In the world of Water Margin, Wu Yong, the military advisor of Liangshan, can be said to be the number one think tank. The book evaluates him as "who dares to deceive Zhuge Liang with his strategies, and who can surprise the gods and ghosts with his little tricks". However, for such a wise man, the name given by the author Shi Naian is very intriguing: Isn't the homophony of "Wu Yong" the same as "Wu Yong"? This means that this person is useless. So, did Shi Naian also discover this? In his heart, is Wu Yong really a useless person?
1. A copycat think tank who was born as a rural teacher
Wu Yong was originally a rural teacher. Later, he actively helped his friend Chao Gai organize and plan to rob one hundred thousand yuan? , changed his destiny in one fell swoop. Wu Yong originally had a relatively stable job, so why did he risk his life and death to commit such a heinous crime? The reason is not because Wu Yong is particularly greedy for money, but because he is dissatisfied with social reality and unwilling to have his talents buried, and does not allow himself to die in silence. Therefore, he used this extreme method to say goodbye to his small life of food and clothing in the mountain village. After the incident was revealed, Wu Yong had no choice but to turn into a bandit. From then on, his future and destiny were closely linked to Liangshan.
When Chao Gai was the master of the mountain village, although Wu Yong firmly occupied the second position, in fact, due to Chao Gai's limited structure, Wu Yong was unable to fully consider his own and Liangshan's future. After Song Jiang went up the mountain, the team of Liangshan heroes continued to grow, and Song Jiang put forward a long-term plan of "recruitment". This suddenly seemed to activate Wu Yong, a strategist who had gradually become "useless". Recruitment is a great systematic project. It not only requires the Liangshan heroes to work hard together to increase their weight in the eyes of the court, but also requires the relevant parties in the court to face Liangshan and be willing to take the initiative to extend a valuable olive branch.
Therefore, with Song Jiang's talent alone, he will definitely not be able to complete the great task of recruiting security. He needs the full participation of Wu Yong, a think tank. Wu Yong also realized that the recruitment was Song Jiang's way of finding a way out for himself and the entire Liangshan team, so he never tired of it, actively participated in it, and offered suggestions.
Song Jiang once preached: What’s not beautiful about serving the country together and leaving a name in history? ?The pie has been drawn for everyone, but the road still needs to be drawn out by Wu Yong step by step. Therefore, Song Jiang achieved Wu Yong, and Wu Yong also achieved Song Jiang.
2. Wu Yong’s true attitude towards the recruitment
Wu Yong was Song Jiang’s right-hand man who successfully recruited the security forces. So, can we think based on this that Wu Yong sincerely supports the recruitment? I'm afraid we can't draw such a conclusion yet. At that time, an important reason why Wu Yong dared to risk the disapproval of the world and rob Cai Jing's "birthday card" was that he was dissatisfied with the dark rule of the Northern Song Dynasty court. Now facing the same social reality, Wu Yong is not full of longing for recruitment. He had doubts about the court's attitude and was also worried about his future after recruitment. After Liangshan was recruited, he was immediately sent to the battlefield by Song Huizong to conquer the Liao Kingdom. When Liangshan was victorious, the Liao Kingdom extended an olive branch to Song Jiang with high-ranking officials and generous salaries. Song Jiang asked Wu Yong for advice. Wu Yong said: "The treacherous officials have exclusive power, but the Lord is obedient. Even if the envoy succeeds in the future, there will be no reward." If you abandon the Song Dynasty and join the Liao Dynasty with your foolish intentions, wouldn't you win? ?
3. Why is Wu Yong? Useless?
Wu Yong is unwilling to live at the bottom of society and hopes to use his intelligence to change his destiny. But the result is that he worked hard, struggled, and was awarded the title of General Wu Jie and Wu Shengjun as Propaganda Envoy, but these were all short-lived. From the initial "outsmarting the birthday card" to the final "returning the soul to Liao'erwa", Wu Yong seems to have exerted his energy to the extreme, but in the final analysis, it turns out that these efforts are "useless". He did not find a way out for himself, and he had no ability to change Liangshan's fate of eventual destruction.
Personally, he walked in a circle, returned to the starting point, and drifted away alone; for Liangshan, he did not bring light to the heroes, but instead assisted Song Jiang, step by step Liangshan was pushed into the abyss of eternal destruction.
Without Wu Yong's efforts, the heroes might still be living happily in the water under the leadership of Chao Gai. Therefore, Wu's use of his name was not due to Shi Naian's lack of consideration. He was really "useless".