The "Five Tiger Generals" of the Liangshan Horse Army are not only the strongest cavalry generals in Liangshan, but also the first combination in the book to some extent, and no one in the book has the strength to single out the Liangshan Five Tigers. But if you fight alone, although the five tigers are brave, they are not the ceiling in "Water Margin", and in my opinion, there are at least four generals in the book who are above it.
The strength level of the Liangshan Five Tigers
Although the five tiger generals are all famous, and the level of martial arts is roughly the same, the strength of detailed analysis is not equal, and there is a certain gap, which can be seen through the achievements and descriptions.
Since we have played against the same opponents, let's talk about Lin Chong and Hu Yanzhuo first. Lin Chong fought with Yang Zhi in the case of infantry and sword, and was stopped by Wang Lun when the fight reached the interval. Many people say that the division is about to divide the winner and loser, that is, Lin Chong is about to win, and those who support this theory are probably Lin Chong's fans. In fact, "division" not only does not mean that the winner is about to be separated, but it refers to the fight is exciting, and it is difficult to distinguish between the top and the bottom. Otherwise, Wang Lun would not have thought that Yang Zhi could match Lin Chong, and wanted to keep him to check and balance. Of course, although Lin Chong is proficient in all eighteen weapons, it is undeniable that he is not the strongest when he wields a sword, so although this battle is drawn, it can be regarded as Lin Chong ≥ Yang Zhi.
There was a horse battle between Hu Yanzhuo and Yang Zhi, and the result was forty matches. Since he had already fought with Lu Zhishen for fifty rounds before, his physical strength was somewhat depleted, so this draw can also be regarded as Yang Zhi ≥ Hu Yanzhuo. In other words, judging from the battle against Yang Zhi, the leader of the eight hussars, Lin Chong and Hu Yanzhuo's performance is similar.
However, it is also against Hu Sanniang, Lin Chong is much more eye-catching than Hu Yanzhuo, and when Hu Sanniang pursued Song Jiang, Lin Chong easily captured him alive. On the other hand, Hu Yanzhuo was eager to take more than ten times and failed to win, not to mention, he still thought that Hu Sanniang was good, and when he used his own trick, he was actually blocked, and when he planned to exert his strength again, Hu Sanniang had already returned to the horse and left, so in the end it ended in a draw.
Although Lin Chong's Hu Sanniang had experienced several fights before, and the physical consumption was not small, Lin Chong captured him alive, and the difficulty was much greater than defeating or even killing him. On the other hand, Hu Yanzhuo does not have a very good way to win quickly in a short period of time, not only because Hu Yanzhuo is strong in defense and weak in attack, but also because there is a slight gap between Hu Yanzhuo and Lin Chong in terms of hard power.
After talking about these two recognized powerhouses, let's take a look at Qin Ming, who is the most controversial among the five tiger generals. Because of the many defeats, Qin Ming is often criticized, and even many people think that Qin Ming is not worthy of the name of the Five Tigers, but objectively speaking, Qin Ming's defeat is mostly due to the middle plan, and the temptation of the enemy is a hundred trials for him, and the only thing that is really defeated because of his inferior skills is only when Zeng Tou City faces Shi Wengong, in terms of the record of a fair fighter, Qin Ming is actually not much better than Lin Chong. In addition, Qin Ming also had a confrontation with Hua Rong, the leader of the eight hussars, and the result was fifty times the winner was not the winner, but in the later ranking, Shi Gong specifically mentioned Qin Mingcai and Hua Rong, just because Hua Rong was his uncle, so he sat under Hua Rong, which is equivalent to saying that Qin Ming is slightly stronger than Hua Rong in the official setting.
Generally speaking, between Qin Ming's hard power and Lin Chong and Hu Yanzhuo, of course, the actual combat level is sometimes not equal to the theoretical strength, if it is against the two of them separately, Qin Ming will most likely not be able to win Hu Yanzhuo, after all, the defense of the double whip general is almost invulnerable, of course, it is difficult to defeat Qin Ming with his weak attack. As for Lin Chong, Qin Ming will most likely lose, and it is unknown how many rounds it will take.
