"This place is called Bangyuan, and it's not far from Feng. What about you?"
"I'm in Kaifeng right now. I'll come find you in a bit."
Fang Zhenjiang asked incredulously, "How do you have a signal there?"
I glanced at the "umbrella" placed in front of the car and said, "I brought a signal booster."
"Damn it, why didn't you say so earlier? I had to climb all this way!"
No wonder Fang Zhenjiang was a little out of breath when he spoke; he was holding onto the pole.
I said, "Let's leave it at that for now, we'll talk more when we meet."
This is truly a case of internal and external troubles. Jin Shaoyan's situation hasn't been resolved yet, and now problems have arisen on Liangshan's side. Although the problems aren't too serious yet, they are quite troublesome.
I have complete faith in the heroes' abilities. If they truly wanted to kill Fang La, they could simply launch a full-scale attack, even though that might result in the loss of many brothers. But as Fang Zhenjiang said, they didn't want to fight Fang La to the death. The 54 men from Yucai already had a relationship with Fang La, and the other 54 were meeting him for the first time. They were all rebels, and usually held a certain camaraderie. Since the offer of amnesty was a sham, they couldn't bring themselves to actually harm Fang La.
But Fang La was different. He had suffered oppression as a peasant, harboring deep resentment and yearning for dynastic change. Now, he inexplicably encountered a band of bandits using the imperial court's name to cause him trouble. In Fang La's eyes, these people were likely the court's lackeys, deserving even more death.
Just then, I saw Jin Shaoyan being escorted out of the Ten Beauties Pavilion by a woman with a somewhat noble air. The woman was under forty, impeccably dressed, and her every smile and gesture possessed a certain elegance; however, a glint in her eyes occasionally betrayed her true nature. She greeted Jin Shaoyan with a smile, seemingly both seeing him off and trying to persuade him to stay. Jin Shaoyan had completely regained his composure, a faint smile on his face as he casually played with the two small gold bricks in his hands, yet he didn't appear greedy at all. The two chatted for a short while longer before Jin Shaoyan turned to leave. Before departing, he casually handed the two gold bricks to the madam, as naturally as if giving a small trinket to an old friend. The madam tucked the gold bricks into her sleeve, her smile widening, and even gave Jin Shaoyan a flirtatious wink. At that moment, no matter how well she had concealed it, the madam's greedy nature was exposed.
Jin Shaoyan came over, and I asked him, "How is it?"
He changed his expression, rubbing his tired, smiling face as he glanced back at the madam who had just turned and gone inside, and said, "She's still testing me, but she should be able to win me over soon."
Jin Shaoyan, after all, was the young master of Jinting, and the people he usually dealt with were quite different. Moreover, he was a veteran of the pleasure quarters, so he barely managed to hold his own against the madam just now. From the detail of giving him gold bars, the madam should have been able to tell that he was a remarkable playboy, and wouldn't have taken advantage of him.
“Let’s find a place to settle down first. This kind of thing won’t let anyone make any progress in less than two or three days,” Jin Shaoyan told me.
"Hey, Shao Yan, I have something urgent to take care of. You stay here by yourself for now. Liangshan and Fang La have started fighting. Luckily, it's local. Call me if you need anything."
Jin Shaoyan said, "Then you should go quickly."
I asked, "What do you plan to do after you see Shishi?"
Jin Shaoyan avoided eye contact and lowered his head, saying, "I haven't decided yet."
I saw right through him and patted him on the shoulder, saying, "If you're going to take her away—don't let anyone find you again!"
Jin Shaoyan gave me a grateful look.
"But don't turn off your phone, you never know what kind of emergency might require you to contact us."
Jin Shaoyan hired a large cart by the roadside to load all his belongings onto it, and asked the driver to help him find an inn to stay in. The young man was capable and knew a bit of martial arts, so there was no need to worry about him.
After I got into the car, Jin Shaoyan threw two gold bricks on the passenger seat. I asked in surprise, "You brat, what do you mean by this?"
Jin Shaoyan laughed and said, "Take this to pay the toll."
This time, my car caused a commotion as soon as I drove off, but I didn't give them a chance to watch. I sped away and disappeared on the official road.
