After the 108 heroes of Liangshan gather as sworn brothers, their leader, Song Jiang, sets his heart on accepting the imperial court’s offer of amnesty. Later, scheming officials at court deceive them into joining the campaign against Fang La, where most of the Liangshan heroes die in battle. Shi Jin, the Nine-Tattooed Dragon, happens upon a stroke of luck during the fighting and survives. Later, he changes his name to Shi Bin and travels a great distance with his wife and children to return to his hometown of Huayin County, only to suffer oppression at the hands of the local authorities. With no other choice, Shi Jin returns to his old ways and takes to the hills at Shaohua Mountain.
After the Jingkang Incident, the Northern Song falls, and Prince Kang, Zhao Gou, establishes a regime in the south, later known as the Southern Song. At this time, the Jin army marches south, occupying the Guanzhong and Longyou regions as it prepares to seize the Sichuan passes, enter Bashu, and sail down the Yangtze to destroy the Southern Song. Shi Jin organizes an army of volunteers and joins forces with the Southern Song troops in a desperate resistance. In the end, the Jin army fails to advance any farther south. Yet the Southern Song court remains hostile to the volunteer army and does everything it can to persecute them.
Faced with persecution by the court and the people’s continued suffering, Shi Jin can bear it no longer. He gathers a large force, angrily establishes a kingdom at Xingzhou, proclaims himself emperor, names his state Great Xing, and changes the era name to Chang’an. He resolves to rebuild a just and peaceful world. Because the Great Xing dynasty opposes both the Song court and the Jin, it is subjected to a joint assault by the Southern Song and Jin. In the end, Shi Jin is overwhelmed by superior numbers, and the uprising is defeated.
This book tells the story of that period: the unyielding struggle of the Liangshan hero Shi Jin against the Southern Song court and the Jin invaders.
Just tell the story without emotion!