Water Margin: The opening scene involves assassinating Emperor Huizong of Song and forcibly taking L

"This humble servant is deeply grateful to you, sir, for saving my life!"

Chapter 130 The Bandit Hu Sanniang

After resolving Li Ping'er's matter,

Zhao Yuan realized that it had been more than a month since he left Liangshan.

Not knowing what the situation was like on the mountain, they quickened their pace.

After entering Yunzhou from Hebei,

Zhao Yuan suddenly remembered something, so he told Qiong Ying to take the others back to Liangshan first.

He himself, along with Shi Qian, took a detour to Xucheng, north of the lake.

This city of Xucheng was newly built about ten years ago.

The old town had been submerged due to flooding.

When Zhu Gui descended the mountain more than a month ago, he left Liangshan Marsh with Zhao Yuan.

His destination was Xucheng, the capital of Yunzhou, where he would build a hotel to gather intelligence on Yunzhou.

Upon returning to the mountain, Zhao Yuan naturally wanted to first check how well Zhu Gui had completed his work.

"Brother, after I go up the mountain, will I be under the jurisdiction of this Brother Zhu Gui?" Shi Qian asked.

Zhao Yuan had already told him that once they joined Liangshan,

He then assigned Shi Qian to be in charge of gathering intelligence, which is why he asked this question.

"Although your duties are similar, they are not the same, so how can there be a jurisdictional relationship between you?"

Zhao Yuan chuckled, and seeing that Shi Qian didn't understand, he explained it to him.

"The Zhu brothers are skilled at running hotels, and their intelligence network extends wherever their hotels open."

"But this is too slow and too expensive. Besides, in times of war, we might need to gather intelligence in some small islands and counties. We can't just send Brother Zhu Gui to run a hotel temporarily."

"Brother, I understand what you mean,"

Shi Qian suddenly realized: "Brother Zhu Gui is responsible for gathering information in the prefectures and counties, while I am responsible for traveling around and going wherever there is trouble or need to gather information!"

"Yes, that's it,"

Zhao Yuan nodded: "After we return to the mountain, select some clever brothers from the mountain to serve as your subordinates. After training them, send them down the mountain to various places to gather intelligence!"

"The reason I'm taking you to meet Brother Zhu Gui this time is so that you two can get to know each other. From now on, we'll need you two to work together and complement each other to gather intelligence for Liangshan!"

"This is a matter of life and death for Liangshan, brothers, you must do your best!"

"Don't worry, brother, I understand!" Shi Qian said with a delighted expression.

He knew his own family best; thieves had always been looked down upon by bandits.

Shi Qian originally thought that after joining Liangshan, he would at most be a lowly subordinate with some status.

But now, after hearing what Zhao Yuan said,

His position was the same as that of Zhu Gui, the leader in charge of gathering intelligence.

If Zhu Gui has a seat, then he naturally can't be left out either.

This naturally delighted Shi Qian, and he became even more devoted to Liangshan.

Seeing Shi Qian happy, Zhao Yuan also smiled.

He also put Shi Qian in charge of intelligence gathering.

This was both to supplement Zhu Gui's hotel intelligence network,

It also served as a precaution, to check and balance Zhu Gui.

Now, Liangshan's intelligence relies entirely on Zhu Gui.

Although he had previously recommended his brother Zhu Fu

But these two are, after all, brothers.

Now that Zhu Gui is loyal to Liangshan, there's naturally nothing to worry about.

But if Zhu Gui were to develop ulterior motives in the future, Zhu Fu would most likely abandon Liangshan.

If we don't prepare early, and if Zhu Gui really does become disloyal one day, the inn's intelligence network will be paralyzed, and Liangshan might not even know how they died.

This is not because Zhao Yuan distrusts Zhu Gui.

Rather, it was because he was the leader of Liangshan, and naturally he had to consider all kinds of situations. He could not entrust the safety of thousands of lives in the stronghold to one person!

......

Zhao Yuan and Shi Qian hurried towards Xucheng.

On this day, the two arrived at the west bank of Dongping Lake.

Just as we were about to head south along the lake shore,

But unexpectedly, halfway there,

Suddenly, a man jumped out from the reeds on the bank and shouted, "Hey passerby, quickly leave your money!"

"this......"

Shi Qian paused for a moment, then suddenly burst into laughter.

His smile immediately enraged and embarrassed the robber.

"What's so funny, you lad? Haven't you ever seen a highway robbery before?"

Shi Qian laughed so hard he could barely breathe, then turned to Zhao Yuan and said...

