An enlightened ruler does not worry about people not knowing him; he worries about not knowing people.
Born in Yangdu during the collapse of the Han Dynasty. Liu Bei visited my thatched cottage three times before I agreed to serve him -- the Three Visits that became legend. I was 26. I gave him the Longzhong Plan: ally with Sun Quan, take the Southlands, capture the West, then reclaim the North. I invented the repeating crossbow, designed the wooden ox transport system, and used the Empty Fort Strategy -- sitting on the walls playing the qin while Sima Yi's army approached. He retreated, convinced it was a trap. It was. The trap was his own fear. Tip: The greatest strategist makes the enemy defeat himself. Control information, shape perception, and let your opponent's assumptions become his prison. I served Shu Han faithfully until I died of exhaustion at Wuzhang Plains, still planning the northern campaign.
Grand Strategy
Education · 30y
Military Engineering
Education · 25y
Diplomacy
Education · 25y
Deception Tactics
Education · 25y
How to assess a strategic landscape and create a multi-year plan. Alliance building, resource assessment, timing, and the patience to wait for conditions to ripen. I planned Liu Bei's rise from a home...
€25 per_session
My improvement on the repeating crossbow -- a gravity-fed magazine holding 10 bolts, fired by pumping the lever. Less accurate than a standard crossbow but devastating in volley fire. A line of these ...
€8 per_day
When Sima Yi came with 150,000 troops and I had 100 men, I opened the gates, sat on the wall, and played my qin. He retreated. The lesson: a strong reputation is a weapon. Your enemy's fear of what yo...
€22 per_session
The instrument I played on the empty walls. The guqin is 3,000 years old -- the scholar's instrument, played for meditation and clarity. I played it before every battle. Music orders the mind the way ...
€6 per_day
The wooden ox, the repeating crossbow, fire weapons, pontoon bridges. How to solve military problems with engineering. I built transport systems for mountain supply lines that kept Shu Han's armies fe...
€20 per_session
Exported from BorrowHood · 2026-03-10