Let's talk about the last Dong Ping of the Five Tigers, who appeared late, has little pen and ink, and has not many records, and is also the top four of the eight hussars, and Xu Ning fights fifty times without winning or losing, because Song Jiang is afraid that Xu Ning will lose and first Ming Jin to withdraw the troops, so it is generally regarded as Dong Ping has a slight advantage, but because few people put Xu Ning above Hua Rong and Yang Zhi, Dong Ping is three points inferior to Lin Chong, Qin Ming, and Hu Yanzhuo's record in this battle, that is, Dong Ping is slightly stronger than Xu Ning, and Lin Chong and Hu Yanzhuo are slightly stronger than Yang Zhi, Qin Ming is slightly stronger than Hua Rongzhong's slightly stronger value, so there is a slight gap between Dong Ping and the Three Tigers.
In the end, the first of the five tigers, Guan Sheng, he was the only one who had a clear upper hand against the eight hussar generals - more than ten combinations made Suo Chao cowardly. Suo Chao's strength is not as high as Hua Rong, Xu Ning and Yang Zhi, but the gap will not be too big, after all, he is evenly matched with Yang Zhi in the Daimyo Mansion (I don't think Yang Zhi has released water here), so Guan Sheng can gain the upper hand in a short period of time Suo Chao can see that his strength is actually stronger than the other four tigers. Of course, Suo Chao's cowardice was seen by Li Cheng, and he was not defeated at that time, so there was no need to over-deify Guan Sheng.
In fact, when Guan Sheng appeared, Shi Nai'an designed his solo battle against Lin Chong and Qin Ming, which already shows that the author intends to highlight Guan Sheng's military status among the Five Tigers, but after the war, Guan Sheng thought that he was inferior to the two generals, which made this battle unconvincing, and Lin Chong's fan base was too large, and Guan Sheng was on top of it in the case of merit and qualifications that were not as good as Lin Chong, which made many people deliberately belittle Guan Sheng and elevate Lin Chong. In fact, from an objective point of view, there is nothing controversial about Guan Sheng's martial arts that surpass the Five Tigers.
Through analysis, we can see that the order of the five tiger generals can basically represent the strength of their martial arts, so the generals we are talking about are stronger than the five tigers, at least in martial arts, they are not inferior to the strongest broadsword Guan Sheng, which is why I spent a lot of time analyzing the strength of the five tiger generals, after all, the five people are not exactly the same, and there must always be a clear reference to make comparisons.
The official setting is the first in the world
Speaking of the official setting of the first in the world, it must be Lu Junyi, who was determined by the author in the hymn with a sentence "The first in the horse and the army", so even if you don't analyze the strength and weakness of the five tigers, it is enough to show that Lu Junyi is stronger than any of the five tigers.
Of course, in fact, I don't think Lu Junyi surpasses Guan Sheng too much. As far as the fighting generals are concerned, he is really not the most brilliant in the book, and the capture of Shi Wengong is a combination of many objective factors such as Chao Gai's ghost, which has little to do with the level of martial arts; Winning the four sons of Yelu alone in one hour is called the strength of the four tigers by many people, the reason is that the four sons of Yelu have drawn Guan Sheng, Hu Yanzhuo, Xu Ning, and Suo Chao respectively, but the book does not explain the specific number of rounds of this four-on-four, and it is obvious from the description that they have not fought for a long time, so it is an exaggeration to say that the four sons of Yelu have the strength of five tigers and eight horses.
Lu Junyi's strongest battle was actually after defeating Yelu's four sons, he met a Liao army of 1,000 people, single-handedly killed the Liao soldiers on their backs, scattered and fled, if it is placed in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "The Legend of Yue Quan", such a level of melee may not be nothing, but it is unique in "Water Margin". Therefore, Lu Junyi, the world's No. 1, is more or less supported by actual combat, not entirely in the author's direct qualitativeness.
The general of the rebellious army who is suspected of having the upper hand with Lu Junyi
If it is recognized that Lu Junyi's martial arts are stronger than Guan Sheng and stronger than any of the Five Tigers, then there is one person whose strength must also be above the Five Tigers of Liangshan - Du Bao.
Du Bai is the general under the command of Wang Qing of the Huaixi Rebellion Army, making a spear of eight snakes, not much pen and ink, but showing amazing strength, once when the Liangshan army conquered Wang Qing and Lu Junyi fought fifty times without winning or losing. If this is the case, it will not make people agree that he is no less than Lu Junyi, after all, Sun An has also done this to such an extent, but at this time, the author deliberately pointed out that Du Yan's snake spear is elusive, which has already faintly expressed the meaning that Du Yan is no less than Lu Junyi, and then what is even more amazing is that Sun An, who was pressing for Lu Junyi, saw that Lu Junyi could not win, so he actually patted his horse to help the battle! You know, usually we think that the first side is inferior or the first to help the team.
