| Lu Kang | |||
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| Traditional Chinese | 陸抗 | ||
| Simplified Chinese | 陆抗 | ||
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Lu Kang (226–274), style name Youjie (幼節), was a military general of the state of Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms era of Chinese history. He was the son of Lu Xun and a maternal grandson of Sun Ce. He was praised for his talent and wisdom.
Lu Kang started out as a soldier under his father's command. Unlike the rival states of Wei and Shu, Wu's power was derived from individual commanders whose generalship is always passed on to their descendant. After Lu Xun died, Lu Kang was named the army commander and governed Jing Province.
When Lu Xun died, Sun Quan trusted Lu Kang heavily. Although he did not show the same promise as Lu Xun he is seen as the last great general of Wu.
When Shu was about to fall to Zhong Hui and Sima Zhao, Lu Kang offered his advice to Sun Quan to attack Shu, saying that "Since Shu is about to fall, it must be in our hands and not in Wei's". Sun Quan agreed but died of natural causes during the preparation and the attack could never be launched.
Lu Kang was famous for his utilization of military constructions during his campaign. On one famous instance, a Wu defector Bu Chan was attempting to surrender a Wu border fortification to Wei. This would have given Wei unblocked access to Jing Province's largest city Jiangling. Lu Kang forced marched his men to the fortification before Wei could send any reinforcements. Lu Kang built two walls, one for siege of the fortification, and the other to defend against Wei's reinforcement. Wei's army led by Yang Hu was forced to retreat, seeing no way out, Bu Chan committed suicide, and the fortification surrendered.
Lu Kang was also noted for his foresight. Upon inspecting the border, he recognized many defensive shortcomings. He reported these problems to the emperor and suggested several solutions. However, the tyrannical emperor Sun Hao was a hedonist and did not accept any of his suggestions.
Although a famous military commander, Lu Kang recognized the weaknesses within Wu and the need for economic development. He actively pursed a détente with Yang Hu, a general of the Jin Dynasty, in which they trusted each other and allowed civilians to freely trade across the border.
When Lu Kang was alive, Yang Hu did not dare to attack Wu, and immediately after Lu's death, Yang began a series of petitions to the government for an invasion of Wu. After Lu Kang's death, his command was divided into four parts, led by his five sons: oldest son Lu Yan (陸晏) was named as the commander-in-chief of the land force, third eldest son Lu Xuan (陸玄) was named as the deputy commander-in-chief of the land force, second eldest son Lu Jing (陸景) was named as the commander-in-chief of the navy, and fourth eldest son Lu Ji was named as the deputy commander-in-chief of the navy, and the fifth eldest son Lu Yun (陸雲) named as the commander of local garrison respectively. Such division greatly weakened the defense of Wu and three out of these five sons of his were killed in the battles several years after his death, when the Jin Dynasty conquered Wu and united China. The surviving two sons, Lu Ji and Lu Yun returned home to become famous scholars and would later excel in the imperial court they once fought.
Lu Kang had eight sons, with two of them, Lu Ji and Lu Yun becoming competent generals of Wu and later famous writers of Jin Dynasty. Both became high ranking officials in the imperial court of Jin Dynasty after more than a decade after the fall of Wu. However, both sons were executed with their entire families during the War of the Eight Princes. The wife of Lu Jing was Sun Hao's sister.
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