The Self-Torture Ruse (episode)

"The Self-Torture Ruse (苦肉计)" is the 35th episode of the 1994 historical fiction drama Romance of Three Kingdoms. It is the 12th episode of Part Two of the series and is directed by Cai Xiaoqing. In the episode, Cao Cao sends two generals to Zhou Yu's camp to make a pretended surrender and spy out the opposition. Zhou Yu perceives the ruse and decides to send one of his own generals to Cao Cao's camp to offer pretended surrender in the same manner. However, for the counter-ruse to work, Zhou Yu must order that a severe and unwarranted punishment be inflicted upon his most loyal general, Huang Gai, so that his general's defection will be seen by the enemy as convincing.

Summary
Cao Cao sends Cai Mao's younger brothers Cai Zhong and Cai He to offer pretended surrender to Wu State's supreme military commander Zhou Yu. Cao Cao's true intent is for the two generals to gain Zhou Yu's trust and then to act as intelligence-gatherers ultimately loyal to Cao Cao. Because the generals' brother Cai Mao was recently executed by Cao Cao for suspected treason, Cao Cao believes that the generals' surrender will be convincing given that they have a justified cause for grievance against Cao Cao. Zhou Yu's adviser Lu Su openly states his suspicion that the surrender is is not genuine because the generals did not bring their families with them. Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang apparently both share Lu Su's belief but pretend to be convinced anyway. In private, Zhuge Liang explains to Lu Su that Zhou Yu plans to use the surrendered generals as a conduit through which he will leak false intelligence to Cao Cao.

Zhou Yu meets with his general Gan Ning and orders him to arrange accommodations for the surrendered generals, telling him that he will later use them to deliberately send false information to Cao Cao's camp. Zhou Yu dismisses Gan Ning, and then another of Zhou Yu's generals, Huang Gai, arrives to offer a report.