Chapter 260 Demonic Taoist Xu Maogong

【Li Jing's status in the Song Dynasty was quite transcendent.

His military books were listed among the seven military classics, and he was listed among the ten sages of the Martial Temple. He was never short of incense and sacrifice.

The Song Dynasty played the game of controlling the military with the civil. No matter whether you can fight or not, you have to read the military books.

Therefore, Li Jing was quite famous in the Song Dynasty. It is not an exaggeration to say that he was well-known.

But why is it that when we talk about the history of the Sui and Tang Dynasties in modern times, we are more familiar with Qin Qiong and Yuchi Gong, who are posted on the door during the Chinese New Year, while Li Jing is invisible?

No, it is because Li Jing's status was too high at that time.

Tang poetry, Song lyrics, Yuan opera, and Ming novels, we all know this.

Unlike Tang poetry and Song lyrics, which focus on self-expression, the chapter-by-chapter novels of the Ming Dynasty have a heavier commercial component.

After the great success of the mythical novel "Journey to the West", the Ming Dynasty booksellers waved their silver and hired people to create "Journey to the East", "Journey to the South", and "Journey to the North" one after another, which were well received. "The Romance of the Gods" is also a follow-up work of this kind.

"Water Margin" brought out the well-known stories of the Hu family generals, the Yang family generals, the Xue family generals, and the Yue family generals.

There are more imitations of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms", from "Records of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty" to "Song Taizu's Three Visits to the Southern Tang Dynasty", basically all the works from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty to the Song Dynasty have been written.

From this context, we can actually see what is the most important thing in the creation of novels in the Ming Dynasty? Follow the trend.

As for the two novels "Shuo Tang Yanyi" and "Sui Tang Yanyi" that tell the history of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the only thing that Zhangyu UP can say is:

Good news: stitched.

Bad news: all stitched.

Learn from "Water Margin" in terms of characters, learn from "Journey to the West" in terms of settings, and learn from "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" in terms of narrative structure.

First of all, the characters are heroes.

For example, in the setting of the 18 heroes of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the first hero Li Yuanba is the golden-winged Dapeng Eagle, the guardian of the Buddhist world, the third hero Pei Yuanqing is the reincarnation of Nezha, the sixteenth hero Qin Qiong is the Pojun star, and the seventeenth hero Yuchi Gong is the Heisha star.

And Li Shimin is the Ziwei star, Wei Zheng and Xu Maogong are the left and right prime ministers of the heaven respectively.

The warlords' melee turned into a battle of gods. If this setting is followed, Dou Jiande, who almost defeated Li Shimin, must be the reincarnation of the Gou Chen Emperor, and Li Yuan should be the Jade Emperor?

The plot setting is more god-like.

For example, Li Yuanba's two hammers weighed 800 kilograms, and he rode a BMW Wanliyun. In the battle of Zijin Mountain, he killed 1.2 million troops alone.

Qin Qiong's double mace weighs 130 jin, and Yuchi Gong's two steel whips weigh 120 jin. If your weapon doesn't weigh 100 jin, you'd be embarrassed to say hello to others.

In "Talking about Tang San", there is also linkage. Li Jing personally invited the Monkey King and the Old Mother of Mount Li to fight the enemy, which makes people wonder whether the Sui Dynasty violated the law of heaven.

In terms of narrative structure, because of the great success of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, later generations said that hero dramas basically have to have a military advisor.

In the early operas and novels, because Zhuge Liang used Taoist methods, borrowed the east wind in Red Cliff and borrowed life from Wuzhangyuan, the position of military advisor gradually overlapped with Taoist priests, and later generations basically followed suit.

In the end, Li 𪟝 was unlucky.

In the early story of the Wagangzhai camp, considering the popularity, there was only one Li 𪟝 who could take this position.

So the general became a military strategist who could cast spells, and the word "Mao Gong" was too difficult to write, so it became "Mao Gong".

In the end, the dignified Duke of Ying became the demon Xu Mao Gong in the novel.

