Reading "Water Margin" carefully, there is a chapter that surprises posterity. That is, Gao Lian, the governor of Gao Tang Prefecture, dared to move the soil on the head of Tai Nian under the power of his uncle and brother, Gao Li. Is it really possible to provoke the emperor's relatives and beat Chai Jin, who holds the iron coupon of the oath, to death?
We all know that in the "Dream of the Red Chamber", "The Thin Life Woman Meets the Thin Life Lang, and the Gourd Monk Judges the Gourd Case" mentions the "Talisman". The so-called talisman is: "All those who are magistrates have a private slip, which is written on the name and surname of the most powerful and wealthy gentry in the province, and all provinces are the same." If you don't know, if you offend such a family for a while, you will not only be an official, but you will not even be able to save your life.
Since the Sui and Tang dynasties implemented the imperial examination system, the imperial court established a set of "modern civil service system" that served the central imperial power, completely breaking the monopoly of the clan and thus strengthening the centralization of power. The official system of the Song Dynasty was the most complicated, its functions and powers overlapped, mutual restraint and supervision, and local officials did not have the conditions to act recklessly. Moreover, Gao Lian, as the zhizhou of Gao Tang Prefecture, could not be unfamiliar with the way of officialdom, and he should know better than anyone what people in the local area could provoke and who could not provoke. Mo said that he was a relative of the emperor and the state, that is, a local noble family, and Gao Lian had to weigh it first.
Chai Jin, as a descendant of emperor Of the Great Zhou Dynasty, held the iron coupon of the Oath of The Song Taizu and was the face of the Great Song Dynasty. Mo said that it was a small Gao Tang Prefecture Zhizhou, and even the prime minister Cai Jing did not dare to provoke. In the "Biography of Yue Quan", there is a person whose identity is the same as Chai Jin, and this is Chai Gui, the king of Xiaoliang. And in "The Complete Biography of Yue Yue", even a figure of the rank of prime minister such as Zhang Bangchang wants to flatter Chai Gui, so who dares to provoke someone of such a status? What a great political risk did Yue Fei take to pick Xiao Liang Wang?
Therefore, in the Song Dynasty, it was absolutely impossible for Gao Lian to beat Chai Jin half to death, unless Gao Lian planned to rebel. Even if Chai Jin had committed illegal acts, he was not one who dared to make an easy decision. So why did Shi Nai'an write such a scene in "Water Margin"? Shi Nai'an was a native of the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties, and also participated in Zhang Shicheng's uprising. There is a realistic shadow in his writing of "Water Margin", nominally writing about the SongJiang Uprising at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, but in fact writing about the uprising at the end of the Yuan Dynasty.
The matter of Gao Lian's staff beating firewood did not happen in the Song Dynasty, but it is not surprising in the Yuan Dynasty. At the time of the Song Dynasty, the Zhao and Song Sects in Quanzhou (about 3,000 people) were slaughtered by Pu Shou Geng (Semu people). In the "Water Margin", it is only mentioned that Chai Jin has an oath iron coupon, but does not say that his title (the Chai family had a title in the Song Dynasty) and should have protection, which is more like the attitude of the Yuan Dynasty towards the Song Dynasty.