Water Margin: Lu Bu sits on Mount Liang

A cool evening breeze blew by, and the sound of rushing water echoed in the lake. Several boats were moored at the shore, and a few young men jumped off. After checking that no one was around, the boatman rowed the boat to a secluded spot and hid it.

"Rong-ge'er, aren't you going to bring the big ship over?" Jia Hu, who was speaking, was only in his early twenties, but he looked quite mature. Standing with Zhang Rong and the others, he looked like their father at first glance.

“There’s no need.” Zhang Rong waved his hand. “We agreed to meet on the shore. We won’t really need any boats, except for the way back.”

Now that the government's nighttime surveillance is more relaxed, small boats can be used for travel. They hide some large boats outside the village, and for each operation, they first take out the small boats and then decide whether to bring out the hidden boats.

Wang Qing glanced at his three companions beside him: "Then call out more brothers. What if there are more people on the other side and we get the short end of the stick?"

“There’s no need.” Zhang Rong turned to look at him and smiled. “If things are really as I think, a fight might not necessarily break out.”

After saying that, he turned around and strode away.

Jia Hu, Wang Qing, Meng Wei, and the others exchanged glances and looked at Zheng Wo in unison: "What exactly did Rong Ge'er see that he insisted on coming to see people?"

"I don't know," Zheng Wo said, looking bewildered. "It's just an iron sign with some pictures on it, but I don't understand them."

Snapped--

Jia Hu slapped him on the back of the head: "You can't even understand the diagram, what use are you!", and strode after Zhang Rong.

Snapped--

Wang Qing withdrew his hand: "I told you to study with the professors in the city, but you went to brothels instead. You good-for-nothing wretch." He then followed the two away.

"Hey, you two brats..."

Zheng Wo grimaced, one hand covering the back of his head and the other pointing forward. Before he could finish speaking, he felt a gaze on him from the side. He turned his head and saw Meng Wei, who looked at him warily: "What, are you going to scold me too?"

“No.” Meng Wei quickly shook his head: “They’ve already said everything, I have nothing to say.”

"You've got a conscience after all..." Zheng Wo relaxed.

Snapped--

Zheng Wo covered his head and squatted on the ground. Meng Wei took off running: "But I didn't say I wouldn't hit you."

"Meng Wei, you bastard, let me stay here."

Covering his head tightly, Zheng was furious. He jumped three feet high and chased after him, with his three attendants following closely behind.

Zhang Rong looked at his friends playing around with a sense of helplessness, but did not stop them.

The eastern suburbs of Yuncheng were not far away, so how could the group not be familiar with this place that was so close at hand? They were extremely familiar with it, even walking in the dark with their broadswords in hand.

At the hour of Xu (7-9 PM), the group ran to the ten-mile-long pavilion in the eastern suburbs, only to realize that the other party had not left a definite meeting place.

"This should be the place..."

"Damn it, they didn't even leave a specific location."

"What if I get tricked?"

Jia Hu and the others chatted amongst themselves.

Behind him, Zhang Rong stroked his chin, stepped into the Ten-Mile Pavilion, found a clean spot and plopped down: "Let's wait. Since they invited us to meet, they must have their own methods. Anyway, we're here. If we don't get to meet them, no one can blame us."

Jia Hu nodded: "What Rong-ge'er said is right, that makes sense."

"I wonder how long we'll have to wait for him."

"Wait a moment or two, or I'll leave."

The rest of the group then walked into the pavilion. As night deepened, the calls of various birds and beasts echoed across the wilderness.

There was a dark shadow moving around.

……

The sound of rustling footsteps echoed on the nearby hills. The running figure stopped and then stood beside Dong Kai: "The brothers looked behind and eight of them came. They're at the Ten-Mile Pavilion."

“Eight…” Dong Kai pondered for a moment, then turned and instructed, “In a little while, you and I will arrange for a few brothers to leave first. If you don’t receive any news from me within an hour, go back and report.”

"Here!"

Several scouts in the woods responded, and Dong Kai immediately stood up, grabbed the broadsword stuck in the ground, and hurriedly ran out with the men behind him.

