Magical Water Margin: They all call me brother

Page 32

"Oh? Brother has a good eye! I think Liangshanbo is a good place to hide. In fact, I am also looking for someone to develop this place, but unfortunately no one is willing to take on this great task."

Chai Jin's phoenix eyes flickered, and he held Liu Hong in even higher regard.

“In that case, let alone lending it, I will give you three hundred craftsmen, ten boats of grain, and ten boats of timber! These three hundred people are a group of laborers from Cangzhou who were forced to perform corvée labor. Unable to bear the endless oppression of the government, they killed the overseer and fled here. They had nowhere else to go. Brother, you have given these people a way to survive.”

Chai Jin was very generous and presented a large gift right from the start.

"Thank you, sir!"

Liu Hong was very surprised. He did not expect Chai Jin to be so generous. His bandit gang only had a hundred people in total, but Chai Jin had three times that number with just a little effort.

"Oh, take it, don't be so polite with your sister! If you can build up Liangshan Marsh, it will be a good thing for me too. These days, more and more people are struggling to survive. The eight hundred miles of Liangshan Marsh can protect far more heroes than Bizhuang. At that time, I can also recommend more heroes to you."

"Thank you, Master Chai. If you ever need my help in the future, I will certainly do my utmost to assist you!"

Hearing Chai Jin speak in this way, Liu Hong no longer refused. After bowing three times, he accepted this great gift and returned to Liangshan Marsh with three hundred craftsmen and twenty ships of grain and timber.

With Chai Jin's strong support, Liangshanbo truly began to be built. After receiving the topographical map surveyed and drawn by Li Cunxiao, several craftsmen pondered it all night and then gave their construction suggestions.

We can divide the area into inner and outer rings to build Liangshan Marsh.

First, there's the inner ring. Relying on the natural defenses of the seven mountains, they built seven sections of walls, connecting the seven mountains into one. This basin surrounded by the high walls of the seven mountains is the inner ring of Liangshan Marsh's main city.

Beyond the seven mountains and high walls, within the eight hundred miles of waterways, the outer ring of land can be developed into vast fields, farms, and ranches.

We will then set up four large stockades in the east, south, west, and north of the outer ring, forming a pincer movement with the central inner ring main city. No matter which fortress the enemy attacks, the other four stockades can come to support it, creating a tightly linked and indestructible defense! Even if the imperial court breaks through the natural defenses of the water marshes and enters the outer ring, they will certainly not be able to destroy the central main city and the four large stockades.

Of course, this is just the final plan; three hundred people definitely can't handle such a large project. Right now, our priority is to build the Southern Village, giving everyone a place to live.

"Okay, let's proceed with the construction using this method!"

Liu Hong nodded in satisfaction, and the construction of Liangshan Marsh began in earnest.

Soon after, news also came about the tasks of the others.

First, there was the Zhu Gui Hotel in the south, which had been initially completed. Passersby were surprised that there was a hotel in this strange place, and they gradually began to stop there to rest. During their casual conversations, they revealed a lot of information, and news from the entire Jeju Island began to flow into Liangshan.

Secondly, there is Lü Fang, a member of Guo Sheng's armed merchant guild. Through his connections, he established relationships with local merchants in Juye, the capital of Jeju, and the nearby prosperous Yuncheng. This allowed him to conduct clandestine trade and smuggling activities in both Juye and Yuncheng.

Finally, Song Wan's rat-men reported on the situation in the nearby villages one by one.

Around Liangshan Marsh, which stretches for 800 li, there are more than 50 villages scattered intermittently. They mainly make a living by fishing and farming. They are all very ordinary and follow a normal feudal model. The landlords, who make up 1% of the village's population, occupy almost 80% of the land. There are very few free farmers among the villagers. Almost all of them are landless tenants or serfs.

The tax system was also extremely simple and crude—the official system of the Northern Song Dynasty could only cover the county level, and the villages were completely beyond their control. The local large landowners, or various wealthy landowners, had to collect taxes on their behalf.

The tax collectors went directly to the wealthy man and obtained the corresponding amount calculated based on the village's household registration and land holdings.

