The straw boat borrowing arrows may indeed have happened in history, but the main character was not Zhuge Liang, but Sun Quan.

According to "Wu Li" cited by Pei Songzhi in "The Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms: The Biography of Master Wu", Sun Quan repeatedly challenged Cao Cao's army, but Cao Cao could not hold on. Sun Quan personally took a light boat and entered the water stronghold of Cao Cao's army from Ruxukou.

As soon as Cao Cao saw it, he knew that Sun Quan was coming. Sun Quan wanted to see Cao's army's formation in person (he wanted to see my army in person), and ordered the army to be on strict guard and not to fire arrows and crossbows indiscriminately. Sun Quan walked five or six miles in front of Cao Cao before returning. When leaving, they also played drums and played music to Cao Jun. All of this was seen by Cao Cao and he sighed: "Having a son should be like Sun Zhongmou."

But "Wei Lue" does not say this. It says that Sun Quan did not take a light ship, but a big ship. Cao Cao did not say that bows and crossbows should not be fired recklessly, but ordered the arrows to be fired. As a result, thousands of arrows were fired together, and they all hit Sun Quan's boat, causing the boat to tilt to one side. So Sun Quan ordered to turn around so that "the arrows were even and the boat was level", and then returned safely. Extended information

The straw boat borrowing arrows is a story about the Battle of Chibi in the Chinese classic "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms". The borrowed arrows were deliberately proposed by Zhou Yu (limited to ten days to make one hundred thousand arrows). The clever Zhuge Liang saw through it at a glance and it was a harmful plan, but calmly said that "it only takes three days." Later, with help from a foggy day, Zhuge Liang took advantage of Cao Cao's suspicious character and mobilized a few straw boats to lure the enemy. Finally, he borrowed 100,000 arrows and accomplished a miraculous feat.

As a result, Zhuge Liang's courage and wisdom were praised by later generations, which led to many idioms, anecdotes and dramatic performances.

But in "Wei Lue", the so-called "borrowing arrows from a straw boat" was actually done by Sun Quan.

Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia - Straw Boat Borrowing Arrows