I had the day off and I was going to try another extremely long episode of Magnificent Century, only to find the first episode is the only one with English subtitles. So phooey on Turkey. Back to China.
Cao Cao sends his general, Cao Ren, and 50,000 men to Fancheng to put them in position to attack Xinye. He also sends Li Dian to serve under Cao Ren and, if need be, keep an eye on the general who has been known to jump the gun. (Well, when guns get invented he'll be jumping it.)
Sure enough, just as they reach Fancheng, Cao Ren is wanting to attack immediately without waiting for Cao Cao's say so. Li Dian doesn't do much of a job of stopping Cao Ren so really he's a big fail.
From the walls of Xinye, Liu Bei and company watch as Cao Ren gets his CGI army into formation. Xu Shu advises Liu Bei to instruct his men to defend and not go out and attack. Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, who are already jealous of Xu Shu, are even further disgusted that they're not allowed to go out and do some fancy slicing and dicing. When Xu Shu finally does come up with a plan of attack, he further aggravates the pair when he chooses Zhao Yun to lead the shock troops.
We get another epic battle scene, which has become the only reason I'm watching this show. (I've given up on Ruby Lin.) Many horses are sacrificed. At one point Zhao Yun is riding his mount along a road of shields being held up by the enemy troops. (Did you see the end of Great Queen Seondeok when Bidam was running along the top of the shields? Now imagine that with him riding a horse.) While Cao Ren's men deal with the havoc Zhao Yun has created in the midst of their formation, the rest of the Musketeers ride out with their troops and attack.
Cao Ren is forced to retreat. Li Dian comes to see how his commander is doing and whoa! Cao Ren's been working out! Check out those man boobs. Anyway, Cao Ren doesn't want Li Dian reporting this defeat back to Cao Cao, and who could blame him? He's hoping to make up for his loss today by attacking Xinye tonight. Once again Li Dian fails to keep Cao Ren in check.
Xu Shu already knows Cao Ren will be attacking tonight so he sends Zhao Yun and Zhang Fei out to set up an ambush along the way. Guan Yu, meanwhile, will attack the ungarrisoned city of Fancheng. As Cao Ren leads his men through the valley, Zhao Yun's men rain fire down upon them. Cao Ren orders retreat and heads back to Fancheng. When he rides up to the gates he's greeted by Guan Yu. Longbeard allows the defeated general to live and return to report to Cao Cao. As Liu Bei sips his tea, he receives report after report of how everything went his way. (It's good to let others do all the work, ain't it, Liu Bei?)
For the first time Cao Cao learns about Liu Bei's new advisor and acts quickly, having Xu Shu's mother imprisoned. He allows the woman to send a letter to her son, saying if he doesn't surrender to Cao Cao, she's going to be roasted alive. Naturally Xu Shu wants to save his mother. With a heavy heart, Liu Bei sees the advisor off. Before he leaves, Xu Shu tells his master of where he can find another adviser who is even smarter than he is. This would be the Sleeping Dragon, Kongming. However, Xu Shu warns it won't be easy to convince this guy to serve Liu Bei.
Xu Shu presents himself immediately to Cao Cao. He learns his mother is not in a prison cell but is being treated very nicely in a guest house and was never in any danger of being roasted alive. He rushes to see her. She chews him out for abandoning the virtuous Liu Bei for the evil Cao Cao. She leaves the room and immediately commits suicide. The Great Omniscient Voiceover tells us Xu Shu never advises Cao Cao for the rest of his life. So basically his character has just been introduced and already has been written off. So long, Xu Shu. We barely knew you.
I'm a bit nervous as I'll have to change horses in midstream in order to watch the rest of Three Kingdoms. I hope this all works out.
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