Da was planning to defect to Shu, he thought he had time to prepare for any coming attack because a general would first have to contact the imperial court and request permission, and then make the march to his city. Unluckily for him, the closest general happened to be Sima Yi, who took him by surprise by immediately attacking him well before he was ready. Sima was well aware that Meng Da, being familiar with proper protocol, would expect him to inform the court first. Therefore, Sima opted to do the unexpected and strike first. The emperor Cao Rui praised him for the insight.
- Berserk Button: Xiahou Dun famously lost his eye in battle against the forces of Lu Bu. To differentiate between him and his close relative Xiahou Yuan, the common soldiers nicknamed him "The Blind Xiahou", a nickname he hated. Despite otherwise being a generous and kindly man, he also had a ferocious temper and if he caught sight of his ruined eye in a mirror, he'd smash said mirror to pieces.
- Betrayal by Inaction: When the Emperor escaped from Chang'an and Dong Zhuo's remnants, he called upon the various lords to come to his aid. While some took action (Liu Biao in faraway Jing Province, for example, dispatched supplies and other support to help the Emperor get to the capital of Luoyang), others like Yuan Shao took no action for fear of giving up their newfound independence.
- Big Book of War: Sun Tzu's Art of War was simply one among a large number of military manuals generals of the Han had access to. Cao Cao happened to be a great fan, going so far as to write a commentary and writing an annotated version that included his own experiences. He insisted on his generals reading the Art of War, and it's partially due to this that the Art of War has become THE Book of War.
- Big Damn Heroes: During the Yellow Turban rebellion, Cao Cao led a cavalry force to assist Generals Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun, coordinating with them to defeat and destroy the rebels. While Generals Huangfu and Zhu managed to repel the rebels, Cao's arrival gave them the extra momentum they needed to counterattack.
- Xu Huang rushed to the aid of Cao Ren at Fan castle, and while lacking the manpower to lift the siege he managed to get word into the city that he had arrived. The resulting morale boost kept Cao Ren's forces fighting until more significant reinforcements arrived.
- When Ma Chao was tricked out of a city he'd just conquered, some of the local officials made a stand at a nearby mountain to prevent him from retaking the city (among them was Zhao Ang, husband of Dynasty Warriors character Wang Yi). However, since they weren't soldiers they were hard-pressed by Ma Chao's forces. The general Zhang He unexpectedly arrived having made a forced march, and with his help Ma Chao was driven away.
- Bishounen: Zhou Yu was nicknamed, "The Handsome", while Xun Yu was recorded as being incredibly good-looking.
- Blood Knight: A lot of them. Gan Ning was an unashamed murderer and pirate, Ma Chao sowed chaos wherever he went, Pang De beheaded an enemy and kept the head as a souvenir...
- Bodyguard Babes: When Lady Sun, Sun Quan's younger sister, was married to Liu Bei to cement their alliance, she brought with her a hundred serving women who remained within her chambers, fully armoured and with drawn swords. The historical record notes that Liu Bei was terrified of these women whenever he visited Lady Sun's quarters (which has led some people to suggest that their marriage may not even have been consummated).
- Bond Breaker: Lu Yi was this to Sun Quan and many of his officials. He was Sun Quan's secretary, and became a horribly corrupt man who thought nothing of falsifying information and slandering others to suit his purposes. Despite warnings from virtually everyone (including his son and heir Sun Deng), Sun Quan refused to even investigate any claims against Lu. He eventually did and discovered the proof of Lu's myriad crimes, executing him. However, when he sent his new secretary to meet with his various officials to apologise and ask for advice on how to deal with the fallout of Lu's corruption, virtually all of his officials declined, either claiming that they had no business discussing government since they were military men rather than civil officials, or outright admitting they didn't want to say anything because they knew their advice would probably be ignored anyway (or they'd get into trouble later if Sun Quan decided he didn't like their advice).
- This was especially painful for Sun Quan because among those who refused to give him any advice were Zhuge Jin (Zhuge Liang's older half-brother) and Lu Xun, both of whom used to freely speak to him and give him advice.
- Boring, but Practical: The key to Cao Cao's success was the implementation of agricultural colonies known as tuntian, which were abandoned plots of land given to refugees to farm. The government additionally gave the farmers support in the form of farming equipment and seeds, in return for a portion of the harvest. This gave him the edge in gathering supplies, allowing him to campaign almost constantly thanks to the steady stream of foodstuffs. In addition, soldiers were assigned to some of these colonies with their families, thus giving them an incentive to grow crops (for personal consumption) and to fight to defend the colonies.
- When Wei Yan was placed in command of defending Hanzhong, he developed a series of defenses. Taking advantage of the difficult terrain, he built a series of gates and barriers that were meant to slow an enemy's advance, rather than repel them. His reasoning was that since Liu Bei's forces were far weaker than Cao Cao's a straight fight wasn't an option. Instead, he wanted to make an invasion as difficult as possible so that an invading army's supply lines would have difficulty supplying the front lines. When the supply lines inevitably broke down (in some places, the only way to move through the area was using treacherous pathways barely a meter wide), the enemy would either retreat or starve. Wang Ping was able to use these defenses to repel Cao Shuang's invasion of Shu several years after Wei Yan's death.
- Broken Pedestal: Many people who start reading about the history of the Three Kingdoms after being introduced to the period thanks to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and various TV shows and video games (e.g. Dynasty Warriors) become shaken and disillusioned when they find out how things really went. Among the most difficult to accept:
- Zhuge Liang's Northern Campaigns were dismal failures, and he never even came close to taking the city of Chang'an. In addition, he was prone to cronyism and relied on his own circle of friends, proteges and acquaintances over more experienced officers.
- Jiang Wei was an even worse failure, and his repeated campaigns accomplished nothing but to drain Shu of resources. In addition, his focus on military affairs left Shu's court open to corruption, which further weakened the state. Both of these factors directly led to the decline of Shu, and by the time Wei generals Zhong Hui and Deng Ai invaded Shu's heartland many people were happy to just give up.
- Far from being noble paragons of virtue, Liu Bei, Zhang Fei and Guan Yu were horrible people, with Liu Bei constantly betraying people for his own benefit, Zhang Fei being a violent brute (who also kidnapped and raped a 13 year old girl, forcing her to give birth to his children) and Guan Yu being an arrogant jerk who turned most people who knew him against him.
- In both Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Dynasty Warriors, Gan Ning is a rough but personable tough guy who eventually makes up with Ling Tong, whose father (Ling Cao) he killed in battle. Historically, he was a murderous and wasteful pirate (he would set up camp with silken banners, and before leaving would cut them to pieces and leave them behind to show off his wealth) and even after studying about military affairs and later being made a general by Sun Quan refused to change. Lu Meng once actively tried to kill him for murdering a child, and Ling Tong hated him until the day he died.
- Pang De is often portrayed as a brave general who refused to surrender to Guan Yu and fought to the end, preferring to be executed than to bend his knee to Guan. It should be pointed out that Pang basically got all of his men killed before being captured while trying to retreat to Fan Castle.
- On the other hand, excepting a few, this is probably quite inverted in for those from Cao Wei. The novel and the games really like to paint these guys with tropes like Ambition Is Evil, Magnificent Bastard and overall making them the Designated Villain. Come learning the history and then finding out that they're not so bad and ALSO pretty competent at what they do and accomplished, they got more fans and these fans join in Rooting for the Empire... because they think the Empire side were actually 'the good guys'!
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Invoked by Kong Rong during his time as a warlord, as he enjoyed giving important positions to eccentrics. It backfired horribly, because as it turns out just because someone is quirky, it doesn't mean they know how to run a government.
- Buried Alive: Following the battle of Guandu, Cao Cao took many of Yuan Shao's soldiers prisoner. When he learned a number of them tried to escape to rejoin Yuan, Cao had them buried alive as punishment, as well as a warning to the other prisoners. Romance expanded this so Cao Cao buried all several thousand soldiers alive instead.
- Camp Follower: It wasn't unusual for family members and other hangers on to follow armies around, especially during the chaotic years following Dong Zhuo entering the capital. This could sometimes backfire horribly, as this meant that following a defeat many of the soldiers' families would suffer the consequences of defeat.
- When Cao Cao took Jing province following Liu Biao's death, Liu Bei tried to make his way to a city in the south to try to mount a resistance. A large number of civilians, who knew Liu Bei and opted to follow someone they knew rather than someone they only knew as The Dreaded, followed him. Cao Cao led an elite cavalry force to pursue, and they quickly scattered Liu Bei's forces before herding the civilians back north. Liu Bei himself abandoned his family in the chaos, but was reunited with them later on.
- Cao Cao wound up on the wrong end of this at Wancheng a few years earlier. Taken by surprise by Zhang Xiu and Jia Xu, Cao was wounded and forced to flee. His eventual successor Cao Pi would later in life describe how he'd fled on horseback when the fighting began. Note that Cao Pi wasn't even 10 at the time.
- Several generals, such as Xiahou Dun, Ding Feng and Lü Meng, were known to invite scholars and teachers to accompany them on campaign.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: While Lü Bu normally gets this reputation in fiction, historical Liu Bei wasn't far behind him.
- To clarify: Liu Bei originally acted as a sort of mercenary leader before eventually serving under Gongsun Zan. Tao Qian gave him a better offer, so Liu defected to Tao. After Tao died, Liu Bei became the ruler of a good chunk of Xu province before Zhang Fei's brutal murder of a popular local official turned the populace against him and Lu Bu forced him into a subordinate role. Liu Bei then conspired with Cao Cao against Lu Bu, but was driven out. After Cao Cao defeated and executed Lu Bu, Liu Bei rebelled against Cao and was promptly crushed. Liu then fled north and joined Yuan Shao's forces, but after a particularly crushing defeat abandoned Yuan and became a bandit within Cao's territory. After being driven out by Cao Ren, Liu Bei then joined Liu Biao in Jing Province. After Liu Biao's death and his successor's surrender to Cao Cao, Liu Bei allied with Biao's older son Liu Qi (whose younger brother Cong was chosen as Biao's successor) and fled south. After allying with Sun Quan and Cao's defeat at Chibi, Liu now possessed part of Jing Province and ruled in Liu Qi's name, but became warlord in his own right after Qi's passing. He then denied Sun Quan permission to travel through his territory in order to invade Liu Zhang's Yi Province, while conspiring with some of Liu Zhang's own officials. These officials got Liu Bei invited into Yi Province ostensibly to help defend against Cao Cao. Liu Bei then launched a coup against Liu Zhang, seizing Yi Province for himself.
- Combat Pragmatist:
- Cao Cao accepted Zhang Xiu and Jia Xu, the two men who'd masterminded the battle of Wancheng (where his oldest son Cao Ang and bodyguard Dian Wei were killed), into his ranks. Cao was gearing up for battle with Yuan Shao at the time and needed all the manpower he could get, plus both Zhang and Jia were proven military men who could boast defeating Cao himself in battle. Both achieved high ranks within the Cao forces.
- When Lü Meng was ordered to take the territories of Jing from Liu Bei's forces, he decided to use a charm offensive. He was aware that Guan Yu's arrogant and dismissive attitude had disillusioned many officials, and managed to convince many of them to surrender without a fight thus avoiding a costly and bloody campaign.
- Conflicting Loyalty: Zhang Zhao, a brilliant scholar who served Sun Ce, was concerned that he would be seen as having this. The cause was the fact that he had many acquaintances amongst Cao Cao's ranks, and they often sent him letters. When he mentioned it to Sun, Sun simply laughed and encouraged him to continue exchanging letters with his friends, as he never doubted Zhang's loyalty for a moment and it was only natural for so prominent and intelligent a man such as Zhang to have many admirers and friends.
- When Sima Yi prepared to launch his coup against Wei regent Cao Shuang, he only confided in his eldest son Sima Shi. They avoided discussing anything whenever Sima Fu, Yi's brother, was nearby because Fu was known to be a loyal and upright man who might opt to defend Cao Shuang because of his oath of loyalty to the state. They needn't have worried, as Fu, despite not knowing exactly what was going on, rallied his personal guards to join Sima Yi and Shi to overthrow Cao Shuang. The fact that Cao Shuang was a corrupt, incompetent ruler who was sending the empire into a downward spiral was likely a factor.
- Consummate Professional: Xu Huang was notable for not forming friendships among his colleagues. This isn't to say he couldn't work well with them; he simply wasn't close friends with any of them. A modern equivalent would be the relationship between Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, who repeatedly mention that while they work well together, they aren't friends.
