Water Margin: The Tale of Li Erlang of Guankou

"Chief, what should we do with these two fellows?"

Qin Zhi asked.

When Li Hanxiao realized that one of the two guys in front of him was very likely the fierce general "Red-faced Tiger" Yuan Lang, he had already decided to recruit him. So he ordered them to be carried back up the mountain together and given some treatment first.

"Chieftain, what will become of my tavern? My ash wood countertop, my old elm wood staircase, my aged Sanbian liquor..."

"Dryland Crocodile" Zhu Gui said with a rather aggrieved expression, pointing to the ruined tavern.

"You all go and stay inside the water fortress for now. Tomorrow we'll send people to build you a house and rebuild a tavern!"

Previously, in Dongxi Village at the foot of the mountain, Chao Gai, known as the "Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King," attempted to build a blast furnace to produce traditional cement. This is a good opportunity to test its construction performance.

If it's stronger than the bricks and tiles of this era, then just call it "Nine-Tailed Turtle." Tao Zongwang will mass-produce it to renovate the existing buildings in the mountain stronghold and improve its core defenses.

Back at the Zhengda Guangming Hall, Li Hanxiao summoned the doctor from the mountain to examine the four unfortunate souls who had been knocked unconscious. Cheng Da and Ma Ji were less seriously injured, while the other two were more severely injured and would likely not wake up for some time.

Li Hanxiao first had someone revive Ma Ji and Cheng Da. As soon as Cheng Da opened his eyes, he said, "Good wine! Who's drinking? Give me a cup too..."

This remark caused everyone to burst into laughter, because right next to them, Wu Song was holding a bowl and drinking strong liquor. Cheng Da actually smelled it as soon as he woke up. He was truly a senior in the world of liquor, with a good nose!

"Brother, you've been smashed to the point of unconsciousness, and you still know how to drink?"

Cheng Da noticed a large, yellow face in front of him. Upon closer inspection, he chuckled, "Oh, it's Brother Qin! Where am I?"

"After arriving at Liangshan and announcing my name and identity, I forgot that I had already arrived at Liangshan Marsh!"

Qin Zhi helped Cheng Da and Ma Ji up as he spoke.

"There were two other people who fought against us just now, where are they now..."

Ma Ji then inquired about the situation of the two opponents.

"this is not!"

Qin Zhi pointed to the two unconscious people lying next to him.

"Damn it! Slash them!"

Cheng Da was still angry and looked around for an axe, but Qin Zhi stopped him.

"Brothers, now that you've come to Liangshan, how can you be so unruly? First, come and pay your respects to the Prince Consort!"

Qin Zhi then led the two to Li Hanxiao's side.

"Brothers, I am Li Hanxiao from Guankou, Xichuan."

"Greetings, Your Highness!"

The two immediately bowed. Before Li Hanxiao could say anything, Qin Zhi told them, "From now on, you can call him Chief, or Brother. You know what to call him, the Prince Consort!"

This saved Li Hanxiao from a lot of talking.

"Alright, then I, Old Cheng, will presume to address the chieftain as 'brother.' I, Old Cheng, have long heard of your illustrious reputation!"

Upon hearing Cheng's words, Li Hanxiao became curious and quickly asked, "Brother, what kind of reputation have you heard of me?"

"I've heard that my brother is undefeated in the entire estate of Master Chai in Heng Hai County, Cangzhou!"

"Oh, that's true!"

Li Hanxiao thought he was going to bring up the story of breaking through the four barriers at Yuxiang Tower again. The versions of this story circulating in the martial arts world were too chaotic, which had also brought some negative impacts to Li Hanxiao.

"May I ask Chief Li, may we have an audience with the Princess?"

Ma Ji then inquired from the side.

"Alright, Brother Qin Zhi, please take these two brothers with you. I need to deal with their matter here."

Although Li Hanxiao could have gone with them, he still thought about it and gave them a chance to be alone.

These two people don't seem like difficult to deal with, especially Cheng Da, who has a bit of the character of his ancestor Cheng Yaojin (Cheng Zhijie), and is not hard to subdue.

"Alright, brothers, come with me!"

Qin Zhi, the "Golden-Faced Buddha," led the two straight to the back mountain to see Li Shishi, while Li Hanxiao had the doctor wake up Yuan Lang, the "Red-Faced Tiger."

The four of them fought so fiercely before, it would have been difficult to handle if they were all present. Li Hanxiao could ask them separately.

"Huh? Who are you? Who are you people?"

When "Red-Faced Tiger" Yuan Lang and Mi Sheng woke up, they were startled to find so many people surrounding them. They immediately jumped up, back to back, in a defensive stance.

"You still ask who we are? Do you know that the tavern you just caused trouble in is Liangshan Marsh territory?"

Li Hanxiao deliberately tried to scare them.

"Liangshan Marsh? Is this Liangshan Marsh?"

