[Wen Mang – Voiceover]
[Fang and Ren sent people to welcome Quan.]
The moment those words landed, the hall froze.
So quiet that even breathing felt loud.
So quiet that if a needle dropped, it would sound like thunder.
Liu Bei raised a hand and covered his face, pain seeping through his fingers.
Earlier—earlier—he'd already felt it. A bad feeling, coiled tight in his chest, refusing to loosen.
Now it had teeth.
Mi Zhu stood rooted in place, disbelief written plainly across his face, as if his mind was still struggling to accept what his ears had just heard.
Guan Yu narrowed his phoenix eyes.
Sharp. Cold.
He didn't speak—he simply fixed his gaze on Mi Fang, examining him as one would inspect a blade suspected of having chipped.
Mi Fang broke first.
Tears poured out in an instant. He collapsed forward, clutching Liu Bei's leg like a drowning man grabbing driftwood, his words tumbling out between sobs.
"My Lord! My Lord! I gave up my position as Chancellor of Pengcheng for you!"
"I followed you through Ye City, Runan, Xinye—Changban Slope!"
"I have been loyal to the bone!"
"This must be some treacherous scheme by that Cao traitor—or Eastern Wu plotting behind our backs!"
Mi Zhu finally moved.
His shock hardened into anger. He strode forward and raised his hand.
Slap!
Slap!
Two crisp blows—fronthand and backhand—landed squarely on Mi Fang's face. The sound echoed in the hall.
Mi Fang froze, stunned, his cheek burning.
"Elder Brother…?"
Guan Yu shook his head and spoke, cutting in before the hall could erupt.
"My momentum at the time was unstoppable. Why would Zifang betray me?"
"There must be hidden circumstances. Let us wait and see more."
The others exchanged glances and slowly nodded.
The Mi family's closeness to Liu Bei was no secret. Even if Mi Fang defected to Eastern Wu—what honor could he possibly gain there that surpassed what he already had?
Zhang Fei said nothing.
He merely stepped forward, positioning himself behind Mi Fang.
His eyes lingered on the back of Mi Fang's neck—quiet, heavy, thoughtful—like a butcher deciding where to cut.
[Wen Mang – Voiceover]
[Sun of a Hundred Thousand stabbed from behind. An old hometown compatriot stabbed from the front.
After destroying the seven armies, Guan Yu pressed on, besieging Xiangyang and Fancheng.
He stationed troops at Yancheng to guard against Xu Huang and sent captured prisoners toward Jiangling.
Xu Huang, stationed at Wan City, judged that Guan Yu was unsure of his true strength. Seizing the moment, he drove Guan Yu's forces back from Yancheng.
Later, reinforced by twelve battalions, Xu Huang lifted the siege of Xiangyang and Fancheng. He even invited Guan Yu to reminisce about old times.
Midway through the meeting, his tone changed abruptly.
"Reward of a thousand pieces of gold for Guan Yunchang's head!"
Guan Yu had only five thousand troops.
The defeat was devastating.]
Yet Guan Yu himself seemed unbothered.
He stroked his beard and sighed, more wistful than angry.
"Gongming and I are both from Hedong. I hail from Xie County; Gongming is from Yang County."
"In Xudu, we often interacted."
He smiled faintly.
"For him to use a ruse against me—this is merely each serving his own lord."
Kong Ming rose, expression calm but firm.
"Serving one's lord does not mean this," he said evenly.
"If he truly served his lord, he should have pretended not to know you at all."
"Using fellow townsman sentiment to lure Yunchang out, only to suddenly turn and try to kill him—this is something else entirely."
Silence followed.
No one argued.
On principle, perhaps it was not wrong.
But honorable?
Hardly.
[Wen Mang – Voiceover]
[When Guan Yu's might shook the realm, Jiang Ji and Sima Yi proposed a plan: offer Sun Quan the lands east of the river as payment, persuading him to make his move.
The plan succeeded.
Sun Quan requested, "I beg you to keep this secret and not let it leak, lest Guan Yu make preparations."
—Biography of Jiang Ji
That was why Sun Quan later presented Guan Yu's head to Cao Cao, receiving in return the title King of Wu of the Great Wei.
Thus, the Sun and Cao families formally joined forces.
Even so, Guan Yu still controlled the Han River. He held Jiangling, a natural fortress of twin cities.
In a hard fight, he still had a chance.
Then came what no one expected.
Lü Meng's White Clothes Crossing the River.
Mi Fang and Shi Ren offering up the cities.]
Mi Fang lay prostrate on the floor, trembling like a sieve, sweat pouring from him.
He dared not look up at the screen—yet he could hear it all the same.
Each word felt like a nail hammered into his heart.
His hope sank, inch by inch.
"Tsk." Zhang Fei snorted from behind him. "Eastern Wu rats, prostrating themselves like dogs."
"As a ruler, selling out an ally for glory—yet still begging with every word," Zhang Fei continued contemptuously.
"He's disgraced the names of Sun the General Who Breaks the Barbarians and Sun Bofu alike!"
Huang Yueying shook her head.
"And dragging his father and brother into it?"
"Even if Zhou Yu and Lu Su heard this across the river, they'd be furious enough to fall ill."
Kong Ming, however, noticed something else.
"So the 'Wu' in Sun-Wu… actually comes from a title granted by the Cao traitor?"
