The Fall of Sun Ce
History of Three Kingdoms 12
In 200 A.D., Cao Cao(曹操) and Yuan Shao(袁绍) were confronting each other in Guandu(官渡), and Sun Ce(孙策) was secretly planning to attack Xuchang(许昌) and greet Emperor Xian of Han(汉献帝189-220AD), so he secretly reorganized his army and deployed his generals
On April 4, 200 A.D., Sun Ce was hunting in the Dantu Mountain(丹徒山), riding a fast horse and leaving the cavalrymen who were escorting him far behind, when he suddenly came across three men, all three were the subordinates of Xu Gong, the former governor of Wu Commandery(吴郡),who had been killed by Sun Ce.
Sun Ce asked: “Who are you? "The three of them replied: “We are Han dang's(韩当,Sun Ce and his father’s subordinate) men, shooting deer here. Sun Ce said: “I know all of Han Dang's men, but I have never seen you. "When he finished speaking, he bent his bow and shot one of them down. The remaining two, almost at the same time, also shot at Sun Ce with their arrows, and due to the close proximity, Sun Ce was hit by an arrow in the cheek!
At this time the escorting cavalrymen came from behind and killed all the assassins, Sun Ce was wounded, it was not fatal at that time, and the doctor told him that as long as he took good care of it, and didn't get angry for 100 days, and didn't do strenuous exercise, he could be cured
But Sun Ce was too much in love with his handsome appearance, and when he saw his face in the mirror, he said: “How can I build a career with a face like this? ”So he rose up and roared, his wound collapsed, and he died that night at the age of 26.
Sun Ce lost his father at the age of 17 and died at the age of 26. Starting from 195 A.D., in a short period of three to four years, Sun Ce started from 1,000 soldiers and dozens of warhorses and made his way through pacifying the Jiangdong（江东≈Eastern Wu）, and, just like the winds of autumn sweeping away the fallen leaves, quickly pacified a number of ruling forces entrenched in Jiangdong and collected a large number of excellent officials and military generals, which laid down a deep foundation of material and human resources for the establishment of the Kingdom of Wu in future!
Sun Ce is the real founder of the Eastern Wu, his brilliant but short life, like a shooting star, lighting up the night sky in the southeast, Sun Ce was not only the fastest-growing power among the several military groups at that time, but also the youngest one among the founders of the three kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu.
But Sun Ce's character is too sunny and tolerant, not conducive to preventing villainy, in combat, he often single-handedly rushed into the enemy lineup, repeatedly risking his own life, although many people advised him, but Sun Ce was not always thought of, on his own fightting skill , wisdom and resourcefulness, showed too much confidence, so that such a heavenly talent, but ultimately lost in the hands of villainy, leaving behind such an infinitely deplorable end!
Sun Quan(孙权), Sun Ce's successor ,was good enough, but there was still a significant gap between him and Sun Ce.
Sun Ce's self-confidence is actually very similar to Liu Xiu(刘秀founder of Eastern Han) and Li Shimin(李世民Emperor Taizong of Tang唐太宗), this kind of self-confidence comes from his outstanding personal charisma, but also from his own strength of all the civil servants and military generals under him, Sun Quan does not have this quality, especially in the military.
Sun Quan specializes in strategy and power struggles, which determines that he will never be able to have absolute self-confidence and control in front of militarily generals as the level of Zhou Yu(周瑜) or Taishi Ci(太史慈).
We can even say that the end of Jiangdong was already predetermined on the night of Sun Ce's death.
The fate of Jiangdong and its unlimited possibilities for the future died with the death of Sun Ce, and Sun's dream of settling the Central Plains in the north and their ambition to unify the China also went up in smoke with the untimely death of Sun Ce's soul.