……

"Why aren't they here yet? It's a good thing there aren't any mosquitoes at this time of year, otherwise I'd be feeding all my blood to those bugs tonight."

Zheng Wo glanced at Meng Wei, who was speaking, and rubbed his arms: "You're alright, I wasn't dressed warmly enough. I should have worn more if I had known it would be cold tonight."

"It's all because you're stupid." Wang Qing gloated from the side: "It's getting cold and you didn't even put on a layer of clothes. Well, you don't have a wife, so no one knows how to care for you when you're cold or hot."

"..." Zheng Wo remained silent for a few moments, then suddenly stood up and lunged forward: "I'll fight you to the death!"

The two figures were entangled together. Jia Hu glanced at them and said helplessly, "Stop making a fuss." He then leaned closer to Zhang Rong and asked, "Brother Rong, it's been almost a quarter of an hour. Why are you waiting like this?"

Zhang Rong glanced at his companions who were still bumping into each other and punching each other, and said, "Let's wait and see if it's as I guessed."

As they were talking, Zheng Wo, with his four arms entangled, started wrestling with Wang Qing again.

"Who exactly is it that you care about so much?" Jia Hu rubbed his chin. "It shouldn't be that idiot Gao Tuoshan. He went back to Jingdong after his failed attack on Hebei a few years ago. He finally managed to accumulate some wealth again, but we're not afraid of him."

The two men, who had been locked in a face-to-face struggle, changed positions. Wang Qing locked Zheng Wo's neck from behind, while the mild-mannered young man kept slapping his companion's arm.

"Stop guessing." Zhang Rong smiled and gestured outwards: "Look, here they come."

The quiet noise made everyone else in the pavilion look out. Even the two who were playing around stopped and remained locked in their lock-and-locked positions as they looked over.

Two figures appeared in the torchlight. In front of them was a burly man carrying a broadsword, and behind him was a well-proportioned man with a torch in one hand and a sword in the other, walking quickly towards them.

"Let go!"

Zheng Wo pulled Wang Qing's hand away and quickly straightened his wrinkled clothes. Wang Qing also tidied himself up and waited with the people beside him.

The hurried footsteps quickly approached, and the figures in the firelight were already visible. One had a rugged and forthright appearance, while the other was ordinary and could be forgotten in a crowd.

Zhang Rong's eyebrows twitched, and he exchanged glances with the others. Having known each other for a long time, they knew that their brother was asking if they remembered him. After thinking for a moment, they all shook their heads.

As the firelight gradually approached the pavilion, Meng Wei took out a tinderbox and lit the torch he carried with him. The two small circles of light gradually merged into one.

"You must be Zhang Rong, young master. My name is Dong Kai. I suppose I'm a few years older than you, so I'll take the liberty of addressing you as 'young brother.'" Dong Kai approached with a smile and cupped his hands in greeting. "Young brother, your presence here is truly heroic. I most enjoy dealing with heroes like you." "You flatter me," Zhang Rong replied with a smile in the firelight, cupping his hands in return. "I'm just someone who makes a living in the water; how can I be considered a hero?"

The seven young men behind them exchanged glances and then fell silent. Judging from Rong Ge'er's polite manner towards this man, it was best to keep quiet since the situation was unclear.

"Let's go in and talk."

Dong Kai walked into the pavilion, put his broadsword aside, and sat down on the stone bench. The scout who followed him stood behind him.

Zhang Rong glanced at the spot where he had left his broadsword, but had no objection. He went in and sat down as well. Jia Hu and the others stood in a row behind him, also without weapons, arms crossed, glaring at the opposite side, looking quite imposing.

Dong Kai looked at the person opposite him, smiled, and placed his right hand on the stone table: "Before we talk, Brother Zhang, please return the iron plate to me. It would be best if we could avoid having to replace the things on it."

Zhang Rong reached into his robes and took out the iron plaque. Under the torchlight on both sides, it gleamed with a metallic sheen. He rubbed it once more, then handed it over, giving Dong Kai a meaningful look: "This plaque looks very familiar."

