68 tricks to deceive heaven and cross the sea, handy to swindle and cheat

  Chen Xizhen and Song Jiang immediately divided their troops. Since most of the Liangshan heroes were military generals, there were only a few Taoist priests, namely Gongsun Sheng and Fan Rui, the Mixed World Demon King. As for Fei Tian Da Sheng Li Kui, he was only skilled in flying knife techniques, while Shen Xing Tai Bao Dai Zong was only skilled in armor and horse riding techniques, and did not count as a Taoist priest. On the other hand, Chen Xizhen's side had many more Taoist priests, with only over twenty people having truly exceptional martial arts skills.

  Purely martial generals are easily killed by sorcerers using magic in battle, while purely sorcerers often get ambushed by generals in chaotic battles. Therefore, Chen Xiuzhen and Song Jiang discussed and decided to divide their troops into smaller groups, mixing martial generals with sorcerers.

  Song Jiang led Qing Hua Xian Fu Miao Zheng Yuan Jun Jia Fu Ren, Tai Hang Dong Fu Ding Guang Zhen Ren Lu Shao He, Qing Long Feng Xia Bao Sheng Zhen Ren Liang Heng, Yan Zhou Zeng Shan You Zheng Zhen Ren Wei Fu Liang, Qu Fu Yu Shan Fu Zheng Zhen Ren Zhen Da Yi, and stayed in Yanzhou City to attack Gao Lian and Gao Feng.

  Gongsun Sheng led Zixia Xianque Miaoming Yuankui Wang Gongren, Liuli Fa Jing Jingshou Yuankui Xu Qingniang, Ziluoxian Daozhen Hai Zhenren Li Cheng, Emei Shanxia Fuxie Zhenren Gou Ying, Wanhuajin Que Xiemo Zhenren Wang Tianba, and the eighteen heroes of Liangshan, to attack Mengyin.

  The cool and clear method points to the true people Liu Yongxi, Ren Sen of Guiling, Yan Shude of Xishu Dao, Zhang Mingke of Penglai Xianque, and the Yun family, Liu family, and Zhu brothers, as well as the three brothers of Liangshan Ruan, Zhang Heng, Zhang Shun, Li Jun, etc. waterway heroes, attacking Yishui.

  The remaining scholars and generals followed Chen Xizhen to attack Mount Qing, as Mount Qing was occupied by bandits, there must be many people and horses. Song Jiang also gave Chen Xizhen six or seven fierce generals, among whom was Black Whirlwind Li Kui. Song Jiang secretly called Li Kui and ordered: "Iron Bull, after Chen Xizhen gets rid of Wu Song, you stand behind him and chop off this old man's head with one axe!"

  Li Kui laughed and said: "This is easy." Song Jiang also said to Chen Xiuzhen: "Chen, with Tie Niu protecting you, I can rest assured."

  Chen Xizhen smiled and said, "Song Head is indeed a worthy student of Mr. Cheng Yi, truly a humble Confucian scholar." He immediately led an army of 10,000 men, riding swiftly on horseback, directly towards Mount Cangshan. Li Kui closely followed behind him. After traveling 30-50 miles, Chen Xizhen suddenly muttered to himself and cast a large-scale spell into the air, sprinkling it onto all the soldiers. It was as if they had taken a stimulant, their footsteps became extremely fast, like arrows flying through the air, leaving Li Kui far behind, unable to stop even if he wanted to.

  Li Kui stood in the middle of the road, staring blankly at the army disappearing into the distance, unsure what to do. After a while, he suddenly remembered his mission and took off after them, wielding two large axes that looked like door panels.

  Li Kui didn't know how long he had been walking, and ran until he was out of breath. He leaned against a big tree by the side of the road to rest. Looking around in all directions, everything was unfamiliar roads, and he didn't know which one led to Mount Qing. Just as he was worried, the ground under his feet suddenly shook, and the sound of rumbling came from afar. Li Kui quickly got up, holding two big axes under his arms, and stood on tiptoe to look around.

  All that can be seen is the smoke and dust rising from the road, and out of the dusty mist a magnificent iron horse bursts forth, its four hooves flying swiftly, galloping at an incredible speed.

  That big horse was purely iron-cast, don't know why it ran so fast, on the horseback there was a little girl up and down shaking, iron armor silver spear, on the horseback hung a precious sword, three-tube arrow holder, one hard bow.

  Dozens more horsemen burst out from behind, all with iron horses and silver spears, chasing quickly and shouting: "Little lady, slow down!"

  That little girl giggled non-stop, suddenly saw Li Kui by the road, and quickly patted a palm on the horse's head. The horse stopped immediately, looked up and down at Li Kui for several eyes, and said: "You look very ugly, but your arms have thousands of pounds of strength, you are a good man. I am Chen Lijin, dare to ask the strong man's surname and name?"

  Li Kui hastily made a salute, and with a forced smile said: "My Iron Ox may be ugly in appearance, but he is sincere at heart. May I ask the young lady, which way do we go to get to Mount Ling?"

  Chen Liqing smiled and said: "This is Qingzhou, and the Yellow River is just ahead. It's the northernmost part of Shandong. But Cangshan is in the southernmost part of Shandong, still 300 miles away from here."

  Li Kui blinked his eyes and said: "Little girl, what you said is not right. I was clearly in Yizhou at dawn, how could I run to Qingzhou?"

