"Water Margin" is not only one of the four famous novels in the mainland, but also a strange book with many secrets.
There are 4 such heroes in the Water Margin, and they are all surnamed Zhu. When reading their names together, you will find three secrets related to the Ming Dynasty, which are said to be the connotation of Zhu Yuanzhang.
What is the major secret that even Zhu Yuanzhang, the "Living Yama King" at that time, dared to contail?
Zhu Wu of two people
The book Water Margin was written at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, although the whole book is written in the story of the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, but because of the problems of the author's time, some people speculate that when Shi Nai'an wrote it at that time, he should be satirizing some things at the moment.
There is a basis for such speculation, because the Water Margin was banned for a period of time in the early years of the Ming Dynasty.
It is said that because someone discovered some secrets in the Water Margin, after they reported the situation, the book was temporarily banned.
As for the first secret, it has a lot to do with Zhu Wu, the divine machine military master in the Water Margin.
First of all, the name Zhu Wu is very suspicious.
The founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, was surnamed Zhu, and then his name during his reign was Hongwu, so some people speculated that this Zhu Wu would not say Zhu Yuanzhang.
But judging from Zhu Wu's deeds in the middle and late stages of the Water Margin, he is not exactly Zhu Yuanzhang, but also a strategist under Lao Zhu.
After Zhu Wu appeared, he, Chen Da and Yang Chun were working as grass cowards in Shaohua Mountain, as for why it became like this, it is said that he was forced by the local government.
Looking at it this way, it seems to be somewhat similar to Zhu Yuanzhang's deeds.
The reason why Zhu Yuanzhang joined the army back then was actually forced by the government.
In addition, after Zhu Yuanzhang developed, he had two very important generals under him, one was Xu Da and the other was Chang Yuchun. These two people are brave and resourceful, and they can be said to be Zhu Yuanzhang's right-hand man.
So some people speculated that Chen Da and Yang Chun would not refer to Xu Da and Chang Yuchun, right? After all, the words in their names have a lot in common.
Of course, this is just our guess, maybe Shi Nai'an really arranged it this way back then, after all, there are too many coincidences, which makes it easier for people to believe that it was deliberate.
In the end, Zhu Wu took his brothers and took refuge in Liangshan, a larger group of grass bandits.
At the time of the Great Gathering, Zhu Wu was ranked 37th among the 108 generals, but he was not even 36 Tiangang.
Although Zhu Wu doesn't have many famous scenes in the Water Margin, and he doesn't show his face much, this person has real skills, and he is very good at formations.
In terms of formations, even military Wu Yong doesn't know much about it.
After Song Jiang forced everyone to accept Zhao'an, Zhu Wu was arranged to be a private military division by Lu Junyi's side.
At that time, in terms of formation, Zhu Wu did help Lu Junyi a lot, and the two also joined forces to defeat many strong opponents in formation.
It is precisely because of this that everyone says that he is "Deputy Wu Yong", and if you look at it this way, Zhu Wu should be able to rank into 36 Tiangang, so some people speculate that Zhu Wu should have been run on in Liangshan.
After getting Fang La, it means that Zhao'an is basically over.
Fortunately, Zhu Wu survived in the end, and after accepting the reward from the Northern Song Dynasty, Zhu Wu finally went to Gongsun Sheng.
In Zhu Wu's opinion, his mission has been completed, so there is no need to follow these people anymore.
Of course, some people say that Zhu Wu hates court life, or he knows that the court hall of the Northern Song Dynasty is not a good place, and if he stays, he will finish playing sooner or later, so he left.
However, a more mainstream version is that Zhu Wu was excluded in Liangshan, so he finally completed the task and went his separate ways.
If that's the case, Zhu Wu is also very much like Zhu Yuanzhang's advisor Liu Bowen.
The beautiful man who was forced to be helpless
Liu Bowen can be said to be the smartest and most knowledgeable person under Zhu Yuanzhang, like Li Shanchang, who is far inferior to him.
Although it is said to be a good thing, it is not necessarily in some specific circumstances, such as in the court of the Ming Dynasty.
Maybe when there was a war before, everyone had no time to take care of anything else.
When the battle is over and the official start of work, there will be intrigue one by one.
Liu Bowen was deeply valued by Zhu Yuanzhang at that time, so slowly, he became the target of everyone's run, and the leader was Li Shanchang.
In fact, Li Shanchang is envious, jealous and hateful, he feels that it is because of Liu Bowen's presence, so he is not favored.
In this way, Li Shanchang led a group of scoundrels and began to exclude Liu Bowen.
Sometimes human nature is really terrible, you are not as good as others, not to find a way to catch up with each other through your own efforts, but to use this kind of low-level and indiscriminate means, it is really too unworthy of martial arts.
Liu Bowen was also very helpless when he saw this, since you are like this, can't you provoke me and still can't hide? So he quit his job and went home.
Li Shanchang was very insidious at that time, and he tried his best to harm Liu Bowen many times.
But even so, Liu Bowen still pleaded for Li Shanchang, and even Zhu Yuanzhang was very puzzled: "He wants to hurt you again and again, why do you still speak for him?" ”
This is the person of the big picture, even if you abuse me thousands of times, I still treat you like my first love.
