After his defeat by the bandits of Liangshan Marsh, the imperial general Huyan Zhuo flees to Qingzhou (in present-day Shandong) in hope of redeeming himself by wiping out the bandits there. One of the strongholds is Mount Twin Dragons, which, finding Huyan a tough opponent, requests help from Liangshan. Song Jiang, Liangshan's then second-in-command, comes to Qingzhou with a force and captures Huyan. The bandits of Mount Twin Dragons, led by Lu Zhishen, are absorbed into Liangshan. Life at Liangshan Lu Zhishen goes to Huayin County to invite Shi Jin and his gang at Mount Shaohua to join Liangshan. At Mount Shaohua, he is told that Shi is caught by Prefect He of Huazhou when he tried to rescue a woman the official has abducted in his desire to make her his concubine. Lu goes to Huazhou alone to rescue Shi, but he is spotted behaving strangely in a crowd by He when he contemplates assassinating the official upon running into his entourage. Prefect He lures him into his office where he is ambushed and seized too. Mount Shaohua turns to Liangshan for help. The Liangshan outlaws rush to Huazhou, lure Prefect He out of the city and kill him. They enter Huazhou and save Lu Zhishen and Shi Jin. Death Lu Zhishen is appointed as one of Liangshan's infantry leaders after the 108 Stars of Destiny came together in what is called the Grand Assembly. He is one of the few heroes who object strongly to Song Jiang's quest for amnesty from Emperor Huizong. He nevertheless participates in campaigns against the Liao invaders and rebel forces in Song territory after Liangshan attains amnesty. He scores top merit when he captures the rebel leader Fang La. When the run of campaigns ends with Fang La's rebellion snuffed out, Lu Zhishen insists on remaining at the Liuhe Pagoda in Hangzhou instead of returning to Dongjing with the lot. On the night before the rest depart for the capital, Lu is awakened from his sleep by the thunderous sound made by the tidal bore in the nearby Qiantang River as it clashes wave after wave onto the bank. At that instant, he grasps the prophetic message concealed in the verse given him by the abbot of the Mount Wutai monastery. The verse goes: The first two lines foretell Lu's capture of Fang La and Fang‘s right--hand man Xiahou Cheng while the following