Today I want to introduce the fifth green forest good man who occupies the mountain as the king in "Water Margin". Compared with most of the good men who occupy the mountains as kings in the novel, he is more special, because he is the only leader of the entire cottage. Despite this, he was still able to block the attack of the flower monk Lu Zhishen, leaving the blue-faced beast Yang Zhi helpless. In the end, it was the eighty-first good man who came up with a countermeasure to solve the problem. This good man in the green forest is named Deng Long, nicknamed the golden-eyed tiger. The mountain he occupied was in the territory of Qingzhou, called Erlong Mountain.
What is the topography of Erlong Mountain? There are two descriptions in the seventeenth episode of the novel. One of the descriptions goes like this: "There is a temple on the mountain, called the Orb Temple." The mountain was born good, wrapped around this temple, and there was only one way to go. Another description is more specific, which is introduced like this: "When looking at the three passes, the end is precipitous: two hills surround the future, enveloping this temple. The peaks are majestic, and only one road is closed in the middle. Triple closed, with wooden cannon stones, hard crossbows and strong bows, and bitter bamboo guns tightly held. After passing through the three gates, when I came to the front of the Baozhu Temple, the three temple doors, a section of mirror surface also seemed to be flat, and all around were wooden fences for the city." It can be seen that the terrain of Erlong Mountain is very steep, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it is a good place to fall grass.
There is a temple on Erlong Mountain called Baozhu Temple, which is famous far and wide. However, after Deng Long occupied Erlong Mountain, the monks in the temple were either returned to the temple or forced to leave, and the Baozhu Temple also became Deng Long's lair. After a period of recruiting and buying horses, Deng Long also had four or five hundred minions under him, and he made a living by robbing houses and blocking roads and robbing them on weekdays, and his life was also stable. However, a monk who came from afar completely changed the fate of Deng Long and the future of Erlong Mountain.
This monk was the famous Lu Zhishen. Since Lu Zhishen rescued Lin Chong, the leader of the 800,000 Forbidden Army, in the Wild Boar Forest and returned to the Great Xiangguo Temple in Tokyo, the resentful Gao Li began to take revenge on Lu Zhishen, forcing Lu Zhishen to leave the temple and live in the rivers and lakes. When Lu Zhishen came to the Mengzhou Cross Slope Hotel, he was secretly calculated by his mother's night fork Sun Erniang, and almost lost his life. Fortunately, Sun Erniang's husband, Zhang Qing, a vegetable gardener, appeared in time, and Lu Zhishen turned the danger into a disaster. After that, Zhang Qing and his wife suggested that Lu Zhishen go to Baozhu Temple to settle down, and Lu Zhishen then left the cross slope and came to Erlong Mountain.
However, when Lu Zhishen came to the bottom of Erlong Mountain, explained his intentions to Deng Long and asked to join the company, he was categorically refused by Deng Long. Lu Zhi was furious and fought with Deng Long, kicking Deng Long's abdomen, and Deng Long was kicked to the ground. The minions rushed forward to rescue Deng Long and sealed the passage up the mountain. Lu Zhi was deeply angry and scolded at the bottom of the mountain, but the minions just couldn't come down to meet the battle, Lu Zhi had nothing to do, and sulked in the woods below the mountain, but he didn't want to meet the blue-faced beast Yang Zhi again.
Ever since escorting the birthday gang was robbed by unidentified robbers, Yang Zhi knew that Liang Zhongshu would not let him go, so he wandered the rivers and lakes and inadvertently came to the bottom of Erlong Mountain. In a hotel at the bottom of the mountain, Yang Zhi met the owner Cao Zheng again, and told the truth about his experience. At that time, Cao Zheng suggested that Yang Zhi defect to Erlongshan. That night, Yang Zhi bid farewell to Cao Zheng and rushed to Erlong Mountain, but he did not expect to meet Lu Zhishen unexpectedly in the woods.
At this time, Lu Zhi was deeply bored in his heart, and he did not speculate with Yang Zhi, and immediately started to fight. After forty or fifty rounds of competition, both sides admired each other's high martial arts and felt sorry for each other. After some conversation, each of them knew each other's true identity. After that, Lu Zhishen told Yang Zhi about his encounter in Erlongshan. After listening to Lu Zhishen's story, Yang Zhi knew that it was impossible for him to turn to Deng Long, and he had a headache. Yang Zhi thought about it and thought that it was safest to return to Cao Zheng's hotel first, just to ask Cao Zheng's views and opinions. Lu Zhishen nodded and said yes, and then came to Cao Zheng's hotel with Yang Zhi.
The owner of the hotel, Cao Zheng, was originally an apprentice of Lin Chong, the leader of the 800,000 Forbidden Army, and later married his wife and opened a hotel under the Erlong Mountain. After listening to Lu Zhishen's story, Cao Zheng made a suggestion to abduct Lu Zhishen to Erlong Mountain and falsely claim to be dedicated to Deng Long. Yang Zhi pretended to be the second child of Cao Zheng's hotel and went with Cao Zheng. Cao Zheng believed that as long as Deng Long let everyone enter the Baozhu Temple, when everyone rushed to subdue Deng Long, Erlong Mountain would be within reach. Both Lu Zhishen and Yang Zhi agreed with Cao Zheng's suggestion and immediately began to prepare. Subsequently, Cao Zheng took a few of his men and Yang Zhi and escorted Lu Zhishen to Erlong Mountain.
The development of things was just as Cao Zheng expected. When Deng Long heard that the monk who had kicked him had been arrested, he was very happy and anxious to take revenge, and immediately let Cao Zheng and others go up the mountain to enter the Baozhu Temple. After that, Lu Zhishen, Yang Zhi, and Cao Zheng suddenly intervened and killed Deng Long. Seeing that Deng Long was dead, the minions knelt down and surrendered. Since then, Erlongshan has become the world of Lu Zhishen, Yang Zhi and Cao Zheng.
Judging from the ranking of one hundred and eight generals, Lu Zhishen and Yang Zhi both ranked in Tiangang, the former ranked thirteenth, and the latter ranked seventeenth. And Cao Zheng not only belongs to the Earth Fire, but also ranks only eighty-first. It was indeed very interesting that the problem that neither of the two Celestial Stars could solve was easily solved by the eighty-first ranked Di Yan.
Reference book: Water Margin