"Brother, I never imagined that in this world, even women would start robbing highwaymen!"

Why are men allowed to rob and plunder, but women aren't?

The female bandit who was robbing the highway snorted angrily, "Hand over your money now, or I'll show you the power of the One-Zhang Black Dog!"

········Requesting flowers·· 0

Upon hearing this nickname and name, Shi Qian laughed even harder.

Zhao Yuan, standing to the side, had a strange expression.

Looking at the disheveled woman in front of him, he suddenly asked, "Does this heroine know Hu Sanniang, the One-Zhang-Qing?"

"you!"

The female bandit paused for a moment, hurriedly brushed aside the strands of hair in front of her eyes, sized up Zhao Yuan, and then exclaimed in surprise.

"You are Zhao Dalang from Liangshan!"

As soon as she finished speaking, remembering her current appearance, she blushed and quickly turned around and disappeared into the reeds.

And taking advantage of the moment when she brushed her hair aside,

Zhao Yuan also saw clearly the female bandit robbing the highwayman in front of him.

0 .... .......

It was clearly Hu Sanniang, the one-zhang-tall beauty.

Although it's unclear what happened to her that led her to resort to robbery by Dongping Lake,

But since the two had known each other for a while, Zhao Yuan naturally couldn't just leave them alone.

He quickly dismounted and chased after Hu Sanniang, saying to Shi Qian at the same time,

"Brother, you stay here and watch the horses! Don't come any closer!"

Zhao Yuan said this because he thought women were easily embarrassed.

Given Hu Sanniang's current appearance, she naturally didn't want more people to see her, which is why she left Shi Qian in the same place.

Unexpectedly, upon hearing this, Shi Qian recalled how the female bandit, after recognizing Zhao Yuan's face, suddenly blushed, turned around, and ran away.

Seeing the other party escape, Zhao Yuan hurriedly gave chase, preventing him from getting close.

Could it be that the female bandit was also having an affair with my brother?

Sitting on his horse, with nothing else to do, Shi Qian began to imagine Zhao Yuan's scandalous stories.

Meanwhile, in the reeds on the other side,

The woman kept running away, refusing to stop no matter how much Zhao Yuan called out to her.

Left with no other choice, Zhao Yuan lunged forward.

He tackled the woman directly into the reeds!

"You... really are Hu Sanniang!"

Zhao Yuan brushed aside the strands of hair obscuring the woman's face and examined her closely.

The female bandit in front of him was indeed Hu Sanniang, the one-zhang-tall woman who had caused him trouble outside Yanggu County.

But compared to her dashing figure back then,

Now, Hu Sanniang is disheveled and looks utterly wretched...

Chapter 131 Hu Sanniang's Wanderings

"Has something happened to your Hu Family Village?"

Seeing Hu Sanniang's miserable appearance, Zhao Yuan subconsciously asked.

"Something just happened at your Liangshan!"

Hu Sanniang rolled her eyes at Zhao Yuan and snorted, "Hu Family Village is doing very well!"

"How did you get into this state?"

"You, you...get up first!"

Hu Sanniang blushed and angrily said, "How can you speak like that?"

Zhao Yuan looked at the current situation.

He was riding on top of Hu Sanniang, and although he had successfully prevented her from escaping,

But something does seem amiss; this needs to be shown to Shi Qian.

Who knows how much of a misunderstanding this will lead to?

"Promise me you won't run away anymore, then I'll get up!"

"I...I just felt ashamed of how I looked, that's why I ran away,"

　"050," Hu Sanniang said irritably, "Now that you've seen everything, why should I run?"

Zhao Yuan got up with some doubt.

Hu Sanniang quickly sat up and straightened her disheveled clothes.

"Now you can tell me, what exactly happened?" Zhao Yuan asked curiously.

"It's really not a big deal,"

Hu Sanniang pursed her lips: "I just ran away from my arranged marriage."

"Escape from marriage?"

Zhao Yuan's eyes widened instantly!

This is the Song Dynasty, although the Cheng-Zhu school of Neo-Confucianism hasn't emerged yet.

But the Three Obediences and Four Virtues, and the precepts for women, have existed for a long time!

The idea that an unmarried woman should obey her father is still an ironclad rule in this day and age!

Arranged marriages, dictated by parents and matchmakers, were the tacitly accepted rules.

A woman who dares to defy an engagement and even elopes.

You can count them on one hand!

"You really look down on Zhu Biao that much?" Zhao Yuan asked, amused.

The woman before us, in the original Water Margin storyline,