Yue Fei, the famous anti-gold general (1)
In 1103, Yue Fei was born in a farm family in Tangyin, Xiangzhou (now Tangyin, Henan Province). When he was born, a big bird flew across the roof. , so he was named Fei and had the courtesy name Pengju. When he was young, his family was poor. He plowed the fields and cut grass during the day, and used firewood to illuminate his books at night. He especially liked to read military books. Yue Fei is physically strong, taciturn and honest, upright and loyal, and has extraordinary courage. As a teenager, he can already draw a 300-pound hard bow and a 960-pound waist crossbow.
Yue Fei joined the army at the age of 20 and went to Zhending (now Zhengding, Hebei Province) to pacify the envoy. However, he soon returned to his hometown due to the death of his father. Two years later, he joined the Hedong Road pacification army again. In 1126, the Jin army attacked Bianjing, and the court was in turmoil. Zhao Gou, the younger brother of the Qin Dynasty, recruited volunteer militiamen in the name of "the general of the world's soldiers and horses". Yue Fei joined his account and was promoted because he led a hundred cavalry to kill thousands of Jin soldiers. For Bing Yilang.
Soon, Zhao Gou sent Yue Fei to the command of veteran general Zongze to go to Chanzhou to rescue Bianjing. Zong, his concubines, ministers and other three thousand people and countless treasures were kidnapped and returned to the north. After that, he ascended the throne in Yingtian Mansion, Nanjing (today's Shangqiu, Henan), and became Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty. Emperor Gaozong appointed Zongze as the prefect of Kaifeng and the governor of Tokyo. He listened to the persuasion of his favorite minister Huang Qianshan and others, opposed the "war" and advocated peace. Yue Fei wrote a letter angrily denounced the peace talks and urged retaliation, but was dismissed from his post for "transgressing his duties".
Three months later, Yue Fei defected to Zhang Suo, the governor of Hebei Road, and was highly appreciated. He fought against the Jin under Wang Yan and crossed the river to regain Xinxiang. Because of his disagreement with Wang Yan, he moved to Bianjing, defected to Zongze again, and defeated the Jin army in succession south of the Yellow River. The following year, the veteran general Zongze, who had written to Emperor Gaozong 24 times to request the return of the capital, fell ill from grief and anger, and died calling out "cross the river!" three times before his death. Yue Fei followed Du Chong, who had succeeded Du Chong in Tokyo, and retreated south to Jiankang (today's Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province). . In the winter of 1129, the Jin army led by Wu Shu (Zong Bi, the fourth son of Jin Taizu Aguda) invaded southward in a large scale and crossed the river to invade Jiankang. Emperor Gaozong fled to the sea and led only eight or nine ministers to wander in Wenzhou and Taizhou on high-rise boats.
Yue Fei was ordered to regain Jiankang. He first led his troops to ambush at Niutoushan in the south of the city. He sent hundreds of black-clad soldiers to sneak into the enemy camp late at night, causing the Jin army to kill each other in their sleep. He also waited for opportunities to capture enemy sentries and learn about the enemy. On the northward retreat route, he rushed to Jing'an Town, rushed into the enemy with swords and leaping horses, and killed countless enemy soldiers. After taking advantage of the victory and stationed in Jiankang, he was promoted to Tong (now Nantong, Jiangsu) and Tai (now Taizhou, Jiangsu). make. Yue Fei emerged from this.
In 1130, the Jin supported the traitor Liu Yu to establish a puppet Qi regime in Henan and Huaibei, so that he could contain the Southern Song Dynasty and mitigate the Song's direct threat to the Jin. The former Song censor Zhongcheng Qin Hui was returned to the surrender, and he was asked to persuade Gaozong to become a minister and implement the division of the north and the south. At the same time, Wu Shu led the main force to conquer Sichuan and Shaanxi to cut off the Southern Song Dynasty's military and food support.
The Southern Song Dynasty accordingly had defenses between Jianghuai and sent Yue Fei to defend the line from Jiangzhou (now Jiujiang, Jiangxi) to Jiangling (now Jiangling, Hubei). Yue Fei first put down the rebels, bandits and peasant uprisings, and recruited elite troops. In the next three times, he took the initiative and won a complete victory.
