Water Margin: Lu Bu sits on Mount Liang

In the early winter of the second year of Xuanhe, the weather was cold.

The emerald green of the mountains and fields turned to withered yellow, and the cold air froze the loose soil on the ground.

Farmers sighed after the autumn harvest. This year the cold weather came earlier than usual. The crops and vegetables that were afraid of the cold were finally harvested and not covered with frost. However, the harvest was not as good as last year, which was depressing.

On the road, a group of men wearing white scarves came running from a distance, and a burly young man riding a war horse seemed to be the leader running in front.

A farmer stood up vigilantly, squinted his eyes and looked for a while, then relaxed his tense body: "It's Lei kid, why did you come to our place today?"

Looking back: "Are you still bringing so many people with you?"

The man was called Lei Jiong. He first stopped the untidy troops behind him, then got off his horse, held the knife at his waist and walked over, smiling: "I'm here to see Brother Pang."

I walked to the edge of the field, squatted down, and looked at the hardened soil: "How will the harvest be this year?"

"Don't mention it. There's no harvest. It's good enough to have something to eat. At least we won't starve to death." The farmer smiled bitterly and then straightened up: "You are looking for Pang Wanchun. I saw him go out hunting earlier. I'm afraid he didn't come back. His sister is at home."

He looked at the soldiers, took two steps closer, and whispered in a voice that ordinary people could hear: "Lei boy, what's the matter, have you voted for the Holy Lord?"

"You know?" Lei Jiong's eyes curved with laughter: "They can't survive anymore. 80% of the people in the nearby villages have voted for Shenggong."

He turned around to look at his subordinates who were standing in a bad posture and sighed: "It's just that the training time is a little short, but they are all brave and hard-working men, so they just need to practice on the battlefield."

Then she turned around and looked at him: "It's not a good idea for your village to just get by. Why don't you join the Holy Lord? Once you capture a city, the food inside will be shared with everyone. Isn't it better than you working so hard here without even a full meal?"

The man's face was uncertain, and he didn't say anything for a while. Lei Jiong saw this and didn't continue to persuade him: "Think about it carefully. The Holy Lord is short of people. I came here this time to ask Brother Pang to come out."

Standing up and walking back, a voice came: "If you want to join the Holy Episcopal Church, just come with me when I leave."

It was almost noon when a man with sharp eyes and agile body came back carrying a elk. He looked at the Fang La soldiers waiting at the village entrance with surprise, and then went to his home in the village in silence.

As long as you don't provoke him, people can do whatever they want here, it's none of his business.

Before he reached the door, he saw his door open and a young man walked out and waved at him: "Brother Pang, long time no see, how are you?"

……

at the same time.

Fang La, dressed in casual clothes, walked into a somewhat dilapidated temple under the protection of his son Fang Tianding and his general Fang Qifo. The three were not afraid of anyone coming to arrest them, and just waited there silently.

After noon, a monk with an unusually sturdy figure, wearing a washed-out monk's robe with two patches on the sleeves and a pair of old and tight monk's shoes, was walking towards the dilapidated temple with a jar of wine in one hand and a chicken leg in his mouth.

From the way he is dressed, you can tell that this temple is not very popular.

The monk came to the temple gate, stretched out his hand and pushed it. The door opened with a creak. The daylight shone into the small temple. The dust was visible to the naked eye under the scattered light.

The monk who was biting a chicken leg suddenly realized something was wrong, stopped, and looked at the three figures that appeared in the temple with some vigilance.

A young man and a sturdy man, both were unfamiliar faces. Another one was facing the Buddha statue with his back to me, and no one knew who he was.

"Master Yuanjue..." Fang La turned around and looked at the figures of the Bodhisattva and Buddha, grinning: "Long time no see."

"Donor Fang, is that you?"

The monk named Deng Yuanjue was surprised, then laughed out loud: "You came at the right time. I was thinking it would be boring to drink alone. Come and have a couple of drinks with me."

"How can two cups be enough?"

Fang La smiled and gestured to Fang Qifo, who picked up a wine jar from the side. On the other side, Fang Tianding grabbed a bundle from the altar and shook it.

Fang La laughed: "If you want to drink, you have to get drunk."

"Hahaha, Donor Fang is straightforward!"

The monk's eyes lit up and he came over with a big laugh. The four of them sat down on the ground.

……

In a simple thatched hut, a brother and sister sat opposite an acquaintance of theirs. Steaming venison was placed on the table, and the young man in front of the table was chatting animatedly.

"The imperial court treated the people of Jiangnan unfairly and persecuted them severely. The Holy Lord rebelled in order to create a new world for the people of Jiangnan."

