草船借箭

English (for the teacher)

Zhou Yu wanted to kill a man without anyone being able to say he had done wrong. That man was Zhuge Liang.

At the time, Cao Cao had brought a huge army to the north side of the Yangtze, and Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang were on the south side, getting ready to fight Cao Cao together. One day Zhou Yu invited Zhuge Liang over to talk: “When we fight on the river, which weapon matters most?” Zhuge Liang said, “Bows and arrows.” Zhou Yu said, “As it happens, we're short of arrows. Would you be so kind as to make a hundred thousand arrows within ten days?”

A hundred thousand arrows in ten days was close to impossible. To everyone's surprise, Zhuge Liang said, “Cao Cao will be here any moment; ten days is too late. Three days will do.” He even wrote out a pledge in front of everyone: if he couldn't hand over the arrows in three days, he would accept his punishment.

Zhou Yu was delighted. He quietly told the arrow makers to work slowly and not to hand over all the materials. When the time came and there were no arrows, Zhuge Liang would have nothing to say for himself.

Zhuge Liang, though, went to Lu Su for help: “Please lend me twenty boats, thirty soldiers on each, hang them with blue cloth, and pack straw all along both sides. Whatever you do, don't let Zhou Yu know.” Lu Su had no idea what he was up to, but he quietly got everything ready.

On the first day, Zhuge Liang did nothing at all. On the second day, still nothing. Only in the middle of the third night did he invite Lu Su onto a boat: “Let's go and get the arrows together.” “Get them where?” “Don't ask. You'll see when we get there.”

That night a thick fog came down over the river, so thick you couldn't see the person in front of you. The twenty boats were tied together and set off for the north bank. Just before dawn, when the boats were already close to Cao Cao, Zhuge Liang had the soldiers beat drums and shout at the top of their voices. Lu Su was terrified: “What if Cao Cao's men come charging out?” Zhuge Liang smiled: “In fog this thick, Cao Cao won't dare come out. Let's have a drink, and when the fog lifts we'll head back.”

When Cao Cao heard the drums, sure enough, he didn't dare send out any boats. He said, “We can't see a thing, and an enemy has turned up out of nowhere, so there must be an ambush. Tell everyone to shoot at the river!” More than ten thousand soldiers shot together, the arrows came down like rain, and every one of them stuck in the straw along the boats. After a while, Zhuge Liang had the boats turn around so the other side could go on “collecting”.

The sun came out, the fog lifted, and the straw on both sides of the twenty boats was bristling with arrows. Zhuge Liang had the soldiers shout together: “Thank you, Chancellor Cao, for the arrows!” Cao Cao wanted to give chase, but it was too late.

Back at camp they counted them: more than a hundred thousand arrows. Lu Su asked him how he had known there would be fog that day. Zhuge Liang said, “Anyone who leads soldiers and doesn't understand the weather or the lie of the land is no good as a general. I had it worked out three days ago: today there would be fog.” When Zhou Yu heard, all he could say was: “Zhuge Liang sees everything coming. I'm no match for him!”

This is one of the most famous stories in the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. In history, though, the man who “borrowed” arrows with a boat was Sun Quan of the state of Wu. The story goes that he once sailed out in a large boat to look at Cao Cao's army, and one side of the boat was shot so full of arrows it was about to tip over. Sun Quan had the boat turned around so the other side faced the enemy, and only when both sides held about the same number of arrows and the boat was level did he go back. Later storytellers moved the whole thing onto Zhuge Liang, and added a great fog to the story.