- Xu Chu was once invited to have a private chat with Cao Ren while the latter was waiting to meet with Cao Cao, but declined. Other officials warned him against insulting the more decorated Ren in such a way, but Xu replied that it would be suspicious if two of Cao Cao's top men had a private chat, especially since Ren himself admitted it was about nothing particularly important. Considering the number of rebellions, mutinies and treachery that Cao Cao faced, it was reasonable for him to be Properly Paranoid.
- Cultured Warrior: A number of noted generals were known to be patrons of the arts, when they weren't poets or the like themselves. Cao Cao, for example, was known for his poetry (in fact, along with his sons Cao Pi and Cao Zhi he is credited with the development of an entire school of classical poetry) and also displayed a piece of calligraphy he particularly enjoyed in his personal tent during campaigns.
- Zhang He was one of Wei's greatest generals and was known to be a great lover of art and culture.
- Lü Meng was a highly successful soldier, but after taking up studying he became very adept at debating with noted scholars, something that surprised and impressed many of his fellows who initially dismissed him as being a straightforward warrior.
- Wei Yan was one of Liu Bei's top generals and chosen to defend Hanzhong above other Liu loyalists like Zhang Fei, and he was also known to enjoy reading the classic texts of the era. He even took to them to seek inspiration for the defenses he was building in the area.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Zhang Liao and his 800 volunteers at Hefei in 215. Despite being horribly outnumbered (Sun Quan's army was about 100, 000 strong), Zhang and his small force inflicted such heavy damage that Sun's army was effectively neutralized from a collapse in morale.
- Cao Cao, intending to finish off Yuan Xi and Yuan Shang (who'd fled to join with tribal allies far to the north), led a crack army in pursuit. Despite being outnumbered and cut off from reinforcements or supplies, his forces completely devastated the Yuans and their allies at White Wolf Mountain. It was a costly victory, though, as the harsh campaign claimed the lives of men like Guo Jia and Zhang Xiu.
- Dangerous Deserter: Lu Bu developed this reputation, squandering the goodwill he'd garnered for killing Dong Zhuo. Part of it came from his inability to control his soldiers, who acted pretty much like bandits.
- Liu Bei was an amazingly successful version of this, as he kept popping back up no matter how badly he was beaten or how many patrons he betrayed or abandoned.
- A force of Cao Cao's soldiers became these after the debacle at Wancheng, where Cao Cao was defeated by Zhang Xiu. They began looting and robbing the local civilians, until Yu Jin found out and attacked them for breaking military law. The survivors fled to Cao and claimed Yu was rebelling, but Cao opted to wait for Yu to explain himself.
- David Versus Goliath: Shu was a mere fraction the size of Wei and realistically had little chance of actually winning. While it was difficult for Wei to break through Hanzhong to attack Shu (due to the topography of the area), it was conversely almost impossible for Shu to invade Wei. Add to that the fact that even if Shu somehow took the nearest major city of Chang'an they'd next have to face a web of fortresses commanded by some of Wei's best generals, and it becomes obvious that victory through conquest was a pipe dream.
- Wu was bigger and more powerful than Shu, but still dwarfed by Wei. Fear of Wei was the reason Wu and Shu maintained their alliance, even when tensions between them grew.
- While in fiction the Guandu Campaign is portrayed as this (with Cao Cao as David and Yuan Shao as Goliath), more recent studies have suggested it was actually the other way round due to Cao's advantages (a unified command, a generally higher quality of officials and generals) being greater than Yuan's superior numbers and supplies. Yuan's forces were also weakened due to factionalism, with his advisors constantly scheming and undercutting each other to the detriment of the army as a whole.
- In 215 Sun Quan personally led an invasion of Hefei, which was defended by Zhang Liao, Yue Jin and Li Dian. Sun's army was roughly 100, 000 strong, while the defenders were barely 7,000 men. Leading a small band of 800 men, Zhang Liao inflicted disproportionate casualties on Sun's forces, causing their morale to collapse.
- Deadly Decadent Court: The Han Imperial court had collapsed into one of these by the time of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, and it was due to this situation that things got so bad Dong Zhuo had the opportunity to effectively seize control of the government.
- The Wu court became one of these during the Crown Prince Affair, where factionalism within the court effectively divided the court into two factions. The situation became increasingly worse, to the point where assassination and slander became effective weapons.
- Yuan Shao's forces were fatally weakened by this situation, as Yuan's advisors would often undercut each other to the detriment of Yuan's forces as a whole. In addition, these advisors also split into factions when the matter of succession came up, with some siding with Yuan Tan (Yuan Shao's oldest son) and Yuan Shang (Yuan Shao's favourite son). Following Yuan Shao's death, war actually broke out between the brothers, giving Cao Cao the chance he needed to destroy them both.
- Cao Cao himself was very careful about preventing factions from emerging within his ranks precisely because he wanted to avoid this sort of situation from happening. His successors Cao Pi and Cao Rui were also careful about it, and it was only when Cao Shuang, the Regent of Wei, allowed his personal friends and their cronies to take part in government that things started to go wrong.
- Death by a Thousand Cuts: How Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shao during the Guandu Campaign. While outnumbered by Yuan Shao's forces at Guandu, Cao dispatched some of his best generals to launch multiple hit-and-run raids against Yuan's forces, specifically targeting their supply depots and convoys. These raids were so successful Yuan was forced to bring up more supplies and gather them at a central location at a place called Wuchao for distribution. After Cao personally led a raid on Wuchao that destroyed it, Yuan's forces imploded.
- Jiang Wei's plan to defend Shu was meant to be like this. While Wei Yan's defenses ensured that Shu wouldn't fall (since an enemy would have to retreat once their supply lines broke down), they also ensured that a competent commander would retreat well before heavy losses were suffered. Jiang Wei intended to instead abandon those defenses and gather troops at strong points, who would then harass the enemy flanks until they collapsed. It was a miserable failure, as Wei's forces were numerous enough to bottle up Jiang's flanking troops in their strong points while also advancing into Shu's heartland.
- Death by Despair: One interpretation as to why Cao Zhang, a valiant and energetic man who fought against the northern barbarians with great success, died only a few years into his brother Cao Pi's reign as Emperor despite only being in his thirties. Zhang only ever wanted to be a general and to lead troops against the nation's enemies, but as the Wei Emperor's brother he was forbidden from wielding any sort of power, not even allowed to command his personal guard in case of emergencies.
- When Cao Pi had his favourite concubine executed, noted Wei general and Pi's old friend Xiahou Shang had a breakdown and died soon after. Pi had the woman executed hoping to effect a reconciliation between Shang and his wife, but it backfired horribly.
- This may also have been a factor in the death of Cao Zhi, brother to both Cao Pi and Cao Zhang. While a bit of a wild child in his youth (he was prone to drinking to excess and once dared to use a path and gate meant for Cao Cao's exclusive use), in later life he cleaned himself up and sought to be of use to his country and family. Unfortunately, like Cao Zhang as the Wei Emperor's brother he was forbidden from even leaving his estate without the Emperor's direct permission. After Cao Pi's death, he repeatedly wrote letters to Pi's son and successor Cao Rui, even offering to fight as a regular soldier, but while Rui respectfully responded Zhi was never able to accomplish anything other than leave a body of poetry lamenting his fate.
- Lu Xun possibly died from this as well, as the Crown Prince Affair caused him to become estranged from his liege and old friend Sun Quan (due to slander from his political rivals). The stresses of watching the nation he helped build tear itself apart didn't help.
- Decisive Battle:
- The campaign at Guandu between Cao Cao and Yuan Shao was one, as both sides were well aware that whoever won there would be the single most powerful warlord in the land. While both Yuan and Cao were roughly equal in terms of number of soldiers and the like, Yuan took almost ten years to build up his forces while Cao only took three. However, Cao was also forced to spread his defenses and keep forces back to deal with other warlords trying to take advantage, while Yuan concentrated much of his army to try to pierce Cao's defense line at Guandu. Cao's victory allowed him to eventually take all of Yuan's holdings, becoming the greatest power in the land.
- The battle of Chibi was the earliest point where Cao Cao could've reunited the land, as the powerful warlord Liu Biao had died and his son had surrendered without a fight. If he could cross the Han river and establish a foothold in the south, the southern warlord Sun Quan would have to surrender and the land almost completely united. Famously, Cao Cao was driven back and Sun Quan kept his independence.
- The battle of Ruxu was even more decisive than Chibi. While Chibi is famous, Cao Cao was nowhere near his full strength due to his soldiers being exhausted and many of Cao's best generals being left behind to consolidate his recent gains in Jing and the northern provinces. At Ruxu, both sides brought in their best generals and soldiers, and eventually Cao Cao withdrew. Sun Quan was later compelled to formally surrender to Cao Cao anyway, though both sides were fully aware it was a surrender in name only.
- The battle of Chengdu was decisive in the sense that it determined the fate of Shu. Zhuge Zhan, son of Zhuge Liang, rallied whatever forces he could in order to make a Last Stand against Deng Ai's crack force, which had made its way through Shu's mountains to mount a surprise attack on Shu's capital. With the majority of Wei's invasion force under Zhong Hui delayed in Hanzhong, if Zhuge Zhan could hold off Deng Ai's isolated force then Zhong Hui would be force to retreat due to supply difficulties and Shu would survive. Sadly, while Zhuge was able to repel Deng Ai's initial attack, Deng broke through and killed Zhuge in battle. Shu surrendered soon after.
- Delaying Action: When Sun Quan called a retreat after his failed siege of Hefei in 215, he sent most of his army ahead in order to avoid catching a plague that was spreading through his forces. Zhang Liao led a raid in order to capture or kill him. Sun's bodyguards and generals fought a ferocious delaying action until they were sure Sun Quan had successfully escaped, after which the survivors fled.
- This was especially notable because Zhang Liao had earned himself the reputation of being The Dreaded thanks to his earlier raid that basically paralyzed Sun Quan's entire army. Sun's men were basically throwing themselves into the path of the Boogeyman in order to protect their liege.
- Dirty Coward: Kong Rong was an incompetent warlord who thought that bandits could be suppressed by building more schools. When his city was besieged, he continued to have intellectual discussions even as his soldiers fought and died. When the city's defenses were breached, he fled, leaving his family behind.
- Liu Bei abandoned his family on several occasions in order to save his own skin. This later came back to bite him, as the general Mi Fang (whose sister had been one of Liu Bei's wives), was willing to betray an entire city partially out of anger at Liu's treatment of his sister.
- Distressed Dude: Liu Xie, later Emperor Xian of Han, spent his entire life being passed around various warlords before being deposed by Cao Pi, the Prince of Wei.
- The Dragon: Xiahou Dun to Cao Cao. Of all of Cao Cao's officials and officers, none of them had the esteem Xiahou Dun commanded. To give an idea of how trusted Dun was, Cao granted him permission to not only ride with him in his personal carriage (even Cao's bodyguards were only allowed to ride alongside it) but to also enter his personal chambers unannounced. For someone as Properly Paranoid as Cao Cao, these were unprecedented honours not extended to the rest of Cao Cao's followers.
- Sima Shi acted as The Dragon to his father Sima Yi, being the only one Yi trusted with his plan to overthrow the corrupt regent Cao Shuang. Even Sima Zhao (Yi's second son after Shi) and Sima Fu (Yi's brother) were kept in the dark until the plan went into action.
- Gao Shun acted as The Dragon to Lu Bu, as it was to Gao Shun that Lu Bu entrusted his most elite troops before a battle began. When Lu was ambushed by a traitor at night, forcing him and his wife to flee in a state of undress, it was to Gao Shun's camp that they fled. Gao Shun quickly ensured their safety, and then went after the traitor. When Lu Bu was captured by Cao Cao, Gao opted to be executed alongside his master rather than submit.
- The Dreaded: Zhang Liao's savaging of Sun Quan's forces at Hefei in 215 was so terrible that even the approach of an army flying his flag was enough to compel Wu forces to retreat.
- At the peak of his career, Guo Huai was so dreaded that many enemies opted to either surrender or flee when it was known he was coming.
- Even into his seventies, Sima Yi inspired this reaction in his enemies.
- Ma Chao was stationed in the northern part of Liu Bei's territories precisely because he was greatly feared by the tribes that lived in the area. His presence ensured none of them dared to invade or otherwise cause any trouble.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Lady Wang (later named Wang Yi in Dynasty Warriors) suffered the indignity of having to beg for scraps during Ma Chao's occupation of her home city. Her son was forcibly conscripted into Ma's army, and she herself covered herself in filth and human waste in an attempt to avoid rape and to protect her daughter, all while her husband Zhao Ang plotted to overthrow Ma. Despite the success of Zhao's plot, Ma spitefully killed their son before Cao Cao's forces arrived to drive him off. Cao Cao rewarded Zhao Ang and Lady Wang with noble titles and an estate, where they were able to retire to a life of luxury.
