"Even after all this, they still refused to surrender. They were truly tenacious. Song Jiang really had a way with people."
Watching the Mount Liang Bandit Stronghold fighters fall one after another beneath the Imperial Guards' Tiangang Five Thunder Cannons and Thunderfire Bombs, yet still refuse to surrender, Shen Fei quietly shook his head.
Song Jiang truly had some skill. He had turned what had originally been nothing more than a bandit gang into an organization with discipline even stricter than that of an ordinary army. Unfortunately, they had run into Shen Fei this time, and the path of seeking imperial amnesty had failed completely.
To gain office, commit murder and arson, then accept amnesty—this was one of the Song Dynasty's flaws. One major reason the Song Dynasty's armies were so corrupt was precisely this. Song Jiang wanted to be granted amnesty, and there were plenty of precedents to follow.
The Song Dynasty had seen more peasant uprisings than any other era in history. Those that could be suppressed were suppressed; those that could not were granted amnesty and incorporated into the army. Over time, the army's combat strength naturally declined.
Some said that the Song Dynasty had been the wealthiest dynasty, and Shen Fei acknowledged that. With the wealth he had acquired during this period alone, he could have turned the Song Dynasty into a powerful nation.
But the problem was that all that wealth came from the scholar-official class. Ordinary people were dirt poor. Otherwise, why would there have been so many peasant uprisings?
They would rather send huge annual tribute payments to foreign nations than use that money to improve conditions at home. That was the Song Dynasty. It could be said that, apart from Dali, the Song Dynasty paid substantial annual tribute to every neighboring country.