Dong Kai reached out and took it, holding it up to face the curious gazes of Zheng Wo and the others opposite him, and said with a smile, "Liangshan Marsh, how could it not look familiar? Back then, it was crafted by skilled artisans."

Jia Hu's pupils contracted, Meng Wei and Wang Qing seemed thoughtful, only Zheng Wo suddenly clapped his hands: "I knew it looked familiar, it's this pond..." Then he tilted his head in confusion: "Hey, wait, what are you guys doing with this pattern? You guys hang around around here too? How come I've never seen it before?"

Jia Hu glanced at him, his eye twitching slightly, but he remained silent. Meng Wei and Wang Qing both looked to the side, while Zhang Rong's expression remained unchanged as he watched the person opposite him with amusement, waiting to hear what he had to say.

Dong Kai pondered for a moment, ignored Zheng Wo, and looked at Zhang Rong: "Brother Zhang, if you just want to make a living in this marshland, you might as well bring the gold. You can leave the silver and copper coins behind. It should be a considerable sum for you all. Don't ask about the rest. Knowing too much about some things is not necessarily a good thing."

The people behind him looked rather embarrassed. Zheng Wo frowned and was about to speak when Wang Qing pulled him aside, glared at him, and then shut his mouth tightly.

Zhang Rong's mouth was dry, and he swallowed hard: "Some things, how will you know the final outcome if you don't ask?"

The two torches flickered, crackling as they burned, causing the ten figures on either side to sway unsteadily.

Dong Kai stared at the eight people over there for a while without saying a word. Seeing this, Jia Hu suddenly spoke up: "These days, the villages by the lake are being severely oppressed by the imperial court. We're not afraid to tell you that although we fish, we also do a lot of business without any initial investment. We still have some guts."

Dong Kai pointed at the stone table and suddenly laughed: "Judging from your age, you must be quite old. Are you one of their uncles or elders?"

Everyone in the pavilion looked at Jia Hu's face and burst into laughter. Zhang Rong, sitting opposite him, shrugged and made muffled sounds of suppressed laughter.

Zheng pointed at Jia Hu's face, which had turned black: "Hahahaha, uncles!"

"Laugh? What are you laughing at! I'll kill you bastards!"

Meng Wei, Wang Qing, and the other three companions burst into laughter, supporting each other so they couldn't straighten up.

Dong Kai was a little stunned, realizing that he might have made a mistake in what he had just said. Before he could speak, he saw Zhang Rong raise his head, his smile impossible to hide: "No, he just looks a bit old, but in reality he is no more than our age."

“Oh…” Dong Kai nodded knowingly, tapped the table twice, and waited for the laughter to subside slightly: “In that case, you should also have heard about the events of Liangshan more than ten years ago from your elders.”

The smiling faces opposite them suddenly vanished, and they all looked at Dong Kai.

"At that time, many villagers from the villages near the marsh went to Liangshan. The most famous of them were the three Ruan brothers from Shijie Village. Do you know them?"

Zhang Rong nodded, then shook his head: "We were young at the time. We heard about the Ruan family's three brothers from the village elders later, but we weren't from Shijie Village. We only knew about the story, not the people."

"That's fine then." Dong Kai didn't seem to care, glancing at the group of them: "The three of them are currently generals of the Qi navy, and this time they will be part of a detachment to attack Cangzhou by sea, you know that, right?"

The eight men looked at each other, remained silent for a moment, and slowly shook their heads. Zhang Rong took a breath and said, "We have heard about the events in Daming Prefecture and Bianliang, and we have also heard about the events in Cangzhou, but we do not know the details. It seems that the events in the two capitals have overshadowed them."

Dong Kai scratched his head, suddenly looking somewhat disheartened, and simply shrugged: "Understood?"

Zhang Rong, Jia Hu, and Meng Wei nodded. Wang Qing frowned, seemingly understanding but not quite. He looked at the others, then exchanged glances with his three equally clueless companions. Puzzled, he tugged at Meng Wei and leaned closer, asking, "What do you understand?"

Meng Wei glanced at him sideways and pushed away the head that was leaning in: "I'll tell you when we get back."