- Cai Yan AKA Cai Wenji lost her father when Wang Yun accused him of being complicit with Dong Zhuo's regime and had him executed. She was later kidnapped by northern barbarians and forcibly married to one of their kings, where she languished for years before Cao Cao heard of her plight and bought her freedom. She later married a childhood friend who later became a commander of one of Cao Cao's military colonies. However, her husband was found guilty of some crime and sentenced to death, leading Lady Cai to desperately make her way to Cao Cao's personal headquarters in the city of Ye to plead for his life. Moved by her plight, Cao Cao quickly sent a messenger to rescind the execution order. Happily for Lady Cai, the messenger arrived in time and the couple were reunited. Even more was that both Lady Cai and Cao Cao personally worked together to revitalize many of her dead-father's poetic works.
- Easy Logistics: Most certainly averted. Many campaigns succeeded and failed based on logistics.
- While Yuan Shao's forces at Guandu were more powerful than Cao Cao's (due to Yuan concentrating his soldiers into one area while Cao spread his defenses), when their supply depot at Wuchao was destroyed by a night raid Yuan's forces were compelled to retreat.
- Sima Yi and Cao Zhen planned an invasion of Shu in 230 in order to put a stop to Zhuge Liang's Northern Campaigns. However, a month of heavy rain turned the roads into quagmires (if they weren't washed away completely). Realising that there was no way to transport the necessary supplies, the Wei forces retreated.
- Zhuge Liang often blamed the lack of supplies for his inability to make any headway against Wei during his Northern Campaigns. Since Shu's primary defense was the treacherous terrain, transporting supplies was extremely difficult.
- Some officials became famous for their skill with logistics, making previously barren territories agricultural powerhouses that could feed entire armies as well as ensuring that those supplies got to where they were needed. Xiahou Dun, Xun Yu, Zhuge Jin and Fei Yi were all talented at this.
- Eldritch Location: Wu's repeated failures to take Hefei gave Hefei this reputation among Wu's people. No matter the advantages they enjoyed or the disadvantages suffered by the enemy, the fortress at Hefei would simply not fall. Even Sun Quan developed such a fear of the place that when he personally led another attack on Hefei, he spent most of his time cooped up on his warship.
- Something in the water made northern soldiers sick whenever they invaded the south, while southern soldiers suffered the same problem whenever they tried to invade the north. At Chibi, for example, Cao Cao's forces suffered from an outbreak of plague (which was yet another reason besides the famous fire attack that Cao opted to withdraw). Likewise, during Sun Quan's invasion of Hefei, his forces also suffered a plague that compelled Sun to retreat. Even many years later, during Wu general Zhuge Ke's invasion of Hefei, the southern soldiers of Wu began to fall ill once they'd begun camping in the area.
- Elite Army: At the time of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the Han Empire's military was mostly made up of small groups of professional soldiers bolstered by conscripts and militia recruited when needed. The Northern Army, on the other hand, was an elite army stationed to the north in order to deal with any incursions by the barbarians tribes like the Xiongnu or the Xianbei.
- The Qingzhou Troops were an elite army made up of former Yellow Turbans recruited by Cao Cao after he defeated them.
- End of an Age: The Three Kingdoms heralded the end of the 400-year old Han Empire.
- Epic Fail: Zhou Fang's plan to destroy the noted Wei general Cao Xiu wound up as this, as while the Wu forces inflicted some damage to Cao's forces,they where nowhere near successful enough to justify the resources squandered.
- Many of Wu's attempts to take the fortress of Hefei ended in this way.
- Despite Zhuge Liang's Northern Campaigns not accomplishing much, Zhuge was at least able to prevent disasters by knowing when it was time to withdraw. Jiang Wei's campaigns, on the other hand, were dismal failures. In one case, a fortified city surrendered to him without a fight, but Jiang Wei opted to continue advancing rather than consolidate his hold on the city. He soon lost a full half of his army in battle and was forced to abandon the city.
- Jiang Wei's failed attempt to defend Shu against Deng Ai and Zhong Hui's invasion counts. Previously, Wei Yan had developed a system of gates and barriers in the region of Hanzhong, taking advantage of the terrain (which made transporting supplies extremely difficult). Wang Ping successfully repelled Cao Shuang's invasion force using this system despite being heavily outnumbered. Jiang Wei did away with Wei Yan's system, opting instead to retreat to fortified positions and launch counterattacks against the enemy flank and rear to totally destroy them. The plan was a total failure (Jiang's flanking forces were instead bottled up in their fortified positions, thus negating them), and Shu collapsed.
- Et Tu, Brute?: Cao Cao and Zhang Miao were childhood friends. In 194, Cao launched an invason of Xu Province in order to avenge his father Cao Song. While he was gone, Zhang Miao led a group of conspirators to invite the wandering warlord Lu Bu into Cao's territory in Yan Province to take over. Cao didn't take the betrayal well, and while Zhang Miao escaped Cao's wrath (by getting himself murdered by his own men while trying to flee to safety), Cao carried out the traditional punishment for treason by completely wiping out Zhang Miao's entire family.
- Everyone Went to School Together: Most notably Cao Cao and Yuan Shao, who were childhood friends, but many officers and warlords knew each other in their youth.
- Cao Cao was also friends (or at least acquaintances) with Han Sui, Zhang Miao and Yuan Shu, all of whom would at some point stand against him.
- Liu Bei and Gongsun Zan studied under the same teacher, and remained friends up until Liu Bei left him to join Tao Qian.
- Exact Words: Between the years 200-208, Sun Quan dispatched his general Huang Gai on a tour of pacification to bring his territory more under control. In Sicheng county, Huang assigned two men to handle civil affairs while he dealt with military affairs (mainly destroying the various bandit and rebel groups infesting the area). He assured them of his trust and promised even if they did wrong that he would punish them with "neither whip nor stick." When he later learned that both men had become lazy and corrupt, he confronted them and reminded them that he'd promised to punish them with "neither whip nor stick." So he executed them instead.
- A Father to His Men: Many generals were like this, as it inspired extreme loyalty in their men.
- A number of generals, including Cao Ren and Zhang Liao, were known for fighting their way through enemy forces to rescue their men.
- Cao Cao acted as a sort of father figure to Sima Yi and numerous other officers under his command.
- Wei Yan was known for his arrogance, but he always treated the men under his command well.
- As a governor, Xiahou Dun often personally helped out in the fields, carrying dirt like everyone else. He also lived modestly, and distributed the many rewards Cao Cao bestowed on him amongst the needy and destitute.
- In his youth, Dong Zhuo gained the loyalty of his men by being competent and (more importantly) generous with rewards, even distributing rewards he was given by the emperor amongst his men. When he was sent to battle rebels, he took pains to make sure his forces were never at risk of being destroyed, as opposed to the We Have Reserves mentality of many of his colleagues at the time.
- Huangfu Song took this further than most, as he'd insist of making sure his men were fed and sheltered first before he'd allow his own tent to be set up. He was such a popular general that even when he was forced to serve Dong Zhuo, his sheer popularity made Dong and his followers wary of executing him lest they face an outright rebellion in the heart of their territory.
- Invoked by Zhuge Dan when he was preparing to rebel against Wei. He began rewarding his soldiers and distributing food and medicine amongst the civilian populace, hoping to buy their loyalty and affection. However, Sima Zhao became suspicious and tried to recall Zhuge, prompting Zhuge to launch his rebellion before he was fully ready.
- Zhang Fei averted this, because he was violent and often beat his men for mistakes they made. Liu Bei himself warned him that this would bite him in the ass someday. He was later murdered by his own men.
- Fallen Hero: In his youth, Yuan Shao was a friendly, brave and gallant young man who went so far as to personally lead raids on prisons to free people who'd been unjustly imprisoned by corrupt officials. He was humble and kind, and made many friends (including a young Cao Cao). By the time of his famous battle with Cao Cao, however, he was known to ignore, imprison or execute advisors who didn't tell him what he wanted to hear and became proud and cruel.
- Cao Shuang, who was appointed as regent by Wei emperor Cao Rui on his deathbed, was known for being a diligent, hardworking and earnest young man. While not as talented as his contemporary Sima Yi, he was well respected and liked. However, the influence of his friends, especially He Yan caused him to become a corrupt and despised shadow of his former self.
- The Liang warlord Han Sui was known in his youth to be honest and brave, and was willing fight against the corruption infesting the Han Empire. When a rebellion broke out in Liang, he was forced to join them, but since one of the rebellion's direct causes was imperial corruption he quickly found himself one of the rebel leaders. He would later ally himself with Dong Zhuo and Ma Teng, two of the absolute worst men of the era.
- Fatal Flaw:
- Guan Yu: Pride. His arrogance directly led to his downfall, as he alienated nearly everyone around him due to his overbearing and bullying nature. He also attacked a supply depot belonging to his ally Sun Quan, seizing Sun's supplies to maintain his siege of Fancheng.
- Zhang Fei: Wrath. His brutal treatment of his soldiers led them to murder him in his sleep.
- Liu Bei: Greed. His tendency to betray people for his own benefit (he had, at some point, effectively worked for all the major warlords vying for supremacy) meant that some people viewed him as untrustworthy. By the time of his death, a full half of his territory was in some state of rebellion, primarily because they refused to accept his rule.
- Sun Quan: he was blind to the flaws of favoured servants, letting some of them (including Gan Ning and Pan Zhang) literally get away with murder. He only got worse as he got older, and became prone to ignoring advice or information he didn't want to hear. It got so bad that people who previously freely and openly spoke to him on matters of state (such as Lu Xun and Zhuge Jin) outright refused to offer advice anymore because they knew he'd just ignore it.
- Liu Zhang: Sloth. A weak leader, he allowed powerful subordinates (or even those with powerful personalities) to do as they pleased without regard for the law. Many of his officials began to despise him, leading to them inviting Liu Bei to take over instead.
- Friend-or-Idol Decision: In 214, Xiahou Yuan was tasked with mopping up the remnants of warlords in the western province of Liang. The warlord Han Sui had set up defenses and had allies from the nearby Qiang and Di tribes. Concluding that a direct attack would be too costly, Xiahou decided to attack the camps of the Qiang tribesmen, knowing that Han Sui's options were to ignore the attack (thus leading the Qiang to desert him to aid their tribespeople), allow the Qiang to leave and aid the camps (thus weakening his own defenses) or march with the Qiang (thus forcing him out of his defenses). Han Sui did march with his Qiang allies, and Xiahou Yuan destroyed his forces in battle.
- During his Fancheng campaign in 219, Guan Yu found his advance confounded by stiff resistance by Cao Ren and other generals, despite managing to besiege the city of Fan and enjoying the support of various rebel groups that flared up and tied down more of Cao Cao's forces in the area. He called on Liu Feng and Meng Da (who'd just conquered the nearby territory of Shangyong) to reinforce him. However, Liu Feng and Meng Da judged that leaving Shangyong would give Cao Cao's loyalists in the territory the opening they needed to reclaim it in Cao's name, and so declined to send Guan Yu any reinforcements. Not long after, Guan Yu was soundly defeated.
- Frontline General: Due to the way warfare worked at the time, virtually all generals acted as this at some point. Some generals were later promoted to high command and thus no longer able to personally engage in battle, but some of the most famous generals of the Three Kingdoms fought on the frontlines throughout their careers.
- Gao Shun, one of Lu Bu's officers, led a unit known as Shock Troops, whose job was to disrupt enemy formations by smashing into them and stopping them from reforming.
- Sun Jian (father of Sun Ce and Sun Quan) was known for this, and met his death when he was struck by a stray arrow in battle with Liu Biao's forces.
- Cao Cao personally led the raid on the Wuchao supply depot during the Guandu campaign against Yuan Shao. He also suffered many wounds throughout his career, especially early on.
- General Failure: Yuan Shu was so incompetent at warfare that his forces suffered defeat after defeat, even when odds were in their favour. Then again, he was up against Cao Cao.
- Guan Yu, despite his cultural reputation, was actually this during his tenure as governor of Jing. Despite a numerical advantage, the element of surprise and an excellent stroke of luck (a sudden flash flood wiped out much of the enemy facing him), he still failed to take any of his objectives during the Fan Campaign. Worse, his incompetent leadership turned so much of the populace against him he couldn't even retreat and so was captured and executed by Sun Quan's forces.
