Is “Rescuing the Earl of the West and being a renowned minister of Zhou” true?
According to the Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter on the Zhou Dynasty (Part I), Hong Yao and others 'sought a beautiful woman from the Youxin clan, a piebald horse from the Li Rong, nine teams of four horses from Youxiong, and other strange and rare objects, and through Yin's favored minister Fei Zhong, presented them to King Zhou... and thus the Earl of the West was pardoned,' successfully rescuing Xibo Chang who had been imprisoned in Youli; The Investiture of the Gods completely follows the official historical record on this key plot point.
Both official history and the novel list him as one of King Wen of Zhou's 'Four Friends,' and he once rescued King Wen at Youli; the novel largely follows historical facts.
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