Leadership and War and Peace

I had a feeling this was coming. We finally get to the death of Liu Bei. It’s almost too convenient for the Shu; he had just failed to control himself and in some ways “deserved” to die for overzealously pursuing his Peach Garden Oath. Kongming comes in charge just in time.

We get a quote from “Forced Retreat” in Magic (p. 1503): “Leadership, not numbers, determines victory.” The author likely believes this. I’m concurrently reading a history of the Green Bay Packers, which makes a strong case that Lombardi’s leadership was critical in their championships in the 1960s. But I also have last year’s War and Peace hanging over my head. Tolstoy would have said it was more luck than anything Kongming did.

Two lesser characters also die; we learn that Cao Ren is dead. And the hero of Hefei, Zhang Liao, is killed by an arrow. Both had cards. We have heard mention of Meng Huo already, who led one of five armies that were dispatched by Kongming. I believe he will have a larger role coming up.