- Cao Shuang, son of respected Wei general Cao Zhen and regent of Wei following the death of Wei Emperor Cao Rui (Cao Cao's grandson), organised and led an invasion of Shu in an effort to gain some military glory for himself (his political rival Sima Yi was a highly decorated and successful general). His invasion was a miserable failure and resulted in the destruction of a significant portion of Wei's military forces, leaving Wei the most vulnerable it had been in years.
- Xiahou Dun, while a physically powerful and threatening warrior, was not the best commander. He was once ambushed by Liu Bei despite being specifically warned about it by Li Dian (though he at least had the foresight to instruct Li Dian to stay behind with a reserve force that helped rescue him when the ambush was launched). Even more embarrassing, he once got lost during the campaign against Zhang Lu and somehow wandered into one of Zhang Lu's main camps! Luckily, Zhang's forces fled in terror, thinking it was a night raid.
- On the other hand, Xiahou Dun was an absolute genius as a governor and excellent at logistics, which is why Cao Cao put him in command of 28 armies after Cao Cao and Sun Quan fought at Ruxu.
- Zhuge Liang was an amazing civil official but was completely lacking in flexibility on the battlefield. He was prone to sticking to his plans long after the situation no longer made them tenable, thus making him no match for more experienced soldiers like Cao Zhen, who was flexible enough to react to most situations and was willing to abandon positions that were no longer useful.
- Geo Effects: Invoked by Wei Yan with his defenses in Hanzhong. Well aware that Liu Bei's forces were significantly smaller than Cao Cao's, Wei Yan instead designed his defenses to delay an invader. His reasoning was that Hanzhong's treacherous terrain was actually Shu's best defense, and simply slowing the enemy down long enough for their supply lines to inevitably break down was the most efficient way to go about it.
- Part of the reason Cao Cao had such difficulty dealing with Sun Quan is because he innovated the use of cavalry tactics, such as making massed charges against an enemy flank (whereas previously, cavalry was only used as skirmishers or scouts). However, much of the southern territories were either hilly or marshland, making them unsuitable for cavalry tactics.
- Glory Hound: The harshest critics of Zhuge Liang claim that he was one of these, as he was genuinely brilliant in civil matters (he almost single-handedly wrote Shu's legal code, which was both fairer and less harsh than the one they used previously) but because no one writes stories about the book keepers and the scholars he insisted on personally commanding his Northern Campaigns. While intelligent and well-read, he had little practical experience and lacked the ability to quickly change his plans to suit the changing conditions on the battlefield, which resulted in the failure of his campaigns.
- While an argument could be made that Zhuge Liang personally handled the Northern Campaigns because he thought he was best suited for the job, few people can claim Jiang Wei wasn't a Glory Hound. He repeatedly launched attacks on Wei that cost thousands of lives, and often for little to no gain. Even within Shu itself, he became despised for his wasteful campaigns.
- Glory Seeker: Many generals got their start as being these, as it was one of the best ways (or in some cases, only way) to provide for their families. A successful enough general could retire as a marquis, with a sizeable enough estate to live comfortably for the rest of their lives. Even if they died in battle, their families might still receive a rich enough reward to live comfortably. Lü Meng, for example, joined Sun Ce's army despite being underage simply because he couldn't find any other way to support his mother.
- Gone Horribly Right: Yuan Shao declined to assist the Emperor, concerned that if he brought the Emperor into his territory, he would then have to subordinate himself to the Emperor. Instead, Cao Cao took the Emperor in, and was immediately able to issue commands to the other lords in the Emperor's name. So Yuan Shao was now instead effectively subordinate to Cao Cao via the Emperor, a fact Yuan himself bitterly recognised.
- He Yan, one of Cao Shuang's cronies, convinced Cao to suggest the Emperor Cao Fang grant Sima Yi the rank of Grand Tutor. While extremely prestigious, the Grand Tutor was an honourary rank and He Yan and Cao Shuang hoped that this would weaken Sima Yi's power (as he'd have to give up his military authority). Sima Yi accepted the rank, but the Emperor also granted him special permission to keep control of his soldiers.
- Gone Horribly Wrong: He Jin's plan to bring in various generals and their soldiers in order to intimidate his sister Empress He into allowing him to wipe out the eunuchs. It ended up with his head being thrown over the walls of the palace in front of his men, his men rampaging through the palace killing any eunuchs they could find, a whole lot of chaos, and Dong Zhuo in command of the only major military presence in the area. This allowed Dong to take over the government, and everything went downhill from there.
- Government in Exile: Following the abdication of Liu Xie, the last Emperor of the Han Empire, Liu Bei and his forces claimed to be this and representatives of the Han. Notably, no one took them seriously, and historians refer to his faction as Shu (or Shu-Han) to make it clear they had no relation to the actual Han Empire.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Part of the reason Xiahou Ba defected from Wei to Shu (who, it must be pointed out, were responsible for the death of his father Xiahou Yuan). He was assigned to the western front facing Shu along with his father's old subordinate Guo Huai, who then proceeded to outperform him in just about every way. While a major reason Ba fled was his fear he would be executed by the Sima family, the fact that he was always a distant second to Guo Huai didn't help.
- This trope is also the cause behind Cao Shuang's abortive invasion of Shu in 244. His political rival Sima Yi was a highly decorated general, and in order to bolster his own position Cao Shuang wanted some military glory of his own. The invasion was an embarrassment to everyone involved.
- Guan Yu's Fan campaign was partially motivated by his frustration at the fact that his comrades who'd travelled to Yi Province to assist in Liu Bei's invasion of Liu Zhang had gained a lot of glory from the conflict (and successfully seizing Hanzhong from Cao Cao). Meanwhile, Guan was stationed in Jing and tasked with the defense of Liu Bei's holdings there, and since Cao Cao was more focused on matters in the north he had no chance to gain any glory for himself.
- Grey-and-Gray Morality: As with all war, there was a lot of this. While a number of the most horrible people did things For the Evulz (e.g. Dong Zhuo, Sun Hao, Gan Ning, Zhang Fei), others simply did what they felt they had to do to survive a chaotic era. For example, like most powerful ministers before him (including Dong Zhuo), Cao Cao kept the Emperor under his thumb. However, considering the Emperor had been a puppet since a young age and likely had no idea how to actually rule (whereas Cao Cao had more than proven his ability to rule by essentially rebuilding the Han government from the ground up), it's difficult to completely blame him for doing so.
- Likewise, Sun Ce and Sun Quan's refusal to submit to Cao Cao's authority (and therefore refusing to submit to the Han Empire) is also understandable because their southern territories were distant to the Han's centres of power and were often neglected by the imperial government. On the other hand, their refusal to submit also meant that over the years hundreds of people would die from the various clashes and raids that went on on the border.
- Head-in-the-Sand Management: Following the Yellow Turban Rebellion, most of the court was concerned with their political games and completely underestimated the ruthlessness of the Liang general Dong Zhuo. He quickly wiped out or drove out all opposition to himself and effectively became absolute ruler in all but name.
- When things went against them, Kong Rong, Gongsun Zan and Yuan Shu spent more time on their various pleasures (Kong Rong enjoyed intellectual discussions, for example) than actually handling the problems facing them. Kong Rong was eventually driven out of his territory by bandits, Gongsun Zan committed suicide after Yuan Shao's forces breached his fortress' walls and Yuan Shu tried to make his way north to join Yuan Shao before being forced back and dying miserably of exhaustion and illness.
- Liu Shan, Liu Bei's successor as Emperor of Shu, did nothing as corruption began eating away at Shu. He allowed factionalism to crop up, and he gave his ear to corrupt officials even as Wei began the invasion that would end Shu.
- Heroic Sacrifice: One of the most famous is Dian Wei's stand during the battle with Zhang Xiu's forces, where he pulled a You Shall Not Pass! and bought Cao Cao time to flee. However, an even better example is Cao Cao's eldest son Cao Ang, who gave his horse up to his father to ensure he escaped to safety, then remained behind to help hold the enemy back. He was barely in his twenties when he died.
- When Sun Quan withdrew from Hefei in 215, he isolated himself from the rank-and-file in order to avoid catching a plague that had erupted within his ranks. This left him vulnerable to a surprise attack by Zhang Liao, and it was only through the heroic efforts of Sun's generals and bodyguards that he escaped with his life. Ling Tong, for example, only fled once Sun Quan managed to get to safety, and by that point he'd been badly wounded and all his men were dead.
- Zhuge Zhan, son of Zhuge Liang, rallied whatever forces he could to try to repel Deng Ai's forces as they approached the Shu capital of Chengdu. Deng Ai called on him to surrender, alternatively offering him noble titles and pointing out how hopeless the situation was. Zhan refused and repelled Deng's initial attack, but he was badly outnumbered and outmatched. Despite his best efforts, Deng Ai broke through and Zhan died during the battle, leaving Chengdu completely defenceless.
- Hero Antagonist: While a depressing number of Shu and Wu's generals were pointy haired bosses, or worse, all sides had their share of brave and gallant heroes.
- Hidden Army Reveal:
- Historical Hero Upgrade: One of the most infamous examples in history, as some of the participants are so ingrained in Chinese culture it's simply impossible for people to see them as anything other than paragons of virtue.
- In the novel, Ma Chao attacked Cao Cao's forces after Cao executed his father Ma Teng. Historically, it was the other way round; 'Ma Chao' was the aggressor and Ma Teng (who was living as a hostage in Cao Cao's territory at the time) was executed as a result. Ma Chao was also borderline incompetent as a general, at one point even being tricked out of a city he'd just taken well before outside help arrived to drive him out.
- Guan Yu was a deeply arrogant man who tended to bully and look down on people around him. Despite his reputation (and some genuine feats of success such as his killing of Yan Liang), he was actually a poor general and failed to take Fancheng despite having seemingly all the advantages. Worse, he alienated Liu Bei's ally Sun Quan by raiding a supply depot and seizing Sun's supplies, turning Sun against him. All these factors directly led to his death: his forces were defeated in battle, and the people he'd alienated defected to Sun Quan, leaving him nowhere to go. He was executed by Sun Quan. In the novel, he is portrayed as being honorable, wise and loyal, and his arrogance is played down up until the Fancheng campaign.
- Zhang Fei's worst crime was his kidnap and rape of a thirteen year old girl, who later bore him two daughters. Even before that, he was known to be a violent brute who once turned an entire city against Liu Bei by murdering the popular Cao Bao in a fit of rage. He was murdered in his sleep by his own men. In popular culture, his most awful moments are blamed on his weakness for wine, rather than him simply being an awful person, and he is often portrayed as a larger-than-life and good hearted Boisterous Bruiser. Even a Dynasty Warriors spinoff put a spin on that kidnap and rape: Instead of him being the perpetrator, he instead rescued said girl from her would-be random-name rapists.
- Tao Qian was a former bandit and after taking control of the province of Xu did little to stop the infestation of bandits that cropped up. In Romance, he's described as a kindly old man who's only mistake was assigning a former bandit to escort Cao Cao's father Cao Song through his territory. Historically, there's a very good chance he was actually responsible for Cao Song's death, as Cao Song was known to be filthy rich and Cao Cao was already Tao's enemy.
- Gongsun Zan is introduced in Romance as Liu Bei's old classmate and a gallant and brave horseman. His death following his defeat by Yuan Shao is treated as a tragedy. Historically, Gongsun Zan betrayed his direct superior and had said superior and his family publicly executed. He also robbed people of their wealth whenever he needed money, and was prone to killing people he disliked. When Yuan Shao began pushing him back, he retreated into a fortress and hid there, refusing to respond to his subordinates' requests for help. When the fortress was finally breached, he murdered his entire family before taking his own life.
- Historical Villain Upgrade: Cao Cao is the Ur-Example.
- Hua Xin was a generous and intellegent man who did his best to create a solid foundation for Wei. In Romance, he is portrayed as being a greedy and unscrupulous schemer.
- Han Xuan was a kindly man who surrendered without a fight to Liu Bei's forces after Chibi, concluding that isolated as he was, there was no way to successfully oppose Liu. Romance turns him into a mean-tempered brute who almost murders Huang Zhong in a paranoid fit of rage.
- Wei Yan, despite historically being arrogant and haughty but highly competent, is portrayed as being arrogant, haughty and incompetent. He spoils a battle by greedily trying to outshine Huang Zhong, and following Zhuge Liang's death briefly considers defecting to Wei or even founding his own state before he's assassinated by Ma Dai. Historically, Wei Yan was one of Liu Bei's most successful commanders and entrusted with the defense of Hanzhong, effectively making him the bulwark against Cao Cao's forces in the area. After Zhuge died, he wanted to force the other commanders to continue the campaign against Wei, as the Shu forces were in the best position they'd been in for years. Despite the fact he was the highest ranking general, the others opted to abandon the campaign and retreat, and he'd later be murdered by his rivals.
