forgive Yang Lin, for Qin was also Yang Lin's adopted son and Yang Lin taught him a lot about military and martial arts. Also, unlike many other local governors or generals at that time, Yang Lin never did harm on but often protect common people, and that was why Qin Shubao respected Yang Lin though Yang Lin killed Qin's father. At that point, the dejected Yang Lin said that he never regretted to ask Qin Shubao to be his adopted son although later he knew Qin Shubao's father was Qin Yi, because Qin Shubao was a real hero. He said that he always respected Qin Yi for the loyalty he showed, but he had to kill Qin Yi because they were enemies at that time. He also told Qin Shubao that Sui Dynasty might not be able to survive at this point, but the good future of the common people would be relied on heroes like Qin Shubao and Luo Cheng. After that, Yang Lin committed suicide by cutting the throat. Archetypes Generally speaking, Yang Lin had three possible archetypes. All they three had some aspects that should be similar to Yang Lin, but none of them could totally and perfectly reflect Yang Lin's figure in the novel. Yang Lin's identity and social status were according to Yang Xiong (杨雄), a famous general in Sui Dynasty's royal family. Yang Xiong was similar to Yang Lin because they were both close relatives to the emperors of Sui Dynasty and they were both military and martial arts elites. However, the difference was that in real history, Yang Xiong died at a much earlier time (612 A.D.) than Yang Lin's death in the novel (not mentioned exactly, but could be inferred to be around 618 A.D.). Yang Lin's stories were most likely based on stories of Lai Hu'er (来护儿) and Zhang Xutuo (张须陀). Lai Hu'er was a famous general in Sui Dynasty, and he was known for putting down rebellions in the basin of Huai River and the lower valley of Yangtze River. He was also the first one to discover the talent of Qin Shubao in the real history. Like Yang Lin, Lai Hu'er was always loyal to Sui Dynasty until his death. He was killed by Yuwen Huaji (宇文化及) during the military coup (see above). Although Lai Hu'er never appeared in the novel Shuo Tang, he was in the most accepted