romance of the three kingdoms is one of the greatest literature in the world based on real history it has epic battles drama tactics strategies and larger than life characters it's musing on the moral gray zone of political legitimacy provides a priceless window to a unique east asian narrative it is definitely a masterpiece everyone should read but the problem is it is just too long with 120 chapters and 95 episode adaptations not many people could stay engaged long enough to finish the whole story so in this series i will summarize all 120 chapters in seven short episodes just to let you know this is all based on the novel so it will not match the real history hundred percent but don't worry history fans i will cover the discrepancies between the novel and the real history in a future video this tale starts at the twilight of the han dynasty the han dynasty was established in 202 before common era by lyupang a peasant peasant-born small-town sheriff who lied cheated and scammed his way to the highest throne in the land luckily for the people this camp was a pretty chill dude he reduced taxes treated the people well and the dynasty actually became the first golden age of china after surviving a user patient in the first century the dynasty was revived but eventually near the end of the 2nd century the empire faced another great crisis plagued by palace intrigue and the treacherous corruption of the 10 eunuchs the mismanaged empire was crumbling and rebellions boiled all across the land in the year 184 one of the rebel groups proclaimed that the blue heaven is dying and the yellow heaven arises they were the yellow turban rebels led by the taoist cult leader dangchao and his brothers zhang yang and zhang pao as they rampaged across the land demolishing the imperial army the local governors had no choice but to seek volunteer army against these ferocious rebels among those who were willing was liubei from turkandi lyope was a descendant of the imperial family a very very distant cousin of the emperor yet his family was poor and he made his living by selling straw sandals with his mother he wanted to help end the chaos but ultimately he knew that he couldn't do anything by himself so he let out a sigh what are you saying about a real man will serve the emperor at a time of need that loud voice came from zhangfei a hot-tempered local butcher finding that they had a common cause the two continued their conversation in a tavern where they met another like-minded individual kuan yew so the three of them raised a small army and swore an oath of brotherhood in a peach garden they swore to defend the people and protect each other even though they are not born in the same year same months of the same day they will die together on the same year months and day thus the brothers joined the army they had modest success and defended nearby cities from the rebels rampage meanwhile on the countryside another contingent of the rebel force was ambushed and routed by the cunning and talented general tautol tortor was the foster grandson of a eunuch and a fortune teller once told him that in times of peace he will be a good minister but in times of chaos he will be a cunning hero lots of important figures made their name in the suppression of this rebellion dongsuo also made his appearance here as he was saved by the obey from zhang joo's assault but the root commander ignored the obey because he was not a high-ranking officer eventually zhang zhao and his brothers were killed by the imperial army and what was left of them were cleaned up by sun jin a powerful general nicknamed the tiger of jiangtong his family claimed to be the descendants of suns the author of swansea's art of war even though the yellow turbans were defeated peace did not return because the source of all this chaos were still living large in the imperial palace the ten eunuchs the corruption was deeply entrenched evenly obey became its victim after his service he was given a small magisterial post but he was unable to pay the bribe money to the imperial inspector who tried to blackmail him witnessing this injustice zhangfei flew into rage and tied the inspector to a post and gave him a trashing he wanted to kill the corrupt official but the benevolently obey stopped him and spared the man's life obviously that wasn't enough to get themselves out of trouble so to atone for their crime they served the imperial army again to suppress another rebellion we must get rid of a eunuch with a small strike force now toto said meanwhile in the palace an anti-eunuch clique had fallen led by herjin the empress's brother its other members included tata and yuen saw a general from a prestigious family and also total's old friend they had managed to enthrone her jin's nephew as their new emperor but they were locked in a debate deciding on what to do next herjin who got his position due to his connection rather than his ability foolishly went against all good advice and decided to invite don dwar and his massive army to the palace as backup against the eunuchs obviously the arrival of such large army alerted the eunuchs and the palace spiraled into chaos herjin tortor and yuen saw quickly rushed the emperor's side as if trying to outdo his foolishness the bumbling commander walked into an obvious trap and he was killed enraged by this the other two rushed into the inner chambers and slaughtered the eunuchs but alas they were too late a few eunuchs managed to escape and took the emperor and his brother with them as hostage in the midst of the chaos the eunuchs were killed and the boys were lost in the wilderness not knowing who was on their side they hid from everyone until they were eventually discovered by leoshi the emperor's younger brother stepped forward and told tungsu to pay his proper respect to the emperor impressed by the gutsy little prince dongsuo thought that perhaps this eight-year-old boy would make a better emperor and puppet his plan was opposed by another minister ding yuan and they took to the battlefield dongsuo who was a veteran commander was surprisingly forced to retreat all because of this one warrior on his enemy's side the peerless louis boo being yuan's greatest asset however turned out to be his greatest liability as he was betrayed and murdered in the night by his godson luboo all just for some treasures and a horse to be fair it was a really good horse the greatest horse among all horses the red hair now with lubu on his side dontzo was virtually unstoppable even yuan saul who defiantly raised his sword against him in protest was unable to do anything before he took refuge in the provinces after replacing the emperor with his puppet dongsuo killed the former emperor and his mother and ruled as tyrant urged by yuen saw who took refuge in the provinces a loyal minister organized resistance against donsoo they had the will but unfortunately not the way dongduon was under lupu's constant protection there is just no way they could get him they lamented totto scoffed at them from the side before volunteering to assassinate dojo himself again toto became part of another conspiracy he just loved his cloak and daggers but to do so he needed a precious sword called the seven star sword on the next day he proceeded with his plan but before he could make his move dongjoo saw his reflection in the mirror what are you up to tata oh oh oh well i got a gift for you total lied and he presented the sword to don tool to distract him before he ran the heck away from the palace it took them a while before they realized that he was probably trying to assassinate dojo and gave chase what many people don't realize is that torto runs away a lot in this story so to keep track of how many times he ran i have set up a special counter here on his escape tartar was captured by a local magistrate tan gong who sympathized with his cause toto was then released and the two set off to total homeland to raise an army to overthrow the tyrant donjo along the way they encountered tortoise family friend who gave them refuge but since toto was a fugitive with a large bounty on his head he was paranoid he misheard a conversation and thought that they were planning to kill him so total preemptively massacred the family in self-defense only to later discover that they were actually planning to slaughter a pig in his honor but what was done was done total cold-bloodedly killed the family friend too to silence him disgusted by this tango left turtle and this is where total set his famous line i would rather betray the world than let it betray me once he made it home toto gathered his men and army and forged a letter from the emperor to induce the other lords to rise up against the tyrant don't dwell thus many lords and nobles gathered and formed an entitled to a coalition yuen saw who came from a prestigious family was then chosen to be its leader meanwhile lyope was just serving as a small town magistrate was roped into the coalition by his friend kung soon son with this grand coalition descending upon dojo it seemed as if their victory was assured but the moment they reached suzuei pass suan jian's army met strong resistance and since the quarter master yuen su refused to send any supplies his army was defeated and he barely escaped dongjo's general huashong's early victory delivered a blow to the collision's morale and this incident revealed the first crack in their veneer of solidarity huaxon the big hulking man challenged the coalition's warrior to a duel and he mercilessly cut down two of their champions one after another just as everyone was paralyzed by fear guanyu was a literal nobody at the time stepped up to volunteer for a duel if i fail you can take my head he said impressed by his bravado total offered him a warm wine so in perhaps what was the earliest hold my beer moment guanyu rode away to duel his enemy wardrobes rolled the ground thundered and after a few moments the sound of hoof beats approached the coalition camp juanio returned victorious before his wine got cold with huashong's defeat dojo sent his main force to kuloa gate led by liubu huashong was just a mid boss and he was the real deal the coalition generals who were foolish enough to ride up against him were crushed like insects kung swan sun who tried to escape was saved from certain death by the fiery jungfee zhang fei was as powerful as his brother guanyu but even he couldn't get the upper hand then guanyu joined the fray and so did liu be who tried to be useful even with the combined power of the three brothers they couldn't defeat lubu but eventually luibu got exhausted and he turned to retreat this seeming victory boosted the coalition's morale and they made their push towards the gate they couldn't break through that day but breaching it is only a matter of time in his desperation dengue decided to move the capital to tangan but before he did he robbed the population looted the imperial graves before burning the capital rue yang when the coalition finally broke through they were accosted by a haunting scene of desolation totto tried to pursue dojo only to fall into an ambush outnumbered barely escaped with his head intact meanwhile back in nuoyang sunjin discovered an unimaginably