- Honor Before Reason: Part of the reason Wang Yun refused to pardon Dong Zhuo's remnant forces after the latter's assassination. Dong's forces had been responsible for various atrocities (including massacres). Since Wang wanted to reestablish honorable and proper government, he could not overlook their crimes. Unluckily for Wang, this caused Dong's remnants to become desperate and launch an attack on the capital, resulting in the capture of the emperor and Wang's execution.
- It really didn't help that one of the men marked for death was Jia Xu, who would later go on to defeat Cao Cao himself in battle.
- Hopeless War: Shu really never stood a chance of defeating Wei. Even at the peak of their strength, Shu and Wu combined still had fewer soldiers and resources than Wei. When Zhuge Liang launched his final campaign in coordination with Wu, resulting in a campaign involving hundreds of thousands of men, Wei repelled both efforts fairly easily. This is long-term statistics outplaying even the greatest generals: Wei was located in a region which the Chinese had farmed and developed since before the Shang, while Shu and Wu's regions were only settled by Chinese people during the Qin and early Han. A thousand years later, things would have been different.
- Hope Spot: After Lu Bu assassinated Dong Zhuo, the minister Wang Yun took charge of the government and for a time it appeared that the Han Empire had weathered the storm and things would return to normal. However, Wang made several mistakes that made things even worse, such as denying Dong Zhou's remnant forces amnesty. Said remnants fought back and successfully slew Wang Yun and took the emperor and the imperial court into their custody. They then degenerated into infighting, so there was no central government to reign in the various warlords. Things went downhill after that.
- It should be pointed out that Wang Yun was also unlucky, as one of the men he refused to grant amnesty was the unknown but brilliant Jia Xu, who quickly came up with the strategy Dong's remnants used to take Chang'an.
- Horrible Judge of Character:
- Zhuge Liang. Zhuge was prone to putting his faith in his own circle of friends, proteges, acquaintances and cronies, entrusting them with important tasks and roles whether or not they were suitable, or even capable of them. While some of them did turn out to be capable (e.g. Ma Su was actually reasonably successful as a military commander), others were nothing but trouble (e.g. his secretary Yan Xing was notoriously difficult to get along with, and Yan later masterminded the murder of Wei Yan and the massacre of his family).
- Liu Zhang. He failed to realise how his weak leadership (he tended to let the powerful local families get away with doing as they pleased) turned many of his officials against him. He also trusted Liu Bei and invited him to help guard the north of Yi Province, despite many of his officials warning him Liu Bei was a backstabber who'd betrayed several of his previous patrons (including Cao Cao).
- Cao Shuang. When he became one of the regents of Wei following the sudden passing of Cao Rui, he called back to his side his circle of scholarly friends. This group, led by He Yan, had been barred from the court and government service by both Cao Pi and Cao Rui, who both believed the group were more interested in their own ambitions and comfort than actually doing their duty to the empire. They turned out to be right, as He Yan and his fellows led Cao Shuang down a corrupt path that ended with their mass execution by Sima Yi.
- Cao Zhi. His only supporters to supplant Cao Pi as Cao Cao's heir were a group of ne'er do wells who went so far as to slander a number of notable court officials (to the point some of said officials were actually executed). When Cao Pi became emperor, he had them all killed along with their families for putting their ambitions over the good of the state.
- Zigzagged by Sun Quan. In his youth, he was an excellent judge of character who had a talent for picking the best person for any given job. In later life, he put his faith in the unscrupulous Lu Yi, and later still trusted in his scheming children and relatives over the more upright and honest ones, often with fatal consequences to the latter.
- I Let Gwen Stacy Die: In 219, Guo Huai was meant to lead a patrol during the defense of Hanzhong against Liu Bei. He suddenly took ill, and Xiahou Yuan, his commander, decided to personally lead the patrol instead. During this patrol, Xiahou fell into an ambush and was killed in combat. With his death, the defenders fell into disarray and retreated to a new defense line to await Cao Cao's arrival. Guo Huai always felt guilty over the fact that if he hadn't gotten sick, Xiahou Yuan wouldn't have died and Hanzhong wouldn't have fallen to Liu Bei. The fact that Xiahou Yuan was his mentor didn't help.
- Incurable Cough of Death: Lü Meng was chronically ill throughout his life, though this didn't prevent him from becoming a capable warrior. He took advantage of his chronic illness to lull Guan Yu into a false sense of security before launching his stealth attack on Liu Bei's Jing Province holdings. However, he would die of his illness not long after what was arguably his greatest triumph.
- Insistent Terminology: Shu insisted that Liu Bei, being a distant relative of the imperial family, was the legitimate successor to Emperor Xian (who abdicated to Cao Pi, beginning the Wei Dynasty). As such Shu referred to itself as Han, considering itself a continuation of the Han Dynasty and viewing Wei as a usurping power. Wei itself naturally dismissed Shu's claims, and even most historians consider Shu to be nothing than a claimant, rather than a legitimate continuation of Han.
- I Surrender, Suckers: Following Yuan Shao's defeat at Guandu, the Yuan forces retreated, leaving a large number of soldiers Cao Cao's prisoners. Some of these prisoners then tried to rejoin Yuan's forces to the north, prompting Cao Cao to bury the offenders alive as punishment (and as a warning to the others).
- Guan Yu tried to pull this off following the disastrous failure of his Fancheng campaign. After retreating to Maicheng with the remnants of his forces, he sent letters to Sun Quan claiming that he was willing to surrender. He then set up flags on the battlements of the fortress to make it appear that it was still manned, before trying to flee back to Yi province and safety. None of Sun Quan's officers were fooled, and Guan was ignominiously captured by a minor officer and later executed.
- False surrenders were used on a number of occasions, though generally the person surrendering fully expected not to survive the deception. Huang Gai, for example, helped ignite Cao Cao's fleet at Chibi by pretending to surrender. Expecting Huang's ships, Cao's forces were taken by surprise when they caught fire and ran into the fleet. Huang himself was badly wounded and would've died if his old friend Han Dang hadn't found him and gotten him medical attention.
- It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time: The Chibi campaign, where Cao Cao took his weary forces south to suppress Sun Quan, the last major warlord with the power and will to oppose him. Having just taken Jing Province without a fight (Liu Biao, the Governor had died and his successor decided it was best to yield to the more powerful and experienced Cao Cao), Cao decided to use this momentum to secure Sun Quan's surrender and thus all but unite the land. Despite his men being exhausted and most of his best generals staying behind to consolidate his gains, Cao decided to take a calculated risk and proceed with the campaign. It famously didn't end well.
- Even his falling for Huang Gai's false defection was one of these, as several other generals and officials did genuinely offer to defect to Cao Cao and there was no reason for him to be suspicious of Huang's request to defect.
- When the emperor finally managed to escape Dong Zhuo's remnant forces (led by Li Jue and Guo Si) and flee back to the ruin capital city of Luoyang, Yuan Shao was advised to invite the emperor into his domain in order to effectively seize power. Yuan was hesitant, as the emperor's presence would mean yielding his autonomy to the imperial throne (he'd become the single most powerful warlord since the failed coalition against Dong Zhuo). Cao Cao had no such hesitation and welcomed the emperor into his territory, effectively giving himself the authority of the emperor by issuing edicts in his name and acting as the instrument of the emperor's will. Yuan regretted his indecisiveness bitterly.
- I Will Only Slow You Down: During Zhang Xiu's sudden attack on Cao Cao at Wancheng, both Cao and his personal horse were wounded. The description of the battle notes that "(Cao) Ang (Cao Cao's oldest son) was unable to ride and so gave his horse to his father," which can be surmised to mean that Ang was also wounded, and badly enough that he was no longer able to ride to safety. Cao Cao managed to escape while Ang remained behind and died in battle.
- Kicked Upstairs: The fate of Cao Pi's brothers when he became the Emperor of Wei. Following the precedent of the Han Empire, his brothers were given estates and forbidden to leave them without Cao Pi's direct permission. This was hardest on Cao Zhang, who only ever wanted to be a great general and fight the nation's enemies. Despite being extremely successful when dealing with the northern tribes and taking the deceased Xiahou Yuan's place as commander of Cao Cao's western forces, he was never able to return to the battlefield after Cao Pi's ascension.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: When Cao Cao began moving into Yi Province, Zhang Lu was the warlord in control of the territory of Hanzhong on the northern part of Yi (and thus Cao Cao's first stop). Zhang was well aware he was no match for Cao, but his subordinates convinced him he should at least put up some token resistance, because if his men were successful he could keep his independence, and if they failed he could still surrender. Once his forces were swept aside, he promptly surrendered despite suggestions he fall back on guerilla warfare or scorched earth tactics. Cao Cao was so pleased with how he kept things in order until the surrender that he made Zhang a marquis and let him retire to a life of luxury.
- When Cao Cao finished off the Yuans in 207, he turned south to deal with his remaining declared enemy Liu Biao. Liu Biao unexpectedly died, and his successor Liu Zong decided to surrender rather than deal with the vastly more experienced and militarily successful Cao Cao and his veteran army.
- After the battle of Chibi, a number of inspectors and governors appointed by Cao Cao to oversee his few southern territories quickly found themselves cut off by Liu Bei and Sun Quan's forces. While some put up a token resistance, most quickly realised resistance was futile and surrendered.
- Several years after Chibi, Cao Cao attempted another invasion of Sun Quan's territory. Unable to make headway and warned by Sun Quan of incoming bad weather, Cao withdrew and looked to alternative methods to bring Sun to heel.
- Laser-Guided Karma: Sun Chen's senseless murder of the talented and decorated general Zhu Yi for refusing to follow an impossible order in 257 turned virtually everyone in Wu against him, and even Wei's generals were disgusted to hear how such a Worthy Opponent met such an ignoble death. While he was able to hold out a bit longer, he was assassinated by Sun Quan's oldest living son Sun Xiu and the veteran Wu general Ding Feng.
- It should be stressed that throughout the political upheaval that ravaged Wu, Ding Feng always remained staunchly neutral and only focused on his job. Sun Chen's brutal and unwarranted murder of Zhu Yi drove him over the edge.
- Late to the Tragedy: In 189, this worked to Dong Zhuo's benefit. Following He Jin's assassination and the subsequent massacre within the imperial palace, the capital of Luoyang descended into chaos. By the time Dong Zhuo arrived, things were so chaotic no one was able to mount proper opposition to him when he marched his troops into the city, as his soldiers were fresh and still in good order while the forces of the other generals were confused and paralyzed.
- The Load: Guan Yu became this when it came to Liu Bei's alliance with Sun Quan. Guan thought very highly of himself and had a very low opinion of Sun Quan, and he wasn't shy about letting Sun's ambassadors know how he felt. So long as someone willing to tolerate the abuse was in charge (like Lu Su), this was managable. However, after Lu Su's passing, his successor Lu Meng was far less tolerant of the repeated insults. Worse, just before Guan began his Fancheng Campaign in 219, Sun sent messengers to suggest a marriage between Guan's daughter and one of Sun's sons. Guan responded by hurling insults at Sun, and threatening to attack Sun once he was done with the city of Fan. Even worse than that, during the course of his siege of Fan Guan Yu actually attacked one of Sun Quan's supply depots, seizing Sun's supplies to support his siege. All of this was finally too much for Sun Quan, who now allied with Cao Cao to annihilate Guan Yu.
- Loads And Loads Of Characters
- Master of All: Some generals and officials were known for their amazing ability to perform well in any role, even those they normally would not have been expected to cover.
- Lu Meng was a warrior who joined with Sun Ce as a youth. Sun Quan later urged him to take up studies, and Lu took to them so well that he became famous for his ability to debate with noted scholars and win. He was also quite successful as a governor, and came up with the strategy that allowed him to seize territory from Liu Bei without much bloodshed. Twice.
- Master of None: Some generals and officials were competent in their given roles, but not particularly successful. For example, Ma Chao was more than capable of dealing with the barbarian tribes (to the point that he became The Dreaded and was placed by Liu Bei in his northern territories to make the tribes behave), but his success rate against skilled enemies or even well-prepared ones was poor. He once defeated Xiahou Yuan in battle, but Xiahou repaid the favour in later battles. Ma Chao was also chased out of a city he'd conquered by local officials, who'd conspired with allies outside the city walls against him.
