Wu Strategist
Zhou Yu, the Handsome Commander
周瑜175 to 2105 star
In short
Zhou Yu (175 to 210) was the commander of Sun Quan's forces at the Battle of Red Cliffs. A friend of Sun Ce from boyhood, he helped conquer the lands south of the Yangtze, and in 208 he argued for war when most of the court wanted to submit. With thirty thousand men and Huang Gai's fire ships he destroyed Cao Cao's fleet. He took Jiangling the next year and died in 210 while preparing to invade the west.
| Lived | 175 to 210 |
|---|---|
| Name in Chinese | 周瑜 |
| Courtesy name | Gongjin |
| Served | Sun Ce, then Sun Quan |
The history
Zhou Yu was from Shu county in Lujiang, of a family that had given the Han two Grand Commandants. He and Sun Ce were born the same year and met as boys. Zhou Yu gave the Sun family a large house on the south side of the road and treated Sun Ce’s mother as his own.
When Sun Ce crossed the Yangtze in 195, Zhou Yu met him with troops and supplies. He was twenty four when Sun Ce made him a general, and the people of Wu called him Young Master Zhou. He knew music so well that after three cups he still noticed a wrong note and turned his head. A song said: the tune has gone astray, and Master Zhou looks round.
Sun Ce was killed in 200. Zhou Yu brought his troops to the funeral and stayed to serve Sun Quan, eighteen years old, with the full forms due to a ruler, and the other officers followed his lead.
In 208 Cao Cao took Jing Province and wrote that he would come hunting in Wu with eight hundred thousand men. Most advisers urged surrender. Zhou Yu told Sun Quan that the number was a boast, that the northerners were sick and could not fight on water, and that fifty thousand men would be enough. Sun Quan gave him thirty thousand. At Red Cliffs Huang Gai’s ships, loaded with dry reeds and oil, ran before a strong southeast wind and burned the fleet and the camps on shore.
He besieged Cao Ren at Jiangling for a year and took it, with an arrow wound in his side. He proposed to take Yi Province next and hold it with Ma Chao as an ally. He died on the road.
The novel
Romance of the Three Kingdoms needed Red Cliffs to belong to Zhuge Liang, so Zhou Yu becomes clever, narrow and outplayed three times until anger kills him. The history’s verdict is Sun Quan’s: without Gongjin, he said, he would never have been emperor.
Zhou Yu in the game
In Warlords of the Three Kingdoms Zhou Yu is the Handsome Commander: a 5 star strategistof Wu. The game's line for him: “He was thirty-three when he burned Cao Cao's fleet at Red Cliffs, and could hear a wrong note across a banquet hall.”
| Kingdom | Wu |
|---|---|
| Role | Strategist |
| Rarity | 5 star |
| Base attack and defense | 50 and 54 |
| 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.
Five star is where he starts. Duplicates become shards, shards add stars, and each star adds a tenth to both numbers.
Questions
Who won the Battle of Red Cliffs?
The allied forces of Sun Quan and Liu Bei, under Zhou Yu's command, in the winter of 208. His officer Huang Gai pretended to defect and sailed fire ships into Cao Cao's chained fleet.
Was Zhou Yu jealous of Zhuge Liang?
Only in the novel, where he dies of rage asking why heaven, having made Zhou Yu, also made Zhuge Liang. The history calls him generous and broad minded, and gives Zhuge Liang no part in the fighting at Red Cliffs.
How did Zhou Yu die?
Of illness at Baqiu in 210, on his way to launch a campaign up the Yangtze against Yi Province. He was thirty five.
Who was Zhou Yu's wife?
The younger of the two Qiao sisters, known as Xiao Qiao, taken at Wan in 199. Sun Ce married the elder.
How do you get Zhou Yu 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 Zhou Yu on Wikipedia.
Written by Gitkonek Studio, .
Keep reading
- 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.
- Sun Ce, the Little ConquerorHe crossed the Yangtze with a few thousand men, took Jiangdong in five years, and died at twenty-five.