precious treasure inside an abandoned well as the heirloom seal of the realm this is the symbol of the mandate of heaven having this would strengthen someone's claim to be the emperor of china but little did he know that this discovery was more of a curse than a blessing rumors of the discovery soon got out and the coalition which was already strained tear itself apart and everything degenerated into warlordism suanjin broke off and headed home to changsha suspecting that he had the seal when saul sent a letter to governor leopold to intercept him meanwhile yuen saw himself occupied a coalition member's territory through deception this angered gongsun son who challenged you and saw even though he had a smaller force kungsun was given support by leo bay his brothers and tsoyun who made his first appearance in the novel here capitalizing on this rift dongjo bought over the two to his side and this turn of events horrified leopard and zoyun down south the conflict between lyopyo and sunjin intensified the latter was able to defeat leopold's general but due to his carelessness swan chen was lured into an ambush and crushed by boulders his 17 year old son sun tzu then took over as the head of the family even though he was young he was wise enough to call for a truce and bide his time so with all the coalition members on each other's throat it looked like dongjo's position was finally safe but not if wang yun had anything to say about it he had another plot and tiotan the smart and beautiful singer girl had volunteered herself to be part of it to drive a wedge between dodo and libu he promised the girl to reboot first before giving her away to dojo enamored by her beauty luipu was obviously furious at this broken promise but wang yun skillfully shifted the blame to donzo claiming that he was the one who forcefully took her away with jotan in on the act constantly begging him to take her away the proud lubu was completely suckered into their plot so lubu joined wang yun's cool and he took the personal pleasure in ending his godfather's life there is a chinese idiom yin shong nan guo merenguan even heroes have a weakness for the charms of a beautiful woman it is very ironic isn't it that even all the heroes under the heaven couldn't do a single woman's job the death of the tyrant dongjuo was widely celebrated in the whole city of tanghan his remains were mutilated paraded and lit on fire apparently the fire even burned for a few days because he was just so fat with him gone however a massive power vacuum was created wang yoon began to lord over the capital purging all his political opponents as more of don jose minions converge towards the city to fight for the scraps lubu who was then on wang yun's side rolled out to intercept his enemies but since intelligence wasn't his forte he fell for the oldest trick in the book they lured him out and cut him off from the city outnumbered and without the city's provision and support he had no choice but to escape what became of him you'll find out later with that brute out of the way li chue and guosu now hold all the power they executed wang yun and was about to get rid of the emperor to establish their own empire but no they can't do that here is the reason why even though the various local warlords held the fact of power they were not their own countries that rank as governor general and the authority that comes with it still relied on the emperor's appointment so if they want to move their army or rule a province they will need imperial justification and decree otherwise they would just be branded as rebels and everyone can legitimately tear the rebels to shred and take all their stuff like free real estate but of course some of the more powerful warlords could get away with more severe violations in short they are like gangs or militias operating within a country li jiue wanted to start his own dynasty but he had to diminish the emperor's authority over time if he wanted to do it safely anyway there are other more important matters that need to be looked after such as the resurgence of the yellow turban rebels so the two of them used the emperor's authority to make total do their dirty job and proceeded to scrape up what was left of their former leader dongsuo to give him a burial but the moment they tried to there was a thunderstorm and the burial ground was flooded then lightning struck the coffin and his remains were thrown out the same thing happened again on the second try and on their third attempt the lightning bolt obliterated all that was left it looked like not even the heavens is willing to take this villain back what is often overlooked in many other adaptations is that the emperor actually had a pretty active role over his destiny using secret edicts he ordered ma kang and hansui to attack the capital but they failed due to the lack of supplies on the other side however tata's campaign was a great success he captured 300 000 yellow turban soldiers and picked the best of them to be part of his army his power grew immensely as he made yenzo his new base so to celebrate his achievement and do a bit of flexing he invited his dad to check out his new crib since total was a rising star and the governor of shujo tauchin wanted to get on his good side and provided his father with a bodyguard however this turned out to be a big mistake because the bodyguard was a disgruntled former yellow turban rebel and ended up robbing and massacring tortoise family this tragedy devastated total and he flew into unbridled fury torchen tried to defuse the situation by sending tan gong to mediate but even invoking the favored total old hymn couldn't get him to back down thus total went to war against torchion massacring every single inhabitant of shuzhou they came across and desecrated the grace of their ancestors this horrific act of cruelty will haunt him for a long time torchion turned to kongrun for help but the latter was busy fighting the yellow turban himself so he outsourced the job to bay who was still a small town magistrate at the time lupe broke through total siege and he joined tauchin but obviously going against toto's grand army was practical suicide so lyope sent him a letter and nicely asked him to withdraw and it worked it somehow worked kinda what lupe didn't know at the time was that lupu was attacking toshov's base and total had to pull back to defend it but for the meantime everyone thought that lyope was the one who stopped toto's invasion and he was offered the governorship of shiuto but he was too modest so he took the position of temporary governor instead liubu was a massive nuisance his existence was a wild card that ruins everyone's plans whenever he went and nobody liked this treacherous bully either after his defeat by li chue and gosu he had bounced from working with one lord after another he worked for yuen tsu then yuen saw zhang yen before he finally joined changmio to attack total space now that he had chan gong as his advisor to cover his strategic weakness he had become a lot more formidable he even caught total in an ambush and sent him running it was only through the bravery of denwe and yuejin that he was saved after a brief interlude of defeating nearby yellow turban rebels tauto eventually defeated lupu with his own ambush and ended up conquering the whole of santong ripu sought help from yuen saw but since the latter hated him he actually sent troops to help toto instead so he sought refuge at new base place liubei who then knew that it was lubu's attack that saved him from tautol was obliged to offer him protection zhangfei on the other hand hated his guts as if the rng gods were blessing tata li jue and gosu had it falling out and the emperor sent a secret edict seeking toto's help as the fallout intensified the emperor escaped to the ruins of royang under the protection of loyalist zhu huang over there tata collected the emperor and a powerful general as a bonus he then brought the young emperor to shu tang and made it the new capital having the emperor is like owning the game's cheat code tata could practically order the warlords to do anything he wanted and play them against each other all in the name of his majesty and his first order was to make leopay the official ruler of shujo but he had to kill lu buu when lu bu visited liu bay zangree just blurted out the offer and was going to kill lupu himself lyope immediately stopped the two and assured them that he had no intention to be played by tartar nevertheless the rift was formed next tata ordered lyobae to attack yuen su who does this abstract uv think he is how dare he try to attack me when i was planning to attack him first since he can't disobey imperial order lyope reluctantly agreed and left zhang fei to guard his base he made him promise to stay sober but zhang fei being zhang fei he didn't keep his promise in his drunken rage he had an altercation with lupus men and soon it escalated into lupu taking over the territory and sending zhangfei running lupe eventually forgave his brother but he is now stuck with enemies on both fronts now this part of the story gets really complicated because lupu just keeps ruining everyone's plan he is like the schoolyard bully among warlords when yuen su tried to bribe lupu to attack obey he didn't take the bait and kept the obey as his vessel instead liubei went along with it because he had nothing else to turn to meanwhile at yuentu's place sunser the son of sunjin was discontented serving under him in order to pave his own path of success he borrowed three thousand troops and five hundred horses from his lord with the heirloom seal of the realm his excuse was that he wanted to save his family who was having trouble with governor liu your was none the wiser along the way he was joined by his friend and sworn brother zoyu after a hard and long fight he recruited the freelance general tacit and ended up conquering a large wave of land beyond lyons territory so that's how this 20 year old young man earned the nickname little conqueror up north yuen zu still wanted to finish leopay off this time he sent lupu a gift of grains so that he won't defend liu bay but denied libour ruined his plans anyway he intervened by mediating between yansu's general and liu bay he made a bet with them and said that if he could hit the tiny branch of the halberd head from 150 paces away with his arrow then yuensu's general should withdraw and what do you know not only was lupu a great general he was also a great shot but yuen tsu hasn't given up yet he offered his son to marry lupu's daughter lupo was wary of the obligations that came with the marriage alliance suddenly he received news that sanfei stole his horses and that was the last straw he had enough of this meat head and he attacked jupiter along with him and here we have liubei betraying his principal for the first time by switching sides to tartar before total want to attack lupu however an incident occurred the thing about tata is that he loved women especially other people's women his relationship with the aunt of his new general zhang cho offended the latter especially because his uncle had just recently died enraged by this shameful affair he ambushed total this fatal ambush almost