The Sanguo Yanyi - Chapter 62

The Sanguo Yanyi - Chapter 62:

The Taking Of River Fu Pass, Yang Huai and Gao Pei Perish;

The Siege Of Luocheng, Huang Zhong and Wei Yan are Rivals. 

Listen:

Download Episode(Click this link. It will bring up a page with an audio player loaded with the file. Right click your mouse and "save as" to download episode.)

WARNING: WHO GOT THE SPOILERS? WE GOT THE SPOILERS! WHO GOT THE SPOILERS? WE GOT THE MUTHATRUCKIN' SPOILERS! BEEYATCH!

So here we are at Chapter 62. And I'm getting pretty tired of writing long, drawn out commentaries for these. Sitting here staring at my computer screen until my eyes glaze over isn't quite all that it's cracked up to be, I guess. But I suppose, it's a labor of love. Or it's a labor of something, at any rate. So, time to get the tedious commentary-writing over with...for this chapter anyways.  This is the Chapter, by the way, where the battle for Yizhou and the greater Ba-Shu region begins to heat up. For that matter, it's also the chapter where Wei Yan and Huang Zhong's fledgling rivalry begins to heat up.

You might recall that Huang Zhong and Wei Yan both joined Liu Bei at the same time, when Guan Yu took Chang Sha away from its former governor, Han Xuan. You might also recall that things might have worked out very differently in Chang Sha, not only for Liu Bei's army, but for Huang Zhong's neck, had not Wei Yan intervened with a judicious little bit of treachery.  

Make a note of that. Wei Yan is a treacherous sort of fellow. It will be important later. There will be a test or something.

Anyways, Wei Yan, certainly one of the true badasses of this story, has this thing he does where he tries to upstage his fellows and not only accomplish his own mission but theirs as well, so as to take the credit which would have fallen to him. His zeal in participating in Meritocracy as a concept being set aside, Wei Yan rarely seems to succeed when he attempts his merit-theft. Usually he ends up getting himself defeated when he tries that...not because Wei Yan sucks at his job, but simply because he tends to bite off more than he can chew in his quest for glory.

Ironically, it usually seems to be someone like the stoic fossil Huang Zhong who pulls his ass out of the fire. Don't you just love it when these things happen?

In this case, Wei Yan and Huang Zhong were both heavily involved in the siege of Luocheng, pretty much one of the last major obstacles standing between Liu Bei's army and the capital of Yizhou, Chengdu. (Yeah, that Chengdu. That same city has been around for thousands of years. And people actually have the balls to call New York THE city. Hmph. We'll see how much of a city New York is when it's still standing two thousand years later, like Chengdu.)

And why is Liu Bei marching on Luocheng, you might ask?  Well, it could be that he's ambitious and meant to take Yizhou away from Liu Zhang the whole time, but even if he weren't, he was given a reason to do so. Asking Liu Zhang for help in the form of supplies and provisions, he was dreadfully insulted by what he got, since Liu Zhang just didn't quite seem to know when to listen to good advice, and certainly did not know when not to listen to bad advice. Like the bad advice that said "Hey, you should totally send like a bit of half-rotten food to this guy that's currently stationed INSIDE YOUR BORDERS who has this big ARMY that is totally not under your own command."  Yeah...great idea there, Liu Zhang. Piss off the guy who has an army capable of taking your territory away from you. Good call. /sarcasm

So now that Liu Bei's getting down to some gangsta shizz, I guess we'll see who ends up being the ruler of Shu, huh? (As if there's any doubt. That right there is a spoiler, by the way.)

Anyways, I guess it's time for one of those Game of Thrones "Brace Yourself" memes right about now. The one that says "Brace Yourself. The Battle for Shu-Han is coming." Enjoy your listen, but don't grow too attached to Pang Tong, since he's got approximately one chapter left to live. Until Koei brings him back as a ROTK/Dynasty Warriors character about 1800 years later, looking absolutely nothing like himself, of course. :p

Happy listening to you, and be sure to check back at djraspe.com from time to time for more. :)

 

Previous Chapter

Next Chapter 

 

Download_Chapter_62_Here