Burning Contraptions

Chapters 96-68

Some pretty light chapters here: more Wei defeats, a couple setbacks for Kongming, and Sun Quan finally declaring himself a rival emperor. It seems like minor stuff, except for Kongming finally losing some battles. He has been so godlike up to now that he feels like a new character. At one point, he constructs towers to siege a city, but all the men inside them are mostly killed when they are set on fire. His response is, “Burn my assault towers? Then I’ll use battering rams!” (p. 1768) This fails too. I wonder if these are the source for the Magic card “Kongming’s Contraptions.” If so, it’s a weak showing.

Otherwise, not much happens. Zhao Zilong finally dies, leaving us with one more tie to the past. At the battles now, I hardly recognize any of the names. There are Caos and Guans and Zhangs, who I think are descendants of our previous heroes. Otherwise I’m anchored in Sima Yi, Kongming, Sun Quan, and Lu Xun.