Reborn in Liangshan: I built the strongest lineup

Yang Zhi's family heirloom sword was incredibly sharp, capable of slicing through hair and cutting through iron like mud!

After the white light flashed, a clump of white hair scattered in the air, and when you looked at Lao Xie, he was completely disheveled!

Yang Zhi's slash severed a patch of Old Xie's hair!

"Yang Zhi! You, you..."

Old Xie was so frightened that he didn't react at all until Yang Zhi sheathed his sword.

"You harmed me back then, almost costing me my life. Today, I'm cutting off your white hair as payment for your life. From now on, we're even!"

Yang Zhi looked at Lao Xie, his tone very calm.

Sure enough, taking Jeju Island has been useful. Yang Zhi is no longer the person who used to constantly talk about his ancestors' glory.

"You...you're not going to kill me?"

When Lao Xie was alone earlier, he had imagined several scenarios of what would happen if he encountered Yang Zhi. He had even thought of ways to exonerate himself, but he did not expect that Yang Zhi would not kill him!

"Why would I kill you? You're already so old, just shave your head as a substitute for your head."

Yang Zhi looked at Lao Xie and said seriously.

"But I want to ask you, back then, when you led your men back to Daming Prefecture, why did you say that I robbed the birthday tribute?"

“Commander Yang, back then your fate was unknown. Now so many of us have come, and we all have elderly parents and young children to support. Even if we sold ourselves, we couldn’t raise enough money for this birthday tribute of 100,000 strings of cash!”

"It's only good for everyone if you, the only dead person, take this responsibility!"

Old Xie looked at Yang Zhi and said helplessly.

"Old Xie, if you had listened to me back then, the birthday tribute wouldn't have been lost. If the birthday tribute hadn't been lost, none of those things would have happened. Do you understand?"

Yang Zhi looked at Lao Xie, his tone full of admonition:

"I just don't understand, why did you have to be so competitive with me in the first place?"

"Yang Zhi, if that's what you're saying, then I'll tell you the truth: there was something wrong with you when you were in charge of the birthday tribute!"

Perhaps it was because he had survived the ordeal that gave Xie Duguan so much confidence, but he actually dared to talk back to Yang Zhi!

"What do you mean?"

Yang Zhi was a little unhappy when he saw Lao Xie's appearance!

I didn't kill you, but what are you doing now? Lecturing me?

“You keep saying how wonderful your Yang family’s Tianbo Mansion is, but what happened? During the birthday tribute, you beat and scolded everyone, treating them like they were no human beings at all. If I hadn’t mediated, do you believe they would have turned against you halfway through the journey?”

"Your Yang family is so great, you're in charge of troops, right? But back when the birthday tribute was being transported, did you even have any military strategy? All you did was beat and scold your subordinates. Is that all the Yang family's military strategy is?"

"Do you know why they were willing to listen to me back then? It's because I treated them like human beings."

Hearing Lao Xie's words, Yang Zhi couldn't hold back any longer:

"You mean you understand military strategy? When you're out in the field, you can only take orders from one person. Don't you understand that?"

"Back then, those people disobeyed my orders because you backed them up! If you hadn't gone against me, even if they were dissatisfied with me, I was confident I could keep them in check until the birthday tribute was delivered!"

"And now you're criticizing me? Do you think I'm being lenient by sparing your life?"

"Yang Zhi! Even if you don't kill me, I still have to say, the birthday tribute was your fault!"

Old Xie held firm to his bottom line and refused to back down from Yang Zhi!

"Brother, I've changed my mind. Can I kill him?"

Seeing Lao Xie's nonchalant attitude, Yang Zhiqi chuckled. He suddenly felt that his generosity in sparing Lao Xie's life was perhaps too much of a fuss.

People like this deserve to die!

"Don't bother arguing with someone who's half-buried in the ground, it's not worth it. Think about who you are now, and what your goals are."

Ren Yuan patted Yang Zhi on the shoulder, signaling him to calm down.