In this kind of half-god and demon story, a genuine tower-bearing Li Tianwang was inserted. In order to prevent the story from collapsing, Li Jing naturally had to cut off his presence as much as possible.

In addition, the plot of the Romance of Sui and Tang Dynasties focused on the struggle for supremacy in the Central Plains. Li Jing's pacification of Xiao Xian in the south was not part of the main stage, so it was further diluted.

The setting of the 18 rebel kings in the Romance of Sui and Tang Dynasties was basically copied from the 18 princes in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

In addition, the Romance of Sui and Tang Dynasties also wrote about a reincarnated revenge mandarin duck: Yang Yuhuan was the reincarnation of Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty, and Li Longji was the reincarnation of Yang Guang's favorite concubine Zhu Guier.

The two reincarnated for a hundred years to continue their previous relationship and to avenge Li Tang, who destroyed the Sui Dynasty.

This cliché plot was also sewn from "The Romance of Emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty". It can only be said that the ancestors had a big imagination. 】

Li Shimin's heart had never been so agitated as it was now:

Damn, I really want to see this Journey to the West with my own eyes...

Although ruling the country with culture is Li Shimin's main job now, no one will read some strange novels to relax in their spare time.

After all, the light curtain now comes from "Soushenzhi".

Although I have never read this Ming Dynasty novel, from Li Shimin's own perspective, the quality of "Soushenzhi" is quite uneven, and most of them are short stories, which are not satisfying at all.

And how good a long novel with a coherent plot and high quality is, Li Shimin dare not imagine...

And Qin Qiong didn't expect that there would be his own name:

"It has become a door god."

Posting door gods is also a traditional custom. As far as Qin Qiong knows, the door gods painted by the people of the Tang Dynasty now include Guanyu Zhangfei, Shentu Yulei, but the two brothers seem to have not appeared yet.

"Not as good as General Yaoshi."

Yuchi Jingde's envy was undisguised, and there was even a little resentment in his heart.

In terms of honor and favor, they are all dukes, so how come one is the Marshal of the Heaven Realm and the other is the gatekeeper for the people?

Qin Qiong keenly noticed his old brother's thoughts, and looked at the two door gods displayed on the screen that were very different from theirs, and whispered:

"The duties of a door god range from protecting the people to guarding the country's gates. How can it be bad?"

Only then did Yuchi Jingde get rid of the slight resentment in his heart.

And then, Li Yuanba's record made everyone laugh and cry.

If they were told that a fierce general had made a long-distance raid, rode into the battle alone, and cut off nearly a hundred enemy heads, they would praise him as a real fierce general.

But no one believed Li Yuanba's record at all, and they could tell it was nonsense at a glance.

"But who is this Li Yuanba?"

Fang Xuanling searched his mind but couldn't remember such a person.

"Maybe it's your brother, King Huai of Wei."

Du Ruhui judged:

"Even Emperor Xuanzong had to avoid the taboo word Xuan because of the Qing Emperor, so King Xuanba of Wei might have changed his name to Yuanba because of the taboo word Xuan."

And Du Ruhui also quickly figured out a story logic:

"Who can control Yuanba's martial arts?"

"Most likely he died young like King Huai of Wei."

Otherwise, if one person beheaded 1.2 million people, it would not take a year to conquer the earth.

And the following plot made everyone feel overwhelmed.

Su Dingfang thought, how can you ride a horse and use a hammer? And what kind of horse can carry a weapon weighing 800 kilograms?

Qin Qiong and Yuchi Jingde said that when we are in battle, we mount horses and hold spears, and dismount horses and hold knives. When have we used both maces and whips?

Fang Xuanling and Du Ruhui deduced that this Pei Yuanqing might be Pei Xingyan, who was known as the enemy of ten thousand people.

Then he started to make a scene, saying that Nezha was the third son of General Yaoshi. So, General Li Jing was actually Pei Xingyan's father?

Yuchi Jingde also said casually:

"Pei Xingyan was killed by Wang Shichong. General Yaoshi had helped Your Majesty defeat Wang Shichong. Can this be considered revenge for his son?"

