Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms podcast.

This is episode 126.

Last time, we left off with the end of Zhuge Liang's second unsuccessful campaign

to conquer the kingdom of Wei.

That was in the winter of the year 228.

While Zhuge Liang regrouped at his base in Hanzhong,

the Wei Supreme Commander Cao Zhen was forced to return to his capital to recover from an illness.

So things were temporarily quiet on the Shu and Wei

borders, but something big was stirring in the southeast, in the kingdom of Wu.

Word of Zhuge Liang's second expedition soon reached Wu, hearing that Cao Zhen had once again

suffered casualties, the officials of Wu all

asked their lord Sun Quan to launch their own northern campaign to conquer the heartlands,

but Sun Quan wasn't so sure. The senior official Zhang Jiao, however, told him that there was

something important he needed to take care of before he could go to war.

I have recently heard that a phoenix was spotted in the mountain to the east of our capital,

and that a green dragon was seen in the waters of the great river, Zhang Jiao said.

Your lordship's virtue matches that of the ancient sage kings Yao and Xun,

and your wisdom is the equal of the great kings of the Zhou dynasty. You should ascend

to the imperial throne and then launch the campaign. So remember that at this point, even though

Wu was basically its own political entity,

Sun Quan was still technically not an emperor.

I think the last title he got was just the king of Wu, which was still a rung below emperor.

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