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

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Huang An was bound hand and foot, tears and snot streaming down his face, and he kowtowed repeatedly in a state of panic.

At this moment, Bian Xiang and Xu Ning also escorted Chao Gai and the other two into the house.

Looking at Huang An in the middle of the room, who was as terrified as a wild dog,

Chao Gai and Zhu Tong both wore expressions of disdain.

Even Wu Yong kept shaking his head.

"Chief Zhao, where is Commander Lei?"

Zhu Tong looked around the room and saw that all of Huang An's commanders and captains were there, but Lei Heng was nowhere to be seen. His heart tightened immediately.

"Commander Lei? Are you talking about Lei Heng, the Winged Tiger?"

Zhao Yuan sneered, "The three of us, disguised as tenant farmers, approached Huang An just now and overheard Lei Heng saying that our Liangshan has countless gold, silver, jewels, money, and grain! He wants to use these to lure Huang An into attacking Liangshan. Tell me, can I let him live?"

"You've already killed him?" Zhu Tong asked in shock.

"No, not really, but who knows in a bit,"

Zhao Yuan waved his hand, instructing Bian Xiang and Xu Ning to escort the three men aside, leaving only Huang An kneeling in the middle of the room.

"Commander Huang, I have a question, could you please explain it to me?"

Zhao Yuan asked curiously, "Where did you get so many horses under your command?"

He had always found it unbelievable that Chao Gai had captured over six hundred horses in the battle between Huang An in the original timeline.

Now that all the horses belong to him, Zhao Yuan is quite curious about their origins.

"Reporting to Chief Zhao, these horses were all transferred by the Prefect from the Imperial Guards stationed in Jizhou!"

Huang An hurriedly replied, "If I can't bring these horses back, I'm afraid the Imperial Guards of Jizhou Prefecture will have to be mobilized..."

"Heh, you've got some nerve, trying to scare me with the Imperial Guards?"

Zhao Yuan gave a cold laugh.

Xu Ning, standing nearby, also shouted, "Stop talking nonsense! The Imperial Guards in Jizhou City only have four commanders under the Imperial Guard Infantry Command! And they are all infantry, how could they possibly be equipped with horses? Even the commanders under the Tokyo Cavalry Command only have ten men and barely five or six horses. You have some nerve to lie and try to extort us!"

The Xu family had served in the military for generations, so they were naturally well aware of the number of imperial guards stationed in each prefecture!

Huang An had four commanders under his command, and there should have been more than two thousand men.

The commander was the most common combat unit in the Song army. Each commander was in charge of more than 500 people, and the officers in charge were the commander and the deputy commander.

Below the commander are the captains who command a hundred men, and below the captains are the captains who command fifty men.

In order to prevent military generals from rebelling, the Song Dynasty frequently moved its troops to garrison and relocation, which is why there was a saying that generals did not know their soldiers and soldiers did not know their generals.

However, only generals of command rank or above could mobilize troops alone.

At the command level, the operations are generally not broken up or disrupted.

Even when garrisoning troops was being moved, the commander usually brought his troops with him.

While this prevented high-ranking generals from instigating rebellions, it also gave commanders the opportunity to embezzle and receive salaries without working.

For Huang An's forces, which had an authorized strength of four commanders but only a little over a thousand men, it was already considered quite capable.

Some unscrupulous individuals might not even be able to muster twenty or thirty soldiers under a single command.

When these commanders were short-handed, they each displayed their unique abilities when mobilized by the imperial court.

Either bribe the king's court officials with large sums of money to avoid being transferred,

Or simply spend the money on your new boss.

The Song Dynasty army degenerated little by little from the root in this way.

“I remember the commanders of the Imperial Guards in Jeju City were Wuwei, Xiongsheng, and Xuanyi…”

Xu Ning spoke slowly, and Huang An trembled with each name he uttered.

"this......"

Large beads of sweat had already formed on Huang An's forehead.

He had hoped to use the Imperial Guards to intimidate Zhao Yuan and buy himself a chance to survive.

Who would have thought that among these bandits, there would be someone so knowledgeable about the troop deployment in Jeju!

"Very well, since you're unwilling to speak, I won't force you. Men, drag Huang An away..."

Before Zhao Yuan could finish speaking, Huang An quickly kowtowed and said,

"Chief, I'm willing to speak, I'm willing to speak..."

Chapter 144 Which is more important, the people's hearts or the army?

After Huang An's explanation,

Only then did everyone understand the origin of those five or six hundred horses.

It turns out that these were indeed the imperial guards and garrison troops of various prefectures and counties in the eastern and western parts of the capital.

However, according to the register, these military horses, which were still alive and kicking in reality, had all died due to various accidents.

In short, the generals and officials of various prefectures and counties in the Jingdong West Circuit falsely reported the deaths of horses, and then sold these horses, which were actually still alive but were recorded as dead in the prefectural registers, to Huang An.

Huang An then arranged for these horses to be transported to the horse market on the border of Hebei for sale.

Generally, these horses were purchased by officials in the Song court responsible for procuring military horses for the army.

After they bought these horses, they distributed them to various prefectures and counties.

In other words, some of these military horses may have gone in circles and ended up returning to their original prefecture.

But after this whole process, the prefectural officials earned money from selling the horses.

Middlemen like Huang An profited from the price difference.

Purchasing officials at the border horse market also made a profit under the guise of buying horses.

It can be said that everyone was happy, the only one who suffered losses was the Song court's national treasury.

