Bai Sheng
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Bai Sheng (白胜) is a character in the Water Margin.
'Daylight rat (白日鼠)' Bai Sheng was from Anle Village in Yuncheng Prefecture. He was a man without a decent job and was hooked to gambling. Once, he had served under Chao Gai and became good friends with him.
Later, Chao Gai and his six friends (Wu Yong, the Ruan brothers, Liu Tang and Gongsun Sheng) planned to rob the convoy of birthday gifts for Cai Jing and planned well to strike at Huangni Ridge. Huangni Ridge was located near Anle Village, so Chao and his friends stayed at Bai Sheng's house and waited. Later, they disguised themselves as travelling traders, while Bai Sheng helped them by pretending to be a wine-seller. Bai Sheng carried two buckets of wine and passed by the guards escorting the birthday gifts, trying to induce the thirsty guards into drinking his drugged wine. Yang Zhi, the leader of the guards suspected something and did not allow his men to drink the wine. Chao Gai and his friends then later bought the wine which was not drugged from Bai Sheng and drank it, showing the guards that the wine was alright. Yang Zhi then allowed his men to buy the wine and drink it, and this time, the wine was drugged. Yang and his men were knocked out and Chao and his friends robbed the birthday gifts easily.
Cai Jing was furious when he heard that his birthday gifts had been robbed and ordered the local government to arrest the robbers. He Qing, the brother of the chief constable He Tao, knew that Chao Gai, Bai Sheng and the others were the robbers and reported it to his brother. He Tao and his soldiers surrounded Bai Sheng's house at night and charged in. They searched everywhere for the loot and eventually found some valuables under Bai Sheng's bed. They brought Bai Sheng to the county office and had him interrogated.
Despite facing severe torture, Bai Sheng refused to disclose the names of the other people who robbed the birthday gifts. In fact, the government had already knew that Chao Gai was involved, so Bai Sheng confessed eventually, naming Chao Gai only, while saying that he did not know the other men who were involved. This had clearly shown Bai Sheng's strong feelings and loyalty towards his friends as he chose only to reveal Chao Gai, whom the government had already knew and not the others.
Chao Gai and his six friends managed to flee to Liangshan for refuge after receiving a warning from Song Jiang. Later, Wu Yong came up with a strategy and rescued Bai Sheng from prison and Bai Sheng joined the Liangshan band. After that, Bai Sheng too joined in the rescue of Song Jiang and Dai Zong from the execution ground in Jiangzhou.
Bai Sheng became one of the leaders of the Liangshan infantry and 72 Earthly Warriors. He followed the heroes on their campaigns after they had obtained amnesty from the emperor, and made great contributions to the imperial court. Bai Sheng died of illness after the battle of Hangzhou during the Fang La campaign.
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