COMPREHENSIVE MIRROR IN AID OF GOVERNANCE: VOLUME 31

THE REIGN OF JIN

THE REBELLION OF LIU YU

...is the best strategy. [Huan] Qian Huan Qian was a cousin of the usurper Huan Xuan and a high-ranking general and the others insisted on an offensive, so [Huan] Xuan dispatched Wu Fuzhi and Huangfu Fu one after another to head north. [Huan] Xuan was gripped by an extraordinary degree of worry and fear.

Someone asked him: "[Liu] Yu and his followers are merely a motley crew, weak and insignificant. Their momentum will surely lead to nothing; why does Your Majesty worry so deeply?"

[Huan] Xuan replied: "Liu Yu is a hero of the age, capable of standing alone in his generation. Liu Yi Another leader of the uprising comes from a family that does not have even a single dan A "dan" (石) was a unit of dry measure, roughly 100 liters, used here to show he had no grain reserves of grain stored, yet he will wager a million on a single toss of the Chupu An ancient board game involving dice, often played for high stakes dice. He Wuji is the very image of his uncle Referring to the famous general Liu Laozhi. If such men unite to undertake a great cause, how can you say they will fail?"

Huan Qian and He Danzhi encamped their forces at Mount Fuzhou Located near modern-day Nanjing. [Liu] Yu first sent his weakest soldiers to ascend the mountain, ordering them to display a great many banners and flags. He had them pour oil onto tree branches and set them ablaze. The light of the fires filled the valleys and mountainsides. [Huan] Xuan was unable to gauge the true size of the enemy force.

[Liu] Yu then divided his forces with Liu Yi and others into several units and launched a sudden assault on [Huan] Qian's army. They all fought a "death-defying battle" original: "shusi zhan" (殊死戰), meaning fighting without regard for their own lives; there was not a single man who did not fight with the strength of a hundred. At that time, a fierce northeast wind began to blow. [Liu] Yi’s army set more fires, and the smoke and dust filled the heavens. The drums...