Jiang Gan Steals a Letter

　　This is an episode from the Three Kingdoms. Cao cao sent a letter to Zhou Yu to summon him to surrender. Zhou Yu tore Cao's letter to pieces. Zhou Yu's classmate， Jiang Gan， was working for Cao Cao as an adviser， Jiang offered to travel to Wu to persuade Zhou Yu to surrender. One day while Zhou Yu was discussing with his subordinates how to defeat Cao Cao， he was told that Jiang Gan had come to see him. Zhou immediately figured out that Jiang must have come to persuade him to surrender. Zhou Yu devised a clever plan to thwart his efforts and enlisted the help of his subordinate to carry it out. Then he went to meet Jiang Gan all smiles. Zhou Yu took Jiang Gan's hands and marshaled him into his tent and treated him to a banquet. When all his generals and subordinates came for dinner， Zhou Yu told those around the table： “This is an old friend or mine. Though he came from the Cao Cao camp， he did not come to persuade me to surrender. Please do not suspect him.” After the banquet， Zhou Yu pretended that he had too much and invited Jiang Gan to his bedroom for a rest. Zhou Yu soon pretended to have fallen asleep. Jiang Gan took this chance to thumb through Zhou Yu's documents. He was shocked to find a letter from Cai Mao and Zhang Yun， two generals of the Cao camp， who had written Zhou Yu to surrender. Jiang hid letter of surrender in his pocket and returned to the bed， pretending that he was sill asleep.

　　After midnight， someone sneaked into Zhou Yu's tent and woke him up， telling him “A messenger came from the Cao camp to say that Cai Mao and Zhang Yun were not yet a position to carry out their plan.” After he heard the news， Zhou Yu went back to sleep. Jiang Gan got up again silently and snuck out of Zhou Yu's camp. He crossed the river immediately and handed the letter of surrender to Cao Cao. Cao was enraged and he had Cai Mao and Zhang Yun executed.

　　When the news spread to Wu， Zhou Yu burst into laughter and said， “Cai Mao and Zhang Yun were the two generals I feared most. Now I fear no one.” Before long， Cao cao realized that he was cheated by Zhou Yu's stratagem of sowing distrust in Cao's camp.

蒋干盗书

　　曹操给周瑜下了一道降书，周瑜见书，撕得粉碎。周瑜的老同学蒋干在曹操手下当谋士，他自告奋勇去东吴劝降周瑜。这天，周瑜和部下商议破曹计策，有人报告蒋干来了。周瑜一听，就知道蒋干来作说客，眉头一皱，向部下说出了自己的妙计，然后笑着出帐迎客。周瑜挽着蒋干的手进帐，并设宴招待。待众将到齐后，周瑜对大家说：“这是我的老朋友，虽然从曹操那里来，但不是来当说客的，大家不要怀疑。”宴毕，周瑜假装喝醉，挽蒋干同榻休息，不一会，周瑜佯装睡着。蒋干轻轻起身，翻看周瑜的案卷，得知曹军中的蔡瑁、张允二将军给周瑜写了降书，大为吃惊，急忙藏起降书，轻轻躺回床上，假装睡着。后半夜，有人进帐叫醒周瑜说：“曹营有人来了，蔡瑁、张允说现在还不能下手……”周瑜听罢，躺下又睡。蒋干偷偷起来，径直出营，过江把信交给曹操。曹操大怒，杀了蔡瑁，张允。消息传到东吴，周瑜哈哈大笑说：“我所担心的就是这两个人，现在我什么都不怕了。”事后，曹操醒悟，知道中了周瑜的反间计。