killed tata and he only managed to escape through the sacrifice of his loyal bodyguard the enway and his son tao ang zhang zhou was eventually defeated by yue jin and he fled to lyopia to capitalize on this tragedy tata mourned denway's death over his own sons to boost his army's morale just as total was turning his attention to lubu suddenly uenzu be wildin caught by his delusion of grandeur he proclaimed himself an emperor and you know how i previously said that it is bad to be seen to rebel against the hondurans the emperor yep everyone turned against him lupu guanyu and even swansea attacked him and utterly smashed this army interesting note along this campaign toto's army was running out of food and to keep morale up he framed an innocent official for embezzling supplies anyway after this campaign he made the obey and liubu reconcile before returning home where he was greeted by more good news apparently li drei and kosu were killed by their own men who in turn surrendered to tauto becoming more influential than ever total received a request by gwen saw for the permission to attack gong son convinced that uenso wasn't a long-term threat he approved it at long last after all this distraction he could finally gave his full attention to lu bu so he got into contact with his sleeper agent liu bay but the exchange was intercepted and the furious louis buu attacked leo bay the brothers were separated and lyope sought refuge at totto's territory now here is where something really interesting happened on his way to tata he was invited to a meal at hunter's home but since the hunter couldn't find any game he cooked his own wife to feed the obey later on when leope realized what had happened he was overcome with grief and cried as he mounted his horse he thanked the hunter and rode the heck away when sausage heard about it he rewarded the man with gold pieces for his loyalty yeah this sounds really weird but this horror story is kinda treated like a moral lesson for loyalty in many chinese moral stories the characters often sacrifice their own family members for the greater good it is a fascinating paradox between taboo and loyalty anyway with a much more powerful tartar on lubu's case the latter didn't stand a chance in head no matter how strong he was lupu hold himself up and the siege took months total then diverted the river and flooded the city he made life so miserable for lubu's force eventually his own men mutiny and surrendered him to tartar while tango accepted his execution with dignity rebuke graveled for mercy offering his service total hesitated a bit until the long-suffering lyope convinced him to do it zhang you on the other hand was spared through leope and guanyu's intervention because he was a cool guy he will eventually prove himself to be one of total's greatest general in the future and that's the end of lupu there is a chinese saying renzon among men among horses red hair they are the most powerful specimens of their kind but as strong as he was he failed to realize that no war could be won alone the moral we can learn here is that if you want to be successful don't be a jerk after defeating lupu toto was the rising star among warlords with the young emperor in his possession he gets to dictate the rules of the game like any other warlords he also had imperial ambitions hmm what would people think of emperor taotao to test the people's reaction on this idea one day total brought the young emperor out to a royal hunt even though he was approaching adulthood the emperor wasn't much of an outdoors person and his shots missed his quarry completely total then borrowed the emperor's bows and arrows and hit the target in one shot the attendants who only saw the golden arrow sticking out of the animal so that the emperor made the shot long live the emperor they cheered total then pushed past the emperor and accepted the adulation this breach of protocol completely surprised everyone outrageous most people on the scene saw it as an axe of sedition against the emperor hmm it looks like it is not a good time to get rid of the emperor just yet total thought the emperor though mostly powerless wasn't a complete fool he knew what total was up to so to counter toto's influence the emperor gave his father-in-law dungton a secret edict hidden inside a belt the edict instructed him to assemble a group of loyalists and called for the destruction of tortoise so with haste he gathered a group of conspirators and one of them was the emperor's own imperial uncle leopay among all the warlords in the world only two were heroes tata told him me and you tata recognized leo bay's ambition and ever since the emperor had recognized lil bay's royal lineage the latter had been kept on leash in the capital even though total was unaware of the conspiracy just yet he was already under suspicion lil bay knew that he had to get out of the palace as soon as possible so he requested to be given the task to demolish the remnants of yuansu's force luckily torso agreed poor gwen soon did not die by leopay's hand he actually died of starvation because he could not swallow the coarse food his soldiers ate his last request was for a cup of honey water which they had none after completing his mission lyope occupied shuito his old territory and never returned he then recruited yuen saul to be part of the loyalist faction against tortor after deliberating with his advisors the indecisive uenzel eventually agreed to strengthen his case for war he hired a talented writer to list out total's crimes and his treasonous control over the emperor tata being the bad boy that he was took a big hit from the first salvo in this pr war from here on he had to spend a lot of time and resources to fix his tattered image after a brief skirmish with jiren saw and a failed assault on the obey total worked hard to repair his image and tie up loose ends to show off his magnanimity total pardoned zhang show and re-employed him despite him having killed his general and son he also tried to form an alliance with lyopia but he failed on that front as for the conspiracy toto stumbled upon it when he sought a doctor to cure his chronic migraine he caught the doctor trying to poison him red-handed and trace the connection to donsang he then executed all the conspirators he could find in the palace including the emperor's concubine who was five months pregnant he then turned to lyope again who not only rebelled against him but is now also a known co-conspirator at the risk of exposing himself to uensou's assault torture brought his main army to destroy leo bay before this threat could turn into a greater one in the future uensah who was grieving over his sick son neglected to send in reinforcement so lyope was quickly overwhelmed his force was defeated and scattered there whereabouts unknown including lupe himself only guanyu and his unit remained luckily for him totsau had admired this brave and honorable warrior for a long time and ordered his capture so he led zhang danglio who was a friend of gwanyu to negotiate his term of surrender at the time guanyu was ready to fight to the death until he was convinced that he would be betraying his oath to his brother if he let himself die instead of protecting his brother's wives so he gave total three conditions to his surrender first he is only submitting to the emperor not total second he gets to decide the security arrangement of his sister-in-laws and finally he was allowed to go to his brother's side once he knew his whereabouts it was a tough decision to make but zasa agreed to it since he was confident that he could eventually win the general over besides it would be a good pr move to have a general of his caliber on his side so total showered him with gifts including the legendary horse red hair with this horse i can ride to my brother's side faster he said to toto's dismay juani's loyalty did not waver however it didn't mean that he wasn't grateful to repay tartar's kindness he took to the field against u.n source general yen yang yen liang had slain some of those better generals in duels and even driven shuhuang back he was actually dead killed by guanyu in no time soon enough another great general of yuen saw was deployed wenzhou thousand caught him in an ambush he managed to fight off zanglio and xiuhuang but before he could make his escape guanyu riding on his blindingly fast red hair caught up to him and killed steel with these two great generals dead yensou's army suffered a great blow to their morale satisfied by guanyu's performance at the front line he was reassigned to handle yellow turbine rebels who staged an uprising in sausal's territory as guanyu's army camped nearby he caught a yellow turban spy who turned out to be swan chen one of his old comrades apparently he had been working with the rebels against tata he also informed guanyu that liupei was still alive he had been staying at uensel's camped in the north so the two of them conspired to take over runan the yellow turbans then pretended to have been driven away as they retreated safely as kwanyu returned to the capital to report his success a secret letter from lyope arrived to confirm his whereabouts this solidified his resolution to go to his brother's side having made the promise that he could go to his brother the moment he knew his whereabouts tata had to let him go he still needed the good pr totals jealous subordinates however weren't as forgiving thus guanyu had to make a perilous journey of 1000 li to meet his brother this memorable arc had been adapted into various chinese operas and films but sadly no rpgs because it actually feels a lot like one he was practically gathering all his missing comrades and gained more as he slew six of totto's officers and broke through five blockades on his journey north he picked up lia hua a yellow turban admirer when he crossed into uensor's territory he was told that lyope had apparently went south to rudon on his way back he picked up zoltan another yellow turban he also came across his brother zhangfei zhangfei was angry when he saw him he thought that kwan you had switched his allegiance to tartar so to prove his loyalty he slew totals officer who just conveniently happened to be pursuing him then he discovered that he narrowly missed leo bay who had returned to uensal to discuss more matters yeah this heartwarming journey turned out to be a bit of a wild goose chase but at least he's gaining more party members as he went along back up north he finally met his brother lil bay who decided to finally leave uensar that man was becoming increasingly indecisive and ineffective to be fair it was also his indecision that stopped him from executing leopay after discovering that kwenyu had killed two of his generals anyway they are better off on their own during their stay when you adopted a local farmer's son as his own one ping and on the way back to runan they reunited with zaoyun who had been wandering around since the death of his lord kung suan sun once they reached runan they fortified it and made it their new base as the climactic battle of guantu approaches yuen sao made his last effort to seek alliance with other warlords the opioid refused him but as for sunser he was