Song Jiang,
an unwilling hero
Song Jiang is the elder
son of a landowner and he works as a clerk of the county magistrate's
court in Yuncheng. Adept at many forms of fighting, he has many
friends among the bold men. He spends much time and money helping
anyone in the need. Providing the poor with food or medicines, hosting
the brave in his manor... he is nicknamed the Timely Rain.
This respectable civil servant, loyal to the Emperor, will
however turn into a hero, an outlaw.
His destiny will change
when he will be summoned to arrest Chao Gai
as a culprit in the Birthday Presents
affair. The Heavenly King is one of his closest friends and he will
take risks by warning him before sending the constables Lei Heng
and Zhu
Tong.
Alas, Song Jiang
supports a courtesan, a young girl 17 years old, named Yan Poxi.
Neglected by Song Jiang who keeps her only by pity, the girl has
an affair with Song Jiang's young assistant.
When Chao Gai,
from Liangshan Marsh, will send Liu Tang
to express his thanks to his benefactor with a letter and a gift,
the treacherous Poxi will find it and threaten to denounce Song
Jiang. Crazed with anger, he will kill her and will be convicted
for that.
Many friends and relatives will try to save him from
exile, but he will refuse their help .
He will wander for a
long time, meet some new friends as Chai Jin
and Wu
Song and always be preceded
by his reputation of dispenser of justice.
One night, he will
get drunk and commit a fatal imprudence, writing a poem in a tavern
in the Jiang Zhou Prefecture. Huang Wen Bing, one of his foes, will
denounce him and he will be sentenced to death.
His friends
will save him and wellcome him in the Liangshan Marsh during an
episode remained famous thanks to the Beijing Opera it inspired,
The
Xunyang Tower.
The chapters