The heroes of Liangshan in "Water Margin" have great powers, and most readers worship them, nothing more than because they are strong, in fact, in addition to being strong enough, another requirement for walking in the green forest is "love and righteousness", and the place where the heroes of Liangshan gather is called Zhongyitang, so they are all loyal and righteous people?
Not necessarily, in fact, judging from the plot presented in the book, there are also many unrighteous people on Liangshan, such as Tang Long, the "money leopard" who betrayed his cousin, and Wang Ying, the "bantam tiger" who can fight with his righteous brother Yan Shun for the wife of Liu Gao, the governor of Qingfeng Village, they are villains who do not deserve to be called heroes at all.
Many black sheep can also mix with Liangshan, which shows that Liangshan may not be harmonious within the group, which can also be seen from Chao Gai's succession, since Song Jiang is the most bossy person, why didn't Chao Gai pass the position of the owner of the village directly to Song Jiang before he died?
1. The death of Chao Gai
Those who have not read the original work of "Water Margin" may not know that before Song Jiang became the owner of the village, Liangshan also had two owners of the village, the first was the "white-clothed showman" Wang Lun, that guy was a jealous and jealous person, and was finally killed by Lin Chonghuo, not to mention it, but Chao Gai is a good big brother.
(Chao Gai stills)
The book only says: "It turns out that Dongxi Village is upright, surnamed Chao Minggai, and his ancestor is a wealthy family in his own county. But if anyone came to him, whether good or bad, they stayed in the village. And when he wanted to go, he gave him two pieces of silver to help him get up. I love to stab the spear and make the stick, and I am also strong, I don't marry a wife, and I just boil my muscles and bones all day long. ”
After all, Song Jiang is still just kind and charitable, and his style of acting is quite hypocritical, Chao Gai can be much more upright, and if the later Liangshan heroes continue to be active in the green forest under the leadership of Chao Gai, instead of choosing to accept Zhao'an, they may not end up miserable.
However, Chao Gai this person was killed by an arrow because he was too upright, Zeng Tou City battle, he was hit by Shi Wengong's arrow in a panic, of course, the book did not directly write the words "Shi Wengong archery", and the heroes only judged that it was shot by Shi Wengong by virtue of the name engraved on the arrow.
(Shi Wengong stills)
Therefore, there are also many readers who think that Chao Gai was secretly shot by Song Jiang, after all, from the bright side, Chao Gai died, and the biggest beneficiary was indeed Song Jiang, but whether it was really arranged by Song Jiang is also unproven, but there is one thing worth playing, that is, Chao Gai's decision before his death.
Second, Chao Gai's decision
When Chao Gai was the first leader, Song Jiang was also the second-in-command, although his relationship with Chao Gai was not very close, but he was also one of the few characters who could be spoken.
In addition, there are many heroes who went to Liangshan for the names of Song Jiang's "Filial Piety Hei Saburo", "Timely Rain" and "Hu Baoyi", so from the bright side, Chao Gai knew that his life was short, for the future of Liangshan, for the rest of his brothers' lives, he should also set the successor to the owner of the village as soon as possible, but he said so.
The original book said: "From the night to the third watch, Chao Gai's body was heavy, he turned his head to look at Song Jiang, and asked: 'Take care of your brother. If the one catches and shoots me, he will be called the master of Liangshan. Then he died blindly. ”
At this time, Chao Gai also called Song Jiang "virtuous brother", the so-called "people are dying and their words are good", which shows that at least in his opinion, he does not think that Song Jiang harmed himself, and his enemy is only Shi Wengong.
(Song Jiang stills)
But the question is, why didn't he directly pass on the position of the owner of the village to Song Jiang?
Obviously, he doesn't want Song Jiang to become the master of Liangshan in his heart, as mentioned above, Chao Gai is the high-profile version of Song Jiang, of course, the "high-matching" here does not refer to "scheming", but refers to martial arts, after all, Song Jiang only has superficial stick kung fu, so his opponent Shi Wengong who can't take Chao Gai, how can Song Jiang take it?
Therefore, in Chao Gai's view, who is the most suitable person to be the owner of the village? Undoubtedly, Lin Chong, because he himself had seen Lin Chong's strength, and it was Lin Chong who killed Wang Lun in the first place, so that their brothers could successfully settle in Liangshan.
Of course, even if Lin Chong didn't have the heart to be the owner of the village, from the bright side, with Song Jiang's strength, he would never have a chance to win Shi Wengong, in a word, Chao Gai made it clear that he didn't want Song Jiang to be the boss.
But why?
Maybe it's because he has already seen through Song Jiang's character.
3. Song Jiang's ambitions
It was precisely because Yu Baosi said that the horse he was going to sacrifice to Liangshan was robbed by Zeng Tou City that Chao Gai took his brothers to ask for an explanation.
However, it is worth noting that Yu Baosi's horses were not actually dedicated to "Liangshan", strictly speaking, they were given to Song Jiang.
(Yu Baosi stills)
Here's what the book says: "Nahan replied: 'The villain's surname is Duan, and his double name is Jingzhu. When people see the little brother with red hair and yellow beard, they call the villain a golden retriever. Zuguan is a native of Zhuozhou. In his life, he only relied on stealing horses from the ground in the north. This spring, I went to the north of Gun Ridge and stole a good horse, and the snow was white, without a single miscellaneous hair, and the head was one foot long from tail to the spine, and the hooves were eight feet high from the ridge. The horse is tall and big, can travel thousands of miles in a day, there is a name in the north, called the jade lion horse of the night, it is ridden by the golden prince, placed under the gun pole ridge, and was stolen by the villain. On the rivers and lakes, I only heard the name of the rain in time, and there was no way to see it, so I wanted to come to the leader of this horse and express my intentions. ’”
Chao Gai is the eldest brother, but you gave the horse to Song Jiang, where do you put the big brother Chao Gai? And when Song Jiang heard this, he did not have the slightest intention of giving the horse to Chao Gai.
In fact, earlier, Song Jiang was already a little excessive.
When Zhujiazhuang was first played, Hu Sanniang was captured, strictly speaking, at this time, Song Jiang could not deal with this woman, Chao Gai did not have a wife, this woman should be handed over to Chao Gai to dispose of, but what did Song Jiang do?
(Hu Sanniang stills)
He took it upon himself to give this woman to Wang Ying, just because he had promised Wang Ying to return him a woman, and asked if he was in charge of Liangshan at this time? Why did he do this?
Even if Chao Gai is not close to women, this matter should be presided over by Chao Gai.
Obviously, as a boss, Chao Gai has long been unhappy with Song Jiang's various acts of overstepping his authority, which is the reason why he did not pass on the position of the owner of the village to Song Jiang, but Song Jiang was scheming, and finally became the owner of the village, and brought the brothers to a point of no return.