Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms podcast.

This is episode 68.

Last time, Liu Bei and his new wife, Lady Sun, decided to try to flee back to Jing province,

so on New Year's Day, they slipped out of the city of Nan Xu while Sun Quan was busy

partying with his officials. It turned out that the party was a great time to run away, because

Sun Quan got really hammered and passed out drunk in his private

quarters. After the party broke up, some of the officials got word that Liu Bei and Sun Quan's sister

had fled. By now, it was starting to get dark. These officials wanted to tell Sun Quan right away,

but he was passed out and no one could wake him,

and you weren't about to grab the lord of the Southlands by the shoulders and shake him from his drunken stupor,

so they let him sleep, and it wasn't until 7 o'clock the next morning that he woke up.

When Sun Quan finally learned that Liu Bei and Lady Sun had left, he quickly assembled his staff.

If Liu Bei gets away, it will cause trouble sooner or later, his advisor Zhang Jiao said,

We must chase him down.

So Sun Quan ordered two officers, Chen Wu and Pan Zhang, to lead 500 crack troops and go bring

back Liu Bei.

After the two officers set out, however, Sun Quan was still seething over Liu Bei's departure,

so much so that he grabbed the jade inkstone on his desk and hurled it

to the ground, smashing it into a million pieces.

My lord, the veteran general Cheng Pu said, even though your rage may shake the heavens,

I don't think Cheng Wu and Pan Zhang will be able to catch Liu Bei.

They would not dare to disobey me, Sun Quan said.

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