Chapter 15: Dai Zong Takes the Blame and Crashes into the Great Banner, Tong Guan Joins Forces to Surround Liangshan

Song Jiang, seeing that Dai Zong had confessed, stepped forward and ordered his men, “Listen up! Seize this traitor who killed his own brother!”

Song Jiang’s two disciples, Kong Ming and Kong Liang, immediately rushed forward, each grabbing one of Dai Zong’s arms, tightly controlling him and pinning him to the ground.

Song Jiang asked sternly, “You dare, Dai Zong! Brother Dong, though he may have been a scoundrel, a low-life, was still our brother after joining Liangshan. You, as a leader, why would you harm him?”

Dai Zong stared intently at Song Jiang, unsure how to respond.

Song Jiang continued, “Even if you discovered some wrongdoing by Dong Li Ning, you should have followed the law and brought it before the brothers for judgment. How could you use such a despicable method, bringing shame upon Liangshan?”

Zhang Yue directly interrupted Song Jiang’s leading questions, immediately lifting the lockdown order and dismissing the crowd. He ordered the three hundred and sixty posts, both overt and covert, to be in place, closely monitoring the movements of the court, to prevent internal strife from escalating into external conflict.

After the arrangements were made, Lu Zhishen, Wu Song, and others reported back. They had indeed found dozens of identical steel needles in Dai Zong’s residence.

Zhang Yue immediately ordered Lu Zhishen and Wu Song to take Dai Zong to the Hall of Righteousness for questioning.

Dai Zong finally spoke, saying angrily, “I killed Dong Li Ning in a fit of rage!”

It turned out that Dai Zong had been out gathering intelligence, running eight hundred miles, enduring hunger and exhaustion. He had only returned to the mountain stronghold in the middle of the night, already starving.

He went to the kitchen and ate some wine and meat in a hurry. He rushed to the front of the Hall of Righteousness, wanting to go back to sleep, but he was tripped by Dong Li Ning, who was eating meat and drinking in the corridor.

Dong Li Ning mocked him, saying that he was just a runner, only a leader because of his relationship with Song Jiang, and that he deserved to be a slave, running a thousand miles by day and eight hundred miles by night.

Dai Zong went back to his room and lay down. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. He got up in the middle of the night, took advantage of the darkness, and sneaked to Dong Li Ning’s residence. He drugged him with a drug that induces unconsciousness and then stabbed him with a steel needle.

The heroes sighed, pleading for Dai Zong. They said that Dong Li Ning was a complete villain, and Instructor Lin had taken pity on him and brought him to the mountain. It was fine if he died.

Zhang Yue chuckled and asked the heroes, “Brothers, you are all men of passion. When you are angry and want to kill someone, do you have the patience to first drug them with a drug that induces unconsciousness and then stab them with a steel needle?”

The heroes were speechless. They realized something was wrong.

Guan Sheng narrowed his eyes and pondered, “It’s true that if someone is angry and wants to kill someone to vent their anger, they wouldn’t be able to be so meticulous…”

Everyone nodded in agreement and stopped their blind pleas.

Zhang Yue was determined to make an example of Dai Zong because he felt that Dai Zong was the key to breaking the case of Lin Chong’s poisoning.

Di Renjie once said, “There are no coincidences in this world.”

It was impossible that Lin Chong was poisoned at the same time that Dai Zong killed his servant, Dong Li Ning, out of personal grudge.

Zhang Yue had made up his mind. He stepped forward, grabbed Dai Zong’s collar, and stared into his eyes, questioning him word for word, “Chief Dai, tell the truth. Did someone use Dong Li Ning to poison Instructor Lin and then order you to kill Dong Li Ning to silence him?”

Dai Zong was startled. His eyes involuntarily looked towards Song Jiang, who immediately turned his face away.

“Speak! Is it true or not?” Zhang Yue asked sternly.

Dai Zong saw that Song Jiang had abandoned him. He broke free from the control of Lu Zhishen and Wu Song, his hair disheveled, and he laughed hysterically, his voice hoarse, “Grand Marshal Gao has promised that if I poison Lin Chong and avenge Gao Yanei for being castrated, he will petition the emperor to grant me a high official position and a generous salary!”

“That’s right. It was I who gave Dong Li Ning the ‘Black Heart Red Pill’ that Grand Marshal Gao gave me. I tricked him into thinking it was a hangover pill and told him to give it to Instructor Lin.”

