Text: Dutou Yun Ge (author's original authorization)
Previously, the author and everyone read the "Dang Kou Zhi" ("Water Margin" sequel, written by Yu Wanchun in the Qing Dynasty) for the one hundred and twenty-ninth time, Wu Yongben wanted to use Yan Shude to make the officers and soldiers count, but instead Xu Huai took the second pass. Today we continue to read the 130th time of "Dang Kou Zhi" "Li Qing Night Battle Three Niang, Xi Zhen Chases the Forest Leopard during the Day" to see how the follow-up development is.
Synopsis: After Chen Xizhen regained Xintai, he was promoted to the command of Hebei Province, stationed at Daming Province, and trained soldiers and horses with Zhu Yongqing and others to prepare to retake Puzhou. It so happened that Liu Guang was also transferred to the post of governor of Guangping Province, and Chen Xizhen used Tianzi's permission to summon the old ministry, summoning Luan Tingyu and Gou Huan to his command, only Zhao Xin, Gao Liang, and others requested to go into hiding, and did not accompany the army. After Chen Xizhen gathered soldiers and horses, the army conquered Puzhou. Lin Chong consulted with everyone in Puzhou on how to meet the enemy after receiving the report, and finally followed Ma Lin's advice and went out of the city to camp. Ma Lin also suggested setting up an ambush and luring officers and soldiers to attack, and Lin Chong sent Hu Sanniang to fight and captured Lou Xiong alive. Chen Xizhen then sent Chen Liqing to fight, and as a result, Wang Ying volunteered to be captured alive by Chen Liqing, and on the way back, Wang Ying did not forget to tease Chen Liqing, and was killed as a result. After Chen Liqing returned to the camp, Zhu Yongqing came up with a method, using a copper strip to insert it from Wang Ying's dung door, fixing it on a horse, pretending to be alive, the two armies exchanged prisoners with each other, Lin Chong and others released Lou Xiong, but found that Wang Ying was dead. The third lady was furious, so she fought with Chen Liqing, regardless of victory or defeat, and the horses of the third lady could not support it, so the two sides agreed to fight again at night. In the night, the two sides fought again, Chen Liqing and Hu Sanniang fought for a long time without distinguishing between victory and defeat, and then Chen Liqing was ready to shoot the horse of the third lady with an arrow, and the third lady threw out a cotton rope noose, and the two entangled together, and as a result, Chen Liqing had great strength and strangled the third lady. Lin Chong was furious and led his troops to chase chen Xizhen's soldiers and horses, but he was caught in the plan of transferring the tiger away from the mountain, Liu Guang and others had already attacked Puzhou and captured Zhang Heng and Zhang Shun alive, Lin Chong reacted too late, and had to lead the remnants of the people and horses to flee back to Liangshan.
(Illustration of the plot of the official army recovering Puzhou and hunting down Lin Chong in the late Qing Dynasty's "Dang Kou Zhi")
Du Tou Yue: In the first (i.e., the seventy-first time), the book "Dang Kou Zhi" made a full layout of the whole book, and the author carefully designed Song Jiang, Wu Yong rang Lin Chong, and Hu Yanzhuo to guard Puzhou and Jiaxiang (also in charge of Nanwangying) respectively, as the horns of the cottage, when Fan Jinmen immediately approved that "the situation of The Division of Tianbiao and Xizhen has been determined." However, with the continuous development of the war, the cities outside the Liangshan base camp were lost one after another, and in this return, only Puzhou and Jiaxiang were left. In the process of creating the novel, the author likes to design some characters in Lei General who are tit-for-tat with the good han of Liangshan, such as Guan Sheng, a descendant of The Martial Saint in Liangshan, and Yun Tianbiao, who worships and imitates Guan Yu. Liangshan has the tiger hero Wu Song, and the Thunder General has Tang Meng, who captures the divine leopard. And the leopard head Lin Chong, as a well-known good man in "Water Margin", in the words of Fan Jinmen, is "Nai'an wrote Lin Chong as a first-class general of Liangshan Po, since the "Water Margin", no matter whether the crown covers Ru Lin and the rural bean shed gossip, when Lin Chong is mentioned, he is brave and delicate, such as at present." For such a heavyweight figure, Yu Wanchun naturally will not let go, in order to overpower Lin Chong everywhere, the author carefully shaped the image of Chen Xizhen. At the beginning of the novel, the author deliberately designed Chen Xizhen to experience a similar encounter with Lin Chong (with Gao Li's father and son), and let him successfully escape to reflect that Lin Chong was inferior to Chen Xizhen in dealing with people. Near the end of the novel, the author designed Chen Xizhen to retake Puzhou, so that Lin Chong was defeated by Chen Xizhen militarily, which can be described as painstaking. But the author may not know, as Fan Jinmen said, Lin Chong was forced to Liangshan, the heroic image of resisting oppression has been firmly imprinted in the reader's heart, no matter how to denigrate and distort, can not change the fact that Lin Chong is loved by the majority of readers, so Yu Wanchun's description of Chen Xizhen is better than Lin Chong is just a waste of effort. Speaking of which, let's first look at the historical allusions involved in this review.
