Sunlight shone in through the window.
He sat there, looking at his hands. Closing his eyes, he could see the blood.
Flames, blood, cries, corpses, and the massacre of tens of thousands of people.
Liangshan, Liangshan, Liangshan …
Lin Chong, Lu Junyi, Shi Wengong …
Zengtou City …
Things kept coming back to him. Some things might not be possible. Liangshan was too strong, but the wound on his chest had healed.
He took a deep breath and stood up. Finally, he picked up the octagonal mixed copper stick leaning against the wall and put it in his long backpack. He walked out of the door.
In May, the sky was pale.
*****
In the southwest of Shandong, near Ji Province, there was a lake eight hundred li long.
As the saying goes, gather the Hu Hu and Jin Nan. The Wu dynasty was prosperous, but with Bianliang as the boundary, north of the Yellow River, the scenery in the south gradually disappeared. From here to the weeping Lu Liang Mountain, soldiers, merchants, mountain bandits, and forests formed their own ecosystem. Compared to Lu Liang Mountain and Yanmen Pass, it was still considered orderly. But compared to the south, it showed its swift and unruly side. Similar situations existed in the south of the Wu dynasty, far from the center, such as Miaojiang and other places.
North of Bianliang to Yanmen Pass, because of the passage of trade routes, the control of the government was quite strong. But outside of this legitimate trade route, the situation was a different matter. The people on the east and west roads of Shandong had always been tough. Because the government's control was not strong enough, all kinds of smuggling and looting had always been prevalent here.
Smuggling and mountain bandits were prevalent, and at the same time, people lived in poverty. From Bianliang to the east, into the Shandong border, and away from the Yellow River, the scene in front of them was completely different from the south.
It was the middle of May, and the sun was very hot. As far as the eye could see, it was mostly wild mountains. Villages and fields were sparse. Even the official road showed a desolate appearance of disrepair. There were not many people on the road. Most of them were merchants, escorts, and people from the forests who carried weapons. Of course, they didn't have the beauty and boldness of the martial arts movies of the later generations. Most of the people wore shabby clothes, messy beards and hair, and their weapons were wrapped in cloth. When they walked, their eyes were lazy and lifeless, as if they lacked sleep. When they landed or took a nap, they would first look around vigilantly to see who was the enemy, who was a fat sheep, and who was poor.
Even if there were people from the Greenwood Forest in the south, such a scene would not have happened. After all, the south was still mostly commoners. Here, the proportion of people who used swords was much higher than in the south. Even if they were innocent, they should be killed. If they were placed here, they wouldn't have wronged too many people.
The economy of the Wu dynasty was flourishing. Even here, money was still the core of the economy. Salt, iron, tea, and all sorts of other shady businesses — as long as there was profit to be had, people would do it. Driven by all kinds of benefits, outside of the government, associations of all sizes were also the mainstream in this area. Of course, they weren't famous sects, but mostly villages.
The big ones were Zengtou City, which had been destroyed by Liangshan, and the medium-sized ones were Dulonggang and Wanjialing. In terms of small ones, there were countless villages and bandit gangs. The villagers could only establish a foothold and farm here if they organized their own forces. And if it was a young man with some ability, a few of them would often be on good terms with each other. They would gather in one place, either to rob merchants or to protect the village after receiving money. As long as they had their own territory, they would more or less take on some business in the gray areas. As a result, large and small areas were connected by such unspoken rules.
This kind of ecology extended all the way to the north until it reached the border of Wu and Liao, such as Luliang Mountain. Only then did it finally change. Almost all the normal commercial systems were broken, and a few villages were completely integrated with the mountain strongholds. They were ownerless lands that couldn't survive if they obeyed the law.
Recently, Liangshan, which had become the number one stronghold in the vicinity, had become more and more famous after raising the banner of "enforcing justice on behalf of the heavens".
Every day, every moment, many people from the underworld came to join them. Among these people were the remnants of Fang La's army that had been defeated in Hangzhou, some middle-level generals, and all kinds of desperadoes. The rescue of Fang La's subordinates had really made Liangshan famous. Even though the plan to rob the birthday manual on the canal had failed, it had indeed shown Liangshan's position. When Tong Guan's army had to go north to deal with the Northern Expedition, and Fang La was still struggling, many smart people saw another hope and put the hope of rebellion on Shandong.
As for the setbacks of the Su family in Jiangning and the birthday manual incident, although Lin Chong, Zhu Wu, and the others had caused a stir after they returned to Liangshan, especially the incident on the canal, where several leaders were killed, and even Lu Junyi, who was the second in command, died at that time, they could only attribute it to the enemy's cunning and bad luck. Song Jiang cried loudly in the Juyi Hall. He wore mourning clothes and said that he would avenge Brother Lu in the future. Although a few people suggested at that time that this person was so powerful that they could consider tricking him into going up the mountain to sit on the throne, this proposal, which was more mainstream in the past, was not approved.
Although he had been lucky enough to get his way twice, this kind of cleverness was certainly despicable, shameless, and filthy. The heroes of the mountain disdained to associate with such scum. Moreover, Second Brother Lu and many of his brothers had died in his hands. As long as there was a chance to catch him, they would definitely tie him up in the Juyi Hall and cut his heart. Song Jiang made this blood oath on the spot. For the sake of loyalty, no one doubted that they would be able to do it in the future. It was only a matter of time.
With so many heroes gathered and their momentum growing, not many people would regard this as a big problem. Even though a few people in Fang La's army who had joined them talked about Ning Liheng, not many people in Fang La's army knew what Ning Yi had done. Most people's impression of him was that he bewitched Liu Watermelon. As for the killing of Bao Daoyi, it was only because he succeeded in bewitching Liu Watermelon under the protection of the Tyrannical Saber Manor.
