14．Everything Is Ready Except the East Wind

During the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cao Cao(曹操), the prime minister, once led a strong army down to the south to wipe out the allied army of Sun Quan(孙权)and Liu Bei(刘备). In order to cross over the Changjiang River, Cao Cao ordered his men to link up the boats by iron chains to form a bridge. The General Commander of the allied army, Zhou Yu(周瑜)decided to attack the enemy with fire. So he began to prepare for the coming battle. Suddenly a great idea occurred to him. But he needed to make use of the east wind to blow strongly in order to accomplish his plan. However, the wind did not come for days. Zhou Yu was worried about it. At that time, he got a note from Zhuge Liang(诸葛亮), the military adviser for Liu Bei, which read:“Fire will be the key weapon to fight Cao Cao. Everything is ready except the east wind(万事俱备，只欠东风).” Quickly Zhou Yu turned to Zhuge Liang for help. Zhuge told him to wait patiently for the east wind, which would come later. Two days later, the east wind came, which helped Zhou Yu burn Cao Cao's boats, and in the end, the allied army defeated Cao Cao's army.