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its-not-a-pen · 9 months

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[餘智傳] The 2nd Century Warlord (Part 2)

based on the story by @romanceyourdemons

Read part 1

ninth day as a second century warlord i try to tactfully ask my fake liege lord if he sent the assassin to kill my loser liege lord and it turns out the idea of using assassins never occurred to him, but now that i’ve suggested it he’s really into it. in order to save my loser liege lord i volunteer to be the one to kill him

tenth day as a second century warlord on my way back to my loser liege lord’s city i realize i won’t be able to collect my men from my fake liege lord until i bring back my loser liege lord’s head. this would have been a great thing to think of before i got myself in this situation. i go back to my loser liege lord and ask him to rescue my men, and he tells me that if he could sack my fake liege lord’s camp he already would have. that doesn’t change the fact that my men are still trapped. they’re prisoners, even. i go back to my room to sulk

eleventh day as a second century warlord i find a little caged pigeon in the rafters of my loser liege lord’s room and deduce it belonged to the assassin. without asking permission or telling my loser liege lord goodbye i let the pigeon loose and follow it north. don’t ask what i was doing in my loser liege lord’s room. it’s not important

twelfth day as a second century warlord i disguise myself as a wizard and enter the camp of the coalition leader the pigeon led me to. in the middle of my little sleight of hand performance i make eye contact with the coalition leader’s second-in-command. IT’S THE WIZARD THAT STOLE MY LOSER LIEGE LORD’S WIFE. after the banquet i corner the fake wizard and ask him what the fuck is going on and he just says “wouldn’t you like to know” and leaves. i don’t know what to say to that so i just let him go

thirteenth day as a second century warlord i’m honestly so sick of not knowing what’s going on, so i adjust my wizard costume to passably disguise myself as a woman and break into the women’s area of the camp, where sure enough my loser liege lord’s wife is. i ask her what she’s doing here and she tells me the fake wizard overheard her singing a poem she overheard on the street, not knowing it contains the coalition leader’s formation’s weaknesses. the fake wizard kidnapped her and assigned an assassin to kill her husband before they figured out the poem’s significance. she shares the first couplet with me but i’m discovered and thrown out before she can share any more. she doesn’t need to. through a bizarre coincidence of homophones, it’s the poop version of my misinformation nursery rhyme

fourteenth day as a second century warlord i go back to my loser liege lord and tell him everything, urging him to join with my fake liege lord to attack the coalition leader according to the weaknesses in the nursery rhyme. he tells me frankly that he doesn’t trust me anymore. i ask him to execute me if that’s really true, because i can’t bear to live if i can’t protect him and i can’t protect my men. he agrees to attack the coalition leader

fifteenth day as a second century warlord. due to the information in the nursery rhyme, and thanks to my loser liege lord reminding me of the weather conditions multiple times while planning our battle strategy, our alliance carries the day. my loser liege lord gets his wife back. my men tell me that our fake liege lord actually treated them really well and they’d like to stay with him if i don’t mind. i do mind, now that neither the men i love nor the man i love have any use for me, but i don’t tell them that

sixteenth day as a second century warlord i’m preparing to leave to i don’t know where, maybe to try to become a wizard for real, when my loser liege lord stops me and asks me where i’m going. he says he had hoped i would continue to work as his advisor. i was unaware i was his advisor in the first place. i agree, and he tells me he’s truly honored to have me in his service at last. he has known i am a rare and talented man with a strategic intelligence far above his ever since the day he witnessed me tying branches to my horses’ tails in six inches of mud, and could not for the life of him figure out why

The end.

Thanks for reading! Notes under the cut

CORRECTION#1: the warlord's courtesy name was incorrectly written as Yú zhī 餘知 [plentiful knowledge]. my dumbass did not realise zhī 知 [to know] is a GOD DAMN VERB. It should be zhì 智 [wisdom].

CORRECTION#2: the clothes from part one are from the WRONG DYNASTY!!! BY 1200 YEARS!!!! it's meant to be HAN not MING.