Yuan Lang and Mi Sheng asked in great surprise.

"Of course! This is Chief Li Hanxiao. Tell me, why did you destroy our Yingbin Tavern! What are your intentions!"

"Leopard Head" Lin Chong shouted sharply from the side.

Upon seeing this, Yuan Lang and Mi Sheng immediately bowed and said, "Fellow heroes of Liangshan, we were unaware that we had arrived in Liangshan territory. We have offended you greatly. We originally only wanted to have a drink in this tavern, but unexpectedly, two people at the next table got into a quarrel with us and started fighting. We really had no intention of causing trouble."

Yuan Lang and Mi Sheng were indeed sincere, and Li Hanxiao could see that. He waved his hand, signaling everyone to be quiet, and then asked, "Alright, we won't pursue the matter of the tavern. Who are you two from, and why did you come to my Liangshan Marsh territory in the middle of the night?"

"Chief Li's reputation is far-reaching, and I dare not speak nonsense. I am known in the martial arts world as 'Red-faced Tiger' Yuan Lang, and this brother is 'Surpassing Gongming' Mi Sheng. We are also people who often travel the martial arts world and do business as hired killers."

Once Yuan Lang said that, everyone understood that these two were actually bounty hunters, doing work for money.

"We originally planned to conduct a business on Dulonggang in Yunzhou Prefecture today, but we never expected that the villagers there would be so powerful. They chased us brothers for nearly a hundred miles before they finally retreated when we reached Jizhou Prefecture. We lost our way and don't even know if we've ended up in a treasure mountain!"

"and many more!"

When Li Han heard them mention the village on Dulonggang in Yunzhou Prefecture, he thought to himself, "Isn't that the Three Villages on Dulonggang?"

Could it be that they have offended the three villages of Dulonggang?

"The village you're referring to, is it the three villages of Zhujiazhuang, Hujiazhuang, and Lijiazhuang on Dulonggang?"

Li Han asked with a smile.

"Indeed, Chief Li, please allow me to explain. We were hired by Miss Hu Sanniang, 'One-Zhang-Qing' of Hu Family Village, to enter Zhu Family Village and kill Zhu Biao, the third son of the Zhu family. However, because there were too many people and too many eyes in Zhu Family Village, and the land was too vast and the roads were too difficult, we were unable to enter. Instead, we were discovered and our efforts were in vain. We had no choice but to fight our way out."

Yuan Lang spoke very casually, but Li Hanxiao broke out in a cold sweat, because with the abnormal defense level of Zhu Family Village, the two of them were able to fight and run away unscathed while being chased for nearly a hundred miles.

They're truly masters! It's a good thing they didn't succeed; if they had, let alone Zhu Biao, even the three sons of the Zhu family wouldn't have been a match for them…

However, Li Hanxiao was still a little puzzled that the employer was actually "One-Zhang-Qing" Hu Sanniang, who was engaged to Zhu Biao.

This was somewhat incomprehensible to him, because logically speaking, if Liangshan had not succeeded in its three attacks on the Zhu Family Village, Hu Sanniang would have had no reason to "murder her husband."

Zhu Biao may not be that capable, but he's definitely much better than that "Short-legged Tiger" Wang Ying. Why did Hu Sanniang kill him?

Li Hanxiao also asked Yuan Lang and Mi Sheng the questions that had been on his mind, and Yuan Lang answered Li Hanxiao's questions.

It's actually quite simple, because this so-called "arranged marriage" was originally a "transaction" that was unwillingly agreed upon.

According to Yuan Lang, among the three villages on Dulonggang, Hujiazhuang was the weakest and gradually became a vassal after Zhujiazhuang rose to power.

Not content with gradually encroaching on the Hu family's territory, the Zhu family of Zhu Village wanted to completely devour all of Hu Taigong's assets, so they devised a marriage alliance to nibble away at them.

That's why the marriage agreement between Hu Sanniang and Zhu Biao came about. Once Zhu Biao and Hu Sanniang got married, it would be perfectly legitimate for the Zhu Family Village to annex the Hu Family Village.

Although Hu Sanniang had a male brother named "Flying Tiger" Hu Cheng, he was not very capable and dared not compete with the Zhu Family Village. He could only watch as the Zhu Family Village gradually eroded their power.

Since the Zhu family and the Hu family became related through marriage, the Zhu family has frequently used their kinship as a pretext to exploit the Hu family, demanding money and manpower from them without ever returning the money or manpower, claiming it as part of the Hu family's dowry. The old Hu family patriarch was too angry to speak out.

A few days ago, the Zhu family seized more than 100 acres of prime land from the Hu family, claiming that it would be used for cultivation and would be returned after Hu Sanniang and Zhu Biao got married. In reality, it was a loan with no intention of repayment.