“If you understand, then return the gold.” Dong Kai smiled and pointed his thumb backward: “There are more than just the two of us here. If you hide here, it will cause trouble in the future.”

Zhang Rong pondered for a moment, then shook his head: "No."

Dong Kai raised an eyebrow: "Brother Zhang, I don't want to fall out with you because you're a junior, but if you don't know what's good for you, the government of the Water Margin may not be able to wipe you out, but they can't stop us."

"You've misunderstood." Zhang Rong waved his hands repeatedly: "We can return all the gold and silver to you."

Dong Kai's brow relaxed, then he seemed to be deep in thought: "You mean..."

Zhang Rongxian glanced back at Jia Hu and the others. The latter and Meng Wei nodded. Wang Qing frowned, and seeing the other two nod, he rolled his eyes and nodded as well. Only Zheng Wo and a few other clueless guys stood there, their eyes clear and their faces full of doubt.

Zhang Rong ignored Zheng Wo and the others, turned around, gritted his teeth and said, "We missed out more than ten years ago, but now that we've grown up, bring us in. We've had enough of being oppressed."

Dong Kai's cheek twitched, feeling a sense of unreality as if time had reversed. After calming himself down, he looked at the anxious faces opposite him and pondered for a moment: "This matter is not up to me."

The light in Zhang Rong and Jia Hu's eyes dimmed.

Dong Kai saw it clearly and suddenly smiled: "However, I can have someone take you to Cangzhou. We'll go out along the Ji River and follow the coastal road to Cangzhou. Wei Zhaode and the three Ruan generals are there now. Do you dare to go?"

Upon hearing this, Wang Qing's eyes lit up with realization. Zheng clenched his right fist and slammed it into his left palm: "You're a spy from Qi... um!"

Before he could finish speaking, Meng Wei covered his mouth and said, "If you don't speak, no one will think you're mute."

"Uuuuuuu..."

Ignoring the voices behind them, Zhang Rong and Jia Hu were overjoyed and patted their chests, saying, "Of course we dare, but we don't know the way and don't know how to get there."

Dong Kai laughed and said, "No problem, I'll have my men show you the way. You'll have to figure out your own supplies along the way."

"I understand."

Zhang Rong invited Dong Kai to return to the village together, but Dong Kai did not readily agree. He only sent the scout who had come with him back to report the news first, and then went with Zhang Rong and the others to the water's edge to take a small boat back to the fishing village.

At the beginning of winter, Dong Kai returned to Bianliang with his wife and family and the newly acquired boat. Zhang Rong, on the other hand, along with several scouts, led the able-bodied fishermen who were willing to go with him, and their families boarded the large ship they had seized. They bought enough dry food and, guided by directions along the way, headed north, traveling by sea towards Cangzhou.

……

In mid-winter, Lü Bu led his army into Hejian Prefecture, and then ordered his army to attack two military prefectures in Hebei, thus igniting the flames of war throughout Hebei.

On the day of Renyin in the first month of winter, Wanyan Loushi led Jurchen troops and Yang Zaixing in a surprise attack on Yongning Army. The Song army defending Yongning Army met them in the open field, and more than 8,000 men were defeated within half an hour.

A day later, on the battlefield, two thousand Song soldiers encountered seventeen northern cavalrymen who dared not fight. The commander fled first, and his troops were chased for several miles by the seventeen men. Five days later, Boye was attacked by Wulindatai, and the prefect was captured and surrendered.

On the same day, Shi Wengong and Mi Sheng attacked Raoyang. Without resting, the cavalry headed west towards Anping. The Song army that engaged them was attacked by Shi Wengong's cavalry, who broke into the center of the army. The commander of the troops was killed in battle under the banner, and then the entire army collapsed.

The Qi army, which launched successive attacks, reached Zhen Ding Prefecture before the first snow of winter, and only stopped after meeting up with Dong Xian, Zhao Li and others stationed there.

On this snowy day, Wanyan Zonghan, stationed at the Shuibin Mansion, received military intelligence. (End of Chapter)