Water Margin: The Tale of Li Erlang of Guankou

Chao Gai agreed with Wu Yong's point of view and had also thought of a way out. However, Chao Gai's blockhead had not even considered whether Wu Yong's plan to seize the birthday gifts and distribute them to the people could actually be realized.

He was gradually won over and brainwashed by Wu Yong, and in the end, he could only sink deeper and deeper into it...

After all, the gap between his intelligence and Wu Yong's was simply too great. Wu Yong completely overwhelmed him, and there was no way he could escape even if he wanted to...

However, Chao Gai also raised a problem that he could see: even if they fought to a draw, what if the remaining mountain stronghold was still too strong for the two of them to defeat?

Wu Yong's explanation was very simple, just two words: recruit people.

They now have at least a thousand taels of silver in their hands. Chao Gai is not poor; he is a landlord. Even if he hires assassins, he can still field a team.

As for which faction to persuade first, Wu Yong and Chao Gai discussed this issue.

The land route from Daming Prefecture to Tokyo passes through several places, including Zijin Mountain, Erlong Mountain, Taohua Mountain, Sangai Mountain, Huangnigang, Baishawu, Yeyundu, and Chisonglin. Among them, Zijin Mountain, Erlong Mountain, Taohua Mountain, and Sangai Mountain are occupied by bandits who have established themselves as kings. The other places are places where bandits usually like to rob and raid, but there are no bandits who are permanently stationed there.

“I have long heard of a band of bandits on Zijin Mountain. Their leader is called Zhu Jing, also known as ‘Drilling Spear’, and he and his two brothers are bandits who have taken over the mountain. The other two are Shi Ding, known as ‘Iron Mantis’, and Zhong Liang, known as ‘Copper Iron Head’. They have gathered five or seven hundred men on Zijin Mountain and are bandits who have taken over the mountain. Zhu Jing was originally a border army officer, but he offended his superiors and raised the flag of rebellion. It is said that he is highly skilled and no one in the area can defeat him. I think it would be good for me to go and persuade him to come?”

Wu Yong was very confident that he could personally go and persuade Zhu Jing.

This group of men should have been Tian Hu's subordinates, under the command of the fierce general Shan Shiqi from Huguan. Zhu Jing was no ordinary man either, possessing exceptional spear skills.

In the original story, this person fought head-on with Zhang Qing, the "Featherless Arrow," with spear against spear. After twenty rounds, Zhang Qing was defeated and fled.

Although Zhu Jing was knocked off his horse by Zhang Qing with a stone while chasing him, and was eventually killed by the surrendered general Tang Bin, considering that he could defeat Zhang Qing in twenty rounds, it can be guessed that he was at least as strong as one of the Eight Tiger Generals of Liangshan. Although Zhang Qing's slow spear technique is a well-known weakness, even with his slow spear technique, Zhu Jing was still able to defeat Yan Shun, the "Golden-haired Tiger," a Fiend Star, in a few rounds. This shows how powerful Zhu Jing was.

If he were to come and take the birthday gifts, it would be a considerable threat to Yang Zhi.

"Since you've gone, sir, I can't just sit idly at home. I'll go and look for heroes who can help us, but I don't think there are any."

Chao Gai said.

"That would be best. We'll split into two groups. After I've persuaded Zijin Mountain, I'll head to Qingzhou and see if I can persuade a few more mountain strongholds!"

Wu Yong knew that the birthday tribute would travel through Qingzhou, a place teeming with mountain strongholds. He might be able to persuade a few mountain kings to come and seize the tribute.

Having learned the news, Ma Bian rode back to Liangshan Marsh in a whirlwind while Chao Gai and Wu Yong were resting at night, and informed Li Hanxiao of the situation.

Upon hearing Wu Yong's idea, Li Hanxiao couldn't help but sneer. Wu Yong was indeed not going to give up easily; now he wanted to use the trick of driving a tiger to devour a wolf, the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind, to deal with him.

Alright! Then Li Hanxiao will turn the tables on him!

Now that Wu Yong wants to persuade Zijin Mountain first before going to Qingzhou, Li Hanxiao will add fuel to the fire by sending some leaders to persuade a few mountain kings from other places to go together!

Li Hanxiao considered it for a moment. Besides Erlong Mountain and Taohua Mountain, there were also Qingfeng Mountain and Sangai Mountain on the mountains in Qingzhou. Wu Yong definitely didn't have time to visit them all. Considering the distance between Zijin Mountain and Qingzhou, even if he rode at full speed, Wu Yong could only persuade the three guys on Qingfeng Mountain before he had to return to Jizhou and set off with Chao Gai.

As for the location to carry out the attack, there's no need to even think about it. First and foremost, we need to choose a place with few people that's easy to ambush.

