The story about the "borrowing arrows with straw men" took place during the period of The Three Kingdoms, right after the falling of the Han dynasty. During the famous battle known as the Chepi, Zao Cao led his overwhelming ground and water troops attached the smaller union between General Zhou Yu and military wizard Zhu Geliang. General Zhou was very jealous of Zhu Geliang and tried different ways or excuses to kill him. During the battle, General Zhou issued an order to Zhu Geliang to get about 100,000 arrows ready for use within a few days. If Zhu did not finish the order, he would have been executed. Knowing about the weather forecast, Zhu knew that it would very foggy early in the daybreak on the 3rd day. So on that day, Zhu sent out hundreds of hundreds ships filled with straw soldiers and put straw every on each of the ships. As the ships sailed in the middle of the Yangzhe River, the enemy troops on the other side of the river, with no clear vision due to the fog, thought they were about to be attacked. Under the order of Zao Cao, the soldiers issued thousands upon thousands of arrows at the ships. Zhu Geliang accomplished the order in time and gave Zhou Yu no excuses to get himself killed.
Zhuge Liang, please get the family name right.