Let's Play Destiny of an Emperor II #30 (Chapter 3) - Battle of the Red Cliffs

[@HCBailly]

Sorry I have not had a new episode for a few days now. I've caught a cold and will not be able to record one for several days. Thanks for your patience.

[@takoyucky]

Get well soon!

[@LuccaLucanez]

How to take care of a cold: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eqqlnaOjjaqmpposi=Z_EF_lpanNdJvn5e kzbin.infoTCoJ3UivNk0?si=4-dI4uC0kXHHdB1O Food for when you're sick: kzbin.info/www/bejne/l2rPi2psarGShpIsi=8IWhQpfMv12jJ9q0 kzbin.info/www/bejne/jnzZY2eQr9ugr7Msi=yVyr0DCyDQIcQ0wh

[@vashstarwind36]

Get well, HCBailly! You're The BEST!! Always wishing you the very best, my brotherr!!!

[@Pheehelm]

So, what can I say about today's episode in relation to the novel? The naval side of things seen in this episode is handled by the Southland forces. Liu Bei's army focuses on cutting off Cao Cao's retreat. Zhuge Liang summons the wind they needed using a convoluted Taoist setup involving a giant altar and a bunch of other paraphernalia. As soon as it works, Zhou Yu sends men to kill him (remember from my Episode 28 writeup he regards Zhuge Liang as a long-term threat to the Southland). Zhuge Liang knew he'd do that, so he gets out of there before they arrive. 1:21 Most of Cao Cao's team is the same as the one who ambushed Liu Bei leaving Xuzhou all the way back in Episodes 5 and 6. They've replaced Xun Yu with Xu Huang. Xu Huang is first introduced as a subordinate to Yang Feng, a cavalry officer; together they save the Emperor from the late Dong Zhuo's generals. Cao Cao takes a liking to him and manages to recruit him away from Yang Feng. He goes on to do a lot of work for Cao Cao, including accompanying him during his retreat from this battle. I said back under Episode 6 Zhang Liao should still have been working for Lu Bu at the time. His being with Cao Cao at this batttle is accurate, as is Xu Chu/Zhu. Dian Wei, on the other hand, shouldn't be here, because he's long dead. In fact he was dead before Liu Bei's campaign against Yuan Shu at the start of the game, but he sticks around an impressively long time in the game, so I'll elaborate on that later. This writeup is going to be long enough as it is. 2:02 I explained how it helps under the Episode 26 writeup. Basically if the wind doesn't blow the wind they want, they'll just set their own ships on fire. 3:05 Yeah, there are cliffs along the Yangtze. Surprisingly, the exact location of this battle is not known for sure. 3:41 Taishi Ci is first introduced during Cao Cao's campaign against Tao Qian (see Episode 14 writeup). He's the one that carries a request for aid to Liu Bei. He later fights against Sun Ce (Sun Quan's elder brother and predecessor as ruler of the Southland), impressing him so much he ends up recruiting him. As here, he's assigned by Zhou Yu to intercept Cao Cao's retreat. He dies shortly after the events of the episode. Zhou Tai is a former brigand who signed up with Sun Ce after hearing good things about him. During the same part of the story Sun Ce battles Taishi Ci, Zhou Tai and Sun Quan are attacked by bandits. Zhou Tai kills ten of them while stark naked, and is grievously wounded in the process. This leads to the first appearance of the great physician Hua Tuo, who easily heals him, and will be important later. He does participate in this battle, and goes on to outlive most of the main characters. Gan Ning is a former river bandit who briefly worked for Liu Biao, then defected to the Southland. He is involved in this battle, burning Cao Cao's camp and harrying his retreat. Huang Gai is introduced early on, working for Sun Quan's father Sun Jian, and has a much more important role in this battle than the game gives him. He publicly recommends surrendering to Cao Cao, causing Zhou Yu to order his execution. Gan Ning and the other officers appeal on his behalf, and Zhou Yu commutes the sentence to severe flogging. Huang Gai then sends a letter to Cao Cao, offering to defect and sail to his fleet on ships loaded with grain. This was in fact a scheme worked out by Zhou Yu and Huang Gai: it allows him to get close enough to ram ships, which are loaded not with grain but with fuel, into the northern fleet. Zhang Hong is a counselor recruited by Sun Ce. He only shows up a handful of times, and isn't heavily involved in this battle. 4:45 You have no idea how accurate this is to the book. Zhuge Liang predicts Cao Cao's movements _exactly_ and dispatches generals to intercept him at key points, and Cao Cao just cannot stop making "tempting fate" remarks. 8:52 I suspect this is a translation error. Guan Yu's argument is he repaid Cao Cao's courtesy by killing Wen Chou and Yan Liang for him. By the way, as dumb as Guan Yu letting Cao Cao go may seem in the game, it's even worse in the novel. Zhuge Liang initially didn't give him anything to do for this part, knowing he'd let Cao Cao go. Guan Yu insisted he'd repaid any debts to Cao Cao, and pushes Zhuge Liang to let him capture him. Zhuge Liang finally relents, but later admits he knew Guan Yu would release Cao Cao. 10:44 I don't know about "blood oath" but Zhuge Liang did make Guan Yu put in writing he agreed to be executed if he released Cao Cao. 13:41 I agree with the assessment -- Lu Su is a Southland advisor, so there's not much reason for him to hang around Liu Bei's army at this point. Capcom probably still shouldn't have had him take French leave, though. One last detail, since I probably won't get a better chance to mention it: back in Episode 21 we met Cai Zhong and Cai He, younger brothers and co-conspirators with Cai Mao. Shortly after Cai Mao is executed (see Episode 27 writeup), Cao Cao orders them to fake a defection to the Southland. Zhou Yu (along with Lu Su and Zhuge Liang) sees through the ruse instantly, so he uses them to bolster the scheme with Huang Gai worked out above by letting them confirm the flogging. Immediately before the battle, Zhou Yu beheads Cai He as a human sacrifice. After the battle, Gan Ning has Cai Zhong take him to Cao Cao's camp, then strikes him dead. There's probably some other stuff I could have covered, and maybe I'll come back later and add more. But this was a lot and I'm exhausted.

