Chapter 263

This chapter focuses a lot on the relationship between Sima Yi and Liaoyuan Huo. Right before this, Xiao Meng died, and Sima Yi caused her death by telling Cao Cao about Xiao Meng's assassination plans. Naturally Liaoyuan Huo is angry, and not even his duty to Sima Yi is enough to dissuade his anger. This chapter is probably the starting point of Liaoyuan Huo leaving Sima Yi and following his own path. And at the end, Liaoyuan Huo brings up their shared dream, and this time Sima Yi no longer finds the dream amusing. If it is Sima Yi on the throne, then the Handicapped Warrior coming for his life is Liaoyuan Huo, and it would be a major foreshadowing of what could happen later in the story.

CH 336-340

Yuan Fang....is a FUCKING GENIUS!

Okay, so Yuan Fang has done some incredibly smart things before, but I think this takes the crown. So before this Yuan Fang made Gongzun San commit suicide, defeated Xun Yu, defeated Guo Jia while outnumbered 10 to 1, and so on. Well this time....this needs a new paragraph. And major spoilers so don't read ahead if you don't want to have the scheme ruined.


So the Yuan army and the Cao army are fighting the Battle of Guandu. And Cao Cao is losing big time. Just before this though, Cao Cao interrogated Xu You and found out that all of the Yuan rations was at Gushi. And then the Yuan army attacks the Cao army at different points and pins them all down in their fortifications. And then the two Yuan brothers figure out what Yuan Fang is planning and takes action to take all the credit. They move in for a good location because Cao Cao is being lured out.



And Cao Cao does move out, and he takes command of his special army. So the third youngest brother is waiting at the right location when he hears reports that the first brother is coming to take the spot. The two armies move close, and then a fight breaks out. The third brother is all panicking and stuff and tells someone to get the troops separated. Then the scene cuts to the first brother (Yuan Tan, I just remembered his name) riding over with an arrow sticking out of his shoulder. They're all confused and then at this point it's chaos and it's obvious that the Cao army stole the uniforms and made the two Yuan armies confused and fight each other.


Then the Cao army attacks Gushi where Yuan Fang is. The Cao army gets inside easily because they have the uniforms, but they Yuan Fang predicted everything. He has Gushi burned, and the rations were already moved out. The Cao army hopes to get away with the uniform to confuse, but Yuan Fang's army already switched out of their uniforms, and arrows are shot. And one of the target is Cao Cao. But of course, I suspect that Cao Cao is using a decoy or something because he is suppose to win Guandu in canon.


And and Wuchao Yuan Shao is miserable but he is happy at the same time. He knows that Yuan Fang had the two brothers killed but he is making Yuan Fang the leader of the Yuan clan this way. Then cut to the two brothers coming into Wuchao with their battered armies and blaming each other for allowing Cao Cao to curbstomp their asses. Yuan Shao is surprise because killing the brothers would have been something that Yuan Fang could have benefited from. Then for some reason the second brother came into Wuchao as well, and then Yuan Shao finally caught onto Yuan Fang's big scheme. Yes, Wuchao is burned as well, with the Yuan Fang army disguised as Cao Cao's soldiers.


So in one move Yuan Fang lures Cao Cao and defeats him, kills the three brothers, and eliminates the head of the Yuan clan. This is quite the scheme, and it is brilliant. Even Yuan Shao is glad that he made his son so competent. At this point, I guess Yuan Fang is the top among the Eight Geniuses.

Chapter 285

Yuan Shu delivers his last words here, words that are straightforward and truthful. Is it not true that the warlords are only trying to make themselves look good by using highfalutin words? Is it not true that the people are being led like mindless sheep? This is the reason for Yuan Shu's desire to be Emperor Zhongjia. He truly wants to help the people. He realizes that Imperial Han is an empty name, and that it's time for a new dynasty to appear. Because he is so honest and idealistic, he is given a bad name. What a hypocrisy. The one who is honest is seen as corrupt. The ones who live in lies are seen as righteous. Where is the justice in this?

  

Sima Yi

This guy is a genius. Although he is not one of the Eight Geniuses, he is on par with them. Sima Yi is known for serving Cao Cao and competing against Zhuge Liang in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but in The Ravages of Time, he is the head of the Sima clan, a wealthy merchant family. He appears before he is suppose to in the novel, and he has at his disposal the Handicapped Warriors, the assassin group that includes Xiao Meng and Liaoyuan Huo (Zhao Yun). And using them as tools, Sima Yi plays a hand in killing Dong Zhuo's head advisor Lu Xun, killing Dong Zhuo, and preventing Cao Cao from taking Xuzhou.