Then Ren Yuan said to Lao Xie:

"Thank you, Steward Xie. I admit that my brother Yang Zhi is sometimes a bit harsh on his soldiers, but he is different now."

"Moreover, I also believe that if you hadn't looked down on my brother's military rank and deliberately tried to put on airs back then, you wouldn't have fallen for it."

"In the end, my brother bears some responsibility for the robbery of the birthday gifts, but you bear even greater responsibility. From the very beginning, you have never treated my brother as one of your own, so what gives you the right to demand that my brother treat you as one of his own?"

“You’re getting old. If my brother doesn’t kill you today, then the rest of Liangshan won’t touch you either. Your master has already left. If you want to go find your master, go ahead. Yang Zhi, let’s go. We need to go to the armory.”

After Ren Yuan finished speaking, he patted Lao Xie on the shoulder and strode out. His words left Lao Xie speechless.

"Heh, Lao Xie, I have something to tell you."

At this moment, Yang Zhi also came up and said to Lao Xie:

"Back then, I thought you had ruined an opportunity for me, but later I realized that it was nothing more than an opportunity to be someone's dog."

"So strictly speaking, I still owe you a favor."

"But, Xie, I won't thank you, Lao Xie. You can go now. From now on, we're even!"

After Yang Zhi finished speaking, he ignored Lao Xie and followed Ren Yuan to leave.

Old Xie, on the other hand, just sat there slumped on the ground, watching them leave, without saying a word for a long time.

His master abandoned him, but his enemies spared him. What a world...

Many years later, however, when the people of Daming Prefecture watched the play "The Loss of the Birthday Gifts," adapted from the true story of General Yang of the time, there was always an old man with white hair and beard who sat in the last row of the theater, listening to the play and watching the actors' every move on stage, and then slowly said:

"You acted wrong, you acted wrong, it wasn't like this back then."

People around him would always ask him curiously.

"Old man, how do you know you made a mistake? Do you know General Yang?"

The old man never answered questions; he just stared blankly at the scene on the stage, seemingly lost in thought.

……

"Brother, there are good things in the armory of Daming Prefecture!"

Yuan Lang, who had just confiscated the armory, was grinning from ear to ear!

"You've worked hard, what good stuff do you have?"

Ren Yuan patted Yuan Lang on the shoulder. Yuan Lang was the first first-class general of the Ren family to take the initiative to join the Liangshan Mountain, and also the first strong man that Ren Yuan took in!

After the two fought in the woods, Yuan Lang stayed by Ren Yuan's side and made great contributions to the establishment of Liangshan.

Therefore, his First Infantry Regiment was the first unit in Liangshan to have a banner, and it used the banner of "Ever-Victorious".

However, as Liangshan prospered, Yuan Lang encouraged the newer brothers to earn merit, while he himself took on the primary responsibility of defending Liangshan with his army. After all, their ever-victorious army had already accumulated enough merit.

Yuan Lang, an infantryman, and Xu Ning, a cavalryman, were basically the main force of Liangshan's elite troops.

"Brother, look! The chainmail and the bright armor are all brand new, and this batch of paper armor—look, the oil stains are still there!"

"And look at these bows and arrows, as well as these crossbows and ballistae—they're all good stuff!"

Yuan Lang showed Ren Yuan the armory, his face full of excitement.

"A triple-bow crossbow? They even have those?"

Yang Zhi came over with Ren Yuan and immediately recognized the three-bow crossbow.

The triple-bow crossbow, also known as the "eight-ox crossbow," was the pinnacle of crossbow technology in the Northern Song Dynasty, with a range of up to 1,000 paces! (One pace in the Song Dynasty was equivalent to 1.536 meters, so 1,000 paces was 1536 meters.)

As for the power of this thing, it can only be described as terrifying. If you're not convinced, go down and ask Xiao Talin for his opinion.

"Move them! Move them all! Let Zongwang see if we can load these things onto our three passes at Liangshan! Or onto our warships!"

"We've made a name for ourselves this time, so the imperial court should take notice of us. But if they dare to come, we'll use these things to teach them a lesson!"