Because Kaifeng was the capital at the time, its roads were extensive. I sped southwards, and gradually the population thinned out. After driving for more than two hours, suddenly a large army was encamped ahead, with a huge banner bearing the words "Song, Vanguard of the Northern Expedition." A row of soldiers blocked the road, setting up a roadblock. Seeing my carriage approaching, they all became wary. I immediately recognized the leader as the shopkeeper from Zhu Gui's shop. I stopped the carriage, stuck my head out, and shouted, "Are you from Liangshan?"
The man was now dressed in leather armor, with a long sword slung across his waist—it looked like the uniform issued to him by Liangshan. Seeing it was me, he gestured for his men to lower their weapons and laughed, "It's Brother 109!"
I leaned against the car window and said, "Take me to see all my brothers quickly."
The waiter said, "Brother Qiang, please wait a moment. It's a few miles to the central command tent. I'll go and fetch a horse."
I opened the other car door and said, "Get in!"
The man was overjoyed and leaped forward. It seemed he had been wanting to sit on this thing for a long time. After he sat down, he wiggled his bottom, looked at this and touched that, showing great curiosity.
I stepped on the gas, and the van sped off recklessly through the Liangshan camp. The driver, as if out of nowhere, grabbed the window handle, his expression serious, just like a division-level officer supervising military discipline.
It was noon, and both sides had ceased fighting; the soldiers were resting. I drove straight to the central command tent and saw over a hundred large flags fluttering in the wind—normally there should have been one hundred and eight, but if you counted carefully, there were several more. Next to Wu Song's flag was another flag with the word "Fang" written on it, and Hua Rong had two flags flying. I instinctively looked at the last one and almost vomited blood in anger. On that flagpole, which was shorter than the others, hung a white cloth with several incredibly ugly characters written on it:
"You can't kill a cockroach."
Chapter 123 Challenging
I admit that among the 108 heroes, my skills are a bit mediocre, but that's no excuse for my banner to be so weak, is it?
Look at other people's flags, over ten feet high, painted with dragons and tigers roaring, more than a hundred of them lined up outside the tent like the United Nations. Then look at mine, barely half a head taller than Pan Changjiang, and those two characters, ugly as they are, are at least legible. That's the worst part! If they were any more abstract, people would probably think it was some kind of symbol. Also, the white cloth is all frayed. But that has one advantage: if they want to surrender, they can just wash my name off and it'll be a white flag.
I parked the car behind the tent and stormed into the central command tent. The heroes were taking advantage of their lunch break to eat and discuss the battle situation. When they saw me come in, they greeted me with laughter. Hearing that Dwarf Tiger Wang Ying had been captured, none of them seemed worried. Only Hu Sanniang looked rather worried. It seems that despite their usual playful banter, she still had a good relationship with Wang Ying, but she wasn't acting too strangely.
As soon as I walked in, I pointed at the door and shouted, "This is not how you do things! It's so unfair! Your flags are all so majestic, why is mine like it's covered in landmines?"
Everyone laughed. Lu Junyi laughed and said, "Xiao Qiang, don't be angry. We didn't do this on purpose. All the brothers have their own flags, and we also have a spare one. But we've never made a flag for you before, so we had to make do with your name in the meantime. This shows that everyone cares about you."
Sure enough, when I looked, Fang Zhenjiang and Hua Rong's flags were modified from Wu Song and Hua Rong No. 1's flags. My anger subsided a little, and I said, "Then why is my flagpole so short? There has to be some basis for it, right? If you insist that I was born short, I won't accept it. There are other flags on Liangshan that are not even short."
Hu Sanniang, Sun Erniang, and Gu Dasao all angrily retorted, "What nonsense are you spouting?"
I asked, puzzled, "Don't all the henchmen on our mountain lack even the short ones? What are you thinking?"
The three women blushed immediately...
Lu Junyi said, "Xiaoqiang, there's nothing we can do about it. Our flagpoles are all specially made. We only brought two spares with us down the mountain this time. It will be difficult to find another one of the same length."
I stroked my chin and said, "Don't we have a particularly long one?" They brought that pole that used to hang the "Acting on Behalf of Heaven" banner, intending to use it as a signal tower, but I was just saying it casually and didn't expect them to actually agree.
Unexpectedly, Lu Junyi and his group of leaders looked at each other, and Old Lu laughed and said, "Alright, it's Xiao Qiang's first time showing his face, so we brothers will all give you a head start—someone, hang Xiao Qiang's flag on the tallest flagpole."
The two henchmen suppressed their laughter and went out to carry out their orders.
Satisfied, I said, "Now tell me what the situation is."