Hebei Chapter 5 of Volume II

  Shi En was overjoyed when he heard the words, and hastily invited Gao Gang to sit down and tell him more. His two eyes stared at him intently, as if he had met a living Bodhisattva.

  Gao said with a smile: "Younger brother, go to the edge of this forest and find an empty space, quickly build a tavern. It doesn't matter where it is, as long as it's convenient for people to come and go, and the facade looks good. Once the tavern is built, hang a flag on top with the words 'The Grand Song Dynasty Military Department's Logistics Transfer Permit Office'. I'll ask this Mr. Lu to help you manage it for a few days. Even if that Jiang Meng has the biggest guts in the world, he wouldn't dare to mess with your tavern."

  Shi En first smiled, then furrowed his brow and said: "In this way, my younger brother can make a living, but that Jiang Meng god will still be able to bully the common people of this place, collecting regular money from them every month. We must find a way to stop him."

  "Disciple, go and print a few hundred more of those door plaques with the words 'auspicious reverence' on them. Distribute them to the neighboring households, no need to collect any monthly fees, just get some tea money when you distribute them. Those business owners only wish for peace and stability in their livelihoods, and to suffer less from bullying and exploitation. They will surely be willing to give a few silver coins with a happy heart, isn't that better than going to fight with the Jiang family's god?"

  Shi En heard this and was half-believing, half-doubtful: "Elder brother, these two characters 'Fu Bai' must be the taboo name of your respected father, but how can we stop that Jiang Meng Shen and his gang from extorting money from the shops?"

  Gao Jian shook his head and said, "Younger brother, you are so ignorant! With this 'Grand General of the Imperial Guard's Military Logistics Transfer Permit' flag in hand, and with Lu Yu Hou sitting in the middle to oversee, who dares to suspect you? And with this letter of introduction, which fool doesn't know that you have the backing of the Commander-in-Chief's mansion? Jiang Men Shen and Zhang Dou Tou must have eaten leopard gall to dare oppose the Commander-in-Chief's mansion! Don't these common people still live in peace?"

  Shi En was overjoyed, scratching his ears and cheeks, and repeatedly praised the clever plan to capture Mengzhou. With a flick of his wrist, he changed the atmosphere in the Happy Forest. Lao Guanying also liked it and hurriedly offered him wine.

  Lin Chong and the others listened to Gao Qiang's plan, although they felt that it had a bit of an exaggerated tone, but this way, the local people would benefit. As long as they spent a little money to buy a poster, they could live freely. Shi En had already acknowledged Lin Chong as his master and was using the name of the Temple Prefecture to carry out his activities, so he didn't dare to act recklessly, otherwise the Temple Prefecture would just turn against him and not acknowledge him, and accuse him of swindling, which would make him suffer.

  Gao smiled wryly and thought to himself, "This is just a trivial matter, merely borrowing the story of Yan Song, the powerful minister of the Ming dynasty. That one 'Song's courtesy' letter was worth 3,000 taels of silver back then, but now it's only worth a few coins for tea money. Ha! The signboard of our Commander-in-Chief's mansion is truly worthless." Even in modern times, which merchant doesn't know to invite the local leader to write a few words and offer some "red envelope" money? This is just human nature, unchanged from ancient times to the present.

  The next day, Shi En gathered a group of soldiers from the Luoyang camp to search for a location in the Happy Forest to build a new building. Lu Qian sat under a big tree, sipping tea slowly and steadily. First came Jiang Zhong's subordinates, followed by Jiang Meng himself, and then Zhang Dou also came to take a look, but none of them dared to come up and disturb him, because after Shi En chose the location, the first thing he did was to raise the big flag that read "The Grand Military Command of the Song Dynasty: The Office for the Transfer of Military Supplies".

  After several days, as the saying goes, "many hands make light work", Shi En mobilized the old camp's lower army, and with everyone's help, a large house was quickly built. The "protection fee" notices were also distributed everywhere, stating that the monthly tea money would be 10 yuan, with the first month being free trial. Immediately, all the rascals under Jiang Men's control were scared into silence, no longer daring to collect protection fees anywhere else, and only guarding that one hotel.