#9 Misreading the standards: Loser Liege's name is Yue, so I decided to go with Lè/Yuè 樂 [optimistic/music]. I made the Chad Liege's name Cháo 巢 [nest] which is pronounced identically to Cáo 曹, the infamous IRL warlord. Just like his IRL counterpart, he is the affable, lawful-evil boss who is kind to his employees. I went ALL OUT designing Lord Chad Chao's outfit. He's got so much drip the yangtze river is about to break its banks. Now THAT'S a main character!

#10 Wardrobe Malfunction: the soldiers are now wearing clothes from the correct dynasty. i even gave them grass sandals! I really wanted to show how utterly outclassed they are, this is the difference between a peasant militia and a professional army. (They're in the exact same poses as part 1, except more terrified).

#11 mountain-water art: man i love doing traditional style backgrounds, the white space is very pleasing. Does it make sense to camp your coalition out in the mountains? No. Is it cool? Hella.

#12 you're a wizard, hairy: my favourite detail is the pigeon from day 11 sitting on the warlord's hat. I had to cut SO MUCH from this scene because there wasn't room. There was going to be musicians, jesters and strongmen. (Based of funerary figures)

I wanted to make it clear that the Coalition Liege is the richest guy of all, but he is all style and no substance. He's got an army of dancing girls and drunk officers. You get the feeling that his Chief Strategist aka Fake Wizard aka Zhuge Liang Knockoff, disproves.

#13 Hua Mulan: RIP the Warlord's beautiful beard ;n; He's wearing one of the dancing girl's outfits and I like to think the ladies helped him do his makeup too. I wanted to add a little character moment for the Wife and Warlord. They're holding hands which is not strictly proper, but I wanted to show the intensity of the emotions.

#14 the supplicant: I really like the framing here, I wanted both faces to be visible so we can see what they're thinking.

#15 enemy of my enemy: the Warlord is finally in command and flying his standard Huáng 黃 [yellow]. He is wearing a wu guan with two pheasant feathers, for a high ranking military official.

#16 the romantic subplot: the Warlord and his Loser are tenderly holding hands while the Wife and Noble Steed looks on with approval. I wanted the handholding to be slightly awkward and kinda spontaneous, like they were both aiming for a manly, platonic hand-clasp but veered wildly off-course into homoeroticism. In the background, an oblivious Lord Chad is showing off the little wooden horse one of his new soldiers gave him (that guy's been carving it since part 1, it's high time we acknowledged his hard work).

Want to learn more about the (mostly) true story that inspired this post? Check out Romance of the Three Kingdoms! TV show, the book and the movie Red Cliff,

#second century warlord #han dynasty #romance of the three kingdoms #history #thanks for reading guys i had a blast drawing this

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cnovelartreblogs · 2 months

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tracking #cnovelartreblogs

do you make art for a smaller Chinese fandom - danmei, baihe, non-queer book, cdrama based on a book, or even cdrama NOT based on a book?

do you wish more people who are interested in smaller Chinese fandoms could see your work?

tag #cnovelartreblogs when you post, and I'll see it and be able to queue it to reblog to this blog, which currently has about 500 followers specifically interested in all kinds of less-popular-in-English-speaking-spaces Chinese fandoms! while I focus on danmei, I absolutely will reblog all the categories listed above - any type of ship, from books or shows, as long as the fandom's source material is from China!

if you're not sure what qualifies, I encourage you to visit the blog and get a general idea from the massively out of date but still basically accurate aside from the old part pinned post!

I politely request that artworks for mxtx fandoms NOT be tagged with cnovelartreblogs! I check the main tags for those fandoms every day, as long as you use those tags I should see your work. #cnovelartreblogs is intended to help me find works from smaller fandoms that are often difficult to collect. I will block people who abuse the tag and make my life more difficult, so if you put things there that don't belong, your work won't get reblogged at all, so please respect my request and don't waste my time.

thanks advance, everyone! I look forward to seeing all the things you've made!

