Through the sixth month, the collapse of the whole of Liangshan began, at first, like some hidden current stirring beneath the water — and then rapidly swelled and expanded. The whole process didn’t take very long at all; before many people had even fully grasped what was truly happening, the brutal reality had already been thrust before every single one of them.
From the afternoon of the eleventh of the sixth month, when Wu Yong and the others learned what the other side had done, rumors had already begun quietly spreading across Liangshan, seeping bit by bit into the darker corners of people’s hearts. In the small hours of the twelfth, more than a dozen men were caught trying to slip back onto Liangshan under cover of night alone — and there was no way to estimate how many others, who weren’t caught, or who had already made their way into the stronghold through various connections, there might be.
The full story of the battle at Dulong Ridge — the reason the enemy had come to kill, the terror of his methods, the resolve behind his will — spread across Liangshan uncontrollably over the following days. Of the more than five hundred men released after the battle at Dulong Ridge, most had, at best, chosen to sit and watch from the sidelines — but this time, the number who truly picked a side out of sheer terror had likely already reached over half.
Of those who went to General’s Ridge or Wanjia Ridge and chose to come forward honestly or confess of their own accord, only a minority did so. In this era, those who could survive as brigands in the greenwood, or travel hundreds or thousands of li to seek their fortune, were, among ordinary people, generally the sharper, more calculating sort — this time, whether to surrender or not, the only truly safe course, one that left room to advance or retreat as needed, was to keep one’s own true position hidden. The enemy had lifted the siege of Dulong Ridge in just three days — if he really did come for Liangshan, could they honestly expect to fight him to the bitter end themselves?
Those who chose to sit and watch were, in effect, already fertile ground for betrayal to take root. And as powerless individuals, all they could do was slip back to Liangshan ahead of time, and even if they did nothing else wrong, at least see to arranging things for their families in advance. And once caught and made to realize that the leadership might make an example of them, all they could do was plead their innocence as loudly as possible, while also playing up the events at Dulong Ridge, the terror of the enemy, and the helplessness behind their own small scheme.
“We never betrayed Liangshan, we only wanted to come back ahead of time — that side means business, and we didn’t want to be suspected, so we had no choice but to sneak back quietly, what else could we do…”
These men all had friends and family on Liangshan; once the whole matter was laid out, their friends and sworn brothers naturally had no way to simply release them, but in a certain sense, they could only sympathize with what these men had done. By the second day, it was said that even more men had slipped back quietly, yet the number of those caught had actually dropped — apparently because some mid-level chieftains, moved to pity, had quietly let some of them through.
And among those more than a thousand men who had been released, those who had already carefully considered things and picked their side beforehand, upon returning to Liangshan and seeing how things stood, understood all the more clearly that only if the situation grew more chaotic still would they stand any chance of survival — and so the frequency with which they quietly, privately spread word of what had happened and the rumors surrounding it, among those around them, kept steadily increasing.
In the first two or three days, the trouble didn’t end there either. Around Wanjia Ridge, the Liangshan soldiers who had originally been regrouped after falling behind were mixed in together with the released prisoners, and once they realized they were being kept isolated, unease began to spread among them too. Many of them were, in fact, still loyal to Liangshan and had come forward of their own accord to explain the situation — yet their families were on Liangshan as well, and if they were simply isolated like this and treated with suspicion, what kind of treatment was that? And even more of them were soldiers who had genuinely fallen behind on the road and only caught up afterward — these men felt they’d done nothing wrong and began crying out against the injustice of it, and mixed in among them, naturally, were plenty of others muddying the waters for their own purposes…
Once one person kicked up a fuss, others who saw them as brothers would start speaking up too. Whatever small measure of self-restraint had formed on Liangshan out of fear had, by this point, already collapsed entirely, and in the span of only two or three days, part of what people were now whispering about among themselves was exactly how many had secretly gone over to the government’s side, and whether, when the government troops attacked, their own neighbors might turn their blades against them. Though plenty still remained bewildered, thinking “what’s actually going on” or “surely it’s not really that terrifying” — the words of the sharper-minded among them had already come to dominate the direction the whole affair was taking.
