Dai Zong of Liangshan incidentally comes to know Yang Lin when he is in Jizhou by order of Song Jiang to locate Gongsun Sheng to fetch him back to the stronghold. Gongsun has been away too long to visit his mother. Together, Dai and Yang pass by Yinma River (飲馬川; in present-day Ji County, Tianjin), where they are blocked by Deng Fei, Meng Kang and their men. It turns out that Yang and Deng are acquaintances. They are introduced to Pei Xuan, who accepts Dai's invitation to merge his band into that of Liangshan..