Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms podcast.

This is episode 61.

Last time, we set the stage for the coming battle of Chibi, or Red Cliff,

Zhou Yu had planned a fire attack.

Pang Tong, aka Master Young Phoenix, had talked Cao Cao into tying his ships together in the name of stability,

but that also ensured that those ships would not be able to just sail away from the fire.

The general Huang Gai was to head to Cao Cao's camp under the pretension of defection and start the fire.

Zhuge Liang has summoned the southeastern winds to make sure that the fire moves in the right

direction, and both the forces of Dongwu and Liu Bei were set up to cut off any reinforcements

for Cao Cao on land while taking bites out of his troops once he's on the run.

So everything looked good on paper, and now it was time to actually execute the plan.

Let's start in Zhou Yu's camp on the south bank of the river.

As evening descended,

Zhou Yu summoned Cai He,

one of the fake defectors that Cao Cao has sent to serve as spies.

Zhou Yu ordered the guards to tie him up.

Cai He protested and claimed innocence,

but Zhou Yu scoffed.

Who do you think you are? How dare you pretend to defect to me? I am missing an appropriate sacrifice for my banner, so I am borrowing your head.

Knowing that the jig is up,

Cai He decided that if he was going down, he was going to

take everyone down with him.

...