"Water Margin" is one of the "Four Famous Works" in China, in which the image of the good man of Liangshan who is full of the spirit of resistance and freedom of nature is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. The novel is also based on the main perspective of the Liangshan Group. In the later period, Song Jiang accepted the Song court's offer to help the Song Dynasty conquer another rebel army, Fang La. In the process, Liangshan lost soldiers and killed several good men in almost every chapter. After the battle of Fang La, when the "clothes returned to the hometown", there were only thirty-six leaders left. I believe that many readers are the most depressed when they read the paragraph of Song Jiang vs Fang La. So in history, did Song Jiang really conquer Fang La?
Background of the times
The time of the Song Jiang and Fang La uprisings was in the last year of the Northern Song Dynasty, during the reign of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty. Zhao Tuo's throne came very suddenly,
If things developed according to normal, Zhao Yao would have no fate with the throne at all.
Song Zhezong died without a son. Empress Dowager Xiang pushed The DuanWang Zhao Tuo to the throne. It can be said that
As an emperor, Emperor Huizong of Song lacked the necessary training, experience accumulation, and psychological preparation.
Emperor Huizong of Song was placed in the position of emperor, but he was actually more suitable as an artist. During his reign, politics was relatively dark, and "the six thieves (Cai Jing, Liang Shicheng, Li Yan, Zhu Xun, Wang Yi, and Tong Guan)" were in charge, corroding the national strength of the Northern Song Dynasty;
Moreover, Song Huizong did not have a deep understanding of the sufferings of the people, and his style of life was somewhat frivolous and extravagant.
Take the "Granites" as an example. Song Huizong liked strange flowers and stones, and Cai Jing asked Zhu Chong and Zhu Xun to offer some, the effect was good, and Song Huizong liked it. As a result, tribute to the flower stone became a common practice, and it became more and more intense. During the political and political periods, the ships transporting the flowers and stones "connected to Huai and Bei", and set up the Suzhou Yingfeng Bureau to plunder the people's fat and people's ointment.
The human and material costs required for transportation, the destruction and squeezing of hundreds of properties when searching for flowers and stones, are uncountable. The southeastern region has reached the point where popular resentment boils over.
This created good conditions and soil for the "Fang La Uprising."
Fang La's uprising
Fang La was a native of Qingxi, Muzhou (present-day Chun'an County, Hangzhou, Zhejiang). He had two advantages for launching an uprising.
The first is that the people treat the government and the direct exploiters
Zhu Xun
Hate; two is
This place in Muzhou has produced "emperors".
During the reign of Emperor Gaozong of Tang, a woman named Chen Shuozhen and her brother-in-law Zhang Shuyin launched an uprising and called herself "Emperor Wenjia". Of course, this uprising was quickly put down, but it was still influential in Muzhou, and it was said that there were "TianziJi and Wannian Lou", which provided certain convenience for Fang la to gather people's hearts.
Fang La also made some preparations before the uprising,
Religion is used as a tool to absorb believers; some undesirable and idle people are gathered as the first backbone forces.
In October of the second year of Xuanhe, Fang La, believing that the time was ripe, formally launched an uprising. Fang La called himself "Holy Gong", and the rebel army was tied with a red scarf, divided into six levels from top to bottom, preaching the theory of ghosts and gods, and taking the killing of Zhu Xun as the banner.
Combining religious forms with peasant uprisings,
In the early days of the uprising, the scale reached tens of thousands of people, and then the momentum was like a bamboo, Andezhou County, the officers and soldiers were damaged, and the officials became the venting targets of the Fang La rebel army, and they were tortured and killed, but there were also officials with good governance who were spared by the rebel army.
The story of fang la's uprising had actually reached the ears of the prime minister, Wang Yi. But Wang Yi did not take it seriously, and in order to whitewash Taiping, he concealed it and did not report it. This provided a relatively relaxed environment for Fang La's early development. In addition to Fang La, various small-scale rebel armies responded one after another, and for a time there was a "great earthquake in the southeast".
It was not until the Huainan shipment made Chen Shuo's request for help be presented that Emperor Huizong of Song realized the seriousness of the situation. Elite troops were mobilized to encircle and suppress Fang La. Tong Guan and Tan Shu led the Forbidden Army and the Shaanxi Rui Division of 150,000 to attack Fang La.
