Summary: Again and again, Sima Yi is made to rue the day he stole Zhuge Liang’s invention.<br> <br> * <a href="http://www.3kingdomspodcast.com/2017/10/23/episode-132-intellectual-property-theft-does-not-pay/#transcript">Transcript</a><br> * <a href="http://www.3kingdomspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/ep_132.png">Map of Key Locations</a><br> * <a href="https://www.google.com/fusiontables/DataSource?docid=1EfCFWQOXCWabrUYS_TG-OgREU33TKDEO5hDCV0zk">Graph of Key Characters and Relationships</a><br> <br> <br> <a id="transcript"></a>Transcript<br> <a href="http://www.3kingdomspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/3kingdoms132.pdf">PDF version</a><br> Welcome to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms Podcast. This is episode 132.<br> Last time, Zhuge Liang invented the wheelbarrow. Except he called his creations wooden oxens and gliding horses, and he used them to move grain. But it didn’t take long for Sima Yi to catch on and he decided to do some corporate espionage. Well, actually it was more like a corporate smash and grab. He sent some troops to ambush one of Zhuge Liang’s convoys and steal some of these contraptions. He then had his own craftsmen take them apart and reverse-engineer them, thus flooding the wheelbarrow market with a bunch of made-in-China knockoffs, which he began to use to transport his own grains.<br> While Sima Yi was busy assimilating foreign technology, the Shu general whose convoy was ambushed ran back to camp to tell Zhuge Liang what happened. But far from being angry, Zhuge Liang was delighted.<br> “I was hoping he would steal them,” he said with a smile. “I may have lost a few wooden oxens and gliding horses, but soon our army will gain plenty of provisions.”<br> <a href="https://i2.wp.com/www.3kingdomspodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/quotes_ep132a.jpg"></a><br> Huh? His officers weren’t quite following, but that’s how Zhuge Liang preferred it. He now told the general Wang Ping to take 1,000 men disguised as the enemy and sneak over to the northern plain under the cover of darkness. Once there, they were to travel to the enemy’s supply route under the guise of a convoy, and then they were supposed to attack a real convoy and take their wooden oxens and gliding horses, and then head back across the northern plain. Now, of course, when the Wei forces find out about this, they’re more than likely going to give chase, especially since it’s not like these wheelbarrows could just fly down the road. They only go six or seven miles day, remember. So Zhuge Liang told Wang Ping that if the enemy catches up, he was do X, Y, and Z.<br> Next, he handed out instructions to seven other officers, and they all snapped to.<br> <br> So, the next day, over on the northern plain, a Wei convoy was minding its own business when word came from the men in the front that they had encountered another convoy. The officer commanding the convoy sent someone to check it out, and they reported back that it was indeed their own men. So the commanding officer dropped his guard and proceeded to merge his convoy with the one up ahead. But suddenly, a loud cry rang out from the ranks, and within his own ranks, a slaughter broke out, accompanied by the loud shout, “The Shu general Wang Ping is here!” The real Wei soldiers were caught off guard and most were cut down, including the commanding officer. While the rest scattered, Wang Ping and his men seized the wooden oxens and gliding horses and turned them toward the Shu camp.<br> While Wang Ping and company were ambling along in the world’s slowest getaway, the remnants of the Wei convoy ran to their camp on the northern plain, where they told the general Guo Huai what happened. Guo Huai immediately mobilized his troops to go take back their supplies. Wang Ping saw them approaching in the distance, and he and his men promptly abandoned their new prize. But, not before they reached into the mouths of these wooden oxens and gliding horses and...