Seeing the young man opposite him not speaking, Lei Jiong immediately said, "Brother Pang's family was also a military family. Your father was just one step late in delivering the flower and stone tribute to the capital, but he was punished with eighty strokes of the cane and exiled to Qiongzhou. Before he even arrived..."

Seeing the surprised expressions of the Pang brothers and sisters across from him, he stopped talking decisively: "Brother Pang..."

"stop!"

The raised palm stopped above the table, and the sharp eyes fell on him: "There is no need to talk about the past. I, Pang Wanchun, am not a loyal person who does not bear grudges. You just need to tell me one thing, whether to kill Zhu Jie and his son."

Lei Jiong's mouth curled up and he nodded gently: "Of course, this is the common wish of the people in the southeast."

The two pairs of four eyes on the opposite side suddenly lit up.

……

The aroma of wine and meat floated in front of the Buddha statue in the temple. Fang La, who was drinking, raised his head and looked sideways at the Bodhisattva high above.

"I started an uprising against the Song Dynasty. First, the government officials did not allow me to live. Many people could not survive. Even though Fang admitted that he was happy to see the increase in the number of followers, he could not stand such brutal persecution.

Master, do you know that many people have lost their homes and chant scriptures in the church to escape the pain in their hearts? People are all made of flesh and blood, so how can I not feel it? "

Fang La lowered his head, exhaled, and looked at the monk sincerely: "Secondly, I also thought that I had Emperor Wenjia in front of me in Muzhou. The Emperor's Base and Wannian Tower are all complete. If I don't start a rebellion first, someone will stand up to snatch the Emperor's Qi, and then I will lose the qualification to compete for the world. This idea of ​​Fang will never come true even if I die."

Fang Tianding and Fang Qifo didn't say anything, they just looked at the unusually burly monk.

The monk reached out his hand and grabbed a handful of meat from the lotus leaf in the package and stuffed it into his mouth. He chewed for a while and washed it down with wine. He wiped his mouth and said, "So, Mr. Fang came here to invite the monks to leave the temple? I am just a monk who only loves wine and meat. I don't know military tactics or political affairs. I can't do such a big thing as you said."

"Master, you are joking. If you don't have any ability, there won't be many capable people in the world." Fang La looked at him and laughed: "In the early years, Fang wanted to invite you to the sect to be the Dharma King. Now this idea has not changed, but..."

After a pause, he signaled Fang Qifo. The tall and strong-armed man stood up, went behind a pillar, picked up a bundle and handed it to Deng Yuanjue.

The former rubbed his oily hands on his monk's robe, took the bundle and opened it, and was stunned: "This is..."

He reached in and picked up a square seal engraved with a Buddha image, then turned it over and said, "State Master?!" He looked up at the current Holy Archbishop in surprise.

"That's right." Fang La smiled and nodded: "Master, let's not beat around the bush. Although you often mock yourself as a monk who only cares about food and wine, you are familiar with Buddhist scriptures.

Now that Fang La has started a rebellion, all kinds of things are on my shoulders, and I have less time to manage the affairs of the sect. If you do not regard Fang La as incompetent, please come out and help me manage the sect. As for what you do, Fang La will not interfere. "

Deng Yuanjue looked at Fang La, then at the imperial seal, and his expression became much more serious. He leaned forward with one hand on his thigh and pondered for a moment, then looked at Fang La: "Eating vegetables is a demonic act, I don't think highly of monks..."

"Then change it according to Master's wishes." Fang La waved his hand, his tone quite heroic: "It's just a sect, let Master lead and plan it. The doctrines are not complicated, and how to add, delete or modify them is all Master's idea."

Licking his lower lip, Deng Yuanjue put the imperial seal inside his robe and took a few gulps of wine.

The wine jar fell to the ground, and the monk, with wine stains on his lips and chest, laughed: "Holy Lord, you are straightforward. I, a monk, cannot be hypocritical. You have many followers. I, a monk, have been envious of you for a long time. This national teacher..."

He clenched his fist: "The monk did it."

"I have the master's help, so I have no worries about not being able to accomplish anything."

Fang La was overjoyed, and immediately urged his son and generals to drink. For a moment, the atmosphere among the four of them became more harmonious.

……

In the fourth year of Tianshun in Qi Dynasty and the second year of Xuanhe in Song Dynasty, in the middle of winter, there were still sporadic snowflakes falling from the sky.

The three ships approached the coast of Cangzhou. After a long journey and sailing, the team that set out from Shangjing finally arrived in the territory of the Song Dynasty.

