Tang Long suggests to Song Jiang that his cousin Xu Ning, a lance instructor in Dongjing, could annihilate Huyan's cavalry. After Shi Qian stole an impenetrable armour of Xu, a precious ancestral heirloom, Tang tricks the instructor to pursue the elusive thief until he comes to the vicinity of Liangshan and is drugged. Finding himself trapped, Xu also becomes a chieftain. He trains some of Liangshan's foot soldiers in the use of the hooked lance. The weapon topples Huyan's cavalry, causing his army to collapse. Han Tao also defects after being captured.