- Modern Major General:
- Zhuge Jin, Zhuge Liang's older brother, was a brilliant lawmaker and at one point the highest ranked individual in Sun Quan's army. However, he achieved his high rank due to his skills at logistics and was a poor military commander, losing practically every battle he personally commanded. Unlike Zhuge Liang, however, Jin was well aware of his weaknesses and only took to the field when there were no other alternatives, or if he was directly ordered by Sun Quan himself.
- Zhuge Liang himself was a brilliant civil official, but his ability as a military commander was poor at best. His famed Northern Campaigns were historically repelled by Wei forces without too much difficulty, and while his battle plans looked good on paper they were no match for the veteran generals and armies that stood in his way. Even the historian who compiled the biographies of various notable figues (and an admirer of Zhuge Liang) observed that Zhuge Liang lacked flexibility in warfare and wasn't able to adapt to changing situations.
- Despite his reputation due to defeating Liu Bei at Yiling, Lu Xun was actually more of a civil official than a military one. He was actually initially defeated at the start of the Yiling Campaign, and it was only after Sun Quan granted him the rank of Grand Marshal and assigned him 50, 000 soldiers and some of Wu's best generals that he came up with the defensive plan that destroyed Liu Bei.
- Miles Gloriosus: The Wei general Wen Qin was known to boast of his (few) accomplishments and prone to taking credit for other people's efforts. This made him extremely unpopular with his contemporaries, including Zhuge Dan.
- Military Brat: As many generals of the era took their families (including their children) with them on campaign, it was inevitable that many of their sons grew up to become generals themselves. They would usually serve under their fathers' commands, though not all of them would be suited to the task or achieve the same greatness.
- Xiahou Yuan's son Xiahou Ba served Wei as a general for years before defecting to Shu out of fear that he would be executed. Tragically, it had been a misunderstanding, meaning he abandoned the nation his father built for nothing.
- Xu Chu's son Xu Yi was part of the campaign led by Zhong Hui and Deng Ai that finally conquered Shu, but after an incident involving a bridge Zhong Hui executed him for incompetence.
- Xiahou Dun's son Xiahou Mao was put in charge of the western forces following Xiahou Yuan's death and Cao Zhang's enforced retirement, but he proved to have personality flaws that made him unsuitable for high command. He was instead transferred to the Secretariat and the much more competent Cao Zhen placed in charge in his place.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: In 210, Liu Bei assigned Guan Yu as the Grand Administrator of Xiangyang, but Guan was driven back from the city of Xiangyang by Cao Cao's forces. Guan instead set up headquarters in the city of Jiangling, which is where the Grand Administrator of Nanyang, Mi Fang, happened to have his. Guan's domineering nature forced Mi into a subordinate role, despite their similar ranks, and his arrogant and dismissive nature made many officials despise him. When Lu Meng of Wu came to take the city of Jiangling, he found it easy to convince Mi Fang to defect.
- Mi Fang may also have found it easy to betray both Guan Yu and Liu Bei because of the fact that Liu Bei had abandoned Mi Fang's sister (who was married to Liu Bei) on at least two occasions in order to save his own skin.
- Mugging the Monster: When Wang Yun refused to pardon Dong Zhuo's remnant forces, he included a man named Jia Xu amongst those who could not be forgiven. Unhappily for Wang, Jia Xu was an extremely cunning and clever man who helped the remnants retake the capital, resulting in Wang's execution.
- Yuan Shu and Tao Qian both had sizeable forces and thought that the province of Yanzhou was ripe for the taken. Unluckily for them, the man in charge of Yanzhou happened to be Cao Cao, who quickly demolished their forces.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: When Xiahou Shang, a Wei general and old friend of Wei Emperor Cao Pi, began spending more time with one of his concubines than with his primary wife, said wife complained to Cao Pi about it. Cao Pi dealt with the situation by having the unfortunate concubine executed, thinking that with her gone Xiahou Shang would go back to his wife. After all, Xiahou Shang wasn't just a highly decorated general, he was part of one of the most honoured clans in the empire. He could easily find another woman later on. He miscalculated badly, leading to Xiahou Shang's Death by Despair.
- On another occasion, a man was convicted of a minor crime and scheduled to be punished. Since the man happened to be an acquaintance of several important government ministers, they intervened in order to spare him the punishment. Cao Pi, upon learning this, was outraged that his ministers had dared to use their position to subvert the proper course of the law. Since his ministers were far too valuable to lose, he had the unlucky man executed instead as a warning.
- The tragedy of the incident is that the man's crime and punishment were both minor, and it was only because he got caught up in the clash between Cao Pi (who wanted to make clear that as Emperor his word was law) and the ministers (who simply wanted to use their powers to help out someone they felt didn't deserve his punishment) that he lost his life.
- On another occasion, a man was convicted of a minor crime and scheduled to be punished. Since the man happened to be an acquaintance of several important government ministers, they intervened in order to spare him the punishment. Cao Pi, upon learning this, was outraged that his ministers had dared to use their position to subvert the proper course of the law. Since his ministers were far too valuable to lose, he had the unlucky man executed instead as a warning.
- My Country, Right or Wrong: It wasn't unusual for defeated and captured officers or generals to accept execution rather than defect to their enemies.
- My God, What Have I Done?: If Gan Ning could have a redeeming quality, there's actually one: After Lu Meng nearly planned to kill him for the murder of the servant, he got talked down by his mother and instead pretended nothing ever happened and invited Gan Ning for dinner. This act actually made him realize what an asshole he has been and then he wept in shame. Afterwards, he never did any crazy evil antics like that again.
- My Greatest Failure: For Cao Cao, it wasn't Chibi (which turned back his initial attempt to reunite the land), nor was it Ruxu (his final great chance to defeat Sun Quan and force his submission), nor was it the loss of Hanzhong to Liu Bei (which also resulted in the death of his old friend Xiahou Yuan). No, Cao Cao always felt the most guilt over the battle at Wancheng, where his eldest son Cao Ang gave up his life to save his father. Even on his deathbed, Cao Cao thought of his lost heir.
- The Napoleon: Yue Jin was known to be quite short for the era, but he was one of the most skilled and ferocious frontline generals on any side.
- Never Found the Body: Bao Xin was one of the members of the Guandong Coalition who grew to respect Cao Cao. He later recommended Cao Cao to take leadership of Yanzhou, going so far as to personally lead the delegation to invited Cao to take over. He was killed in battle against remnants of the Yellow Turbans, and despite Cao Cao's best efforts and the promise of a rich reward his body was never found. His funeral had to be held with a wooden figure substituting Bao's body. Cao Cao considered this failure to give his friend a proper burial one of his great failures.
- Never Live It Down: For people who discovered these history facts and then found out that the Shu wasn't as virtuous as media told them, then had a Broken Pedestal moment... They will always highlight these historical selves on the Shu officers, forgetting every other possibly good things that they might have done in life.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The Crown Prince Affair was a chaotic mess, but things reached the absolute lowest point when Sun Hao, son of a former crown prince named Sun Liang, was chosen as the new emperor. Sun Hao was basically the worst tyrant of the Three Kingdoms era, far worse than even Yuan Shu and Dong Zhuo.
- On his way north to fight against Dong Zhuo, Sun Jian got into an argument with the protector of Jing Province and killed him. This caused Jing to descend into chaos, with many local families carving out their own fiefdoms and fighting amongst themselves. Liu Biao handled this situation by inviting the most powerful leaders to a feast, then killing them.
- No Honor Among Thieves: Dong Zhuo's remnants led by Li Jue, Fan Chou, Guo Si and Zhang Ji (with advice from Jia Xu) took the city of Chang'an, killed the minister Wang Yun, and took custody of the Emperor. However, after Fan Chou repelled an attack by the Liang warlords Han Sui and Ma Teng, a jealous Li Jue murdered him. This caused Guo Si to justifiably become worried, and after Li Jue tried to force the Emperor to stay in his personal camp outright fighting broke out. This gave the Emperor the chance he needed to escape with the aid of sympathizers within the Dong remnants' own forces.
- No One Gets Left Behind: During his famous raid at Hefei, Zhang Liao began to retreat after inflicting disproportionate damage to Sun Quan's forces. Realising a number of his men were still trapped, Zhang reentered the fray and cut his men an escape route, successfully evacuating the survivors.
- Years earlier, at his station at Jiangling, Cao Ren pulled off a similar feat, fighting his way to the side of some of his surrounded soldiers and carving his way back out (Niu Jin in particular was the one who was saved first).
- Offing the Offspring: When Liu Bei was serving under Liu Biao, he adopted a young man named Kou Feng as his heir as he had no children of his own at the time, and it was a way to build ties with powerful local families.. Many years later, he became concerned that Kou Feng (now named Liu Feng) would become a political rival to his own blood-related son Liu Shan. Liu Feng had served Liu Bei ably as a commander during the Jing and Yi campaigns and had developed a reputation as a reliable and capable commander, while Shan was too young to have accomplished anything. When Liu Feng declined to reinforce Guan Yu during Guan's Fancheng campaign (the one that resulted in Guan's death), and as a result Liu Bei's holdings in Jing province were seized by Sun Quan, Liu Bei held Feng responsible and commanded him to commit suicide.
- During the Crown Prince Affair that followed the death of Sun Quan's heir Sun Deng, Sun Quan commanded at least two of his sons to commit suicide for real or imagined crimes.
- One-Steve Limit: Thoroughly averted, in a sense. Many generals and officials shared names, but used different Chinese characters for them. For example, Sima Yi fought a general named Wei Yan during his campaign against Gongsun Yuan, many years after the more famous Shu general Wei Yan was murdered by his rivals.
- You could be talking about either the corrupt official named Lu Yi, or Lu Xun's other name.
- Even worse, Wu general Ding Feng had a younger brother named... Ding Feng.
- Overnight Conquest: Lu Meng's invasion of Liu Bei's territory in Jing Province was so expertly planned and executed that most places surrendered without a fight and Guan Yu, the man tasked with defending the territories, was completely unaware of the events until fleeing soldiers managed to contact him.
- The Peter Principle: Many examples among all the factions involved. Giving examples from notable factions:
- Shu: Zhuge Liang's protege Ma Su was a successful general in numerous smaller campaigns (especially in the southern campaigns). As he was one of Zhuge Liang's favourites, Ma Su was given command of the vanguard during Zhuge's first campaign north at Jieting. Unfortunately, he proved unable to cope with the much heavier responsibilities of his new position and suffered a crushing defeat. The fact that he was up against veteran generals like Zhang He and Sima Yi didn't help.
- Wu: Zhuge Ke, son of Zhuge Jin and nephew to Zhuge Liang, was a clever and capable general with numerous victories and successes under his belt, even against heavy odds. However, when he tried to take Hefei by mustering much of Wu's military power, he proved lacking. His disastrous reaction to the failure (including executing men he thought were pretending to be sick and abandoning the invalid sick and wounded) turned public opinion on him and got him assassinated.
- Wei: While Xiahou Dun performed well under Cao Cao's direct command, when he was placed in command of an army he led his forces into an ambush by Liu Bei at Bowangpo. Luckily, his subordinate Li Dian suspected an ambush and Xiahou had left him behind just in case, and so the damage was minimised.
- That said, when Xiahou Dun was placed in command of 28 armies following a major battle at Ruxu between Cao Cao and Sun Quan, he performed excellently as his greatest skills were related to logistics. As supreme commander, his main focus was on keeping his troops supplied, and the details were entrusted to more skilled generals on the front lines like Cao Ren, Xu Huang and Zhang Liao.
- Pet the Dog: Yuan Shu genuinely felt sorry for the tragic Lady Fang and treated her well. Sadly, his jealous concubines murdered her and covered it up as a suicide.
- Dong Zhuo wasn't known for his mercy, but he did allow some people who didn't want to serve him to simply leave instead. He also left his old rival Huangfu Song alone, realising that Huangfu was an old and weary man by that point who simply didn't want to be involved with political games anymore.
- After forcing Liu Xie (aka Emperor Xian) to abdicate the throne, Cao Pi nevertheless treated him well, allowing him to continue referring to himself as emperor and granting him the unprecedented honour of speaking to him as an equal (rather than following the formal rules of protocol). Cao Pi also allowed Liu Xie to continue to make use of Han imperial clothing, insignia and protocol.
- In a sense, Cao Pi was following his father's lead, as Cao Cao always took pains to treat Emperor Xian with nothing but the utmost respect.
- Following the failure of Liu Bei's Yiling Campaign, a Shu army was isolated by Wu and unable to return. Unwilling to surrender to Wu, they instead surrendered to Wei. One of the officers was a man named Pang Lin. Almost two decades earlier, he and his wife were separated during the chaos of Cao Cao's march through Jing Province, and each had given the other up for dead. Now in Wei, Pang Lin was stunned to hear his wife was still alive and the two were finally reunited. Cao Pi heard of the story and sent the couple numerous gifts to congratulate them on their reunion and to reward them for their faithfulness to each other.
