Liangshanbo, Yunzhou, since the second uprising of Song Jiang was completely suppressed, Liangshanbo was finally calm, and some of the generals who participated in the Liangshanbo uprising were suppressed and died, like Song Jiang, Wu Yong, Li Kui, etc., and some became the cadres of the Jingzhao Army, such as Yan Qing, Guan Sheng, Hua Rong, Ruan Sanxiong and so on.

Some of them died in the invasion of the Jin soldiers, like the Sun Li brothers in Dengzhou, and some disappeared in the grass, such as Lin Chong, Wu Song, Luda and others.

However, there are also some who still live in Yunzhou, and after being pardoned by the government, they have become local heroes, and there are currently three people, including Liu Tang, Shi Xiu, and Zhang Rong.

In the afternoon of this day, two men came from the south gate of Xucheng County, Yunzhou, after experiencing previous wars, Xucheng County has long been dilapidated, the city wall collapsed, the city gate is in disrepair, but the commercial main street in the county is still relatively prosperous, this commercial main street is three miles long, there are large and small restaurants, teahouses, green buildings, Guan Pu shops, silver shops, cloth shops, grain stores, butcher shops, snack shops, etc., selling one after another, lively and abnormal.

There are no defenders at the city gate, only a few old soldiers are responsible for opening and closing the door, although Yunzhou has been occupied by the Jin soldiers, but now it is under the jurisdiction of the King of Qi, there are no Jin soldiers stationed here, and it belongs to the rear, even the army is very small, only a thousand soldiers are stationed.

The two big men are Ruan Xiaowu and Ruan Xiaoqi, they came to Yunzhou to contact the old people on the order of Li Yanqing, as far as they know, there are three old generals of Liangshanbo living in Xucheng, one is Zhang Rong, one is Shi Xiu, and the other is Liu Tang, seven or eight years have passed since the fall of the Liangshan army, everyone has already started a new life, whether they can be convinced, this is a big question, the Ruan brothers are not sure.

The two of them walked slowly along the street, and Ruan Xiaoer suddenly pointed to a restaurant not far in front of him, "It should be it!" ”

When the Ruan brothers were salt lords, they had dealings with Zhang Rong in Xucheng County, and they knew that Zhang Rong nominally opened a big restaurant in Xucheng County, but in fact he raised hundreds of water thieves in Liangshan, and he was still engaged in intercepting merchant ships and grain ships.

This is a large restaurant covering an area of eight acres, it is the largest restaurant in Yunzhou, the huge signboard reads the word 'Rong Ji', the front is a four-storey restaurant, there are more than a dozen small courtyards in the back, there is a gardenia lantern hanging above the main entrance, indicating that there are secret prostitutes in the restaurant, which is more common in the Great Song Dynasty, basically half of the restaurants have erotic services, and the gardenia lantern hanging at the door is the sign.

Of course, prostitutes are not raised by restaurants, but restaurant guys can go to the prostitution hall at any time to invite people, and the restaurant also provides a venue.

The Ruan brothers walked into the restaurant, and a bartender immediately greeted him, "The guest officer hasn't been here for a long time, please sit upstairs!" ”

Ruan Xiaowu scolded with a smile, "Lao Tzu hasn't been back for almost eight years, and he still knows me?" ”

Ruan Xiaoqi sneered, "Where does he know you, he says this to everyone." ”

When I turned around, I saw that the bartender was greeting two more guests, "The guest officer hasn't been here for a long time, please upstairs!" ”

It was really a verbal greeting, Ruan Xiaowu had to shake his head and walk towards the second floor.

"Call the shopkeeper, I have something important to do with him!" The Nguyen brothers sat down at a table and commanded their fellows.

After a while, the shopkeeper hurriedly came over, "Two guest officers looking for me?" ”

"I'm a friend of your proprietor, and I want to meet him!"

"Who are the two?"

"You tell him that our surname is Nguyen, the Nguyen brothers."

The shopkeeper was a foreigner, and he had never heard of the name of the Ruan brothers, so he nodded, "The two masters sit down for a while, and I will come when I go!" ”

The Ruan brothers didn't order, just sat and waited, and after a while, the shopkeeper came back and said, "Two Ruan masters, please come with me!" ”

The Ruan brothers got up and followed him to the backyard, and walked to a single courtyard, where the shopkeeper pointed to the room, "The proprietor is waiting for the two inside." ”

"Thank you!"

The Ruan brothers pushed the door and walked into the house, and as soon as they entered the room, two steel knives were on their necks at the same time, and they saw Zhang Rong sitting at a small table drinking, and the other two sitting opposite, it was Shi Xiu and Liu Tang.