keen with the idea total had blocked his request to the emperor to be promoted to a higher rank and his collaborators had tried to assassinate him and wounded him with poison arrow so he wanted revenge however in a folktale meets novel chapter a mysterious taoist appeared and created nuisance in the territory after performing a series of miracles he drew swansea's ire and was executed yet somehow he just won't stay dead he revived himself and created more chaos until finally swansea collapsed from all the stress and died he was then succeeded by his brother sun chuan who shruthi sided with tata as he bit for his time to establish his own empire finally the fateful day of the battle arrived uensar was able to master a colossal army of 700 thousand at guandu and thousands army was only one-tenth the size they started by abusing each other each claiming that they had the just cause for war yuen saul used the secret belt eating as his justification while total accused him of rebellion in the initial confrontation total was ambushed by hidden archers and was driven back from then on total took a defensive strategy to counter uensou's archers he built trebuchets to foil their sappers he dug a moat around his camp staying on the defensive all the time however exhausted toto's ben and things started to look real bad as they were running out of provisions meanwhile on the other side despite having the upper hand uhenso wasn't doing that well either because the weakest link was the indecisive commander himself he had intercepted toto's messenger and received news that toto was running out of food but he was paranoid he thought that this might be one of totto's tricks and ended up doing nothing had he divided his army and attacked southau's capital while keeping his main force pinned down in kuantu he could have won the war fed up at this missed opportunity one of uenso's advisor defected to total and informed him about the location of unsolved supply depot toto sent a contingent in disguise and burned the supply depot now this is where turtle's brilliance comes into play the confused yuen soldier fighted his army into two a smaller one to the depot and the main one to turtle's camp total moved to destroy the one heading to the depot and sent back false information thinking that the depot and their back were secured when saw sent reinforcement to the camp with the bulk of that army gathered in one place toto then struck them from the back crushing them with a pincer attack he captured uh source general zhanghu and recruited him next zouzo spread more misinformation to the enemy and not knowing where total will come from uenzel thinned out their formation to cover more grounds so total rolling hard with his main force trembling through the weak defense line and hit their main camp yansa and his son were then sent running by this humiliating defeat total then pursued him deeper into his territory and dealt him another blow as he tried to regroup he almost had you and saw until suddenly he received news that liupei was attacking his capital down south so uenzo lived for another day as a broken man yupe had initial success as he dealt a blow to turtle's exhausted army but what they didn't realize was that turtle's general xiaohoutun had went around them and hit his base at runan with his base gone liubei had no choice but to retreat and he sought refuge at lyopia's territory with this series of glorious victory tortoise domination of the north was inevitable uensahl died two years later in 202 and his domain was divided among his squabbling sons predictably total used it to his advantage and conquered all of them over the next few years interesting note toto's son topi inherited his father's penchant for married women and took one of juenzo's son's wife as his own at the time tortor had not decided on a successor yet but he certainly looked like a strong candidate when tata was staying at uenso's former headquarters his advisor saw a falling star landing nearby when they dug up the area they discovered a bronze statue of a bird to him it looked like it was a sign from the heavens now that he had dominated northern china and received an auspicious omen from above his conquest for the whole of china became less of a dream to many it even seemed like an inevitability could anything stop totals ambition now while total was conquering northern china all the other warlords watched idly liubia was advised by the obey to sprite totals capital while he was away campaigning in the north but lyopia who missed the opportunity can only regret it as total became immeasurably more powerful after his successful campaign one day while he was drinking with his host leopard leopard lamented that he had grown old and fat and he had nothing to show for his years of struggle if only he had a base to grow his power he mused liupe who had been working for lyopio since he was defeated by total had become popular among the people of jinzhou leopold's territory and some people saw him as a threat for it namely lady thai liupian's second wife and her brother ty mo what makes it worse was that leopard was the guardian of lyopia's elder son liu chi the biggest obstacle to making her own son lyotong the rightful heir so they decided to get rid of him that plot to invite him to a banquet and assassinate him however was discovered in the nick of time and liupe was able to escape their pursuit thanks to his horse making a miraculous jump then on his way home he came across a hermit called water mirror as they talked he totally obeyed that he was not lacking in brave generals in his struggle against hothor what he was missing was a great advisor under this heaven there are two remarkable talents one was nicknamed sleeping dragon and the other was fledgling phoenix if he could get either one of them then the empire would be his when liubei returned to his post in the city of xinjiang he met a friend of the hermit is this the dragon or the phoenix he wondered but as it turned out he was neither his name was shusu and he was super smart with his guidance liube was able to defeat totto's 30 000 strong expeditionary force with only 2 000 soldiers but tata bean tartar quickly found an easy but underhanded solution to his problem he held shusu's mother hostage and blackmailed him to abandon lyope before he left however he told leopay where he could find someone much smarter than himself the sleeping dragon zhu girl young so liope went in search of this illustrious man at longtong on his first visit he wasn't home on the second one he missed him narrowly and on the third visit he was home but asleep not wanting to disturb this sage liupe waited patiently for hours until he woke up apparently this tu girl yang was but a young man almost half his age yet as they conversed leopay was overwhelmed by the brilliance he exhibited he felt like a fish that had finally found water thus in that small hut in the middle of nowhere the scheme to partition china into three was born the long plan by forming an alliance with suentran of the uu region and then controlling southwest china they will be able to defeat total and the control of ryubia's territory dinzo will be key to this plan leopay was opposed to the idea of taking over his distant relative leopold's territory but he knew that he must gain this young man's assistance so he cried backed and did everything he could to secure his employment sugar liang eventually accepted huanyu and zhang fei however weren't convinced by the purported ability of this untested youngster yet lucky for him the time to prove his worth came soon enough in the form of a hundred thousand strong army sent by tartar this time with only a measly group of three thousand soldiers and the strategic use of fire zuger liang was able to trap the enemy's main force while the other contingent burned the enemy supplies so toto's army had no choice but to return in this grace total had been attacking jingzhou a lot but his main prize was actually sun trans wu since sun tren had refused to send his son to totto as hostage toto had been training a navy but it is just not easy to train his landlubber northern army in the art of naval warfare so the capture of jinzo and their experienced mariners is a crucial part of his plan luckily for him his plan was about to go swimmingly as liopio died and his second son seized power secretly and surrendered to tata he just needed tata to do the dirty work and defeat his isolated rivals his brother ryochi and that meddler liu bay tata took up the offer gladly and immediately attacked the unsupported liu bay this time total was serious he sent an army of five hundred thousand led by shutu and tauren not even the brilliant zugerlian could stop this massive horde now so they decided to evacuate the city instead oh yeah free real estate the tor army thought oh no it's a trap the city of sinji had been turned into a great fire trap and a hundred thousand enemy soldiers were routed overnight by fire and water as the escapees were washed away by a redirected river when leo bay tried to bring his army and refugees to the regional capital taimou was predictably antagonistic sickened by this injustice suddenly a wild man called wei yen appeared out of nowhere and attacked people who refused to let the refugees in this unfortunately just made everything worse and more people escaped the city to join your base exodus by the way total didn't exactly have a great track record in treating the common folks well you know so lyope sent kwan yu and zuko liang to his word lyochi for assistance meanwhile he himself stayed to escort the refugees however they are just too slow totals fast riders caught up to them and dealt the refugee group a terrible blow friends families and generals were separated this memorable scene which is often adapted into operas and films is known as the battle of changban general xiaoyung and zhangfei's greatest moment of triumph suddenly zhonyung defected to tata someone cried out he was seen riding towards torto's troops no he would never betray me lily cried out well unless he was going to surrender riding directly into the enemy horde was practical suicide however liubei was right soyun broke through the swarms of enemies in search of his master's missing family members killing enemy soldiers and generals left and right on the first run he found lyope's first wife and his colleague on the second run he found leopay's son but his second wife was too heavily injured to travel so she sacrificed herself to prevent herself from becoming a burden so you barely managed to go through the enemy line now that totto's main army had arrived but now that he had thunkpai standing between the bridge and turtle's army there is nothing to fear with a deafening shout he single-handedly stopped all the enemy army obviously no matter how fearsome zhangfei was he couldn't possibly take them all being a cautious man total suspected the trap and chose to retreat liupe was so grateful for zoyun's return he eated his baby aside and blamed him for almost costing his general's life yeah ancient chinese people have a funny way of showing that they are a great boss usually by prioritizing work over family when tata realized