LU KANG

'Lu Kang' (陸抗; 226 – 274) was an advisor and general for Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms era of China. Lu Kang was the son of Lu Xun and the grandson of Sun Ce. He was praised for his talent and wisdom.
He started out as a soldier under his father's command. Unlike Cao Wei or Shu Han, 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 ruled Jingzhou following his father's footsteps.
He 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 Jingzhou's largest city Jiangling. Lu Kang forced marched his men to the fortification before Wei could send any reinforcements. Much like what Julius Caeser did several hundred years earlier during the early Roman Empire, 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 detente with Yang Hu (羊祜), a general from 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 Kang's death, Yang Hu began a series of petitions to the government for an invasion of Wu. After Lu's death, his command was divided into four parts, lead by his four eldest sons, assigned as the commander of the land force, deputy commander of the land force, commander of the navy, and the deputy commander of the navy respectively. Such division greatly weakened the defense of Wu and all of these four sons of his were killed in the battles several years after his death, when the Jin Dynasty conquered Eastern Wu and united China.
Lu Kang had eight sons, with the youngest two becoming famous writers and competent generals of Jin Dynasty. The wife of his son Lu Jing (陸景) was Sun Hao's sister.