Chapter 36- Nezha Joins Jiang Ziya and Crushes the

Okay, setting the scene for us, who are the players here? So you've got this massive civil war brewing. On one side, there's the ruling dynasty, based in Chaosh. Their forces are led by the Grand Tutor Wen Zong. He's formidable, very smart, very powerful. The establishment. Pretty much. And opposing them, you have the rebels from Western Qi, or Xi Qi. Their leader is the famous strategist Jiang Ziya. Think of it as established power versus this cunning, rising rebellion. Got it. So let's start with that first part, the human strategy, the deception. You said it involves Grand Tutor Wen Zong getting tricked. Yeah, badly tricked. By one of his own generals, a guy named Chao Lei. Wen Zong is pushing hard against Western Qi, trying to crush the rebellion. And Chao Lei undermines him how? Well, Chao Lei executes this amazing con. He's supposedly out fighting, right? But he comes back to the capital, Chaosh, to report to Wen Zong. Okay. Standard procedure. Seems like it. And his story is just perfect. He doesn't say, oh, the rebels are too strong. No, he blames logistics. He says the whole campaign is stalled because they're not getting enough supplies. The classic, it's procurement's fault excuse. Exactly. And he even names names. He points the finger at Han Rong, the officer in charge of Sichui Pass, saying he's the one holding up the grain and slowing everything down. So it sounds like an internal problem, not a failure against the enemy. Precisely. It shifts the blame, makes it seem like a bureaucratic mess, and his request seems totally logical based on that story. What does he ask for? Not a giant army, which might look suspicious. No, he asks for 3,000 extra men support troops, basically, and 1,000 units of grain. Exactly what you'd need to fix a supply bottleneck. Sounds completely plausible. Totally. And Wen Zong, who's got this huge war on his mind, he just buys it. He authorizes the request, get those supplies moving, fix the problem. But that wasn't the real reason for the trip. Not even close. Chao Lei used that official trip back, complete with the extra troops and supplies Wen Zong gave him, to secretly get his entire family, his jiaxiao it's called, out of the capital. He packs them up and defects to Western Qi. Wow. He used the dynasty's own resources to fund his escape and deliver his family to the enemy. It's brilliant and utterly ruthless. A complete betrayal. And think about the intelligence bonus for Jiang Ziya, getting a defecting general in his family. So how does Wen Zong find out he's been had? Does word get back from Xishu Pass? Not immediately. This is where Wen Zong's other side comes in. He's not just a general, he's also deeply involved in Taoist practices, divination. Right, you mentioned he was formidable. So a few days pass, and things aren't sitting right with him. He starts thinking, wait, Han Rong, disobeying orders? That doesn't sound like him. He gets suspicious. But he doesn't send writers to check. No, he turns inward, to the mystical. The text describes him burning incense, taking out three gold coins, and using the methods of the Eight Trigrams, the Bagua Miao Li Xuan Ji, basically, a complex form of divination, to figure out what really happened. So he uses magic to uncover a purely human trick. Exactly, it's this fascinating mix. And the divination reveals the truth, Chao Lei's defection, the whole scam. How does he react? Fury. The book says he slams his hand down, just enraged. I lost my chance! I was tricked out of his family! It's the humiliation, you know? Fooled by such a basic ploy. And by the time he figures it out, Chao Lei is long gone. Way too late. Three or four days too late. It's a great moment, showing that even a master strategist, someone who uses divination, can be undone by simple, clever human deception. It really underscores the importance of understanding your own people's motives, not just the enemy's troop counts. Absolutely. So that whole incident lights a fire under Wen Zong. He's been embarrassed, the war effort is faltering. He needs a win. Time to escalate. Big time. He consults his advisors and appoints a new commander for the Western Xi expedition. A real heavy hitter. General Zhan Geifang, the commander of King Long Pass. Okay, a new general. Does he bring a different approach? He brings overwhelming force, for starters. He mobilizes 100,000 troops. This isn't a small push, it's a massive offensive. 