Yang Hu maintained great simplicity, wearing the lightest of garments and no armor. His personal escort and servants numbered only about a twenty.
One day his officers came to his tent to say that the spies reported great laxity in the enemy's camp, and they wished to attack.
But Yang Hu replied, “You must not despise Lu Kang, for he is able and crafty. Formerly his master sent him to attack Xiling, and he slew Bu Chan and many of his generals, before I could save that city. So long as Lu Kang remains in command, I shall remain on the defensive. I shall not attack till there be trouble and confusion among our enemies. To be rash and not await the proper moment to attack is to invite defeat.”
They found him wise and said no more. They only kept the boundaries.
One day Yang Hu and his officers went out to hunt, and it happened that Lu Kang had chosen the same day to hunt. Yang Hu gave strict orders not to cross the boundary, and so each hunted only on his own side.
Lu Kang was astonished at the enemy's scrupulous propriety.
He sighed, “The soldiers of Yang Hu have so high a discipline that I may not make any invasion now.”
In the evening, after both parties had returned, Yang Hu ordered an inspection of the slaughtered game and sent over to the other side any that seemed to have been first struck by the soldiers of Wu.
Lu Kang was greatly pleased and sent for the bearers of the game.
“Does your leader drink wine?” asked he.
They replied, “Only fine wines does he drink.”
“I have some very old wine,” replied Lu Kang, smiling, “and I will give of it to you to bear to your general as a gift. It is the wine I myself brew and drink on ceremonial occasions, and he shall have half in return for today's courtesy.”
They took the wine and left.
“Why do you give him wine?” asked Lu Kang's officers.
“Because he has shown kindness, and I must return courtesy for courtesy.”
When the gift of wine arrived and the bearers told Yang Hu the story of their reception, he laughed.
“So he knows I can drink,” said Yang Hu.
He had the jar opened, and the wine was poured out. One of his generals, Chen Yuan, begged him to drink moderately lest there should be some harm come of it.
“Lu Kang is no poisoner,” replied Yang Hu.
And he drank. The friendly intercourse thus begun continued, and messengers frequently passed from one camp to the other.
One day the messengers said that Lu Kang was unwell and had been ailing for several days.
“I think he suffers from the same complaint as I,” said Yang Hu. “I have some remedies ready prepared and will send him some.”
The drugs were taken over to the Wu camp.
But the sick man's officers were suspicious and said, “This medicine is surely harmful; it comes from the enemy.”
Lu Kang cried, “What! Think you that old Uncle Yang Hu would poison a person? Do not doubt.”
He drank the decoction. Next day he was much better; and when his staff came to congratulate him, he said, “If our opponents take their stand upon virtue and we take ours upon violence, they will drag us after them without fighting. See to it that the boundaries be well kept and that we seek not to gain any unfair advantage.”
Soon after came a special envoy from the Ruler of Wu to urge upon Lu Kang prompt activity.
“Our Emperor sends orders for you to press forward,” said the envoy. “You are not to await a Jin invasion.”
“You may return and I will send up a memorial,” replied Lu Kang.
So a memorial was written and soon followed the envoy to Jianye. When the Ruler of Wu, Sun Hao, read it, he found therein many arguments against attacking Jin and exhortations to exercise a virtuous rule instead of engaging in hostilities. It angered him.
“They say Lu Kang has come to an understanding with the enemy, and now I believe it,” said the Ruler of Wu.
Thereupon he deprived Lu Kang of his command and took away his commission and degraded him into Marching General. Sun Ji, General of the Left Army, was sent to supersede Lu Kang. And none dared to intervene.
Sun Hao became still more arbitrary and of his own will changed the year-style once more to the Phoenix (AD 269). Day by day his life became more wanton and vicious. The soldiers in every camp murmured with anger and resentment, and at last three high officers — Prime Minister Wan Yu, General Liu Ping, and Minister of Agriculture Lou Xuan — boldly and earnestly remonstrated with the Emperor for his many irregularities. They suffered death. Within ten years more than forty ministers were put to death for doing their duty.
Sun Hao maintained an extravagantly large guard of fifty thousand heavy cavalry, and these soldiers were the terror of everyone.
Now when Yang Hu, on the Jin side of the frontier, heard that his opponent Lu Kang had been removed from his command and that the conduct of the Ruler of Wu had become wholly unreasonable, he knew that the time was near for him to conquer Wu. Wherefore he presented a memorial:
