Dragon's Fire

Chapters 38-40

At first, Zhang Fei and Lord Guan doubt whether Kongming will be effective. But he soon proves his value. First against Xiahou Dun (pp. 704-706) and then against Cao Ren (pp. 721-722), Kongming unleashes fire against his foes. He wins two massive victories over larger forces. He is a masterful tactician who uses the forces of nature against his enemies.

On a separate note, we have a brief visit to the South. I always appreciate a reference to the Book of Changes (p. 686). Here, it’s used to interpret omens about the death of Sun Quan’s brother (her widow gets revenge).

This week brings a few Magic cards. Sima Yi makes his first appearance (p. 700), but largely as background. He hasn’t done much yet. Two of the Wu are first mentioned, again not with much to do: Lu Meng and Lu Xun (in name only). On page 681, Kongming first foretells the tripodal “Balance of Power” of the Three Kingdoms. We also see “Strategic Planning” (the flavor text quote is on p. 703), “Fire Ambush” (pp. 704-706), the “Burning of Xinye” (pp. 720-721) and a “Broken Dam” (pp. 720-721), the last one being another example of Kongming’s strategy of using the elements.

I also went back and found a few notes on some missed cards. The Battle of Puyang mentioned on Wei Ambush Force was way back in Chapters 11-12. https://1001kingdoms.ghost.io/our-first/ The story of Xiahou Dun swallowing his eye occurred in Chapter 18; this is “Return to Battle.” https://1001kingdoms.ghost.io/grana/ The flavor text from Shu Foot Soldiers likely refers to the battles around Chapters 26-28. https://1001kingdoms.ghost.io/heroic-reunion/ And in the previous section, we had two cards: Three Visits (to Kongming in Chapter 37), and the strategy of the Eight Gold Locks (on the flavor text for Alert Shu Infantry) was mentioned in Chapter 36, p. 644, by Xu Shu (a.k.a. Shan Fu). https://1001kingdoms.ghost.io/enter/