Military lowdown, wheee!!!!
This is my fave part. You see, Zhou Yu fans are adamant that their hero is a military genius. In a world where you live or die by actual talents, there will always be two types of said people:
Rare talent [奇士]-This is what one will call exceptional people being the very best in business. Interestingly enough, such term is usually reserved for people so absurdly imba in military planning, they can virtually think five yards ahead of the rest. In short, they're super OP'ed strategists, not some OP'ed generals.
Note that strategist=tactician because if you are military talent, it means you can preempt any lesser opponent no matter what/how.
Renowned examples-Guo Jia [郭嘉], Cheng Yu [程昱], Dong Zhao[董昭] (Wei); Pang Tong [庞统] (Shu)
Rare genius [奇才]-This is referring to those naturally gifted so as to speak. You can call them fast learners, you can also call them natural learners. No matter what, these fellas seem to have the knack in seeing things which aren't really there. That is unless you stare hard enough in your mind. Scarily enough, said things do exist in any given situation, I not talking abt hantu.
Renowned examples-Zhuge Liang [诸葛亮] (Shu); Lu Su [鲁肃], Zhou Yu [周瑜] (Wu)
Note-Above definitions is my own bs. If you believe everything I said here, I got nothing to say.
So what made Zhou Yu so special?
[故曰：知彼知己，百战不殆；不知彼而知己，一胜一负；不知彼不知己，每战必殆。]
《孙子兵法; 谋攻第三》
[Hence, knowing yourself and your enemy is key to avoiding defeat; knowing only yourself but not your enemy means a half a chance for victory or defeat; not knowing yourself and your enemy will result in every battle a defeat.]
《Sun Zi's Art of War; Third Chapter-Strategy》
Firstly, Chen Shou DID refer him, Lu Su, and Zhuge Liang as rare geniuses. Why? Because they all had one thing in common-the ability to perceive via 50-50 analysis. I'm not gonna talk about the latter 2 since that will eat up my precious time (hey! I got job one hor! You think I earn gorpah-ban by endorsing things daily meh?). Firstly Chen Shou might have offered us a subtle clue.
[瑜少精意于音乐。虽三爵之后，其有阙误。瑜必知之，知之必顾，故时人谣曰："曲有误，周郎顾。"]
Above statement roughly means that:
1. Zhou Yu was a musical talent.
[瑜少精意于音乐。]
2. Zhou Yu was someone sensitive to mistakes in any music played b/c he's born to be perfectionist.
[虽三爵之后，其有阙误。瑜必知之，知之必顾...]
3. That's why people had this saying: "An error in any tune, Youthful Zhou will always know."
[故时人谣曰："曲有误，周郎顾。"]
Now it's one thing to be well versed, quite another to detect even the slightest error. This is not Simon "I hate eating French escargots!" Cowell we're talking about. At least I doubt Cowell won't be that jerkass to remember EVERY tiny mistake until Sunday.
Maybe we can try seeing things this way-You're a capable Soul Calibur gamer, but can you master ALL the characters? Bar every retarded doppelganger (apart from the Edge Master since he's semi-legal plot wise), have you ever KO'ed every comer 10 tries out of 10 via Seung Mi Na's Special Korean Blow?
What I'm trying to say is this ofc is this-Not every musical talent can pay attention to even the smallest details in any/every tune. But Gongjin can, I'm not the one saying this. In short, Gongjin possessed a sharp eye for anomaly. And when I say anomaly, it's all about the given situation at hand even before things got underway. In a very real sense, it's a bit like manipulating the opponent's actual weakness hidden under wraps. Zhou Yu's case, however, is quite likely that of analysing the entire situation prior to any preparations made (note that Zhuge Liang and Lu Su also displayed the same trait).
This could be also why Zhou Yu was able to advise Sun Quan this.
