In the Water Margin rivers and lakes portrayed by Shi Nai'an, the heroes of Liangshan are all heroic and have distinct personalities, when it comes to the heroes of Liangshan, everyone will definitely think of one hundred and eight generals, but what is strange is that the former owner of Liangshan Cottage "Tuota Heavenly King" Chao Gai is not among them. It stands to reason that an identity like his must be described, but this is not the case.
Chao Gai was earlier in the whole book, as the "number one" of Qianliangshan, he died too strangely, about the ** who killed him, in fact, it was already clear in his last words, but no one dared to avenge him.
When it comes to Liangshan's eldest brother, most people think of Song Jiang, but those who have read the original book know that this Liangshan has had three eldest brothers, the first "white-clothed showman" Wang Lun is a straw bag who is not good at martial arts, and his heart is shallow and simple.
It's a pity that he can see that Liangshan is a treasure land of feng shui, and others can also see it, which is why Lin Chong insisted on fighting Wang Lun back then. The entire terrain of Liangshan is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and if you choose the base here, you can become bigger and stronger sooner or later, but Lin Chong did not become the owner of the village at that time, but left the position of the eldest brother to Chao Gai.
This move shows Lin Chong's cleverness, on the one hand, he seized this feng shui treasure, and on the other hand, he also got rid of his infamy of "stealing the position of the owner of the village". This Chao Gai is indeed a qualified big brother, he is kind and charitable, strong in martial arts, written in the book, his martial arts are far above the Song River, no matter from which point of view, he is the best candidate to be the owner of the village.
02 The death of the eldest brother.
As we all know, Chao Gai died in the battle of Zengtou City, when Duan Jingzhu's horse dedicated to Song Jiang was robbed by Zengtou City, and after snatching the horse, he also scolded the heroes of Liangshan, who can bear it, as the eldest brother, Chao Gai must come forward to take the brothers back to the field.
Since it is looking for a field, then there must be a platoon, this time Chao Gai brought 20 leaders, including a top master like Lin Chong, leading three armies and horses, it stands to reason that it is difficult to be killed.
But between the fights, I didn't know that a cold arrow came out of the **, after Chao Gai fell from the horse, he pulled out the arrow and saw that the words "Shi Wengong" were written on it, and Chao Gai was quickly carried back after the arrow, and he died not long after.
Everyone thought that Chao Gai was shot to death by Shi Wengong, but when he was dying, Chao Gai's words to his brothers cast a layer of mystery over his death. At that time, he suddenly woke up, stared at Song Jiang and the others, and said, "Whoever catches and shoots me to death, let's call him the master of Liangshan Bozhai." ”
As soon as these words came out, everyone changed their expressions, especially Song Jiang, you must know that before this, Chao Gai was cultivating Song Jiang as a ** person, if there were no such words, after Chao Gai's death, Song Jiang would naturally become the owner of the village, and he must have felt that he was in the wrong arrow.
Many people who have read "Water Margin" in later generations think like this, like the famous writer Jin Shengxian in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties commented on "Water Margin", he made an inference about Chao Gai's death, and he believed that it was Song Jiang, the third owner of Liangshan, who killed Chao Gai.
At that time, when Chao Gai led everyone to attack Zengtou City, the strong wind blew the military flag at the waist, which was very unlucky, and it was impossible for everyone to have no thoughts about it, but except for Wu Yong's sentence, "Why don't you stop for a few days", no one else has a proverb.
This is obviously very strange, Master Jin Shengxi believes that at that time, Song Jiang was already regarded as the number one in Liangshan, and for this battle, many people even expected Chao Gai to lose.
The second is that after Chao Gai was injured, everyone did not choose to stop the loss in time immediately, but continued to fight the enemy, unwilling to retreat, and after returning to Liangshan, everyone did not ask for a doctor at the first time, just cried around the bedside, and seemed to have acquiesced that Chao Gai would die.
So why did Song Jiang put this eldest brother to death?The most important point is that the two have opposite ambitions, as we all know, Song Jiang has a special obsession with the establishment, and has always encouraged all the heroes in Liangshan to accept Zhao'an, but Chao Gai is not like this, although he was also forced to go to Liangshan, but he is free by nature, so he never agreed to Zhao'an.
On Liangshan at that time, Chao Gai was still the boss on the surface, so if Chao Gai did not agree, it would be impossible to realize Zhao'an, so in order to realize his dream of being compiled, Song Jiang could only kill Chao Gai.
After Chao Gai's death, Song Jiang, who managed the affairs of the cottage, naturally sat on the position of the owner of the village, who else dared to touch him at this time?After Song Jiang ascended the throne, Liang Shanbo quickly made a personnel transfer, and at this time, no one would move the current new owner of the village for a dead eldest brother, unless he didn't want a future. As Song Jiang's power in Liangshan deepened, the death of Chao Gai became a past that everyone did not dare to mention again, which shows how deep and hypocritical Song Jiang is.