I was watching another exciting episode of Romance of the Three Kingdom today. In fact, i watched 7 discs from about noon thru to 6pm. That’s about a quarter of the day gone. Haha! Although this ain’t the first time I am watching, it still made my hair stood during some scenes. Really meaningful, touching at times and definitely exciting to watch! What’s the meaning of my title? Let me explain… “欲破曹公,宜用火攻,万事俱备,只欠东风” was written by 诸葛亮 (Zhuge Liang) to 周瑜 (Zhou Yu) when they were discussing the strategies to counter 曹操 (Cao Cao) during 赤壁之战 (the Battle of the Red Cliff). Basically, 周瑜 and 诸葛亮 knew the best tactic against 曹操’s 830,000 army was to use 火攻 (fire). But in that period, the wind direction was not for 周瑜’s fire tacitcs. He needed the wind to be blowing from the South-East. And thus, 周瑜 feint sickness. 诸葛亮 knew exactly what was 周瑜’s “illness” and offered this writing as prescription. Although 周瑜 was very impressed with 诸葛亮, he was at the same time VERY jealous of his talents and knowledge. 诸葛亮 knew the way of weather forecast, astrology, geography and many other knowledge. He managed to “borrow” the South-Easterly wind for 周瑜 during the battle, which was won beautifully. Meanwhile, 诸葛亮 guessed that 曹操 will escaped thru 哗蓉道 but he knew that 曹操 won’t die so soon.曹操 was eventually “released” by 关羽.
There are alot of learning points in Romance of the Three Kingdom. This particular one I’m writing today is about being in the right place at the right time. Cos no matter how well prepared one was, if without all the other elements, he will not succeed. And sometimes, such elements may not be what human could do. Hmm… So what can we do? Let’s pray…
