Anything Musou Warriors

Random Fact of the Week - Wu
When Gan Ning was young he led a life of crime. He gathered a group of young men, became their leader and they all carried bells, alerting the commoners that Gan Ning was arriving everytime they heard them. If people received him well and invited him to feast, he would not rob them, otherwise he and his group would rob, loot and kill. When he reached his early twenties, he studied and tried to join Liu Biao who turned him down. He then went to Huang Zu who gave him a low position. Unsatisfied, he went to join Wu and was recommended by Zhou Tai and Lu Meng.

This week - Shu
Zhang Fei married Xiahou Yuan's daughter and they had two daughters. The elder daughter married Liu Bei's son Liu Shan and became the Empress of Shu with Zhuge Liang as the matchmaker. However she died early, and again Zhuge Liang was the matchmaker for Zhang Fei's younger daughter to marry Liu Shan to become the new Shu Empress.

This week - Wei
"Three Cao" was a collective name given to Cao Cao and his sons, Cao Pi and Cao Zhi, for their poetry. Cao Cao was an established poetry of his time, and together, with Pi, Zhi and many other poets, their poems formed the "jiang-an style" ("jiang-an" was the name of the era of the time (196AD-220AD)). The characteristics of this style was solumn but heart-stirring, and often lamented over how short life was.

This week - Wu
Lu Su was an advisor to Sun Quan and played an important role in the Battle of Red Cliffs. He later took over the control of the Wu military after Zhou Yu's death. After his own death, his position was succeeded by Lu Meng.

In Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Lu Su accompanied Zhuge Liang on his strawboats to obtain 100,000 arrows from Cao Cao.

PS. I'm thinking of letting someone else temporarily take over posting these "Random Facts" at the end of September, perhaps for a term or so. Anyone up for this?

This week - Other
Hua Tuo was a renowned physician during the Three Kingdoms period, and was recorded to be the first person in China to use anesthesia during surgery. He had treated Zhou Tai (who suffered from severe wounds while rescueing Sun Quan once) and was often summoned to treat Cao Cao's chronic headaches (using accupuncture to stop the pain). He was eventually executed by Cao Cao for not going back to treat him again.

In Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he cured a poisonous arrow wound on Guan Yu's arm while Guan Yu played a game of Go.

This week - Shu
The mantou is a steamed bun with a filling inside, and is a type of staple food in Northern China. There is a popular legend that Zhuge Liang invented this bun during his campaign to suppress the Nanman rebellion. While on his way back to Shu, his army met a swift-flowing river that gave them great difficulty in crossing it. Zhuge Liang was then informed by a local that in the old days, people had to sacrifice 50 men's heads into the river to "appease the river spirit" in allowing them to cross. Not wanting to cause anymore bloodshed, Zhuge Liang killed cows and horses in his army and filled their meat into bun shapes that looked like human heads. He then threw them into the river and his army successfully crossed the river. These wrapped up heads then evolved into the present day "mantou".

I made another DW tribute video. It's probably not as good as my DW Gods of War video but here it is anyway.

( Under the cut! )

This week - Wu
When he was 17 years old, Sun Jian went travelling with his father by boat, however their base was robbed by a group of pirates. While they were busy dividing up the spoils, Sun Jian took his sword in one hand, confidentally approached them and pointed in different directions, as if signalling to soldiers to prepare to attack the pirates. Upon seeing this, the bandits fell for his trick and fled, however Sun Jian pursued them and brought back their heads (some records say that he brought back just the head of the leader pirate). From then on his name spread and he was given a temporary military post by the local government office.

This week - Wu
Lu Xun was a still fairly new and unknown to Wu when he was made supreme commander, and therefore was not warmly welcomed by most of the veteran generals who had fought side by side with Sun Jian back in the old days. However, he proved his worth at the Battle of Yiling, when he devised a strategy to charge a mock army to one of Liu Bei's camps and then seting all of them on fire. This was followed by an attack on the rest of the camps from all three sides with Wu's forces, and completely destroyed the Shu army. When the battle was over, Lu Xun was no longer criticised by the Wu generals.

This week - Wu
Taishi Ci was brought to fame after an incident that involved sending a letter in his younger days. He had worked under the Administrator of Donglai, who did not get on well with his own superior, the provincial office of Qing province. Both sent their own envoys (Taishi Ci being the Administrator's envoy) to deliver letters of complaint to the Imperial Capital Luoyang, where the court declared that whoever's letter arrived first would be the "good one".

Although the provincial office had already sent their envoy, Taishi Ci was quick and caught up with him just outside the city gate. He confidentally asked the other envoy if he was indeed the envoy who delivered the provincial office's letter. Tricked, the envoy gave Taishi Ci the letter, thinking that he was a court official. Taishi Ci immediately slashed the letter into pieces with a knife. The two then ran away after Taishi Ci explained that both would be punished by their superiors if they returned (Taishi Ci was not instructed by his master to destroy the letter), however some distance away, he dumped the other envoy and successfully delivered his own letter to the Imperial capital. The provincial office attempted to deliver another letter afterwards, but it was turned away since Taishi Ci's letter had arrived first.

Smart kid! XD

(Sorry this one's so long, I thought it might be hard to understand the event if I didn't put in details...)