Chapter 164: The Iron Bull, the Heroes Climb Mount Lushan
After meeting his wife and son, Huang Wenbing's mind finally became a little clearer.

Killing Cai Yanei would be tantamount to cutting oneself off from the government.

If you control your wife, you control your life.

What else could he do but obey?

Abandoning his wife and children and completely turning to Cai Jiu?

Based on his understanding of the person, even if it was just hearsay, if he heard the news that he had killed his son, it would be a disaster for him.

Therefore, the only way now is to follow Xiao Mengde all the way to the end.

Thinking about the first half of his life, ten years of hard study! With a belly full of poetry and books, he ended up going to the mountains to be a bandit, with a dark future ahead. Two lines of turbid tears flowed down his plump cheeks.

The most painful thing in life is the shattered dreams.

But what is more terrifying than having your dreams shattered is having your body torn into pieces.

Huang Wenbing calmed down, bowed to Cao Jie politely, and said:

"I am Huang Wenbing, a villain. People in the underworld call me 'hornet sting'. I know this describes me as a vicious person. But I have understood a truth since I was young: if you don't kill the snake, you will suffer from it. None of the people I have harmed in my life are innocent. If I don't harm them, they will come to harm me..."

Cao Jie touched his nose: Are you implying something to me?

Huang Wenbing was determined to make it happen. He said to himself, "I am already over thirty years old, have accomplished nothing, and am just an idle judge in the small Wuwei Army!"

"Alas! I have been studying since I was young, and I am well-versed in classics and history. I boast that my talent and strategies are not inferior to others. However, because I have no backing, I have no way to advance, and I have no place to worship gods. I always see those useless people in the court who get to be high officials and ride fat horses. For example, Cai Jiu is mediocre, but because his father is Cai Jing, he gets a high official position with a lot of beautiful wives and concubines..."

"To be honest, brother, I want to do it too! I want to do it every day and every night! So I spent half my life's savings to become a lackey for the Cai family. But in the past year or so, Cai Jiu has not been willing to give me a bone to taste. Oh! Brother, tell me what to do! If I have any disloyalty, I will be struck by lightning."

For every dog-slaughtering person who is righteous, there are many scholars who are unfaithful.

The words of scholars are lies.

Compared with the familiar Liangshan heroes, Cao Jie does not believe in this wasp sting.

The heroes of Liangshan have the bonus of a God's perspective. Although their personalities and characters are different, the word "righteousness" is hidden in their hearts.

Huang Wenbing can be used, but we have to find something to hold against him before we can use him.

Otherwise you will hurt yourself.

Cao Jie also said different things to different people. He first won him over and then made big promises: "We will leave Jiangzhou sooner or later. If you help us get things done, we will not harm you. I, Cao Jie, will never kill you..."

"A hero in the martial arts world relies on integrity." Huang Wenbing showed a convinced expression and asked, "I wonder what you need me to do?"

"The original intention of doing all this was to prevent Brother Wen Bing from harming us. Since you said so, then... aren't you going to help Cai Jiu catch Song Jiang and us? Why not promote some brothers?"

"Brother, although I have a say in front of Cai Jiu, if I affect the interests of Jiangzhou, I will definitely be excluded."

"Don't worry, it's not like he's an official, it's just a promotion of some minor officials."

For example, officials like the head of the city and the county magistrate can be dealt with with just a word, let alone the prefect.

If he just wants to keep his position as the chief, he needs to be able to suppress the strength of his subordinates.

Anyway, it won’t last long, so we sent Li Tieniu into the game.

As long as Cai Jiu nods, Tie Niu's strength will be enough to defeat those yamen runners.

When the time comes, I will go to Mount Lushan in the name of the government and there will be no worries.

The next day, Huang Wenbing went to the government office again to infiltrate Cai Jiu, explaining the interests involved and saying that he needed a capable captain to cooperate with him in order to achieve extraordinary success. Cai Jiu then asked who would be the captain.