The first time was in 1134, when Yue Fei led his army from Jiangzhou to recover Xiangyang and other six states occupied by the puppet Qi. In Suizhou (now Suixian County, Hubei Province), Yue Fei's 16-year-old eldest son, Yue Yun, won the first place with hammers weighing 80 kilograms each. In Xiangyang, Yue Fei's keen eye saw through the enemy's flaw in using cavalry to defend the river bank and using infantry to line up in the open field. He ordered his troops to attack the enemy's cavalry with infantry armed with long spears, causing the enemy's cavalry to fall into chaos, fighting each other for the road, and falling into the river. He also used cavalry to kill the enemy infantry, throwing off their helmets and armor, and defeated the main force of the puppet Qi. In just three months, six states were successfully recovered, the middle reaches of the Yangtze River were secured, the road to Sichuan and Shaanxi was opened, the passive situation of the Southern Song Dynasty was reversed, and the courage and confidence of the army and the people in resisting the enemy were enhanced. The 32-year-old Yue Fei was promoted to Qingyuan Jiedushi with an exception, and was granted the title of Founding Marquis of Wuchang County, enjoying the highest honor of the Song Dynasty, such as Liu Guangshi, Han Shizhong, and Zhang Jun.
Due to Emperor Gaozong's strict order not to pursue the enemy across the border and aggravate the situation, Yue Fei had no choice but to lead his army back to Ezhou (today's Wuchang, Hubei Province) to garrison, looking forward to "someday I will ask for a tassel to carry a strong force and cross the Qinghe and Luo River with a whip." By the end of the year. , the Jin and Qi joint forces advanced to Luzhou (today's Hefei, Anhui), and Gaozong's "Yuzha" Yue Fei went east to relieve the siege. Niu Gao and other 13 cavalry advanced, slightly displaying the "Yue" flag, which had shaken the enemy's mind. When the reinforcements arrived, they pursued the enemy for more than 30 miles, and even the Wushu camp a hundred miles away also fled north after hearing the news.
In the summer of 1135, Yue Fei led his army to suppress the Yang Mo uprising in the Dongting Lake area, and was named the founding father by the court. The number of the Yuejia Army increased sharply due to the incorporation of rebel troops.
The following year, the Yue family army went north for the second time to regain the dangerous area southwest of Luoyang, seize and burn the grain and grain of the puppet Qi, and approach the Yellow River. Because the imperial court did not provide military rations, the success failed. Although he was promoted to a lieutenant, his ambition was hard to achieve, so he wrote "Man Jiang Hong" to express his feelings:
"I was so angry that I leaned on the railing, and the misty rain stopped.
Looking up, I looked up to the sky and roared, my ambition was intense .
Thirty years of fame and dust, eight thousand miles of clouds and moons.
Don’t wait and see, the young man’s head is gray.
Jingkang is ashamed. , It’s still not snowing;
When will the hatred of the ministers be eliminated?
Driving a long chariot, crossing the Helan Mountain barrier.
The strong men are hungry, eating Hulu meat, laughing and talking about thirst. Drink the blood of the Xiongnu.
Let’s start over, clean up the old mountains and rivers, and face the Heavenly Palace.”
In 1137, Jin ordered the Qi Dynasty to be abolished and retreated, and was lured back to Henan and Shaanxi. The Southern Song Dynasty negotiated peace and declared themselves ministers to pay tribute. On New Year's Day in 1139, Emperor Gaozong of Qin Dynasty knelt down to the Jin envoy and proclaimed himself a minister, accepted the imperial edict from the Jin Dynasty emperor, and reached a peace agreement. Yue Fei firmly opposed it. He stated in the letter that "peace cannot be relied upon" and made four memorials to reward him with official titles due to the peace negotiation. Qin Hui hated him.
Sure enough, the Jin army tore up the peace treaty in May 1140 and attacked the Song Dynasty on all sides. Gaozong was shocked and had to order each army to resist separately. Yue Fei attacked for the third time. He ordered one of his troops to attack Henan in separate ways, and another to return to Hebei. He led the main force to advance towards Bianjing from the front. In more than 40 days, they successively recovered Chenzhou (now Huaiyang, Henan) and other important towns, forming an encirclement of Bianjing from three sides. In early July, Yue Fei stationed a small number of light cavalry in Yancheng and sent small groups of troops to challenge the Jin army every day. Wu Shu marched from the small road to meet the Yue family's army 20 miles north of the city.
Yue Fei ordered Yue Yun to break into the enemy formation first, fight hard for dozens of rounds, and win. Wu Shu then attacked with the "iron tower soldiers" and "guaizi horses" known as the "ever-victorious army". The "Iron Tower Soldiers" were Jin Wushu's bodyguards and consisted of more than 3,000 cavalrymen wearing double iron helmets and heavy armor. Every time they advanced, there would be obstacles behind them, and they could only move forward but not retreat. When charging head-on, it is like an iron wall. There are 15,000 light cavalry on the left and right wings. They often attack suddenly when the battle is fiercest, called "Kaizi Horse". When the enemy approached, Yue Fei commanded specially trained infantrymen armed with "mazha knives" and large axes to chop off the horse's legs, causing the enemy's horse to flip over and prevent them from moving forward. The battle lasted from afternoon until dark, and the Jin army was defeated.
