11 Wildest Assassinations During Total War: Three Kingdoms' Historical Setting

Let's jump ahead about thirty years in the future: Cao Cao has died and been succeeded by his son, Cao Pi. Now Cao Pi was just the eldest, surviving, of twenty-five sons – and one of three who came from Cao Cao's chief wife – Lady Bian. The other two were the drunken poet Cao Zhi and the valiant blonde-haired warrior, Cao Zhang.

Cao Zhang was well-liked by the military folks for his valor and war achievements, and he was charming and considered exotically handsome on account of the fact that having blonde hair was unusual amongst Chinese people. When he asked to see Cao Pi's imperial seal, the elder brother became suspicious and so innocuously challenged him to a game of Weiqi (also known as 'Go').

He had a plate of dates prepared and ordered half of them poisoned. He ate the ones not marked with poison and left his brother to eat the rest. He also had all of the water removed from the room so that when his brother realized he was poisoned, he could not flush the poison out and the blonde warrior died while playing a board game.