After talking about Zhu Wu, the next well-known figure surnamed Zhu in Liangshan is the beautiful bearded prince Zhu Tong, who is very much like the reincarnation of the second master.
Zhu Tong had a serious job in the Northern Song Dynasty at that time, but unfortunately, Song Jiang's sixth child took a fancy to his talent.
The story is simply that Zhu Tong was sent away because he let go of his good brother without permission.
After coming to the new place, Zhu Tong's main task every day is to take the children from the master's family, as long as he receives them, Zhu Tong has hope to regain his official position.
But at this moment, Li Kui appeared with an axe.
In order to let Zhu Tong fall into the grass, Wu Yong first persuaded him with kind words.
But at that time, officials had a good salary every month, who wanted to be a bandit, so of course Zhu Tong was unwilling.
Since you don't agree, then force you to come, so Wu Yong asked Li Kui to kill the child led by Zhu Tong.
The child is gone, how will I explain to the master after I go back? In the end, Zhu Tong could only be forced to become a bandit.
This is Song Jiang and Wu Yong, and it is not good to use the word "shameless" to describe both of them. Unscrupulous means to achieve the end is the real evil person in the world.
Zhu Tong is indeed very powerful, he killed many enemy generals in the process of recruiting in Liangshan, which can be regarded as a small achievement.
After returning to the Northern Song Dynasty, he continued to live in the army. This time, he came to Liu Guangshi's tent and targeted the Jin people, and it is said that he eventually became a major envoy.
Zhu Tong's final ending was not bad, at least he didn't end up like Song Jiang and Lu Junyi.
Contains Zhu Yuanzhang's three secrets
The next two surnamed Zhu are a pair of brothers, the elder brother is Zhu Gui of the dry land, and the younger brother is Zhu Fu, the smiling tiger.
Let's talk about my brother Zhu Gui first, this person ostensibly opened a store, but in fact, he is to inquire about the news, and we can see from his nickname.
In some special languages, it means crocodile.
We all know that crocodiles are animals that either lurk in the water waiting for their prey, or crawl on the shore to rest.
In any case, the crocodile seemed to be still, but in fact, it was secretly observing everything around it, and this happened to correspond to Zhu Gui's position.
Of course, in addition to crocodiles, there is also a theory that refers to four-legged snakes, which are simply too cunning.
The four-legged snake likes to eat turtles very much, and when it finishes eating, it lives in turtle shells and waits for its prey, and when it sees any delicious snacks passing by, it goes up directly to take a bite.
If you're wearing your shoes, you're probably going to have to take it all at once.
In any case, the animals represented by the law are better at camouflage, and then quietly observe all the movements around them, which is actually the same work as Zhu Gui's scouts.
And his younger brother Zhu Fu, although he said that he is also a shopkeeper, is not like his brother as a "scout". At that time, people liked to practice martial arts very much, and the master was Li Yun, who almost fell into the bottom 10 in the ranking.
In the end, Zhu Fu and his elder brother went to Liangshan together and entered this giant pit-like family.
Later, during the expedition to Fangla, both Zhu brothers died of plague.
If they hadn't entered Liangshan back then, it is estimated that they would have lived happily for a lifetime, and they would not have died in such pain in the end.
Zhu Wu and Zhu Tong are not dead, so why are these two brothers gone? Naturally, this has a lot to do with their names.
As we said earlier, Zhu Wu's later experience is very similar to Liu Bowen, who was excluded under Zhu Yuanzhang, this is the first secret mentioned at the beginning, and the second secret is to read the names of these four heroes surnamed Zhu together.
"Zhu Wu is rich and noble", this is the second secret, Zhu Wu was like Liu Bowen in the later period, and he was more like Zhu Yuanzhang in the early stage.
Therefore, "Zhu Wutong is rich and noble" refers to Zhu Yuanzhang's promise that everyone wants to be rich together, which is what he often said to his subordinates when he fought the world, which is very in line with history.
"Zhu Wutong is rich and noble", this is the third secret, when the two brothers Zhu Gui and Zhu Fu died of illness, the second secret became the third secret, which also corresponds to history.
Although Zhu Yuanzhang said that he promised to share the wealth with everyone, Zhu Yuanzhang basically killed all the founding heroes, and only a few of them got a good death.
Since everyone has been killed, there is no way to get rich together.
These three secrets are related to the timeline, which corresponds to the history of the early years of the Ming Dynasty.
I have to say that looking at it this way, it does have a bit of a connotation of Zhu Yuanzhang's flavor. I don't know if Shi Nai'an did it on purpose, or is it really such a coincidence?
Of course, it is also possible that Shi Nai'an was dissatisfied with what Zhu Yuanzhang did, and he didn't dare to say it, so he could only secretly write it in his book.
Personally, I don't think it's a coincidence, because there are too many coincidences. If there are one or two, it is understandable, but the coincidental places are enough to make up a table of mahjong, so Shi Nai'an is really risking his life in the connotation of Lao Zhu, but I have to say that the writing is really good!