-unforth

PLEASE REBLOG TO SPREAD THE WORD! People in small fandoms can be hard to find and I'd like to cast a wide net. <3

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wingupingu · 7 months

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#romance of the three kingdoms #three kingdoms #cao cao #my edits #solid shitposting

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nemainofthewater · 1 month

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Best character surnamed: Huang

Come and vote for the best characters with the same surname!*

What does best mean? It's up to you! Whether you love them, are intrigued by their characters, love to hate them, or they're your '2 second blorbos whose personality you made up wholesale', these are all reasons for you to vote for your favs!

*note, the surnames are not exactly the same in all the cases, as often there will be a different character. I am, however, grouping them all together otherwise things got more complicated.

Propaganda is very welcome! If I’ve forgotten anyone, let me know in the notes.

This is part of a larger series of ‘best character with X surname’ polls’. The overview with ongoing polls, winners, and future polls can be found here

#poll #legend of the condor heroes #the king's avatar #spy game #history3: trapped #DMBJ #who rules the world #under the microscope #romance of the three kingdoms #the long season #story of kunning palace

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vintagegeekculture · 2 years

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#romance of the three kingdoms #kool aid man

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mozx-yeah · 17 days

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man i havent posted here in a while

well ig have this three kingdoms comic i made at like 3am

#zhao yun #liu bei #three kingdoms #romance of the three kingdoms #dynasty warriors #mini comic #god i suck at drawing like han dynasty people

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ballpitbee · 7 months

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cehck ouot this one pixel image i made

#dynasty warriors #romance of the three kingdoms #rot3k #cao cao #guan yu #rotk

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grand-theft-carbohydrates · 7 months

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u guys ready for THE most insufferable san guo pun?

"thank you Prime Minister Cao* for giving us the arrows!" * Cǎo 草 [grass] and Cáo 曹 [Cao] are homophones

#san guo #zhuge liang #cw: puns #romance of the three kingdoms #wips

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eunuchboy · 1 year

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quick zhou yu :)

over the weekend, i watched 群英會 and 三氣周瑜 (operas) ^o^. i found that in most adaptations, zhou yu’s main color scheme is blue and pink (or with white included). that is very cute (hmm)

(for the record, my favourite is the classic 群英會 where he is played by ye shenglan *_* i could talk a lot about it! i think his looks, makeup, costume and body language are all very on point. i will probably draw it in the future.)

#yix gallery #digital art #rotk #Romance of the Three Kingdoms #zhou yu #hanfu #hanfu art

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j-august · 2 months

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Things people have said about Zhuge Liang: "The Prime Minister's calculations are divine and incomprehensible." "O Governor, you are the sport of one of Zhuge Liang's wiles." 'Sima Yi felt sad at having been tricked. "Zhuge Liang is a cleverer man than I am," said he with a sigh of resignation.' "Zhuge Liang's vile tricks are innumerable." '"The man appears like a god and disappears like a demon. He is too much for me," sighed Sima Yi.' '"His comings and goings are not human," said Sima Yi sadly.' '"While he lived, I could guess what he would do; dead, I was helpless!" said Sima Yi.' 'The people had a saying that "A dead Zhuge Liang can scare off a live Sima Yi".'

Luo Guanzhong, Romance of the Three Kingdoms (trans. C.H. Brewitt-Taylor)

#quote #quotation #Luo Guanzhong #Romance of the Three Kingdoms #Zhuge Liang #Sima Yi #(you will note he shows up a lot here)#and yet somehow Zhuge Liang never managed to conquer the Middle Lands for his boss #tragically let down by his subordinates #and outlived by Sima Yi

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journeytothewestresearch · 3 months

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I wanted to ask, is it quite likely that Sun Wukong killed heavenly soldiers or is it more pure speculation? I sent this ask before, but my old account is having problems with the messages and asks I send. If not, then I hope my question doesn't come across as me being impatient.

To my knowledge, the novel doesn't mention Monkey killing any gods, only demons, spirits, animals, and humans. Any divine figures, be they deities-turned-spirits or holy mounts, are usually reintegrated into the celestial hierarchy and not killed. Also, I don't recall the novel describing Wukong fighting the regular rank-and-file soldiers. The 100,000 soldiers mainly man the heavenly nets creating the cordon around Flower-Fruit Mountain. Monkey only fights high-ranking officers. It's like that in a lot of Chinese fiction. A common trope in Romance of the Three Kingdoms (c. 14th-century) and the Water Margin (c. 1400) is that the appearance, scream, and/or fighting ability of a great warrior is enough to hold hundreds or even thousands of foot soldiers at bay while he battles an opposing officer.