This also led to the fact that although the tax revenue in the Northern Song Dynasty was not high, the common people did not feel it at all. Even if the court only collected 10% of the grain tax, these wealthy landowners could increase it to 30%, with 10% going to the court and 20% to the landowners.

For landless serfs, the fate would be even worse. After a year of hard work, 30% would be taken as taxes, and another 30% would be taken as rent from the landlords' land.

After a year of hard work, they only get 40% of the grain they need.

Song Wan's rat-man didn't comment much on this, saying it was nothing special, that this was the case throughout the Song Dynasty, and that many people were forced to revolt because they couldn't survive, or they went to the city to work; that's how everyone got by.

Among them, three wealthy landowners had annexed land to an outrageous degree, even turning it into manors, named Zhu Family Manor, Li Family Manor, and Hu Family Manor respectively. The manors of these three wealthy landowners were extremely extravagant, their size and defensive capabilities comparable to the various fortresses on the Song-Xia front.

The only exceptions are Dongxi Village and Shijie Village.

It is said that the wealthy man of Dongxi Village, named Chao Gai, the Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King, was a breath of fresh air, just like the wealthy man Wang of Qilin Village. He not only did not exploit the people, but was also charitable, generous, and righteous. At 2.4 meters tall, he was a tall and beautiful woman.

Legend has it that the nearby Xixi Village was often haunted. A monk instructed the villagers to carve a blue stone pagoda and place it by the stream, driving the ghosts away to Dongxi Village. Chao Gai, upon hearing this, was furious. He waded across the stream alone, seized the blue stone pagoda, carried it on his shoulder, and returned to Dongxi Village. From then on, the locals called him "Pagoda-Bearing Heavenly King."

In this village, there is also a rather famous private tutor, known as the strategist Wu Yong. This woman is a restless fellow; perhaps we can lure her up the mountain to replace Wang Lun as the spellcaster.

Shijie Village is a bit different. There are no wealthy landowners there, but there are three mermaid sisters named Ruan Xiaoer, Ruan Xiaowu, and Ruan Xiaoqi.

The three sisters killed the wealthy man and returned the land and fishponds to the people. However, the government could not find any evidence and could not do anything to them. The wealthy man's family was also slaughtered, leaving no one to testify. There were also people in the Yuncheng County government who worked to protect them, causing the matter to be dropped.

The three sisters, being naturally free-spirited and unconventional, disdained becoming the new wealthy landowners and exploiting the villagers, instead bringing a fresh perspective to Shijie Village.

However, none of these were the most important things. Zhu Gui nervously brought the latest intelligence—the soldiers and officers of Daming Prefecture who had been driven mad by Liang Zhongshu were chasing after them!

Good news: Liang Zhongshu had no authority to order the Hebei Daming Prefecture garrison and the Imperial Guards to travel across regions to Shandong to work, but he could rely on his father-in-law Cai Jing's influence to forcibly mobilize the local Jizhou garrison to quell the rebellion—it goes without saying how incompetent these bandit conscripts were.

The bad news is that Liang Zhongshu has dispatched a large number of officers to assist in the battle, led by none other than the vanguard commander, Suo Chao.

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Author's note: The rules have changed! Now, 50 monthly votes will result in an extra chapter!

Chapter 66: Liu Hong Builds an Army at Liangshan Marsh (Bonus Chapter for 1450 Monthly Tickets!)

Faced with the first wave of encirclement and suppression by the Song Dynasty's government troops, everyone was extremely nervous. Three hundred artisans who had been evading corvée labor and wandering around had finally found a perfect hiding place like Liangshan. They did not want their hometown to fall, so they hurriedly built a large southern stronghold to protect their homeland.

Meanwhile, Song Wan's rat swarm and Lü Fang and Guo Sheng's caravan also learned the general details of the encirclement and suppression plan. Liang Zhongshu of Daming Prefecture sent 500 river guards, the prefect of Jizhou sent 500 garrison troops, and the magistrate of Yuncheng sent 500 militiamen, for a total of 1,500 people.

The military structure of the Song Dynasty was very simple.

Five people form a squad, and a squad leader is appointed.

Five groups of 25 people form a unit, with one person acting as the head of the unit.

Two teams of 50 are formed, and one team is led by a general.

