The straw boat borrowing arrows in the official history happened in 213 AD, while the novel took place in 208 AD.
The straw boat borrowing arrows in the official history
"The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is a novel with a lot of fictional elements. In official history, borrowing arrows from a straw boat happened during the Ruxu Battle between Sun Quan and Cao Cao. Sun Quan took a boat to personally spy on Cao Cao's military situation. Cao Cao found out and ordered his soldiers to shoot arrows to attack. Sun Quan's The ship was deflected by the arrows and almost sank, so he turned the ship around and let the arrows continue shooting. In this way, the ship was balanced, and Sun Quan sailed away. Cao Cao was very impressed by Sun Quan's intelligence and left a famous saying, "Be like Sun Zhongmou in giving birth to a son." In addition, historical records record that Zhou Yu has a very broad mind and it is impossible to be jealous of Zhuge Liang.
Zhuge Liang's "borrowing arrows from a straw boat" is one of the most exciting stories in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms". After reading this story, people often marvel at Zhuge Liang's intelligence. However, Zhuge Liang never did this in his life. So, was this story made up by Luo Guanzhong out of thin air? That's not the case, because he does have his roots.
According to Pei Song's annotation in "The Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms·Wu Shu·The Second Biography of Lord Wu", in the first month of the eighteenth year of Jian'an (AD 213), Cao Cao and Sun Quan faced off against each other in Ruxu (now where Xichao Lake enters the Yangtze River in Chao County, Anhui Province). a section of waterway). In the first battle, Cao's army was defeated and could not hold on. One day, Sun Quan took advantage of the mist on the water and took a light boat to break into Cao Jun's front line from Ruxukou to observe Cao Jun's deployment. Sun Quan's canoe traveled five or six miles, and the drums and drums were beating. However, Cao Cao was suspicious by nature. Seeing the power of Sun Jun's purge, he was afraid of fraud and did not dare to fight. He sighed and said: "I should have a son like Sun Zhongmou, and Liu Jingsheng's son has the ears of a pig!" "Subsequently, Cao Cao ordered all bows and crossbows to fire at the Wu ship. After a while, Sun Quan's boat tilted due to too many arrows on one side, and was in danger of capsizing. Sun Quan ordered the ship to be turned around so that the other side would receive another arrow. After a while, the arrows were all leveled, and Sun Jun returned safely. Only then did Cao Cao realize that he had been fooled.
It can be seen that it was not Zhuge Liang who "borrowed arrows from a straw boat", but Sun Quan, and this happened five years after the Battle of Chibi.
The straw boat borrowing arrows in the novel
Zhou Yu asked Zhuge Liang to make 100,000 arrows within 10 days, but Zhuge Liang unexpectedly said: "Cao Jun The day is approaching. If you wait for 10 days, you will miss something important. "He said, "It only takes 3 days to complete the restoration." When Zhou Yu heard this, he immediately issued a military order with Zhuge Liang. It is impossible to make 100,000 arrows in three days, so Zhuge Liang will definitely die. This shows that Zhou Yu does not believe that Zhuge Liang can make 100,000 arrows in three days.
Zhuge Liang left. After that, Zhou Yu asked Lu Su to go to Zhuge Liang to check the situation and find out what was going on. When Zhuge Liang saw Lu Su, he said, "How can you make 100,000 arrows in three days? I hope Zijing can save me!" The loyal and kind-hearted Lu Su said. He replied: "You brought it upon yourself, how can I save you?" Zhuge Liang said: "I only hope that you will lend me 20 ships, each equipped with 30 soldiers, all with green cloth as curtains and bundles of grass on each ship. More than a thousand of them were erected on both sides of the ship. I have a wonderful use for all this. I guarantee that there will be 100,000 arrows by the third day. But there is one thing you must not let Zhou Yu know. If he knew about it, he would definitely interfere with it, and it would be difficult for my plan to be realized. Although Lu Su agreed to Zhuge Liang's request, he did not understand what Zhuge Liang meant. After meeting Zhou Yu, he did not talk about borrowing a boat, but only said that Zhuge Liang did not prepare bamboo, feathers, glue paint and other items for making arrows. Zhou Yu was also puzzled after hearing this.
After Zhuge Liang borrowed ships and soldiers from Lu Su, he made preparations as planned. However, there was no movement from Zhuge Liang for two days until the fourth watch on the third night. , he secretly invited Lu Su to the boat and told Lu Su to get the arrow. Lu Su asked puzzledly: "Where to get it?" Zhuge Liang replied: "Zijing doesn't need to ask, just go and find out." . "Lu Su was confused and had to accompany Zhuge Liang to see what happened.
In the early morning, the Haohao River was filled with mist and darkness.
Zhuge Liang then ordered 20 boats to be connected together with long ropes, weigh anchor and set off for Cao's army camp on the north bank. At five o'clock, the fleet was approaching Cao Cao's water village. At this time, Zhuge Liang asked the soldiers to move the ship from head to west and tail to east, across the front of Cao Jun's stronghold. Then, he ordered the soldiers to beat drums and shout, deliberately creating a momentum of drumming and marching. Lu Su was horrified when he saw this, but Zhuge Liang told him calmly: "I predict that in this night of thick fog, Cao Cao will never dare to go to war resolutely. You and I can drink and have fun without worry, and wait until the fog We will go back when they are all gone."
After hearing the report, Cao Cao was indeed worried about being ambushed due to the heavy fog and was unwilling to fight easily. He quickly mobilized 6,000 crossbowmen from Hanzhai and rushed to the river. Together with the navy archers, they killed more than 10,000 people and fired randomly into the river in an attempt to stop the "Sun and Liu Allied Forces" who were beating drums and calling for formation. For a moment, arrows were like locusts, shooting at the straw handles and curtains on the boat in the middle of the river. After a period of time, Zhuge Liang calmly ordered the fleet to turn around, head to the east and tail to the west, close to the water village to receive arrows, and asked the soldiers to beat the drums and shout harder. When the fog cleared at sunrise, all the grass on the boat was densely packed with arrow branches. At this time, Zhuge Liang ordered the fleet to turn around and return. He also ordered all the soldiers to shout loudly: "Thank you, Prime Minister Cao, for the arrows!" When Cao Cao learned the truth, Zhuge Liang's arrow-fetching fleet had already left for more than 20 miles, and Cao Cao's army could not catch up. Cao Cao regretted it.
After the fleet returned to camp, the army obtained more than 100,000 arrows, which lasted only three days. Lu Su witnessed what happened and called Zhuge Liang a "god man". Zhuge Liang told Lu Su: He not only knows astronomy and knows the geography, but he also knows the strange gates and knows the yin and yang. He is better at setting up formations and troops in marching operations. He had already predicted that there would be heavy fog three days ago and could take advantage of it. He finally said: "My life is tied to the sky, how can Zhou Gongjin harm me!" When Zhou Yu learned all this, he was shocked and felt inferior.