There is only one allusion involved in this return, and it is written that when Lin Chong and others learned that Chen Xizhen had come to attack, "teaching Zhang Heng and Zhang Shun to guard the city, Lin Chong led Deng Fei, Ma Lin, Wang Ying, and Hu Sanniang, lit up 30,000 horses, went out of the North Gate Ten Miles Away Jihou Bridge, and set up camp in xiazhai." Fan Jinmen commented in the sentence "Place names." Ji Hou thought that it was the righteousness of his country that had gone greatly. Fan Jinmen's story of "Ji Hou da went to his country" is recorded in the Spring and Autumn Ram Biography "The Fourth Year of Zhuang Gong": "Four years,...... summer...... Ji Hou da went to his country. Who's the big goer? Extinguish also. What is the end? Qi extinguished. Is it true that it is not said that it will be destroyed? For Xiang Gong also. That is to say, in the fourth year of the Duke of Luzhuang, the State of Ji was destroyed by the monarch of the State of Qi, Duke Xiang of Qi, and the Prince of Ji of the State of Ji fled and did not know where to go. The reason why the State of Qi attacked the State of Ji was because the Emperor of the State of Ji had previously spoken to Zhou Tianzi, causing qi Xianggong's distant ancestor Qi Aigong to be boiled and killed by Zhou Tianzi, and by the time Qi Xianggong had already experienced the ninth dynasty, he finally had a great revenge. Yu Wanchun's allusion to Ji Hou here may be a satire that Lin rushed out of the city and was hit by the transfer of the tiger away from the mountain, and the story of Puzhou being captured by Liu Guang and others is similar to the story of Ji Hou escaping and being destroyed. In addition, there is a digression, on the "Great Go" of "Ji Hou went to his country" what is the interpretation, there are different theories at present, some think that it means to flee, some think that it is the meaning of being destroyed, and some people think that Ji Guo was not destroyed at that time, and Ji Hou fled to the mountains to continue fighting with the State of Qi. As for the truth, it remains to be further studied.
After talking about the allusions, let's talk about the highlight of this return - the Battle of Puzhou. I believe that for this battle, most readers will think that there is a person with both wisdom and courage like Lin Chong, who is guarded, and it should not be easy to be attacked by the officers and soldiers. But in the novel, on the contrary, Chen Xizhen recaptured Puzhou in only two days. Let's see how Yu Wanchun designed it.
First of all, the comparison of troop strength, Chen Xizhen's side of the light generals included Liu Guang, Zhu Yongqing, Chen Liqing, Gou Huan, Zhu Wannian, Luan Tingyu, Luan Tingfang, Liu Qi, Liu Lin, Zhen Xianglin, Fan Chenglong, Lou Xiong and other 12 people, with 40,000 men and horses. The generals under Lin Chong's side, including Zhang Heng, Zhang Shun, Hu Sanniang, Wang Ying, Ma Lin, and Deng Fei, went out of the city to meet the enemy Ma Sanwan. Lin Chong's personnel, both in quantity and quality, were obviously weaker than those of the officers and soldiers, so Lin Chong lost a move first.
