The world of "Water Margin" can be described as full of wicked people, so those who are oppressed and unwilling to accept their fate choose to fall into the grass and break into the green forest, and there are one hundred and eight leaders gathered on Shuibo Liang Mountain.
The book only says: "The light flies away from the earth cave, and the heavens and the earth descend into the dust." When he speaks, he is arrogant and cold, and he is cold when he talks about it. Fight righteousness and squander wealth to return to the water, and take revenge and hatred to go down to Liangshan. A dignified volume of heavenly writing, put it to the princes to read carefully. ”
Whether those good guys are good or bad, judging from the description in the book, at least most of them have a strong ability, but how to rank the one hundred and eight people? It doesn't seem to be purely ranked according to ability, for example, there is a hero who is comparable to Wu Song before going to Liangshan, but after going up the mountain, he became a pig killer, and after being abolished by Song Jiang, he became cannon fodder on the battlefield.
1. The underestimated strong
What is the basis for the ranking of Liangshan heroes?
In fact, anyone who has read the original book knows that the ranking is determined by Shijie Tian, but who knows if Shijie was arranged in advance by someone with a heart?
For example, in the forty-second chapter of the original work, Song Jiang got the "Book of Heaven" taught by the Nine Heavens Xuannu, and at that time, there was no seating, and the Xuannu said that the Book of Heaven could only be watched with the "Tianji Star", and Song Jiang directly gave the Book of Heaven to Wu Yong, which means that Song Jiang decided that Wu Yong was the "Tianji Star".
(Ling Zhen stills)
Therefore, it is indeed possible that the ranking of Liangshan heroes was manipulated by Song Jiang, and as long as it is artificial, it will inevitably be unfair.
In fact, there are many strong people in the earth who deserve to be ranked in Tiangang, such as the "thunder" Ling Zhen, he is the first gunner in the Great Song Dynasty, knows how to control artillery, and also knows how to make artillery, in terms of strategic significance, no hero can compare with him, how can he be ranked fifty-second?
Another example is the "miracle doctor" An Daoquan and the "purple-haired uncle" Huangfuduan, one of them is a doctor and the other is a veterinarian, and they are also talents of great strategic significance, and they should not be ranked on the ground.
Of course, there are pure powerhouses in the earth, such as the "Demon King of the Mixed World" Fan Rui, whether it is martial arts or spells, Fan Rui deserves a Tiangang ranking, and even in terms of comprehensive strength, he should be the second person in Liangshan after Gongsun Sheng, why is he ranked sixty-one?
(Cao Zheng stills)
However, the hero to be mentioned in this article is easier to be ignored, just because his sense of existence is really not strong, but this refers to his sense of existence after going up the mountain, after all, before going to Liangshan, he was a talent with both wisdom and bravery, and his ability may not be under Wu Song.
This person is the "knife ghost" Cao Zheng.
Second, the treatment after going up the mountain
Cao is Lin Chong's apprentice, Lin Chong is the head of the 800,000 forbidden army in the capital, and one of the five tigers of Liangshan, the apprentice he taught, naturally not much worse, of course, to say that he has the strength comparable to Wu Song, naturally refers not to pure force.
However, this does not mean that Cao Zheng's force is poor, he and Yang Zhi have a fight, and the book reads: "Yang Zhi said: 'As a result, this guy didn't dare to chase after him. He raised the sword in his hand to fight this man. This man also turned the stick in his hand and grabbed it to greet him. The two fought for thirty or twenty times, and Yang Zhi, who was the enemy of this man, could only do it by blocking and dodging up and down. ”
And Yang Zhi and Lin Chong also had a tie, and they fell into the grass in Erlong Mountain with Wu Song and Lu Zhishen, the strength of these characters is actually between the two players, no one dares to say that they can win the other party, Cao Zheng can fight Yang Zhi with force for thirty rounds, which is enough to prove that his strength is not bad.
However, the value of this character is definitely not only how high his force is, but also his resourcefulness.
When Lu Zhishen was able to successfully capture Erlong Mountain, he listened to Cao Zheng's suggestion.
(Erlongshan stills)
The book only said: "The envoy also dresses like this, and only dresses according to the villain's house near the village." The villain took the master's Zen staff and sword, but asked the villain's wife and brother to take six fire families and send them directly to the bottom of the mountain, and tied a rope to the master. The villain will make his own slipknot...... The guy will let us go up the mountain. When he arrived in his cottage, when he saw Deng Long, he pulled the rope off the slipknot, and the villain handed over the Zen staff and the master. As soon as you two good men get it, the guy goes there. If the result is his, the following will not dare to remain unwilling. ”
Lu Zhishen and Yang Zhi, the two strong men, replied like a simple man: "Wonderful, wonderful!" ”
It can be seen that they couldn't come up with such a bitter plan at all, and the later plot development was indeed as Cao Zheng expected, they successfully captured Erlong Mountain, which led to the later Three Mountains Juyi.
It can be said that Cao Zheng's strategy is to bring a large number of powerful brothers to Liangshan, he is completely worthy of a higher ranking, this kind of brave and resourceful master, the strategic significance is by no means under the reckless man Li Kui, in addition to Li Kui, such as Mu Hong, Zhang Heng, these almost inactive heroes can also be replaced by him.
Yan Qing can get a place in Tiangang by virtue of her relationship with Lu Junyi, Cao is Lin Chong's land, why can't she?
What is even more excessive is the position that Song Jiang arranged for Cao Zheng.
(Song Jiang stills)
The book only says: "Cao Zheng, a member of the slaughter of cattle, horses, pigs, sheep and livestock, "knife ghost". ”
It's ridiculous, people are just nicknamed "knife ghosts", but they can't only kill pigs and sheep, he was completely buried by Song Jiang, and this also affected his performance in the follow-up plot.
3. An inexplicable ending
The process of conquering Fangla is very tragic, and those who can really survive to the end naturally have some skills on their bodies, and they can even be said to be very smart, so it stands to reason that Cao Zheng, a brave and resourceful man, should live to the end, but it backfired.
(Stills of the ghost)
In the battle of Xuanzhou, Cao Zheng died like a miscellaneous soldier, leaving only one sentence in the book: "Jia Yuqing led some defeated soldiers and went to Huzhou." Cheng Shengzu disappeared from the battle. The grinding fan killed the white-faced Langjun Zheng Tianshou. The two Chinese medicine arrows are Cao Zheng, the ghost who operates the knife, and Huo Shanpo Wang Dingliu. ”
The deaths of him and several other heroes seem meaningless, and the other heroes may have limited abilities and are difficult to survive, but Cao Zheng used to be a strong man, how can he be so embarrassed now?
It's very simple, no matter how strong a person is, if he is so delayed by Song Jiang, it will inevitably become mediocre, let a top talent kill pigs, with such a big brother as Song Jiang, how can Liangshan's brothers not come to an end.