Three noted episodes in the Three Kingdoms

Using straw boats to borrow arrows

Before the Battle of Red Cliffs, Zhuge Liang visited the Wu camp to assist Zhou Yu. Zhou Yu saw Zhuge Liang as a threat to Eastern Wu and was also jealous of Zhuge Liang's talent. He assigned Zhuge Liang the task of making 100,000 arrows in ten days or face execution for failure in duties under military law. Zhuge Liang promised that he will finish this seemingly impossible task in three days. He requested 20 large boats, each manned by a few soldiers and filled with straw human-like figures. Before dawn, Zhuge Liang ordered his soldiers to beat war drums and shout orders so as to imitate the noise of an attack.

Upon hearing the drums, the Wei soldiers rushed out to meet the "attack".

Zhuge Liang drank wine with Lu Su on one of the boats. The Wei soldiers were unable to see through the fog and fired volleys of arrows at the sound of the drums. The straw figures were soon penetrated by many arrows, which became stuck in the straw. Zhuge Liang returned to Wu in triumph.

After removing the arrows from the straw figures' bodies, Zhuge Liang discovered there were over 100,000 arrows.

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms records this event, whereas no such account can be found in the historical accounts. The historical accounts do record the same strategem being performed by Sun Quan in the Battle of Ruxu.