Second was the tactical deployment, Chen Xizhen sent Liu Guang to lead Gou Huan, Liu Qi, Liu Lin, Zhen Xianglin, and Fan Chenglong to sneak into Puzhou City from Qingshuixi, while he led his army to entangle Lin Chong's main force. On the other hand, Lin Chong gave up the dangerous city and led the main force out of the city to camp ten miles and Chen Xizhen refused, originally the strategy of enticing the enemy to attack and set up an ambush attack was very good at the beginning, and Hu Sanniang also captured Lou Xiong, but Yu Wanchun immediately "moved his hands and feet", and then Lin Chong was furious because of the death of Wang Ying and Hu Sanniang, and was hit by the tiger to leave the mountain to pursue the officers and troops for sixty miles, resulting in the emptiness of Puzhou being secretly attacked, and tactically Lin Chong was "forced" to lose a move. When Lin Chong realized that Zhongji was preparing to retreat, Fan Jinmen commented. Or that Lin Chong may not be so stupid, but the wisdom of Lin Chong is just so, take the prequel and look at it carefully. Lin Chong could still feel that if Li Kui and the like were, they would not be aware of it at this point. In short, the method of anger is not very insightful, that is, it can be counted, not alone. Fan Jinmen forcibly echoed Yu Wanchun here, belittling Lin Chong's intelligence, and also letting readers carefully read the original work of "Water Margin", in fact, Lin Chong in the original work would not be able to neutralize such a low-level scheme as the tiger leaving the mountain. For example, when attacking Zengtou City, he repeatedly advised Chao Gai not to venture forward, and when he attacked Lingzhou, he advised Guan Sheng to think twice, which shows that Lin Chong is a very cautious person, and Yu Wanchun's design of angering Lin Chongzhong with the radical method has already departed from the image of Lin Chong in the original work.
Finally, in terms of fighting methods, Lin Chong did not choose fighting soldiers and fighting methods, but chose fighting generals, which is the usual method of the novel, which is beyond reproach. However, when The Third Lady captured Lou Xiong and Chen Liqing came to challenge, Yu Wanchun actually designed Lin Chong to agree to Wang Ying's request to fight. Chen Liqing is Liangshan's old opponent, Lin Chong knows his strength, Wang Ying is not an opponent at all, sending him to fight is undoubtedly sent to death, if according to the character of Lin Chong in the original work, he will never agree, but here Yu Wanchun once again forcibly let Lin Chong IQ off the line, and then continue to let Hu Sanniang and Chen Liqing fight alone until they are killed, Lin Chong completely lost the brave and delicate characteristics of the original here, and became a marionette in yu Wanchun's hand, so Lin Chong was "forced" to lose a move in the way of fighting.
At this point, we can clearly see how Chen Xizhen and others won the Battle of Puzhou, and Yu Wanchun, in addition to forcibly suppressing the intelligence of Lin Chong and others, also tried his best to describe how the officers and soldiers were "heroes", but on the contrary, the despicable and shameless faces of the officers and soldiers in this battle can be described as exposed. For example, after Lou Xiong was caught, Chen Liqing captured Wang Ying and strangled him to death, Zhu Yongqing designed to use a "dead tiger for a live bear", without any integrity, and then when Chen Liqing and Hu Sanniang fought without winning or losing, Chen Xizhen and Zhu Yongqing wanted to shoot Wang Ying and kill The Third Lady, and even Chen Liqing couldn't look at it, even saying "Don't, don't." If the conspiracy wins him, and also eats people's laughter, this fight is not admired. Although Chen Liqing said so, she herself was not a good person, she and Chen Xizhen's father and daughter sang a harmony, and often regarded military orders as a child's play. When we fought Gao Feng before, we have already said once that Chen Liqing signed a military order, but then Chen Xizhen stood up for her daughter for the first time after the defeat. In this return, Chen Liqing once again boasted about Haikou, "If he can't win one hundred and fifty or sixty, he will be held heavily responsible." "But the actual situation is that Chen Liqing first merged with Hu Sanniang for more than a hundred, and then the two of them fought for more than twenty times, and then merged with fifty or sixty, which was also mixed with some detailed descriptions of the rounds, which added up to more than one hundred and fifty or sixty rounds, but after the war, this matter was never mentioned again, yu Wanchun when shaping Chen Xizhen, Zhu Yongqing, Chen Liqing and others, he should think that these are normal in his heart, because according to his point of view, as long as he can eliminate the thieves, no matter what means are used, it is okay. But he forgot that the reader has a scale in his heart, and compared to the performance of the good man of Liangshan in the book, Lei will have been sentenced to fail.