Daming: At the start of the showdown, Lao Zhu was stunned

Chapter 950: Seeing the Dragon Unarmored
This new play, named "Seeing the Dragon Undress", is based on the episode "Uncle Liu leads the people across the river, Zhao Zilong rides alone to save the lord" in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The general story is the same as that of the Three Kingdoms, telling that when Cao Cao's army was approaching, Uncle Liu Bei could not bear to abandon the people, so he led the people across the river. As a result, they were defeated by Cao's army, the whole army was scattered, and his son A Dou was also lost in the chaos.

Fortunately, Zhao Yun, a general under Liu Bei, was loyal and brave and rode alone to rescue the young master Adou.

In fact, there are similar dramas now. In Yingtian Prefecture, a play called "Changbanpo" has long been sung by the Qinhuai River. It is a good drama that has been tested by the general public and is indeed loved by the general public. This is also the reason why Fang Xiaoru and Xie Jin chose this subject.

However, unlike the "Changbanpo" sung in Yingtian City, this play named "Seeing the Dragon Undressing" is far from being as romantic and heroic, but seems a bit depressing.

The whole play starts from Zhao Yun's point of view, with Liu Bei's worries when he was trapped in Jingzhou and faced with Cao Cao's army approaching. Zhao Yun, Zhuge Liang, Zhang Fei and others all advised Liu Bei to abandon the people and escape, but Liu Bei thought that Cao's army was brutal and would rather use a mantis arm to stop a chariot than abandon the people and leave.

At this time, Zhao Yun was still puzzled and doubtful. Following Zhao Yun's point of view, the audience felt the oppression faced by Liu Bei's forces and the doubts in Zhao Yun's heart. Most of the soldiers in the audience were also puzzled as to why Liu Bei was so unwilling to listen to good advice. Some even thought that Liu Bei was pedantic and shouted in the audience that Liu Bei did not know the principle of "as long as the green mountains remain, there will be no fear of running out of firewood".

It was not until the arrival of the "Cao's Army" played by Tatar captives such as Gui Lichi that the audience understood Liu Bei's worries: Cao's Army killed, robbed, and committed all kinds of evil. They were like evil spirits from hell, and their appearance and behavior that were hated by both humans and gods were simply challenging the bottom line of the audience. The audience followed the perspective of "Zhao Yun" who was searching for the young master in the chaotic army, watching the evil deeds of the "Cao's Army" bit by bit, and finally everyone was speechless and understood what Liu Bei was worried about.

All the audience gnashed their teeth and were angry about what Cao’s army had done.

The depressing atmosphere reached its peak when Madam Gan jumped into the well: in order not to drag Zhao Yun down, Madam Gan, a woman, took advantage of Zhao Yun's unpreparedness and went to die. Seeing Zhao Yun rescue the young master, the civilians of Jingzhou who were originally protecting Madam Gan and the young master Adou also volunteered to die, just to stop a few Cao's soldiers for Zhao Yun and the young master of Liu.

The audience's eyes were red with anger. Chang Mao, who was impatient, even forgot that he was watching a play. He wanted to rush onto the stage and drag Gui Lichi, who played the role of "Cao Jun", off the stage and beat him up. Fortunately, Zhu Xiongying and Chang Sheng held him back, preventing the play of "Duke Zheng making a scene on the stage" from happening.

However, the play of "Seeing the Dragon Resurrection" also reached its final exciting point. "Zhao Yun", whose emotions were suppressed to the extreme, broke out as if in response to the audience's emotions. He was filled with righteous indignation, like a god possessed, and relying on his courage and righteousness, he killed everyone in Cao's army and killed the brutal Cao's army into pieces.

The release of extreme repression is the most refreshing, and this development made the audience cheer and shout with excitement.

Finally, Zhao Yun brought A Dou and miraculously returned to Liu Bei. The play ended, but the audience was still not satisfied and was still immersed in the majesty of Zhao Zilong's "seeing the dragon and taking off his armor".

A cursory look at this play seems to be no different from the play it is based on, Changbanpo. But in fact, through the brilliant writing of two great talents, Xie Jin and Fang Xiaoru, the brutality of Cao's army in the first half and the tragic heroism of Liu Bei's army who, despite being outnumbered, still tried to protect the people formed a very strong contrast.

The strongest impression left by the audience after watching this play was not Zhao Yun, but the various acts of the "Cao army" that were so outrageous that they wanted to kill them as soon as possible. The later "great power" of Zhao Yun, Zhang Fei and others seemed to be a punishment for the Cao army, telling the truth that a benevolent army will eventually win and protect the people, and will be admired by everyone like a hero.

Under the subtle exaggeration of the two great talents, this military version of "Changbanpo" seemed to have no way out, but it subtly taught the soldiers in the army: those who do evil will inevitably fail, and only benevolence and righteousness can be invincible.

"Good, what a great show!" Chang Mao exclaimed that it was really enjoyable and applauded along with the rest of the audience. Even Chang Sheng, who had watched the show for the second time, was very focused and applauded loudly.

"What a brave and invincible Zhao Zilong! Those evil Cao army are so despicable!"

"You damned thing, you can do such a thing, you are even more despicable than bandits! And you can still be a government soldier!"

"If this damn Cao army was in front of me, I would definitely help Zhao Zilong and my brothers to break through the siege and chop down that damn Cao thief..."

The effect was very significant, and Zhu Xiongying had heard many soldiers still discussing the content of the play. From their emotional comments, most of them hated Cao's army and sympathized with Liu's army. Zhu Xiongying knew that what the play wanted to convey was very successful.

"Next, there are still plays such as "Fenglangjuxu" and "Guo Ziyi" which are still being arranged. After the new plays are arranged, I will invite my two uncles and the generals to watch them." Zhu Xiongying said.

The plays he mentioned, such as "Fenglangjuxu" and "Guo Ziyi", tell the stories of enemies or foreigners harming the Chinese people, and how Huo Qubing and Guo Ziyi upheld justice, stepped forward to rescue the people and created great achievements.

It is also to make the entire army know what benevolence and righteousness are, and to lay the foundation for the establishment of the army's soul.

At the same time, it can also inspire the soldiers in the army to achieve success.

This "performance" was very successful. In the city of Daning, all the Ming army barracks that were on vacation were almost empty and everyone went to the prisoner-of-war camp to "listen to the opera". Zhu Xiongying also took the opportunity to "listen to the opera" to completely integrate into the Daning army. Now all the officers and soldiers in the army knew that their grandson "military supervisor" was a man who cared about them and sympathized with them for guarding the bitter cold in the north, so he specially trained a group of Tartar prisoners to sing operas for these big-name soldiers to entertain them.

Normally, most of the military supervisors in the army are self-righteous civil servants. Even if they don't make trouble for their gang, they will still look at the fighters with a stinky face, as if they would pollute their noble bodies as scholars if they look at them for one more moment.

How could His Royal Highness be so approachable?

In an instant, the reputation of Crown Prince Zhu Xiongying in the Daning Army rose to a great level.

(End of this chapter)