The Thief Prince

Meanwhile, Han Wenzhe invited Shi Chong to his residence, and the more he looked at him, the happier he became, bestowing upon him a precious sword and a fine horse.

Shi Chong was flattered. Although he was the descendant of a meritorious official, he had never received such treatment from a civil official.

Moreover, he was the chief minister of the State Council, a high-ranking figure who was usually in a high position.

They immediately resolved that this battle would demonstrate the power of the Shi family and flatten that small marshland.

Han Wenzhe explained the situation at Black Wind Stronghold. Shi Chong, upon hearing that Liangshan only had a little over a thousand men, did not underestimate them.

"I have also heard that Liangshan Marsh is eight hundred li long and has seventy-two waterways that can shelter hundreds or thousands of warships. If we send troops from only one place to fight, even if the government army outnumbers the bandits tenfold, I am afraid we will not be able to achieve great success."

Han Wenzhe frowned and asked, "What are your thoughts, General?"

"This humble general is willing to protect the two vanguards and lead troops to attack that marshland. We will surely succeed without any failure."

Han Wenzhe asked, "Whom does the general protect?"

Shi Chong: "This humble general recommends Zhang Jing, the deputy military commander of Zhengzhou. He is from Dongjing (Kaifeng) and is skilled in archery. He is known as the Bow and Arrow General."

"There is another person, who is the militia commander of Xingren Prefecture. His name is Wang Kuang. He is very skilled in troop deployment and can wield a large golden mace. He is known as the Giant Spirit General."

"If these two are the vanguard and deputy vanguard, what are the Liangshan bandits to fear?"

After a moment's thought, Han Wenzhe understood a few things.

Wang Kuang was a descendant of Wang Jun, a founding general, while Zhang Jing, though not well-known, was from Tokyo and should also be a descendant of a meritorious official.

Shi Chong, however, wanted to take this opportunity to help Wu Xun's group.

He was indeed a crude and uncouth martial artist; he would seize any opportunity to climb the ranks.

Although he was somewhat displeased, he still nodded slightly: "Since it is the general's recommendation, I will have the Privy Council send someone to invite these two to the capital."

A few days later, Generals Zhang and Wang arrived in the capital.

Han Wenzhe went to see them in person and found that the two men were also dignified and handsome, indeed like capable generals, so he was relieved.

He personally went to the armory and transferred two thousand sets of iron armor, three thousand sets of leather armor, three hundred divine crossbows, and countless bows and arrows, all of which were handed over to Shi Chong.

Shi Chong and his men were overjoyed, as their own troops were fully equipped with armor, while the bandits probably couldn't even muster a few complete sets of armor.

Before their departure, the emperor issued an edict to reward the three armies, and all three generals were given honorary titles.

Shi Chong thanked the emperor for his kindness, signed a military pledge, and led his army out of the capital, heading straight for Jizhou.

When the governor of Jizhou learned that the imperial army was about to arrive, he hurriedly opened the city gates to welcome them.

Shi Chong, however, was a cautious man. Instead of immediately entering the city, he set up camp outside the city and had the prefect come to his camp to meet him.

Although the prefect was a noble civil official, he could not maintain his dignity in the face of Shi Chong, who commanded nearly 20,000 troops, and obediently went to the camp.

Shi Chong, however, was not arrogant. He offered the host's seat to the prefect, who repeatedly tried to dodge, before they finally sat down as host and guest.

"I summoned the prefect to inquire about the background of these Liangshan bandits."

A hint of doubt flashed across Shi Chong's face: "I heard that this band of outlaws is called the Black Wind Bandits. They only started their uprising in Dangshan this summer. How could they have built up such a large force in just three months?"

Upon hearing this, the prefect also looked embarrassed.

Most of Liangshanbo's waters are within the territory of Jizhou. If investigated, Li Zheng and his gang grew powerful there, so he would also bear some responsibility for failing to take precautions.

But he was genuinely puzzled, scratching his head: "General, you may not know this, but this band of bandits infiltrated the territory of Jizhou. In the past few months, they have neither burned, killed, nor looted, nor plundered civilians or attacked cities."

"Even Yuncheng County at the foot of Liangshan never informed me. If the imperial court hadn't sent someone to question me, I wouldn't have known there was such a group of people on Liangshan Marsh."