100,000? And he has a key subordinate, his vanguard, the Xin Gong one, a guy named Feng Lin. Interesting detail. He's mentioned as a descendant of Feng Hao, a legendary strategist from ancient times. So, hinting at some serious strategic lineage there. Right, but this is where the story takes that sharp turn we talked about, away from pure strategy. Okay, here comes the sorcery. Exactly. Zhang Ziya, the leader of Western Xi, gets wind of this new commander, Zhan Geifang. He knows it's serious, so he asks one of his own generals, Huang Feihu, for intel. Why Huang Feihu? Does he know these Zhan Geifang? He does. And he knows Zhan Geifang's terrifying secret. See, Zhan Geifang isn't just a tough general. He's described as a zhudo pangmen shuxi. Which means? A master of left path sorcery. Sort of unorthodox, maybe even dark arts. And his specific power is... Well, it's uniquely unsettling. Okay, lay it on us. What can he do? It's deceptively simple. If Zhan Geifang learns an opponent's name, he can just command them. The example given is, if he faces Huang Feihu, he just needs to know his name. Then shout, Huang Feihu, why don't you dismount? And Huang Feihu would just dismount. Instantly. Uncontrollably. He'd fall off his horse and be captured. Just like that. Wait, seriously. Just by knowing and saying someone's name? That's the power. Think about battlefield conventions back then. Generals often announced themselves before dueling. I am so-and-so. It was part of the ritual, the honor code. But Zhan Geifang turns that into a weapon. Your own identity becomes the key to your defeat. Exactly. It weaponizes the most basic form of battlefield protocol. Your name, your honor, suddenly makes you vulnerable. That's deeply creepy. So what does Zhang Ziya do when he hears this? He gets it immediately. He understands the implication. He issues a strict absolute order to all his generals. When you face Zhan Geifang or his forces, never state your name. Under no circumstances. Just break centuries of tradition right there. Instantly obsolete. But imagine being one of those generals. You've spent your whole life training in combat, strategy, upholding warrior codes. And now your commander tells you the simple act of saying your name will get you captured by magic. Right. How do you think they reacted? I'm guessing. Skepticism. Disbelief. They thought it was hilarious. The text says they laughed out loud. They just couldn't wrap their heads around it. Why not? I mean, it sounds terrifying. Their logic was, well, if it was that easy, why wouldn't Zhan Geifang just sit in his camp, yell out a hundred names, and win the war without fighting? It seemed too powerful to. Impossible. It violated their understanding of how the world works. Magic is one thing, maybe. But magic triggered by something so mundane. It just didn't compute. They were masters of the physical realm. Spears, swords, horses. This was something else entirely. And that disbelief, that inability to adapt their thinking. It's going to cost them, isn't it? Immediately. And tragically. Okay, so the battle lines are drawn. Zhan Geifang's massive army is there, led by the vanguard Feng Lin. Jiang Ziya has issued his warning. What happens next? Feng Lin rides out first, issuing the challenge. Standard procedure. He calls for a Western Qi general to face him. And who takes the bait? Does someone ignore the warning? Worse. Someone volunteers specifically because he doesn't believe the warning. It's the 12th son of King Wen of Qi, Ji Xiuqin. A prince. Why him? He wants to prove Huangfei Hu's warning is nonsense. He's young, probably full of pride, wants to show this sorcery is just talk. He rides out to meet Feng Lin. What's Feng Lin like? Is he just a regular warrior? Oh, not at all. The description of him is meant to be unnerving. Blue face. Red hair. Tusks sticking out. Tusks. Okay. Yeah. Wearing gold armor over a red robe, and he wields these nasty-looking wolf-tooth clubs. He looks terrifying, like something out of a myth. Another warning sign ignored, I guess. Seems like it. Ji Xiuqin sees the opponent, but focuses on the fight itself. And to be fair, conventionally, he's good. They fight fiercely, back and forth, for more than 30 rounds. A real clash of arms. A proper duel. And Ji