In the novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Zhuge Liang's allusion to "borrowing arrows from a grass boat" is well known, and even a three-year-old child can easily tell this story. However, there is a saying in the "Preface to the Poetry of the Taiyuan Seeking Tibetan Scriptures by the Zen Master of Raotan Prefecture": "Those who can know what they are, and those who do not know why they are so." Many people only know that Cao Cao wasted 100,000 arrows in vain, but they don't know why he insisted on releasing arrows; some people mocked Cao Cao for not knowing how to light a fire on the arrows, but they didn't know why he didn't light them.
In that year, Cao Cao marched south, intending to destroy Liu Bei and Sun Quan in one fell swoop, and then unify the world. In order to resist Cao Cao's attack, sun and Liu had to join forces to resist the enemy, and Liu Bei sent Zhuge Liang to Jiangdong to help, intending to use his wisdom to defuse the crisis. However, Zhou Yu was a pretentious person, he saw Zhuge Liang one step ahead of him everywhere, and his heart gradually became jealous, he expected that after this battle, Zhuge Liang would definitely become a great enemy of Jiangdong, so he tried to put him to death.
In a conversation, Zhou Yu cleverly set a trap, and he asked Zhuge Liang: "When the water route is exchanged, what weapon should be the first?" Zhuge Liang knew that he was setting up a set, but still answered truthfully "bow and arrow." Subsequently, Zhou Yu revealed the "fact" of the lack of arrows in the army and ordered Zhuge Liang to build 100,000 arrows within ten days. However, Zhuge Liang had already calculated that there would be thick fog in the early morning of the 3rd day, so he changed the limit of ten days to three days, not only full of confidence, but also accepted a military order.
At about four o'clock in the morning of the third day, the fog rose, and Zhuge Liang led twenty grass boats to quietly approach Cao Cao's camp. On the other hand, Cao Cao, who was suspicious by nature, had already expected Zhuge Liang to carry out a sneak attack at this time, so he asked the soldiers to wear their armor in advance and be ready to fight at any time. After a while, when he learned that the shadow of the ship appeared in the thick fog, he immediately closed the camp to prevent the enemy ship from taking advantage of the opportunity to enter and cause chaos. At the same time, he ordered his archers to shoot arrows into the thick fog and shoot the enemy.
In fact, Cao Cao did this for two purposes, first, in the case of unclear vision, remote consumption is necessary, which can cause all-round blows and prevent damage to his own strength. Second, Cao Cao's side was well-equipped with weapons and arrows, and if he could win without spending a single soldier, this was exactly what Cao Cao hoped to see. However, there is one thing to note, it is okay to release arrows, but it is absolutely impossible to ignite on the arrows, why is this?
If Cao Cao's side ignited the arrow, it was bound to expose its own position, which would become a living target in the thick fog and would most likely suffer serious losses. Moreover, Cao Cao was not sure whether there were flammable and explosives on the enemy ship, and once the rocket was easily fired, it was very likely to ignite the enemy ship, at this time, if the enemy ship crashed into Cao Ying, it was likely to burn a sea of fire. In addition, sulfur and fire oil in the Three Kingdoms period are rare materials, and rockets are expensive to use, and they must not be used first in the case of unclear situations.
The last point is Cao Cao's pride, as the male lord of the unified north, he has always liked to crush opponents with his troops, in his opinion, arson and breaking water are all tricks of the next three abuses, and he disdains to use them. Most importantly, the saying of "playing with fire and folding life" was very popular in that era, and even Zhuge Liang, who played with fire many times (burning Xinye and burning the vine armor soldiers), said that he folded a lot of life.
However, even if Cao Cao lit a fire on the arrow, Zhuge Liang was not afraid, and the Beitang Shu Scribe volume 132 records: "In wartime, they all took the cloth curtain and cloth on the ship and stained the water, and accumulated it to help flood the water." Thieves have torches and rockets to cover them up. Violators of the order are deafened. Zhuge Liang had already taken fire prevention measures on the grass boat, and even if Cao Cao released the rocket, he had nothing to fear.