The Fang La that we know is a character in "Water Margin", in fact, there is really a Fang La in the main history, so what kind of person is Fang La in the main history, and what is its ending?
(Fang La stills)
Fang La, also known as Fang Thirteen, was a native of She Prefecture (歙州, in modern SheXian County, Anhui) in the Northern Song Dynasty. Later, he was transferred to Jie Village, Qingxi Wannian Town, Muzhou, to work for a long time to earn a living.
The emperor at that time was Emperor Huizong of Song. Zhao Tuo was an emperor with great artistic attainments, but he was also an arrogant and corrupt emperor.
Due to his preference for flowers and stones, at the suggestion of the traitorous courtiers, Emperor Huizong of Song set up special institutions such as the Ying Feng Bureau to collect and transport folk rare treasures for him. These departments loaded the rare treasures they collected on large ships and transported them to Beijing. With 10 ships as a class, it is called "Flower stone class".
These officials took the emperor's orders and were particularly stubborn. Anyone who looks at a flower and stone in anyone's house, or plays with antiques, as long as they are sealed with yellow paper, they are considered to be the emperor's things.
Not only are they arrogant and unreasonable, they also take advantage of the opportunity to extort money. If their demands are not met, they arbitrarily convict them of a crime, send them to prison, and even save their lives. Therefore, many people's families have been tossed by them and ruined, and they are miserable.
Emperor Huizong of Song also liked to build gardens, so he not only needed a lot of rare treasures, but also a lot of bamboo paint. Muzhou Qingxi, where Fang La is located, is a place rich in bamboo and wood paint, so it is used by the imperial court as a key area for expropriation.
In addition to handing over a large amount of bamboo paint, the people who had no means of subsistence had to be dragged to serve in labor. Coupled with the fact that those officials bullied and squeezed them in every way, everyone's life was really miserable.
(Song Huizong stills)
Fang La has martial arts, is usually chivalrous, and is very respected by the people. He saw that everyone was cornered by the "Huashi Gang", so he moved his mind to revolt.
He first used the two and three religions of Manichaeism to seduce the suffering people, and then he used the theory of gods and ghosts to scare the people into believing that it was true. Therefore, there are many believers.
In October 1120, Fang La, who could not bear to be exploited, shouted the slogan "The law is equal, there is no superiority" and launched an uprising. Because of his strong organizational ability and the fact that the people have been exploited to the point where they cannot eat, they are like clouds. In less than ten days, tens of thousands of people gathered.
Subsequently, Fang La was enshrined as a "Holy Father" with the support of everyone. He took the opportunity to establish political power, set up officials and generals, and distinguished the ranks of officials by turban.
The huge rebel army soon shocked the imperial court. The imperial court first sent 5,000 elite soldiers to suppress it. Fang La, who received the news, led the rebel army to ambush on the road that the Song army had to pass, and fought a beautiful annihilation battle.
Subsequently, Fang La, in a fit of anger, led the rebel army to capture Qingxi. Subsequently, he seized Muzhou and Shezhou by force.
The news of the victory of the rebel army spread everywhere like a winged bird. People from all over the country heard the news and joined the rebel army, and the ranks of the rebel army grew stronger and stronger.
In January alone, under the leadership of Fang La, the rebel army captured 52 counties in six prefectures, including Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, and Jiangsu, and captured almost half of the Northern Song Dynasty.
Stunned, Emperor Huizong of Song immediately ordered Tong Guan to lead 150,000 elite soldiers to suppress the rebel army.
Due to the dispersion of the rebel army, Tong Guan adopted the tactic of breaking one by one, and soon defeated the rebel army.
(Tong Guan stills)
In 1121, the Song army besieged the city of Hangzhou.
Emperor Huizong of Song ordered Fang La to submit to the imperial court, but Fang La rejected Emperor Huizong of Song.
Although Fang La personally took command, due to the lack of food and grass in the city, the rebel army soon fell into a passive situation. In order to preserve his strength, Fang La had to lead the rebel army to withdraw from the city of Hangzhou.
Because the rebel army was mostly peasants, had no systematic military training, lacked sophisticated weapons, and lost the cities and pools that had been captured one after another, morale was low. The Battle against the Song Army was defeated and soon lost Shezhou, Muzhou, and Quzhou.
Fang La, while fighting and retreating, with less than 200,000 rebel troops, eventually retreated to Qingxi Gangyuandong, and used this as a base to fight the Song army to the death.
In 1121, the Song army surrounded the Qingxi regiment and prepared to encircle and suppress the rebel army in one fell swoop. However, due to the hidden location of Bangyuandong, they have never been able to find the base of the rebel army.
In order to arrest Fang La, the government posted bounty notices everywhere, indicating that as long as someone provided information about Fang La's hiding, not only did he add officials to the knighthood, but also rewarded him with rich rewards.
Some of the rebels saw this and became traitors. Under his leadership, the Song army found the Gangyuan Cave.
Despite the stubborn resistance of the rebel army, because the Song army was several times larger than them, 70,000 rebel troops were eventually killed.
Fang La and his wife were captured by the Song army and taken to Beijing, where they were soon tortured to death.
According to the historical records, he stood up in anger and did not say a word when he was heroic and righteous. The people wept when they saw it.
A vigorous peasant uprising was eventually suppressed by the imperial court. But this did not cause Song Huizong to reflect, he was still the same, going his own way, living a life of extravagance and corruption, above the people.
Of course, such a day only lasted for 6 years. As the Jin attacked Fenjing, Emperor Huizong of Song became a prisoner of the Jin, and the Northern Song Dynasty perished.
(Reference: History of the Song Dynasty)