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

The leading man cupped his hands in greeting.

"Honorable host, we are from Zhaojia Village, Mengyin County. We went to Yizhou for medical treatment but failed. Now, on our way back to the village, we missed our lodging. My sister's elderly father is ill, and we would like to ask to stay here for the night. Please do us a favor."

Chapter 192 If you need medical treatment, go to Liangshan and find An Daoquan!

"This thatched hut is too small to accommodate everyone,"

Shi Xiu politely declined.

The leading man frowned immediately, and the young woman beside him pleaded, "Master, my father is weak and cannot endure sleeping in the wilderness. Please make an exception."

Although Shi Xiu appreciated the woman's filial piety, he knew that if outsiders saw the situation in the thatched hut, they would surely misunderstand, so he had no choice but to harden his heart.

But just as he was about to refuse,

The leader of the men said with a stern face, "We only ask for a room to stay in for one night. We will pay you in full. If you still refuse, don't blame us for being impolite!"

After the man finished speaking, his other followers behind him picked up their knives and spears, the threat of which was self-evident.

Seeing that they outnumbered him and appeared well-trained, Shi Xiu had no choice but to nod helplessly and move aside to open the courtyard gate.

"The room is small, so please bear with us."

"Thank you,"

The leading man cupped his hands in greeting and suddenly asked, "Judging from this host's accent, he doesn't seem to be from Shandong, does he?"

"I'm also here to visit a friend,"

After Shi Xiu finished speaking, he shouted into the inner room, "Brother Tie Niu, we have guests!"

"Brother, why did you call me?"

Li Kui walked out of the inner room, glanced impatiently at the courtyard gate, then suddenly paused, staring at the young woman at the head of the group and laughing, "Haha, this young lady is really fair-skinned, the exact opposite of my dark face."

"Tie Niu, don't talk nonsense!" Shi Xiu scolded.

"It doesn't matter,"

The young woman waved her hand: "This man was obviously just joking."

"There are two rooms in total. Please stay in the one on the right tonight."

After Shi Xiu finished speaking, he looked at Li Kui and said, "Brother Tie Niu, go and move your mother over here."

The young man standing nearby, recognizing Li Kui's accent, was undoubtedly a local.

Seeing that he was carrying his mother out of the house, he assumed that Li Kui was the owner of the thatched hut and immediately lowered his guard.

Shi Xiu welcomed the group of people from Zhaojia Village into the thatched hut on the right.

"Please have a seat, everyone. I will have the host prepare some tea for you."

......

As soon as Shi Xiu entered the thatched hut on the left, his two guards said helplessly, "This hut is too small; there's simply no place to hide the corpse."

"If you ask me, why don't we just go over there and chop them up?" Li Kui muttered.

"Tie Niu, don't forget Brother Zhao's instructions!"

Shi Xiu glared at the dark-skinned man.

He then began searching the kitchen and quickly found a packet of medicine powder.

"Brother Shi Xiu, what is this?" Li Kui asked curiously.

"This is the anesthetic that those two scoundrels were going to use to knock us out,"

As Shi Xiu spoke, he poured the medicinal powder into the teapot.

"Let's knock them out first, then we'll travel through the night. By the time they recover, they won't be able to catch up with us."

..........

The group from Zhaojia Village had traveled for a long time and were both hungry and thirsty.

Upon seeing Shi Xiu enter carrying a teapot and a ceramic bowl,

They all came over to pour water and drink it.

Only the woman with exceptionally fair skin did not immediately step forward, as she had to take care of her elderly father.

"Crack!"

A ceramic bowl fell to the ground and shattered into countless pieces.

Hearing the noise, the woman turned around in surprise.

Only then did they realize that everyone else in the room was lying on the floor.

She was the only one who remained conscious.

"You wicked scoundrel, how dare you harm people!"

The woman shouted sharply and was about to reach for the throwing knife at her waist.

Shi Xiu, however, had already anticipated this. He quickly stepped forward and pressed his waist knife against the woman's neck.

"My lady, it's best not to force me to take action!"

Shi Xiu advised, "We are not bad people. It's just that some things have happened here, and we were worried that you would misunderstand, so we resorted to this measure."

"Furthermore, your father's health is already poor. If a fight breaks out and he is accidentally injured, wouldn't you regret it?"

"If you want gold or silver, you can have it all, but please don't hurt my father!"

The young woman sighed and removed her hand from her waist.

At this moment, two of Li Kui's personal guards entered.

They took the rope and tied up the young woman along with everyone else.

"That young man in the lead is Mo Kun!"

Shi Xiu warned, "This is a desolate and deserted place. If we tie them all up, they'll starve to death! Leave one alive so he can rescue the others when he wakes up."

Seeing this, the young woman standing nearby knew that these people indeed did not intend to harm them, and she breathed a sigh of relief. Then, she asked, puzzled,

"Who are you? And why are you here?"

"We are the heroes of Liangshan!" Li Kui said proudly.

Shi Xiu didn't want to reveal his identity, but he couldn't stop Li Kui, so he could only tell him with a wry smile about how the owner of the thatched hut had tried to murder him for his money.

"We have no choice but to ask you all to stay here for the night."

"Tie Niu, hurry up and carry your mother on your back, we're setting off tonight!"

Shi Xiu and the others packed their things and were about to leave.

As he was leaving, he glanced at the old man lying on the bed, recalling the young man's earlier words about failing to find medical treatment in Yizhou, and then gave him a reminder.

"Madam, since your father is seriously ill, why don't you go and seek out the renowned physician An Daoquan?"

