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

"But we'll have to trouble the ship owner to instruct the boatmen to turn the passenger ship around and go in another direction."

"This... Your Majesty, the passengers on the ship are all going to Jiankang Prefecture. If we turn back now..."

Before the ship owner could finish speaking, the bandit leader suddenly drew his sword and held it directly to the ship owner's neck.

"I told you to turn around, so do it right now!"

The bandit leader sneered, "As for the other guests, they'll all be going to the river to keep the turtles company soon, and then they can swim to Jiankang Prefecture!"

Chapter 154 Dragon, Tiger, Bear, and Flood Dragon

"Zhuo Wanli, you've already taken that money, so why do you have to go to such extremes!"

Among the four bound merchants, the man with a red beard and yellow hair roared angrily.

Zhuo Wanli? Could he be one of the Twelve Gods of Jiangnan under Lü Shinang, a subordinate of Fang La?

Upon hearing this name, Zhao Yuan immediately recognized the person's identity.

This Zhuo Wanli, whose name is Huang Fan Shen,

After Fang La rebelled, this man was a commander under Lü Shinang, the Privy Councilor under Fang La. He and eleven other colleagues were collectively known as the Twelve Gods of Jiangnan!

"Going to extremes? Who told you to be so shameless!"

Zhuo Wanli sneered, "Our Chief Lü has written to you several times, asking you to donate this money to accompany the Holy Lord on this important undertaking, but you have refused each time! Now you actually want to run away with this wealth? You're dreaming!"

"Hmph, if you're so capable, then come at me fairly and squarely!"

"The red-bearded, blond-haired man's companion, a man with angular features and a fan-shaped beard, said resentfully,"

"What kind of hero uses sleeping pills to ambush people?"

"Hehe, I'm all alone. If I don't use some tricks, how can I possibly take down these four dragons, tigers, bears, and serpents?"

Zhuo Wanli chuckled smugly, then gave orders to his subordinates.

"For the sake of us being fellow outlaws, let's leave them with a complete corpse. Just throw them into the river and let the four of them taste the flavor of wonton noodles!"

The bandit henchmen stepped forward, about to seize the four bound men.

At this moment, Zhao Yuan, standing in the crowd, gave Ruan Xiaoqi and Hu Sanniang a wink, then shouted, "Attack!"

Before he could finish speaking,

He then lunged at Zhuo Wanli first.

Ruan Xiaoqi and Hu Sanniang went to rescue the four men who were tied up.

The other guards had already dispersed to various locations and were attacking the pirates' henchmen!

Zhuo Wanli clearly hadn't expected that anyone among the passengers would dare to resist.

He only reacted after Zhao Yuan had already pounced on him.

Just as he was about to raise his waist knife and chop it down,

But Zhao Yuan was faster than him!

He had already launched a flying kick towards Zhuo Wanli's abdomen!

Then, taking advantage of the moment when Zhuo Wanli's body was bent like a shrimp,

Zhao Yuan grabbed the arm holding the knife and twisted it forcefully.

In pain, Zhuo Wanli instinctively released his grip.

Zhao Yuan caught the waist knife and pressed it against his neck!

All of this happened in an instant.

By the time the others realized what was happening,

Zhuo Wanli, who was just moments ago so arrogant and domineering, has now become Zhao Yuan's prisoner!

On the other two sides,

Ruan Xiaoqi and Hu Sanniang have also rescued the four tied-up men.

As for the other guards, they had already taken down most of the pirate henchmen and were now fighting with the remaining few.

"Tell them to stop!" Zhao Yuan pressed the knife in his hand down.

Feeling the coolness on his neck, Zhuo Wanli quickly called out.

"Everyone stop it!"

The few henchmen who were still resisting hesitated for a moment upon hearing the order.

They were immediately seized by the guards and felled one by one!

"Xiao Qi, tie up all the survivors, and throw the dead ones into the river!"

After giving his instructions, Zhao Yuan spoke to the ship owner with a gentle expression.

“We are government officials on official business in Jiankang Prefecture. Please continue sailing and get to Jiankang Prefecture as quickly as possible! As for the other passengers, please return to your rooms. We will handle things here.”

The ship owner and many passengers, who had thought they were about to die at the hands of thieves, were surprised to find that things had taken an unexpected turn for the better.

Suddenly, a group of government troops appeared and crushed the river bandits, capturing and killing some!

Many passengers didn't have time to think about the strangeness of the situation, nor did they dare to.

They all returned to their rooms.

After kneeling and thanking Zhao Yuan, the boat owner hurriedly went to call the boatmen.

In the middle of the passenger ship's deck, only Zhao Yuan and his group, the four tied-up men, and Zhuo Wanli and his gang of river pirates remained.

"Third Sister, take some men and keep watch around! Don't let anyone get close!"

Zhao Yuan gave the order.

Hu Sanniang led her guards to retreat to the surrounding area.

After Zhao Yuan confirmed that no one around could hear their voices,

Only then did he lower his head and frown as he looked at Zhuo Wanli.

"The Holy Duke you just mentioned, is he Fang La?"

Zhuo Wanli originally thought that he was doomed to die after falling into the hands of the government.

