Governor of Yi Province who spent seven years building the great fleet, melted the river's iron chains with torches of sesame oil, and sailed into Shitou to receive the last emperor's surrender.
Wang Jun's towered ships go down from Yizhou.The opening line of Liu Yuxi's Tang poem on the fall of Wu, quoted at the head of the episode
Appears in
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Relations
- Du Yu co-commanders — One war in two arms: Du Yu took Jiangling and broke the middle reach by land while Wang Jun's fleet came down the river above it.
- Sun Hao conqueror & captive — At Shitou in the third month of 280, Sun Hao came to the army's gate with his hands bound and a coffin behind him; Wang Jun loosed the bonds and burned the coffin.
Myth vs record
The story you may know
His fleet fought its way down the whole river and won the war alone.
What the sources say
The invasion was six columns of over two hundred thousand: Du Yu took Jiangling, Wang Hun destroyed the last Wu field army at Banqiao, and the fleet reached Shitou after the defending army had ceased to exist. The victory was a system, not a flotilla — and the victors then quarrelled over the credit for years.