Then, there were consecutive battles near Yancheng. In Yingchang (now Xuchang, Henan), he killed another 100,000 infantry and 30,000 cavalry who retreated from Wushu. The entire Jin army collapsed, the deputy commander was killed, and Wu Shu fled. Yue Fei wrote to Emperor Gaozong: This is "your majesty's opportunity to rejuvenate, and the day when the golden thief will perish." He personally led the Yue family army to pursue Zhuxian Town, which was only 45 miles away from Bianjing. He cooperated with the rebel army to besiege Wushu in Bianjing, and sent fierce generals with 500 elite cavalry to confront the 100,000 Jin army.
Wushu lamented: "Since I started my army in the north, I have never failed like today." Yue Fei was determined to take advantage of the victory to cross the river and regain Hebei, and encouraged his generals: "Go straight to Huanglong Mansion and drink with you! "However, Gaozong was frightened by Yue Fei's power and listened to Qin Hui's memorial, "ordering Yue Fei to temporarily withdraw from the army" and ordered all armies to withdraw to their original positions. Yue Fei was determined to make the Northern Expedition and wrote: "Heroes go to the wind, and soldiers serve their lives. The time will never come, and the opportunity will be missed." Gaozong used the excuse that "an army cannot stay alone for a long time" and issued 12 gold medals (i.e. one-foot-long wooden plaques with red lacquer and gold characters) in one day. , traveling four to five hundred miles a day. Yue Fei communicated with each other in tears, heartbroken, and cried out sadly: "Ten years of hard work has been wasted in one day!" He was forced to withdraw his troops.
After that, Wu Shu put forward the condition that "Fei must be killed before peace can be achieved." In 1141, Emperor Gaozong deprived Han Shizhong, Zhang Jun, and Yue Fei of their military power and disbanded their armies. Yue Fei was ordered to go to Lin'an (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang) to serve as Privy Envoy. Soon Qin Hui instigated the right to remonstrate with the official Wan Qi to impeach Yue Fei for taking credit and being lazy, and dismissed him from office. He then falsely accused Yue Fei of conspiring with Yue Yun and his general Zhang Xian, arrested Yue Fei and imprisoned him, and Gaozong tried the case himself. During the interrogation, the censor Zhongcheng He Zhu was deeply moved by the four characters "Serve the Country with Loyalty" tattooed on Yue Fei's back by his old mother. He turned to defend Yue Fei's injustice, and the court changed the case to Wan Qi to take over the trial. At the end of the same year, the Song and Jin Dynasties negotiated peace and stipulated that the Song and Jin Dynasties would be bounded by the Huaihe River in the east and Dashanguan (today's southwest of Baoji, Shaanxi Province) in the west; the Southern Song Dynasty would pay 250,000 pieces of silver and silk as tribute to the Jin Dynasty every year; the Southern Song Dynasty would become ministers, and " From generation to generation, descendants will observe the integrity of their ministers."
In January 1142, Yue Fei was sentenced to death for "unfounded" (that is, perhaps guilty) crimes. Yue Fei wrote in his handwriting: "The sky is clear, the sky is clear?" After that, he drank the poisoned wine in one gulp. He was 39 years old.
After Yue Fei's death, his whole family was confiscated. Except for Yue Lin, who was adopted, the rest of the five sons were either exiled to Lingnan or fled to Huguang. Even subordinates were dismissed or executed. Until Gaozong abdicated, Xiaozong was trying to boost morale and the common people were angry. Only then did he restore Yue Fei's official position and move his remains to the foot of Qixia Ridge in the West Lake according to the ceremony. During the reign of Emperor Ningzong, Yue Fei was granted the title of "King of E" and a Yue Temple was established.
Yue Fei lived a frugal life, buying no land, accumulating private wealth, and making no profit for his descendants. The use of troops is different from the fact that the generals are given formation diagrams before going on an expedition, and the emperor remotely controls the formation. Yue Fei believes that setting up formations according to the diagram is a common method of using troops, but the key to good use is for the generals to assess the situation and make changes. Yue Fei ran the army rigorously and had strict discipline. People say: "If you freeze to death, don't demolish your house; if you starve to death, don't plunder." "It's easy to shake a mountain, but it's hard to shake the Yue family's army." During the war, he took the lead, fought through thick and thin with the native soldiers, never took credit for himself and was arrogant, and won the respect and sympathy of people of all ages. There are not only many legends about Yue Fei, but they are also spread in various forms. In some places, people refer to fried dough sticks as "fried fried dough sticks". People cast four iron figures including Qin Hui and his wife in front of Yue Fei's tomb in Hangzhou. The statues have their hands cut behind their backs, kneeling towards Yue Fei's tomb. There is a couplet hanging on the tomb: "It is the honor of Qingshan to bury loyal bones; white iron casts innocent ministers."