"The heavens are dead, the yellow heavens are standing, the years are in the nails, and the world is auspicious."
When we talk about the Yellow Turban Uprising, we are always the first to think of this catchy slogan— the Yellow Turban Army shouting it, tied with a turban, holding a rudimentary weapon, and making a vigorous charge against the decaying regime.
In this slogan that has been passed down for thousands of years, "Cangtian" refers to the crumbling Eastern Han Dynasty, while "Huangtian" refers to the Taiping Dao founded by Zhang Jiao. During the Jianning period of the Eastern Han Ling Emperor, Zhang Jiao, a giant deer man, began to practice medicine and preach among the people as a "great sage and good teacher", and founded the Taiping Dao based on the Taiping Classic, which was widely accepted. After more than ten years of operation, Taiping Dao has become a huge organization spanning the eight prefectures of Qing, Xu, You, Ji, Jing, Yang, Yan and Yu, and has a sufficient mass base.
In 184 A.D. (the year of Jiazi), Zhang Jiao had to be uncovered a month in advance due to the revelation of believers' whistleblowing and failing plans. He proclaimed himself "General of Tiangong", while his two younger brothers, Zhang Liang and Zhang Bao, were "Generals of digong" and "generals of rengong" respectively; the Yellow Turban Army set out from Julu, Yingchuan, Nanyang and other places to attack and seize the city, burn the official palace, and distribute money to the people. According to records, in just one month, there were wars in all seven states and twenty-eight counties of the country.
I think the result of the story is very familiar to everyone. After Zhang Jiao's death, the Yellow Turban Army, which had lacked unified command and dispatch, fell into chaos and could only fight on its own, while the Han army and warlords everywhere took the opportunity to counterattack and break through each other. In November of that year, after Emperor Fusong and the giant deer Taishou Guodian attacked Xiaquyang and successfully killed Zhang Bao, the Yellow Turban Rebellion led by Zhang Jiao's clique was quelled.
Although this "great fortune in the world" lasted only 9 months, this story of rapid decay has been accompanied by rolling red dust for thousands of years. Judging from the results, in order to suppress the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the Han Ling Emperor delegated power to the localities, which directly led to the consequences of the warlords at the end of the Han Dynasty dividing up the territory and the self-respect of the masses of soldiers, laying the groundwork for the Three Kingdoms era.
Because of this, in many later artistic creations about the Three Kingdoms, Zhang Jiao and his Yellow Turban Army also became an indispensable part. When people talk about Liu Guanzhang's legendary experience, they always take "when the Yellow Turban Uprising broke out" as an indispensable time latitude - the stories of the heroes of the Three Kingdoms always need a beginning, and the Yellow Turban seems to have become a universal starting line.
Naturally, modern video games also love the Three Kingdoms genre. Since childhood, we have seen a lot of three kingdom games - whether it is "True Three Kingdoms", "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" or even the card game "Three Kingdoms Kill", you can see the founder of Taiping Dao in it. In these video games, Zhang Jiao is usually portrayed as a "god stick" image that calls the wind and rain and has unlimited mana, which is deeply rooted in people's hearts.
Players should be impressed by the Yellow Turban level early in the plot of True Three Kingdoms: usually, you need to face Zhang Jiao, who is casting spells in the rear, under the interference of Zhang Bao and Zhang Liang, two melee bosses, who are good at wind and thunder, which brings some trouble to novices who are not very skilled in operation.
In "Three Kingdoms Killing", Zhang Jiao completely became a "lightning man". The ability to strike a "flash" to determine a lightning strike makes the attacker often throw a rat trap, while skilled players will cooperate, prioritizing combined hands and blood lines that lower the angle – a strategy that also coincides with the historical situation.
This shaping is naturally based on evidence. According to historical records, Zhang Jiao "held a nine-knotted staff as a blessing" - he held a nine-knotted staff when preaching, wrote rune paper with dansha, burned it into ashes and mixed it with water to heal the people. Legend has it that the nine-knotted staff can both attract gods and impeach ghosts, and holding the staff can take care of the affairs of the nine people and nine qi, and can dominate all things in heaven and earth.
But the vast majority of video games are perfunctory in shaping the "Yellow Turban Army" itself. Understandably, on the stage of heroes, these nameless, and even ordinary peasant believers the day before, possessed only the characteristics of "wearing a yellow scarf on their heads"; their weak combat effectiveness, lack of military training and unified command really did not deserve much effort.
But in other types of games, this focus may be reversed. In fact, the well-known SLG "Coast of the Land" is about to launch a new quest "Armor Wolf Smoke" in the new conquest season, in which players can choose the Yellow Turban camp or the Eastern Han camp at the beginning of the landing, and rewrite this much-talked about history in a new land.
It is worth mentioning that "The Coast of the Land" has made an unprecedented portrayal of the Yellow Turban Army through the game mechanics.
First of all, when fighting with other forces, the Yellow Turban can directly plunder the enemy's resources after victory in battle, feed the war, and maintain its own resource supply through continuous fighting and expansion - which shows the similarity of the historical Yellow Turban's deeds of attacking the city and burning the official government to distribute money.
Secondly, the Yellow Turban cannot build sub-cities and resource facilities within the city, but can accelerate development by building special buildings. Whether it is farms that increase land production, houses that increase taxes, or granaries that raise storage ceilings, they are all full of local colors. The backward organization, technology and logistics, as well as the relatively hasty combat plan, well reflect the essence of the peasant uprising that the Yellow Turban Army lacked a foundation.
Most notably, after the Yellow Turbans have completely conquered other forces, they can be forcibly recruited into their own camp (if they refuse to do so, they will have a chance to re-enlist in the season); this is in line with the fact that the Yellow Turban Uprising in history has the support of the people and "conforms to Providence". To use a less appropriate metaphor, the expansion of the Yellow Turban's power in "The Wolf Smoke" is similar to the form of zombie infection — which means that if an effective resistance alliance is not formed, the Eastern Han Dynasty may gradually be cannibalized by the Yellow Turban.
Naturally, opposing camps also have the means to resist. On the one hand, the Eastern Han faction can obtain resources, accelerate development by completing the instructions of the imperial court, and turn the city into an alliance fief through offerings; and after the Eastern Han camp reaches a certain level, players can choose to "turn their backs on the imperial court" and become a member of the Qunxiong camp, breaking through the alliance restrictions and even establishing a country, launching a fierce counterattack against the Yellow Turban forces.
In my opinion, through "Nail Wolf Smoke", "The Coast of The Land" is exploring a whole new possibility of SLG. Not only the character design and related skills of the generals, they used reasonable design to combine the historical characteristics of the entire camp with the mechanics of video games, leaving the idea of paying too much attention to the hero himself in previous works, and designing related game content by taking the Yellow Turban, the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Qunxiong forces as a whole.
In "The Coast of the Land", the player can jump out of the "god stick and horn" that calls the wind and rain, and really consider the problem as the Yellow Turban Army that rises up, avoid the shortcomings of the mechanism, play the advantage of "infection", and find ways to dominate the earth - this is a unique experience of the Yellow Turban Army in video games; and the realization of this experience is also closely related to the carrier of SLG games.
It is conceivable that after the opening of the new season, the players of "The Coast of the Land" will jointly write a new epic on a small screen on one side, on the land of China like a blank piece of paper, at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. The Yellow Turban Raging, the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the Herds of Deer – a new stage play evolving from historical events will be staged in the hands of players, which is very exciting.