Water Margin: The opening scene involves assassinating Emperor Huizong of Song and forcibly taking L

Unexpectedly, He Zhongbao suddenly pulled him up.

Caught off guard, He lost his grip.

The gourd slammed to the ground with a loud bang!

"Big brother, what are you doing?" He Chai asked in surprise.

He had just finished asking when Princess Detianshou suddenly said, "Strange, why do I feel so dizzy?"

"Me too..."

Me too...

Liu Tang and Bai Sheng said the same thing in succession.

Even Chao Gai, Wu Yong, and Gongsun Sheng, who hadn't spoken yet, were swaying and looked like they were about to lose their footing.

"this......"

He Chai was still somewhat confused.

Wu Yong pointed at He Zhongbao and angrily shouted, "This wine is drugged! You...you even dare to harm your own master..."

"He Zhongbao! What's going on?"

Princess Tianshou had already collapsed to the ground, but upon hearing this, she immediately forced herself to stand up and shouted angrily.

"What's going on? Don't you understand? Your Highness!"

He Zhongbao sneered, "In short, we two brothers will accept this 100,000 strings of cash for the birthday celebration!"

"You... my father and His Majesty will never forgive you!" Princess Tianshou was so agitated that she no longer cared about concealing her identity.

"You won't let us off the hook?"

He Zhongbao laughed and said, "The Great Liao Kingdom is almost finished. After we two brothers take the birthday tribute and surrender to the Jin people, we might be able to conquer the Great Liao in the future. We might even have a chance to capture Emperor Tianzuo and Prince Wei and make an unparalleled contribution!"

"You! You actually want to surrender to the Jurchens!"

Seeing that his trusted subordinate had turned out to be a traitor...

Overwhelmed by rage, Princess Tianshou could no longer withstand the effects of the sleeping potion and fainted.

Chao Gai and the others standing nearby were all dumbfounded.

Even Wu Yong was equally astonished.

Although he had suspected the identities of Liao Tianshou and the He brothers, he never imagined that...

Liao Tianshou is actually a princess of the Liao Kingdom! And she's even having internal strife with her subordinates!

"You scoundrel, you've ruined my brothers! I'll kill you!"

Chao Gai forced a roar, but before he could even raise his broadsword,

He collapsed to the ground and never woke up.

Immediately afterwards, Wu Yong, Bai Sheng, Gongsun Sheng, and Liu Tang also fell down one after another.

"Brother, this..."

He Chai was still a little confused: "Weren't we supposed to take the birthday gifts and return to Liao with His Highness? How did it turn into going to the Jurchens?"

"The Liao Kingdom is about to perish. Do you want to be a general who brings about the downfall of the kingdom, or a founding hero?" He Zhongbao asked.

"Then they are naturally the founding heroes!"

He Chai immediately understood his brother's meaning. He pointed to Chao Gai and the others on the ground.

"Brother, what should we do with them? Should we kill them all?"

"Ignore them. Once the people from Daming Prefecture who are escorting the birthday gifts wake up, they will come looking for trouble!"

He Zhongbao urged, "Hurry up, let's each take a carriage and get out of here as soon as possible!"

"Yes!"

He Chai responded, glancing longingly at Princess Tianshou.

Besides awe, he also harbored some masculine thoughts towards this beautiful Liao princess.

Pity......

He sighed inwardly.

He knew time was of the essence, and his brother would never let him waste time indulging his desires.

He climbed onto the carriage frame and cracked his whip.

The two brothers hurriedly drove the carriage carrying the birthday gifts down Huangni Ridge...

Chapter 228 Who is the Stalker?

The two He brothers had just left.

The Liangshan heroes then emerged from the dense forest.

Upon seeing the pile of people lying on the ground, Li Kui, that dark-skinned fellow, immediately ran over excitedly, raised his axe, and was about to chop down a soldier!

"Tie Niu, what are you doing?"

Zhang Shun quickly pushed him away: "Your brother told you not to kill people indiscriminately, have you forgotten?"

Li Kui snorted, "Brother Zhao forbids me from harming civilians. These soldiers are all government troops, so why can't I kill them?"

“These soldiers are just following orders. If they were to attack Liangshan, you could kill them at will. But right now, they have no grudges or enemies with Liangshan. Why are you killing them?”

Sun An rebuked, "Furthermore, these people are all unconscious. How can you be considered a hero for killing these defenseless people?"

Li Kui, that fellow, loves to portray himself as a hero.

Upon hearing Sun An's words, he quickly put away his axe.

“Brother Sun An is right, I won’t kill them.”

Seeing that Li Kui was so easily appeased,

Ruan Xiaoqi shook her head with amusement, then looked at Wu Yong on the ground, hesitated for a moment, and finally spoke.

“Brother Sun An, this Wu scholar is an old acquaintance of mine. I want to get rid of him, otherwise, when the people of Daming Prefecture wake up, they will never let him off the hook.”

"this......"

Sun An hesitated for a moment; he hadn't made up his mind yet.

Liu Huiniang, who was standing to the side, said, "Not only Wu Yong, but everyone in Dongxi Village should be taken away together. Before the people of Daming Prefecture wake up, we should find them immediately."

A telescope had already shown Sun An how skillful Liu Huiniang was.

Remembering that Zhao Yuan had once said that this girl was also incredibly intelligent, Sun An quickly asked for her advice.