In the first month of the third year of Xuanhe, Fang La attacked Xiuzhou, just in time to encounter reinforcements from the Song Dynasty, the inside and outside of the city should be combined, breaking Fang La, Fang La retreated to Hangzhou; in February of the third year of Xuanhe, the official army launched a comprehensive counteroffensive, successive victories, recovering the lost land, Fang La retreated to Bangyuandong (fang la's earlier accumulation of strength), at this time the rebel army strength was still 200,000; in April of xuanhe three years, the official army killed 70,000 enemies and successfully captured Fang La; in March of the fourth year of Xuanhe, the remnants of the rebel army were swept away, and the "Fang La uprising" was completely calmed.
Although the "Fang La Rebellion" ultimately failed,
But from the record (broken
Sixty-two counties in six states, two million civilians
and the course of the battle (often tens of thousands) can be seen, there is a huge scale and influence,
It caused some turmoil in the rule of the Northern Song Dynasty.
Song Jiang Uprising
Compared with the "Fang La Uprising", the "Song Jiang Uprising" is dwarfed in terms of scale and influence. Song Jiang did have his own people in history,
However, it may not have occupied Liangshan Po as a base.
There are records about Song Jiang in the "Song Shi Huizong Benji", "Song Shi Hou Meng Biography", "Song Shi Zhang Shu Night Biography", which can be summarized as follows: During the Xuanhe period,
Song Jiang and thirty-six others
(Should be the boss)
Transferred to Huainan,
Shandong
Hebei
、
Chuzhou, Haizhou, though
The combat effectiveness is very strong,
The officers and soldiers cannot be destroyed,
But in essence, it seems to be a stream of plundering thousands of miles.
Look at how Song Jiang was wiped out. Song Jiang came to Haizhou, seized more than a dozen giant ships in Haizhou, and became pirates. Zhang Shuye of Zhizhou recruited thousands of dead soldiers and ambushed them on the edge of the city; sent a small force to lure Song Jiang into battle; and ambushed some more people on the seashore.
After the two sides fought, the ambush troops on the seashore first burned the Song River warships and hit the morale of the Song River troops; the ambush troops on the edge of the city suddenly killed the deputy who captured The Song River. In this case, Song Jiang simply surrendered.
Expedition to the pending case
In "Water Margin", Song Jiang helped the Northern Song Dynasty to suppress Fang La, and he also fought to lose both. In history, whether Song Jiang and Fang La have ever exchanged hands is an unsolved case.
According to the records in the "Biography of Hou Meng of the Song Dynasty",
Fang La and Song Jiang were active in the same period.
Hou Meng had advised Emperor Huizong of Song to recruit Song Jiang in order to pacify Fang La; according to the records of the History of Song and the Benji of Emperor Huizong,
Song Jiang surrendered in February of the third year of Xuanhe, and Fang La was captured in April of the third year of Xuanhe.
Theoretically, it is possible for the two sides to go to war.
And this statement is also supported by historical data. Historical materials such as the Compilation of the Northern League of the Three Dynasties and the Chronicle of the Imperial Song Dynasty have records of Song Jiang as a general accompanying the army. It seems that Song Jiang's statement from asking Fang La has been nailed down.
But others disagree, believing that Song Jiang was not involved in the operation. There are several reasons for this:
1 In February of the third year of Xuanhe, that is, when Song Jiang surrendered, Fang La's army was already at a disadvantage.
Two months after being captured, the Song court could no longer use Song Jiang, a bandit who had just surrendered; 2 it was recorded in the epitaph of the Northern Song general who could survive,
The Song army first captured Fang La, and then captured Song Jiang, which should be around May of the third year of Xuanhe.
There are two possibilities in this, one is that the Song River fell and rebelled, and the other is that the "Song Shi Huizong Benji" is not true. If the latter is correct, then Song Jiang cannot attack Fang La (it is still possible to clean up the mess).
There is also a saying that can explain this historical contradiction,
That is, Song Jiang, who participated in the conquest of Fang la, and Song Jiang, a bandit caokou, were two people with the same name and surname.
If this is the case, then Song Jiang Zheng Fang La in "Water Margin" belongs to Zhang Guan Li Dai.
brief summary
Both Fang La and Song Jiang were active figures during the Xuanhe period at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty. However, in comparison, Fang La's scale, influence, and importance of the Song court far exceeded that of Song Jiang. Whether Song Jiang had ever consulted Fang La, due to the conflict and lack of historical materials, is still a historical unsolved case. As for how readers judge, it is a matter of opinion.
References: "History of the Song Dynasty", "Compilation of the Northern League of the Three Dynasties", "The End of the Chronicle of the Imperial Song Dynasty", "Water Margin"