Xiuqin actually starts winning. He's the better martial artist in this conventional sense. He manages to wound Feng Lin in the left foot with his spear, shout something like, Take that! He thinks he's won. He totally thinks he's won. He sees Feng Lin falter, wounded, and he presses his advantage, charging after him. But he's forgotten, or never believed, that Feng Lin isn't just a warrior. Exactly. He's chasing a wounded opponent, assuming the fight is over based on physical damage. He doesn't realize Feng Lin's real power isn't in his clubs or his strength. So what does Feng Lin do? He stops, turns around, wounded foot and all, and he starts chanting. The text says, Okay, here it comes. Then he spits. And out comes this huge cloud of black smoke. Just smoke. Not just smoke. It instantly transforms. It becomes this sort of net that envelops Ji Shu Qian, trapping him. Whoa. And while he's caught in the smoke net, something appears inside it. A Hong Zu, a red pearl, about the size of a bull. A pearl. A magical projectile. This red pearl slams into Ji Shu Qian, hitting him so hard it knocks him clean off his horse. And Feng Lin. Doesn't waste a second. While the prince is down and stunned, Feng Lin finishes him off with his club and takes his head. Just like that. The prince, who is winning the conventional fight, is killed by magic he didn't believe in. In seconds. A complete reversal. Feng Lin takes the head back as proof. And you can imagine the shock and horror back in the Western Qi camp. Zhang Ziya and King Wu mourn the prince, obviously. And the generals who were laughing before. They're not laughing anymore. They've just seen the horrific proof. The impossible sorcery is real. And it just killed their prince. They suddenly realize the true nature of this enemy. The rules really have changed. We're at West Qi, and it's under siege. Zhang Ziya, the Zhu leader, he's not your average general. No. The sources describe him, there's that famous poem, right? As a divine immortal. Mm-hmm. Skilled at moving mountains and overturning seas. Accustomed to scattering beans into soldiers. He's got serious orthodox Taoist power. He represents classical wisdom. But even his power is about to hit a wall. A very strange wall. Yeah. An unprecedented one. So the first clash isn't purely military. It feels philosophical, too. Xing Guifang rides out. He's all loyalty to the Shang Emperor. Super angry. And he accuses Ziya of treason, right? Because Ziya is sheltering the rebel Huang Feihu. Also known as Yellow Flying Tiger. Guifang's argument is basically, you're defying the emperor's authority. And Ziya's response is interesting. He doesn't just, you know, rattle his saber. He meets him with moral philosophy. He's calm. He uses that classical saying, doesn't he? Yeah, he says, Have you not heard? Wise minister chooses his master. A good bird nests on a proper tree. Which is basically a polite way of saying, Your Shang King is corrupt. Feihu made the right choice. And I'm following a higher law here. Exactly. It sets up the core conflict. Guifang is about unwavering loyalty. Military might. Expediency, maybe. While Ziya represents moral justification. Cosmic order. That kind of thing. But Guifang isn't really there to debate philosophy, is he? Not at all. The fighting kicks off. His vanguard, a guy named Feng Lin, starts battling the Zhu general Nangang Shi. Standard stuff, initially. But then Guifang spots his main target, Huang Feihu. Yellow flying tiger. And this is where everything just goes sideways. It really does. The normal rules just dissolve. Guifang's been fighting Feihu for a bit. And then suddenly he just yells out this command. Yeah, he shouts, Huang Feihu, dismount, what are you waiting for? And the result is, well, shocking. The sources are clear. Feihu, involuntarily, just falls right off his horse. The anqia, the saddle. No arrow, no spear, no physical blow. Nothing. Just the words. And the text explicitly calls this Guifang's left path technique. Zuo dao jishu. It's unorthodox magic. That's deeply unsettling. It's like a psychic attack, almost. A spiritual command. Right. And it works immediately. And we see it's reliable, too. Another Zhu general, Ziji, sees Feihu fall and rushes in to save him. Okay, grave move. Yeah, but when Zhuji starts chasing Guifang, Guifang just turns around. And yells the same thing at him. Exactly