Zhang Song’s friend Fa Zheng comes to Jing Province with a letter from Liu Zhang, inviting Liu Bei into Shu to hold off Zhang Lu. Fa Zheng says that Yi Province is a land given by heaven, and that Liu Zhang cannot make use of able men. The land is coming to the general of its own accord today, he says, and he must not let it slip. Liu Bei says that Liu Zhang is his own kinsman and he cannot bring himself to scheme against him. Pang Tong presses him, saying that a man who fails to decide when the moment calls for it is a fool.
Liu Bei speaks. The man who stands against me like water against fire is Cao Cao. When Cao Cao is harsh I am lenient, when he is cruel I am kind, when he deceives I am loyal. Things work for me only when I always do the opposite of Cao Cao. I will not lose great righteousness in the eyes of the world for a small gain.
Pang Tong laughs. My lord’s words accord with the way of heaven, but to contend with arms in times of chaos one cannot cling to a single road. Absorbing weak states was what the old overlords did, and taking against the grain and holding with the grain was the way of Tang and Wu. If you repay him with justice once things are settled and enfeoff him with a great state, what faith is broken? If you do not take it today, in the end someone else will. Only then does Liu Bei understand, and leaving Jing Province to Kongming and Guan Yu, he goes west with Pang Tong.