Lu Kang 陸抗

Lu Kang, courtesy name Youjie, was a maternal grandson of Sun Ce. He was twenty when his father Lu Xun died in the 8th year of Chiwu (245), and was made Colonel Who Establishes Martial Might and given command of Lu Xun's 5,000 troops. After escorting the funeral procession back east, he went to the capital to give thanks for imperial favor, whereupon Sun Quan confronted him with twenty charges against Lu Xun reported by Yang Zhu, cut him off from visitors and sent palace envoys to interrogate him. Lu Kang answered every point one by one without the slightest hesitation, and Sun Quan's anger gradually eased. Records, Wu 13 §58 · 60Records, Wu 2 §103

In the 9th year of Chiwu (246) he was transferred to General of the Household Who Establishes Integrity and exchanged garrisons with Zhuge Ke, stationing himself at Chaisang. Before leaving, he had the city's perimeter, walls and buildings all repaired and forbade any damage to the mulberry and fruit trees, so that Zhuge Ke, moving in, found everything as neat as new. By contrast, the old garrison at Chaisang that Zhuge Ke left behind was badly run down, and Zhuge Ke was deeply ashamed. In the 1st year of Taiyuan (251), when Lu Kang was returning after receiving treatment for an illness in the capital, Sun Quan wept and said that he had listened to slander and failed to keep faith with the great duty between himself and Lu Kang's father, and told him to burn all the documents of the earlier interrogation. Records, Wu 13 §60–61

In the 1st year of Jianxing (252) he became General of Vehement Might. In the 2nd year of Taiping (257), when the Wei general Zhuge Dan surrendered with Shouchun, Lu Kang, as Area Commander of Chaisang, went to Shouchun, defeated Wei's gate generals and lieutenant generals, and was transferred to General Who Conquers the North. In the 2nd year of Yong'an (259) he became General Who Guards the Army, overseeing Xiling with responsibility from Guanyu to Baidi, and the next year he received a provisional tally. The Biographies of the Three Successor Rulers records that in the 7th year of Yong'an (264) he, together with Bu Xie, Liu Ping and others, besieged Luo Xian, who was guarding Badong for Shu, but withdrew when a Wei relief army attacked Xiling. Records, Wu 13 §62Records, Wu 3 §45–46

When Sun Hao took the throne, he was additionally made Senior General Who Guards the Army and concurrently Governor of Yi Province. In the 2nd year of Jianheng (270), when Shi Ji, Grand Marshal of the Left, died, he was put in charge of the military affairs of Xinling, Xiling, Yidao, Lexiang and Gong'an, with his seat at Lexiang. Hearing that the government in the capital had many failings, he declared that relying only on the long river and steep mountains was the least of the means of defending a state, and submitted seventeen points suited to the times, though those points have not survived. When He Ding was monopolizing power and eunuchs were meddling in government, he memorialized that petty men should be dismissed and posts given according to ability. Records, Wu 13 §62–69

In the 1st year of Fenghuang (272), Bu Chan, Area Commander of Xiling, seized the city and surrendered to Jin. That same day Lu Kang sent the generals Zuo Yi, Wu Yan and others to Xiling, and had siege lines built day and night from Chixi to Gushi, enclosing Bu Chan on the inside and holding off the enemy on the outside. When his generals urged a quick assault on the city, he refused, saying that the city's defenses had all been planned by himself earlier, so that it could not be taken quickly, and that a relief army from the north would surely come. At the earnest pleading of Lei Tan, Administrator of Yidu, he allowed one assault, which indeed gained nothing. Records, Wu 13 §70–72

When the Jin General of Chariots and Cavalry Yang Hu headed for Jiangling, the generals said Lu Kang should not go upriver, but he went to Xiling, saying that Jiangling was secure, whereas if Xiling became entangled with the enemy the Yi tribes of the southern mountains would rise up. Earlier he had had Zhang Xian, Area Commander of Jiangling, build a great dam to hold back the water; when Yang Hu planned to use that water to ship his provisions and loudly announced that he would breach the dam, Lu Kang instead had the dam breached at once, so that Yang Hu had to move his provisions by cart at great cost in effort. Records, Wu 13 §72–73

When Yang Zhao, the Jin Inspector of Jing Province, arrived at Xiling, Lu Kang faced him from behind his siege lines. When the general Zhu Qiao and the camp commander Yu Zan defected to Yang Zhao, Lu Kang reasoned that Yu Zan knew the weak point of the Yi troops, and that night he replaced the positions held by the Yi troops with veteran commanders; the next day Yang Zhao's men attacked that very spot and suffered heavy casualties. When Yang Zhao fled by night after a month, Lu Kang, wary of Bu Chan, only had the drums beaten as if to pursue; Yang Zhao's men threw off their armor and fled, suffering a crushing defeat, and Yang Hu and the others also turned their armies back. Lu Kang took the city of Xiling, executed Bu Chan's clan and his chief commanders and officials, and asked pardon for the remaining tens of thousands; even after returning to Lexiang he showed no sign of pride and remained modest, winning the hearts of officers and men. Records, Wu 13 §74–76Records, Wu 7 §88

After he was additionally made Protector, hearing that Xue Ying, Area Commander of the Left Division at Wuchang, had been thrown into prison, he memorialized asking that he be pardoned, citing the cases of Lou Xuan, Wang Fan and Li Xu. And when the armies were repeatedly mobilized and the people were exhausted, he memorialized that the generals were using up their troops in pursuit of fame, and that petty advances should be halted so as to build up the strength of soldiers and people while watching for an opening. In the spring of the 2nd year of Fenghuang (273) he was appointed Grand Marshal and Governor of Jing Province at his post. Records, Wu 13 §77–83Records, Wu 3 §65

Falling ill in the summer of the 3rd year of Fenghuang (274), he memorialized that Xiling and Jianping were the state's bulwarks, yet the troops under his command numbered only some tens of thousands, and asked that they be brought up to 80,000. Citing his father Lu Xun's words calling Xiling the western gate of the state, he asked that after his death the western front always be kept in mind. He died that autumn and his son Lu Yan succeeded him. In the 4th year of Tianji (280), when Wang Jun of Jin came down the river, every place he reached fell, just as Lu Kang had feared, and Lu Yan and Lu Jing also died at this time. Records, Wu 13 §84–89Records, Wu 3 §67–68

In the assessment of Records of Wu 13, Chen Shou, after saying that he marveled at Lu Xun's strategy, wrote that Lu Kang was upright, clear-sighted and skilled in planning, with all his father's bearing, and that, carrying on the family's excellence through the generations, with everything present though on a smaller scale, he could be said to have built well on the family's foundations. Records, Wu 13 §91