Throughout the book, in addition to being suppressed by Li Zhu, who is suspected of using Taoism, this is the only time that Jade Qilin is suspected of being a disadvantage, so will Lu Junyi's character as the number one in the world collapse? Not necessarily, a forced explanation can actually be argued, that is, Du Yan was killed immediately after Sun Anzhu fought without a moment of resistance, which can be understood that Du Yan can only block one Lu Junyi at most, and he can't stand the slightest external interference, so it is equivalent to Lu Junyi covering him. Although this kind of statement that borders on sophistry is a bit blushing, it doesn't matter, because the focus of this article is on being stronger than the Five Tigers, not on which is stronger or weaker between Lu Junyi and Du Yan. Since it has been proved that Du Biao and Lu Junyi are at the same level, he is naturally stronger than the five tiger generals led by Guan Sheng.
Defeat Qin Ming's folk sect head head-on
Putting aside the means of flying stones, bows and arrows, deceitful defeat, and fighting more and less, throughout the book, only Qin Ming was beaten by Twenty He when facing Shi Wengong, and was stabbed by the pursuit when he was defeated.
This is a real defeat, there is nothing to explain too much, and Qin Ming is often questioned about his strength because of this defeat. But we have analyzed just now that Qin Ming's hard power is worthy of the status of the Five Tigers, so this battle is not that Qin Ming is weak, but that Shi Wengong is too strong, and even in terms of combat results alone, Shi Wengong is better than Lu Junyi. As for Shi Wengong's capture by Lu Junyi, as mentioned just now, when Zengtou City was broken, he had no fighting spirit and was haunted by Chao Gai's ghost, Shi Wengong was not scared to pee on the spot, how can there be any combat power at all? So I think the strong and weak relationship between the two is quite similar to Guan Yu and Yan Liang in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms".
Some people say that Guan Sheng and Suo Chao used fewer rounds to fight, but first of all, Qin Ming's strength was stronger than Suo Chao; Secondly, Suo Chao was only cowardly and not defeated. And Qin Ming walked timidly, in other words, Shi Wengong defeated Qin Ming to be stronger than Guan Sheng's advantage Suo Chao, although the number of rounds was slightly more. Therefore, there is no controversy that Shi Wengong is stronger than Guan Sheng and above the Five Tigers, and he should be on a par with Lu Junyi and Du Yan.
The fleeting Liao general
In addition to the above three generals who were obviously stronger than the Five Tigers, in the first battle of Liangshan's invasion of the Great Liao, the Liao army dispatched a powerful but fleeting figure like a meteor - Aliqi.
Fighting with Ali Qi is the second golden gunner Xu Ning in the Eight Hussars, we said earlier in the introduction of the Liangshan Five Tigers, the battle of Dongping Mansion Xu Ning had fought Dong Ping fifty times without winning or losing, the so-called disadvantage is still from Song Jiang is afraid that it will not be analyzed. However, in the face of Aliqi, Xu Ning couldn't resist defeat after only thirty times, which indirectly showed that Aliqi's strength was stronger than Dong Ping.
Considering that Dong Ping is the weakest of the five tiger generals, how is the martial arts of the other four tigers compared to Aliqi? First of all, I don't think Lin Chong has the possibility of defeating Xu Ning in Thirty He. When Xu Ning went up the mountain in Liangshan, Lin Chong once said that he and Xu Ning were old acquaintances, and they often learned martial arts and respected each other when they were in Bianliang, Tokyo. And if Lin Chong can't defeat Xu Ning in Thirty He, Qin Ming and Hu Yanzhuo, who are slightly inferior to him, will naturally not be able to do it.
In this way, only Guan Sheng is still in suspense. But it's still the same sentence, although Guan Sheng only made Suo Chao cowardly with only more than ten combinations, but it was not defeated, and only Li Cheng saw that Suo Chao could not win, plus Xu Ning was slightly stronger than Suo Chao, so I think that the gold content of Aliqi thirty times defeating Xu Ning is higher, in terms of theoretical strength, Aliqi should be above Guan Sheng.
To sum up, Li Zhu aside, throughout the entire "Water Margin" Lu Junyi, Du Bao, and Shi Wengong's martial arts level is significantly stronger than that of the Liangshan Five Tigers, although there is a certain gap between the three of them, but they are also faintly above the Five Tigers, even the strongest of them Guan Sheng is slightly inferior by three points.