Cheng Yu
In the 14th-century historical novel "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", Cheng Yu offered a ruse in order to get Xu Shu to serve Cao Cao. At the time Xu Shu was serving as rival Liu Bei's key strategist and managed to score a major victory against Cao Cao's officers Lü Kuang (), Lü Xiang () and Cao Ren. Exploiting the fact that Xu Shu was an extremely filial son, Cheng Yu suggested to Cao Cao that Cao Cao hold Xu Shu's mother hostage and force Xu Shu to leave Liu Bei and serve Cao Cao. Cheng Yu wrote a fake letter to Xu Shu and successfully tricked Xu Shu to come to Xuchang. Ironically, Xu Shu's mother committed suicide after seeing her son fall for such a ruse and leaving a righteous person like Liu Bei to serve under the ruthless Cao Cao. Prior to the Battle of Red Cliffs, Cheng Yu had predicted that Sun Quan's forces would use fire to attack Cao Cao's naval fleet. However, Cao Cao did not heed his advice seriously as the winds were to their advantage then. After Cao Cao's major defeat, Cheng Yu was one of the few advisers who stood by Cao Cao all the way during their escape.