The influence and overall strength of the Cai Gang in the Yitian era are far less than those in the Double Eagle Era. But as the world's largest gang, there should still be a basic configuration, such as the traditional four elders.
The four elders are the high-ranking figures of the Gang, second only to the Gang Leader and the Deputy Gang Leader in terms of status. In the middle of the heavens, the functions and division of labor of the four elders were also very clear, and Jin Yong even named each person's positions - law enforcement elders, chuangong elders, palm bowl dragon heads, and palm stick dragon heads.
As the name suggests, the law enforcement elders punish the wrongdoers and help the masses according to law, and the elders who pass on the gong are the inheritors of the martial arts of the beggars, and the head of the bowl and the head of the stick are in charge of the symbolic bowl and the dog stick respectively.
Although the status of the four elders in the heavens was equal, their martial arts and qualifications were not the same. Chuan Gong Elders have the highest martial arts skills, law enforcement elders have excellent light skills, and relatively speaking, the palm stick dragon head skills are the most shallow, and the qualifications are also the most shallow.
In other words, among the four elders, the palm stick dragon head was relatively young. If the other three are fifty or sixty years old, then the palm stick dragon head is also in their forties, and at most they are in their early fifties.
In fact, the four elders are not the main characters in the heavens, or even the main supporting roles, for such a character, why should they divide the level of capital and experience? But jin Yong wrote this, of course, there is a reason.
The person in charge of the dragon head is obviously designed to fit the vacancy caused by the departure of a previous character.
Remember the plot where Zhao Min led people to attack Wudang Mountain? The three house slaves under her command challenged Zhang Sanfeng, and these three house slaves were actually all figures with heads and faces on the rivers and lakes, the second and third elders were masters of the King Kong Gate, and the boss was the former elder of the Gang of Servants, the eight-armed Excalibur Fang Dongbai.
At that time, Jin Yong also gave him an additional identity- the head of the four elders.
In other words, of the four elders of the Gang of Servants, Fang Dongbai occupied a seat, and he was also the first.
It was obvious that Fang Dongbai had left the Gang more than ten years ago, and the four elders lacked one of the three, so a new elder had to be promoted from below. And the palm stick dragon head is this new person who has been promoted to fill Fang Dongbai's vacancy.
In other words, Fang Dongbai is the predecessor of the dragon head. Or rather, he was the head of the previous term.
Therefore, Jin Yong deliberately emphasized that the palm stick dragon head has shallow seniority and weak martial arts, which is to echo the plot of Fang Dongbai in the front. And the palm stick dragon head has not been promoted for a long time, of course, it is worse in all aspects. It can also be said that Jin Yong is filling the pit of Dongbai. Since he wrote that Fang Dongbai was one of the four elders, then when the four elders appeared together, there must be one person who was Fang Dongbai's successor.
Interestingly, three of the last four elders died, only the youngest and youngest dragon head survived, and it seems that the great task of reviving the Gang in the future will fall on his shoulders, after all, the leader of the Gang, Shi Hongshi, is too young. The reason why Jin Yong deliberately left him may be because of his new promotion status. After all, this is a reserve cadre, how can you just take office and hang up?