that zhangfei's standoff was a ruse he then quickly crossed the bridge only to be ambushed for real guanyu and the reinforcements had arrived and the rest of them were saved as they found refuge in lyoches territory anyway now that leo bay is isolated to a corner all total needed to do was to get swan chuen to surrender and launch a pincer attack on this rat what is that whippersnapper going to fight his mere million strong army now bolstered by the jingzhou navy when swinton received the offer to surrender the answer seemed clear all his ministers were in favor of surrendering but loyal minister lu su doubted the wisdom of this course of action if they surrendered the other ministers could easily find employment under turtle but as for sunshine he would no longer be a lord at best at worst he could meet the same fate as lyotong and his mother who were assassinated by turtle after their surrender but still one million enemy soldiers was just too much lusu knew that his lord would have difficulty in making the right choice so he had prepared a trump card for the occasion the sleeping dragon to girl yang so on the next day zuger liang himself faced the whole of wu's ministry to debate his case lu was the one who initiated the contact with leo bay the swun family hated the people from lyopi's side since they were the ones who killed their lord's father sun jin but he knew that they needed intel on thousands force and all the help they could get so he borrowed two girl yang for his knowledge and intellect despite dougal yang pronouncing all of wu's ministers sun tren still couldn't make up his mind so in private he asked his guest how large was toto's army lusu had told zugalyan to not say anything about this lest he would scare his young lord zugalian did it anyway he even exaggerated tauso's army to twice its size then he added that his lord liubei knew how fast turtle's army was yet he kept on fighting because he was not a coward and was willing to fight for what is right this combination of reverse psychology and strike to swing trans ego was super effective but it is not enough he needed just one last push from commander joey his departed brother's own sworn brother surprisingly toy you advised sun chuan to surrender zugalyan just smiled coldly at this charade being the troll that he was he told them that there is actually an easy way out of this knowing tauto's penchant for married women all they needed to do was to surrender two commoners to save themselves who are these two commoners they are the famous beauty's chaw sisters oh no he's done it the two of them were actually zoyu's wife and swansea's widow this jest riled zoyu up and made him drop his pretense he was already planned for war before he was summoned and he was just testing them so with soyuz support sunshine gained enough resolve to go to war against toto the centers shall meet their end like this table the battle of redcliffe is very much like a heist movie because of that inferior number the sun leo alliance can't allow themselves to be caught in a war of attrition so they have to hit total heart and win a big decisive battle against them they have only got one chance to do it so ninety percent of this war is all about preparation soyu being a forward thinker however was also concerned about the future danger that is residing in their camp right now zuger liang zoyu had tried to eliminate zuger liang and liubei a few times but his plot was thwarted repeatedly duguliang was tasked to supply the army with a hundred thousand pieces of arrows and he was given only three days to do it obviously they intended for him to fail because he wasn't even given enough materials for the arrows so what he did was to cover a few ships with straws and sail to toto's army during a foggy day fearing an ambush they chose to shoot at tugalyan's boats instead of pursuing them soon enough over a hundred thousand arrows were stuck among the straws dougal yang thanked toto for the gift as he sailed away eventually joyu got fed up with trying to kill that smartars and decided to do some real work the person that worried him the most at totto's camp was taimou because he was the most experienced naval officer at total side training their navy to get rid of him he planted a fake letter on his desk when a messenger from total arrived he saw the letter and stole it away to tartar the letter indicated that tamo was wu's double agent and tata executed the naval trainer before realizing that it was a rules next zoyu needed the element of surprise huanke endured public humiliation and corporal punishment to convince tortor that he was defecting for real he will be the linchpin to their surprise attacked pangtong the fledgling phoenix also got into the act pretending to be a disgruntled informant he advised total to chain his ships to provide stability for his landlubber soldiers everything was going really well for soyu until he suddenly fell sick it was due to stress juggling acknowledged because his plan of attack by fire is missing one very crucial element which he could not control a south easterly wind currently the wind is blowing from the west if they were to use fire attack on tulsa's fleet the fire would be blown to their own side so all that preparation would have been for nothing don't worry zugerliang has got him covered because he knows a bit of magic you see just provide him with an altar and some time he could summon that wind they are practically hoping for a miracle nevertheless so you had nothing to lose trying it and what do you know a few nights later a miracle indeed happened the wind arrived they can win this war then the next thing that entered joyous mind was the thought of how dangerous it was to let tuger young live whether he was a real wizard or the world's smartest con man it was too dangerous to keep him alive when soyuz troop tried to arrest him they were told that dougal young had already escaped he was picked up by zhonyung who escorted him to safety turning back to toto's army so you executed his plan to perfection huankai initiated his defection and sailed with a fleet full of combustibles and hidden soldiers when the tau army realized that something was afoot it was already too late the fire boats were lit and rammed into tata's fleet locked by chains and blown by the south easterly wind fire easily jumped from one ship to another then zoyu's fleet launched a full-scale assault utterly crushing their enemy and the base nearby the red cliffs were painted red by the flickering flames and the blood of totto's army as the battle raged however total slipped away with a small party of guards now this is the scene where taotao breaks up his escape point along the way he was repeatedly ambushed by war soldiers first it was lukmung then ganning followed by the combined forces of luxury and texas yet the wily tattle managed to escape them all finally when he reached a seemingly safe place he laughed and said zoyu and zugulyan aren't so smart after all if he were them he would have placed an ambush here wait a minute why is that counter still up there that's because zhonyung had arrived to pursue him dougal yang did place an ambush then it was dungfee's turn to ambush him this happened three times until finally guanyu himself riding on his red hair locked the road before him ah there is no escaping this total thought so he used his secret weapon an ancient art used by the founder of the han dynasty himself groveling please please let me go total back want you to remember all the kindness he had received from him and the officers he had killed he owed him this kindness guanyu being ever honorable was coaxed into letting him go thus despite this crushing defeat toto lived for another day zugerliang had read the stars he knew that totals time had not come yet so letting guanyu release total was part of the plan by doing this guanyu would be released from all his death to tata with toto's army crushed and his dominance shaken the southern powers would get the breathing room to expand with the long plan in mind lyope needed to do a lot of catching up to become a significant contender in this game will the plan be successfully implemented we will find out soon with total gone the scramble for the former domain of lyopia xingzhou started zoyu swin trans commander argued that he had the right of the first attempt to conquer jinjo bases occupied by tortoise force zuger liang the obese advisor agreed only to take advantage of zhouyu's defeat and the weakened tall army to conquer the rest of tingzhou tricked by two girl young don't use battle wound burst open out of frustration this won't be the last time he gets trolled by two girl young in the process of conquering jingzhou liubei also recruited a few fresh faces among them was huanxong the geriatric general who will become a member of suhan's five tiger generals and weiyen who killed his previous master out of his personal sense of justice zuger liang being a micromanager didn't get along with the latter with jinzo conquered the lonzon plan to guardian's blueprint for lyopedu to fit total seemed to be progressing well what he needed to do next was to conquer lyochang's yi territory and zhang loos hanzon however sun trans people really wanted zinto too because they had been trying to conquer it since its former lore lyophil killed swan trans father and they have spent a lot of resources in the project liube on the other hand also needed zinzo because it provided the second route needed to attack tartar and also because it is quite prosperous compared to the other less developed mountain provinces predictably this piece of land will be the biggest bone of contention for the rocky sun leo alliance zoryu certainly tried his best to acquire zinzo first by diplomacy citing the massive favor you may owed them at the battle of redcliffe but they just keep finding excuses to keep the territory at first they say that they are just the custodian of lyopia's son liu chi who was the legitimate owner of the province then when he died they promised to give it back after conquering the other territories and so on until eventually zoyu got fed up and plotted to assassinate liu bay since lyope's wife recently died zoyu decided to lure him to their territory by promising the hand of suenchen's sister in marriage it was all a ruse of course but zugeryang used it to his advantage by broadcasting the news to everyone until it was too embarrassing for swinton to carry out the assassination additionally having lyobay's new bride alone with him caused soyuz wound to burst open again obviously total wasn't oblivious to the fracture in his enemy's alliance so he tried to add oil to the fire by borrowing the emperor's authority to make zoyu and other wu's officers the official administrators of the cities within xinzhou soyu getting impatient with liubei decided to attack him he tried to move his army to the territory by using the excuse that he would conquer leotang's territory for him so that he could move out of jinzo knowing that it was a trick to girlian used this to his advantage again he blocked zoyu's army and lyope declared that he would never allow any harm to come to lyojang who was also a member