Two teams of 100 men each formed a "du" (都), headed by a "dutou" (都头). This rank of centurion was probably the limit of an ordinary person's lifetime of effort.

Each battalion consisted of 500 men and was headed by one commander and one deputy commander.

This time, forced by Grand Tutor Cai, the Jizhou Prefecture dispatched a battalion of 500 local soldiers to besiege Liangshan Marsh. During the Northern Song Dynasty, the status of the army was extremely low, and very few people were as passionate as Yue Fei and Wu Song in joining the army to serve their country.

The Xiangjun (厢军) was the lowest-ranking infantry force during the Northern Song Dynasty, which emphasized civil affairs and suppressed military affairs. It was mostly composed of criminals who had been exiled, peasant uprising soldiers who had been granted amnesty, and social outcasts who could not make a living from any of the social classes, including scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants.

A leather hat, a white round-necked robe, and no armor—each soldier carried a 3.6-meter-long spear, a wooden crossbow, and a quiver of crossbow bolts. That was all their equipment.

But five hundred men was an outrageous number, five times the number of their own soldiers! The commander in charge of this battalion of garrison troops was named He Tao.

In the Northern Song Dynasty, villages, townships, and counties had their own spontaneous militia. Generally, a militia commander would be appointed in the county to collectively command all the militia in the county, which would number around 500 people.

The weapons for these 500 militiamen were directly issued by the county government: 500 spears and 500 bows and arrows. Forget about farm work, gather together and follow Huang An, the militia commander of Yuncheng, to suppress bandits outside the city!

Moreover, Cai Jing in the Kaifeng court was also furious. Ten thousand strings of cash were nothing more than a hair on a cow for this powerful Grand Tutor.

However, if anyone dares to forcibly pluck this hair from their own backside, then they are deliberately going against us! Cai Jing manipulated things within the court, even transferring a battalion of the Daming Prefecture River Guard, five hundred men, to reinforce the front line. The commander was the vanguard Suo Chao, the main general of this operation, the supervising commander He Tao, and the militia commander Huang An.

In a short time, the force tasked with annihilating Liangshan Marsh numbered as many as 1,500.

Liu Hong nervously calculated his forces; he only had one hundred bandits who were jointly intercepting the birthday tribute convoy, and they possessed some fighting ability.

Those three hundred craftsmen, although they were all strong and capable men, had never learned combat and knew nothing. They also only had sixteen small boats, each ten to fifteen meters long.

With no other option, Liu Hong quickly took out the equipment captured in the previous two battles and equipped everyone with it. The first was twenty-five slightly damaged two-piece suits of armor. Liu Hong led the craftsmen to dismantle the five most severely damaged pieces and study the technique of interlocking the armor ropes. They used the dismantled armor plates to fill the gaps in the other twenty suits of armor.

This is the advantage of lamellar armor. The entire body is made up of hundreds of pieces of iron armor. If any piece of iron armor is deformed, it can be removed, replaced with a good piece, and reassembled. Maintenance is extremely simple.

The online claims that the armor plates would fall apart if the rope was cut are utter nonsense.

After studying it, Liu Hong discovered that the ropes that strung the armor plates together were very flexible leather ropes, which were already quite defensive and not easily cut in one stroke.

Moreover, the rope has two interlocking lines, one inside and one outside, securing all four ends of the armor plate. Even after trying to pry open the rope ends with scissors and unraveling it several times, it still wouldn't come off. Cutting three or four leather ropes with a single stroke would be utterly useless, at most causing the corresponding armor plate to loosen slightly.

Liu Hong was quite tempted by these armors and wanted to wear one, but he found that the golden wings on the back made it impossible for him to wear the standard armor. He would have to have a pair of armor with a hollowed-out back made, so he had to give up.

Finally, Lü Fang and Guo Sheng carefully selected eighteen people from the caravan, making a total of twenty. They put on two-piece armor, wielded two halberds and eighteen large iron halberds, and carried twenty divine crossbows on their backs. In an instant, they transformed into twenty Jade Warrior Crossbowmen, jointly managed by Lü Fang and Guo Sheng.

Du Qian's ogres took the remaining five crossbows to enhance their ranged attack power, maintaining a formation of twenty ogre infantrymen, with Du Qian still in charge.

