In 754 AD (the thirteenth year of Tianbao in the Tang Dynasty), the poet went to the Beiting Protectorate to serve as the Changqing military governor. This was the most active period for Cen Shen to create frontier poems. "Song of General Zhao" is one of the masterpieces of this period.
At the beginning of the poem, the reader is shown a picture of a cold and windy frontier fortress. In late autumn, at the foot of the cold Tianshan Mountains, the north wind carries severe cold and cuts into the bones like a sharp knife. The word "like a knife" is used here to illustrate the biting cold wind, the force of the wind, and the severe coldness of the weather. The word "wind like a knife" is connected with "September" to form a contrast. In this way, the living environment in the frontier is made more difficult. . "September" in the Central Plains means the crisp autumn air, and the frontier fortress is already "the wind is like a knife". The sentence "South of the City" describes a hunting horse that is very cold-resistant, shivering in the cold wind, further vividly exaggerating the effect of the cold wind atmosphere.
These two lines of poems do not describe General Zhao directly. They only exaggerate the environment and atmosphere, depicting an extremely difficult environment for General Zhao's activities to set off General Zhao's majesty and bravery.
The last two sentences are cleverly conceived and the metaphor is novel. The poet uses gambling to describe battle, which is a novel approach. Cen Shen uses "vertical" to describe "bo" in the poem, which can make people imagine the heroic spirit of General Zhao. The battlefield was so arduous, but General Zhao indulged in it, treating it like a gambling game on the square table, showing his incomparable heroic spirit. "Win every game" and "get the sable robe" by gambling, it seems so relaxed and unrestrained. Here, the reader seems to see the light figure of General Zhao holding a broadsword in his hand, holding Shanyu's mink robe on the tip of the sword, and riding back. What is written here is related to the severe cold and difficult environment in the previous two sentences. In such a difficult and difficult environment, but he won so easily and freely, General Zhao's bravery and skill in fighting are perfectly demonstrated.