Taishi Ci

After this accomplishment and the subsequent suppression of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Taishi Ci returned south to the Jiangdong District and offered his services to Liu Yao, a capable warlord born and raised in the same village as Taishi Ci himself. During his service under Liu Yao, Sun Ce was rapidly expanding his forces and reclaiming lands he perceived as the rightful property of the Sun family. Sun Ce had been successful, due to the fact that he had earlier traded the Imperial Seal in his possession to the wealthy and powerful Han noble, Yuan Shu, in exchange for several thousand of his troops. Alongside his father's already impressive army, Sun Ce and his childhood friend Zhou Yu invaded the lands of Wu, which were under the protection and rule of Liu Yao at the time. Sun Ce had gained a tremendous advantage through the capture of a local city which he could now use to rally and support his army. Unfortunately, Liu Yao was not a good military commander. When Sun Ce attacked him, many his advisors suggested to him that he should name Taishi Ci as the commander-in-chief of his force to defend themselves against Sun Ce, but Liu Yao refused, fearing that giving Taishi Ci the command would tarnish his reputation, since Taishi Ci was once a criminal. Taishi Ci was instead tasked to guard the army's baggage. One day, Taishi Ci came across Sun Ce in Shenting, but the two duelled to a standstill. As Sun Ce's officers rode to his assistance, Taishi Ci was forced into a hasty retreat. Sun Ce had been impressed with Taishi Ci abilities and held him in good stead, noting him as one of very few men of honour in a chaotic and treacherous period

Taishi Ci later was forced to break allegiance with Liu Yao after they fled their separate ways, with Liu Yao fleeing to Yuzhang and Taishi Ci to Wuhu, resulting from Liu Yao's refusal to heed Taishi Ci's strategic advice and was subsequently overrun. Taishi Ci established a guerrilla base in the mountains and earned support of many locals, and from 195 to 198, Taishi Ci waged war against Sun Ce and eventually expanded to include the region of Dangyang, a position of strategic military importance since the time of Sun Tzu, where he proclaimed himself Administrator, with supporters ranging from the ordinary civilians to high ranking local officials. Taishi Ci had become too much of a threat after defeating Yan Baihu, Sun Ce targeted Taishi Ci instead of Liu Yao. Taishi Ci's remnant forces were quickly besieged by Sun Ce's army at Jin County and were consequently overrun and captured

Taishi Ci was tied up and brought before Sun Ce, where Sun Ce, recalling their encounter at Shenting, immediately unbound him. Sun Ce persuaded Taishi Ci to join him, saying that his talents were unrecognized by his previous masters; Sun Ce even said that Taishi Ci was a dragon among people and to fly to the sky the dragon must have a good base, and Sun Ce himself was very honored to be that base. Although initially hesitant, Taishi Ci eventually succumbed to Sun Ce's requests, accepting highly ranked positions within Sun Ce's army. He asked Sun Ce to let him go for a day to collect his remnant troops to pacify the area, and Sun Ce agreed. Answering the suspicion from his advisors, Sun Ce retorted, "Taishi Ziyi is a famed man of Qing province, bound by honour, he will not lie to me", and indeed, Taishi Ci came back the next day. He was appointed as Commander Under the Gate and General of the Household

Taishi Ci remained a loyal and staunch supporter of the Sun family for the rest of his life, feeling an obligation towards Sun Ce for placing such confidence in his abilities. Taishi Ci came to be well reputed amongst his troops and fellow officers and was held in high regard by Sun Quan, younger brother of Sun Ce. During his service under Sun Ce, Sun Ce gave him three important tasks which he completed successfully

The first was to visit the remnant of forces of the recently deceased Liu Yao, informing them that they were all welcome to Sun Ce's side and if they chose not to, they were free to go. Everyone of Liu Yao's remnant force surrendered to Sun Ce and Liu Yao's son even excelled under Sun Quan later on. Unlike what was depicted in the novel Romance of Three Kingdoms where it only took a day for Taishi Ci to return at the exact time, Taishi Ci actually told Sun Ce that it would take at most 60 days when he left, and he did return within the 60 day limit despite suspicions that he would defect

The second task assigned to Taishi Ci by Sun Ce was to perform a reconnaissance mission on Hua Xin, the Administrator of Yuzhang in the name of paying a visit. Taishi Ci returned and told Sun Ce that Hua Xin would not be able to defend his turf because the local people did not obey him, so Sun Ce marched his force to Yuzhang like Taishi Ci had suggested, and peacefully incorporated the region when Hua Xin surrendered

The third task was that Sun Ce named Taishi Ci as Jianchang Duwei, taking charge of six counties including Haihun and Jianchang to defend the local areas from attacks from Liu Pan, nephew of the Jing province governor Liu Biao. Taishi Ci had successfully checked the attacks of Liu Pan, and Liu Pan ceased to be a threat

After Sun Ce's death, Cao Cao felt that this was an opportunity and asked Taishi Ci to surrender. However, Taishi Ci refused. Taishi Ci later died of natural causes in 206 at the age of 41. His last words were: "A man in life should take a sword of seven feet, and rise to the rank of the son of heaven. Now my goals have not been realized, but yet I helplessly die!"

In the historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Taishi Ci is instead slain by one of Cao Cao's most feared and talented officers, Zhang Liao, during the Battle of Hefei. Although this event never actually occurred, the author of the novel, Luo Guanzhong, altered the deaths of several renowned "Three Kingdoms" generals whom he believed deserved a much more dramatic and courageous death

As for this model, it is modeled after a Dom. A truly anticipated model, it live up to its expectation. In fact, a layer of top coat is enough to make it look representable enough. Colouring wise, some extra work might be needed on the body area cause its like come in one colour. All and all, it is a very interesting model to build