  Seeing that the matter was settled, Gao Qiang spoke up to bid farewell. Shi En and his son tried to persuade him to stay but he refused, so they had no choice but to present him with a tray of gifts, which was actually a share of their spoils. After all, it was thanks to the banner of the Temple Commander's mansion that Shi En could establish himself in Kuai Huo Lin, so shouldn't he offer Gao Qiang some protection money? Gao Qiang humbly declined several times, but Shi En insisted on sending him off, and after a few rounds of back-and-forth, he finally called for Lu Qian to put the gifts into his luggage.

  Xie En and his son saw them off outside the city, Xie En bowed to Lin Chong several times on the ground, and everyone bid farewell with tears. Gao Qiang's group headed towards the direction of the Grand Marshal's mansion along the Imperial River.

  The next day at noon, the weather was extremely hot, and the group walked with dry mouths and tongues. They happened to be walking on a slope, with no shops in front or behind them, and only two or three sparse trees. Lu Zhishen's bald head had been scorched by the sun, and he wished he could stick out his tongue to dissipate the heat.

  As they turned a corner, a hotel suddenly appeared in front of them. A blue flag was waving high in the air, and to everyone's eyes, it seemed like a paradise on earth. Their footsteps quickened instantly, and Lu Zhishen took the lead, whipping his monk's robe sleeves as he rushed forward.

  As I walked closer, I saw a large old tree on the other side with thick vines entwined all over it. Next to it were three or five thatched cottages, and a wine awning was set up outside. Under the eaves of the tavern's gate, a woman sat, although it was broad daylight, her appearance couldn't be seen clearly. All I saw was that she had inserted several wildflowers into her hair, wore a hairpin on her head, and her whole face was smeared with rouge and powder, with red light shining through from both sides of her cheeks - so much rouge applied, if it didn't shine red, it would be difficult to see. She wore a colorful silk shirt and skirt, revealing the pink undergarment inside.

  When she saw the guests arriving, the woman's face lit up with a smile and she stood up to greet them: "Several gentlemen, you must be tired from traveling, please come in and take a rest. Our small shop has good wine and meat, and our steamed buns are famous far and wide, I'll make sure to satisfy all of you."

  Lu Zhishen entered first, and sat down in the main hall with a loud thud. He shouted: "Bring some good wine at once, I'm dying of thirst!" The others followed him into the hall one by one. Two young servants stopped the cart under the eaves and also sat down on a bench at the entrance.

  The woman smiled and called two shop assistants to bring wine and dishes from the kitchen, and also brought out several large plates of steaming buns.

  Gao Jian saw Baozi, and his heart suddenly moved. He called out to the woman and asked: "May I ask, shopkeeper's wife, what is the name of this place? How do you address the shopkeeper?"

  The woman, seeing a young and handsome young man asking questions, smiled with her face powder falling down, and said in a soft voice: "This guest officer, the poor countryside is remote, there are no famous scenic spots, it's just called Shizi Slope. My maiden name is Sun, but my husband's surname is Zhang." As she spoke, her eyes flashed twice, and she bent down, revealing a glimpse of her cleavage under her pink blouse.

  The strong hand holding the wine cup shook, but it wasn't because of seeing a little scenery, only three words echoed in his ears: "Cross Slope!"

  He suddenly jumped up, kicked the table in front of him with one foot, and the wine and meat fell all over the floor. The white buns were shaken high into the air, and he shouted: "This is a black shop!"

  As soon as the words came out, all four seats were shocked. The woman let out a scream and retreated backwards. Gao Qiu threw a stool with one hand, but she dodged it. However, these people were of such caliber that although they were caught off guard, they quickly reacted. Lin Chong reached out with one hand, grabbed the woman's hair, and then grasped her waistband with his other hand, lifting her up and slamming her to the ground with great force, stunning her so much that she couldn't move for a while.