Xu Ning was a member of the Imperial Guard in Tokyo. Although the officers in Bianliang also tried various ways to make money, none of them dared to go to this extent.

Therefore, Xu Ning was genuinely unaware of this kind of roundabout horse trading.

"Chief Zhao, King Zhao, if you spare my life, I will sell all the military horses sold to me by the various prefectures and counties of Jingdong West Road to Liangshan!"

Huang An pleaded, "I'll only charge the cost price!"

"You dog of a gang leader, you're still thinking about money!" Deng Fei glared and cursed.

His red eyes were extremely intimidating.

After all, people at that time believed that only those who ate human flesh would have red eyes.

Huang An clearly thought so too.

Staring at him by Deng Fei, all the fat on his body immediately trembled.

He was terrified that the red-eyed man in front of him would pounce on him at any moment and cut off his flesh to go with his wine.

“Chief, you are wise. Trading horses requires a huge investment. If I can’t even recoup my costs, even the largest fortune won’t last a year or two!”

Huang An kowtowed as he explained with a sincere expression.

After he finished speaking, the leaders of Liangshan were clearly tempted (bica).

Xu Ning immediately suggested, "Brother, there's always been a shortage of horses on the mountain. Although a branch camp has been set up, we don't know when the horses from there will arrive. Why not spare Huang An's life and let him specialize in reselling horses for Liangshan!"

Liangshan lacked sufficient troops, which was a major headache for cavalry commanders like Xu Ning and Lin Chong.

Although they could also lead infantry, most of their skills ultimately lay with the cavalry.

“Brother, Teacher Xu is right. We don’t know when the horse market in the north will open. Keeping Huang An will give Liangshan another source of horses!” Sun An also advised.

Others also offered their opinions, but they all expressed the same sentiment as the two of them.

Only Lu Zhishen stood to the side, his face grim and silent.

"Brother, what do you think?" Zhao Yuan looked at the Flower Monk.

"Brother, I don't know what you're thinking, but don't forget why we came down the mountain this time!"

After saying this, Lu Zhishen fell silent.

"Yes, what did we come down the mountain for this time? Teacher Xu, do you remember?" Zhao Yuan asked.

"This... is to uphold justice for the villagers of Xixi Village!"

Xu Ning's expression changed; he already knew Zhao Yuan's plan.

"Brother, is it really worth giving up a source of military horses just to fulfill a promise to the villagers?"

"The teacher is mistaken,"

Zhao Yuan stood up and said to everyone, "In your eyes, it's just a promise to the villagers, but in my opinion, it's a major event that concerns the hearts of the Xixi villagers!"

"In the eyes of the world, Liangshan is still just a group of bandits who only know how to plunder. Before, you tried to lure all the disaster victims from Hebei to the mountain with grain, but halfway there, when Yunzhou distributed grain for relief, most of the disaster victims immediately abandoned Liangshan and went to Xucheng!"

"why is that?"

"This is because the people do not trust Liangshan; their hearts are not with Liangshan!"

"The villagers of Xixi Village asked us to come down the mountain to uphold justice for them because they trust us! They have placed their hearts and minds on Liangshan!"

"If we break our promise, we will lose even the last bit of trust and the last bit of public support!"

"Think about it carefully, is it really worth it?"

Zhao Yuan's words immediately silenced everyone in the main room.

The Liangshan generals looked ashamed, while the other court officials and Chao Gai were all horrified, especially Wu Yong.

He stared wide-eyed at Zhao Yuan, his mouth agape.

Previously, Wu Yong thought that although this new leader of Liangshan was slightly better than Wang Lun, he wasn't that much more capable.

At best, he's just another bandit who robs and steals.

But after hearing Zhao Yuan's words, Wu Yong only had one thought left in his mind.

This man is definitely plotting a rebellion! He wants to overthrow the Song Dynasty!

Have you thought it all through?

Zhao Yuan smiled and glanced at everyone.

Seeing the Liangshan generals nod, he ordered, "Take Huang An to the threshing ground and hand him over to Pei Xuan for public interrogation!"

"Don't worry, brother, leave everything to me."

Lu Zhishen laughed heartily, grabbed Huang An, and headed out the door.

But halfway there, they heard a "drip-drip" sound of water dripping.

Looking down, they saw that Huang An had wet his pants in fright!

"You dog of a gang leader, now you know fear? Why weren't you scared when you were bullying the villagers of Xixi Village before!"

Lu Zhishen cursed angrily, then threw Huang An to the ground, grabbed him by the back of his collar, and dragged him out the door.

"Brother Deng Fei, take your soldiers and bring all the remaining commanders, captains, and squad leaders from Huang'an's army to the threshing ground so that the villagers of Xixi Village can identify them on the spot. Also, tell Pei Xuan that anyone who has bullied the villagers should be severely punished!"

Upon hearing this, several of the remaining court officers in the main hall collapsed to the ground.

Zhao Yuan ignored them and glanced at Chao Gai and the other two beside him.

"Oh, right, take them to the threshing ground for a public trial as well, and that winged tiger from earlier too!"

Chapter 145 Chao Gai, how much money are you prepared to pay to save your life?

The public trial at the threshing ground went very smoothly.

Having learned from the precedent of the previous public trial of Li Baozheng, this time when Liangshan brought Huang An and other officers up,

The villagers of Xixi Village immediately came out to recount their crimes.

Soon, Pei Xuan's verdict was announced.

Huang An was beheaded, and most of the officers, who had also raped women in Xixi Village, were executed along with Huang An!

In addition, two or three officers who had merely robbed villagers of their grain were sentenced to caning.