The hall stilled.
No one had ever thought of that.
They had always assumed "Wu" came from the ancient lands of Wu and Yue.
"At the time, the Cao traitor hadn't yet usurped the Han," Liu Bei argued.
"That title came from the Han court—albeit a false one."
Zhang Fei laughed bluntly, tearing away the fig leaf Liu Bei tried to paste back on.
"Come on, Big Brother."
"Second Brother's campaign was already in the tenth month."
"The Cao traitor was on his deathbed. Cao Pi was about to seize the throne and usurp the Han."
"So this 'King of Wu'—it was clearly the King of Wu of the Great Wei."
Liu Bei fell silent.
Then memory struck him—this year's Wei Feng rebellion, followed almost immediately by Cao Cao's death.
Why didn't I hold out a little longer in Hanzhong?
[Wen Mang – Voiceover]
[As for Mi Fang's act of offering the city, almost no one can understand it.
First—Mi Fang had followed Liu Bei since Xuzhou.
Arrogant, mediocre, yes—but because of his elder brother Mi Zhu and his sister Lady Mi, once Shu-Han was founded, he would have been a standard imperial uncle.
Could surrendering to Wu bring him better treatment than that?
Obviously not.
In fact, later in Eastern Wu, Yu Fan would openly curse him:
"You petty man, without loyalty or trustworthiness—how dare you speak of repaying your lord?"
"You lost two cities yet still call yourself a general. Is that not shameful?"
"The city gates you should have opened, you didn't open. The ones you shouldn't have opened, you opened instead."
"And you still want a good ending?"
Living like a rat in Eastern Wu.
So perhaps Mi Fang's surrender… had a reason?]
Finally, a lifeline.
Mi Fang sobbed, voice cracking.
"My Lord! Brother-in-law! Emperor Zhaolie!"
"Zifang must have had unavoidable difficulties!"
"It must be like Liu Feng being egged on by Meng Da!"
"The guilt lies with Shi Ren!"
Liu Bei stepped back. He stared at Mi Fang for a long moment, then let out a long sigh.
"If not for your actions," he said quietly, "how would there ever be an 'Emperor Zhaolie'?"
"I dare not claim merit!" Mi Fang kowtowed repeatedly.
"For Your Majesty's accession, Fang's contribution was only barely worth a word, utterly trivial!"
Everyone fell silent.
That… really didn't sound like praise.
Mi Zhu could no longer bear it. He bowed deeply.
"I beg my Lord to apply the law."
"Let us see what the screen says," Liu Bei replied flatly.
[Wen Mang – Voiceover]
[First—Mi Fang was not coerced by his subordinates.
The Chronicles of Wu records that even after Mi Fang surrendered the city, Jiangling's soldiers secretly plotted to retake it.
Only Lü Meng's meticulous vigilance uncovered the scheme and crushed it.
Second—it was not because defeat was inevitable.
Guan Yu held all seven of Yu Jin's armies as prisoners.
Garrison troops plus prisoners of war.
The twin-city fortress of Jiangling.
Even with Lü Meng's White Clothes Crossing the River, attacking would have been extraordinarily difficult.
Third—it could not have been coercion by Shi Ren.
Jiangling surrendered first.
Only then did Eastern Wu repeat their old trick, telling Fu Shiren:
"We've already taken Jiangling."
"How will you defend Gong'an?"
"Mi Fang—your lord's brother-in-law—has already surrendered."
"Why risk your life for that salary?"
Thus, Fu Shiren surrendered.]
With each sentence, the expressions in the hall grew darker.
Liu Bei rose and kicked Mi Fang over, glaring down at him.
"If your younger sister knew she had such an elder brother," he said coldly,
"how could she ever face me?"
Zhang Fei snarled, recalling Hao Pu's gradual hatred entering the earth.
"This Lü Meng is Has no moral bottom line—despicable and shameless!"
"Disguising as commoners, spreading lies again and again!"
"How can such a man be called a general?"
[Wen Mang – Voiceover]
[As for the reason behind Mi Fang's betrayal, history gives two explanations.
Before Guan Yu's expedition, there was the incident of burning military equipment in Nan Commandery.
Before leaving, Guan Yu threw out a harsh threat:
"I'll deal with you when I return."
This was like a granary catching fire right when an inspection was coming.
A Ming Dynasty Chief Eunuch once said:
"Off the scale, it weighs four ounces."
"On the scale, not even a thousand pounds can hold it down."
As for the specific details—to avoid a 404 error—the uploader will not elaborate.
This crime could only be used against ordinary officials.
Everyone knew Liu Bei remembered old ties.
If Mi Fang had done this under Cao Cao, there would have been only one outcome:
A cheerful invitation to the Nine Clan Elimination Game.
But Liu Bei did not even reproach him harshly.
Mi Zhu ultimately "felt ashamed and resentful, fell ill, and died a little over a year later."
Effectively—he was frustrated to death by his own younger brother.
Thus, Guan Yu's threat—"I'll deal with you when I return"—could only have been empty.
Mi Fang likely knew this.
At worst, Guan Yu would write to Liu Bei to complain.
Yet Mi Fang still surrendered.
Which means—
The matter of burning military equipment, once placed on the scale…
was something even an imperial uncle could not hold down.]