After sailing along the steep cliff for a while, Zhang Shun, who was breathing out white steam, finally shouted that the ship had entered the port of Cangzhou. Then a clerk in winter clothes came up to check and register. Before he could find any fault, Yang Lin stepped forward and stuffed a bag of copper coins into his hand. The clerk then left with a satisfied smile.

"Rent some carriages. It's freezing cold in this weather."

Read more latest popular novels at 6.9*shuba!

Looking at the figure disappearing from the side of the ship, Li Zhu clasped his hands together and stomped his feet in leather boots on the deck. He knew how cold it was on the sea, and he even put on a fur coat to keep warm. However, the damp and cold air kept seeping into his arms through the gaps in his clothes. It was okay for one or two days, but such a long voyage was really unbearable.

"Just get used to it, Manager Li." Zhang Shun smiled when he heard that. He had adapted to drifting on the sea, and felt that it was much more interesting than drifting on the rivers.

"No thanks." Li Zhu shook his hands and walked to the side of the boat. "I have spent the first half of my life wandering around the world, and I don't want to continue to chase the waves on the sea for the second half of my life. It's better to leave such passionate things to you young people. I'm going to eat something hot to warm myself up."

The white shark in the waves behind shook his head and laughed, and called a few sailors to go down to help. After watching Yang Lin, Ma Lin and Shi Qian go down, he instructed the officers guarding the ship to take good care of the boat, and then followed them down the boat.

In winter, the number of ships coming and going decreased, but there were still many people waiting to work here. The men coming from Qi this time were all nimble and agile. After some adding and subtracting, Li Zhu and several other leaders made some hot soup and hot drinks. The soldiers who followed had already started to move the wooden boxes and goods on the ship to the bottom of the ship.

"Manager Li often travels around the country. Do you know what good food and fun things there are in Cangzhou?"

Zhang Shun took a sip of the hot fish soup. The fish soup was made from seafood and sprinkled with some ginger powder, chopped cornus and fujian vine powder. It still tasted a bit fishy, ​​but he seemed not to notice it. This made Shi Qian, who was drinking the soup with a sad face, wonder from time to time whether he had taken the wrong bowl.

"What good place is there?" Li Zhu curled his lips: "They are all exiled prisoners who have committed crimes. Some good things have been ruined by them."

Yang Lin chuckled: "The customs of the people here are not much worse than those in Liaodong, and they are also very tough. Erlang, don't go out and cause trouble if you have nothing to do, otherwise you will be stabbed by someone and it will be too late to regret it."

"I don't look like someone who would cause trouble, and I have to hurry on my way."

Zhang Shun smiled. He was just making small talk. He knew very well why he came to Song.

"I hope Mr. Chai doesn't go out hunting." Ma Lin ordered a bowl of mutton bone soup. He drank half a bowl happily before saying, "Otherwise, if he's not there when we get to his house, won't we have to wait again?"

Yang Lin raised his eyelids upon hearing this and laughed strangely: "Are you talking about Yelu Yanxi? That guy didn't come back until the end, and made our brother wait for a long time."

Several people burst into laughter. The police officers who were listening at the dock cast strange looks at them, but seeing that they were just laughing, they thought they had said some witty remarks and turned away without paying much attention.

Soon, a sailor came over and asked a few people to go over. Li Zhu and others left the copper coins, wiped their mouths and walked to the caravan. While it was still light, they directed the driver to go away.

It was freezing cold and there were few pedestrians on the road. The wide road was hard in the winter. Although there was some snow on the road, it was not above the ankles, so the car was running smoothly.

The whole journey was safe and sound along the official road, and no one was in danger. Li Zhu was sitting by the carriage, holding up the curtain and talking to the driver outside: "This road is much safer. I remember that there were robbers when we left the port before, but this time there was not a single thief. This surprised me."

Zhang Shun, who was sitting in the same car, glanced at him, pricked up his ears silently, waiting to hear what was said outside.

"The guest is right. Not only you, but I am also not used to it." A voice with a thick Cangzhou accent came in: "It seems that there is a commotion in the south. I don't know what the local mountain kings are thinking, but they are all quiet for a while. Guess what? Hey~ To be honest, these ten days and a half months are really the most peaceful time for me in transporting goods and sending people."

Li Zhu turned around and looked at Zhang Shun: "Why, there are so many mountain kings here?"

"There are more than a lot." The driver outside said with some sigh: "I wonder if you know Tian Hu."

Zhang Shun was confused, but Li Zhu seemed to be thinking about it. He followed his words and said, "I haven't heard of it. What's the matter?"

