Millennium: Purification and Guidance

Chapters 29-30

Sun Ce has a memorable death. A poison arrow ultimately killed him. He could have recovered, but he insisted on burning a holy man to death. The holy man haunted him, greatly distressing Sun Ce and exacerbating the poison until he finally died. His legacy passes to Sun Quan. We also meet some of his advisors: both Lu Su and Zhuge Jin have their first appearances here. We have already met Zhou Yu. Hua Tuo, the physician, was unfortunately out of town for all the events.

I enjoyed meeting the ghost. He had a famous book with him, and I always like hearing about their books. The ghost’s book was called The Millennium: Purification and Guidance (p. 480). Like the Galen book discussed in Arabian Nights, it is a book of medicine: "curing pain and disease." Interesting that both texts mention earlier medical books.

In the second chapter for this week, we see things start to fall apart for Yuan Shao. For a while, it looks like he has the upper hand against Cao Cao. But it started to turn against him when Cao Cao ordered his men to build ballistae, which wreaked havoc on Yuan Shao’s crossbow men. After a few more strategic errors, Yuan Shao’s end seems near.

There are a few new Magic cards this week. Poison Arrow (for Sun Ce), Lu Su, and Zhuge Jin are all new here. Also, I believe I missed "Guan Yu’s 1000-Li March" last week (of course that chapter was deserving of its own Magic card). We may also have "Stolen Grain" and "Relentless Assault" here, but that may also be next week (it is too early for Desert Sandstorm, I think that is next week).