The story opens in
Linsuo, the capital
of the Liang dynasty, with the
Emperor Wen Di
receiving the civil and military officials at his morning court. At the
assembly, the
senior general Zhao Shan came
forward and asked the
Emperor’s permission to
resign from his office and return to his native
Shandong. On hearing this, the
Imperial
Teacher, Jin Fei, told the
Emperor
that he agreed with
Zhao Shan’s decision to
retire.
Jin Fei was a traitor and
Zhao Shan’s departure offered him the
opportunity to give rein to his ambition to usurp the throne.
Jin Fei’s daughter,
Jin
Meirong, was the
Emperor’s second
wife and she resided in the western palace. Before setting out, the
general Zhao Shan recommended two loyal young
men to the
Emperor, the brothers
Yu
Baolin and
Yu Baomu, who would
protect the state from danger after he had gone. Thus,
Emperor Wen Di conferred a general’s rank on
Yu Baolin, and he made
Yu Baomu deputy minister of state. At this moment,
Jin Fei began to fear that he could not fulfil
his ambition to sit on the throne. One day, the visit of a
diviner was announced to the brothers
Yu Baolin and
Yu
Baomu. He was in fact the
Daoist priest Zhao
Mu, disguised as a
diviner. The
two brothers received the
diviner, and the latter predicted that they
would die within one hundred days. Alarmed at the prediction, the
two brothers begged for a remedy, and
the
diviner put three pills into two cups,
asking them to take them. After this, the
diviner disappeared from sight. As a result of taking the pills, the
two brothers’ behaviour changed.
They began to make common cause with the traitor
Jin Fei and offered their service to him. While the morning court was
taking place,
Jin Fei,
Yu Baolin and
Yu Baomu
rushed into the audience hall.
Yu Baolin,
brandishing a sword, laid hands on the
Emperor’s shoulders, stripped off his royal garments and got
Jin Fei to wear them. The
Emperor’s mind blurred, he fell upon the jade steps, hit his
head and died.
Jin Fei ascended the throne
and proclaimed himself
Emperor Wen Li. The
dynasty’s title was changed to Wei dynasty. After these events,
Jin Meirong,
Jin
Fei’s daughter, and
Sui Chaoyun, the
principal wife of the late
emperor, consulted
each other and decided to take the imperial seal and flee the
capital together. After the
two ladies had escaped,
Yu Baolin and
Yu Baomu ordered a
large army to pursue them. On their way, a strong wind blew and
Jin Meirong, who kept the seal in her bosom,
was carried away by the wind and vanished.
Empress
Sui Chaoyun was captured by the soldiers and brought before
Jin Fei, who condemned her to death. It was
ordered to make a horse of brass, to place burning coal inside it and to sit
Sui Chaoyun astride it. She was rescued by
one of his sons, named
Du Baoshan, and they
managed to escape from the
capital. They had
not gone far when
Yu Baolin and
Yu Baomu. He was in fact the
Daoist priest Zhao Mu, disguised as a
diviner. The
two brothers received the
diviner, and the latter predicted that they would die within
one hundred days. Alarmed at the prediction, the
two brothers begged for a remedy, and the
diviner put three pills into two cups, asking
them to take them. After this, the
diviner
disappeared from sight. As a result of taking the pills, the
two brothers’ behaviour changed. They began to make
common cause with the traitor
Jin Fei and
offered their service to him. While the morning court was taking place,
Jin Fei,
Yu
Baolin and
Yu Baomu rushed into the
audience hall.
Yu Baolin, brandishing a
sword, laid hands on the
Emperor’s
shoulders, stripped off his royal garments and got
Jin Fei to wear them. The
Emperor’s mind blurred, he fell upon the jade steps, hit his head and
died.
Jin Fei ascended the throne and
proclaimed himself
Emperor Wen Li. The
dynasty’s title was changed to Wei dynasty. After these events,
Jin Meirong,
Jin
Fei’s daughter, and
Sui Chaoyun, the
principal wife of the late
emperor,
consulted each other and decided to take the imperial seal and flee the
capital together. After the
two ladies had escaped,
Yu Baolin and
Yu Baomu ordered a
large army to pursue them. On their way, a strong wind blew and
Jin Meirong, who kept the seal in her bosom,
was carried away by the wind and vanished.
Empress Sui Chaoyun was captured by the soldiers and brought before
Jin Fei, who condemned her to death. It
was ordered to make a horse of brass, to place burning coal inside it and to
sit
Sui Chaoyun astride it. She was rescued
by one of his sons, named
Du Baoshan, and
they managed to escape from the
capital. They
had not gone far when
Yu Baolin and
Yu Baomu approached with five hundred
soldiers.
Sui Chaoyun was pregnant and gave
birth to a boy, while
Du Baoshan fought a duel with
General
Yu Baolin.
Du Baoshan could not
overcome
Yu Baolin and was killed in
combat. Then a clamour was heard and a
warrior
maiden appeared. She waved a flag three times reciting incantantions,
causing the soldiers to fall asleep. The
warrior
maiden told
Sui Chaoyun that she was
staying in the
Jin Ling Cave and that she
had come to rescue
Sui Chaoyun and the boy,
following her master’s instructions. She took
Empress Sui Chaoyun and the boy to
Mao Family Village, leaving them under the
protection of the
Mao family. After
returning to the
capital,
Yu Baomu told
Jin Fei,
now
Emperor Wen Li, that the
two ladies had not been found. He
proposed to circulate warrants with a sketch of the
two missing ladies’ faces, which announced that whoever
captured them would be given ranks and gold. The warrant reached
Sui Shenjiang, who was
Empress Sui Chaoyun’s father. Upon learning that
Jin Fei had overthrown the Liang dynasty and
brought disgrace on his
daughter, he raised a
force of a hundred thousand soldiers and set out to vanquish
Jin Fei and his followers and to restore the Liang dynasty.
The warrant also reached
General Zhao Shan,
who had returned to his native
Shandong.
Having read it, he ordered announcements to be circulated to recruit men into
an army of volunteers.
Zhao Shan was able to
raise an army of seventy thousand soldiers and set off for the
capital.
Zhao Shan joined
forces with
Sui Shenjiang, and the fight
against the traitors began. The story ends with the Liang dynasty being
restored and the traitors brought to justice.
