"Water Margin" as one of the "four masterpieces" has long been included in the list of must-read classics in primary and secondary schools, the book led by Song Jiang "one hundred single eight generals" gathered the crowd to revolt, for the Heavenly Path, composed a song of praise for "can sing but cry", of which "Wusong fights the tiger", "punches the town of Kansai", "upside down the weeping willow" and many other popular stories are still widely praised by people!
Unfortunately, except for a few of the "one hundred singles and eight generals" in the book who were able to die well, most of the good men died in the war against Fang La, and because of this, the reader deeply resented Song Jiang who accepted the offer, and also regarded Fang La, who caused more than half of the good hans in Liangshan in the book, as a negative character!
The Fang La rebellion in the book was finally put down by Song Jiang at the cost of more than half of the good men of Liangshan, so is the true history the same?
Let's first review the scene in the book
Song Jiang in the book was originally just a small official in Yuncheng, Shandong, with a lot of assets in his family, he himself was eager to be righteous, generous and generous, and he was well-known in the rivers and lakes, with the reputation of "timely rain", and later killed Yan Poxi in anger because he secretly assisted "Chao Gai zhi to take the birthday program" when it was revealed.
After the liangshan good man "made a big fuss about Jiangzhou", he officially fell into Liangshan, and just began to sit in the second chair, and Chao Gai became the leader of Liangshan after being killed by an arrow in Zengtou City.
Song Jiang was a "civil servant" and always felt that rebellion was the next strategy, and serving the imperial court was the best policy, so under his leadership, Liangshan soon "deviated", and finally accepted the invitation, becoming a sharp blade for the ruler to quell the rebellion.
Zheng Fangla was the last expedition after liangshan good han received Zhao'an, this battle more than half of the good han casualties, ended in a tragic victory, Song Jiang exchanged the blood of his brothers for the position of Wude Dafu and Chuzhou pacification envoy, completing the perfect transformation from a sword and pen official to a feudal official.
It can be seen that the Fang La in the book is weaker than the Song River, otherwise it will not be pacified by the Song River, but let us not forget that "Water Margin" is a novel, the plots in the book are fictional, when it is not true, although there is indeed a Song Jiang and Fang La uprising in history, but on the scale and impact of the uprising, Song Jiang can not be compared with Fang La!
First of all, restore the real SongJiang Uprising for everyone
According to the "History of Song", the Song Jiang Uprising and the Fang La Uprising both occurred during the song Huizong Xuanhe period, and the two revolted almost at the same time, unlike the "Water Margin" that Song Jiang was not born as a knife and pen official, but a real "fisherman".
He had been fishing in Liangshan Po for a living, but because the imperial court had "publicly owned" Liangshan Po and lost the means to make a living, he had no choice but to take a risk, taking thirty-five other fishermen to Liangshan and robbing the officers and soldiers, at this time Song Jiang was not the leader of the rebel army, at most he could be regarded as the leader of the bandits.
After four or five years of being entrenched in Liangshan, Song Jiang and his party formally revolted in the first year of Xuanhe and raised their banner to the imperial court, after which Song Jiang's rebel army turned to battle in the "Land of Qi Wei", and at its peak captured more than ten county cities, punished corrupt officials, killed the rich and the poor, and became increasingly powerful, Xuanhe for three years, Song Jiang was surrounded by Zhang Shuye's heavy troops, and in desperation, he led the crowd to surrender, and the Song Jiang uprising was extinguished!
Let's look at the Fang La Uprising
Fang La's revolt broke out in the second year of Xuanhe, before the uprising, he won the hearts of the people with manichaean teachings, there were many believers, and after leading the revolt, it was even more echoed, the momentum was extremely huge, with the support of the congregation, Fang La established a political power, calling himself "Shenggong", the year name "Yongle", and setting up officials and generals under his command, like a "small imperial court", the number of rebels reached hundreds of thousands at the peak, successively attacked Muzhou, Shouchang, Fenshui, Tonglu, Sui'an, Shezhou and other counties, greatly shaking the foundation of northern Song rule!
In the third year of Xuanhe, the Song army besieged Hangzhou, Fang La withdrew his troops outside the city, after the failure of "retakening Hangzhou", the situation took a sharp turn for the worse, the rebel army collapsed all the way, until it retreated to Bangyuandong, on April 24, Fang La was captured by the famous Song Dynasty general Han Shizhongsheng and was taken to the back of Beijing to be beheaded, and the Fang La uprising failed.
brief summary:
Song Jiang surrendered after three years of defeat and surrender, fang la's uprising was also extinguished in the third year of Xuanhe, and Song Jiang's surrender was still after Fang La was captured, so the plot of Song Jiang's conquest of Fang La in "Water Margin" is untenable!
Moreover, the Song Jiang Uprising could not be compared with the Fang La Uprising in terms of scale or impact, the Fang La rebel army reached hundreds of thousands at its peak, even if there were still 200,000 rebels when they retreated to Gangyuandong, although the Song Jiang Uprising did not know the specific number, only knew that there were thirty-six leaders, but since it could be defeated by Zhang Shuye with a thousand elite troops, the number of people would not exceed 10,000.
Moreover, the Fang La uprising was much more formal than the Song Jiang uprising, Fang La controlled people's hearts with Manichaeism, established his own political power, and set up officials and generals under him, just like the prototype of a "small imperial court", while the Song Jiang people only relied on blood and courage to fight and fight, and there was no means to win people's hearts and minds, nor a clear goal.
Therefore, the scale of the Song River uprising has always been difficult to grow, the combat effectiveness is not as good as Fang La's rebel army, and the blow to the Song Dynasty cannot be compared with Fang La!
References: Water Margin, History of song