Historically, borrowing an arrow from a straw boat happened in the battle between Sun Quan and Cao Cao. Sun Quan went by boat to spy on Cao Cao's military situation. Cao Cao found him and ordered his soldiers to shoot arrows. Sun Quan's boat was shot askew and almost sank, so he turned the boat around and let the arrow continue shooting. In this way, the ship was balanced and Sun Quan set sail. Sun Quan's cleverness made Cao Cao very sigh, leaving a famous saying that "a child should be like Sun Zhongmou"; In addition, according to historical records, Zhou Yu is so broad-minded that it is impossible not to be jealous of Zhuge Liang.

Zhuge Liang's "borrowing an arrow from a straw boat" is one of the most wonderful stories in The Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Reading this story often makes people admire Zhuge Liang's cleverness. However, Zhuge Liang has never done this in his life. So, was this story invented by Luo Guanzhong out of thin air? That's not true, because he does have a foundation.

According to the Notes on the Reflection of the Three Kingdoms Wu Shu and Wu Zhuan Zhu II Pei Songzhi, in the 18th year of Jian 'an (AD 2 13), Cao Cao and Sun Quan confronted each other in ruxu (now a waterway of Chaohu Lake in Chao County, Anhui Province into the Yangtze River). Cao Jun was defeated in the first battle, so he couldn't hold on. One day, Sun Quan broke into the front by canoe from ruxu to observe the deployment of Cao Jun. Sun Quan's canoe went for five or six miles, and the drums were full of music. Cao Cao was suspicious by nature. Seeing that Sun Jun was so powerful, he was afraid of fraud and didn't dare to go to war. He sighed and said, "My son should be like Sun Zhongmou, and Liu Jingsheng's son should be like a dolphin and a dog!" Subsequently, Cao Cao ordered the crossbow to be shot at Wuchuan. Soon, Sun Quan's canoe was in danger of capsizing because there were too many arrows on one side. Sun Quan ordered the bow to be turned around so that the other side could be shot again. After a while, all the arrows were laid flat, and Sun Jun returned safely. Cao Cao realized that he had been cheated.

It can be seen that it was not Zhuge Liang who borrowed the straw boat to shoot arrows, but Sun Quan, and it happened five years later in Battle of Red Cliffs.

Empty plan:

During the Three Kingdoms period, due to the misuse of Ma Su, he lost the strategic location-Jieting. Wei took advantage of the situation and led 150,000 troops to the western market where Zhuge Liang was located. At that time, there were no generals around Zhuge Liang, only a group of civil servants and military commanders. Half of the 5,000 troops led by Zhuge Liang went to transport food and grass, leaving only 2,500 soldiers in the city. Everyone was shocked to hear that Sima Yi was coming with troops. After Zhuge Liang boarded the tower to watch, he said to the people, "Don't panic. I can teach Sima Yi to retreat a little. "

So Zhuge Liang ordered all the flags to be hidden, and the soldiers stayed where they were. If anyone goes out without permission or makes noise, they will be beheaded immediately. He also asked the soldiers to open four gates, and sent 20 soldiers above each gate to dress up as ordinary people and sprinkle water to sweep the street. Zhuge Liang put on a crane himself, put on a tall black silk scarf, led two extremely young children, took a piano, sat down on the railing in front of the watchtower in the city, lit incense, and then slowly played the piano.

Sima Yi's vanguard troops arrived at the gate. Seeing this momentum, they dared not enter the city easily and hurried back to report to Sima Yi. Upon hearing this, Sima Yi smiled and said, "How is this possible?" So he stopped the three armies and flew to watch. Not far from the city, he really saw Zhuge Liang sitting on the rostrum, smiling, burning incense and playing the piano. On the left is an extremely bookish man with a sword in his hand; There is also an extremely young man on the right, with a dusting in his hand. Inside and outside the city gate, more than 20 ordinary people are sweeping their heads, and no one is watching. After seeing it, Sima Yi was puzzled and went to Zhong Jun. In the future, the army will be retired from the current army. Si Mazhao, the second son, said, "Zhuge Liang's family has no soldiers, so he did this on purpose? Father, why do you want to retire? " Sima Yi said: "Zhuge Liang was cautious all his life and never took risks. Now that the gate is wide open, there will be an ambush inside. If our army goes in, it will just fall into their trap. Or hurry back! " So all the soldiers and horses retreated.

Empty city plan was originally a historical news about Cao Cao, which was imposed on Zhuge by the author!

Longzhong to:

After the battle of Guandu, Liu Bei fled to Jingzhou and defected to Liu Biao. Liu Biao allocated some troops to him to stay in Xinye (now Xinye County, Henan Province). Liu Bei is an ambitious man, because his ambition has not been realized, and his heart is always unhappy. He wants to find a good assistant. He found a famous man named Si Mahui in Xiangyang, so he went to visit him specially. Si Mahui said, "There are Wolong and Feng Chu in this area. If you can invite one of them, you can calm down the world. " Si Mahui told Liu Bei: Wolong is Zhuge Liang, and the word is Kongming; Feng Chu's name is Pang Tong. Xu Shu is also a local celebrity, because I heard that Liu Bei was recruiting talents, so I came to see him. Liu Bei was so happy that he left Xu Shu as his counselor. Xu Shu said, "I have an old friend, Zhu Gekongming. People call him Wolong. Does the general want to meet him? " After listening to Xu Shu's introduction, Liu Bei said, "Since you know him so well, please come hard and invite him!" Xu Shu shook his head and said, "This can't be done. People like this must be personally invited by the general to show your sincerity. "

Liu Bei successively heard that Si Mahui and Xu Shu attached great importance to Zhuge Liang. Knowing that Zhuge Liang must be a great talent, he took Guan Yu and Zhang Fei to Longzhong to find Zhuge Liang. Zhuge Liang visited the hut and was finally moved by Liu Bei's sincerity and took Liu Bei to his hut. Zhuge Liang saw that Liu Bei was so open-minded and asked for advice, so he had a heart-to-heart talk with Liu Bei. He said: "Now Cao Cao has defeated Yuan Shao, with an army of1100,000, and he is holding the order of the Emperor. We can't compete with him by force alone. Sun Quan has occupied Jiangdong area for three generations. Jiangdong has a dangerous terrain, and now all the people have joined him, and a group of talents are working for him. It seems that we can only unite with him and can't play his mind. "

Then, Zhuge Liang analyzed the situation of Jingzhou and Yizhou (now part of Sichuan, Yunnan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Hubei and Guizhou), and thought that Jingzhou was an important military place, and Liu Biao could not keep this place. Yizhou has a fertile and vast land, which has always been called "the land of abundance", but Liu Zhang, the owner there, is also a weak man, and everyone is dissatisfied with him. Finally, he said, "The general is a descendant of the royal family and is famous all over the world. If we can occupy Jingzhou and Yizhou, unite with Sun Quan and rectify internal affairs, we can March from Jingzhou and Yizhou and attack Cao Cao once we have the opportunity. At that time, who will not welcome the general? In this way, we can achieve great things and restore the Han Dynasty. " After listening to Zhuge Liang's incisive and thorough analysis, Liu Bei's thoughts were suddenly enlightened. He felt that Zhuge Liang's talents were rare, so he earnestly asked Zhuge Liang to come out of the mountain and help him complete the great cause of reviving the Han Dynasty. Zhuge Liang went out to assist Liu Bei. Later, people called it "three visits to the cottage" and called Zhuge Liang's conversation "Longzhong Dui"