of liu's imperial family so not only that they have thwarted a covert invasion they also gained lyojang's trust allowing them to move to the next stage of their plan conquest of yi province absolutely humiliated by this failure so you died out of frustration just to let you know poor so you won't be the last person to be trolled to death by zugerliang pang tong the fleshling phoenix defected to lyope around this time meanwhile up north tauto finally executed matang who was one of the collaborators of the secret belt edict a conspiracy that tried to bring down tartar mata his son then gathered hansui and other chiang tribe members to attack tata despite his age totals running days wasn't over yet the ferocious mart's horse assault caused him to run three times making him disguise his appearance by cutting his beard and throwing away his red cloak but alas mata was defeated and he would work under a few other lords before he would become a member of the tiger generals the western warlords haven't seen much action yet that's because their lands were quite remote and there were a lot of natural barriers so they have pretty much kept their conflict in their own little bubble zanglu the grandson of the taoist leader zhang daoling was pretty much running his own theocracy at hanzong his main enemy wasn't total but lyotong the man who killed his mother leotang was weak and incompetent even his own men didn't have much faith in him so despite having a large territory he preferred to seek external help against jungle from tortor his messenger zhangsung however was treated poorly by total and the request failed on his way back he passed by leo bay territory and was treated so well he conspired to betray his own lord for liu bay lupe then moved to defend ryojang from zanglu as per request but he vehemently refused to assassinate his host due to their familial connection what caused the situation to change however was swan trans actions while he was away sunshine had been plotting against lyope as he fend off total's attacks and sending him running he sent a fake letter to try to get his sister to return with lupe's son as hostage luckily the child was rescued in the nick of time then he tried to sabotage lyope by spreading rumors against him to lyotsang the obey who was fighting zanglu at the time was then deprived of supplies and an ambush was set up against him he luckily survived but pantone was killed in his death despite being caught from two sides by lyotan and zanglu lyope managed to defeat them both as sugalyan backside commanded him to victory in the process of conquering yi province he recruited the ferocious mata who managed to fight zhangfei toe to toe around this stage of the story diplomacy is starting to be depicted to be as powerful a weapon as battlefield tactics total who had conquered zhang loo's hanzon was prevented from attacking ryobi's back when zuger liang gave away a few cities in zhinzo to have sun trend distract him by attacking her fei while all of this was happening toto was mostly distracted by internal issues he executed the empress and replaced her with his own daughter he got harassed by taoist magicians there were also rebellions and air selection he had to deal with all of this while he was suffering from an annoying chronic migraine but at least he managed to promote himself to be the prince of way putting him only one rank below the emperor the obey who eventually conquered han zhong also declared himself prince of hanzo this conquest had a lot of symbolic significance hanzon was the first piece of land leopon the founder of the hun dynasty ruled so he was basically modeling himself after his ancestor to reinforce his legitimacy the five tiger generals was also officially appointed at this time its members are guanyu why is that old coot a tiger general asked guanyu who was around 60 years old himself kwan yu who was renowned throughout the land by now had become quite conceited in his old age he had performed a lot of great deeds but as they say pride comes before the fall meanwhile up north taught house advisor sumai whispered to his master a lethal plot not long after sun trend received a request for collaboration to take dingzhou at first he was undecided so he tested the waters by offering guanyu a marriage alliance how could a tiger's daughter marry the son of a dog and with that undiplomatic response guanyu became the catalyst for ue alliance and sealed his own fate despite his pride guanyu suddenly lived up to his own fame as per zuger liang's advice he went on the offensive and dealt a massive blow to the tall army killing important officers and seriously damaging their morale when his arm was injured by an arrow he endured an open surgery without anesthetics apparently the more they fight him the more his legend grew even total was contemplating to move his capital in fear of his attack guanyu was all gangster until sunshine replaced his commander lumong with a little nerd called lu shun this man was a silent achiever and nobody knew of his genius especially guanyu playing on his lack of renown he put guanyu at ease and created an opening for lumen to launch a sneak attack and occupied one new space cleverly liman treated the population well and won their trust and this is when guanyu's army started to crumble supply levels dropped and soldiers deserted in droves in his dire strait he asked for support from liufeng yope's adopted son but his request was refused abandoned and defeated he tried to go to his brother in the west but at last he was captured by swinton's army he was executed because he will not submit to another lord besides his brother his famous horse red hair died a few days later because it refused to eat what seemed to be a logical move for sunshine at the time turned out to be a massive blunder liupei kwanyu and zhangfei swore an oath of brotherhood to live and die as one what he did pretty much earned leo bay's lifelong hatred and guanyu's afterlife hatred in a folklore meets novel series of events many supernatural incidents happened after guanyu's death lumen was possessed by kuanu's ghost and died mysteriously blood appeared from trees and so on sun trend quickly submitted to tata and became his vessel to be protected from liu bay tortor accepted the submission but he wanted no part in this scheizer storm when sun trend tried to pass the bhakti tata by sending him gwanyu's head he cleverly gave gwanyu an honorable funeral to escape lil bay's wrath sadly before total could witness what happens next he soon followed his old friend and died of brain tumor he was then succeeded by his son the ambitious topi the moment he came to power he barely spared the life of his poet brother his former rival to the throne then he made the emperor abdicate and establish his own dynasty tauwei and sue were technically three different empires because the rulers actually claimed to be emperors however it was commonly translated as kingdoms so we will just go with that with the last emperor of the han dynasty deposed and killed liubei followed suit by establishing suhan claiming to be the rightful successor of the han dynasty and as emperor his first decree was to launch a punitive campaign against ooh what this is a bad idea practically every minister was against it he was putting personal affairs above his moral duty to defeat the usurpers away this move was the beginning of a series of tragedies not even zugalyan could stop his master now as the grieving zhang fei egged his brother to war ironically zhangfei became the first casualty of this war before battle even started he was killed by his own subordinates who was abused for working too slow in the preparation of the war the fact that the culprit then defected to wu just made it worse for lyope this war had become deeply personal as he led the campaign himself and brought with him guan xin and zhang pao the sons of huan yu and sang fei with a colossal army of seven hundred fifty thousand leo based horde seemed unstoppable until huang zhong was killed at healing then things started to go downhill with luxury once again put in command of the wu army he put up a strong defense as he bit for his time as the zoo army suffered from the seasonal heat liupe foolishly camped his army under the shades flammable shades when zuger liang received this news it was already too late liu jung attacked the obey with fire and annihilated his army tukur liang could only launch a rescue mission to buy time and save his lord lu xing who was pursuing liu bay was then trapped in zugerliang's stone sentinel maze by the time he got out lucian gave up on the pursuit and turned back because as he suspected despite their submission to the treacherous wave force they attacked wu instead of assisting them swan trans wu eventually broke away from way and established their own dynasty when lady swan heard that lyope was killed in battle she committed suicide that was just a rumor however lyope was actually still alive at the time just barely as he withered in by the too sick to be moved haunted by the massive loss of life and the failure to avenge his brothers he had lost his will to live the dream to restore the honduransy and to punish the usurpers was then passed on to his loyal prime minister zuger liang if my son is worthy then support him he asked but if he turned out to be incompetent then take the throne for yourself with that said you'll be went to see his brothers in the afterlife oh by the way don't trust masu he is full of hot air what did he miss something zukulian thought ah forget it zuger yang actually had a much bigger problem to contend with right now five enemy army deficients are knocking on zuhan's door all coordinated by the away mastermind sumai the man who tuka liang will eventually face in the battlefield and become his greatest arch rival after the death of liubei his eldest son became the new emperor and right on the first year of his reign lyosan had to face the crisis of whey army attacking them from 5 directions help obviously the weak willed liu-san couldn't have survived a single day if not for tougalian doing all the work for him and as it turned out the problem had already been solved by the loyal prime minister in this arc of the novel zuger liang became the central character unlike the warrior kings and invincible generals in the previous arcs he had a more holistic view towards war and intimate knowledge on the nature of organization and alliances so he explained to his young lord what he had done first of all the massive army sent by way was actually a loose collection of armies organized by a mastermind from the kingdom of way all of them had their personal goals and conflicting loyalties the chiang tribesmen from the north respected general martial who used to be garrison in the region so he was sent to defend the past to make them hesitate to attack the non-mun people who were less sophisticated can be easily bamboozled by optical illusions so weiyen was instructed to move his soldiers deceptively uncertain of what they are dealing with they will not make their move the enemy general mangda has a friend who works for su so he forged a letter from his friend to persuade him to stay still