Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang fought many wars. Throughout, they did not have surveillance drones and binoculars to spy on the enemy. Radios and telephones had not been invented yet, so they could not even communicate with their own soldiers. How did they even manage to organise a war, much less win it? They did it with their intelligence and quick thinking! In the third and final book of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series, learn about the strategies and ruses practiced by Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang!

When Marshal Hong breaks the seals which generations of Taoist Masters have placed on the temple doors to hold back 108 incarcerated Demon Princes, powerful forces of disorder are released. One after another, brave men fall out with officialdom and are obliged to join the brotherhood of the rivers and lakes -- the mixed company of heroes and vagabonds who live by their wits and their fighting skills. The story of "The Broken Seals" branches this way and that, following first one hero, then another, as their paths converge and part, until finally 108 brave -- but not entirely admirable -- men are united at the outlaws' stronghold in the Marshes of Mount Liang. The story takes us through the vast landscape of imperial China. We hear of epic duels, gargantuan feasts, and cunning ambushes, and we witness injustice, betrayal, murder and revenge. We are told also of the beauty of the moon during Mid-Autumn Festival or of the snow, crisp underfoot on a stormy night in the country.

This volume consists of the first twenty-two chapters of the full 120-chapter version of the classic Chinese novel by Shi Nai'an and Luo Guanzhong. It is the first English translation based on this version that includes much of the verse. It offers the English reader something of the liveliness and humor of a work which has delighted generations of Chinese readers.

In this Ming-era novel, historical narrative, raucous humor, and the supernatural are interwoven to tell the tale of an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the Song dynasty. A poor young girl meets an old woman who gives her a magic book that allows her to create rice and money. Her father, terrified that his daughter's demonic nature might be discovered, marries her off. Forced to flee, she and others with supernatural abilities find themselves in the midst of a grotesque version of a historical uprising, in which facts are intermingled with slapstick humor and wild fictions. Attributed to the writer Luo Guanzhong, Quelling the Demons' Revolt is centered on the events of the rebellion led by Wang Ze in 1047-48. But it is a distorted, humorous version, in which Wang Ze's lieutenants show up as a comical peddler and a mysterious Daoist priest and a celebrated warrior appears despite having died many years earlier. Rather than fantastic adventures and supernatural marvels, the author points to human vanities and fixations as well as social injustice, warning of the vulnerability of any pursuit of order in a world plagued by demonic forces as well as mundane corruption. Although the story takes place long before the era in which it was written, ultimately Quelling the Demons' Revolt is the story of the Ming dynasty in Song masquerade, presciently warning of the dynasty's downfall. The novel is divided into chapters, but in many ways it is an arrangement of self-contained stories that draw on vernacular storytelling. This translation offers English-speaking readers a spirited example of social critique combined with caustic humor from the era of Luo Guanzhong.

This is the third volume of a series of the new translation of the Chinese classical novel generally known as The Water Margin. In this volume, the company of outlaws on Mount Liang continues to grow - a butcher, a blacksmith, a public executioner, a petty thief... and the usual generals defecting from the government forces. Lu Zhishen, the Flowery Monk, and his companions from Twin Dragon Peak reappear and finally join the company, uniting two important strands of the story. Some episodes are relatively light: a tiger is stolen, an innkeeper's favourite rooster is illicitly eaten, Iron Ox is lowered to the bottom of a well and nearly gets forgotten. But in general the mood is darker. The naked bodies of a lecherous wife is carved up, an innocent child is mercilessly dispatched to gain a reluctant recruit. Chao Gai, the leader on Mount Liang, is killed in battle. Song Jiang replaces him, but for how long can he control his unruly forces? Despite the attraction of the life on the marshes, with its rootless freedom and rough code of honour, we are not to forget how the story was launched, when 108 Demon Princes were released in a black cloud. This series of new translation by John and Alex Dent-Young is also the first English translation of the 120-chapter version of The Water Margin. The translators have made the English translation as readable to English readers as possible by finding meaningful equivalents for many local terms and proverbial expressions, while aiming to retain some flavour of other times and customs. Readers in the West, even with no specialized knowledge of Chinese, will certainly enjoy the stories and characters presented in the novel.

"Iron Ox" contains chapters 63-90 of the original and can be divided into four main sections. The first of these is very much concerned with the question of the leadership on Mount Liang. Iron Ox is prominent in the second section, probably the most varied and entertaining part of this volume. The third section is concerned with the count's various attempts to subdue Mount Liang by force or win them over with an amnesty. The fourth section begins with the granting of the amnesty and the first campaign in the Emperor's service against the Liao Tartars. This part ends with an encounter which foreshadows the campaign against Tian Hu in Volume 5, "The Scattered Flock."

"The Tiger Killers" is the second volume of a new translation of the Chinese classical novel generally known as "The Water Margin." Like the first volume, "The Broken Seals," it follows the fortunes of various outlaw heroes as they move through a world of treacherous officials, jealous toadies, bullying jailers, hired assassins, foolhardy generals and cannibalistic innkeepers.

This volume contains some of the most famous scenes in the novel, starting with the episode in which Wu Song gets drunk at the tavern, ascends the pass in late evening and kills a notorious man-eating tiger with his bare hands. His subsequent encounter with his midget brother's flirtatious wife, Jinlian or Golden Lotus, and her vain attempt to seduce him lead into a tale of adultery, callous murder and bloody vengeance. The second half of the book is concerned with Song Jiang's attempts to serve out his prison sentence honorably and avoid becoming an outlaw, until he is unjustly condemned to death for a misconstrued poem. Towards the end of this volume we meet the violent Li Kui, variously known as Iron Ox or Black Whirlwind, who also turns out to have a way with tigers. This volume consists of chapters 23 to 43 of the full 120-chapter version of the novel by Shi Nai'an and Luo Guanzhong. It is the first English translation based on this version.

"The Scattered Flock," the last volume of this new series of translations, contains chapters 91-120 that mark the disastrous end of the 108 heroes. The action in this volume can be divided into three parts: the campaign against Tian Hu, the campaign against Wang Qing and the campaign against Fang La. It is in the last of these that the heroes of Mount Liang begin to die. Their demise is as haphazard and casual as the scattering of the flock of geese when the Prodigy shoots them for mere amusement. The themes of the vanity of human wishes and the emptiness of ambition are prominent throughout.