Liu Ye

Liu Ye (onyomi: Ryū Yō) was an advisor of the Kingdom of Wei. After being persuaded by Guo Jia to join Cao Cao, he became one of his most trusted advisors and was held in high regard by Cao Cao's successors. He was also a descendant of Emperor Guangwu of Han and thus a member of the imperial family.

Roles in Games
Dynasty Warriors has him appear as a minor officer for Wei generally during early to later battles leading his own unit or as a subordinate to Cao Cao. He first appears as one of Yuan Shu's officers in Dynasty Warriors 4.

The Warriors Orochi games have him serve Cao Pi's faction in the first game and Wei in the subsequent games.

In the Romance of the Three Kingdoms games, Liu Ye is mostly seen serving Cao Cao and his successors. Although most of his stats range from 30's to 70's at best, his intelligence usually ranges around low 90's, making him an excellent supporting officer in order to execute or counter enemy strategies. In the eleventh installment, Liu Ye can also be used to support units with siege weapons thanks to his high siege weaponry aptitude and his skill, which increases the range of siege weapons. The twelfth installment has him appear at the Guandu event and propose the building of catapults in order to destroy Yuan Shao's siege towers.

Historical Information
Liu Ye was born in Chengde, Huainan Commandery. In 199, the bandit leader Zheng Bao wanted to relocate the people of the Jiujiang commandery south of the Yangtze river. Liu Ye had built up some prestige in the years before, making him a renowned person there. Thus, he became a target of Zheng Bao. At that time, however, Cao Cao sent an observer to Jiujiang because of the recent events and Liu Ye invited the messenger to his estate and held a feast for both him and Zheng Bao. During the feast, however, Liu Ye suddenly took up a sword and killed Zheng Bao, allowing him to temporarily take control of the bandits. He became an advisor to Yuan Shu's general Liu Xun and brought the bandits to him as they would not serve him forever. This was a problem for Liu Xun, since he already had a considerable amount of people under him who sought protection after Yuan Shu's death and none of the neighboring territories wanted to help him, thus he was unable to feed all of them. The warlord Sun Ce urged him to attack Shangliao, a city which had plenty of food. Liu Ye advised against this attack, but Liu Xun did not listen to him and led his forces to Shangliao. However, Sun Ce had previously warned Shangliao, allowing them to successfully repel Liu Xun's attack. Furthermore, Sun Ce himself had attacked Liu Xun's territory and captured Huan. When Liu Xun attempted to return to Huan, he was ambushed by Sun Ben and Sun Fu. He then went to Huang Zu and asked him for help. Huang Zu sent his son Huang She, but their forces were utterly defeated by Sun Ce.

Liu Xun and Liu Ye fled to the warlord Cao Cao and joined him after that and Liu Ye served him as an advisor. He became Master of Records and followed Cao Cao on the campaign against Zhang Lu. At Hanzhong, Liu Ye among Xiahou Dun and others got lost in the darkness during a retreat and accidently entered one of Zhang Wei's camps. Zhang Wei's soldiers became frightened and thought they became victim to a night raid, fleeing from the battle in the process. Cao Cao was able to defeat Zhang Wei and Zhang Lu surrendered. Later, Liu Ye and Sima Yi advised Cao Cao to attack Liu Bei in Yi Province, arguing that the people of Yi would not yet be attached to Liu Bei and that Liu Bei would be busy with Sun Quan in Jing, but Cao Cao refused.

After Cao Pi ascended the throne, the Shu general Meng Da defected to Wei and Liu Ye warned Cao Pi that Meng Da could not be trusted. Later, when Cao Pi asked if Liu Bei would attack Sun Quan to regain Jing Province, Liu Ye predicted that Liu Bei would do so and indeed, Liu Bei attacked Sun Quan at Yiling in 222. When Cao Pi created the Wei Dynasty, Liu Ye advised him to reject Sun Quan's surrender and attack him instead. Cao Pi did not listen and accepted it, making Sun Quan the King of Wu. After Liu Bei's defeat at Yiling, Sun Quan cut his ties to Wei by refusing to send his son Sun Deng to the Wei court. Cao Pi planned to attack Sun Quan, but Liu Ye advised against it. Cao Pi did not listen to him again and attacked Wu. Despite scoring victories against Wu, Cao Pi was ultimately forced to retreat and gained nothing.

After Cao Pi's death, his son Cao Rui took over and the officials in Wei were worried because they did not know him at all. Liu Ye met Cao Rui to discuss political affairs and when finished, he returned to the officials and declared that Cao Rui was a genius. In 228, Gongsun Yuan took power from his uncle Gongsun Gong in Liaodong and Liu Ye urged Cao Rui to destroy him, but his advice was not heeded. In 238, Gongsun Yuan would declare himself King of Yan and rebel against Wei. In 232, Cao Rui considered to attack Yi Province, but most of his advisors advised against it. Liu Ye met with Cao Rui privately and said that Yi Province could be attacked, but when meeting the other officials, Liu Ye said that it couldn't be attacked. Cao Rui eventually became suspicious after talking to Yang Ji, who told Cao Rui about Liu Ye's doubletalk and his advisers urged him to meet with Liu Ye privately and discuss affairs with him. They advised Cao Rui to suggest the opposite of his true intentions, trying to find out whether Liu Ye only agreed with Cao Rui or gave honest advice. Cao Rui agreed with them and met privately with Liu Ye, talking to him for a long time. Liu Ye would always agree with Cao Rui, no matter if his suggestions were nonsense or not. From that point on, Cao Rui never trusted Liu Ye again and appointed him to a post outside of the capital. Liu Ye began to suffer from dementia and eventually died in 234. He was given the title Marquis Jing (Respectful Lord).

Romance of the Three Kingdoms
In the novel, Liu Ye is recommended to join Cao Cao by his friend Guo Jia. He recruited Man Chong and Lu Qian afterwards and saw through Chen Gong's ploy at Puyang, but Cao Cao did not listen to him and was defeated. He was later sent to Zhang Xiu and, after talking to Jia Xu, he persuaded Zhang to surrender to Cao Cao. At the battle of Guandu, Liu Ye suggested to build catapults in order to destroy Yuan Shao's own siege weaponry, which succeeded. He also repelled Yuan Shao's attempt to dig tunnels under the castle walls.