During the final years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, as warlords clashed and chaos engulfed the land, Sun Ce carved out a domain by crushing rival forces east of the Yangtze River, seizing five commanderies including Wu and Kuaiji, and laying the foundation for the Sun family's regime.
At that time, Sun Ce was still a subject of the Eastern Han, and Cao Cao appointed him General Who Suppresses Rebellion, enfeoffing him as Marquis of Wu. Therefore, whenever Sun Ce sought to eliminate other forces, he could raise troops under the banner of "suppressing rebellion."
Sun Ce had a gift for recognizing talent and genuinely welcomed differing opinions, which inspired his generals to fight willingly and his advisors to give their all. During the founding of the Eastern Wu regime, he relied heavily on prominent figures from the gentry, such as Zhou Yu and Lu Su, as well as his own clan brothers. Among them, Sun Ben and his brother Sun Fu were his most capable right-hand men.
After securing the five commanderies east of the Yangtze, Sun Ce set his sights on expanding westward, with Lujiang Commandery as his next target.
At that time, Liu Xun, the governor of Lujiang, stationed his troops in Wancheng. He had taken in several thousand of Yuan Shu's fleeing soldiers but lacked the grain to feed them, so he planned a raid on Haichun County to seize supplies. When Sun Ce learned of this, he dispatched his cousins Sun Ben and Sun Fu with eight thousand men to ambush Liu Xun at Pengze, the route he must take on his return, while Sun Ce himself led twenty thousand infantry with Zhou Yu to strike Liu Xun's stronghold at Wancheng. The attack was a resounding success, capturing over thirty thousand prisoners, including Liu Xun's and Yuan Shu's families.
When Liu Xun raided Haixian County, the enemy commander had already relocated the grain supplies and fled, leaving Liu Xun to capture an empty city with nothing to show for it. On his return to Wan City, he clashed fiercely with Sun Fu. Young and ambitious, Sun Fu was determined to win. Learning that Liu Xun's army was approaching the ambush site, he ordered his troops to stand ready. As Liu Xun's forces entered the trap, Sun Fu gave the signal, and a thousand crossbows fired simultaneously. Horses and men collapsed in chaos, the army disintegrated, and survivors fled in panic. Sun Fu then led a cavalry charge, blocking Liu Xun's routed remnants. He fought at the front, risking his life in close combat, inspiring his soldiers to press forward. This ambush devastated Liu Xun's army, leaving him stripped of armor and nearly annihilated. With only a dozen personal guards, he escaped via the Chu River to Xunyang. Hearing that Wan City had fallen to Sun Ce and his family captured, Liu Xun had no way back and had to seek refuge with Cao Cao.
Sun Ce then captured Lujiang Commandery, seizing a thousand war vessels from Liu Xun and taking over two thousand prisoners. For Sun Fu's valor in battle, Sun Ce appointed him Governor of Luling.
Soon after, Sun Ce was assassinated, and the territory he handed over to Sun Quan already encompassed the six commanderies of Jiangdong.
The state of Wu later formed the Three Kingdoms alongside Wei and Shu, with brothers Sun Ben and Sun Fu earning great military merits on the battlefield.
Later, the idiom "leading the troops from the front" (with "troops" referring to ancient chariot soldiers as "shi" and infantry as "zu") came to describe generals charging ahead of their soldiers in battle, fighting bravely.
Source: *Records of the Three Kingdoms*, Book of Wu, "Biography of Sun Fu"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "身先士卒" came to describe how generals charging ahead of their soldiers in battle, fighting bravely.