In the Water Margin
Huyan Zhuo is the eighth hero of Liangshan, born under the star Tianwei (天威星). He commands the garrison of Runing and descends from Huyan Zan, a founding general of the Song dynasty. He fights with a pair of eight-edged steel whips, the source of his nickname, Twin Whips (双鞭), and rides a black horse with snow-white hooves that the emperor himself gave him.
After Liangshan storms Gaotang to rescue Chai Jin, Marshal Gao Qiu recommends Huyan Zhuo to lead the punitive army. He arrives with a new weapon: chained cavalry, armoured horses linked in rows of thirty, which charge like a moving wall and send the outlaws reeling. Only when Xu Ning is brought up the mountain to teach the hook-spear does Liangshan find an answer. His army destroyed, Huyan Zhuo flees alone to Qingzhou, where he is drawn into a fight with three mountain bands at once, and is finally captured by Song Jiang's trap and won over by his courtesy. He becomes one of the Five Tiger Generals. Long after the war with Fang La, the novel says, he dies in battle against the Jin armies at Huaixi.
Key episodes
The chained horses. Three thousand horses, armoured to the eyes, are chained together thirty abreast. When the line charges, nothing can break it, and Liangshan suffers its worst defeat yet. Huyan Zhuo adds Ling Zhen and his cannon to the attack for good measure.
Losing the black horse. On his flight to Qingzhou, Huyan Zhuo stops at an inn and wakes to find his imperial horse stolen by the bandits of Mount Taohua. Chasing it, he crosses swords with Lu Zhishen and Yang Zhi of Mount Erlong, and fights the monk for fifty rounds without either giving way.
The false defector. Having joined the band, Huyan Zhuo turns his old loyalty into a weapon. He rides alone into Guan Sheng's camp claiming he wants to return to the court, leads him into a night raid on Song Jiang's tent and delivers him into the ambush.