- When Cao Cao learned that Cai Yan AKA Cai Wenji, the daughter of his old colleague Cai Yong, was the unwilling wife of a barbarian cheiftain in the north (she'd been kidnapped during a raid), he spent a huge amount of money to buy her freedom. Many years later, when her husband (a commander of a military colony) was found guilty of some crime and sentenced to death, she desperately made her way to Cao Cao's personal headquarters in the city of Ye to plead for his life. Feeling sorry for all the hardship she'd endured so far and not wanting to add to it, Cao Cao hurriedly dispatched a messenger to spare the man. Happily for Cai Wenji, the messenger arrived in time and she was able to rejoin her husband.
- This was especially notable because Cao was generally known to strictly enforce the law with few exceptions.
- Poisonous Friend: He Yan was this to Cao Shuang. When he was first appointed, Cao Shuang was a popular and respected man despite not being as illustrious as his fellow regents Sima Yi and the Empress Dowager Guo. He Yan, however, convinced him to take more and more power for himself and try to cut out the other regents. When Cao Shuang and his friends went so far as to begin wearing Imperial clothes, use Imperial carriages and treat the palace as their own house of pleasure, Sima Yi launched a coup that ended with the execution of Cao Shuang, He Yan, their families, their friends and many of their acquaintances.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Zhang Zhao and Zhuge Jin were this when acting as Sun Quan's advisors. Zhang Zhao would browbeat Sun, relying on his force of will and sometimes simply out-shouting Sun Quan (Zhang could get away with this because he acted as a sort of surrogate father to Sun). Meanwhile, Zhuge Jin would subtly make suggestions, and when he realised Sun wasn't receptive would let it go, only to come back to it later and slowly bring Sun over to his point of view.
- Remixed Level: Numerous battles were fought between Wei and Wu around the fortress of Hefei.
- Hanzhong was the setting for several battles between Shu and Wei, especially since it was the only route Shu had to invade Wei.
- The Remnant: Following their defeat at the hands of Cao Cao, Yuan Xi and Yuan Shang fled to the border regions and allied with the Xiongnu tribes. Not wanting to risk a resurgence, Cao Cao launched a campaign to finish them once and for all. He succeeded and the Yuan brothers fled to the northern warlord Gongsun Kang, who executed them in order to avoid Cao Cao coming after him next.
- Following the death of Dong Zhuo, his remnant forces rallied under his son-in-law Niu Fu, and later his subordinates Li Jue, Guo Si and Fan Chou. Wang Yun's refusal to grant them amnesty led them to attack the capital of Chang'an in desperation, resulting in Wang's death and the further undermining of imperial authority.
- Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Generally averted, as most warlords wanted to encourage their enemies to defect. A general who defected could usually expect to be treated well, since this would convince others to do the same.
- During Zhuge Liang's Laixiang Campaign (the basis of Romance's Nanman Campaign), the leader of the rebellion was a man named Yong Kai. When Zhuge Liang's forces approached Yong's forces, one of the rebel leaders named Gaoding (also known as Gaodingyuan) betrayed and murdered him before surrendering to Zhuge. Zhuge Liang promptly executed him.
- It should be pointed out that Gaoding/Gaodingyuan was the chief of a powerful tribe who'd allied with Yong Kai, and it's entirely possible that he was executed because he was a tribal rather than a civilised Han Chinese.
- During Zhuge Liang's Laixiang Campaign (the basis of Romance's Nanman Campaign), the leader of the rebellion was a man named Yong Kai. When Zhuge Liang's forces approached Yong's forces, one of the rebel leaders named Gaoding (also known as Gaodingyuan) betrayed and murdered him before surrendering to Zhuge. Zhuge Liang promptly executed him.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Following his father Cao Song's murder, an enraged Cao Cao launched an invasion of Tao Qian's territory of Xu, slaughtering everyone in his way. This was especially notable because Cao generally didn't deliberately target civilians, since corpses can't produce anything.
- Averted later after the debacle at Wancheng, where Cao Cao's eldest son Cao Ang was killed. Despite Zhang Xiu and Jia Xu's responsibility for his son's death, Cao welcomed them into his ranks as they were both capable individuals (and he had bigger problems at the time). Both achieved high ranks within his forces, though Zhang Xiu died of illness during the campaign against the surviving Yuan brothers.
- Liu Bei claimed that his Yiling campaign was to avenge the death of Guan Yu, though it was clearly an attempt to recover his lost territory.
- Sacred Hospitality: Sometime after his takeover in 184, Dong Zhuo sent Liu Biao to become Provincial Inspector of Jing Province (effectively the administrative head of the province). Upon his arrival, he learned that Jing Province, having descended into chaos after Sun Jian killed the previous inspector on his way to fight Dong Zhuo, was now dominated by many powerful local families who would be unwilling to surrender their newfound independence. At the advice of Kuai Yue, he invited many of the local leaders to a banquet and then massacred them, killing upwards of 50 people. After this, he was able to control Jing and quickly proved to be a benevolent and magnanimous ruler who turned Jing into an oasis of peace even as war raged all around.
- When Liu Bei was about to begin his campaign to seize Yi Province from Liu Zhang, he invited the two closest generals (both of whom were Liu Zhang loyalists) to a feast, then killed them. This allowed him to absorb their forces into his own, and allowed him to take the nearest city before anyone realised what was happening.
- Sealed Orders: When he put Zhang Liao, Yue Jin and Li Dian in charge of the defense of Hefei, Cao Cao left a sealed letter that was only to be opened in case of an invasion by Sun Quan. When said invasion came, the trio opened the letter and were surprised by Cao's order than Yue Jin would defend the fortress while Li Dian and Zhang Liao would attack the enemy. Despite being heavily outnumbered, they followed the orders and inflicted such heavy damage to Sun's forces their morale completely collapsed and they retreated after a fruitless siege.
- What makes this funny is that when Cao Cao learned just how massive Sun Quan's invasion force was (roughly 100 000 men against the 7,000 men at Hefei), he admitted he hadn't expected Sun to bring in quite so many soldiers and would have totally understood if Zhang Liao and the others had disregarded his sealed order.
- Sibling Rivalry: After Yuan Shao's death in 202, his youngest son Yuan Shang was made his successor over his oldest son Yuan Tan thanks to some of his advisors forging his will (and the fact Yuan Shao himself never definitiely chose between his sons). Yuan Tan (not knowing about the forging) accepted the situation and kept himself busy trying to hold off Cao Cao, who'd begun an invasion of the Yuan lands. However, after Yuan Shang failed to send him significant reinforcements and only second-rate equipment, Yuan Tan began to resent his younger brother. Once he learned of how he was cheated out of his inheritence (as oldest son he should've succeeded their father), Yuan Tan outright attacked Shang. The resulting chaos gave Cao Cao the chance he needed to launch another invasion that ended with Cao Cao conquering all of Yuan Shao's former territories.
- During the Crown Prince Affair that began in 245, Sun Quan's sons Sun He and Sun Ba became political rivals. In addition, Sun Quan's daughters Sun Luyu and Sun Luban also took sides (Luyu supporting Sun He while Luban sided with Ba). By the time the Affair was over, Sun He had been stripped of his position and exiled from the capital of Jianye, Sun Ba was executed at Sun Quan's command after being betrayed by Sun Luban, and Luban herself, who along with her secret lover Sun Jun (a distant relative) now ruled Wu after Sun Quan's death, had her sister Sun Luyu executed.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Guan Yu was extremely arrogant and had little to no respect for anyone. Even as de facto governor of Jing province, which put him right next door to Liu Bei's ally Sun Quan, Guan often belittled and insulted Sun Quan. He even rejected a marriage proposal from Sun using extremely insulting language.This arrogance directly leads to his downfall and death.
- Yuan Shu felt that as member of the Yuan family (and, due to a complicated family situation, Yuan Shao's social superior), he was entitled to success. His heavy reliance on the prestige of his name came back to bite him once he was up against competent enemies like Cao Cao and Sun Ce.
- Zhuge Liang thought of himself as a military genius and an excellent judge of character. His Northern Campaigns basically boiled down to "hammer away at Wei until we take Chang'an" and he often chose his proteges or personal friends and favourites for important tasks, whether or not they were qualified for the task. This was most famously seen with Ma Su, who was competent but wholly unprepared to go up against a veteran like Zhang He. Despite this, he refused to accept the advice of generals like Wei Yan and insisted on following his own plans, even when said plans had repeatedly failed.
- The tragedy of Zhuge Liang is that he was genuinely talented at civil matters, but in later life was more interested in military affairs where he was very well read, but had little to no practical experience.
- Zhong Hui was
- The Strategist: A lot, and not necessarily when it came to battles too. For example, in Sun Quan's administration men like Zhou Yu, Lu Fan and Lu Meng handled military affairs while Zhuge Jin, Lu Xun and Zhang Zhao handled civil matters.
- Historically, NOT Zhuge Liang. Even Chen Shou, the chief historian behind the SGZ, noted that flexibility in strategy was not his forte. It's important to note that Chen Shou was otherwise often extremely praising of Zhuge Liang's actual worthy traits despite having some negative bias towards him.
- During the planning for the Yi Province campaign (where Liu Bei seized Yi from Liu Zhang), his primary strategist was Pang Tong. Pang was an integral part of Liu's success, which was made abundantly clear when he was killed by a stray arrow during a siege. Without him, Liu Bei's advance ground to a halt and he was forced to call for reinforcements from his holdings in Jing Province.
- Suckcessor: How Sun Quan viewed Cao Pi compared to Cao Cao, and Cao Rui compared to Cao Pi. He considered Cao Pi to be lacking compared to his father Cao Cao, and thought that Rui was equally inferior compared to Pi.
- It should be pointed out that Sun Quan was actually wrong, as Cao Rui was such an enlightened ruler he was favourably compared to Cao Cao himself.
- Traditionally, Liu Shan is seen as being this to Liu Bei, as he took no action to try to arrest Shu's decline.
- Yuan Shang was Yuan Shao's favourite child, and when some of Shao's advisors forged Shao's will so that Shang would succeed him people were not overly suspicious. However, he was an extremely weak leader compared to his father, and he basically doomed himself by not sending proper support to his brother Yuan Tan, who tried to prevent Cao Cao from invading their territory.
- Summon Bigger Fish: In his later life as Grand Tutor, this was Sima Yi's role. While generally matters on the borders were handled capably by Wei's generals, whenever things became serious Sima Yi would personally take to the front, which almost always resulted in an immediate retreat once the enemy knew Sima Yi was coming.
- Surprisingly Elite Cannon Fodder: There was nothing special about the 800 men Zhang Liao led into battle at Hefei in 215, other than tremendous courage. And yet, they did so much damage that Sun Quan's huge army was paralyzed by indecision and low morale, and the 800 had enough survivors that Cao Pi recruited them into his Imperial Guard.
- 10-Minute Retirement: When he was acting as a Magistrate, Cao Cao made powerful enemies by strictly enforcing the law and punishing lawbreakers no matter their connections. Realising he was in danger, he resigned and retired into the role of a country gentleman, spending his days hunting and composing poetry. He planned to stay in retirement for about a decade (following the lead of similar gentlemen in similar situations), but he was called back into action during the Yellow Turban rebellion.
- Through His Stomach: Soldiers during the Three Kingdoms didn't necessarily fight because they were patriots, but because they were loyal to their liege lords or because of glory or honour. A lot of the time soldiers joined up simply because armies tended to have food, and during that period (especially shortly following the Yellow Turban Rebellion and Dong Zhuo's takeover) food was a scarcity.
- The tuntian system implemented by Cao Cao throughout his territories ensured a steady supply of food, and recruits who otherwise would've starved to death flocked to join him.
- During the Guandu Campaign, part of the reason Yuan Shao was able to recover from his initial defeats at the hands of Cao Cao was because he still had numerous supplies and used them to rally his scattered soldiers. It was only after his main supply depot at Wuchao was destroyed that his forces were forced to retreat in disarray.
- To Win Without Fighting: During one of the breakdowns in relations between Liu Bei and Sun Quan (specifically after Liu Bei took Yi province from Liu Zhang and successfully took Hanzhong from Cao Cao), Lu Meng was dispatched to seize part of Liu's territory in the province of Jing. Of the three cities he was tasked with taking, two surrendered without a fight, and he managed to bluff the commander of the third city into surrendering. During the second and more serious breakdown (after Guan Yu raided one of Sun Quan's supply depots and siezed supplies to support his siege of Fancheng), Lu Meng repeated the feat.
