Wu Warrior
Sun Ce, the Little Conqueror
孫策175 to 2005 star
In short
Sun Ce (175 to 200) was the eldest son of Sun Jian and the founder of what became the state of Wu. Starting in 195 with about a thousand of his father's men, borrowed back from Yuan Shu, he took the commanderies south of the Yangtze in five years. In 200 he was shot while hunting by retainers of a man he had executed, and died at twenty five, leaving his conquests to his brother Sun Quan.
| Lived | 175 to 200 |
|---|---|
| Name in Chinese | 孫策 |
| Courtesy name | Bofu |
| Served | Yuan Shu, then himself |
The history
Sun Ce was in his teens when his father Sun Jian was killed in 191. He buried him, moved his mother and brothers south of the river, and went to Yuan Shu, who had taken over his father’s troops. Yuan Shu liked him, said he could die content with such a son, and twice broke promises to make him an administrator.
In 195 Sun Ce asked leave to help his uncle in the fighting across the Yangtze. Yuan Shu gave him about a thousand men. By the time he reached the river he had five or six thousand, and Zhou Yu joined him there. He beat Liu Yao, the Han inspector, and took Danyang, Wu and Kuaiji in turn. His troops did not loot, which was new, and people who had hidden from him came out with oxen and wine.
When Yuan Shu declared himself emperor in 197, Sun Ce broke with him. Cao Cao, who had Yuan Shao to face, confirmed him as a general and married into his family. Sun Ce took Lujiang in 199, beat Huang Zu, and was said to be planning a raid on the capital to seize the emperor.
He liked to ride ahead of his escort. In 200, hunting at Dantu, he met three men who said they were soldiers. They were retainers of Xu Gong, whom he had executed, and they shot him in the face.
He gave Sun Quan his seal and died. He was twenty five, and he had conquered a country.
The novel
Romance of the Three Kingdoms calls him the Little Conqueror and adds a ghost: he executes the Taoist Yu Ji, and the priest’s spirit hounds him until his wounds open. Chen Shou has the assassins and nothing else, and the story of Yu Ji reaches the annotations from collections of marvels. The novel also has him trade his father’s imperial seal to Yuan Shu for the troops, a story the annotations repeat and historians doubt.
Sun Ce in the game
In Warlords of the Three Kingdoms Sun Ce is the Little Conqueror: a 5 star warriorof Wu. The game's line for him: “He crossed the Yangtze with a few thousand men, took Jiangdong in five years, and died at twenty-five.”
| Kingdom | Wu |
|---|---|
| Role | Warrior |
| Rarity | 5 star |
| Base attack and defense | 57 and 45 |
| Where from | Summoned at the Imperial Summon, for Jade. The odds are shown before every summon. |
A warlord sworn to Wu fields him 10% stronger, as every General of their own Kingdom. Wei, Shu or Wu has what the choice changes.
Zhou Yu is his signature bodyguard, and lends 30% of his own attack and defense where any other guard lends 15%.
Five star is where he starts. Duplicates become shards, shards add stars, and each star adds a tenth to both numbers.
Questions
How did Sun Ce die?
He was ambushed while hunting alone in 200 by three former retainers of Xu Gong, an administrator he had put to death. An arrow struck his face, and he died of the wound that night or soon after.
Why is Sun Ce called the Little Conqueror?
The nickname compares him to Xiang Yu, the Conqueror of Chu, who also came out of the southeast young and fast. It is the novel's phrase. The history has his enemy Xu Gong say he was a man like Xiang Yu.
What did Sun Ce say to Sun Quan before he died?
That in leading the men of Jiangdong into battle Sun Quan was not his equal, and that in choosing able men and keeping Jiangdong he was not Sun Quan's.
How do you get Sun Ce in Warlords of the Three Kingdoms?
Summoned at the Imperial Summon, for Jade. The odds are shown before every summon.
Sources
The history follows Chen Shou's Records of the Three Kingdoms, written in the third century, with Pei Songzhi's annotations of the fifth, and Fan Ye's Book of the Later Han for the years before the Han court fell apart. What the page calls the novel is Luo Guanzhong's Romance of the Three Kingdoms, of the fourteenth century. Where the two disagree, the page says which is speaking. For more on him, see Sun Ce on Wikipedia.
Written by Gitkonek Studio, .
Keep reading
- Zhou Yu, the Handsome CommanderHe was thirty-three when he burned Cao Cao's fleet at Red Cliffs, and could hear a wrong note across a banquet hall.
- Gan Ning, the Belled RaiderA river pirate whose men wore bells, he raided Cao Cao's camp at Ruxu with a hundred riders and lost none.
- Sun Quan, the Green-Eyed LordHe inherited Jiangdong at eighteen and held it for fifty-two years against every rival who tried.
- Sun Shangxiang, the Lady of the BowSun Quan's sister, whose hundred armed maids made her husband Liu Bei nervous in his own chambers.
- Lu Xun, the Scholar GeneralDismissed by the veterans as a bookish youth, he burned Liu Bei's forty camps at Yiling in a single night.