Monday, September 16, 2013

Three Kingdoms Episode 48

Lu Su has come up with a plan to get Cao Cao and Liu Bei to wrangle, thus enabling Sun Quan's troops to quietly slip into Jing and take over.
 
Lady Wu gets a line! Lady Wu gets a line!
 
For the first part of his plan, Lu Su goes to see Zhou Yu, who is still recovering from his wound. Lu Su reports that Sun Quan has got himself in a bit of a pickle over at Hefei and Zhou Yu must take his men and go save their master. Zhou Yu is reluctant to abandon Jing to his archenemy/ally Liu Bei. Lu Su offers to go and talk to Baby Bouncer if Zhou Yu will take his army north.
 
Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang are both wondering why Sun Quan went to Hefei when they're surprised by Lu Su's visit. Lu Su humbly asks for Jing Province to be returned to the Southland. Zhang Fei starts running his mouth (as usual) prompting Lu Su to remind the gentlemen of how destitute and homeless they were before when they came looking for sustenance and support from Sun Quan. They wouldn't be sitting so pretty right now if not for the Southland. Therefore they owe Wu something.
 
Zhuge Liang points out that Jing was a land grant from the Han emperor to the Liu family back in the day so it was never part of the Southland and Lu Su has no right to ask for something back that was never his in the first place. Liu Bei finally speaks up and explains he took over Jing in order to give it back to Liu Qi. Liu Qi is awfully sick. Lu Su offers up a compromise that as long as Liu Qi is alive then the province is his. But once he dies (and it appears that won't be long from now) the ownership of Jing will once again be up for question.

Being satisfied with this, or at least acting satisfied, Lu Su moves on to his next task. (Will this man's job ever be done?) He goes to meet again with Zhou Yu to convince this hot-head that Liu Qi will probably die in a couple of months so let's just let Jing Province alone for now and concentrate on saving our master. Zhou Yu does order some of his subordinate generals to take their forces to Hefei, but the grand commander himself isn't going. He needs some quality time to sulk - I mean, recover from his injuries. (Has it been raining? Why is their floor wet?)

Lu Su goes to report back to Sun Quan (who was never in any real danger). It's at this meeting where Lu Su dares to first suggest to his master to proclaim himself an emperor since Liu Bei is bound to do the same sooner or later and Cao Cao is practically one already as long as he has control over the real Han emperor. At first Sun Quan chastises Lu Su for speaking such seditious talk. Then he discloses that he's been at least thinking of doing it but for now they should keep their cards close to their chest until they see what Cao Cao and Liu Bei do next.

What Liu Bei does next is to try to annex some cities that haven't been decimated by the recent wars. First on the map is Lingling, overseen by Liu Du. When he hears the enemy is at the gates, Liu Du puts all his money on Xing Daorong to defend the city. Zhuge Liang, riding in some kind of wheel chair (which is no match to Cao Cao's Big Ass Cadillac Of A War Chariot) has brought Zhang Fei and Zhao "I still have only one line" Yun along with him. (Where's Guan Yu? He's mentioned but I haven't actually seen him in quite a while. Was the actor off doing something else?)

Anyway, Xing Daorong swears he'll kill Zhuge Liang himself. Big Fan just smiles and roll retreats back into his army which is forming a sort of labyrinth. Are we going to get a battle scene? I hope we get a battle scene. Xing Daorong totally falls for this and rides into the man made maze. Zhuge Liang plays hide and seek, "Here I am, Fatboy. Come and get me," drawing the warrior deeper and deeper into enemy territory.

Zhang Fei cuts Xing Daorong off at the pass and easily disarms the doofus. Then up rides Zhao Yun who smacks the horse and rider down. Hey, what did that horse ever do to you? Xing Daorong is taken into custody and brought before Liu Bei, who is wearing armor although he didn't do a dang thing during this skirmish. Liu Bei orders the enemy general to be taken out and beheaded. Xing Daorong starts crying about having an elderly mother. He's got a wife and kids to support. Spare me!

Big Fan finally speaks and says he'll ask for Xing's life but what will Xing do for them in return? Xing doesn't hesitate to turn against his boss, Liu Du, and promises to help Liu Bei by working from the inside and opening the gates for them tonight. Liu Bei lets Xing although he doesn't trust the turncoat and suspects he'll try to lead them into a trap.  

No comments:

Post a Comment