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

However, the matter did not end there.

Because of the trouble they caused in Xixi Village, in addition to these leaders, many soldiers of the Jizhou Prefecture's local militia also took the opportunity to fish in troubled waters.

Zhao Yuan then simply allowed the villagers whose grievances had not been addressed to...

Go directly to the military camp outside the village for on-site identification!

Those who had sexually assaulted women, like those officers, were beheaded on the spot!

Those who only looted grain or other things were all punished with caning!

Most of the villagers went to the army camp with those who had been wronged, while the remaining villagers returned home after thanking Zhao Yuan.

Chao Gai, Wu Yong, Zhu Tong, and Lei Heng witnessed Huang An and other officers being beheaded by Liangshan.

The first two had extremely mixed feelings, feeling that Huang An, this scourge, had finally been eliminated, but were also shocked by the audacity of Liangshan.

The latter two couldn't help but feel a little fortunate.

Of the four, Chao Gai and Wu Yong were both from Dongxi Village and often interacted with Xixi Village, so there was no possibility of them bullying each other.

Although Zhu Tong and Lei Heng had previously accepted bribes from Li Baozheng, they had never personally bullied or humiliated the villagers.

Even though they came with Huang An this time, the two of them didn't do anything out of line.

Lei Heng was only interested in money and didn't care much about women. Since Huang An had already taken all the money from the villagers of Xixi Village, he naturally wouldn't bother them anymore.

Seeing that no villagers came forward to complain about them,

The four of them breathed a sigh of relief.

"Chief Zhao, we brought our men here because we were forced by Huang An,"

Chao Gai asked, "Chief Zhao, how can we be spared?"

"Forced by Huang An?"

Zhao Yuan chuckled and said, "This Lei Heng is trying to lure Huang An with money and grain, hoping to get him to leave Xixi Village and attack my Liangshan. Is he being forced by Huang An?"

"this......"

Lei Heng's face immediately showed panic; he felt that he was doomed this time.

After all, Liangshan had even killed Huang An, a militia commander, so why would they care about a mere county constable like him?

"Chief Zhu, please take good care of my mother in the future!"

With red eyes, Lei Heng knelt down before Zhu Tong and respectfully kowtowed three times.

"Commander Lei, you... go in peace."

Zhu Tong replied with a complicated expression, "I truly regret it now."

If he hadn't pretended to be drunk while drinking earlier, and had instead pulled Lei Heng back, he wouldn't be in this predicament now.

Chao Gai, standing to the side, watched Lei Heng entrust his elderly mother to Zhu Tong, clenched his fists, his expression shifting for a moment, before suddenly struggling to walk to Zhao Yuan's side.

"Chief Zhao, it was actually me who instigated Chief Lei to lure Huang An into attacking Liangshan,"

Chao Gai directly admitted, "Huang An is staying in Xixi Village, not only causing trouble here, but also constantly harassing Dongxi Village. I really couldn't stand it anymore, so I reminded Commander Lei to mention the matter of Liangshan's gold and silver treasures in front of Huang An!"

"Master, you..."

Seeing that Chao Gai had taken all the blame upon himself, Wu Yong was deeply moved. After struggling with his thoughts for a moment,

He simply stepped forward.

"Chief Zhao, this plan to divert Huang An's attention by using Liangshan was my idea!"

Wu Yong said loudly, "Chao Tianwang is a man of great loyalty and righteousness, which is why he took all the blame upon himself!"

“Chief Zhao, Chief Lei still has an elderly mother to support. If something were to happen to him, his mother would certainly not live much longer!”

Zhu Tong knelt down and pleaded, "Please, Chief Zhao, spare Chief Lei's life!"

"He has an elderly mother at home, but don't we Liangshan soldiers have parents to support?"

Zhao Yuan sneered, "If we hadn't just kidnapped Huang An, he would probably already be leading his troops toward Liangshan!"

"Chief Zhao, Huang An came here specifically to wipe out Liangshan,"

Wu Yong said, "Even without what Commander Lei said, Huang An would have marched on Liangshan sooner or later!"

········Requesting flowers·· 0

"What? Are you trying to say that I wronged Lei Heng?"

Zhao Yuan looked at Wu Yong with a stern face, and the chill in his gaze made the schoolteacher's heart tighten.

But mindful of Chao Gai's previous loyalty, Wu Yong was determined to go all out.

"From what I've observed, Chief Zhao's actions are all in accordance with the law. Even when he executed Huang An and the others, it was because they had committed the crime of murdering and insulting the villagers!"

“Lei Heng was the head constable of Yuncheng, and he was sent by Magistrate Shi to assist Huang An in suppressing Liangshan. Given his status, how could saying those words be considered a wrongdoing?”

Wu Yong questioned, "Furthermore, Huang An has already been beheaded by Chief Zhao, and the troops from Jizhou have also been captured by the chief. Lei Heng's words did not cause any serious consequences. Does Chief Zhao still intend to punish him for his words?"

0 ...... ...

"What a silver tongue!"

Zhao Yuan scoffed: "Wu Xuejiu, don't forget, I'm the leader of a mountain stronghold. Do mountain bandits need a reason to kill someone?"

"what?"

Wu Yong was instantly stunned.

Because Zhao Yuan had just publicly tried Huang An and the others, he had somewhat forgotten...

