Shi Nai'an's "Water Margin" mainly tells the story of 108 good men who were forced to Liangshan, who at first wanted to oppose the rule of the Northern Song Dynasty, and then were recruited by the Northern Song Dynasty to fight for the Northern Song Dynasty, and finally ended up with a demise, but their spirit was forever passed on. Song Jiang, who ranked first in the 108th place in Liangshan, is known as "timely rain".
He led his brothers to launch an uprising, but was suppressed by Zhang Shuye, and reluctantly obeyed the "zhao'an policy" of the imperial court, just to preserve his own strength. Later, the banner of the uprising was raised again, and this failed uprising was directly given poisoned wine by Cai Jing and others and killed. After his death, the good men of Liangshan, Hu Yanzhuo, Guan Sheng, and Zhu Tong, held heavy troops, but did not avenge Song Jiang.
Song Jiang was born in a small rural area in Shandong, from a poor family, but know how to be self-reliant, have strong communication skills, and like to make friends, especially jianghu friends. He himself realized that the intersection of the rivers and lakes might bring inconvenience to his family, so he broke off relations with his family, which is also a kind of filial piety to his parents.
Later, the letters that Song Jiang conspired with Chao Gai were discovered by his wife Yan Poxi, and Yan Poxi, who himself had no deep feelings for her husband, used these letters to blackmail Song Jiang, who was afraid of implicating his good brother and disrupting his own grand plan, and killed his wife Yan Poxi.
After killing his wife, Song Jiang took a human life on his back and was beheaded according to the laws of the Song Dynasty, so in order to avoid killing the head, Song Jiang had to escape. Just as the so-called "legal net is restored, neglect is not leaked", Song Jiang still did not escape the pursuit of the official government, was arrested and arrested, and the official government sentenced him to exile Jiangzhou.
Song Jiang was very dissatisfied with this verdict, so he wrote a poem to vent his inner resentment. Unfortunately, this poem was seen by the jailer and exposed Song Jiang, and the government attached great importance to this matter, and Song Jiang was sentenced to death.
On the day that Song Jiang was taken to the execution ground, what awaited him was a dead end, but he did not expect that Chao Gai took a group of brothers to rob the law field and successfully rescued Song Jiang. At this time, Song Jiang was carrying a human life on his back and had no way to go, so he had to go to Liangshan. There are also like-minded friends here, and Song Jiang's life on Liangshan is quite comfortable.
After entering Liangshan, Song Jiang's position on the mountain was second only to that of Chao Gai, and he could be said to be the second in command. Every time Chao Gai wanted to go down the mountain to conquer the enemy, Song Jiang took chao gai as a leader and had to sit in the mountains and led his troops to fight the enemy. After Song Jiang's southern expedition and northern expedition, his prestige gradually increased.
After Chao Gai was unfortunately wounded to death by the enemy, Song Jiang naturally sat in the position of the first leader of Liangshan. Even if there are more and more good men in Liangshan later, Song Jiang's position is still unshakable, ranking first among the 108 good men in Liangshan, known as "timely rain".
Song Jiang lived in the last year of the Northern Song Dynasty, when the reigning emperor was the eighth emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty, Emperor Huizong of Song. Emperor Huizong of Song was quite accomplished in art, the first "thin gold body", was a famous artist, proficient in eating, drinking and having fun, but he did not know anything about the management of state affairs, which led to the corruption of politics in the late Northern Song Dynasty, and the people did not have a good life.
Song Jiang took this scene in his eyes and decided to organize a brothers to revolt, overthrow the rule of the Northern Song Dynasty, and save the people from water and fire. So in November of the first year of Xuanhe, Song Jiang rebelled against the banner of Liangshan, and the mighty uprising began.
They followed Liangshan all the way south, trying to pass through Jiangsu and push straight to Kaifeng, Henan. Every time the rebels conquered a city, they would provide relief to the local poor, and they were generous and loved by the people. When these news reached kaifeng city, Song Huizong was shocked, and for a moment he did not know what to do.