the same command. And Zhuji instantly drops off his horse, captured alive. Okay, so we need to understand the mechanics here, this left path thing. What is it actually doing? Well, the core idea, mythologically speaking, is that your true name isn't just a label. It has a direct kind of vulnerable connection to your spiritual anchor, your essence, your life force, maybe. Like a handle on your soul. Pretty much. By saying the name with the right magical intent, the right technique, Guifang can basically grab that handle and force a physical effect. Like tripping your soul, which makes your body collapse. Wow. So it just bypasses all your strength, all your training, armor, everything. Completely. It's a hack, essentially. A backdoor into the target system using their name as the password. If your soul runs your body, he's found the emergency off switch. That's terrifying. It is. And it gets worse for Zhu. Guifang's vanguard, Feng Lin, the one fighting Nangong Shi earlier, he has his own magic trick. Oh, great. More magic. Yeah. When Nangong Shi pursues him, Feng Lin sprays out this black smoke, and inside the smoke, there's apparently a marble-sized pearl, a wan ku dao ye li zu. And that does what? Knocks Nangong Shi down, too. He gets captured as well. So it's a coordinated magical assault. Man, this is a disaster for Ziya. He loses two generals. Huang Fei Hu is down. All in minutes, without really being able to fight back effectively. Yeah. Yeah, the sources say Ziya is yu yu bu le, unhappy, displeased, deeply troubled. And what does he do? He hangs out with the Mian Zong Pei. The no-challenge sign. Basically, we're not coming out to fight. Think about that. This is Jiang Ziya, divine immortal, leader of this big righteous army, and he's completely shut down, paralyzed. Because he can't risk anyone else just getting yelled off their horse. Exactly. Meanwhile, Zhang Guifang, the Shang general, is probably boasting outside the city walls. He stopped the whole zu campaign with a shout. It seems almost ridiculous. How could Ziya, this master strategist, this powerful Taoist, not have something to counter this? Well, that's the key, right? His magic, orthodox Taoist magic, is usually about fighting demons, controlling elements, you know, external stuff, creating illusions, summoning things. Guifang's technique is different. It's internal. It's specific. It targets that name soul connection. It's specialized. And Ziya just didn't have the equally specialized defense for that specific attack in his toolkit at that moment. So his standard magic, his wisdom, it was all useless against this one particular hack. Temporarily, yes. Rendered useless. The battlefield is frozen. Stalemate. But the heavens aren't frozen. The story can't stop here. Cosmic balance needs to be restored, right? Exactly. And this leads us to the big turning point, the divine intervention. Far away, on Qiongwei Mountain, the great immortal Taiyi Zhenren, he senses the problem. He knows this isn't a job for standard tactics anymore. Okay, so he's like the higher command stepping in. You could say that. He summons his disciple, and this disciple is Nezha. Ah, Nezha. Okay, things are about to get interesting. Definitely. Taiyi Zhenren tells Nezha, basically, your training here is done for now. You need to go down there, help your martial uncle Jiang Ziya at West Qi, go make a name for yourself, establish your merit. It's like deploying a special forces unit, but, you know, divinely mandated. Exactly. And Nezha isn't just another warrior. He's the game changer, the variable they didn't account for. His entrance alone signals this. The windfire wheels, right? Yeah. He descends on his feng huo lin. The source even has that poem about his speed. Wind, fire, sound rises in the void. Heaven and earth reached in a moment. So he arrives like a rocket. Yeah. Pure, high-grade, magical tech landing right in the middle of this stalled fight. He gets to West Qi, reports to Ziya. Here's a whole story about the call name and fall-off magic. And what's his reaction? Is he worried? Not at all. His reaction is pure Nezha, total confidence. He basically says, this no-challenge sign, that's not a long-term plan. He immediately volunteers to go out and fight. Even though Ziya warns him, hey, this magic is serious. Yep, Ziya warns him. But Nezha is completely unfazed, which sets