[@AzureIV]

Thank you for your tireless services to the LP. Without people like you, we would have no historical context.

[@temporaryhandle802]

Been watchign your stuff for years and honestly I don't watch a lot of episodes lately, but they're like comfort food for me in tough times.

[@AzureIV]

6:22 Milksop: a person who is indecisive and lacks courage.

[@nervaaugustus7089]

A milksop is someone who drinks milk instead of alcohol at a bar. It refers to bread sopped in milk. Basically, calling him weak and unmanly.

[@Metalders]

6:23 "We're proud Nords, not milk drinkers like you." -Any Elder Scrolls ever

[@AzureIV]

9:45 HCBailly, you give me ULTIMATE HAPPINESS!! I hope you have a wonderful week.

[@nleseul]

I can only assume that ULTIMATE HAPPINESS is like a million summer days.

[@MrMatthias]

That was quite the turn of events! The execution of the counterattack was really fun to see play out!

[@leohowell7678]

Zhang fei: they are not so tough! Cao cao: have some guardian acorns! Zhang fei: RUN!!!

[@PlusmaGun]

Okay, a few things about this gigantic event: Arrow Storm can sometimes cause RIDICULOUS damage to Cao Cao's army, so much so, that there is an off-chance for Taishi Ci and his Wu buddies to actually reduce all of the Wei troops to zero, which actually did happen to me once! The message appearing at the end said "Got 1737 EXP and 7300 Gold.", but the game hardlocked itself, I couldn't proceed any further, and I had to reset the game. The only benefit you get when this whole thing happens to you, is that you get to see the two VERY RARE Taishi Ci sprites facing you. This naval battle also introduces Xu Huang for the first time, and considering that the predecessor treated him like a minor afterthought, given that you can only fight him in the open, rather than in a general fight, it's nice to see that in the sequel, he gets a great boost: slightly beefier stats, access to Ji Mian despite being at 120 Intelligence, and his special avatar with his cautious stare is just smokin'! Oh, and guess where you officially fight him (not counting encountering him randomly, or in scripted events)? Say bye-bye to Wu, guys, because you will indeed not see nor hear from them ever again (aside from Pang Tong) after the chapter's conclusion! I guess that Cao Cao managed to get his revenge upon them, while Liu Bei's army will get busy with the Jing Zhou reunification (and everything else after that) coming up! I shall finish this with... *ULTIMATE HAPPINESS USUAL, I SEE?*

[@Nekosage]

Time for some major tactics! 2:14 - 2:49 - That did the trick. Ouch. 8:03 - 9:30 - Dosh garn it, Guan Yu!

[@darklordzagato]

Cao Cao almost losing his head to a smaller army just goes to show that the most important weapon you could ever bring into battle is a strategy.

[@Terraflare94]

I remember seeing this map in n dynasty warriors. Seeing all the ships daisy chained together was kind of cool.

[@ajfrommillay3766]

9:10 He's too dangerous to be left alive!

[@AzureIV]

Guan Yu's honor would make him spare Cao Cao once, a life for a life, but that would fulfill his honor and he wouldn't have to do it again.

[@jimdowell1729]

Hey @hcbailly, if I were to donate a game. Would ya play it? Happy to buy the entire trails in the sky trilogy for you to LP! Think of it as a secret tray-shure!

[@SirVyre]

I really hope you hit 100k subs someday HCBailly. Dang ole KZbin algorithm being lame!

[@leohowell7678]

Mountain king? I miss that Atari game!

[@CosmicRPG]

Chapter 2&3 are very short. Ps: Insert " Battle of the Big Bridge" music

[@antilopezmexicanos]

Milksop means pipsqueak, unmanly and coward.

[@snailsnail7360]

HCBailly, do you have any interest in playing Octopath Traveler (1 or 2)?

[@leohowell7678]

Maybe they are trying to find one piece, wait wrong anime!

[@graysonpeddie]

5:10 Game developers make illogical decisions I guess... 9:36 I was waiting for a headdesk moment there HCBailly. Trying to fix an issue by changing from dark mode to light mode and back to dark mode when typing a comment... Something is messed up on KZbin's side...

[@DQMaster777]

:)

[@awesomemccool7285]

Dear HCBailly, I'd like to know if you're only interested in playing JRPGs, or would you maybe someday do an LP of Dragon Age, Pillars of Eternity Baldur's Gate or the Pathfinder games? :) It would be so freaking awesome if you did. One can only hope :)