And as the days passed the eleventh, the thinking of the Liangshan leadership — Song Jiang, Wu Yong, and the rest — grew increasingly murky and uncertain. Everyone could tell that the decision-makers atop Liangshan must have been under tremendous pressure and torment; that much was clear from the state of Song Jiang, Wu Yong, and the others in the days that followed. The terror of a well-laid scheme lies in the fact that once it has truly gathered momentum, the situation becomes like a snowball rolling down from a snow-capped peak — no human strength can stop it any longer. To truly break it would require equally extreme and drastic measures, but for now, almost no one could find such a method.
From the outside, after their initial hesitation, Song Jiang and the others took a few steps that circumstances had forced upon them. They ordered the troops at Wanjia Ridge fully recalled after the thirteenth, pulling Liangshan’s defensive lines back into the most conservative posture possible. Song Jiang gave several morale-boosting speeches, of little real effect — but after finishing them, he released all the brothers who had quietly slipped back onto the mountain, as well as the soldiers who had been isolated at Wanjia Ridge, since there was no way to deal with them properly for now, and so nothing could be done but to let it go.
At the same time, Liangshan also held memorial rites for their fallen comrades — such rites could, in principle, be used to stir up hostility toward the enemy among the survivors, but this time the effect cut both ways. On one hand, it did manage to stoke some measure of vengeful anger in part of the ranks; on the other, it also served only to further confirm just how crushing the defeat at Dulong Ridge had truly been.
Orders went out to tighten Liangshan’s defenses and military discipline, but in truth, by then it was already too late — some sensitive quarrels and frictions had already begun surfacing on Liangshan starting on the thirteenth and fourteenth, beginning to brew like the makings of a coming storm.
While this murky, chaotic situation was still fermenting, Ning Yi — outside the Liangshan marsh — had not paused for even a day in what he needed to do. On one hand, he had men dispatched from Dulong Ridge out to the surrounding villages, mountain strongholds, and caravan routes, spreading word of Liangshan’s defeat, recounting Zheng Biao’s vicious methods, and stirring up the sense of a collapsing wall that everyone would want to push over. On the other, he was also making the rounds visiting the prefects and magistrates of the nearby prefectural cities, handing out money, dispensing credit, and playing up Chancellor Qin’s serious personal interest in the matter. Meanwhile, word of what was happening on Liangshan occasionally trickled out through various channels as well.
“Strange, isn’t it — this bunch looks like they’ve simply resigned themselves to it, with no particular moves of their own. How are they even going to save Liangshan?”
The carriage rolled along the official road; inside, a table had been set up, with Ning Yi, Wang Shanyue, Qi Xinhan, and Su Wenyu sitting around it, sorting through the intelligence that had come in. Qi Xinhan tossed the notice in his hand onto the table, finding this turn of events rather odd. Wang Shanyue, too, frowned. “Maybe they’re doing something behind the scenes that we just don’t know about? But they can’t purge their own ranks now, and being conciliatory won’t help either, and even releasing men down the mountain isn’t a safe option — internally, there must be at least several hundred, maybe several thousand, people ready to turn their blades on their own brothers the moment chaos breaks out. I really can’t think what they could possibly do… Unless — could they be looking to call in reinforcements from someone else? Tian Hu, say, to break the Wurui Battalion in the opening engagement?”
Having said this, he looked over at Ning Yi, who had also been mulling this over; he glanced toward Su Wenyu. “Wenyu, what do you think?”
Su Wenyu had joined the group as one of the Su family members being groomed for greater things, and had generally kept a fairly low profile. Now he frowned. “I don’t think… they’d be thinking of throwing in with Tian Hu at a time like this. But as for what they will do, I can’t think of it either. Second Brother-in-law, if it were you, what would you do?”
Ning Yi held the papers and thought a moment. “Wu Yong and Zhu Wu together still shouldn’t be underestimated — but given how things stand now, I think they’re going to have to cut off an arm to save the body.”
“At a time like this… how do you cut off an arm?”
