"Leopard Head" Lin Chong is a leader in Shuibo Liangshan's martial arts, and the generals who are stronger than him are also rare throughout the book.
But Lin Chongqiang is strong, and he is not a master at the ceiling level, and in terms of martial arts hard power, Liang Shan has at least three who can rank above it. However, there is one thing that needs to be explained, the theoretical strength on paper does not fully represent the outcome of the battle between the two sides, and Lin Chong's martial arts and combat style are relatively special, so the victory or defeat of the real fighting general needs to be analyzed on a case-by-case basis.
Lin Chong's military positioning and combat road style
The folk have a saying that "Lin Chong immediately, Wu Song under the horse", I don't know how this came about, but it must be an exaggeration, Lin Chong is strong, but not to the extent that the horse army is the first.
Many people like to say that Lin Chong has been undefeated in his life, and if he is injured by Qiong Ying with flying stones, it is indeed understandable, but if you don't count the auxiliary means of destroying the principle of fair fighting with flying stones and cold arrows, there are many people in the book who can be called undefeated, so it is really untenable to use this to prove that Lin Chong's world-class uniqueness is really untenable.
And Lin Chong's record has a big minus, that is, all the real masters ended in draws, many people like to call Hu Yanzhuo "draw master", in fact, Lin Chong is not far behind in this regard. Wang Huan, Yang Zhi, Hu Yanzhuo, and Lin Chong are all evenly matched against these people. Some people say that this is because Lin Chong likes to do things and leave a line, so he doesn't kill him, otherwise the other party would have died early, this is purely groundless assumptions, I say on the other hand, these people can't bear to kill Lin Chong, is it okay?
In fact, if you analyze the hard power according to the battle record of the fighting generals, Lin Chong is roughly the same as Qin Ming, Qin Ming was defeated mostly because his IQ was not enough to always be in the middle of the plan, and there was only one Shi Wengong who really couldn't beat, but it was not that Qin Ming was weak, but that Shi Wengong was too strong. Compared with Qin and Lin's victories, Lin Chong is really not stronger than Qin Ming, so the two are very close in terms of strength on paper.
But we also need to understand a key question – whether theoretical hard power can be translated into immediate combat power in combat. Judging from Lin Chong and Qin Ming's martial arts paths, one of them is seeking victory in stability, and the other is opening and closing. Lin Chong is relatively stable, not impatient and waiting for the opportunity, once he finds a flaw, he will kill the opponent's weakness with lightning speed, and then cooperate with its instantaneous explosive power, so we sometimes see that the two sides seem to be fighting back and forth in the first second, and suddenly Lin Chong screamed like thunder on the ground, and the opponent was picked and killed.
To a certain extent, the characteristics of hard power and martial arts caused Lin Chong to have no victory in the face of masters, after all, masters rarely have flaws, and if they want to find loopholes, they can only win steadily, but this is destined to be a long process. At the same time, the fighting generals of "Water Margin" rarely continue to fight after Lily, for example, among all the opponents Lin Chong has encountered, at most he has fought with Wang Huan for seventy or eighty times. If he continued to fight endlessly and did not die, then it must be Wang Huan who was defeated in the end, after all, he was old, but unfortunately the battle came to an abrupt end after seventy or eighty battles, making Lin Chong unable to achieve victory.
Overall, Lin Chong's style of play belongs to winning steadily, once he seizes the opportunity, the instant explosiveness is amazing, which makes Lin Chong not afraid of any master, even if the hard power is stronger than him, he can be invincible in the early stage of the battle, this is a double-edged sword, the opponent can't beat him, and it is not easy for him to win the opponent quickly.
On the whole, Lin Chong's playing style determines his characteristics of high upper limit and low lower limit, and stable combat is the biggest advantage, but it is difficult to win while the battle master will not fail easily, which makes him suffer more when doing martial arts rankings.
The three leaders on Liangshan who are stronger than Lin Chong
First of all, from the perspective of the ranking of the five tigers, Guan Sheng is one place ahead of Lin Chong, the first of the five tigers, in terms of martial arts alone, I think this ranking is reasonable.
