In the forests of Mount Longzhong in the twelfth year of Jian'an, there lived an "unusual" strategist. He waved a feather fan, yet had to measure the land from a four-wheeled carriage. His schemes were godlike, but Sima Yi was always mocking him for being "unable even to climb onto a horse."
A heavy rain nearly exposed his leg ailment, but it also opened the way for Liu Bei's third visit to his thatched cottage. Afterward, the flames at Bowang Slope illuminated him pushing his carriage onward. His coughs, suppressed through gritted teeth, mingled with the east wind at Red Cliffs. Even on the night a star fell at Wuzhang Plains, the military text in his hands still covered half of an unfinished "remedy for his legs."
This is not Zhuge Liang on an altar, but an ordinary man who spent half his life "pushing" Shu Han forward from a four-wheeled carriage. With his ingenuity, he placed the most moving piece on the board in the contest to divide the realm into three.
