After zhao'an, Song Jiang and the other 108 generals were relatively smooth at first, whether it was attacking the Liao state, or pacifying Tian Hu and Wang Qing, the Liangshan generals did not lose a single person. On the contrary, they made a lot of merit, and even accepted Sun An, Qiao Daoqing and other fierce men.
But after the conquest of Fangla, the good men did not go so smoothly. Not only was it difficult to siege the city, but many people were killed in the last 108, and only 27 people returned to the imperial court to receive rewards.
Why is that? There are many reasons for this.
For example, the good men frequently win, so there is a little pride and light enemies, especially Zhang Qing and Dong Ping, who actually get off their horses and fight and attack the other with their own shorts, which is really not right. There are also reasons why the geography is unfamiliar, and there are many fierce generals under Fang La's troops.
For Fang La, there are many times in the book to evaluate him, but many people forcibly wash Fang La in order to smear Song Jiang, saying that he is a good person.
In fact, the evaluation of Fang La in the book is obvious, whether it is the mouth of others or the author's narration, they all say that he is a thief who harms one party and harms the common people. Therefore, not only did Generals like Jin Jie surrender to Song Jiang under Fang La's command, but the monks and ordinary people under his rule also turned against each other and helped Song Jiang.
For example, the narrator in the book says that "the people were all brutally killed by Fang La, but they were full of anger, and they heard the Song army enter the city and did their best to help in the war"; Duan Kai, the lower part of Fang La's department, once said, "Kai and others were originally good people in Muzhou, tired of being brutalized by Fang La, and had to surrender to their subordinates"; the local people said, "I am all good people of the Great Song Dynasty, and I am tired of being punished by Fang La from time to time." But there are those who do not obey, the whole family is killed", or "the old Han's ancestral home is the people here, tired of being mutilated by Fang La, there is nowhere to escape", even the old monk also said, "The people here, all were mutilated by Fang La, none of them did not resent him."
In short, whether it is the generals under Fang La, the people under his rule, the monks, and the author's narration, they have already said that Fang La has increased taxes, mutilated the people, and even killed the whole family.
Some people also say that Fang La was smeared by Shi Nai'an, and the historical Fang La was a good person. This is even funnier, look at Fang La in the main history and you will find that he is more brutal than in the novel.
In the "History of Song", the record of Fang La is like this.
In the rebellion of Fang La, all officials will kill arbitrarily, cut off limbs, probe the lungs and livers, or boil them with oil, or shoot arrows with great force, and prepare extremely poisonous weapons to vent their anger.
Without translating these, you can also see how Fang La treats the officials. You may say that the officials are too bad to force Fang La to rebel, and of course Fang La wants to kill them to vent his anger. However, isn't it true that all officials are bad people?
Let's take a look at how Fang La treated the common people, as recorded in the Biography of Song Shi Li Mi.
(Li) 邈複語 (童) Guan Yue: "Fang La clown, a call to slaughter more than 40 counties in seven prefectures, exhausted the strength of several roads and then can be pacified, the heavens are also a police officer, how can they move to the north?" ”
You see, slaughtered more than forty counties in seven states. Can I use the word "tu"? What is Slaughter City? It is to kill the common people like chickens, ducks, dogs and pigs, without humanity.
Many people disdained Liu Bei and his people to cross the river, scornfully, but washed Cao Cao Tucheng, Li Hongzhang Tucheng, Miyamoto Musashi Tucheng, and Zeng Guofan Tucheng. Imagine if you were a commoner and you were a slaughtered city dweller, what would you think?
Can a sentence such as "slaughtering the city is a last resort" and "slaughtering the city to ensure the safety of the rear" erase the lives of tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of innocent people? What's more, why didn't other people in their time slaughter the city or even protect the common people? Comparing the two, who is more popular?
It is true that we should see the credit of these people, but do not wash away their mistakes such as slaughtering the city.
By the way, don't say that this is the history of the imperial court's cultivation, it is the imperial court that smears Fang La, because the "Rong Zhai Essays", "The Secret Collection of Jianbao", "Night Sailing Ship", "Great Song Xuanhe and Testament", "Continuing Zizhi Tongjian" and other canonical histories and literati notes have recorded Fang La's slaughter of the city. Fang La even killed people for no reason in order to force people to surrender, and the result was that they were looked down upon.
Some notes also record in the history that every time Fang La attacked the city, the people in the city would run, especially the rich, and the money they could not take away was buried. If Fang La was a good man and a righteous rebel leader, would others still do this?
Even Cai Dongfan said that Fang La's chaos is great, while Song Jiang's chaos is small, Fang La's work is more evil, and Song Jiang's work is less evil.
The Fang La Uprising lasted from October of the second year of Xuanhe to the end of April of the third year of Xuanhe, but only half a year. If Fang La had won the hearts and minds of the people, he would not have been suppressed so quickly.
Therefore, whether it is a novel or a history, Fang La is not a good person.