Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms podcast.

This is episode 140.

Last time, Jiang Wei had launched another invasion of the north,

and Sima Jiao was sent to stop him.

Sima Zhao did a pretty bad job, losing his top general and getting himself trapped on Iron

Cage Mountain, a tight spot with just one road down from the top, and that road was being

blocked by Jiang Wei.

At the top of the mountain, Sima Zhao and his 6,000 men were holed up, and relying on a small spring for water, but that spring could only sustain about a hundred people.

Seeing his men suffering from thirst and his only escape route blocked, Sima Zhao looked

up to the heavens and sighed.

I am going to die here.

One of his staffers now said, Long ago, Gong Gong, a great general of the Eastern Han,

was trapped, but he prayed to a well and a sweet spring flowed from it. Why don't we try that?

Well, it's not like Sima Zhao had any other bright ideas, so prayer it was. He went to the small

spring at the top of the mountain and prayed. I came on imperial decree to repel the Shu forces.

If it is destined that I should die, then let this spring dry up, and I will slit my own throat and allow my men to surrender.

But if my allotted time is not yet up, then I pray that heaven will soon bless me with a sweet spring so that we can save

all my men.

As soon as he finished this prayer, water started flowing from the spring non-stop.

So I guess heaven has other plans for Sima Zhao.

Meanwhile, at the foot of the mountain, Jiang Wei figured that he had

Sima Zhao right where he wanted, Jiang Wei told his officers,

...