When Guan Sheng appeared, Shi Nai'an designed the bridge between Qin Ming and Lin Chong to fight Guan Sheng, although the book said that this was the second general to fight for merit, but the only time the five tigers joined forces to fight had an unusual significance. To put it bluntly, the author used this battle to show that Guan Sheng was slightly stronger than Lin Chong and Qin Ming. However, because the fight was stopped by Song Jiang, and Guan Sheng later admitted that he was no match for the second general, many people did not recognize that this battle could show that Guan Sheng was stronger than Lin Chong.
Objectively speaking, this record really can't locate the relationship between Guan Sheng and Lin Chong, I just analyze this problem from the author's point of view. Of course, those who don't agree can find a hundred reasons to refute it, and I don't want to waste time here to elaborate too much, so let's say that the second record, Guan Sheng, more than ten times makes Suo Chao cowardly.
Many people think that this battle is because Suo Chao's arrow wound has not healed, which is untenable, after all, Suo Chao was raised for a period of time after being hit by an arrow, although the time is so short that it seems that he can't heal from his injury, but the novel is written by Shi Nai'an, so even if it is a little contrary to common sense, I have to admit that it is Suo Chao who is in the best state to face Guan Sheng. However, there is one thing that needs to be explained, axe cowardice does not mean defeat, at most it can only be regarded as a disadvantage, and it is not obvious, because only Li Cheng saw so many people present, so when Li Cheng helped the battle, Suo Chao actually had the ability to continue fighting, otherwise Guan Sheng would be too strong.
Through the analysis of Lin Chong's victory and defeat in Yang Zhi's battle with the sword, and Yang Zhi's battle against Suo Chao Fifty He, Lin Chong did not use the most convenient weapon against Yang Zhi, and his strength was discounted, so Lin Chong should be slightly stronger than Yang Zhi. And Yang Zhi had already consumed a certain amount of physical strength by Zhou Jin before fighting Suo Chao, so in the end, the two generals drew and Yang Zhi was slightly better than Suo Chao. As for how Yang Zhi's subordinates show mercy, I think it's complete nonsense, first, Yang Zhi's emotional intelligence is not so high; second, even if his subordinates are merciful, the generals of the Daimyo Mansion will not appreciate it; third, this is clearly Liang Zhongshu wants to raise Yang Zhi's competition, Yang Zhi can only hug Liang Zhongshu's thigh if he wants to gain a foothold here, so he will not deliberately release water.
Therefore, Guan Sheng is slightly stronger than Lin Chong, Lin Chong is slightly stronger than Yang Zhi, and Yang Zhi is slightly stronger than Suo Chao, so that Guan Sheng and Suo Chao at the beginning and end of the line are progressive, resulting in a more obvious gap between the two.
In terms of combat performance, Guan Sheng does not have obvious shortcomings like Qin Ming, and is different from the extremely physically energy-consuming opening and closing of Guan Yu on the ancestor, although Guan Sheng also uses the Qinglong Yanyue Knife, but the weight of the knife is not deliberately highlighted in the book, but there are some side descriptions of its knife skills, which can basically define Guan Sheng as "the technical flow in the power faction". Moreover, Guan Sheng is cool-headed and knows how to judge the situation, such as taking the initiative to retreat in the face of Zhang Qing's flying stone, and seeing through Shi Bao's defeat without chasing. Therefore, in the face of Guan Sheng, whose hard power is only higher than his own and has no shortcomings, Lin Chong has little chance of winning in actual combat.
However, considering Lin Chong's extremely patient martial arts path, coupled with the hard power that is not much worse than Guan Sheng, if the operation is done properly, I believe that he will be able to hold the draw. After all, Guan Sheng is also a calm and cautious person, and he needs to beware of Lin Chong's sudden outburst, so although Guan Sheng is slightly stronger than Lin Chong, there is a high probability that he will end in a draw if he really starts. This may sound like a contradiction, but I think it's more real, after all, martial arts reviews are just words on paper, and there is still a difference between them and real battles. It's like we all think that Lu Bu in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is stronger than Zhang Fei, but the two generals fought twice, drawing with fifty and one hundred respectively, and the reason is the same.
The second place is almost recognized as the first in Liangshan, and can even be regarded as the ceiling of the whole book of martial arts hand-picked by Shi Nai'an - "Jade Qilin" Lu Junyi. Although I don't think that Lu Junyi has many people who say that it is so miraculous, such as killing Shi Wengong in seconds and fighting the "Four Tigers" alone. Shi Wengong was captured and was not a fighting general at all, he was haunted by Chao Gai's ghost at that time, it was good if he was not scared to pee on the spot, where is there any combat power at all, didn't he dare to fight when he was shouted by Yan Qing?