Cai Jing and others came up with the idea of having the emperor send General Zhang Shuye to suppress it. In the Jiangsu area, Song Jiang and others were encircled and suppressed by the Song army. Uncle Zhang set up an ambush in advance at night, inserted fire in the bow and arrow, and shot at Song Jiang's boat, and the ship caught fire, and Song Jiang suffered heavy losses. At this time, the Song court implemented a policy of recruiting security to Song Jiang, and Song Jiang could only agree in order to preserve his strength.
The imperial court gave Song Jiang and his entourage official positions, but Song Jiang was very dismissive, and he still thought of his unfinished business. Finally, the emperor did not pay off, and Song Jiang waited for the day when the time was ripe to raise the banner of the uprising again, but this uprising did not become a big climate, and it was suppressed by the Song generals.
The ministers in the Song court saw the immortal Song Jiang and seemed to understand that he would never surrender. For this kind of person, the best thing is to cut the grass and remove the roots, and never have any trouble, so Cai Jing, Tong Guan, Gao Li and other ministers mixed the poison in the imperial wine, and Song Jiang died on the spot after drinking the wine.
In fact, at that time, hu Yanzhuo, Guan Sheng, and Zhu Tong also rebelled with the Song River, and they also accepted the Song Dynasty's policy of recruiting security. If you want to avenge Song Jiang, it is easy to kill a wenchen like Cai Jing who has no power to bind chickens. But he did not do anything, but continued to fight for the imperial court, why is this?
Hu Yanzhuo was the descendant of Hu Yanzan, the founding general of the Song Dynasty, who was originally one of the important generals in the Song court. Later, in the process of conquering Liangshan, he was taken under the pocket of Song Jiang, ranking eighth among the 108 generals of Liangshan, known as "Double Whip Hu YanZhuo".
Seeing Guan Sheng's name, everyone must know that he is a descendant of Guan Yu, a famous general of the Three Kingdoms, and like Guan Yu, he also plays a good knife. Before that, like Hu Yanzhuo, he was a major courtier of the imperial court, and he also felt song Jiang's righteousness in the process of conquering Liangshan, so he decided to submit, ranking fifth in the 108 generals, known as "Big Dao Guan sheng".
And Zhu Tong can be said to be the person who is most closely related to Song Jiang among these three people, and he saved Song Jiang's life after Song Jiang killed Yan PoXi, when the government pursued and killed him. Song Jiang also has feelings for him, and he ranks twelfth among the 108 good men, known as the "Hairdresser".
It was these three people who could do martial arts, but they did not avenge Song Jiang, was it because the feelings between them were not deep? Definitely not. After all, they had been in Liangshan for so many years together, and then they rebelled against the rule of the Song Dynasty, and they experienced ups and downs, and they could be regarded as living and dying together.
The reason for this is the political system of the Song Dynasty, first, at that time, the Song Dynasty practiced a system of emphasizing literature over military force, and the status of military generals in the dynasty was very low, and they had no real power. Therefore, the three of them have no status relative to civilian officials.
The army system of the Song Dynasty is also very interesting, and the right to command and transfer troops is completely separate. The Privy Council controls the military and government, but it has only the power to mobilize the army, not to manage it. The power to manage the army is in the hands of the "three men", but he does not have the right to transfer troops in the army. And the three of them were in the middle of the three, holding heavy troops but unable to launch.
After some analysis, the three of them did not have much power over the rule of the army in the imperial court. They were indeed able to kill Cai Jing and others, but they could not confront the thousands of Song troops behind Cai Jing, or even the imperial court, and could only give up avenging their brothers.
Whether the character of Song Jiang is a fiction of Shi Nai'an, or whether it really exists in history. He conveyed a spirit of loyalty to the people, seeing the people suffering and holding high the banner of the uprising, the uprising failed, pretending to obey the imperial court only to preserve strength, and then launched an uprising again, obeying his own heart, even if he gave his life. His spirit is worth singing and weeping.
Hu Yanzhuo, Guan Sheng, and Zhu Tong did not avenge their good brothers considering the overall situation, but they continued Song Jiang's ideal in another way, that is, to resist the invasion of the Jin people, which was also to defend the people for their brothers. The "love of chivalry" is all in the unspoken.