Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms podcast. This is episode 63.

First, I want to wish everyone a happy new year. Yes, we are well into January, but the show was on its regularly scheduled

break last week, so let me take this opportunity to say thank you for all your support in 2015,

and here's to even greater things in 2016. When we left off last time, Cao Cao had retreated from the south, and both the forces of

Dongwu and Liu Bei were setting their sights on his holdings in Jing province.

First up was the city of Nanjun, which was defended by Cao Ren, one of Cao Cao's most

trusted generals. The problem was that there was only one Nanjun,

and both Dongwu and Liu Bei wanted it. Zhou Yu, the commander of the Dongwu forces,

reached an agreement with Liu Bei that Dongwu would get first crack at the city. If Dongwu

could not take it, then Liu Bei was free to try. Of course,

Zhou Yu only agreed to this because he figured taking the city would be easy and that Liu Bei would

never even get the chance to try. Unfortunately for Zhou Yu, it turned out to be a little tougher

than he thought. While he was stalled outside

Nanjun, Zhou Yu got more bad news. He had sent one of his top generals, Gan Ning, to attack the

nearby city of Yiling so as to isolate Nanjun. Gan Ning took Yiling easily enough, but then he was trapped inside that city by enemy

reinforcements. When word of this reached Zhou Yu, he wanted to go rescue Gan Ning, but he was also

worried about the enemy inside Nanjun taking advantage of his absence and attacking while his back was

turned. At this point, one of his officers, attacking while his back was turned.

At this point, one of his officers, Lu Meng, boldly stepped forward and volunteered a fellow officer for the task of holding down the fort.

We can leave General Ling Tong in charge here, Lu Meng said.

Then I will serve as the vanguard of the relief force, while you, commander, follow with the

main army.

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