  Yang Zhi jumped out of the house with one arrow step, pulled out the four pu knives from the car, and threw them into the house. Lu Qian was closest to the door, grabbed one in his hand, and jumped behind Gao Qiang to protect him. Just then, two shop assistants rushed out from the inner room with two flower spears, and Yang Zhi stabbed one of them to the ground with a knife, while Lu Zhishen had already chopped the other one down.

  Gao Qiang also took out a wooden sword and angrily asked the woman: "You woman, how dare you open a black shop?"

  The woman was thrown to the ground by Lin Chong, her whole body numb and struggling to get up. Seeing this group of people like wolves and tigers, the two shop assistants quickly settled the bill, already frightened out of their wits, crying "Good man, spare our lives!"

  Yang Zhi took out his knife and entered the kitchen, in a moment he brought out a young scholar of twenty-five or six years old, stripped to the waist, wearing only his pants. When he saw the woman, his eyes widened, as if he wanted to spit fire.

  Yang Zhi said to Gao Qiang, "This house is indeed a black den. There are two human corpses in the kitchen that have been chopped up and left incomplete. This person has been tied up on one side, probably also a guest who was harmed by this household."

  Lin Chong and Lu Zhishen drew their swords and made a round of inspection, returning just in time to hear these words. Lu Zhishen was so enraged that his eyes flashed like stars, and he rushed forward to kill someone, but Lin Chong pulled him back, saying: "Brother, wait a moment, we don't know the beginning and end of this evil inn's harm to people, nor do we know if there are any accomplices, we must first get to the bottom of it with this woman."

  Before Lu Zhishen could speak, Lu Qian shouted: "You woman, don't you dare to confess your origin and the number of lives you've ruined, as well as whether or not you have any accomplices. If you hide even half a bit, I'll cut you into a thousand pieces!"

  The woman was so frightened that she spilled the beans. In fact, even if she hadn't said it, Gao Qiang would have known that this woman was none other than Sun Erniang, the mother of the night yaksha, who had married Zhang Qing, a vegetable garden owner, and opened a black shop on the tenth slope, not only plotting to kill people for money, but even using the corpses to make human flesh buns to sell. But where is Zhang Qing now?

  That young man was the one who passed by here with his mother yesterday, and was knocked unconscious by Sun Erniang's anesthetic, while his mother had already been chopped up into filling for dumplings. However, Sun Erniang loved him for his good looks and couldn't bear to kill him at first, so she only tied him up in the kitchen. At this moment, Yang Zhi untied him, heard Sun Erniang's confession of her crimes from start to finish, and got so angry that his eyes were about to split open. He picked up a flower spear from the ground and stabbed Sun Erniang with one thrust, creating a hole in her body. Then he stabbed again, this time straight through her face. Although there were many skilled fighters in the room, no one stopped him, because such behavior was really detestable, and it was hard to believe that someone as cruel as a beast could exist among their own kind. Seeing Sun Erniang being killed, they felt as if a huge boulder had been lifted off their shoulders, and their breathing suddenly became much easier.

  The crowd came out of the house, Yang Zhi took a torch and lit four or five fires in front and back. In an instant, smoke and fire rose, burning this dark shop into ashes.

  The young man knelt on the ground, bowed to Huo Tou several times, and when he stood up, his face was calm as water, without any sign of sorrow or anger, as if the person who had just killed his mother's enemy was someone else.

  Gao Jian saw the intention of the movement, walked over and cupped his hands to him: "This brother's surname is great, what kind of person are you? I am Gao Jian, a native of Bianjing in Dongjing."

  The young man slowly turned his head, his handsome face slightly fluttering in the firelight: "I am Xu Guanzhong."

  PS: I didn't want to write this section at first, as it might disrupt the main storyline of the book. After some deliberation, I still decided to write it, for a very simple reason - this is one of the most unbearable scenes in Water Margin, and I truly don't know how such people can "uphold justice on behalf of Heaven"!

  Click to view picture link: Highly recommended excellent work "In the Name of Revolution"