In the eyes of many of us today, it was Song Jiang who accepted Zhao'an and buried the entire Liangshan, is this really the case?
If Song Jiang hadn't accepted Zhao'an at that time, what would have been Liangshan's final ending? In fact, it is very simple, it can be summed up in two words, which two words? Maybe accepting Zhao'an is the best ending, why is that?
Yangsan, where it is difficult to survive alone
Nowadays, the reason why many of us hate Song Jiang is nothing more than because he accepted Zhao'an. Because of this, he not only killed himself, but even other people were implicated.
Song Jiang accepted Zhao'an, indeed because of his own thoughts, that is, he wanted to go back to being an official.
In order to realize this idea, Song Jiang began to take in the imperial court officials after coming to Liangshan. Because these people also want to go back to being officials, so that everyone has the same goal, which is equivalent to having more power to support Song Jiang.
In order to let more people help themselves, Song Jiang and the others also used all kinds of despicable means to force those generals to fall into the grass.
The bearded prince Zhu Tong is a good example, because Song Jiang admires him very much, so when Wu Yong's persuasion was unsuccessful, he directly asked Li Kui to kill the second-generation child of the official led by Zhu Tong.
In order to achieve their own goals, they even killed innocent people at will, this group of people is really shameless.
Now I understand why Song Jiang's popularity has become higher and higher after he went to Liangshan, because people are all generals with the same goal as themselves, and this group of people is unwilling to be a grass coward.
Of course, there is a very special existence in this group of people, that is, Wu Yong, a grass coward who is a serious child, this person just wants to be a grass coar, and he is not interested in official positions or anything.
In this case, why did Wu Yong give up helping Chao Gai, who had the same idea as himself, and instead chose Song Jiang, who was completely opposite to his own idea?
This is naturally because Wu Yong saw the problem of Liangshan, if he wants to solve this problem, if he wants to protect some of the generals in Liangshan, only Zhao'an can solve it, what is the problem? Survive.
Presumably, someone will ask at this time: "After Liangshan accepted Zhao'an, they even solved the most tricky Fang La, who else could threaten their safety?" ”
In fact, let's just say that the overall strength of Liangshan is not as strong as we imagined.
They may be strong in those rebel armies, but compared to those serious countries, they are really no different from ants, how can they see it?
If you want to talk about the countries that could threaten the security of Liangshan at that time, one was the Northern Song Dynasty and the other was the Jin State, first of all, let's talk about the most controversial Northern Song Dynasty.
Presumably some people will say: "Liangshan, didn't they fight against the Northern Song Dynasty, and they all won, how can they pose a threat?" ”
Let's just put it this way, in fact, the strength of the Northern Song Dynasty has always been very strong, and it is not as weak as we imagined, like all the battles they have fought, it is said that the victory rate is as high as 70%.
One thing to say, this record is already very good when surrounded by strong enemies.
If the Northern Song Dynasty was really like what was written in the Water Margin, it couldn't even beat Liangshan with tens of thousands of people, then it would have perished a long time ago.
The biggest failure of the Northern Song Dynasty is actually that the emperors are not angry one by one, but as long as the emperors in the back are normal, they can pick a few similar generals to resist the Jin people, and it is estimated that they will not perish so early.
In fact, there are elite soldiers and strong generals in the Northern Song Dynasty, but they just don't have a place to play themselves.
The underrated Northern Song Dynasty
Take the Tanyuan alliance between the Northern Song Dynasty and the Liao State as an example, at that time, the Northern Song Dynasty actually had a great advantage, and the Khitans did not get any cheap and lost their troops, but even so, the Northern Song Dynasty still had to send money to the Liao State every year.
This is very puzzling, the battle was actually won, the defense against foreign enemies was successful, but an unequal treaty was still signed.
The Khitan people are also happy, and they can still let the other party send money to them every year after losing the war, and they can make it like this, it is estimated that only the Northern Song Dynasty is the only one.
This is the Northern Song Dynasty in the official history, in fact, the Northern Song Dynasty in the Water Margin is similar to this situation.
Just imagine, if the Northern Song Dynasty really can't do anything, then Liangshan will be even weaker.
Almost half of Liangshan's generals are from the Northern Song Dynasty, and first-class fierce generals like Guan Sheng and Hu Yanzhuo actually have them in the Northern Song Dynasty, but they just don't know how to use them.
In the late Northern Song Dynasty in the official history, there were famous generals such as Zong Ze, Wang Yu, and Chongshi Dao, as well as the rising star of the "Four Generals of Zhongxing".
In fact, some of the generals have it, but they haven't met Mingjun, which is a pity. The reason why the Northern Song Dynasty in the Water Margin did not fight Liangshan is because of this.
Let's not talk about anything else, just take Tong Guan and Gao Yu to see the battle between Liangshan, in fact, as soon as these two people are the supreme commanders, the basic ending can already be guessed.
These two people are straw bales when they fight, and they have no actual combat experience or have read military books, if they can win in this way, then the world is estimated to be the Northern Song Dynasty.
But whenever they sent some normal people over in the Northern Song Dynasty, they couldn't be arrogant in Liangshan.