up the climax, right? Specialized sorcery versus, well, whatever Nezha is. Okay, let's see how this plays out. Nezha goes out. Who does he face first? First, he deals with the vanguard, Feng Lin. Remember him? The guy with the black smoke and the pearl? The one with the blue face and red hair description? That's the one. Feng Lin tries his smoke and pearl attack again. The same one that took down Nangong Shi. And here's where we see Nezha is operating on a different level. Feng Lin sprays the smoke. Nezha doesn't even really seem to engage with it directly. He just points his hand. To points. Yeah. And the source says the black smoke just extinguishes itself. Qian Ziming, poof, gone. So Feng Lin's magic is just nullified instantly. Completely ineffective. Because Nezha's power isn't really counter magic in the same way. It's just fundamentally stronger. It operates on a different principle, maybe. Okay, so smoke cleared. What then? Then Nezha pulls out one of his signature weapons. The heaven and earth ring, the Qunong Quan. Gets it from his leopard skin bag. Oh yeah, that's right. He throws it, hits Feng Lin right in the shoulder. Hits him so hard, the text says, Jin Duan Gui Zi Tendon snapped, bone broke him. Ouch. Okay, so Feng Lin is out of the picture. Quickly. Immediately retreats. Stage cleared for the main event. Which is Nezha versus Zhang Guifeng, the name caller himself. Exactly. Guifeng rides out furious now. Who is this kid on wheels? They fight and it's a fierce battle. The sources say 30 or 40 rounds. So Guifeng is a skilled fighter, even without the magic. Oh yeah, he's a top general. But he realizes he can't beat Nezha in a straight fight. This kid is too fast, too strong, too weird. So, it's time for the magic trick, the ace in the hole. You got it. Guifeng gets desperate. He falls back on the one thing that always works. He yells it out. Nezha, dismount. What are you waiting for? Okay, the moment of truth. Does it work? The text says, Nezha is cheating. He's momentarily startled. Which tells you the spell has power, it has intent, Nezha feels something. But, he just plants his feet firmly on his windfire wheels and he does not fall. It failed. Completely failed. Zhang Guifeng is stunned. Utterly shocked. He tries again, twice more, and he's yelling, basically, Why isn't it working today? What's wrong? This is it. This is the core question. Why didn't it work on Nezha when it worked perfectly on everyone else? And the source gives us the answer directly. It's the key piece of knowledge from this whole encounter. Nezha's immunity comes from his fundamental nature. His identity as a Lotus Incarnation spiritual pearl. Lian Hua Hua Shen Ling Zhu Zi. Okay, Lotus Incarnation. Let's unpack that. That's the crucial detail, right? Absolutely. If Guifeng's spell works by targeting that name soul connection, that spiritual anchor that links a normal human body to the world. What does being a Lotus Incarnation mean for that connection? It means Nezha doesn't have that standard connection. Remember his backstory. His original human body was destroyed. Right. He died and was rebuilt by his master, Tai Yizhen Ren. Exactly. Rebuilt using lotus roots, lotus petals. He's essentially, well, you could almost think of him as a spiritual construct. A divinely powered golem, maybe? He's animated by spiritual energy, but not tied to a conventional human soul in the same way. Ah, okay. So if the spell needs a standard human soul to latch onto, like finding the right port on a computer. Nezha's running different hardware, or maybe a different operating system entirely. The spell looks for that specific vulnerability, that standard soul anchor. And finds nothing. Or finds something it can't interface with. Precisely. It has nothing to grab onto. The fundamental assumption of the spell, that the target has a normal manipulable human spirit linked to their name, doesn't apply to Nezha. He's exempt from the rules. He's outside the magic's operational parameters. Perfectly put. And once that magic fails, what's left? Just a very skilled, but very human, general. Facing a divine being on windfire wheels who's immune to his best trick. Exactly. The fight is over at that point. Nezha completely dominates the exhausted Gifang. The chapter ends with Nezha winding up to throw the heaven and earth ring again, forcing the whole Shang army back.