What do the new officials mean by "three fires"?

The "three fires" of the new official's three fires refer to Zhuge Liang's three fires of Bowangpo, Xinye and Chibi in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

According to the description in Romance of the Three Kingdoms (some of which are not true in history), Liu Bei finally invited Zhuge Liang to come out of the mountain. After Zhuge Liang came out of the mountain, he immediately showed his unpredictable talent. The first battle was the battle of Bowangpo. In this battle, Zhuge Liang set fire to hundreds of thousands of Cao Jun, Cao Cao's general Xia Houdun was banned, and Li Dian fled. This was Zhuge Liang's first fire when he took office.

Later, Cao Cao personally led an army to attack Xinye. Zhuge Liang knew that Liu Bei was no match for Cao Cao, so he took the initiative to quit Xinye City. When he left, Zhuge Liang laid a lot of materials in Xinye City in advance, lured Cao Cao into the city, and then set fire to Cao Jun. As a result, Cao Cao came to Miyagi in February, and it was already empty. He thought that Liu Bei was frightened and fled, so he was relieved that the soldiers lived in the city. As a result, a fire broke out in the middle of the night, and Cao Cao fled in a hurry. This is the second fire after Zhuge Liang took office.

Although Zhuge Liang has unpredictable talents, after all, Liu Bei is too weak to reverse the general trend. Liu Bei was chased by Cao Cao for some time, and finally fled to Jiangxia, so he had to unite with Soochow to fight Cao Cao. And Cao Cao also led a great army to camp in Chibi, preparing to settle the south in World War I and then unify the whole country.

So the famous Battle of Red Cliffs broke out. In this battle, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms completely deified Zhuge Liang. First, I thought of fighting with Zhou Yu, then I borrowed an arrow from a grass boat, and finally I borrowed Dongfeng. As a result, this fire completely paralyzed Cao Cao's army, and only twenty or thirty people of hundreds of thousands of troops fled. This is the third fire after Zhuge Liang took office.

Extended data:

Three fire attacks on Liu Bei all won, which proved Zhuge Liang's ability, established his position as the first counselor in Liu Bei's military camp, and laid the foundation for the tripartite confrontation in the future. People call it "Zhuge Liang takes office with three fires". Over time, it has become the "new official takes office with three fires".

Although the three fire attacks described in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms are wonderful, it is a pity that these three events are not recorded in the official history. In fact, they are all stories fabricated by Luo Guanzhong to show Zhuge Liang's wisdom.

Now when we say that "a new official takes office with three fires", we mean that a new official must do two or three things that benefit the people at the beginning of his tenure. The implication is that it is hard to say whether he will continue to do good deeds in the future. This is human experience. The "three fires" here are metaphors. The first three things are as spectacular, striking, vigorous and colorful as lighting a fire.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Three Fires for a New Official