However, seeing the leaders of the various armies returning victoriously from the sweeping operations ahead, they were all extremely excited at first, but after drinking a few cups, their expressions gradually became as unmoved as Zhang Rong's.
Even among them, there are many rude and unscrupulous people who just say whatever comes to their mind...
"Brother, are you really going to Tokyo to accept the amnesty?" A man who was a little drunk suddenly brought up the matter.
"Why are you still asking for amnesty?" Zhang Rong's expression remained unchanged when he heard this, or rather, his dark face hardly changed color. "Didn't we accept the amnesty two years ago? I became the pacification envoy, you became the commanders and leaders, and Lao Xiao and his brothers became county magistrates."
"That's not what Lao Wu meant."
Another drunken man spoke directly, but he sat closer to Zhang Rong, almost on his left and right hands. He was Zhang Rong's trusted military advisor, called You Xuejiu. "Brother, why should you refuse? Two years ago, the Song emperor was trapped on the Huai River, and the world was in chaos. We used his name to contact the surrounding government troops to drive away the golden dog by the water. It was a temporary measure to accept the amnesty. But today, the Song emperor is in Tokyo, and General Yue led the army to bypass us. If we are slow, we can take Yanzhou and surround us slowly; if we are impatient, we are surrounded now. If General Yue is more ruthless, what will happen if he kills us directly..."
"You know we're being controlled by someone?" Zhang Rong, who usually loves to laugh, interrupted him coldly. "You said so much and so clearly, are you trying to persuade me to go to Tokyo, or do you not want me to go?"
"Of course I don't want you to go!" You Xuejiu responded earnestly, but he was so anxious that tears came down. "I just want to say that if we go to Tokyo, the fake recruitment will become the real one. By then, a transfer order will separate us brothers to different places, and neither you nor I can live so freely anymore!"
"But the situation is like this, what can we do?" Zhang Rong sighed. "If we really pretend not to understand and force ourselves not to go, if General Yue receives an imperial decree to suppress us, can we really hold on to Dongping?"
"At worst, we can go back to Liangshan Lake!" The first person who spoke up threw down his wine bowl, pulled off his clothes, revealing a tuft of black hair on his chest, and started to get drunk in the tent. "Once we enter the lake and Liangshan, it's our world. Unless someone flies over here, who can stop us?"
Hearing this drunken talk, many people in the tent frowned slightly, and when the scholar You heard this, he couldn't help but knock on the table with his wine bowl: "Old Five, you idiot, you insist on saying that Yue Fei flew over? Don't you know that Yue Fei's name is Fei? I'm afraid what you said will come true!"
There was a sudden commotion in the tent, which became increasingly chaotic.
One talked about gods, that one talked about the Dragon King, one drank wine, that one clapped his hands on the table, you talked about military affairs, he talked about God's will, but the situation was getting more and more unbearable... In the end, the vulgar and arrogant ones had already shouted the slogan "Fight to Tokyo and let my brother become an official"; and the timid and dissatisfied ones gradually became impatient and began to speak coldly.
Seeing that the noise was getting more and more outrageous, Zhang Rong became impatient and suddenly stood up. He kicked over the table in front of him with a loud bang, and then he pulled out a knife and stabbed it directly into the wet ground in front of him.
The tent suddenly became quiet, with only the sound of rain and frogs croaking outside.
"Stop talking nonsense!" Zhang Rong, shirtless and wearing a silk waistcoat, stood there with a proud look, looking at me coldly. "Those who say they are fighting the government army and General Yue are all idiots! Ask yourself from the bottom of your heart, if there is a chance of winning, why would I think of going to Tokyo? If you are fooling around like this, where are the lives of our brothers? If you want to fight, you have the final say, fight first and then I will bring it up!"
At least 30% of the people in the tent were stunned for a moment.
"And those who say weird things, don't think that I, Zhang, don't understand... Don't you have the same idea as those people who abandoned me after a defeat last year? You came out of the marshes, became officials in a county or a township, and have ambitions. You don't want to go back to the marshes to live a hard life." Zhang Rong continued to glance coldly in the tent. "So you feel uncomfortable when you hear about going back to Liangshanpo! But I, Zhang, feel uncomfortable too!"
About thirty to forty percent of the people in the tent were terrified.
"But even though I feel disgusted, I don't blame you." Zhang Rong suddenly sighed. "It's because you only have this little world, or you only want to live a comfortable life in Liangshan, or you want to be recruited one day to bring honor to your family... But have you ever thought about my world?"
At this moment, even people like You Xuejiu became cautious and just listened with their ears closed.
"Old Five." Zhang Rong pointed at the man who had taken off his clothes and shouted that he would fight to the capital to exchange officials and said sternly. "You hate the government and the Song Dynasty, but I don't hate them either? Why did I become a bandit back then? It was because that old official Zhao who practiced Taoism wanted to transport some flowers and stones from the southeast to the capital. There were so many stones, one boat after another, that they filled up the canal. When the canal was not full, they went through the Sishui River and turned to the Jishui River from our Liangshan Lake. As a result, the Sishui River was narrow and the ferry was very slow... Because of those stones, fishing and ferrying were not allowed. For several months, people were starving to death. So they elected me as the leader and told the county magistrate. The magistrate didn't meet him, but the duty captain met him. He beat me with a stick and put me in jail. Everyone was so angry that they robbed the prison and rescued me. I killed the officials and rebelled, and then I went to Liangshan! You, Old Five, keep saying that you can't forget this kind of thing, but how can I forget it?"
The fifth brother's face turned red and dark, he wanted to say something but stopped, so he could only lower his head.
"But what makes me better than you, and better than those who forget their roots after becoming officials, is that I never forget the basics." Zhang Rong suddenly became more fervent. "I remembered from the beginning that being the leader of Liangshanpo is basically to ensure that the people around can fish and farm, so that they don't lose their lives in vain when the officials exchange countless lives for stones!"
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