In "Water Margin", since Song Jiang accepted the court's offer, he began to serve the imperial court, all the way to the east and west, and won many victories. Later, he was sent to attack Fang La, but in the process of conquest of Fang La, the good men of Liangshan suffered heavy losses, of which 59 leaders died in battle and 11 died of illness. The good men of Liangshan were all highly skilled in martial arts, but in the process of conquest of Fang La, the loss of troops would be so serious, which was enough to see how strong Fang La's strength was at that time. So in the right history, how is Fang La's strength? What was his end?
In the second year of Emperor Xuanhe of Song Hui, in Qingxi County, Muzhou, Fang La held high the banner of the uprising, and in just two or three months, he occupied 6 prefectures and 52 counties, almost occupying most of the southeast region. Due to the huge momentum of the Fang La rebel army, there were scenes of state and county officers and soldiers "hearing the wind and breaking up", and landlords and gentry "all moving". At that time, many Northern Song Dynasty officials only heard that "Fang La is coming!" The shouts were all frightened and fled for their lives. When Fang La led the rebel army to capture Hangzhou, the defenders of the city were so frightened that they all threw down their weapons and abandoned the city and fled, and before Fang La could fight much, the northern Song officers and soldiers had already fled almost completely.
The most important reason why the Fang La uprising was able to develop so rapidly in a short period of time was that Fang La's slogan of "equality of the law, no superiority over the inferiority" was therefore supported and responded to by the broad masses of working people. In the face of Fang La, which had such a strong momentum of development, the Northern Song court panicked, and some people suggested that troops should be sent to suppress it quickly, and some people suggested taking measures to recruit security.
In the end, under the balance of the rulers of the Northern Song Dynasty, both suggestions were simply adopted. What does that mean? On the one hand, Tong Guan was sent to lead 150,000 troops to the south to suppress and encircle and suppress Fangla. On the other hand, Emperor Huizong of Song also authorized Tong Guan to issue a list of invitations and rewards in the name of the emperor, of course, this is the routine of the Northern Song Dynasty, in fact, it is not really wanted to recruit Fang La, but wants to sweep it all away. Emperor Huizong of Song mainly wanted to use these tricks to achieve the purpose of deceiving the rebel army.
Therefore, at that time, there were lists everywhere such as "those who can surrender themselves to give rewards for their sins", and those who capture Fang La or his leader to go to the officials "and exonerate themselves, do not ask questions, and also give gifts according to the rewards". But Fang La was a wise man, and he could see at a glance that there was deception in it, and if the Northern Song Dynasty really had plans to recruit security, why did he let Tong Guan personally lead an army of 150,000 to come and negotiate? Therefore, Fang La decided to fight to the end in the Northern Song Dynasty and never accept defeat.
The rapid development of the rebel army was certainly a great advantage, which posed a great threat to the Northern Song Dynasty. But at the same time, Fang La was also facing the embarrassing situation of shortage of weapons and military uniforms. However, the rebel army was still highly motivated, and even if it was bare-handed, it would fight the Northern Song officers and soldiers to the end. The bravery and fearlessness of the Fang Lajun really frightened the Northern Song court not lightly. As a result, there was an embarrassing situation in which the imperial court wanted to appoint people to recruit security, but could not find a person who dared to take over the appointment of ministers.
However, in the end, because the rebel army was seriously short of weapons and the disparity in strength was too great, it was difficult to resist the well-equipped Northern Song army, and after several months of struggle, the Fang La rebel army was finally suppressed by the Northern Song Dynasty, and Fang La himself was captured and taken to Beijing and killed. Although Fang La gathered millions of people, but basically unarmed low-level people, even if he occupied 6 states and had his own territory, it still needed a lot of time to build a strong army. For the Northern Song Dynasty, all the elite troops sent were well-trained, so Fang La was ultimately difficult to oppose.
Although the flames of Fang La's uprising have been extinguished, Fang La's spirit of daring to resist the oppression of feudal rule still exists in people's hearts. In order to commemorate Fang La, the local people specially renamed the base of Fang La's original uprising, Bangyuan Cave, "Fang La Cave". This cave is still there today, located in Dongyuanli Village, Chun'an County, Zhejiang Province, and there is a stone stele of "Fang La Cave" inscribed by Guo Moruo himself at the entrance of the cave.