But realistically speaking, the Great Sage would have mowed through the regular soldiers like a sith lord through younglings.

#Sun Wukong #Monkey King #Journey to the West #JTTW #warfare #heavenly combat #Romance of the Three Kingdoms #Water Margin #Shuihu zhuan #Sanguo yanyi #Xiyouji #Lego Monkie Kid #LMK

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its-not-a-pen · 1 year

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[餘知傳] The 2nd Century Warlord (Part 1)

based on the story by @romanceyourdemons

art by @its-not-a-pen

first day as a second century warlord i have my men tie branches to their horses’ tails to stir up dust and make it look like there’s a lot of us but i forget it just rained so there isn’t any dust and the enemy can clearly see there’s like twenty of us all spread out in a line

second day as a second century warlord i bribe a bunch of kids to start singing a nursery rhyme i carefully crafted to spread misinformation and further my strategic ends but they change the lyrics to be about poop and the enemy isn’t misdirected at all

third day as a second century warlord i lure my enemy into a narrow valley and send a team of archers to shoot them from the high ground but there was a feral hog napping on the trail up to the overlook and they couldn’t decide whether to try and shoot it or just go around and by the time the hog woke up and left on its own the enemy had already passed safely below

fourth day as a second century warlord we attempt to join a battle on the side of the guy we want to ally with but he and the guy he’s fighting have really similar names and it’s finally dusty and i misread the standards and attack the wrong guy. so now we’re stuck with this total loser of a liege lord, because how the fuck do you explain that after a battle?

fifth day as a second century warlord and some sort of wizard wanders into camp, my loser liege lord wants to execute him for being a wizard but i convince him to let the wizard stay, because i want to do more weather-based strategies and i’m pretty sure having a camp wizard can help with that. after the welcome to the team banquet the wizard steals half the treasury and my liege lord’s wife and leaves

sixth day as a second century warlord my loser liege lord sends me to reinforce a city he’s taken, but in the confusion of leaving i forgot to take the token that would have gotten us into the city, so my men have to wait outside the city walls for like eight hours while i ride back to get it

seventh day as a second century warlord and my loser liege lord finally joins me in the city, it turns out he’s actually a pretty cool guy, and he isn’t even that mad at me for letting the wizard steal his wife. i decide to shoot my shot but i’m really nervous and keep on stalling because what if i mess up our relationship and by extension jeopardize the security of my men, and eventually he just says goodnight and goes back to his room, where an assassin is in the process of setting up to kill him

eighth day as a second century warlord and my loser liege lord tells me to fake defect to his rival warlord, the one i originally wanted to ally with, to find out if he was the one who sent the assassin and why. but my whole way over to the rival warlord i’m worried that this has something to do with the wizard thing or how awkward i made it last night

End of Part 1

This comic was made independently from the creator, I'm just a fan and these are my own interpretations.

Notes under the cut:

the title 餘知傳 [the Story of Yu Zhi], is the styled name of the Second Century Warlord. I translated 餘知 as [plentiful knowledge] since he's defined by a surplus of knowledge but a deficit in luck. It's also great for fish-based puns since it's a homophone. As a nice parallel, Loser Liege Lord's banner is a carp ;))). the art style was inspired by vintage Chinese comics.

The story is set during the Three Kingdoms period, (220 to 280 AD) natural disasters, infighting and civil unrest had dissolved the previous Han Dynasty, leading to a violent free-for-all. I based the clothes on the previous Eastern Han styles, mainly because there just weren't a lot of contemporary references from the 3K period (and it only lasted like, 60 years). I always strive for historical accuracy, however, the Han Dynasty was over 400 years long and some sources don't do a great job separating out the different fashions, so I apologise for any mistakes that occur.

2. there aren't a ton of drawings on what Han children looked like, but in general ancient kids hairstyles are pretty consistent. 9-15 yo boys had shaved heads with two little top knots, girls had natural hair in braids/buns.

