Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms podcast.

This is episode 99.

Last time, Cao Cao was suffering from really bad headaches.

One of his advisors recommended that he seek out the miracle

healer Hua Tuo, and Cao Cao promptly sent someone to invite the doctor. After checking

Cao Cao's pulse, Hua Tuo said, Your Highness's headaches are caused by a malignant humor inside your skull,

where trapped air and fluid are building up.

Medicine will do you no good. Here's my recommendation. First, I will give you an anesthesia.

Then I will use a sharp axe to cut open your skull to release the trapped air and fluid.

Only then will the root cause be eliminated.

Are you trying to kill me? Cao Cao said angrily.

But your highness, have you not heard about how I treated Guan Yu? He had a poison arrow wound

on his right arm. I scraped the poison off his bone, and he showed no sign of fear.

So what does your highness have to worry about with such a minor ailment?

A hurting arm can be scraped, but how can a head be split open?

Cao Cao shot back.

You must be a good friend of Guan Yu's, and you're trying

to use this opportunity to avenge him. So Cao Cao had his men arrest Hua Tuo and interrogate

him under torture. Now, the novel means to portray Cao Cao as paranoid here, but in all

honesty, if I was living in third-century

China, I would probably have the same reaction to somebody proposing to take an axe to my skull.

One of Cao Cao's advisors tried to talk him into letting Hua Tuo go, since he's such a rare talent.

...