He was facing a Liangshan bandit, not a court official conducting a public trial!

Seeing Wu Yong stumped by a single sentence, Zhao Yuan suddenly burst out laughing.

"You all act so loyally, vying to take the blame yourselves, and then you spout lies and sophistry, all just to get me to spare Lei Heng's life. But did I say I was going to kill him?"

"You...you're not going to kill me?"

Lei Heng froze on the spot, and Zhu Tong quickly bumped into him with his body.

"Many thanks to Chief Zhao for his great kindness and virtue. It was I who was blind and ignorant that I dared to offend Liangshan!"

Lei Heng quickly bowed and thanked him, saying, "I will never dare to do such a thing again."

"Don't thank me yet,"

Zhao Yuan stopped Lei Heng from bowing and turned to look at Chao Gai.

"Master Chao, if I do not punish the four of you for offending Liangshan today, I fear that in the future anyone will dare to regard Liangshan as weak and easy to bully!"

"I heard that Huang An tried to cause you trouble, but you settled things with four or five thousand strings of cash?"

"So, how much money are you prepared to use to settle this matter this time?"

Chapter 146 Redemption Money

"As long as Chief Zhao can forgive our offenses, I'm willing to pay any amount of money, even if it means going bankrupt!"

Without the slightest hesitation, Chao Gai immediately replied loudly.

"How about this,"

Zhao Yuan pondered for a moment: "How about this: 10,000 strings of cash for each of you four, in the form of money or grain?"

One thousand each, four people would be forty thousand strings!

Chao Gai's face immediately showed bitterness. He had been a private merchant for many years, working hard, and had only managed to save up a fortune of fifty or sixty thousand.

Previously, because of Huang An, seven or eight thousand strings of cash had already been spent.

Now, another 40,000 strings of cash have been spent. All these years, he can really be considered to have worked for nothing.

Although it hurt a little, Chao Gai was ultimately a man of honor.

He certainly wouldn't just pay for his own life, so he readily agreed.

"Brother Deng Fei, release all four of them," Zhao Yuan ordered. "063"

Deng Fei did as instructed and stepped forward to untie the ropes binding the four men.

After bowing to Zhao Yuan, Chao Gai and his three companions turned and left.

After they had gone some distance, Deng Fei asked in bewilderment,

"Brother, we haven't even gotten the 40,000 strings of cash yet, and we've already released the hostages. What if they run away?"

"What hostage?"

Zhao Yuan glared at his brother, annoyed.

"They're the ones who came looking for trouble, not the other way around—we kidnapped them and tried to extort money from them!"

"Besides, even if the monk can run away, the temple can't. Chao Gai's estate is in Dongxi Village. If he runs away, we can just go and get the 40,000 strings of cash ourselves!"

Although money notes, also known as silver notes or Jiaozi, already existed at this time,

But this thing, because of Song Ting's wanton and excessive distribution,

It has already depreciated on a large scale, with ordinary areas experiencing a depreciation of three-quarters, while in some areas the depreciation has reached as high as 90%.

The soaring prices of goods in recent years have partly been due to this money-attracting policy.

Besides the need to travel around, itinerant merchants were indispensable.

Landlords and private merchants like Chao Gai still believed more in real money.

Half an hour later,

Chao Gai then returned to Xixi Village with about ten farmhands, carrying seven or eight wooden boxes.

"Chief Zhao, the forty thousand strings of cash are all here."

"Master Chao is indeed a trustworthy person!"

Zhao Yuan glanced at the box and praised it.

Chao Gai gave a bitter smile and remained silent.

His estate is right next door, how could he dare to break his promise!

Do they think Liangshan has no excuse to attack Dongxi Village?

Bian Xiang happily stepped forward to inspect the goods.

Most of the boxes were filled with gold bars and silver ingots.

There were also two boxes containing pearls, gems, and all sorts of other random things.

"The village doesn't have enough cash on hand, so we can only use these to make up the difference,"

Chao Gai cupped his hands and said, "Chief Zhao can have someone appraise the price. If it's too low, I'll make up the difference."

"No need. I still trust the name of King Chao."

Zhao Yuan waved his hand.

Bianxiang quickly led his men to move the boxes aside.

"Oh, right, there's something I forgot to tell King Chao,"

Zhao Yuan casually said, "Huang An has already been killed by us, so the villagers of Xixi Village naturally can no longer stay here. Some of them are preparing to go to their relatives and friends, while others are preparing to go directly to Liangshan with us. As for the fields in Xixi Village, please do as you please, Master Chao."

"Chief Zhao, is this true?"

Chao Gai's face immediately lit up with surprise.

Before the New Year, after Li Baozheng was killed by Liangshan, he did have his eye on the Li family's fertile land.

He hesitated to act only because he was worried about Liangshan's attitude, but in the end, he was met with Huang An.

As long as Liangshan doesn't mind, these three thousand acres of fertile land belonging to Li Baozheng's family...

After some maneuvering in Yuncheng, Chao Gai was able to quickly turn all of them into his own legal land.

Even if another Huang An were to appear, as long as the documents and contracts were complete, he wouldn't be able to do anything to Chao Gai.

Although the villagers of Xixi Village had Liangshan's approval to divide the land, they did not receive the government's approval, which is why Huang An was able to demand it at will!

It was through Huang An's incident that the people of Xixi Village truly understood...