he is going to pretend to be sick way's own central army will be prevented from advancing by general tsoyun who was ordered to guard an easily defensible pass finally the last division from the kingdom of wu will only move if the other four armies made significant progress last time they collaborated with way and moved their army they were backstabbed by a way invasion so there was little trust between them with wu refusing to send their army and the lack of success displayed by their counterparts over time the coalition floundered and broke apart angered by wuz in action wei even launched a war against them taking personality psychology deception terrain diplomacy and other variables into account the depth of jugulyan's warfare went beyond the battlefield into a realm of its own that is why the story started to take a different tone with him as main character and you will see a lot more epic leather sending rather than battlefield bravado before tugal yang could launch his big project however he had to do a bit of housekeeping he re-established suhan's alliance with wu and spent time pacifying the southern part of the kingdom from the nanman tribal raiders he captured the nanman leader manchu seven times and released him seven times he only submitted on the eighth defeat zugerliang also created autonomous regions for them so that they can rule themselves this policy may sound weird but this action is based on the confusion principle called either foreign which means convincing others by virtue by showing them mercy and benevolence the non-man tribes stopped raiding and lived peacefully with them from then on on the way back a stormy river blocked his way to calm the storm he was advised to sacrifice 49 human heads not wanting to harm innocent folks he wrapped animal meat in flower dough and sacrificed those instead apparently it worked and this is also part of the folk legend of how meat buns or mantou was invented now that the south is pacified zugerliang could finally concentrate on the north he presented a memorial to his ruler to launch a northern campaign since suhan claimed to be the successor of the khan dynasty which was overthrown by taway the feeding way is paramount to their legitimacy so a conflict with them is inevitable not only that the central plains which way occupied had more land and better economy than the region they even have the access to the silk road so in the long run they would be able to build a bigger and stronger army so tsuka liang had no choice but to try to conquer way as soon as possible even if all the odds were stacked against him the campaign was approved but before he embarked he had to get rid of his main obstacle so he listened to his assistant masu suggestion and spread rumors that sema he was plotting a rebellion the plot worked and the new ruler of way taurei dismissed him from his office even with his nemesis neutralized conquering way wasn't going to be easy especially when 4 of the 5 tiger generals had died mata had recently died due to illness and zoing was in his 70s the rest of his personnel were composed of a new generation of warriors and the rebellious huey yen who suggested that they attacked tangan head on denied being a cautious strategist zuger liang had his own ideas the initial part of his campaign was a success until they met a brave and resourceful way general zhang wei apparently he saw through some of tugulan's ambushes and even managed to beat back zoeying impressed by his talent zuger liang went through a lot of trouble to capture and recruit him this young man would be his protege because sugar liang treated those who surrendered to him well many cities surrendered without even a fight alarmed by this we sent out their elite soldiers led by general thorsen accompanied by senior minister wang lang wang lang rebuked the whippersnapper to girlian for daring to define the kingdom established by total who acted according to the heaven's will tougalian laughed at him and replied with some of his most lethal bulbs the house of leo of the han dynasty was destroyed by treacherous corrupters you who had pledged to serve the khan empire turned out to be nothing more than a falling serpent of the usurpers a psychophant like you should learn to hide your face because with your advanced age you will soon see the 24 hun emperors how do you even dare to face them in the underworld begone you old crook you you wang died of anger and frustration and became another victim of zugalyan's trolling not even this new reinforcement could fit to girl yang however the tide of war changed pretty soon sugar lyan's accomplished in way mangda who was about to launch a rebellion had his plot discovered and executed apparently his adversary had returned to power the crisis their kingdom faced had led to sumai's reappointment this is bad news to gillian thought the first thing he needed to do was to secure his supply route to the west in g18 now who shall he send for this important mission me me me masu volunteered he has read all the books of war so he knew what to do uh zugulian wasn't sure about this but he eventually agreed to his request and ended up making the worst mistake of his life masu was an overconfident fool he was very quickly overrun by ways veteran general zhanghu then sumai and the other generals jostled with each other towards sugaryang's base the meritocratic nature of zawi's administration had led to a toxic work environment where everyone tried to outdo each other so despite finding a common external enemy he also had to worry about his ambitious colleagues now imagine how lucky he thought he was when he saw tzugalian sitting alone on top of a city playing a zitter all defenseless easy victory not he is no fool sumai knew something was up all four city gates were open the city itself looked empty but there are soldiers dressed as street sweepers what trick could zugerlian be playing is this a bluff simae hesitated then again zooka liang was a careful strategist he wouldn't be risking himself unless he had a solid strategy what if what if no no retreat soon enough sumai heard the war drums of the suaru behind him ha an ambush so he was right silmai had once again outsmarted zugerlyan he thought however a few days later he discovered that zugerlian had retreated his campaign had actually collapsed after the defeat of masu and there were only around a couple thousand of soldiers inside the city against his own hundred fifty thousand apparently the drummers turned out to be decoys too that was a good trick he was no match for zugerliang he sighed over at the other side with a heavy heart tsugalyan had to maintain army discipline by executing masu he then demoted himself to take responsibility for his failure never again will he come this close to success the opportunity to attack way soon presented itself again after the force of wu under lu xu defeated way to the east this time zugulian embarked without a single tiger general as saoyun had died before the start of the campaign this campaign was another failure due to the lack of supplies on the third campaign he arranged a joint attack with wu but this unreliable ally did not hold their end of the bargain so they failed again general zhang pao died in service here obviously wei wasn't just going to sit there and let itself get attacked all the time so they launched a counter attack but due to the rough terrain and weather they had to turn back this provided zugerlang with the opportunity to hit that rear and he launched the fourth campaign he dealt a heavy blow to his enemies army and finished the bedridden torton off by sending him an insulting letter but unfortunately he had to return to the capital to clear his name because sumai had spread rumors that he was planning a rebellion here tu kalyan could see the influence of eunuchs and corrupt officials starting to take hold in court suhan was starting to develop the same cancer that ruins the han dynasty they are trying to revive yeah it's becoming pretty sad man he was practically the only minister in the kingdom trying to do the right thing the novel just grew increasingly melancholic from here on after building his resources for three years zugerliang launched his final campaign despite bad omens and the death of kwan singh due to illness he was still committed to fulfill his duty this time the wu army will be acting in concert zugulian and sumai fought long and hard with deceptions and inventions so the latter shifted to a defensive position since the wu army was defeated in the east there was less pressure for sumai so he's going to just turtle there he didn't need to be smarter than sugar lyan he just needed to be wiser but one day he received intel that his enemies camp was left undefended so he seized upon this chance and rode out lo and behold he regretted not sticking to his original plan because he walked right into a fighter trap he and his sons almost died there but as if the heavens was on his side a torrential rain came and extinguished the fire due to gallian's dismay it looked as if the heaven itself had denied him a victory after this summary just stuck with his defensive position that's it he is done facing zugalyan dougal yang had no way of beating him unless he comes out and zuga liang knew it too so he had been taunting sumai every day to do that he even sent him a woman's dress even if semai could bear this insult his officers had had enough so he asked the messenger how gillian was doing the messenger replied that his master wakes up early works hard attend to all matters and eats very little how diligent smiley thought sugar liang couldn't survive long like this soon somayi received a report that the su-army camp had moved away from way could this be no no he shouldn't be rash but then he received news that dougal yang's camp was moving further and further away as if they are retreating this has to be it dougal young is dead as predicted sumai immediately rushed to strike their camp with his arch nemesis gone the sioux army was his to crush but then suddenly he saw the enemy army readily turned around and poised in a fighting formation on top of the hill he saw his worst nightmare not again it is dougalyon's trap sumai finally turned his army around and the ensuing stampede to escape claimed many way soldiers lives it would take a few days for him to realize that this was another ruse tsugalyan had indeed died but even in death he was able to outsmart a living semi sadly this loyal minister was unable to fulfill his master's goal to unify the country but before his death he had laid out a detailed plan to help the su-army retreat safely he entrusted zhang wei with his books and blueprint for repeating crossbow he appointed his ministrial successors and even prepared secret plans for them to carry out when general weiyen rebelled on their journey home it was also within his prediction the secret plan ordered mata to cut him from the bat and once again zugerliang saved his kingdom from a crisis even after his death with him gone and the kingdom falling into a downward spiral many adaptations would just stop here because the last 15 chapters is just too depressing but if you want to know how romance of the three