In the Water Margin
Ling Zhen is a deputy of the imperial armoury in the capital and the finest gunner in the Song realm, able to build cannon that strike fourteen or fifteen li away, so men call him Heaven-Shaking Thunder. When Huyan Zhuo's chained cavalry cannot take the lake fortress, Huyan Zhuo asks the court for him, and Ling Zhen sets up his guns and bombards the shore forts of Liangshan.
Wu Yong lures him to the water's edge, where the Liangshan boatmen overturn his boats and drag him out of the lake. Peng Qi and Han Tao, captured earlier, persuade him to join. From then on he makes Liangshan's cannon and signal guns, takes seat fifty-two beneath the Dizhou star, and survives the war against Fang La to serve in the imperial gunpowder office.


