Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms podcast.

This is episode 96.

Last time, Guan Yu was riding high after he crushed the army that Cao Cao has sent

to try to stop his attack on

the city of Fan Cheng. But while he was concentrating on laying siege to the city, the Dongwu

forces were planning a sneak attack on his home base of Jing province. Now Guan Yu was on

guard against Dongwu because the veteran Dongwu general,

Lu Meng, was overseeing the forces garrisoned at the key location of Lu Kou. To lure Guan Yu into

complacency, Dong Wu replaced Lu Meng with the crafty, but relatively young and unknown, Lu Xun.

As soon as Lu Xun took over command of the forces at Lu Kou,

he sent an envoy to pay his respects to Guan Yu.

At this moment, Guan Yu was still recovering from an arrow wound,

so his army was not yet on the move.

One day, he got word that Lu Meng was

deathly ill, and that Sun Quan had appointed Lu Xun to take his place, and that an envoy from

Lu Xun was there to see him. Guan Yu summoned the envoy, pointed at him, and said,

Your lord Sun Quan is foolish to appoint a boy as general,

which, yeah, is not really the most diplomatic thing to say.

The envoy kneeled and replied,

General Liu sent me to deliver a letter and gifts to congratulate you

and to ensure good relations between us.

We hope you will accept them.

...