"This man was not famous before. Ever since Liangshan from Jingdong went to Liaodong to establish a country, he has emerged and has been active in Hedong and Hebei. When the situation was serious in the past two years, many mountain groups in Hebei used his name."

The driver's voice was mocking, "Hey, come to think of it, country folk like me have heard about it, but the old parents in this county are deaf and dumb, not even a fart, neither fighting nor reporting, just letting those people show off and bully others. Damn it, if I didn't have my mother and children to support, I might as well go to the mountains and have fun. At least then I will be the one robbing others instead of waiting to be robbed."

"Hahaha, then you better look carefully." Li Zu tightened his fur coat and said meaningfully: "If you go to the right mountain, you won't have to worry about food and drink. If you go to the wrong one... you'll lose your head!"

"You must be joking." The driver outside also said with a hint of laughter, "I am just complaining. If you ask me to become a bandit in the mountains, I don't have the guts to do that."

Li Zhu and Zhang Shun in the car burst into laughter immediately.

They drove like this for more than an hour and arrived at a village when it was getting dark. The drivers were familiar with the people in the village, so they spent some money and stayed there that night.

We got up the next day and continued on our journey, but unfortunately, it started snowing heavily soon after, making the journey even more difficult. We had no choice but to find a place to rest and wait for the snow to stop before continuing on our journey. However, the road with extra snow made it even more difficult to travel than in the previous days.

They walked and stopped like this, and by the time they arrived near the Chai family, it was already the end of the month.

……

At the same time, Jiangnan.

In mid-winter Dingyou, Fang La's army encountered an encirclement and suppression campaign led by Yan Tan, the Inspector of the Two Zhejiang Route Army, at Xikeng in Qingxi County. Fang Qifo led his troops to break through the enemy's formation and broke through seven lines of defense in succession. The government troops were terrified and unable to defeat the enemy. Yan Tan, who was in the center of the army, tried to leave but was caught up by Deng Yuanjue and chopped into two along with his horse.

The victorious Fang La army was overjoyed, and with the momentum of victory, they marched non-stop towards Qingxi County. At that time, there were no troops to withdraw from Qingxi County and no reinforcements from outside. The county was like a girl taking off her clothes in a brothel. How could anyone stop the rebel army that was as fierce as wolves and tigers?
Pang Wanchun and Lei Jiong's troops entered the city first. County Lieutenant Weng Kai tried to escape on horseback, but was shot down by an arrow from the former and captured alive on the spot.

The people in the city were also angry at the local officials for exploiting them, so many of them took advantage of the chaos to kill many officials. Afterwards, they simply joined the nearby rebel army of Bai Yanshou under the leadership of a hero named Xu Ding.

The fall of Qingxi County caused quite a stir in various parts of Jiangnan. People joined the rebel army from time to time, and soon Fang La gathered a lot of tough guys from Jiangnan under his command.

At the gate of the county government, at the gate of the current uprising officer's office, two brothers with similar faces, dressed in tight clothes, holding long spears and long swords on their waists walked up to the soldiers at the gate and bowed: "Excuse me, please inform that the former commanders of the Guangde Army, Li Tianrun and Li Tianyou, are here to meet you."

……

As the flames blazed, Si Xingfang pulled the knife out of the gorgeously dressed man's chest, walked out of the room and shouted, "Hurry up and move the valuables into the car. Don't waste time here."

Outside, corpses were piled up together, and the flowing blood gathered into a pool in the low-lying area. Hundreds of strong men who were rummaging through the rooms hurriedly speeded up the search upon hearing what was happening. Boxes and bags of valuables were carried out and loaded into the car.

Si Xingfang swung his knife, took out a piece of cloth and cleaned the blade. He walked to the pine tree in the yard and looked at the man with his back to him, dressed in scholar's clothes, with his head down in deep thought: "Brother Wang Yin, this bird official is dead, what should we do next?"

The turned face was covered with brown bloodstains, and the front of the scholar's uniform was covered with bloodstains.

Perhaps it was because of the itchy dried blood, he raised his hand and tapped it. Wang Yin looked at the blood residue coldly and flicked his fingers: "Let's go to Qingxi County. I heard there is a big scene over there. Since they have killed the officials, why not kill them and turn the world upside down?"

……

In Wenzhou, further south, Taoist Qiu walked into the mountain stronghold of Yandang Mountain and calmly looked at the outlaw hero who was sitting on a tiger-skin chair and holding a wind-splitting knife. He bowed calmly and said, "Brother Shi Bao, long time no see."

The flames of the uprising grew stronger and stronger. (End of this chapter)