Subsequently, Song Wan's fifty ratmen, along with other caravan guards and more than forty laborers carefully selected by Liu Hong, formed an infantry force of two hundred men.

One hundred of them changed into leather armor, spears, and shields from the Damingfu River Guards and became one hundred Liangshan spearmen, with Wu Song serving as their leader.

The other one hundred men were given bows and arrows from the Daming Prefecture River Guard, becoming one hundred Liangshan archers, with Song Wan serving as their captain.

Finally, there are two special flight units: Liu Hong and Li Cunxiao.

Two hundred and forty-two men and sixteen small warships—that was all the troops Liu Hong had.

It is foreseeable that this troop deployment is simply not enough! However, this is the limit that Liu Hong can muster in a short period of time. He wants to kill local tyrants in the surrounding area, distribute land, turn beans into soldiers, and win over the people of more than fifty nearby villages.

However, Liang Zhongshu, who was burning with rage, and the prefect of Jizhou, who was ordered by the court to suppress the bandits, did not give him this opportunity at all. Fifteen hundred men had already begun to collect large and small boats in the nearby villages, preparing for a grand expedition to conquer Liangshan!

Such a disparity in troop strength caused great anxiety throughout Liangshan. Wang Lun, Du Qian, Song Wan, and their group were in a state of panic, like ants on a hot pan. Only Liu Hong remained calm and composed, methodically arranging manpower, assigning tasks, and distributing weapons. The leader's composure calmed the others down a bit—did their brother already have a plan for victory?

That evening, Liu Hong convened a small meeting with all the leaders and told them his plan to repel the enemy. This relieved all the brothers and sisters, and everyone finally felt at ease. Lu Fang and Guo Sheng looked at their master with even greater admiration.

Subsequently, these leaders informed their subordinates of Chief Liu's plan, which greatly calmed the morale of the entire Liangshan army. No one was anxious anymore; instead, they excitedly awaited the arrival of the government troops.

So what if there are only 1,500 men? We, the 242 brothers of Liangshan, are here. If you dare to attack, we will surely make you suffer a crushing defeat!

Chapter Sixty-Seven: Battle Ropes and Heavenly Gang Shines Together

A few days later, when the craftsmen had finished building the southern stronghold of Liangshan Marsh, the Song Dynasty's anti-bandit forces were also ready.

Originally, Suo Chao only wanted to conscript some laborers and boats. However, this trivial order, once in the hands of his bandit convicts, immediately became a golden token. Fifteen hundred soldiers used their limited power to commit all sorts of evil deeds in the nearby villages and county town.

They forcibly requisitioned boats from local fishing villages and passing merchant fleets, taking away not only their tools of the trade but also their cargo, fish, and shrimp, which they then split equally among themselves.

Then they forcibly took the people away from farm work in July and August, when the harvest season was approaching, and forced them to work as oarsmen and laborers on boats—most of whom were free people who owned their own land.

The village's wealthy landowner colluded with these thieves and convicts: the landowner provided the money, and the convicts arrested people; they were making a quick and easy deal of money.

If these free men go to war and die, leaving only orphans and widows at home, I can seize their land and have my way with their wives and daughters.

Even if he doesn't die, he'll still miss the farming season, and this year's harvest will definitely be bad. He won't be able to pay taxes and won't be able to borrow money for seedlings. I can still find ways to force him to sell his land, pay back the money, taxes, and loans, and even force his whole family to become my serfs!

After going around in circles, I was still able to seize their land and even have sex with their wife and daughter right in front of them.

In the end, without knowing anything, Suo Chao received three thousand resentful laborers, sixty fishing and commercial vessels of varying sizes, and a force of four thousand five hundred men, claiming to be a thirty-thousand-strong army, who set off in a grand procession to wipe out Liangshan Marsh!

Thick fog, like waterlogged cotton, pressed heavily on Liangshan Marsh. The vanguard, Suo Chao, stood spiritedly at the bow of the boat, carrying a fifty-two-pound golden axe. Her leather boots crunched over the dew clinging to the bow, her brass armor shattering the cold wind whipped up by the water, and her crimson cloak danced in the wind behind her, like a blood-red river, seemingly tearing the sky in two, carrying the blood of countless wronged souls.