“I’m only guessing, but with this situation, pushing forward head-on simply won’t hold anymore — the harder they push, the more likely a total collapse becomes. Once they truly realize that, they probably won’t dare push any further. In the current bind they’re in, their only way out isn’t figuring out how to break the trap, because it can’t be broken — it can only be to go along with it, and cut themselves loose from it. If they’re decisive enough to do that, it would actually be the most troublesome thing for us…”
Ning Yi paused; the others still looked blank. He began to laugh. “Think about why morale is wavering in the first place — whether it’s a chieftain turning traitor, or internal chaos, or the threat looming from outside, or the Thunderbolt Hand Lei Feng being too formidable — boil it all down to its root, and what everyone’s really worried about is: if Liangshan really does fall, will I survive? Now, suppose I were Song Jiang — Wang Shanyue, if you wanted to live, all you’d need to do is kill Qi Xinhan. Your will to kill me isn’t nearly that strong, even if killing me could win you an official post. Once that’s understood clearly, that’s what cutting off the arm really means.”
He hadn’t said it very clearly, and his gaze drifted toward Su Wenyu; the others blinked in surprise for a moment. Wang Shanyue said, “That’s not possible, surely — you’re not saying he’d just let the situation run its course? That way, Liangshan… Liangshan really would be finished.”
“What they did at Dulong Ridge, retreating like that, could only be called a lizard shedding its tail to survive. The real thing, cutting off an arm, has to hurt — it has to hurt so badly a man wants to die, or it doesn’t count.” Ning Yi shook his head with a smile. “If they can think of it, and are decisive enough, with the execution to match, that would be the most troublesome thing for us. Wenyu, think about it more, and once you’ve figured it out, tell me why this would be the most troublesome outcome for us…”
Having said this, he set the task and moved on. Su Wenyu’s mouth twitched, but he nodded helplessly. “Ah…”
In the carriage, both Wang Shanyue and Qi Xinhan broke into laughter, though in their hearts they too were pondering what Liangshan’s next move might be. Putting themselves in Song Jiang’s and Wu Yong’s shoes was, indeed, quite the headache. Over on his side, Ning Yi was still sorting through the papers. “Whatever happens, next… we need to get ready for battle.”
Up on Liangshan, Song Jiang, Wu Yong, and the others were, at that very moment, truly racked with worry.
On the fifteenth of the sixth month, a small-scale armed clash broke out on Liangshan — the cause was friction between two factions that had never gotten along well to begin with, which finally erupted into a brawl of several dozen men on each side. By the time the situation was brought back under control, seven or eight men had already been wounded. And this, in fact, was with both sides already showing restraint. Even though no one had died, when the incident was reported to the meeting hall, Song Jiang, seated in his chair, gripped the armrests so hard they creaked, and could not get a single word out.
From that incident on, large and small frictions and clashes broke out more and more frequently in the days that followed, and people began to go missing. Chieftains great and small ran themselves ragged trying to stabilize things, while the suspicion between chieftains themselves kept escalating as well. The body of “Sky-Soaring Sage” Li Gun was discovered among the grain stores on Liangshan — clearly, the mole who had killed him had later brought the body back. Xiang Chong and Fan Rui, the brothers, wept openly at the sight of it, and in the meeting hall pointed at Li Kui: “Now you see it! My brother wasn’t the mole!” Li Kui, for once, had nothing to say.
But in truth, everyone understood perfectly well who was behind all of this, who was driving matters to this point.
Ning Yi — Ning Liheng. Even the most stubborn die-hards left on Liangshan could no longer help but recognize that the modest grievance born in Suzhou had, by now, brought down upon Liangshan a pain beyond bearing — and that this man’s vengeance was still, by far, nowhere near finished.
One mountain stronghold against one man, and it had come to this in the end…
Over the following days, the situation grew steadily worse. On the nineteenth of the sixth month, some chieftains began trying to leave Liangshan, though few actually managed to get away.
On the morning of the twentieth of the sixth month, the Wurui Battalion’s warships broke through the morning mist and began sealing off the waters, closing in on Liangshan, ready to put an end to the whole affair. From the days when Liangshan had marched out with such high spirits, to this moment when the Wurui Battalion came bearing down on them, less than a month had passed in total.