Further insight
[故善用兵者，屈人之兵而非战也，拔人之城而非攻也，毁人之国而非久也，必以全争于天下，故兵不顿而利可全，此谋攻之法也。]
《孙子兵法; 谋攻第三》
[Thus those understanding usage of soldiers are they who defeat enemies not by combat, they who conquered an enemy's fort not via siege, they who vanquish the enemy's state not through attrition. Such wisdom is due to having enough to fight many fronts, hence the need to avoid troops remaining stationary for long. This is the way of strategy.]
《Sun Zi's Art of War; Third Chapter-Strategy》
Remember this? Lest we forget, Zhou Yu was always Sun Ce's second. While Sun Ce's strength lies in bravery and tactics, Zhou Yu was more of a someone planning behind the scenes. It's just like seeing Mogga and some funny stranger dude sitting beside him on the bench. Is he Mogga's right hand man? Hell no! That should be Mark "**** Wales!" Venus. So who is that dorky looking moron? A strategist who can only offer vital advice? Well, that's Zhou Yu for you people, i.e. Sun Ce's military advisor=/=Sun Ce's general.
Why Zhou Yu was able to dish out mass pwnage during that time is most likely down to two factors:
1. Without Sun Ce's permission, Zhou Yu could never command any forces solo-mode. This was down to the Confucianism school of thought where presence of any authority must be respected.
2. Even if Sun Ce allowed Zhou Yu to take a separate force somewhere, Zhou Yu wasn't a military man leading at the frontline. Such commanders belong to the likes of Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Zhang Liao, etc.
Therefore, the only way for Zhou Yu to obtain crushing victory was to ensure the enemy doesn't know a shit on what's he planning, when he's gonna strike. Scarily enough, Zhou Yu was indeed an expert in manpower deployment. Which now comes to point 3.
3. Man deployment in terms of military usage is decided by two factors. Understanding the terrain, understanding what both you and the enemy have/lack. No matter whether it's defending your territory or attacking the enemy's, whether it's managing your resources or plundering your enemy's, logic stays the same. If you can't preempt your opponent on the field by thinking five yards ahead, then you're seriously ****ed. Remember why people call Ned stupid? Remember why Jon is now the only person capable of upholding House Stark's honour despite taking the black?
On Sun Ce's end, he did inherit his late father's generals, so there's no point for him to make Zhou Yu his personal general. That's why whatever manpower Gongjin could muster are his own, i.e. he was the Grand Administrator of Danyang, said manpower still belonged to Sun Ce due to the most apparent social norms back then. However, we must know that post-conquest, Gongjin held two military roles.
建威中郎将
[Central General Who Builds The Might]
The former was Zhou Yu's first title. In the ancient times, the Central General [中郎将] was tasked with protecting the ruler's family. In short, we're talking about the chief of personal/imperial guards. In footie talk, we call this role the libero.
中护军
[Central Protector of the Army]
The latter would be much trickier since the Central Protector of the Army is also tasked with bossing his lord's personal guards. However, it must be known that such system was implemented by Cao Cao, hence every man back then was quite obviously his own man. The most accurate guess here will be akin to how the original model works. During the Qin dynasty, there's a title named Imperial Commandant Who Protects the Army [护军都尉]. Most likely such military post entails the distribution of forces during times of war. During the War of Chu-Han, Liu Bang made Chen Ping the Central Commander Who Protects the Army [护军中尉]. It's roughly the same thing bar Chen Ping having to accompany Liu Bang everywhere on the field.
In a nutshell, Zhou Yu's status as the Central Protector of the Army is most likely modeled after the Qin prototype (note-By then, Sun Ce had already conquered the entire Jiangdong).
A/N: Many years later, Zhao Yun would also receive this title before he was made General Who Defends the East [镇东将军] during Liu Shan's reign. Know that any talk on Liu Bei disrespecting Zhao Yun after taking over the Yi Province should be dismissed as conspiracy theory due to the potential importance pertaining to this post/title.
To be cont'd...
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