Normally reaching the 40th episode of a drama would be a major milestone. But for Three Kingdoms, we're not even to the halfway mark yet. And still no sign of Ruby Lin!
Jiang Gan is snooping through Zhou Yu's records, which are written on bamboo slats, and takes time to stuff a large roll up in his sleeve. Zhou Yu pretends to talk in his sleep saying stuff about getting Cao Cao's head. Jiang Gan crawls back into bed and pretends to be sleeping when Lu Meng comes in to awaken his commander. Zhou Yu moans that he shouldn't have drunk so much and he hopes he didn't say anything in his sleep. Lu Meng starts to tell his commander that a man from the north has arrived when Zhou Yu stops him from saying any more and the two men walk away from the bed. Jiang Gan strains to listen in on their whisperings.
The next morning Jiang Gan is practically running out of the fort when he's stopped by Xiao Qiao. (Man, was it windy the day they filmed this scene.) She wants him to wait for her husband to sober up so he can give his friend a proper goodbye. Jiang Gan talks her out of it but then she claims she doesn't want him to travel alone and will arrange for two soldiers to escort him back home. He again comes up with an excuse and so she allows him to leave.
I'm starting to like you, Xiao Qiao. If only you had more lines.
Back with Cao Cao's CGI fleet, Jiang Gan returns to give his report to the prime minister. He hands over the slat book he stole from Zhou Yu. Cao Cao summons Cai Mao and Zhang Yun, the two men in charge of the entire fleet. The slat book implicates them as traitors who have offered to join up with Zhou Yu and pledge to deliver Cao Cao's head to him. Despite their pleas, the two men are dragged off and immediately beheaded. Only too late does Cao Cao think to himself, "Oh shit, I just fell for Zhou Yu's trick. Must not let on that I made a mistake."
He sends his son, Cao Pi, to the memorial service for the fallen Cai Mao. Pi explains to the dead man's brothers how dad made a big oops and is feeling really bad about it. Hopefully some gold and grand titles will ease your pain. Pi goes on to ask the brothers to pretend to defect. Now that Cai Mao has been executed, Zhou Yu would totally believe the man's brothers would want revenge and come over to the Southland.
Jiang Gan gets the axe for being such a lunkhead.
Zhou Yu and Xiao Qiao make beautiful music together. Lu Su drops in to report their plan worked perfectly and Cai Mao has been executed. Still unable to get over his obsession with Big Fan, Zhou Yu has Lu Su go see if Zhuge Liang could have figured out this brilliant scheme.
But of course he can. Lu Su isn't even through the door before Zhuge Liang is congratulating him on getting Cai Mao killed. He even knows that Lu Su is here to see if he figured out the plan. Zhou Yu really needs to get a hobby and stop trying to one up Big Fan. Zhuge Liang asks Lu Su to lie to Zhou Yu and assure his master that Big Fan didn't have a clue as to what was going on.
Lu Su doesn't and tells Zhou Yu everything. Lu Su, sometimes you're an idiot. Once in awhile a little white lie helps things. Now look what you've done. Zhou Yu is back to wanting to off Zhuge Liang.
The river waters are rising and the time for battle is nearing. Zhou Yu calls together a strategy meeting with his people. Zhou Yu is hoping to trip his rival up by asking Zhuge Liang to cough up 100,000 arrows for them in ten days. Big Fan replies they shouldn't hold off the upcoming battle that long and that he'll get them the arrows in just three days, no problem. If he fails to do follow through then Zhuge Liang willingly will submit to military law, which is exactly what Zhou Yu is wanting him to do.
Later, Zhuge Liang calls Lu Su out for causing all this trouble because he told the truth to Zhou Yu. Therefore Lu Su should be the one responsible for helping Zhuge Liang out of this mess. For starters he'll need some men and some boats.
The CGI boats of Zhuge Liang's are covered from stem to stern with straw bundles. It is a foggy morning as they row up the river towards Cao Cao's CGI fleet, dropping anchor just within bow shot of the enemy. They start beating their war drums and taunting the fleet. Come on out and fight us, ya pussies! Cao Cao orders his fleet not to be drawn out and instead have all the archers on both land and water to fire at the ships. Zhuge Liang's boats start looking like porcupines with all the arrows sticking in the straw bundles.
Once they meet their quota of 100,000 arrows, the boats turn around and head back. Zhou Yu finally admits he's just not up to par with Zhuge Liang's cleverness. He unbends enough to personally go and congratulate Big Fan on his success. They start discussing the upcoming naval battle. Zhou Yu says he's come up with a plan. Zhuge Liang is like what a coincidence, I've come up with a plan as well. Then we get, "You go first." "No, you go first." "I insist - you go first."
They decide to write their plans down on the palm of their hands and reveal their ideas at the same time. Good grief. I thought you two were grown men. Anyway, they both had the same idea. Or did they? I have the feeling Zhuge Liang knew what Zhou Yu was writing by the movement of the brush and so he wrote the same thing down.
At that moment they receive the news about Cai Mao's brothers arriving to offer their allegiance.
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