YuLiang

YuLiang
GENERAL
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Character	Zhou Yu
Character	Zhuge Liang
Canonical?	Fanon
Status of Relationship	Rivals/Enemies, Zhou Yu is dead
IN FANDOM
Type (?)	Slash
Also Known As	ZhouLiang, 瑜亮

1

YuLiang is the slash ship between Zhou Yu and Zhuge Liang from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms fandom.

Canon

Zhuge Liang's arrival at Eastern Wu

When Zhuge Liang first arrives at Eastern Wu, he advises Sun Quan to order Zhou Yu back to help Eastern Wu. Sun Quan agrees, and Zhou Yu arrives later the next day.

The first time they meet, Zhou Yu is impressed by Zhuge Liang's talent and wishes that someone like him would be able to help the Eastern Wu to fight Cao Cao. However, he first feigns that he doesn't want to fight Cao Cao, so Zhuge Liang suggests that he sens his wife, Younger Lady Qiao, over to Cao Cao in order to stop his attacks. Zhou Yu is enraged and advises Sun Quan to no surrender to the enemy.

Later, Zhou Yu talks to Zhuge Jin, Zhuge Liang's older brother. He asks Zhuge Jin to go over and convince his younger brother to work for Eastern Wu. However, Zhuge Jin returns empty handed, and Zhou Yu starts to hate Zhuge Liang.

Zhou Yu sends Zhuge Liang on a dangerous mission- go to burn Cao Cao's stockpile of food. Zhuge Liang knows that Zhou Yu is trying to harm him and does not refuse the offer. However, Zhuge Liang does mention to Lu Su that Zhou Yu only knows how to battle on the water, further enraging Zhou Yu. This makes Zhou Yu want to go and burn Cao Cao's stockpile, but Sun Quan prevents hi from doing so.

Borrowing arrows with straw boats

One day, Zhuge Liang mentions to Lu Su that Zhou Yu should be happy, because he killed the most skilled fighters that specialize in water battle. Lu Su reports this to Zhou Yu, who has already vowed to kill Zhuge Liang.

A day later, Zhou Yu invites Zhuge Liang to observe his army's archery skills and asks if Zhuge Liang can create 10k arrows. Zhuge Liang laughs and asks Zhou Yu when he wants the arrows, and Zhou Yu asks if ten days is enough. Zhuge Liang acts all surprised and says that that is too much time and that Cao Cao would already come and fight before then. Zhuge Liang says he can get all the arrows within three days.

Zhou Yu is surprised but accepts and asks Zhuge Liang to write a vow. Zhuge Liang agrees and signs the paper.

After three days, Zhuge Liang borrows the arrows from Cao Cao and surprises Zhou Yu, who thought he was done for. Zhou Yu feigns that he is glad that Zhuge Liang got the arrows. Later that day, Zhou Yu asks Zhuge Liang what plans he has to defeat Cao Cao. Zhuge Liang rushes to stop him, as any one of Cao Cao's spies could be listening. He suggests that they write their plans on their hands. Once they show them to each other, they realize wrote the same thing, fire!

Fanon

YuLiang is not a popular ship, mainly because they are portrayed as enemies and have mentioned on multiple occasions how much they want to kill each other. XuanLiang and YunLiang are the main rivals of this ship.

The two are known for being enemies, with Zhou Yu even commenting, "If you had me, then why did you choose Zhuge Liang!" Many fans like this ship because they like rivals to lovers or because they think that Zhuge Liang is playing hard to get with Zhou Yu.

The ship currently has 90 fanfictions on AO3.

Fandom

FAN FICTION

Zhou Yu/Zhuge Liang tag on AO3

Trivia

• Zhuge Liang referred to Zhou Yu as one of the only people who understood him ("知音") when he attended Zhou Yu's funeral.
  • This is likely untrue, as later Pang Tong approaches him and laughs that he attended Zhou Yu's funeral while being the main cause of Zhou Yu's death.