“Hahaha, then I was afraid that the matter would be exposed. After thinking about it, I simply killed Dong Li Ning to silence him!”

Dai Zong finished speaking in one breath, took out a talisman from his bosom, stuck it to his leg, muttered a spell, activated his “Divine Speed” technique, turned into a black shadow, and shot out of the Hall of Righteousness like an arrow, crashing into the base of the “Acting on Behalf of Heaven” flagstone.

He was moving so fast that his entire head was embedded in his chest, and his body was compressed as if it had been folded in half.

“Brother Dai Zong!” Song Jiang exclaimed, running to the bottom of the flagpole. He took a look and fainted again. This time, he really fainted.

“Report!”

A scout ran over, panting heavily. Before he could finish speaking, he collapsed on the ground.

Hua Rong quickly ran over, helped the scout up, and pinched his acupoint. The scout recovered and said urgently, “I just received news that a large force is mobilizing in the nearby prefectures. They are gathering towards Jizhou and Yizhou, as if they are going to surround Liangshan!”

Hua Rong heard this and went to report to Song Jiang, but Song Jiang was unconscious. He had no choice but to discuss it with Zhang Yue, Lu Junyi, and the others.

A dragon cannot be without a head for a day. So, everyone elected Zhang Yue as the acting commander of Liangshan. He raised his banner, summoned more than a hundred leaders, and gathered in front of the Hall of Righteousness to discuss how to defend against the enemy.

The generals gathered in the Hall of Righteousness, all of them full of fighting spirit. They said that even if Emperor Zhao Ji of the Song Dynasty in Bianliang personally led the troops, as long as Zhang Yue gave the order, they would charge forward and take his life.

Zhang Yue praised the generals, boosting their morale, and then gave his orders.

First, he ordered the Five Tiger Generals of the Cavalry, the Eight Gallant Knights, the ten leaders of the Infantry, and the seventeen officers to enter a state of war. They were not to remove their armor or dismount their horses. They were to stay in the stronghold, ready to fight at any moment, able to be summoned and ready to fight, and to fight to win!

Then, he ordered the sixteen small cavalry leaders to lead their troops down the mountain, deep into Jizhou and Yizhou. Within three days, they were to find out the number of enemy troops, the names of the generals, and who was the commander-in-chief.

He also ordered the eight leaders of the navy to immediately return to their posts, sending all the ships into the eight hundred miles of the lake, destroying the enemy’s warships, assassinating the enemy’s scouts and spies, and ensuring that Liangshan Marsh’s natural defenses were secure.

Zhang Yue made the arrangements and then ordered someone to inform Zhu Gui to send someone to escort Guo Tong to the stronghold to ensure her safety.

As dusk fell, Guo Tong arrived at the stronghold with the troops who had gone down the mountain to gather intelligence. Seeing Zhang Yue, she pouted and said coquettishly, “I thought you were a righteous God-Sent Savior, but you turned out to be a mountain king. What’s going on? You tricked me into coming to Water Margin Liangshan. Are you going to make me your concubine?”

Although Zhang Yue had only been away from Guo Tong for a day, he was extremely happy to see her again. He was in high spirits and said childishly, “If it weren’t for your fiancé, I might consider it!”

After their warm greeting, Zhang Yue arranged for Sun Erniang to take care of Guo Tong and then asked the scouts to report back to the back room.

It turned out that it was Tong Guan, the Grand Tutor of the Song Dynasty, who had opened up the border of Xihe, recovered four prefectures, subdued Xixia, and recovered Youyan. He was the Jiedushi of the Nine Garrison Districts and had been granted the title of Duke of Chu.

On his way back to the capital after defeating the external threats, he heard that Gao Qiu had gone to conquer Liangshan, not only had he been defeated three times by Song Jiang, but he had also been killed by the God-Sent Savior, Zhang Yue.

In a fit of rage, he changed his route to the eastern part of the capital, quickly gathered Gao Qiu’s remaining troops, and obtained more than forty thousand men. He combined them with his own six thousand Imperial Guards and levied another fifty thousand troops from nearby prefectures, totaling one hundred and fifty thousand men.

He took the route through Jizhou Prefecture and marched towards Liangshan, vowing to pull out this thorn in the emperor’s side for the emperor!