It's normal for it to be written like this, but if you can't even beat the Northern Song Dynasty, how can you recruit peace later?
The combat effectiveness was also reduced by the author, as well as the Liao State at that time, although the Liao State in the official history was also in its last years, it was not something that tens of thousands of troops could contend with.
But Shi Nai'an's Liangshan army was too powerful, and it was too exaggerated to destroy the Liao State without sacrificing a single general.
Let's exaggerate to say that even if Liangshan destroys both the Liao State and the Northern Song Dynasty, then their security problems are still very big, because there is still the biggest threat to the Jin State.
Friends who know the official history know that after the Jin State destroyed the Liao State, the Northern Song Dynasty was destroyed in a few years.
Although it was two dying countries that were destroyed, the strength of the Jin country should not be underestimated.
At least there is no problem in destroying a grass bandit, like Liangshan, it is said that they only have less than 100,000 troops, even if they have 100,000 people, they can't resist a country.
This is the limitation of the peasant class, and it is very difficult for them to really grow.
According to the development of the plot in the Water Margin, if Song Jiang and the others don't accept Zhao'an, after the Jin people destroy the Northern Song Dynasty, grass troops like Liangshan will definitely clean it up, why?
The Jin Kingdom destroyed the Northern Song Dynasty, so they must want to unify the world. If this is the case, there will absolutely be no small armed force like Yangsan.
So Song Jiang and the others finally accepted Zhao'an, in fact, to protect everyone. If you really wait until the Jin people come to kill, it will basically be wiped out, and few people will be able to escape.
After Song Jiang and the others accepted Zhao'an, at least some of the generals had a good life in the Northern Song Dynasty, and it didn't mean that they were all killed like Song Jiang and Lu Junyi.
If you don't recruit peace, you will perish
It is better to die at the hands of your own people than to be killed by a foreign invader like Jin Guo. Even if Hua Rong and Wu committed suicide like them, it would be better than being killed by the Jin people in the end.
Of course, this doesn't mean that he wants to whitewash Song Jiang or anything, because he didn't think about it so much at the beginning, he just wanted to come back to be an official again.
Unexpectedly, it was his more selfish thoughts that saved Liang Shan.
Some friends who have had an in-depth understanding know that Li Jun, the dragon of the mixed river, went out and came to Siam after Zhao'an. If they hadn't accepted that Zhao'an had been staying in Liangshan, would they still have a chance to go abroad when the Jin people came over?
Therefore, in fact, Song Jiang accepted Zhao'an and inadvertently saved some of the generals, which can be said to be the most cost-effective choice, otherwise Liangshan's final outcome is two words: destruction.
Of course, there is actually another choice in addition to these, but the final outcome will only be destruction, which one? That is, they did not fight with the Northern Song Dynasty, and directly obscene them in a corner of peace.
To put it bluntly, this kind of life is actually a paradise life, and this kind of life is actually not good, because Liangshan himself is not self-reliant at all.
It can be said that there are mountains and rivers near Yangsan, so the advantage brought by this place is that it is easy to defend and difficult to attack.
Therefore, some people say that they can just hold on to this acre and three points of land, and there is no need to provoke those strong enemies outside.
In fact, it is impossible not to go out and provoke it, and the reason is also the inability to stand on your own feet as mentioned earlier.
In addition to the mountains and water in Liangshan, it is barely possible to graze, but there is really no way to grow food.
Although it is said that it can be planted, the meager annual output is not enough for the entire Liangshan people to eat.
Therefore, Liangshan often sent people outside to plunder money and food, as long as he saw something that could be eaten and drunk, no matter what it was, he would rush up the mountain first.
If that's the case, the life of the Peach Blossom Land will not be able to pass, and sooner or later they will be discovered and exterminated by the government.
Therefore, it is not feasible to develop obscenely, as long as it is outside, it is a live target.
In fact, from the perspective of official history, it is actually a very normal thing to accept Zhao'an, such as Song Jiang in the official history, in fact, he accepted Zhao'an in the end.
For the insurgents, it is indeed safer to recruit security by themselves, after all, they are facing various powerful countries outside.
For the Northern Song Dynasty, these rebel armies of Zhao'an came to share the pressure on themselves, that is, to let them go to the border to defend against foreign enemies.
After all, the situation was not good at that time, and it was good to have some people to act as combat force after all, and this was free labor for the Northern Song Dynasty.
After all, if you want to defend against foreign enemies, you have to pay for your own troops, and you may not be able to fight.
Rather than this, it is better to let Zhao'an's troops go, and they can be sent away with some money casually, and even if the entire rebel army is destroyed, it will not be distressed.
This method is very common in history, especially when a dynasty reaches the end of its life, but it is just too unauthentic.
So to sum up, Song Jiang and their final acceptance of Zhao'an was actually the best choice, otherwise they would all be wiped out. Someone who is alive must be better than all dead.
Although most of the Liangshan generals ended up a bit miserable, they were not eliminated by foreign enemies, nor did they go to destruction, perhaps this was the best ending that Shi Nai'an could arrange for them.