Why Song Jiang seek recruitment?

Why did Song Jiang insist on seeking amnesty and recruitment?

Answer 1:
Because they were almost unable to afford food.
During the Wang Lun period, Mount Liang had only seven or eight hundred men. Robbing a merchant convoy could feed them for half a year. After Chao Gai came up the mountain, he brought the 100,000-strings-of-cash birthday convoy booty, which brought temporary wealth. But as the number of people increased, resources became stretched. By the Song Jiang era, the scale of Mount Liang exploded. Forces from places like Erlong Mountain and Shaohua Mountain merged in, pushing the total number past ten thousand. After attacking the Zhu Family Manor, they obtained 500,000 dan of grain. Including the families of the rank-and-file followers, there were at least several tens of thousands of people. Calculating based on thirty thousand people, the grain was only enough for a year or two. Later, they attacked Daming Prefecture and Dongping Prefecture, each time opening granaries and distributing grain, seizing food by capturing cities. A single raid could sustain them for a few months, but after eating it all, where would they raid next? After the surrounding prefectures and counties had been raided once, they either strengthened their defenses or were too poor to have any spoils left. Mount Liang was like a roving bandit group: they didn’t farm or engage in production, relying entirely on sustaining warfare through plunder. But fighting costs lives, and plundered grain diminishes with each bite; eventually, they would exhaust their resources. At that time, the Song dynasty’s elite troops were stationed at the borders defending against the Liao and Western Xia. The forces sent to suppress Mount Liang were mostly local miscellaneous troops. If their plundering became too severe, forcing the court to get serious and recall border troops for defense, Mount Liang certainly couldn’t withstand it.
Some people cite Fang La as an example, but Fang La had territory in the Jiangnan region, with common people farming and paying taxes, enabling prolonged warfare.
What about Mount Liang? A marshland, with nothing but reeds and bandits.
They neither engaged in production nor governed the people’s livelihood, purely living off plundering the wealthy like a rolling feast. The only somewhat decent economic policy Mount Liang had was protection money: within their sphere of influence, small-scale banditry was prohibited, and Mount Liang collected fees uniformly.
But this was a drop in the bucket for an army of over ten thousand.
It wasn’t that Song Jiang didn’t want to establish a base area, but Mount Liang’s geographical location made it impossible. Surrounded by water, with zero arable land, it was good for nothing but being a bandit stronghold.
Therefore, seeking amnesty was Song Jiang’s only option.
To conquer the empire, one needs money, grain, and territory. Mount Liang had neither.

Answer 2:
Because the game was unsustainable.

You constantly trick people into coming up the mountain. These court officials all have significant backgrounds. Song Jiang couldn’t enlarge the pie enough to satisfy their appetites; internal strife and backlash were inevitable sooner or later.
So Song Jiang thought of selling the “company” to the imperial court, allowing himself to land safely.

Answer 3:
Because their peak fighting ability only lasted a couple of years. Bandits also eat a “youth meal”; when their arms and legs get old, are they just waiting for the court to suppress them? Look at the old Kuomintang forces who fled to the Golden Triangle; for the sake of their descendants, they ended up kneeling and accepting amnesty from Thailand (or some such place), which they would have looked down upon in their prime.

Answer 4:
Seeking amnesty served the long-term interests of all the Mount Liang heroes; the disagreements were only over when to seek it and how to do it.

The fundamental reason Song Jiang could become the leader of Mount Liang is that this amnesty route was generally accepted by everyone.

Why insist on amnesty? Wasn’t being bandits carefree? Because of economic problems; feeding an army requires a lot of rice.

After the ranking on Mount Liang, there were at least 100,000 troops to support. These people did not engage in production; running just a few “farmhouse” (rustic inns/operations) wasn’t enough; they could only maintain supply through continuous robbery. As Mount Liang’s reputation grew, more people flocked to join, and they had to be fed. Meanwhile, the court was launching suppression campaigns one after another, so they couldn’t demobilize troops either.

After amnesty, nominally they were no longer bandits; they could have loyalty and trust. Crucially, everyone would be supported by the court, funded by the taxes paid by the common people.

However, historically, bandits only have three paths: First, resist to the end and eventually be exterminated. Second, accept amnesty and be used as pawns by others. Third, successfully turn the tables and replace the regime.

Sticking to the novel’s context, Mount Liang’s biggest opportunity was actually when they were stationed at Chenqiao Post Station before the campaign against the Liao (what a familiar scene!). The main force could have directly marched to the Eastern Capital (Dongjing), stormed the palace, killed the four villainous ministers, proclaimed “to purify the court around the emperor” (Qing Jun Ce), and then assist (control) Emperor Huizong. Externally, they wouldn’t lose loyalty and trust; internally, it might not have been against the interests of the others on Mount Liang.