- He also caused Guan Yu's forces to disintegrate simply by being good to the civilian populace of Jing, such as looking after the elderly and distributing supplies and medicine amongst the poor and needy. The civilians in turn wrote to their family members marching with Guan, describing how generous and kind Lu Meng was. Since Guan himself was an arrogant and unpleasant man, most of his soldiers abandoned him and Sun Quan's forces were able to capture him fairly easily.
- Sima Yi and Guo Huai became so well known and feared that simply approaching the enemy was enough to make them surrender or flee.
- Trauma Conga Line: Sun Quan became his brother Sun Ce's successor while barely out of his teens. Through the years, he lost his mother, his younger sister, his surrogate father, the love of his life, his eldest son and heir as well as many of his old friends. By the end of his life, he was making multiple bad decisions, and put his faith in unscrupulous and self-serving members of his court. It's not hard to argue that his numerous losses caused his mental health to deteriorate.
- After being invited to take leadership of Yan Province, Cao Cao lost a good friend named Bao Xin in battle with remnants of the Yellow Turbans. He was unable to recover Bao's corpse to perform proper funeral rites, something that haunted him. Shortly after, his father Cao Song was murdered while travelling to Yan Province to join him. While Cao Cao was trying to avenge his father's death by invading Xu Province (the ruler of Xu Province, Tao Qian, possibly had a hand in Cao Song's murder), his old friend Zhang Miao betrayed him by inviting Lu Bu to seize control of Yan. Not long after that, Cao's oldest son Cao Ang gave up his life at Wancheng so Cao himself could escape. As a direct result of Ang's death, Cao's wife Lady Ding refused to have anything to do with him, forcing Cao to finally divorce her despite repeated entreaties, even personally visiting her and begging her to come home with him.
- True Companions:
- Cao Cao, Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan: Xiahou Dun and Yuan followed Cao Cao from almost the very beginning of his career, and stuck with him even after his devastating defeat by Xu Rong.
- Cao Pi, Cao Zhen, Cao Xiu: cousins and kinmen, they were often seen as a Generation Xerox of Cao Cao, Xiahou Dun and Xiahou Yuan.
- Invoked by Sun Quan in regards to his heir Sun Deng. He assigned the children of some of Wu's greatest minds to be Sun Deng's companions, hoping that their influence would help Deng become a wise and worthy successor.
- Ultimate Job Security: Both Sun Quan and Liu Bei were awful about this, allowing favoured servants to practically get away with murder.
- In the case of Sun Quan, he literally allowed Gan Ning and Pan Zhang to get away with murder. Pan Zhang routinely recruited wealthy men into his forces, murdered them under some pretext and then confiscated their wealth, while Gan Ning was unrepentantly murderous and Would Hurt a Child. Lu Meng, otherwise known to be a generous and kind-hearted officer, tried to kill Gan Ning after Gan murdered a child under Lu's protection.
- When Liu Bei took over Yi Province from Liu Zhang, he let Fa Zheng, a brilliant but unscrupulous man, take his revenge on his personal enemies during the change in management.
- Undignified Death: When Cao Cao captured Lu Bu, he had Lu executed by strangulation, a method used for executing women.
- Undying Loyalty: When captured alongside Lu Bu, Gao Shun elected to join his master in death rather than join Cao Cao.
- Xiahou Dun's loyalty to Cao Cao was legendary, to the point that Dun was seen as an extension of Cao himself.
- As long as it's between their higher ups, the Shu higher ups are extremely loyal to Liu Bei, in spite of their fallings (Guan Yu's arrogance, Zhang Fei and Ma Chao's brutal nature, Zhuge Liang's lack of military success, etc). This, combined with Values Dissonance in that age where loyalty is highly revered, eventually paved way for some people to praise Shu and eventually leading to some stories (long story leading to this situation) that makes the cornerstone of Romance of the Three Kingdoms where Liu Bei was the heroic loyal figure (portrayed as having the Undying Loyalty to the Han Dynasty) while Cao Cao was the traitorous usurper (he paved way for the deposing of the Han Dynasty overall).
- Unreliable Narrator: Chen Shou, the historian who compiled the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms, was a man of Shu and so subtly biased in their favour. For example, he described the rulers of the Jin Dynasty (under whom he was working) and the Wei Dynasty (who preceded Jin and from whom Jin claimed proper succession) as Emperors and the rulers of the rival state of Wu without any honorifics (e.g. Sun Ce instead of Lord Sun Ce or the like), but referred to Shu's rulers as lords. He was also a misogynist and didn't bother recording any names of notable women, except in cases where he had no choice due to their prominence.
- One example of his bias is his notation in Zhuge Jin's biography, where he dismisses Zhuge's letter to Liu Bei (attempting to convince Liu to call off his intended invasion of Wu) as a waste of space and pointless. His reasoning is that Zhuge Jin's master Sun Quan betrayed Liu Bei and slew Liu's dear friend Guan Yu, and so a flowery letter was worthless. Historically, Guan Yu caused the break with Sun Quan by repeatedly insulting him, and then attacking one of Sun's supply depots to support his invasion of Cao Cao's territory.
- In addition, most of Shu's biographies and information were written by Zhuge Liang himself, meaning most of Shu's texts relating to Zhuge tended to be rather flattering. One biography was mostly made up of a letter Zhuge himself had written describing the man!
- It didn't help that Shu didn't have official historians, and so Chen Shou and other historians had no choice but to take Zhuge Liang's notes at face value (unless there were clear contradictions). In comparison, both Wei and Wu had historians whose only job was to record important events of the day and write the biographies of the various notables.
- Up Through the Ranks: Ding Feng of Wu went from a simple infantryman to the single most decorated general in Wu's history (and that's including guys like Lu Meng, Lu Xun and Zhou Tai!)
- Likewise, Guo Huai of Wei climbed up the ranks to become the highest ranked and most decorated general in the empire. Sima Yi, then in control of the empire, had to think of new ways to reward him, since the only promotion he could give Guo by that point was Sima Yi's own job.
- Violence is the Only Option: Shu and Wei could never coexist, as Wei existed due to Han Emperor Xian abdicating the throne to Cao Pi, while Shu declared that it was the continuation of Han and Wei was a usurper state.
- Averted (sort of) when it came to Wu, as Wu did not claim descent from the Han Empire. Instead, the state of Wu's reason for being was that it was so distant from the Han capital Luoyang (far to the north) that it was practically its own country anyway. As such, while Wu and Wei also waged war on each other (primarily through raids and skirmishes), it was nowhere near as sustained as Shu and Wei's battles. In fact, Wei and Wu even engaged in trade during lulls in the fighting (with the approval of both Wei and Wu emperors, even).
- War Is Hell: The Three Kingdoms era is one of the deadliest wars in Chinese history and the third bloodiest wars in the world behind World War II and the Taipang Rebellion. During those 96 years, 3/4 of the population in China was reduced which was also due to severe famine and diseases and it led people to resort to cannibalism.
- We ARE Struggling Together:
- The Guandong Coalition that opposed Dong Zhuo distrusted each other and each member secretly hoped that the others would expend their power, thus making them vulnerable. Only Cao Cao and Yuan Shu's forces actually fought against Dong Zhuo (Cao Cao's forces were demolished, forcing him to withdraw to rebuild while Yuan Shu's forces successfully defeated Lu Bu and Dong Zhuo before running out of steam), and the coalition dissolved without accomplishing anything.
- Averted with the generals Li Dian, Yue Jin and Zhang Liao. They were stationed in Hefei, and were known to not get along. Cao Cao sent an officer to ensure they all did their jobs, and during Sun Quan's invasion of Hefei the trio worked together to repel him.
- Virtually everyone of Gan Ning's colleagues hated his guts because he was a murderous pirate who refused to change his ways even after becoming a general (for example, Lu Meng almost killed him for murdering a child for some minor offense). While they were willing to work with him, some generals, Ling Tong and Lu Meng in particular, would've killed him in an instant if not for Sun Quan's protection.
- This trope describes Shu and Wu's relationship in a nutshell. While they were forced to work together to oppose Cao Cao (and after Cao Cao's death, the Wei Empire), it was a relationship of distrust and suspicion. The only reason the alliance lasted as long as it did was the fact that both sides were well aware that if the other fell, Wei had an easy route of advance into their heartlands.
- We Used to Be Friends: In his youth, Cao Cao's circle of friends included Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu and Zhang Miao. Over the course of the next few decades, Zhang Miao betrayed Cao Cao by joining forces with Lu Bu, Yuan Shu outright attacked him in an attempt to take his territory, and Yuan Shao attempted to bring him to heel before leading his armies against him. Zhang Miao would be killed by his men during a mutiny, Yuan Shu died of illness after his failed attempt to become Emperor caused his utter defeat, and Yuan Shao would die of despair after his defeat at Guandu was followed up by a counter-invasion by Cao Cao.
- What Could Have Been: When Sun Quan's attack on Hefei was repelled in 215 and they began to retreat, Zhang Liao took advantage of Sun's blunder in sending the bulk of his forces ahead (he wanted to avoid catching a plague that had broken out among his rank-and-file) to launch another raid. During the course of the raid, he noticed an unusual-looking man who managed to jump over a collapsed bridge and flee to safety. Curious, he later asked a surrendered soldier who the man was, and was shocked to learn that the man had been Sun Quan himself. Zhang bitterly noted that if he had known who the man was, he would've tried harder to capture or kill him.
- Cao Pi would often observe that if his older brother Cao Ang hadn't died in battle at Wancheng, Ang would've been the Wei Emperor instead of him. He also noted that if his younger brother Cao Chong had lived (Chong died of illness while he was young), their father Cao Cao might've chosen Chong as his successor (since Chong was a genuine genius).
- During Zhuge Liang's first Northern Campaign, Wei Yan suggested Zhuge send him and a small crack army to bypass Wei's defenses in Hanzhong in order to directly attack the fortress-city of Chang'an (the western capital of both Han and Wei Empires). Zhuge declined, thinking it too risky. Unbeknownst to Shu, the Wei Emperor Cao Rui had been in Chang'an during the first Northern Campaign, and even if Wei Yan's attack failed Wei forces in Hanzhong would've abandoned their positions to rush back to Chang'an and defend their emperor, leaving a clear path for Zhuge's forces to advance. If Wei Yan's attack had succeeded and he managed to capture or kill Cao Rui as well as capture Chang'an, Wei might've collapsed into infighting as Cao Rui's relatives fought over the succession.
- Won the War, Lost the Peace: While the Jin Dynasty conquered Wu and finally reunited the land, internal politicking resulted in a bloody civil war that allowed the northern tribes to unite and sweep down into China proper.
- Worthy Opponent: Cao Cao and Sun Quan respected each other to the point that they referred to each other by their style names (suggesting they saw each other as equals). Even after Cao's death, Sun Quan continued to refer to him as "Mengde", Cao Cao's style name.
- Despite Cao Cao and Yuan Shao becoming bitter rivals (far more bitter than Cao was with Sun Quan), they continued to refer to each other by their style names. Part of this was due to their long relationship, since they were childhood friends. After Yuan's death, Cao took time to perform funeral rites for him.
.....
#3: Nov 7th 2017 at 8:25:36 PM
If anything, we must strive to be as neutral as possible in this. Especially if the info was taken from a Tumblr by a certain Arch-Lich. I'll give it that he does cite information from historical sources. But he presented his information in a biased way that bashes Shu and overly praises Wei/Jin.
If we can make it fairer and more neutral... it would be nice.
Total posts: 3
Recently, the page UsefulNotes.Three Kingdoms Shu Wei Wu had its main body of historical information wiped out due to being entirely documented in Tropes (which is not allowed on Useful Notes pages). This leaves the page bare-bones and lacking in information. I am not attempting to revert the change.
I wish to find some way to fix the page so that it can serve as a good enough useful notes page for the real events in the Three Kingdoms period (contrasting them with the semi-fictional depictions in Romance of the Three Kingdoms). For this, I had decided to start a Short Term Project in order to gather some Wiki Magic and rewrite the page into a more suitable form.
I am also trying to merge information from its recap page, Recap.Three Kingdoms Shu Wei Wu, to the main page, since I don't think that a page like this can have a recap either.
I had asked Ask The Tropers about what to do with this situation, and I was directed here to start a short term project.
I had copied the contents of both the pre-cleanup page and the recap page into my computer so I am able to provide them if they are somehow lost on the wiki.
edited 19th Jun '17 8:50:29 PM by Wuz