Secondly, they certainly wouldn't do it near some bandit leader's mountain stronghold in Shandong. After all, a rabbit doesn't eat the grass near its burrow. If the birthday tribute were lost at the doorstep of some bandit leader, he would be the prime suspect, so they wouldn't allow such a thing to happen.

Therefore, Zijin Mountain, Erlong Mountain, Taohua Mountain, and Sangai Mountain mentioned above are all unsuitable, a fact that Wu Yong would be well aware of.

The remaining options are Huangnigang, Baishawu, Yeyundu, and Chisonglin.

Of these places, Baishawu and Yeyundu are not suitable for ambushes due to their terrain. Only Huangnigang and Chisonglin are suitable, but Chisonglin is too close to the county seat and would be easy to be discovered.

Therefore, the best location is still Huangnigang from the original novel!

The original story involved outsmarting the enemy, but this time it's going to turn into a chaotic free-for-all...

Li Hanxiao guessed that Wu Yong would definitely persuade the other mountain kings to set up their troops at Huangni Ridge.

Now, Li Hanxiao also wants to send people to add fuel to the fire for these mountain strongholds in Qingzhou, and try every means to get these mountain kings to participate in the robbery of the birthday tribute.

Wu Yong will go to Qingfeng Mountain, so Li Hanxiao doesn't need to send anyone. As for Peach Blossom Mountain, "Tiger-Slaying General" Li Zhong and "Little Overlord" Zhou Tong are both stingy and cowardly, and they would never dare to do such a deal.

Moreover, these two had some connections with "Flowery Monk" Lu Zhishen. Li Hanxiao was hoping that after Lu Zhishen came up the mountain, he could use his connections to directly recruit them and not bother with them.

The current targets are Umbrella Mountain and Erlong Mountain. Both of these mountains are in Qingzhou. The current bandit leader on Erlong Mountain is Deng Long, the "Golden-Eyed Tiger" who has returned to secular life. Although he was once a monk at Baozhu Temple on Erlong Mountain, this guy has never hesitated to kill and rob, and it is said that he even eats people.

Li Hanxiao felt no guilt about killing such a guy.

As for Umbrella Mountain, Li Hanxiao also learned about them. The leader of this band of bandits was called "Sea Yaksha" Sun Yuan, courtesy name Liechen. In his early years, he was a military officer of the imperial court. However, because his superior had taken credit for him, he killed his superior in a fit of anger and became an outlaw in the Jianghu. He was a senior member of the bandit community and had occupied Umbrella Mountain for more than ten years. This had caused great resentment among the people in the nearby villages and towns, and the area was almost a no-man's land.

Since that's the case, Li Hanxiao was determined to have Erlong Mountain and Sangai Mountain participate in Huangnigang. So, he discussed it with Wen Huanzhang and sent two alert men, "Iron Flute Immortal" Ma Lin and "Brocade Leopard" Yang Lin, to Sangai Mountain and Erlong Mountain respectively to reveal the news of the birthday tribute to them.

As for how to convince them and get them to go, Wen Huanzhang had already made a thorough analysis and taught the two of them all the talking techniques. He then told them to hurry off on their mission. One of them was relatively clever, and the other was incredibly lucky. They weren't the kind of people who would recklessly dive in without knowing the consequences, so Li Hanxiao was quite at ease.

Li Hanxiao told the two of them that he would lead a team to make preparations near Huangnigang three days before the birthday tribute arrived. He told them that they could simply go to Huangnigang to find Li Hanxiao after they had finished their business.

In addition, Ma Bian continued to monitor "Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King" Chao Gai in Dongxi Village, because it was hard to say what kind of people Chao Gai could recruit. If there were any experts, Li Hanxiao would intercept them for him immediately.

As for the birthday tribute, someone also needs to keep an eye on it. In case someone disregards martial ethics and robs it somewhere else along the way, Li Hanxiao needs to know. Therefore, Li Hanxiao also dispatched "Red-Haired Devil" Liu Tang to search for and monitor the birthday tribute along its route.

Now, Li Hanxiao has everything prepared and is just waiting for the day to rob the birthday gifts.

Another thing happened that day: Zhu Gui's brother, Zhu Fu, nicknamed "Smiling Tiger," came from Yishui County to Liangshanbo to join him after receiving a letter from his brother.

After learning about this, Li Hanxiao met with "Smiling Tiger" Zhu Fu. He first discussed with him the plan to have him take charge of brewing high-proof liquor, and then inquired about two other people from him.

"Brother Zhu Fu is from Yishui County. Let me ask you, do you know a big man in Yishui County named Li Kui, known in the martial arts world as 'Black Whirlwind'?"

Zhu Fu nodded and said, "Of course. This man is very famous in Yishui County. He is a notorious troublemaker. He lives in Baizhang Village. He accidentally killed someone and fled into the world. I heard that he has an older brother and an old mother. When he ran away, his brother got into trouble with the law and had to work as a farmhand to pay off his debts. His mother was so heartbroken that she cried until she went blind. It was really tragic."