It’s just a pity that Song Jiang was ultimately no Cao Cao, and Wu Yong was no Xun Yu. Although this group didn’t include a single peasant, they indeed ended up sharing the same fate as most peasant uprisings.

Answer 5:
If you want an official post, commit murder and arson, then receive amnesty;
If you want wealth, sell wine and vinegar near the imperial procession.

Although Song Jiang was just a minor clerk in Yuncheng, of lowly status, his ambitions soared to the heavens; he had the aspiration to “dare to laugh at Huang Chao for not being a true man”.

Going to Mount Liang was, on one hand, because Song Jiang had no way out—the legitimate path was blocked. On the other hand, it might have been “beyond the mountain, another village”—relying on Mount Liang’s human and material resources, dealing the court a painful blow, and through amnesty, he could still rise straight to high positions.

Amnesty was precisely Song Jiang’s purpose in going to Mount Liang.

Answer 6:
Two words: future prospects. This group truly had no way out without amnesty. In their youth, they could be greenwood bandits, indulging in personal enmity and reckless heroism. But when they got old? They couldn’t rob people their whole lives. Even if they were bandits for life, what about their descendants? Continue being bandits? Furthermore, overthrowing the Song dynasty and establishing their own regime was unrealistic. While on the mountain, the court might be helpless, but if they came down, they would be surrounded and annihilated by the imperial army. Therefore, the idea of seeking amnesty was correct.

Answer 7:
Broadly speaking, it could fulfill a dream. When Registrar Song was still a grassroots civil servant in Yuncheng, he had a great Song Dynasty dream. As Hai Rui said in Infernal Affairs 3, China has no mafia. There is no future for the underworld. Narrowly speaking, amnesty meant entering the system. Don’t look down on Brother Gongming for his highly raised posterior before the Song Emperor. Many people, when young, are high-spirited, riding the wind, feeling untamed and loving freedom, utterly disdainful of things like civil service exams and the system, believing the sky is bright in the liberated areas, thinking that with their own blade and spear, they could one day dominate the world. When they reach middle age, unable to advance or retreat, especially encountering a major transformation unseen in a century, you realize how good it would be if the court would grant you amnesty.

Answer 8:
It wasn’t that Song Jiang necessarily had to seek amnesty, but rather that the creator of the romance wanted amnesty. In ancient romance novels, mountain bandits all crave amnesty. “Learn civil and martial arts, sell them to the imperial house,” earn titles for wives and children. No matter how high the literary level of Water Margin, it couldn’t escape this cage. They always felt unrecognized, like pearls covered in dust, hoping one day to be appreciated by a wise ruler. In the novels, the bad ones are always the treacherous ministers, the emperor is always good, always deceived. Their seeking amnesty to谋前途 (seek prospects) is reasonable.

Answer 9:
Simple, because Mount Liang utterly lacked domestic administration talents—the likes of Xiao He or Zhuge Liang. A purely military group, what can you really do? This structure destined Mount Liang incapable of seizing the empire; they couldn’t even compare to Li Zicheng, at best reaching the level of Huang Chao. Coincidentally, the Northern Song itself inherited the chaotic legacy of the Five Dynasties and late Tang. No one understood the suffering of that period better than the Northern Song people. So, if Song Jiang knew any history or had read books, he absolutely wouldn’t dare to risk universal condemnation by becoming a second Huang Chao. Besides, Huang Chao had already killed many prominent families; the class contradictions during Emperor Huizong’s reign in the Northern Song weren’t so extreme as to need bursting.

Answer 10:
Because the Song Dynasty had a tradition of offering amnesty to rebel forces. Look at Yue Fei and Zong Ze, who both offered amnesty to various forces. In the Generals of the Yang Family, there’s also the amnesty of Mu Ke Stockade. The ten military governors Gao Qiu brought were all recruited through amnesty. It’s just that the Song Jiang group offended the powerful officials of the time—Gao Qiu, Cai Jing, Tong Guan. Their contradictions with them were naturally irreconcilable. Also, Mount Liang’s stance was that the emperor was deceived by treacherous ministers, while the emperor himself was still wise. So who were the treacherous ministers? Coincidentally, they were the high officials in the court. Theoretically, there was no way to please these people. The most frustrating part was being born at the wrong time. If it were a few years later, when the Jin invaded south, if they were recruited by Zong Ze or Yue Fei then, they truly could have achieved eternal fame. A pity, damn it, they couldn’t hold out until that time.