📚 Lanke Shenji — a Ming-dynasty endgame manual
Red to move, and the machine has confirmed the outcome: checkmate in 14 moves. The hard-to-believe part is the balance of forces — Black has two chariots, two cannons and five pawns, while Red's only heavy piece is a single chariot, the rest being two knights, two cannons and one pawn. But a fire attack does not need a big army. The name evokes the Battle of Yiling in 222, when Lu Xun burned Liu Bei's linked camps stretching seven hundred li — and, as the anecdote below tells it, each Wu soldier carried exactly one bundle of dry straw. The position is preserved in Lạn Kha Thần Cơ. Can you find Red's first “bundle of straw” in this position?
✓ Engine-verified — The Fairy-Stockfish engine (NNUE) confirms Red checkmates in 14 moves — the main line was checked move by move, every move legal. Date checked: 2026-11-03.
七百里に連なる陣営――敵兵一人ひとりが藁を一束だけ持っていた
森と山を通って七百里、陣営が次々と連なっていた。すべてを焼くのに、敵に大軍は要らなかった。兵一人ひとりが乾いた藁を一束持てば十分だった。 222年、劉備は関羽と張飛の両方を失い、あらゆる諫めを退けて復讐のために全軍を呉へ向けた。呉の若き指揮官・陸遜は堅く守って戦いに出ず、夏の暑さの中で蜀の鋭気を摩耗させた。暑さを逃れるため、劉備は陣営を森の中へ移した。長江沿いに七百里、四十余の陣営が連なった――「連環の営」である。馬良は不安を覚え、陣営図を諸葛亮のもとへ持ち帰った。諸葛亮はただ溜息をつき、静かに趙雲に退路で待つよう命じた。 陸遜は陣営が森へ移ったと聞いて、一言だけ言った。「劉備はすでに私に敗れ…
Stories around this position — storytelling, not part of the engine-verified content.
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