The real cause of death of Zhou Yu

The most unlikely cause of Zhou Yu's death is being "angry to death", because anger will not kill anyone.

Unless emotional excitement causes cerebral hemorrhage, myocardial infarction, acute heart disease, or genetic disease complication syndrome (excluding malignant tumors), sudden death will never be caused by "angry death". This can be divided into active death or accidental death, which will be discussed in detail below.

Besieged and forced to death

First of all, let’s start with the active forced to death. In “The Three Kingdoms” Zhou Yu, it describes how Zhou Yu was blocked by the defender Zhao Yun when he attacked Jingzhou City. He was also chased by the four ambushed soldiers from Wei and Yan. Unfortunately, he fell off his horse due to his anger and had to retreat. Finally, he was urged to retreat by Kong Ming Xiu Shu. Because the weapon could not accommodate people, he sighed and "died after shouting several times." Or in "Three Kingdoms", Zhou Yu led an army of 50,000 people, but Liu Bei and Kong Ming blocked the way with 10,000 people, and Zhang Fei used 10,000 people to seize the back road. Zhou Yu advanced and retreated in embarrassment, and fled to Baqiu. He couldn't eat or drink, his head and face were swollen," and finally he "could not bear the disease" and died. These records all show that Zhou Yu's march was stalled and he was blocked by people, which caused illness.

However, Liu Bei had just married Sun Quan's sister and was in the honeymoon period, so he would not go to war to attack Zhou Yu.

Suffered an illness on the way

"Three Kingdoms. Wu Shu. "Zhou Yu's Biography": "(Zhou) Yu returned to Jiangling to prepare his luggage, but died of illness in Baqiu." It is clearly stated that the cause of death was "died of illness on the way." According to Sun Quan's policy, Zhou Yu was appointed the prefect of Nanjun and settled in Jiangling. Zhou Yu had gone to Beijing to see Sun Quan's proposal to seize Shu. Therefore, the geographical location from east to west was Wujun, Baqiu, and Jiangling. After Zhou Yu left Sun Quan, he passed by Dongting Lake. Baqiu died halfway before reaching Jiangling, his territory.

This is the simplest and most reasonable cause of death. Zhou Yu died of illness.

Comparison of the strength of the two sides

If calculated before the Chibi War, Liu Bei had more than 20,000 troops. However, after the war, Liu Bei’s armed forces controlled Wuling, Changsha, Guiyang and Ling. The four counties of Ling are all located south of the Yangtze River. Coupled with the defection of tens of thousands of people from Lei Xu, Liu Bei plus the original Jiangxia County, Liu Bei owned five counties in the land, with more than tens of thousands of soldiers, almost on par with Sun Quan.

At the time of Red Cliff, Zhou Yu only led 10,000 people (the other 10,000 were led by Cheng Pu), and the tribe handed over to Lu Su before his death was left with more than 4,000 people. Zhou Yu still returned to Beijing to propose to Sun Quan, Therefore, he will not lead many armed forces, and the main army should be retained in Gangneung.

One is traveling lightly, and the other is having many soldiers and a vast territory. It is not surprising to launch a surprise attack no matter when and where.

The incident occurred in Baqiu

Baqiu is a good military point. If Liu Bei attacked and killed Zhou Yu, he would bully Zhou Yu because of his small number of soldiers, and secondly, he could attack Jiangling, which Liu Bei could easily attack. A ghost town without a coach. However, Liu Bei betrayed his alliance with Sun Quan because of this, and Sun Quan might lead his troops to take revenge. Liu Bei had to think carefully. Later, although Lu Su offered Jiangling to Liu Bei in terms of diplomatic peace talks, it does not rule out that Liu Bei had already prepared to change the city through negotiations. Liu Bei also owned Jiangxia County (Liu Qi's old headquarters) at that time, which could be used as a bargaining chip in exchange. The best way to use troops is to attack the city.

This is also the biggest threat to Zhou Yu's takeover of Shu. There is a saying that when a mantis stalks a cicada, the oriole behind is the most fearful thing. Zhou Yu only cares about the mediocrity of Liu Zhang in Yizhou, but forgets that Liu Bei is behind. If Zhou Yu succeeds, Liu Bei will The betrayal will be extremely fatal. You can refer to the historical examples of Guan Yu's Northern Expedition to Xiangfan and Lu Meng's sneak attack to seize the throne.

Discussion on accidental death

Let’s start with the discussion on accidental death. There are many factors involved in spontaneous and unforced deaths, but they are not difficult to compare.

Acclimatization

Death due to acclimatization is the most unlikely. Zhou Yu is good at naval warfare. When he went to Beijing, Sun Quan and Jiangling station also traveled east and west by boat. It does not consume any physical strength compared to walking on land. It requires It is said that Zhou Yu was seasick on the river or suffered from vomiting and diarrhea. It is extremely possible that he died because he was not good at boating. Moreover, Baqiu is still to the east of Jiangling. It would be a big joke if Zhou Yu could not adapt to the climate of Baqiu in the Yangtze River Basin and Jiangling where he had fought hard for more than 10 years. Because the Battle of Chibi is known as Cao's army's acclimatization, if Zhou Yu's army is also acclimatized, the Battle of Chibi will not have any issues with the terrain or the abandonment of horses.

Suffering from infectious diseases

Infectious diseases such as plague or miasma generally have to go deep into the southwest area. The plague will not be everywhere between Dongting Lake and Poyang Lake. Otherwise, in the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao and Zhou Yu would have had equal chances of getting sick. Then Zhou Yu and Cheng Pu would have been lucky enough to win, as they all expected the other to get sick and die. Catching a cold will not kill you, nor will eating a bad stomach for a while. You will die from a sudden illness, unless it is a strong virus like the Black Death.

Old wounds recurred

Whether it is what "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" said: "The arrows and spears split again and fell under the horse." Or what "Three Kingdoms" said: "Zhou Yu said "Come on, the gold sore is broken." This refers to the fact that Zhou Yu was injured by an arrow when he besieged Nanjun, and he could not recover afterwards, or he had tetanus, which may have been caused by poisoning the arrows, leading to rheumatic or bronchial lesions. If there is another accident, even a small situation like choking on drinking water, the old disease can relapse and lead to death.

We do not rule out the possibility that a harmless illness can turn into a serious and fatal disease if accumulated too much.

Zhou Yu's Will

"Jiang Biao Biography": "Dao encountered a sudden illness, and he treated himself yesterday, and he continued to recover without any damage." It means that Zhou Yu once contracted an acute illness and treated himself, but he asked Sun Quan : "Life is subject to death, and cultivation is short-lived. I am sincere and regretful, but I regret that my ambition has not been fulfilled and I will no longer follow the teachings and orders." Wanxi, whose ambition has not been fulfilled, also told Lu Su about the future affairs. It seems that Zhou Yu knows that time is fleeting. Unfavorable, it feels a bit generous.

Being able to recover quickly in the face of disease can confirm that it is not an acute infectious disease and will not cause death at the first smell of poisonous gas. However, the news of disappointment showed that the condition must be very serious, or perhaps the previous statement to Sun Quan that he was fine was just a courtesy, but in fact Zhou Yu was seriously ill.

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