The Three Kindgoms: Book One (completed)

I just finished reading the first book of The Three Kingdoms, by Luo Guanzhong. The book was made back during ancient China during the Han dynasty and has been one of the most treasured books in Asian countries such as Taiwan, China, Japan, and Korea. (Well, South Korea, since North Koreans can't even afford to buy a book in the first place, considering how their yearly income is about a hundred dollars). The book begins in during the end of the Han dynasty and there is A LOT of political corruption going on. Thanks to this corruption, the people being a rebellion and form an army under the command of Zhang Jiao, a warrior who uses sorcery to give his army the advantage on the battlefield, such as creating mist to hide the troops or summoning lightning bolts to crush his enemies. Due to the fact that the peasants have such an incredible leader, they being what is known as the Yellow Scarves Rebellion, since they peasant soldiers all wear yellow scarves on their heads as their uniform. This army proves to be incredibly fierce, as they experience victory after victory on the battlefield and spread chaos in the country as the royal army is powerless to defeat them. In order to obtain reinforcements, the army hangs up enlistment posters in local towns. The hero of this story, Lui Bei, who is the nephew of one of the nobles in the Chinese court, sees this poster and wishes to destory the rebellion but due to the lack of resources and men, this is an impossible dream. Acknowledging this, Liu Bei sighs deeply and catches the attention of Zhang Fei, a local swine herder. He askes Liu Bei why he sighed and when Liu Bei replies, Zhang Fei laughs and claims that he can easily raise a small army due to the many connections he has and the two become friends fighting for a common goal. Then, they went into the local bar for a drink when they are greeted by Guan Yu, a warrior from a neighboring city who was exiled when he was caught attacking the hooligans there. After hearing Liu Bei's story, Guan Yu in interested in participating in the war and joins the two men. With three men having the same goal, they agree to form a brotherhood where they will never betray each other and would meet the same fate together and the story goes from there. Actually, what makes the book a masterpiece is that it actually focuses on a extremely wide range of characters and portrays their backstory while at the same time sticking to the main plot of the book. My father wanted me to read this book since it is such a literature masterpiece. At first, I was skeptical but once I got into the next couple of pages, I was enchanted and I couldn't put the book down. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who loves either Chinese history or historical fiction in general.