kingdoms really ends then keep watching having outlasted to girl young the way mastermind sumai went on to conquer the last warlord to the north kong yuan with these achievements under his belt he became tremendously influential and also gained the envy of many many rivals in court when the ruler of way torrei died simayi was chosen to be the regent of the new young emperor tawfang but to balance against his influence thor swang the son of sumayi's former superior was made a co-regent toswang didn't get along with sumai who thought that his father was an imbecile so he used political maneuvers to isolate his rival forcing sumai to pretend illness and resign from office with his sons his political exile would last for 10 years here we see the meritocratic ideals of way had turned into political backstabbing the last 15 chapters of romance of the three kingdoms is a one long arc of suffering there are no more superhuman generals brilliant strategists or epic battles the focus has shifted to machiavellian palace intrigues and corruption after 105 chapters of upward empire building trajectory we are now going into the downward trajectory where we see the kingdoms our heroes work so hard to build fall due to the very same ideals they are founded on this is a very tough arc to read it is not surprising that most adaptations do not include these chapters but they are actually a very integral part of this novel you will see why by the end after a 10 years time skip we find a sickly somali in bed to swan had been sending his minions to keep tabs on sumai to make sure that he remained harmless but one fateful day in the year 249 after chow song's underling left the seemingly frail samahi leapt out of bed and launched a coup he had been waiting for the right opportunity for a very long time tong and the emperor's visit to the imperial tomb had left the palace undefended so sumai secured the palace easily and offered his co-regent the chance to surrender peacefully to swan will only be deprived of his military authority he promised but once he did surrender his whole family was exterminated then as if history was repeating itself yi made the young emperor of wei his puppet from here on the kingdom of way was just an empty shell ruled by the summa family tortor once said that he would rather betray the world than let it betray him but it looks like the world finally got its last love as his descendant was betrayed by sumai this user passion wasn't a popular move there were still a lot of people who were loyal to toto and his family and it will take a long time until the summa family can win the people and the officers over this event also led to the defection of shahoba tusu capitalizing on this upheaval the grand commander of suhan jianwei then used the opportunity to launch a campaign to conquer away this would be his fourth campaign after the death of his mentor duka yang zhang wei had continued to launch costly northern campaigns in a futile effort to conquer soulway while his persistence and respect for his mentor's legacy was commendable his campaigns drained the kingdom's resources it also didn't help that his ruler had become a self-indulgent buffoon that spent most of his time wasting his treachery's money and associating with corrupt officials and eunuchs this campaign was another failure historically he will launch a total of 11 failed campaigns but in the novel which used a different counting method counted nine campaigns suhan's brand of brotherhood and loyalty had turned into blind loyalty sumai died a couple of years after the coup and his son zamasu and zamata continued their family's control over the emperor when swinton died the next year way took the opportunity to launch a war against wu but they were defeated the three kingdoms will remain deadlocked for quite some time these battles fought by mediocre generals had become quite uninteresting you can even say that they have become quite procedural with no conclusive results the star commanders of way then add to the west and zhonghui to the east will soon enter the fray but even they don't offer much excitement wu had its own problems too after the death of sunshine the country was run by zugerke a cruel prime minister who was eventually assassinated by his political rivals here we see wu's loyal family retainers had turned into evil officials as we progress through the chapters we can see the wheels of history looping over and over again when the emperor of way tried to get rid of zamasu through a secret edict the plot was discovered just like what happened to toto decades earlier the emperor was then deposed and replaced by a new one emperors had become so expandable here and placing a number next to them so that you can keep a better track of them this unpopular move launched a revolution and zumasu died around this time due to complication after his eye surgery he was then replaced by his brother sumatra meanwhile as young way continued to launch his failed expeditions then who successfully defended against him rose in fame and prominence so did zhong hui who quashed a rebel who collaborated with wu after their defeat a lot of their officers defected to its away because their new prime minister swanson was another cruel and brutal man he deposed the second wu emperor sun yang and replaced him with sunshine the third emperor was so scared of him he ended up launching a preemptive coup and executed him so much for sun family values eh to the west zhang wei's campaign finally showed signs of progress he used his mentor zuga liang's ate a reformation to defeat the in battle but before he could finish him off huangho a yuna trusted by leo sun as the emperor of zu was bribed into recalling zhang was forced back to the capital just like the han dynasty they tried to revive the eunuchs were running suhan into the ground this last minute recalls would happen multiple times through his campaigns in one occasion zheng wei was called back because another general wanted the credit for winning a battle but that general even ended up chickening out when he had to face deng if you think that it is about time to end that misery then you are not the only one who has this idea simato finally pulled up his resources and sent the combined forces of his best generals and zhong hue to conquer but he was also wary of this too they had become quite influential and they might just launch their own rebellion especially the ambitious zhong hui when zheng wei caught win of this he immediately requested reinforcement but the eunuch huang hal refused to send zhang way any reinforcements because he thought that it was just his excuse to launch a coup by now even the ghost of zugulian thought that suhan was beyond help he visited donghue in his dream and told him that the mandate of heaven was lost and he requested the commander to show mercy to the population of su if you are not crying yet then this next bit might just do the trick left with no one to defend the capital leosand backed to gillian son to lead an army against the way invaders oh they thought that he would live up to his father's legacy but no he was tricked and defeated by the simplest trick in the book his father's legacy was utterly and embarrassingly crushed thus he committed suicide out of shame in the year 264 the kingdom of suhan fell its ruler leosan had surrendered to dang i zhang wei surrendered to his opponent zhong hue however this loyal officer wasn't about to give up just yet despite everything he made a last-ditch attempt to save the kingdom even if his lord couldn't give a damn about it he pretended to show allegiance to zhong hui and drove a wedge between him and then he convinced the ambitious tonghui to rebel and start his own kingdom it worked was arrested and he was being delivered to the way's capital as prisoner but zhong hui didn't have the support of his officers when he coerced them to show their allegiance they mutinied and killed him zhang wei tried to defend himself in the ensuing chaos however the aging general suffered a heart attack at the last moment and perished as he was being overrun dang i was killed as he was being transferred as for lyosun he ended up living a comfortable life as a minor noble under sumatra he was treated well to encourage wu to surrender in the future he never dropped a single tear for his lost kingdom or even his favorite young who was executed after zimazal died suma yen came into power like tartar sumatsu did not make himself the emperor for the sake of stability but he was preparing his son to take the position so in 266 the jing dynasty was established and its first official ruler was suma yen posthumously sumai was given the honorable title of first emperor in case you are wondering it is a very confusing thing to bestow the honor of the first emperor to one's parents or ancestor after preparing for a few years the qing dynasty went on to conquer wu the ruler of wu at the time sun hao was cruel tyrannical and corrupt so he wasn't the kind of ruler people want to defend when the jin army approached the capital only the prime minister and his men stood against the invaders out of shame because it would be so sad if the capital was conquered without a single person dying to defend it well he got his wish while his ruler surrendered and licked his conqueror's boot like a dog oh man talk about a heart-wrenching 15 chapters of complete annihilation of everything that was built up by the novel you can see why most adaptations leave this bit out but leaving this part in is actually the very genius of this novel empire's rise empires fall and this novel carries you through all the motions it simulated the exhilaration of empire building the difficulty to maintain it and also the devastating fall each of the three kingdoms is a fractal in the greater curve of history the very ideals and foundations these empires were built upon could also be the cause of their fall what many people don't realize is that each chinese dynasties had their own unique policies and philosophies what made them great could also be the cause of their fall the openness and cosmopolitanism of the tang dynasty for example expanded the empire greatly but it also made the tragedy of unlu sun's rebellion possible there is no system or policy that is perfect yet the empire long united must divide long divided must unite people will continue to try to build their empire and utopia but now that you have read romance of the three kingdoms maybe you have become a little wiser to the possible weaknesses of your own ideals it is easy to think that other people are wrong but perhaps we don't have the right answer either alright that's it for the romance of the tree kingdom summary before i end the video let me congratulate you for finally finishing the novel now you know the novel's true ending i would also like to thank you all for watching the series and also our illustrator ray for illustrating all these wonderful characters on this channel we make contents on the history and culture of east asia and other parts of the world if this sounds like your jam then subscribe to get more you can also support us on patreon if you like what we are doing until next time stay cool my bros