"What does Lady Liu mean?"

"Chief Zhao has schemed so painstakingly, all in the hopes that someone will jump out and steal this fake birthday tribute, thus providing cover for Liangshan to obtain the real one,"

Liu Huiniang explained, "The fake birthday tribute has now been seized by those two Liao people. If we leave the people of Dongxi Village here, they will probably find out the truth soon when the people of Daming Prefecture wake up."

"When the time comes, the people of Daming Prefecture will contact the surrounding prefectures and ask them to send people to hunt them down. I'm afraid they'll be able to bring those two Liao people back in just a couple of days."

"Won't the truth about the fake birthday gifts be exposed then?"

Liu Huiniang laughed and said, "If we get rid of everyone in Dongxi Village now, it will take at least three to five days for the people from Daming Prefecture to track them down. By then, those two Liao people will have already escaped Shandong territory, and they won't be so easily caught by the government."

"Since that's the case, why not take these people back to Liangshan and lock them up for a while?"

Zhang Shun said, "In this way, if the government has no clues, they will be even less likely to trace it back to those two Liao people, right?"

"The largest bandit stronghold in the area between Yunzhou and Jizhou is Liangshan,"

Liu Huiniang shook her head and said, "If the government can't find any clues, they will definitely pin the birthday tribute incident on Liangshan. In that case, what would be the point of your brother planning for so long?"

"So, the young lady asked us to take Chao Gai and the others away so that the authorities would trace it back to them later?"

Sun An had already figured it out: "This way, we can extricate Liangshan from the matter of the birthday tribute, and also let the government find out from Chao Gai and his group that the birthday tribute was stolen by the Liao people!"

"That's right,"

Liu Huiniang responded and then stepped to Princess Tianshou's side.

Looking at her retreating figure, Sun An and the others finally understood why Zhao Yuan had said that this young lady was intelligent.

In the blink of an eye, she had figured out everything, including how she had outmaneuvered Chao Gai and the Liao people.

Such cunning is certainly not that of an ordinary woman.

"Brother Sun An, won't this implicate Scholar Wu?"

Ruan Xiaoqi thought of her past friendship with Wu Yong and still felt a little reluctant.

What does "implicate" mean?

Sun An glared at him: "It's not like we Liangshan sent them to rob this birthday tribute!"

"They were greedy for money and jumped into the pit themselves, bringing trouble upon themselves! What does it have to do with Liangshan?"

"As for what happens next, if they are really captured, you can ask your brother for permission to send troops to rescue them from prison, considering your friendship with Wu Yong."

These words made Ruan Xiaoqi suddenly realize the truth.

He quickly called to Li Kui and Zhang Shun, and the three of them together lifted the people of Dongxi Village and laid them horizontally on the saddle.

"What should be done with Princess Tianshou of the Liao people?"

Sun An was in a dilemma: "If she stays here, neither the people of Daming Prefecture nor Chao Gai and his men will spare her."

"Such a beautiful woman, wouldn't it be perfect to bring her to Liangshan and have her as your brother's concubine?"

Liu Huiniang rolled her eyes at everyone, still holding a grudge against them for linking her to Zhao Yuan.

"Young lady, my brother isn't one to be swayed by beautiful women..."

Sun An felt a little embarrassed as he said this.

After all, on Liangshan Mountain, whether it was Li Shishi or her three maids Jin, Ping, and Mei, they were all incredibly beautiful.

Not to mention, Hu Sanniang went south and it seems she also got involved with Zhao Yuan.

That bastard is definitely not a womanizer!

Liu Huiniang pursed her lips and spat inwardly.

Although Zhao Yuan had always acted as if he knew her very well.

But Liu Huiniang knows her own family affairs best.

She was a young woman of marriageable age, and although her parents jokingly called her "Female Zhuge Liang" (a play on words, implying she was clever from a young age),

In the past, he also enjoyed tinkering with mechanical devices.

But most of these things were known only to the Liu family members themselves, and even in Jizhou, few people knew about them.

In Liu Huiniang's mind, Zhao Yuan must have seen her appearance first before trying to trick her into joining Liangshan.

As for what people know about her...

He must have discovered these things secretly while traveling north by boat.

Thinking of this, Liu Huiniang was too lazy to argue with Sun An, and simply said,

"Your brother is still hoping that the Liao people can resist the Jin people for a few more years, giving Liangshan some time to develop!"

"Princess Tianshou is extremely favored in the Liao Kingdom. If something were to happen to her in Song territory at this time, leading to a war between Song and Liao, then Liao would definitely be attacked from both sides by Song and Jin!"

"Once the Liao Dynasty falls and the Jurchens march south, Liangshan will be powerless to resist. Do you want the entire northern lands to fall into the hands of the barbarians again?"

Chapter 229 Wu Yong, the "Zhuge Liang" After the Fact

Once the north falls into the hands of the barbarians...

Sun An and the others were fully aware of what kind of hell that would become.

Leaders like Ruan Xiaoqi and Zhang Shun, who came from humble backgrounds and had little education,

Perhaps they don't know that seven or eight hundred years ago, the Five Barbarian Invasions occurred in China.

The tragic situation of Han Chinese in the north being reduced to cattle and sheep by the Hu people, becoming their food.

But more than a hundred years ago, during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period...