Following her, sixty merchant ships and fishing boats of varying sizes, carrying 1,500 soldiers and 1,500 laborers, flew forward like ghosts in the morning mist, rowing swiftly. The splashing sound of the oars breaking the water's surface startled the gulls and egrets roosting in the reeds. Large flocks of birds immediately took flight with screeching cries, standing out conspicuously in the empty lake.

"A large flock of birds has been startled in the due south direction! Suo Chao might be in that area!"

Upon seeing the birds, Zhu Gui immediately dispatched his crocodiles to dive underwater and investigate. They eventually obtained a definitive answer: these strangers unfamiliar with the environment, along with the local militia members who were just trying to make a living, had exposed their whereabouts as soon as they entered Liangshan Marsh.

"Brothers and sisters! Prepare for battle!!!"

At Liu Hong's command, over a hundred men sailed away from the harbor in sixteen small boats, heading south without fear, to confront Suo Chao's fleet head-on!

Across the vast expanse of water, the two naval forces began to confront each other. Liu Hong led sixteen small boats, which appeared as small and fragile as sixteen drifting leaves.

On the other side, Suo Chao's sixty-ship fleet resembled a vast forest. The ships were shoulder to shoulder, their white sails obscuring the sky, and each ship was filled with proud and imposing soldiers, weapons in hand, their eyes filled with confidence and arrogance.

Liu Hong's gaze was solemn and resolute. He knew he was facing a confrontation with a huge disparity in strength, while Suo Chao was calm and composed, as if victory was in her grasp. Her beautiful eyes were full of relaxed joy at the prospect of certain victory.

"Liu Hong! This is our second meeting! Did you know that your bounty has increased dramatically, from three hundred strings of cash to thirty thousand strings of cash?! This is the first time I've ever seen a criminal whose bounty has increased so drastically!"

Suo Chao roared loudly and pounded his breastplate on his right chest with his left hand.

“Every time I see you, the wound on my right chest aches. You have no chance of winning today! I've brought a full thirty thousand men to raze Liangshan Marsh to the ground! No matter how you look at it, sixty ships against sixteen, the advantage is mine! Why don't you surrender now?!”

"I see you're quite a character. As long as you return the birthday gifts, I'll spare your life! It'll just be two lines of gold tattoos on your face, and after you're exiled, I'll immediately get you out and make you a captain under my command. Wouldn't that be wonderful?!"

"Congratulations on your promotion, Commander!"

Liu Hong first congratulated Suo Chao on his promotion, then changed the subject.

"But you want me to be your deputy? Dream on! Why don't you surrender to Liangshan Marsh now? I can make you a high-ranking general under me!"

"Hey?! You're pretty arrogant, kid!"

As expected, Suo Chao was enraged. Two sword-like eyebrows stood up above his phoenix eyes, and three blue veins bulged on the side of his temples.

"How about this! We'll duel right here on the river! If I lose, Liangshan will surrender immediately, but if you lose, all government troops will retreat immediately! What do you say?"

Seeing Suo Chao's fury, Liu Hong seized the opportunity and directly proposed a duel.

"Okay! It's a deal!"

Suo Chao readily agreed, showing no respect for Liu Hong, his defeated opponent, and not believing he would lose at all, which terrified the two commanders beside him, He Tao and Huang Yuan.

"This impetuous woman is such a hothead! She actually agreed?! What if she loses?"

Commander He Tao was dumbfounded.

"Don't be afraid! Even if the vanguard loses, we'll still charge in! They look like they only have a couple hundred men, but we outnumber them seven to one! What's there to be afraid of!"

Huang An scoffed at the idea of ​​militia training.

"No rush, let's see how this brute behaves first."

Before Huang An finished speaking, the small boat beneath Liu Hong's feet suddenly exploded into a towering column of water! Two beams of golden light tore through the morning mist, and a pair of wings of light soared into the sky. In his hand, the Reverse Scale of the Dragon King of Jidu grew against the wind, transforming into a 52-pound Scale Shadow Spear. The pitch-black spear tip, wrapped with streaks of silver lightning, shrieked, roared, and howled as it descended from the sky!