Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms podcast.

This is episode 97.

Before we pick up where we left off, I have a quick correction.

In the last episode, I mispronounce the name of one of the cities under Guan Yu's command

that surrendered to Sun Quan.

It's the city of Nanjun, not Nan Zheng, as I had pronounced it.

I got it mixed up with another city.

I didn't catch that mistake until after I recorded the whole episode,

and it was a small enough mistake that I was not going to go back and re-record the whole thing,

so my apologies for that slip-up.

Anyway, last time, while Guan Yu was busy laying siege to Fan Cheng,

the forces of Dong Wu mounted a sneak attack and took over his home base of Jing province,

along with several of the other key cities in the region.

Cao Cao then directed an attack that repelled Guan Yu and broke his siege on Fan Cheng.

Defeated and now stranded in hostile territory with no home to go back to, Guan Yu was

filled with immense regret and impotent rage, and at a loss for what to do next.

His provisions officer, Zhao Lei, told him, with our situation so dire, we should send someone to our capital Chengdu to ask for help

while we take the land route to Jing province to retake the city.

Guan Yu agreed and sent the advisors Ma Liang and Yi Ji to raise westward tour Chengdu

to ask Liu Bei to send help. Meanwhile, he led his army

toward Jing province, with him leading the way, while his son Guan Ping and the officer

Liao Hua brought up the rear. Meanwhile, having broken the siege on Fan Cheng, the general

...