Upon hearing this question, and after carefully examining Zhao Yuan and Ruan Xiaoqi, he cautiously asked,

"The Holy Duke's secular name is indeed Fang La, and he is also the leader of our Manichaeism. Judging from the behavior of you heroes, you are definitely not the henchmen of the imperial court. May I ask your names?"

Zhao Yuan didn't speak, but instead instructed Ruan Xiaoqi to inspect the wooden boxes the four men were carrying.

Ruan Xiaoqi casually opened one of them, and her eyes widened instantly.

The box was filled to the brim, and it was full of gold, silver and precious stones.

He quickly opened the other wooden crates,

The eight wooden boxes were filled with all sorts of gold and silver jewelry.

Ruan Xiaoqi quickly closed the wooden box lid, walked to Zhao Yuan's side, and whispered what she had seen.

"Brother, the gold and silver jewelry in these boxes are worth at least tens of thousands of strings of cash!"

“What you say is true, sir. These things are indeed worth 100,000 strings of cash.”

Zhuo Wanli said with a smile, "Since we have been defeated by you all, then these things should naturally be handed over to you. Please accept them with a smile."

"You seem like a very generous man!"

Ruan Xiaoqi mocked, "It would be even better if you could stop taking other people's things to show off your generosity!"

Zhuo Wanli chuckled awkwardly, not daring to say another word.

Zhao Yuan looked at the eight wooden crates, then his gaze suddenly shifted to the four men who were tied up.

"I just heard Zhuo Wanli refer to you as Dragon, Tiger, Bear, and Flood Dragon. May I ask if you four are the Red-Bearded Dragon Fei Bao, the Curly-Haired Tiger Ni Yun, the Thin-Faced Bear Di Cheng, and the Taihu Flood Dragon Bu Qing?"

"Who exactly are you? How do you know our names?"

The man with the red beard and yellow hair exclaimed in surprise.

"I am Fei Bao, the Red-Bearded Dragon."

The dark-faced, long-bearded man beside him also spoke.

"I am Ni Yun, the curly-haired tiger."

The remaining two men, one with a fan-shaped beard and the other tall and thin with a short beard, also introduced themselves.

"I am Slim-faced Bear Di Cheng!"

"I am Bu Qing, the dragon of Taihu Lake!"

“I have heard of the names of the four of you before,”

Zhao Yuan smiled slightly and said, "Weren't the four of you also ruling as mountain kings in Shandong? How come you've suddenly come all the way to the south?"

“We’ve retired from this life of crime!” replied Chixulong Feibao.

Taihu Jiao Bu Qing added, "I am from Taihu. We no longer want to deal with worldly affairs, so we are taking our savings from all these years and preparing to go back to Taihu to live in seclusion!"

"Going into seclusion with his savings accumulated over the years?"

Zhao Yuan chuckled, then suddenly shouted in a low voice,

"What a mess you've made! This is the 100,000 strings of cash that Liang Zhongshu of Daming Prefecture was going to send to Cai Jing as a birthday gift last year!"

Chapter 155 Why doesn't Chief Zhao surrender to Leader Fang, and we can join forces to accomplish great things!

Upon hearing this, Fei Bao, Ni Yun, and Bu Qing all stared at Zhao Yuan in shock.

The thin-faced Xiong Dicheng was the most impatient of them all.

He asked in surprise, "How did you know?"

"I didn't expect it to be you guys after all?"

Zhao Yuan was also somewhat surprised.

Upon seeing his reaction, Fei Bao and the others immediately realized that Zhao Yuan had only been bluffing.

Di Cheng was immediately filled with remorse.

Fei Bao sighed and said, "Hero, now that you have discovered this, please take the 100,000 strings of birthday gifts. I only beg you heroes to give us brothers a way out."

"Big brother!"

The remaining three gasped in disbelief.

"Quiet down! I'll make the decision!"

Fei Bao glared at his three brothers, then looked at Zhao Yuan and said,

"Hero, we four robbed the birthday gifts and we would never report it to the authorities. Please take the money and spare our lives!"

Zhao Yuan stared at him for a long time, then suddenly laughed.

"As expected of the Red-Bearded Dragon Fei Bao, he is indeed a shrewd and intelligent person."

Zhao Yuan remembered it very clearly.

In the original Water Margin timeline, these four people met Li Jun, the "River Dragon," by chance.

But after helping Song Jiang capture Suzhou, when Li Jun tried to persuade them to join the Liangshan bandits who had already been granted amnesty,

The four of them, however, were of one mind and refused in unison.

Fei Bao also made two very insightful remarks.

"In this world, every success is followed by failure, and every rise is followed by decline!"

"Peace was established by the general, but the general is not allowed to see peace!"

This shows that these four men had never held any hope for the Song court and believed that serving the court would lead to a bad end.

The fate of Song Jiang and others confirmed their fears.

Their actions also affected Li Jun.

Finally, when Song Jiang pacified Jiangnan and returned to the capital after a Pyrrhic victory, Li Jun feigned illness and left the Liangshan group. He then returned with two children to find the four men and prepared to live out the rest of his life in peace.