After Cao Cao tears apart the Sima clan, Sima Yi joins Cao Cao. However, it may or may not be from loyalty because Sima Yi accepts the Dark Arts of War. In this case, Sima Yi probably wants to wait for the right moment before killing Cao Cao....much like in real life where he takes over after Wei is established. At this point, instead of competing against Zhuge Liang, Sima Yi cooperates with him to defeat Guo Jia at Xuzhou. In addition to that, Sima Yi causes trouble to the Yuan forces at Guandu by getting Xu You to help Cao Cao. And I haven't even gone into details about how he outsmarts Lu Bu. This guy is a genius.

Zhang Fei

My favorite of the Peach Brothers, Zhang Fei knows what needs to be done to make Liu Bei a successful sovereign. While Liu Bei would be content to live as a sandal maker, Zhang Fei uses tricks and cunning ideas to elevate Liu Bei's status. So not only his he one of the strongest warriors, he is also meticulous and thinks far ahead (not like Dynasty Warriors where he is portrayed as a brute). Zhang Fei fights Lu Bu equally in many encounters (not really, he gets whooped once and has Guan Yu to help in another).

In addition to this, Zhang Fei is a great artist (apparently this is a skill that not many know), and he happens to be able to copy handwriting. So all he has to do is copy the lord of Xuzhou's handwriting (he does) and he writes a will making Liu Bei the governor of the place. Afterward Zhang Fei loses the place on purpose to Lu Bu to get Liu Bei to realize that being blindly loyal will harm the people. As Zhang Fei says: There is a method to my madness.

Liu Bei

This is the man of benevolence, the man who's reputation is greater than any other. This is Liu Bei, the man who always gets his ass kicked and always rises back up to power. He is one third of the Peach Brothers, the most loyal of loyal individuals. And.....he is an excellent judge of character. No seriously, that doesn't sound like such a good ability, but it's damn useful. If a lord has a lot of people on his side, it's damn useful to know who is a traitor and who is not. Or else the lord will end up like Niu Fu (of course, Niu Fu willingly sacrificed himself to destroy Lu Bu).

But anyways, Liu Bei's most trustworthy officers are Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, and they have to work hard to make sure that Liu Bei isn't cheated of anything. Liu Bei is sort of has a mood swing whenever he has an epiphany, and then he becomes a scary individual. As a character, I like him way better than Guan Yu but less than Zhang Fei. Heck, I think the only reason I don't like the Peach Brothers is because of Guan Yu. Liu Bei will end up with Shu at the end, but as of right now, he is in hiding with Yuan Shao.

Guan Yu

.....alright. I guess it's finally time to do the Peach Brothers, starting with Guan Yu. The reason why I delayed doing one of the three is that they aren't my favorite characters in the story....that and I'm running out of characters to do. So let's begin with Guan Yu, the legendary warrior.

Guan Yu is easily one of the most powerful officers in the story. He shows his power first when he defeats Hua Xiong in a duel. Keep in mind that Hua Xiong killed eight other officers before this, and Guan Yu just comes along and one hits the guy. Then he shows that he can fight Lu Bu equally on many of the encounters that they have. And against Sun Ce, he fights the guy to a draw (I'm guessing that it's a draw because the manhua didn't show the fight). Even when he moves with Cao Cao for a while, Guan Yu keeps his loyalty to Liu Bei. In fact, that's probably why I don't like Guan Yu that much. Where is his flaw? Other than the fact that he's not genius level smart. At least Lu Bu has hubris. And I'm sorry if this is short. You can probably tell that Guan Yu isn't well liked by me. But I at least recognize his ability.

Zhuge Liang (200th post BTW)

Seventh genius Zhuge Liang, famous for being Liu Bei's most powerful advisor during the Three Kingdoms conflict. Well, in The Ravages of Time, this guy has not officially chosen to work for Liu Bei, but he definitely favors him. As with all other geniuses of Water Mirror's school, Zhuge Liang is seen wearing the hat and mask.

Zhuge Liang makes his first appearance in the contest to decode Dong Zhuo's message. Unlike the other strategists, Zhuge Liang figures out that Dong Zhuo was going to burn Luoyang. Only Sima Yi is able to match Zhuge Liang's methodical ways of decoding the message. In fact, Sima Yi successfully predicts Zhuge Liang being chosen as the Crouching Dragon.