Su Lie also joined in the teasing of Li Jing:

The old general was able to invite the Old Mother of Mount Li? Let's worship the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King when we go back tonight!

The belief in the Old Mother of Mount Li began to flourish in the Former Han Dynasty, so everyone knew it.

The remarks were too outrageous, causing Li Jing to look anxious and argue with others.

Only Li Shimin was very interested:

"It's a pity that the later generations didn't say how heavy my weapons were, and what good horses were called."

When I watched Searching the Mind, I thought it would be great if I could become the protagonist.

As the story said that the fox demon A Zi could "take the form of a good woman", Li Shimin was very curious about how beautiful the transformed appearance could be.

Now that he knew that his conquest of the world was also written into such a story, Li Shimin was very curious.

"I wonder how future generations will describe my heroic appearance in breaking the formation?"

The Tang Emperor expressed great interest.

The only one in the hall who wanted to cry but could not was Li Yu.

When he saw that the name of the right prime minister in the heaven was Xu Maogong, Li Yu had a bad premonition.

After all, his surname was indeed Xu, and Maogong and Maogong were homophones.

But at that time, he thought that there was some taboo, or that the younger generation had committed a heinous crime.

The result was that he was written as a demon, so Li Yu was very dissatisfied.

In the end, Li Shimin had to comfort him before he turned happy:

"Maogong is compared with Zhuge Wuhou. I think it is passed down for wisdom and strategy. With such courage and wisdom, what regrets are there?"

No wonder future generations also praised his loyalty, and all Li Yu's dissatisfaction disappeared immediately.

With the same treatment as Wu Hou, what else is there to be dissatisfied about?

After comforting Li Yu, Li Shimin burst into laughter because of the content of the light curtain:

"Yang Guang reincarnated as Yang Yuhuan?"

"The Erotic History of Emperor Yang?"

"This later literati has strange ideas, I wish I could present it to Yang Guang in person!"

...

Kong Ming looked at the light curtain and had another idea:

"For the common people, the words in the history books are still too obscure."

"Therefore, although there are records of famous generals and good ministers, the common people do not know their life stories, and the things passed down by word of mouth are inevitably distorted."

"And using straightforward words and texts to explain Wei Huo's life and talk about his achievements in destroying the Huns may also be feasible."

This is also one of Kong Ming's recent insights from teaching at the Little Imperial Academy.

It will take ten days to find time for class, but the students are all looking forward to it.

Why? Because it's fun, because the ancient classics of other courses are too obscure.

The most typical one is the mathematics classics. "Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art" is better, and the annotations were added in the Former Han Dynasty.

Kong Ming is currently annotating the Zhoubi Suanjing, which requires a basic knowledge of mathematics and calendar to understand, otherwise he would not be able to teach it.

Liu Bei also followed Kong Ming's thinking on this matter:

"Recently in Chengdu, I saw that the people talked about gods and ghosts when they were resting after dinner."

"If there were words similar to novels, letting the people know that Wei Huo relied on his love of learning and bravery to achieve success, rather than the blessing of gods, it would be of great benefit."

Pang Tong nodded in agreement:

"Instead of asking ghosts, such as studying hard, and asking witches, it is better to set your own goals."

"It's just... it's difficult to learn to read."

Regarding this, Zhang Song was full of confidence:

"Now that the granaries are full, the people of Chengdu want to know etiquette and honor and disgrace."

"Last month, a young student from the Imperial College asked me that his father now has extra money and wants to find a place to learn to read."

"In my opinion, at the beginning of next year, the character school mentioned by the military advisor can be opened."

The character school was Kong Ming's plan before. As the name suggests, the school only teaches reading, so the investment is quite low. However, Chengdu now needs labor everywhere, so it has not been implemented yet.

Liu Bei smiled happily, patted his thigh and said:

"Then I will record this matter first."

"Praising Wei and Huo's achievements, stimulating their desire to study and join the army, is also a way to support the Han Dynasty."