Hu Sanniang, nicknamed "One-Zhang-Qing," harbored deep hatred for the Zhu Family Village and Zhu Biao, wishing to kill them as soon as possible. However, she knew that if she took action, it would be tantamount to bringing annihilation to the Hu Family Village. Therefore, she spent a large sum of money to find "Red-Faced Tiger" Yuan Lang and "Sai Gongming" Mi Sheng, paying them a large sum of money to do the work.

However, as a woman, she ultimately failed to consider all aspects and did not tell the two of them how to enter the manor, resulting in the entire effort falling through.

Li Hanxiao never expected that the conflict between the three villages of Dulonggang had reached such an irreconcilable state. He originally thought that at most it was just that Li Ying, the "Sky-Soaring Eagle" of Li Family Village, and Zhu Family Village were at odds, and that they might already be fighting each other openly and secretly.

However, Li Hanxiao had always believed that the Hu family would definitely side with the Zhu family because of the marriage between the two families, which was also the Hu family's stance in the original work.

However, it now seems that the Zhu Family Village has no other supporters, and they have even completely offended the Hu Family Village. They have been abandoned by everyone and cut themselves off from the people.

In their isolated state, it would be much easier to attack them!

However, that's a story for later. Right now, Li Hanxiao is thinking about how to recruit these two experts under his command.

Yuan Lang, one of the "Five Tigers of Jishan," was one of the most skilled generals in the army of Wang Qing of Huaixi. He once fought "Thunderbolt" Qin Ming for 150 rounds. Mi Sheng was no less formidable, having fought "Vanguard" Suo Chao for 50 rounds to a draw. He killed the surrendered generals Wen Zhongrong and Cui Ye from Hebei, and joined forces with Ma Qiang to kill "Mountain-Pulling Warrior" Tang Bin. All of them were rare and fierce generals.

Unfortunately, the two of them are currently homeless bounty hunters with no fixed abode. Wouldn't it be wonderful if they could stay at Liangshan Marsh?

So Li Hanxiao extended an olive branch to the two of them, saying, "Although you two brothers are doing this to help others after taking their money, the Zhu Family Manor is really despicable and deserves to be taught a lesson. However, they have considerable influence in Shandong, and I'm afraid you two brothers will be hunted down by them and have a hard time making a living!"

Upon hearing this, Yuan Lang, nicknamed "Red-Faced Tiger," nodded in agreement. They were already engaged in illegal business, and now with people from the Zhu Family Village following them around, it was indeed going to be difficult for them to continue.

"Brothers, I have something to say. Please listen carefully. Liangshan Marsh has always been willing to recruit heroes from all over the world. You two brothers are skilled in martial arts. Doing such things in the Jianghu is not a proper way of making a living. Why don't you come to Liangshan and join us in upholding justice?"

After Li Han smiled and said this, he gave them both plenty of time to consider.

Yuan Lang and Mi Sheng looked at each other. Given their current situation, going to Liangshan was indeed a good choice. After all, no matter how bold the Zhu Family Village was, they wouldn't dare to mess with Liangshan Marsh.

Moreover, they had just witnessed the strength of Liangshan Marsh, which was indeed formidable. They also saw many well-known figures, such as "Leopard Head" Lin Chong and "Flowery Monk" Lu Zhishen. These people would be renowned heroes in the martial arts world!

The fact that Liangshan Marsh could gather so many heroes speaks volumes about its strength; they definitely benefited from staying there.

"We are deeply grateful for Chief Li's hospitality, but we are afraid that our previous fight with those two..."

Mi Sheng's implication was that since the two of them had fought with Cheng Da and Ma Ji, the brothers in the stronghold probably had a negative opinion of them and wouldn't tolerate them.

"Haha, no, no, ignorance is no excuse, do you two not know who they are either? As the saying goes, no fight, no friendship. If you hadn't fought this battle, how would we have had the chance to meet?"

Seeing Li Hanxiao's warm hospitality, "Red-faced Tiger" Yuan Lang and "Surpassing Gongming" Mi Sheng could not refuse, so they knelt down and formally joined Liangshan.

Li Hanxiao also invited Cheng Da and Ma Ji, who had met Li Shishi, and explained the matter to them. After all, he couldn't let them have any grudges, otherwise it would be very detrimental to Liangshan in the future.

Fortunately, neither of them were petty. After explaining the situation, they understood each other. Cheng Da, in particular, laughed heartily, "We became friends after a fight! It's true what they say, we became friends after a fight. It's not easy to meet a brother who wields the same big axe as me. We should get closer to each other in the future!"

After Cheng Da and Ma Ji met with Li Shishi, they heard her recount the events and learn about Li Hanxiao's heroic nature. Furthermore, Qin Zhi, the "Golden-Faced Buddha," had already arrived at Liangshan Marsh, making his words credible. Therefore, the two of them unhesitatingly chose to join.