“I’ve also heard of this person. I’ve heard that he is a highly skilled doctor who can cure all kinds of stubborn diseases. However, he lives far away in Jiankang Prefecture. I was worried that the journey was too long and my father wouldn’t be able to handle it, so I didn’t take him there to seek medical treatment!” the young woman replied.

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"My lady, you may not know this, but because of the plague that broke out in Xucheng, Shandong, my brother has invited the legendary doctor An Daoquan to Liangshan Marsh!"

"If you wish to treat your father's illness, you may take him to Liangshan."

After saying this, Shi Xiu went out and closed the door to prevent wild animals from entering.

Then, under the cover of night, the group followed a mountain path toward Liangshan.

Shi Xiu and the others had just left,

Inside the room, a small throwing knife, only two inches long, slipped from the young woman's sleeve. She had kept it in her sleeve as a precaution against unforeseen circumstances.

The young woman used a throwing knife to cut the ropes binding her, then went to fetch water.

Upon entering the kitchen, they indeed found the corpses of the owners of the thatched hut, the Li Gui couple.

This undoubtedly confirms that Shi Xiu was not lying.

"Liangshan, An Daoquan..."

The young woman bit her red lips, having already made up her mind.

He fetched a bucket of water from the kitchen and splashed it on everyone on the floor to wake them up.

When the young man saw that he and his companions had been drugged, he became furious and started shouting that he would lead the others to capture Shi Xiu and his group.

The young woman did not reveal the identities of Shi Xiu and the others, but advised, "Brother, the world is vast, and we don't know which direction they went. How can we chase after them?"

"Since our belongings are undamaged, let's stay here for the night and set off back to Zhaojia Village tomorrow."

Chapter 193 Zhao Xin and Sorghum

The next day, the group set off early and returned to Zhaojia Village in Mengyin County.

The two men and women leading the group were extremely well-known in Mengyin County.

The young man was named Zhao Xin, from a family of renowned lineage. When he was young, he met a famous blind fortune teller on the roadside in Shanyin. The fortune teller said that he would surely achieve great things in the future, but he should not be greedy and should know when to stop.

This person is highly skilled in martial arts, possesses a pure and upright character, and has a wide circle of friends.

If you can become close to him, your love will last forever.

If you annoy him and provoke his temper, he will inevitably turn on you and fight.

The woman's surname was Gaoliang, and her given name was Susu. The "double surname" refers to the surnames of both her parents.

This sorghum was even more skilled in martial arts than Zhao Xin, and she had a face as white as a mirror, so people called her "Mirror Sorghum".

Because this woman usually liked to wear flowers in her hair, she was also known as "piled-up flowers".

Gao Liang is clean-minded, physically strong, skilled in using the Sun and Moon Double Blades, and carries sixteen throwing knives with him, capable of striking anyone from a hundred paces away without ever missing.

The woman was accompanied by four maids who had been trained since childhood, each named after a flower or plant: Osmanthus, Mint, Buddha's Hand, and Rose.

The four maids also had some martial arts skills, but they were gentle in nature and graceful in appearance, and ordinary people with ordinary martial arts skills were no match for them.

At that time, corrupt officials were rampant, and many people could not survive and went up the mountain to become thieves.

Many villages spontaneously organize their villagers to practice martial arts to defend against bandits, and Zhaojia Village is no exception.

Zhao Xin and Gao Liang trained local militia in Zhaojia Village, conducting drills daily. The bandits in the surrounding mountains feared their power and dared not invade.

These two were childhood sweethearts from the same village, and their parents had arranged their marriage when they grew up.

They were supposed to get married some time ago, but the wedding was temporarily postponed because Gao Liang's father suddenly fell ill.

Gao Liang sought medical help everywhere, but none of the village doctors could cure his father's illness.

Helpless, the woman could only call on Zhao Xin, get a carriage, and take her father to Yizhou to find the divine physician Kong Hou.

However, upon arriving at Linyi, the capital of Yizhou...

The group then encountered a problem: they couldn't get into the city.

It turns out that due to the recent spread of the epidemic, Gao Feng, the prefect of Yizhou, was...

Fearing that people infected with the disease might enter Linyi, they simply sealed off the city and strictly prohibited outsiders from entering or leaving.

Just as everyone was anxious, a guard at the gate told them that they could go to the east city and find the newly appointed East City Defense Commissioner, Ruan Qixiang.

Ruan Qixiang only managed to drive away Liu Guang and obtain the position of Dongcheng Defense Commissioner by offering his own son to Gao Feng, who was a homosexual.

After taking office, this fellow helped Gao Feng plunder land everywhere and amass wealth.

He also came up with a way to make money during this plague.

This involved having Gao Feng use the pretext of the epidemic to seal off the city, prohibiting anyone from entering or leaving without official permission.

Ruan Qixiang then specialized in selling permits for entering and leaving the city, one permit per person, costing ten strings of cash.

In just half a month, he had already earned nearly 100,000 guan.

Zhao Xin and Gao Liang, along with the others, went around to the east side of the city, found a minor official, and bought a permit from the government before they were allowed to enter the city.

But once inside, Gao Liang inquired about Kong Hou's whereabouts, and his heart sank again.

It turns out that recently, Ruan Qixiang's son, Ruan Zhao'er, whom Gao Feng had presented to him, caught a cold.

Gao Feng doted on her, and when he saw that Ruan Zhao'er was ill, he was naturally heartbroken and ordered that the divine physician Kong Hou be brought into the prefectural government.