"Alright, Brother Zhu Fu, now that you know about this, I have a task for you: find a way to bring Li Kui's mother up the mountain. As for his brother... don't worry about him for now..."

Although Li Hanxiao knew that Li Kui was in Jiangzhou, he was prepared to make plans early. If there was any weakness in Li Kui, it would only be his mother. If there was any person he cared about the most, it would only be his mother without Song Jiang.

Many people may think that Li Kui killed even children and was a serial killer, so they believe that he should be killed and not allowed to live.

In reality, even the bloodthirsty Li Kui would spare Li Gui's life because Li Gui said he wanted to take care of his elderly mother, and even gave him ten taels of silver as a reward for his filial piety.

After hearing about Song Jiang's abduction of a woman, Li Kui, disregarding his usual admiration for Song Jiang, grabbed two axes, chopped down the yellow banner of "Acting on Behalf of Heaven," and intended to kill Song Jiang.

It wasn't that he only had killing in his heart, but no one patiently taught him what was good and what was evil, so his concept of good and evil was very vague. In addition, Song Jiang made him do many bad things, so he was disliked by many people.

In reality, he's like a child, a blank sheet of paper; whatever you write on it, that's what he becomes.

Li Han smiled and agreed with Dai Zong. First, Li Kui was upright and would never take a penny from others; second, he would never flatter anyone, and even in death, his loyalty remained unchanged; third, he had no lustful desires or evil intentions, was not greedy or treacherous, and was always brave and courageous. If he could bring Li Kui to Liangshan and guide him step by step, he would have great potential to become a good person.

It would be best to keep such a person by your side as a bodyguard or guard; he would be no less capable than Dian Wei or Xu Chu.

As for Li Kui's brother, Li Da, Li Hanxiao could theoretically bring him over, but in the original story, Li Da would rather starve to death than go to Liangshan with Li Kui. He even almost led a group to arrest Li Kui and send him to the authorities. For him, there would be no benefit in forcing him to go to Liangshan, and he would not be willing to do so.

It would be better to let him live as a farmhand; perhaps he would even think that's cleaner that way.

"Yes……"

Although Zhu Fu, nicknamed "Smiling Tiger," didn't quite understand his chieftain's motives, he didn't ask too many questions. Having run a hotel for so many years, he was known as "Smiling Tiger," and his ability to read people was unparalleled.

He knew that those who did the work shouldn't keep asking why; in any case, it was always the lazy and talkative who got punished.

Doing things properly is better than anything else.

In addition, Li Hanxiao was also considering Yang Zhi's situation.

First of all, Li Hanxiao really wanted this "Blue-Faced Beast" from the Yang family, a military family, to join Liangshan Marsh.

However, he now only wants to rely on the successful escort of the birthday tribute to make a comeback, so that he can return to officialdom, fight his way to the frontier, and restore the prestige of the Yang family generals.

For this reason, he was willing to risk being ridiculed by people in the martial arts world in order to escort the birthday tribute, which was "ill-gotten gains" made up of the people's hard-earned money.

Even if Li Hanxiao had ultimately seized the birthday gifts and captured him alive, it's unlikely he would have been able to join Liangshan Marsh so easily...

We really need to come up with a foolproof plan to deal with Yang Zhi...

Li Hanxiao was thinking about it but couldn't come up with a solution. He wanted to relax, so he went to Li Shishi's place.

Since their last conversation, Li Shishi and Li Hanxiao's relationship has progressed rapidly. Li Shishi often prepares various delicious dishes for Li Hanxiao, which Li Hanxiao loves to eat.

Today, when we arrived at Li Shishi's place, she prepared bamboo shoot and cherry chicken soup, dividing it into two portions: one for Li Hanxiao and the other for Wu Song.

After Wu Song stayed on the mountain for some time, Lin Chong and his wife sent their maid Jin'er to take care of him. Lin Chong also learned that Wu Song was actually his junior brother, so he naturally took good care of him.

Wu Song was living a very comfortable life. Under Jin'er's care, as the saying goes, "love grows over time," and it seemed that both of them had developed some feelings for each other.

Jin'er admires the hero Wu Song, and Wu Song is grateful to Jin'er for taking care of him. In addition, Wu Song is also a young man, so it is quite normal for him to develop feelings for her.

Just as Li Shishi had Jin'er bring the soup to Wu Song, Li Hanxiao arrived.

"What a fresh and sweet smell!"

Li Han smiled and sniffed the aroma as he spoke.

"Young master, guess what I did?"

"There seem to be cherries?"

Before Li Hanxiao could say anything more, Jin'er rushed in in a panic.

"Brother Wu has disappeared!"