To Borrow Arrows with Thatched Boats
One day, Zhou Yu ordered Zhuge Liang to make 100,000 arrows (箭) in ten days. Zhou Yu thought it was impossible, but Zhuge Liang said, "Give me three days." Then he asked Lu Su to lend him 20 boats, and the soldiers put some scarecrows (稻草人) in line on the boats. He reminded Lu Su not to tell Zhou Yu what was happening.
When Lu Su came again to see Zhuge Liang, he found nothing unusual. Nothing happened on the second day, either. In the small hours (凌晨) of the third day, Zhuge Liang invited Lu Su for a boat ride. The 20 boats were tied together with strong ropes. Zhuge'sfleetwent towards the camp of Cao Cao. The surface of the river was covered with thick mist (雾) all over. People could hardly see each other on the river. When Zhuge's fleet got close to the Cao camp before dawn (黎明) , Zhuge Liang ordered his soldiers to shout and beat drums heavily to pretend an attack. But Zhuge and Lu Su only sat inside one boat drinking wine to enjoy themselves.
As soon as the Cao camp heard the shouting and drum beating, they mistook it for a surprise attack by the Zhou Yu camp. Since they could see nobody on the river, they had to order 3,000 soldiers to shoot arrows to stop the unexpected attack. The front of the scarecrows was quickly full of arrows. After a while, Zhuge Liang had his fleet turned around to get the other side of the scarecrows to face the Cao camp. When both sides were full of arrows, the day broke. Zhuge Liang ordered his soldiers to return. The soldiers shouted in excitement, "Thank you, Cao Cao, for your arrows." After they got back to their camp, they collected more than 100,000 arrows in total from the scarecrows.