Unlike some of the other geniuses, Zhuge Liang would rather avoid the Dark Arts of War. He and Xun Yu would rather establish principles for the people to live by instead of using heinous methods to bring peace faster. Zhuge Liang works once again with Sima Yi during Cao Cao's Xuzhou campaign, and they both defeat the powerful Guo Jia. Later, during Liu Bei's attack against Yuan Shu, Zhuge Liang ponders about the lives of men.

Zhuge Liang has yet to make much of an appearance, but he has already captured my attention as being one of the most skilled and benevolent characters in the series. After Jia Xu, Sun Ce, and Lu Bu, Zhuge Liang is my favorite character. Of course, Sima Yi is tied with Zhuge Liang, so I'll make a list of my favorites later.

Gao Shun

Gao Shun is Lu Bu's general, and he's a damn good one at that. He leads the Chargers, a fearless vanguard cavalry troop that usually decimates the enemy. He doesn't engage in duels like other generals, but he's a frightening person to fight.

For example, Gao Shun does has his crowning moment of awesomeness when he, crippled by a wound from Xiahou Dun, straps himself to a horse and tries to save Lu Bu at White Gate Tower. He kills a lot of the traitors, but is killed by the leader of the Tiger and Leopard Cavalry. This is yet another display of loyalty in The Ravages of Time. Suddenly Guan Yu's reputation of loyalty doesn't seem so special now, huh? Actually, I would like to say that many people are able to express loyalty in an excess amount, so Guan Yu really isn't the epitome of a loyal soldier.

Cheng Pu

Actually, not a lot is known about Cheng Pu. He served Sun Jian and then Sun Ce. As a general, he is pretty solid. He is not given a lot of screentime, and he doesn't get many opportunities to have duels or perform the one man army attacks. He is reliable, and strong minded.

His greatest achievement so far is killing the last of Yu Ji's troops. Yu Ji thinks that Cheng Pu is under hypnosis, but it is just an act. Cheng Pu and his troops (along with the help of Pang Tong) ambush Yu Ji and kills the remaining Taiping Rebels.

As a officer with not a lot of screentime, there's not much to say about Cheng Pu. He's a solid general, and a loyal person as well.

Da Qiao and Xiao Qiao

So, the famous beauties of the Eastern regions. One becomes married to Zhou Yu. The other to Sun Ce. All thanks to Sun Quan and his smart investment in putting fear to the father Qiao. After one second of screentime (or more if you are looking at them) these two disappear. Nothing more, nothing less.

Yuan Shao

Yuan Shao is the warlord of the northern region and the strongest warlord. His clan is always in internal problems, and there is essentially no unity. The sons compete with each other for succession, and the clan elders are stuck between Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, and loyalty to Han. After all, the Yuan clan has the reputation of being loyalists. This reputation is most important to Yuan Shao, and he does whatever to keep that good reputation.

Because of this, he leaves the future of the clan in Yuan Fang's hands. Since Yuan Fang is the illegitimate son of Yuan Shao, he can do whatever he needs to rule. And Yuan Shao has decided to entrust the future to Yuan Fang.

As a character, Yuan Shao is full of hypocrisy because of his love for reputation. He doesn't have a lot of notable generals like Cao Cao does, but he has more troops, and that's what seems to matter at the moment (Guandu).

Xu Chu

Xu Chu is one of Cao Cao's best generals, and it's not hard to see why. His size towers over everyone else, and he has the fighting power to back it up. He wears some heavy horse armor; these are so thick that weapons have a hard time getting through. He is initially sent as a spy by Lu Bu, but Xu Chu defects to Cao Cao after learning about Dong Zhuo's death.

Xu Chu's first appearance pits him against Liaoyuan Huo, the person who fought Lu Bu to a stalemate. Xu Chu immediately dominates the match, but Huo manages to get in one shot to the neck that fatally wounds Xu Chu. Guo Jia even remarks that if Xu Chu was with Dong Zhuo, Lu Bu would not have succeeded. Against Lu Bu at Puyang, though, Xu Chu gets dominated without landing a single wound on Lu Bu. Against Sun Ce's army, Xu Chu fights Zhou Tai to a draw. Against the Mount Tai generals at Xiapi, Xu Chu kills all four of them.

Xu Chu is a monster. His greatest achievement so far, I think, is rescuing Cao Cao from Zhang Xiu. Pursued by an army, Xu Chu flees with Cao Cao. When crossing a deep river, Xu Chu carries the horse and Cao Cao across, while Zhang Xiu's soldiers sink into the water. Had Xu Chu not been there, Cao Cao would have surely died.