Zhang Rong snorted and said, "Are the two generals coming to arrest us?" ”

Ruan Xiaoqi said coldly: "It turns out that you have taken refuge in the Jin people and insulted your ancestors!" ”

'Bang! Zhang Rong slapped the table and said angrily: "What nonsense are you talking about, when did we take refuge in Jinren?" ”

"Since you haven't taken refuge in Jinren, what are you afraid of when you see Song Jun?"

Zhang Rong was speechless for a moment, and Shi Xiu said in a round on the opposite side: "Forget it, they are all brothers who grew up together in Liangshan Bo, why bother to be born like this?" ”

Zhang Rong gave the subordinates next to him a look, and the two subordinates took away the steel knives, and the Ruan brothers didn't care about their faces, they directly stepped forward and sat down, and poured themselves a glass of wine.

Shi Xiu smiled: "You two have been promoted, have you forgotten your brothers?" ”

At this time, Liu Tang, who had been silent, said coldly: "The official who was exchanged for slavery and servant knees, don't do it!" ”

Ruan Xiaowu was furious, "Am I a slave?" Do you know how many Tangut people I have killed, and how many girls and real people I have killed? I destroyed the Western Xia and expelled the Jurchens from Hedong, this is my credit, and my Ruan Xiaowu's rule deserves to stand up to the sky, unlike you, who survived under the iron hooves of the Jin soldiers. ”

These words were said extremely seriously, Liu Tang couldn't hold it on his face, he snorted, got up to leave, but was pulled by Shi Xiu, "Ruan Wulang speaks like this, he never shows mercy, you don't know!" ”

At this time, Zhang Rong on the side asked, "Then what are you doing here?" ”

"I invited you to participate in the Northern Expedition by order of the regent, expel the Jin soldiers, and recover your homeland, do you want to do it?"

Shi Xiu couldn't help but be moved and asked, "Is it Li Yanqing who named us?" ”

"Exactly! I named the three of you, and I hope you can raise a rebel army to assist the Song army in counterattacking Jingdong and Lianglu. ”

"So what's in it for us?" Zhang Rong asked.

"If you are willing to be an official, you can be a commander, if you are not willing to be an official, you can be a commander, and you can be rewarded with silver and land, you choose for yourself?"

Shi Xiu was more keen on fame and fortune, and he muttered: "But I heard that there are also three levels of commanders, and the lowest is a general. ”

"It should be the second-level commander, we were also the same back then, equivalent to a partial general, when we joined the Song Army, it was also this position, if the merit is great, it is possible to be a first-level commander, or even a third-level commander."

Ruan Xiaoqi persuaded again: "Everyone is around forty years old, in another ten years, this life will be almost the same, can you just live like this, and don't leave something for your descendants?" Let the grandson say, my grandfather was a bandit in Liangshan, or pat his chest and say, my grandfather is an anti-gold hero, expel the Tartars, and restore the homeland? Think for yourselves! This should be the last chance of your life, and it's up to you whether you can seize it or not. ”

After Ruan Xiaoqi finished speaking, the room fell silent, and Shi Xiu finally couldn't help but say to Zhang Rong: "Third brother, I think it's not bad, what do you see?" ”

Zhang Rong nodded, "If it is really Li Yanqing who said it so well, I am also willing, I am afraid that I will change my hexagram in the end!" Just like when the imperial court recruited us. ”

Ruan Xiaowu said: "You don't have to worry about this, the regent's wife is Hu Sanniang, everyone knows each other very well, the leader of the pro-soldier used to be Yan Qing, and now Yan Qing is a general, all of them are under control, Zhang Shun has been a water thief on the Yangtze River, and now he is the deputy commander of the scout battalion, the first-level commander, Guan Sheng is the chief general of the heavy armored infantry, the second-level commander, Hua Rong is the chief general of the Shenjian battalion, the second-level commander, the three of our brothers are in charge of the naval army, and they have just been promoted to the second-level commander because of the rebellion palace coup, these are your old brothers, living examples are in front of you, How dare we come and solicit you? ”

Zhang Rong was also really moved, he looked at Liu Tang, Liu Tang took a sip of wine and said in a sullen voice: "I don't care if I am an official or not, but I am willing to expel the Tartars and restore my homeland!" ”

The three of them agreed, and Zhang Rong said, "Then what should we do?" ”

Ruan Xiaowu asked, "How many people do you have now?" ”

Zhang Rong said: "There are only a few dozen Zhuang Ding in Liu Tang Manor, Shi Xiu has opened a martial arts hall, which can gather more than a hundred disciples, and I have five hundred brothers in Liangshanbo, let's get together six or seven hundred!" ”

Ruan Xiaowu said: "Then take these five or six hundred people as the foundation, set up a banner to recruit the rebels, openly erect the banner of resistance to Jin, and we will provide the required armor and weapons." ”

Zhang Rong was a little puzzled, "How can you provide the armor?" ”

Ruan Xiaowu smiled faintly, "We have prepared 10,000 pairs of armor, which can be transported to Weishan Lake at any time." ”