Upon hearing this, Shi Chong was completely baffled.

How can bandits be so unprofessional as they don't rob or plunder?!

Shi Chong couldn't figure it out, so he simply stopped thinking about it: "I would like to ask the prefect to mobilize the troops in the city to escort the grain route for me."

The prefect said, "General, you can rest assured. I only hope that you will win a great victory this time and quell the river bandits and outlaws as soon as possible."

The next morning, Shi Chong divided his troops into three routes.

The vanguard was led by "Giant Spirit General" Wang Kuang with 3,000 cavalrymen, with Shi Chong as the commander of the central army and Zhang Jing, "Bow and Bow General", as the commander of the rear army.

Three thousand cavalrymen led the way, their iron hooves kicking up clouds of dust wherever they went.

Following behind, the central army, a mix of infantry and cavalry, with banners obscuring the sun, and wagons and baggage being dragged for two or three miles.

The sheer scale of the event caused passersby to flee in terror.

. . . . . .

Meanwhile, the Liangshan stronghold began to recuperate after conquering Shanzhou.

The story of Shan Prefecture has spread throughout the three prefectures of Shan, Ji, and Yun, and even throughout the entire Shandong province. Everyone in the bandit camp knows about it.

Even the storytellers in the teahouses knew that a group of strongmen from Liangshan had dared to attack the prefectural government.

In no time, all sorts of strongmen and heroes flocked to him, as if bees had smelled the fragrance of flowers.

Li Zheng accepted all offers without hesitation. After all, Liangshan had plundered the grain of one prefecture and two counties, enough to last them a year or two.

However, the quality of those who came to join them varied greatly; very few could truly be called heroes, while the majority were villains.

These days, Li Zheng has also been selecting those who are notorious for their evil deeds and who have not restrained themselves after coming up the mountain, throwing them all into the prisoner-of-war camp.

Only those honest and law-abiding individuals were kept to expand the army.

There are now twenty leaders on the mountain, and as many as three thousand five hundred soldiers and henchmen, all fully equipped with weapons and armor.

The daily drills were grand in scale, but they also resembled a separatist regime.

On that day, scouts reported that a large number of government troops had gathered in Jeju Prefecture, numbering as many as 20,000.

Upon receiving the news, Ma San dared not delay and immediately reported it to Li Zheng in the Juyi Hall.

Upon hearing this, Li Zheng immediately summoned the leaders to discuss countermeasures.

Upon hearing that the visitor was Shi Chong, Wu Anqing, Cao Su, He Zhihan, and other leaders who came from the imperial court all frowned.

Li Zheng, being extremely perceptive, immediately inquired, "Is this person someone with a reputation?"

Wu Anqing said, "Brother, you may not know this, but Shi Chong comes from a family of generals for generations. His ancestor was Shi Shouxin, a founding general of the dynasty. And Shi Chong is the most outstanding member of the Shi family in this generation. I'm afraid he has ill intentions."

Shi Shouxin?

Li Zheng frowned, feeling that this guy sounded familiar; he seemed to be one of the people involved in the "releasing military power over a cup of wine" incident.

Those were the meritorious figures during the founding of the Great Zhou Dynasty, and they were also figures who left their mark on history in their previous lives. They should not be underestimated.

He couldn't help but ask, "What are Shi Chong's abilities like?"

Wu Anqing remained silent for a moment before speaking, "This man's nickname is 'The Invincible General.' Although he comes from a prestigious family, he was the top scholar in the martial arts examination. If we only consider martial arts skills, he might not be inferior to me."

Li Zheng was slightly startled. Not counting himself, Wu Anqing was already one of the most capable fighters on Liangshan.

If we consider the fighting prowess in Water Margin, he would be at least at the level of the Five Tiger Generals.

Cao Su and He Zhihan were both a level below Wu Anqing, at most at the level of the Eight Generals.

As for Tang Meng, Lei Desheng, and others, they are a level below.

Of course, there's also Li Bao, who's a bug, but he doesn't know martial arts and just charges around aimlessly on the battlefield.

As they were talking, Zheng Qing stood up and said, "Brother, don't worry. Even if he had 20,000 troops, let alone 200,000, with 800 li of water here, would they swim over?"

"My siblings and I then went to the surrounding fishing villages and confiscated all the boats, leaving them only able to look at the moored boats with longing!"