In the history books, during the Battle of Chibi and the Battle of Nan County, Zhou Yu and Cheng Pu were left and right governors, respectively. Immediately, some people thought that Zhou Yu and Cheng Pu were completely equal, and there was no question of who was the main and who was secondary. However, war is extremely cruel, and if these two people are completely equal, they will fight separately in a fierce battle and will be easily defeated by the enemy. When military command is really carried out, it is actually necessary to distinguish between superiors and subordinates, so that it is conducive to victory. So, who are the superiors of Zhou Yu and Cheng Pu?
In the "Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Lu Su Biography", there is such a sentence: "(Sun Quan) then Ren Yu acted in order to act, and Su praised the military lieutenant and assisted in drawing strategies." That is to say, Sun Quan ordered Zhou Yu to handle the war on the front line, give overall command, and assume the main responsibility, and Lu Su served as a lieutenant of the Zan Military Academy, giving Advice to Zhou Yu and assuming secondary responsibility.
In the passage about Sun Jiao in the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms and the Biography of the Patriarchate, it is recorded that Sun Quan wanted Sun Jiao and Lü Meng to "be the governors of the left and right departments". In this regard, Lü Meng was very dissatisfied, saying that "Xi Zhouyu and Cheng Pu were the governors of the left and right departments, jointly attacking Jiangling" and "the matter was decided by Yu". From this point of view, during the Battle of Nan County, Zhou Yu was responsible for the overall command and decision-making, but Cheng Pu was "a self-assured general for a long time, and he was a governor, and he was not harmonious with the communists".
In the "Biography of Jiang Biao", it is said that Cheng Pu is "quite old, and several tombs insult (that is, insult) Yu", while Zhou Yu "folds the knot and tolerates it, and finally does not work with the school (that is, does not care)", obviously "down" refers to Cheng Pu, then Zhou Yu is "up". This is another record that Zhou Yu is a superior and Cheng Pu is a subordinate.
In addition, Huang Gai, Gan Ning, and Lü Meng also took the lead in reporting to Zhou Yu when they had a plan, and Zhou Yu made a decision. Before the Battle of Chibi, Zhou Yu made a detailed analysis of the shortcomings of the Cao army to Sun Quan. After the Battle of Chibi, Cao Cao did not accept defeat and declared that "the lonely burning ship retreated and made Zhou Yu falsely gain this name.". Sun Quan "is the honorific throne, please meet the hundred officials, and give credit to Zhou Yu."
And Cheng Pu? As far as the current history books are concerned, Cheng Pu did not conduct any analysis of Cao Jun to Sun Quan before the Battle of Chibi, and the "right to speak" was really low. During the Battle of Nan County, Cheng Pu relied on himself to be a veteran general, and had an awkward quarrel with Zhou Yu, and had more "right to speak", but he was still considered by others to show his old seniority in the key war, did not know the general body, was not as generous as Zhou Yu, and was not as high as Zhou Yu. When later generations analyzed the reason why Zhou Yu spent more than a year to capture Nan County, Cheng Pu, the "pig teammate", could not avoid being mentioned (of course, Cheng Pu did not accept Zhou Yu, but Zhou Yu was still the commander-in-chief). The supreme leaders of the Wei and Wu sides (Cao Cao and Sun Quan) also took Zhou Yu as a matter when discussing the Battle of Chibi, and did not mention Cheng Pu.
It can be seen that during the Battle of Chibi and the ensuing Battle of Nan County, Zhou Yu should be superior.