As for the single cavalry battle against the Four Tigers, it refers to the one-to-four between Lu Yuanwai and Yelu Sizi, many people say that these four have the strength of Liangshan's five tigers and eight horses, because they drew with Guan Sheng, Hu Yanzhuo, Xu Ning, and Suo Chao respectively, but this battle process is very short, and the author has not explained the exact number of rounds, so it is somewhat exaggerated to say that they have the strength of five tigers and eight horses.
Therefore, it is true that Lu Junyi is very strong, and there is no controversy that he is the first person hand-picked by the author, but judging from Shi Wengong's defeat of Qin Ming in the twentieth century, and Du Yan's battle against Lu Junyi, Sun An had to go out to help in the battle, these three are generally at the same level. is about a grade ahead of Lin Chong, so Lu Junyi is stronger than Lin Chong There is nothing to discuss, the key is whether it will be the same as against Guan Sheng, Lin Chong can still rely on his "stability" to hold the draw.
foolishly thought that there was still a difference between Lu Junyi and Guan Sheng, Guan Sheng was only slightly stronger than Lin Chong, but Lu Junyi was obviously one level higher, and such a gap could not be made up by strategy and tactics. Of course, I also believe that Lin Chong's performance against Lu Junyi is far better than Qin Ming's performance against Shi Wengong, from Lu Junyi's fifty times to Ping Sun An, and Sun An's fifty times to level Qin Ming, although according to the setting, Lu Junyi is only higher than Shi Wengong, but if you talk about offense alone, Shi Wengong is afraid that it will be stronger than Lu Junyi, which can be understood as Lu Junyi is a strengthened version of Lin Chong, and he is also good at "stability".
The last one may cause controversy, after all, in film and television dramas, this one is a foil for Lin Chong, he is the "flower monk" Lu Zhishen who uprootes the weeping willows.
In almost all film and television works, Lu Zhishen and Lin Chong fought each other when they first met, in the old version of "Water Margin", Lin Chong defeated Lu Zhishen directly with a "dragon turn"; In the novel, only Lin Chong applauded when Lu Zhishen played martial arts, and then the two learned through conversation Lin Chong learned that Lu Zhishen had a relationship with his father, and Lu Zhishen was older, so he worshiped him as a brother and respected him a lot.
In terms of martial arts, Lu Zhishen was born with divine power, making the heaviest sixty-two catties of water mill Zen staff in the book, as well as the divine power of upside down weeping willows. At the same time, Lu Zhishen was a double step in horse, as the first leader of the Liangshan Infantry Army, Ma Zhan even drew the "double whip" Hu Yanzhuo. In addition, many friends may not have noticed that when Lu Zhishen was still called Luda, he was a general under the command of the Seed Master, and it can be seen from the secret self-totaling in the Seed Master Center that although Luda was later transferred to his command, his brother would transfer him back sooner or later. Lu Zhishen, as his trusted general, has experienced the baptism of tragic foreign wars, and this kind of real battlefield experience is by no means comparable to martial arts who have never been on the battlefield. Therefore, I personally think that in terms of hard power, Lu Zhishen is at least ≥ Lin Chong.
But again, the real fighting general combat and analysis of paper strength are different, Lu Zhishen may be stronger than Lin Chong, but I am not very optimistic about him when it comes to fighting. Lin Chong is characterized by steadiness, and it is difficult to beat him if his level is not a grade higher. And Lu Zhishen's weapons are heavy, the consumption is large, and the tired and hungry Lu Zhishen is very different from the vitality, so if Lin Chong arranges tactics for this point and drags it to the end, it is very likely to complete this "defeating the strong with the weak", which is not far behind.
To sum up, I personally feel that in terms of theoretical hard power, Lu Junyi, Guan Sheng, and Lu Zhishen on Liangshan are stronger than Lin Chong, of which Lu Junyi is obviously one notch higher, and Guan Sheng and Lu Zhishen are slightly better by three points, but combined with their respective characteristics, if they really have a one-on-one fight, I am afraid that only Lu Junyi may defeat Lin Zhen between eighty and lily, and it is difficult for Guan Sheng and Lu Zhishen to transform their theoretical advantages into final victory.