Huang Wenbing mentioned Li Tieniu. Li Kui had been a jailer in Jiangzhou prison for a long time and was a commoner.

Cai Jiu thought that Huang Wenbing was a heartless person with only a lot of strength, so he thought that Huang Wenbing was promoting him just to take advantage of his skills.

Not suspicious.

So Li Kui took up the post and became the head of the army.

He put on his uniform and followed Huang Wenbing out of Jiangzhou City. He asked, "Huang Fengzi, are we going to Mount Lu now? All the brothers have gone."

Huang Wenbing shook his head and said, "No hurry, let's go to Pipa Pavilion first. Brother Dai Zong has also been transferred to my command, we will wait for him there."

"Oh!"

As the two were on their way to the Pipa Pavilion, Song Yulian put on beautiful makeup, put on new clothes, carried a brand new pipa, and went out with her old father to the Pipa Pavilion to sing and earn money.

Unexpectedly, halfway through the journey, they were met by three or five drunken hooligans who stopped them.

After a few pushes, Old Man Song was thrown aside, and a few hooligans started to tease the young lady in the street.

Li Kui happened to pass by and got angry. He beat the gangsters to a pulp with just three or five punches.

"Humph, what a birdman, how dare you bully a young lady like grandpa."

Li Kui cursed a few times and said, "Now I am also a captain. If anyone bullies you again, tell them my name, Tie Niu."

After saying this, he strode away without paying any attention to Song Yulian and her daughter.

"He...how did he become the head of the group?"

Old Man Song scratched his head in disbelief, but the senior official next to him was the same senior official who led the yamen runners that day, so he had no choice but to believe it.

Song Yulian was extremely afraid of the black bear. Today, when she was teased by a hooligans, the black bear saved her from the danger with just three or five punches. For a moment, her heart was beating like thunder, and she didn't know whether she was afraid or not.

Huang Wenbing, Li Kui and Dai Zong came to Mount Lushan with official documents and seals.

However, Cao Jie and others had already arrived at Lushan.

Legend has it that as early as the beginning of the Shang Dynasty, or some say during the time of King Weilie of Zhou, there was a Mr. Kuang Su who studied Taoism and sought immortality at Mount Lu.

It is said that Kuang Su's deeds of seeking Taoism and immortality in Mount Lu were known to the court. As a result, the Zhou emperor repeatedly asked him to come out of the mountains to help, but Kuang Su repeatedly avoided it and hid in the mountains.

Later, Kuang Su disappeared without a trace. Some people said that he became an immortal. Later, people glorified this event and called the place where Kuang Su sought immortality "the house of immortals."

Because the person who "became immortal" was named Kuang, it is also called Kuang Mountain, or Kuang Lu.

In the Song Dynasty, in order to avoid the taboo of Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin's omission of the word "Kuang", it was renamed Lushan.

There are many stories of immortals in this place that are spread throughout the world. There are innumerable temples and monasteries on the mountain. Every year, devout believers come from thousands of miles away to make pilgrimages. In addition, the mountains are high and the waters are beautiful, with peaks overlapping and a variety of scenery. There are quite a few people who come here just to enjoy the scenery.

The scenery of the back mountain is particularly secluded and strange. There are many dragons and snakes in the deep mountains and swamps. The deep forests and valleys are mostly the habitats of tigers, leopards, jackals and wolves.

Those who visit the back mountain often never return. Most people speculate on their whereabouts. Some say they were eaten by tigers, wolves, or demons; others say they were saved by immortals or Buddhas. There is much debate and no consensus.

After all, human beings are made of flesh and blood, and most of them have weak wills. Because of the lessons learned from the past, people who want to visit the back mountain have gradually become hesitant. This has benefited those masters and extraordinary people who live in peace in the back mountain, who can avoid many worldly troubles and enjoy the tranquility of the sacred mountain alone.

(End of this chapter)