  Chen Liqing leaned on her chin and thought for a moment, then clapped her hands and laughed: "I know what's going on, you're a road idiot!"

  Li Kui was heavily hit and hung his head in despair, saying: "It's all Chen Xichen's fault, what kind of trickery is this, causing me to lose my way again..."

  The little girl on horseback suddenly tensed up, her hands tightly grasping the steel gun as thick as a goose egg, her fingernails turned white, and she trembled with voice: "Did you see my dad?"

  "Is Chen Xi really your father?" Li Kui suddenly became excited and laughed, saying: "If you can't catch the old one, following the young one will definitely find him!" Just as he was speaking, a group of cavalrymen had caught up and surrounded Chen Lihua, protecting her and staring at Li Kui with tension.

  Li Kui mixed in carelessly, casting his eyes around, and saw that another team of cavalry was rushing up from behind. In the front were giant bronze rhinoceros-shaped machines carrying supplies and provisions, with over a dozen soldiers guarding a bronze beast, bows and arrows at the ready, standing on top of three to five zhang high grain carts. Behind them were iron horses and copper oxen pulling some large, strangely shaped vehicles that seemed to be siege engines, all sorts of strange and wondrous things.

  Further back, there were rows of cavalrymen riding bronze beasts that looked ferocious and menacing. Behind the backs of these beasts were various weapons inserted, with only their handles exposed. On one of the bronze war elephants was a large flag planted on its back, flapping loudly in the wind, with a tiger's head painted on it, accompanied by an ancient seal script character "Wu".

  Li Kui didn't recognize a single character, staring at the "Wu" with his beady eyes, thinking to himself: "It must be a 'Chen' character! But when did our Liangshan have such fierce warriors?"

  Li Kui was hesitating, and in the middle of the team, there was a large cloud car, rich and majestic. Several dozen Taoist priests sat around the cloud car, with strange and ancient faces. Inside the cloud car, a robust man lay reclined on a couch, like a sleeping tiger, while two beautiful women sat beside him, one playing the zither and singing, the other lowering her head to play chess.

  The man with a fierce tiger-like appearance listened to the song, occasionally clapping his hands in harmony, feeling extremely pleased.

  Chen Liqing reined in her horse and stopped beside Li Kui, smiling at the person in the cloud carriage: "Fifth Uncle, today I've met another good fellow. He was going to Mount Qing, but who knew he'd get lost on the way and end up in Qingzhou!" She turned to Li Kui and asked: "What's your name?"

  Li Kui was shocked and his heart racing, he then came back to himself, hastily clasped his hands and said: "I am Li Kui, under the command of Song Jiang of Mount Liang, ranked 22nd among the heroes, skilled in wielding two large axes. May I ask which general is on the cart, under Commander Chen?"

  The man on the cart sat up, stretched his waist, and Li Kui only felt that between his stretches, a fierce aura rushed towards him, stimulating his hair to stand upright, as if cold water was poured from head to toe, and dense small bumps burst out on his skin.

  Li Kui secretly cursed: "This man has a fierce aura! I don't know where he cultivated such a big evil spirit!"

  The man on the carriage looked at him and smiled, and Li Kui suddenly felt his ferocity disappear, replaced by a refreshing feeling. The man laughed and said: "Are you Li Kui? I've long admired your name. I once wanted to make friends with you, but didn't know you'd gone to Yuan Cheng. You want to go to Cangshan? What a coincidence! We're also heading to Cangshan. Why don't you come aboard and hitch a ride with us?"

  The girl playing chess next to him heard this, looked up and smiled at the man, then shook her head and continued to play chess.

  Li Kui was overjoyed and hastily jumped onto the cloud cart, bowing to the man and saying: "Thank you for your kindness!"

  That man laughed and said, "Yan Xiao Yi, you come up too, to keep Li Kui company." Another officer jumped up from below, with a clear brow and bright eyes, smiling as he stood beside Li Kui.

  Li Kui saw that he was handsome and laughed, saying: "You look really good, even more beautiful than a woman!" Yan Xiao Yi was furious, his toes lightly hooked, Li Kui immediately fell to the ground, shouting: "I'm complimenting you!" He had just gotten up when he was knocked down again by Yan Qing.

  Li Kui flew into a rage and jumped up to fight him, but was thrown down as soon as he stood up. He sat on the ground with his buttocks and laughed: "See how you can deal with me?" Yan Qing smiled and sat beside him, saying: "You are a guest, I will play a flute for you to listen to, and cultivate your sentiment, what do you think?"

  "What the fart, I don't understand at all!"

  This large army sped up, and by sunset, they arrived at the banks of the Yellow River. On the riverbank, ten giant tower ships were seen. The mechanical beasts pulled siege engines and walked into the tower ships one after another. The generals and soldiers also boarded the ships. Gong Sun Sheng put away the cloud cart and came to the flagship with Wu Song and others. The fleet sailed down the river, heading straight for Liangshan Water Village.

  Li Kui saw it and asked in confusion: "Where is this going?"

  Yan Qing smiled and said: "You really are a road fool! The lower reaches of the Yellow River is just Mount Cang, don't you even know that?"

  Li Kui let out an "oh" and said with embarrassment: "I really don't know. It's pitiful, I've been on Mount Liang for over two years, and sometimes I still get lost on the way to the latrine..."