by Luo Guanzhong
Let us now take a moment to talk about Dong Zhuo, whose style name was Zhongying, and was from Lintao in Longxi. His official title was governor of Hedong Commandery, and he had always been arrogant. On the day that he slighted Xuande, Zhang Fei flew into a rage, and wanted to kill him. Xuande and Lord Guan rushed to stop him, saying, "He is an official appointed by the court, how can you take matters into your own hands and kill him?" Fei replied, "If I don't kill this scoundrel, I will end up under his command and have to take orders from him; in all honesty, I have no desire to do that! If you two brothers of mine would like to stay here, I will go it alone somewhere else!" Xuande said, "We three are bound by oath to live and die together, how can we part from each other? It would be better for all three of us to go elsewhere." Fei replied, "If that is the case, it would abate my anger somewhat.The three of them then led their troops night and day toward Zhu Jun's position. Jun was very gracious; he combined the two groups, and together they went after Zhang Bao. At this point in time, Cao Cao had joined Huangfu Song in going after Zhang Liang; they were engaged in a major battle in Quyang. Meanwhile, Zhu Jun launched an attack against Zhang Bao. Zhang Bao was in command of eighty to ninety thousand troops. They were holed up in the mountains. Jun ordered Xuande to take point, and engage with the bandit rebel force. Zhang Bao sent his second in command, Gao Sheng, to ride out on horseback and pick a fight; Xuande directed Zhang Fei to attack him. Fei raced out on his horse, his long lance raised, and engaged Sheng in combat. After not more than a couple of passes, Sheng was skewered, and fell from his horse. Xuande commanded his troops to charge. Zhang Bao hastily raised his straight sword, and began performing sorcery. All one could see was a large amount of wind and thunder, and then a black haze emerged from out of nowhere. Emerging out of the black haze was a countless number of soldiers on horseback, who killed everyone in their path. Xuande quickly ordered his army to retreat, but the rank and file descended into chaos. Having been soundly beaten, he returned to confer with Zhu Jun. Jun said, "He is using sorcery; tomorrow I will slaughter pigs, rams and dogs for their blood. I will order my troops to hide on the hilltops. They will wait for the bandit rebels to rush in, then pour blood on them from above. This should nullify their magic."
Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Lays of Ancient Rome by Macaulay.
This is one of four great novels from China, published when it was the most highly civilization in the world. Map shows China at the time of this story.
Chapter Summary: Zhang Yide gets angry and whips the County Inspector; Royal uncle He plots the murder of the wretched eunuchs.
More information here:
| Check the right column | More of This Series |
This translation from Wikipedia. See license CC-BY-SA.
No comments:
Post a Comment