The Tyrannical Saber Manor of Tiannan was famous even in the greenwood of the north. But even if these things were combined, the only thing left in people's mouths was only cursing and despising the man who had married into Lu Junyi's family, which was a strategic contempt. Those who were really in high positions would not ignore the existence of such an opponent. But in any case, if it weren't for Lu Junyi's scheme, they wouldn't have lost so badly. Especially after Lu Junyi returned to Liangshan, what he had to deal with now was something that had truly expanded to the level of a country and a rebellion. Those who had never come into contact with it would not worry about such a person who was far away in the capital. Lu Junyi believed that Lu Junyi had also gone to the capital to complain about how his family had been destroyed.
As for those who had confronted Ning Yi before, such as Lin Chong and Li Kui, and those who had suffered losses, such as Zhu Wu and Zhang Shun, what they thought, it was like drinking water for a person. Even they would not think about whether or not Lu Junyi would come to Liangshan to seek revenge.
It would be one thing if Lu Junyi could bring an army, and Liangshan had long been prepared to fight the soldiers again. If he could not, and Lu Junyi came alone, he would not be seeking revenge at all, but he would be courting death. In the face of such a general trend, they did not have to consider such things at all. The name Ning Liheng was just a small matter among the many things that had happened in Liangshan recently, and it was not urgent.
His momentum was growing day by day. What everyone in Liangshan was doing now was to expand the influence of Liangshan, to the whole area around the lake, and even to the whole Ji Province.
Under the current power of Liangshan, many villages and villages in the vicinity had actually secretly surrendered and followed the wind. However, a few large villages such as Dulonggang, or many small villages and horse bandits with personality, were still unwilling to give up their free and unfettered days. In the midst of this, some even took the initiative to stand against Liangshan, such as the notorious horse bandits such as the "Wolf Raiders". They were more or less hindering the current development of Liangshan.
These were the real things that Liangshan had to do in the near future. They had been mentally prepared to deal with big and small battles, big and small. It was also under such an atmosphere that the seemingly distant source of disturbance, which seemed to be far away and would not become a reality for a while, naturally turned here and attacked Liangshan after entering Bianliang for more than ten days.
At present, not many people could predict the impact this source of disturbance would bring to the powerful Liangshan. Perhaps even the source of disturbance itself could not predict everything at this time. On the evening of the 15th of May, in a small town called Yuanjia Village, in a shabby inn room, a man named Ning Yi was eating with a big bowl while talking with someone about something he had just discovered.
"That … Luan Tingyu, what's going on? Why did he go missing? "
Ning Yi was not familiar with what happened in Dulonggang, but he had a vague impression that this person seemed to be very powerful. He should be the most powerful person in Dulonggang. But when he saw something just now, he found this name. It simply said that he used to be the instructor of Zhu Village and was now missing, so he asked the three brothers of the Qi family, who had also read the information.
The first to answer was Su Wenyu, who had followed him all the way. He was also trying hard to eat, but the food was not delicious, so it was difficult for him to eat. "Didn't they say that … last year when Liangshan attacked Zengtou City, this person seemed to know Shi Wengong, so he left Zhu Village to help. Later, Shi Wengong was captured and killed in Liangshan.
"… Oh." Ning Yi chewed hard on the coarse rice, then nodded indifferently. Since he did not know this person, he was just asking casually.
"By the way, Liheng, this time, we are really going to Dulonggang, right?" Qi Xinyong asked after a while.
"Yes."
"I rebelled before. I don't know if you have thought about it. There may be a lot of people in this kind of village, but most of them cherish their lives. They will defend with all their might, but it will be difficult to fight with all their might, let alone attack Liangshan. Even if we can incite them, it will be difficult to win. "
"I have thought about it." Ning Yi nodded. "To win, we have to rely on other things. They are just the icing on the cake."
"Like I said, although Liheng keeps talking about Dulonggang, he doesn't seem to pay much attention to its information."
"I'm mainly interested in a woman in Dulonggang …"
"Ah?"
Hearing this reason, everyone put down their chopsticks, looking a little surprised. Ning Yi smiled and shook his head at their misunderstanding.
"By the way, I can make use of them. Of course, I have to meet up with Wang Shanyue first. Have you left a mark? " He thought for a while, then felt a little doubtful. It was the news he accidentally heard today. "The reputation of the Wolf Bandits is a little strange here … They eat people …"
At the same time, outside Liangshan's Juyi Hall, Xi Junyu walked down the stairs, clenched his fists, and looked at the distant sunset.
Because of this group of people's incompetence, he was actually excluded from the decision-making circle. The mistake of the Su family was obviously caused by them, but they were obviously excluding him.
If we attack Lone Dragon Mound, we will definitely win. But if we lose too many soldiers, then we will have to deal with you guys … "
But at least one thing was good. The more people there were, the stronger Liangshan would be. One day, he would make Su Tan'er and that guy who married into his family kneel in front of him. Even if he accepted the enlistment, he would be an official, and they could only take advantage of the situation …
He took a deep breath and thought about it. On the other side, Zhu Wu came down from there. When Xi Junyu saw him, he turned around and walked in the other direction.
Zhu Wu also saw Xi Junyu. At this moment, both of them should be thinking of the same person. Whether it was revenge or humiliation, perhaps it would come one day. Of course, this day might not come for a long time.
In short, it should not be something that needed to be considered in a short time.
… Just wait and see.
Zhu Wu thought to himself. His eyes saw the face that was charging at him.
"You are not even a hundred miles away from me, and you actually think your lives are safe!"
If you have the guts, come to Liangshan …
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