3. the crossbow (back left) makes a cameo, it was associated with Zhuge Liang, famous real-life strategist from the 3K era.

4. the LLL and his wife thank the Warlord, (a noblewoman on a battlefield??? scandalous!). it shows the LLL enjoys the unconventional and the wife is not as timid as she appears. I thought it would be funny to make them look as Background Character (tm) as possible.

5. I based the wizard's design on sages from mythology. (Hey, he's not a total fraud, he invented gunpowder 800 years before the Tang dynasty!) Nice little character moment for the LLL who is shielding his wife.

6. What do soldiers do while they're waiting for 8 hours? (<-from the right) playing knucklebones with pebbles, whittling a little horse, feeding sparrows, gossiping with neighbour, drinking from his gourd, napping. A minor warlord can't afford to keep a professional army so they're most likely conscripted farmers who've had to buy their own weapons and armour, hence why they look so unimpressive.

7. LLL offers the Warlord a bitten peach. Inspired by the legend of Mizi Xia who bit into a delicious peach and gave it to the Emperor so he could taste it was well. "Bitten peach" was a byword for homosexuality in ancient China. I thought it would be SO funny if the LLL was actually smooth af and the Warlord was a like a teenaged girl crushing for the first time. He's desperate to taste that peach but is too timid to reach out >;))) man has zero game. negative game, even. truely the PS4 of homosexuals. RIP to the assassin in the back corner who was forced to watch the most awkward, cringe-fail attempt at flirting in the history of china play out.

8. this is what zero peach does to a mf. UnU

#ink drawing #comics #second century warlord #original art #ancient china #op if ur reading this im a huge fan and i love ur work #storytime #tumblr stories #history memes #romance of the three kingdoms

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romance-of-three-memes · 1 month

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The whole fiasco with Sun Ce's death in rotk already feels like wild bullshit that came out of nowhere but imagine being Zhou Yu in all that. He's away for the entire thing, he only returns when Sun Ce is dead and it wasn't mentioned that he was kept up to speed on this via correspondence or whatever.

You leave your sworn bro to go do important strategist stuff somewhere else, surely he can't get into too much trouble while you're gone, right? He's just staying at home, his mom (or like one of his moms anyway, the author felt the need to unnecessarily complicate the whole thing by splitting his historical mom into two sisters that Sun Jian married because for whatever reason men think that's really cool) is there and she's used to doing damage control for her family, what could possibly happen? And then you come back and oh, he's dead because he executed a wizard who exacted his revenge in an ironic manner, not to mention he also apparently suddenly became a tyrant because uhhh the author didn't care enough to at least put the effort into showing us the process because he was too busy fanboying over Liu Bei et al.

Don't worry, this won't at all be reflected on your own early demise. Nope, who said you would die early?

#rotk #romance of the three kingdoms #ro3k #novel

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natsukashii-naa · 9 months

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1991 anime

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nemainofthewater · 1 month

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Best character surnamed: Jing

Come and vote for the best characters with the same surname!*

What does best mean? It's up to you! Whether you love them, are intrigued by their characters, love to hate them, or they're your '2 second blorbos whose personality you made up wholesale', these are all reasons for you to vote for your favs!

*note, the surnames are not exactly the same in all the cases, as often there will be a different character. I am, however, grouping them all together otherwise things got more complicated.

Propaganda is very welcome! If I’ve forgotten anyone, let me know in the notes.

This is part of a larger series of ‘best character with X surname’ polls’. The overview with ongoing polls, winners, and future polls can be found here

#poll #qi ye #imperial coroner #the myth #ancient love poetry #the imperial uncle #romance of the three kingdoms #heavenly sword and dragon slaying sabre

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trisshawkeye · 22 days

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Just learned that in like... 2017 or something? they were making a big-budget, 80-episode drama about Cao Cao, starring none other than Jiang Wen. Given I can't find any more information about it, I can only assume it never ended up getting made for whatever reason.

Still. 80 episodes of Jiang Wen Cao Cao. Can you imagine? I would die.

#cao cao #jiang wen #romance of the three kingdoms #the lost bladesman

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