Author: Xu Yunhui
The five tiger generals Yang Zaixing, Yue Yun, Zhang Xian, Wang Gui, and Niu Gao under Yue Fei's account followed Yue Fei on his southern expedition to the north, resisted the Jin Dynasty, shook the enemy's guts, and made outstanding military achievements, and was a hero in the minds of the people of the Southern Song Dynasty. Among the five tiger generals, except for Yang Zaixing, who was the first to die and was not implicated in Yue Fei's unjust case, the rest were all involved in Yue Fei's unjust case to varying degrees and became victims of political struggle...
Yang Zaixing, son of Yang Bangqi of LiyangZhi County in the Northern Song Dynasty. When the Jin army invaded the south, Yang Bangqi led his troops to resist, and the soldiers were defeated and captured. He sternly refused Jin Guo's persuasion: "Is there anyone who is not afraid of death and can be profitable?" Kill me quickly! He bit his finger and wrote on his clothes, "I'd rather be a ghost of the Zhao clan than a vassal for him", and scolded the rebels who had been persuaded to surrender, and were cut off by Jin Bing and cut his stomach and dug his heart to death.
Yang Zaixing did not inherit his legacy and embark on the road of resisting Jin, but followed the local armed leader Cao Cheng against the Southern Song Dynasty court. Yue Fei unsuccessfully summoned Cao Cheng, so he was forced to suppress it. Yang Zaixing took advantage of the paralysis of the officials and troops to raid the Song camp, first killing General Zhang Xianbu and then Yue Fei's younger brother Yue Tuan.
After Cao Cheng's entire army was destroyed, Yang Zaixing was chased by Zhang Xian and fell into a deep stream in a panic. "Zhang Xian wants to kill him", Yang Zaixing pleaded to meet Yue Fei. Yue Fei accepted Yang Zaixing's surrender and encouraged him: "I will not kill Ru, ru should serve the country with loyalty and righteousness!" ”
(Yang Zaixing)
Yang Zaixing was touched by Yue Fei's broad mind, and since then he has followed Yue Fei on his southern expeditions to the north and made many military achievements. Yue Fei was stationed in Tun Xiangyang, and Li Bing prepared for the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains. Yang Zaixing, as the vanguard of the Northern Expeditionary Army, was sent by Yue Fei to "Yeyang in Changshui County, Xijing" to eliminate the puppet regime supported by the Jin State, "Sun Du tong and the commander-in-chief Manzai, beheading more than 500 people, capturing 100 generals, and the Yu Party was defeated." ”
The next day, Yang Zaixing fought again with the puppet Qi and achieved the battle record of "breaking the crowd of 2,000 people, restoring the long water, obtaining 20,000 stones of grain to give to the army and the people, and restoring the dangers of Western Beijing". Then, with a single blow, "10,000 horses left by pseudo-Qi and hundreds of thousands of millets" greatly stimulated the anti-gold enthusiasm of the people in the Central Plains.
The Northern Expedition army led by Yue Fei personally "defeated the Jin people at Haocheng", and Jin Wushu gathered heavy troops to resist. Yang Zaixing saw that Yue Yun was like a god of war in the world, killing The Jin soldiers and retreating, he could not help but be ambitious, and single-handedly broke into the Jin camp, planning to capture Jin Wushu alive. Because of his "inability to capture the vultures," he "killed hundreds of people by hand and returned." ”
Jin Wushu became angry and led 120,000 elite soldiers to besiege Yang Zaixing. Yang Zaixing regarded death as a homecoming, "with three hundred horses to meet the enemy at the small commercial bridge", and achieved the excellent record of "killing more than 2,000 people, and scattering 80,000 households and 1,000 households and 1000 people". Yang Zaixing was also martyred in this battle, and the body was burned out of the arrow weighing two liters.
Emperor Gaozong of Song spoke highly of Yang Zaixing: "The flying general Yang Zaixing, then the son of Bang Qi. Riding into the battle alone, a few wushu, the body was wounded by dozens, and dozens of people were killed and returned, and the momentum was known! ”
(Yue Yun)
Yue Yun, Yue Fei's adopted son, born with divine courage, joined the army at the age of 12 and was arranged by his father to be tempered under Zhang Xian. Yue Yun "held two iron vertebrae in his hand every battle, weighing eighty pounds", and was a pioneer in attacking the city and pulling out the village, and was regarded as the god of war by the army because of his "numerical qigong", and was honored as his "winning official". In the three battles of The Yue family's army to capture Suizhou, Dengzhou, and Xianghan, "merit is the first".
In order to avoid suspicion and to prevent his son from developing arrogance and pampering, Yue Fei always concealed his military achievements and did not report them, and repeatedly resigned from the imperial court for his son. He wrote to the imperial court: "The soldiers braved the rain of guns and bullets to charge and make miraculous achievements, and only then did they receive the reward of the first rank of official promotion." Yue Yun's milk smell has not dried, if he is suddenly rewarded, why serve the public? ”
Yue Yun did not care about the reward and was loyal to the king and the country. In the Battle of Gaocheng, he led the cavalry troops to repeatedly charge and kill the enemy position, killing the Golden Soldiers and retreating, making the first contribution to the victory of the battle.
When the 30,000 defenders of Yingchang City (present-day Xuchang, Henan) were surrounded by 100,000 elite jinguo cavalry, Yue Yunfeng's father ordered wang Gui to lead his troops to help. Wang Gui was timid in the face of 100,000 jin soldiers and intended to retire to protect himself.
Yue Yun resolutely opposed it and led his troops to launch a fierce attack on the Jin soldiers. He entered the enemy position more than ten times, "the body was wounded by more than a hundred, and the armor was red", which severely frustrated the momentum of the Jin soldiers. Taking advantage of the low spirit of the Jin soldiers, the defenders went out of the city to fight alongside Yue Yun and defeated the Jin soldiers in one fell swoop.
In this battle, the Yue family army killed Xia Jinwu, the son-in-law of Jin Wushu, and captured 78 leaders of the Jin army, and captured countless people. When Jin Wushu heard the news, Yang Tian sighed, "Yue Shaobao broke through my five hundred and fifty thousand people with five hundred horses. It is easy to shake the mountain, and it is difficult to shake the Yue family army! ”
Yue Fei was arrested and imprisoned, and Yue Yun and Zhang Xian were both arrested. Several upright judges at Dali Temple ruled that Yue Yun's crime did not lead to death, and even Qin Jun's confidant Wan Qianjie only sentenced Yue Yun to fixed-term imprisonment: "Hebi jia was sentenced to private crimes: the official was reduced, the disciple was three years, he pursued an official, he was fined twenty pounds of copper into the palace, and he was extorted." However, Qin Ju decided to cut the grass and remove the roots, and Yue Yun held a grudge against the imperial court because his father was spared military power, and secretly colluded with Zhang Xian to try to rebel. Therefore, Yue Yun's case must be "repeatedly adjudicated (because the circumstances of the crime are particularly serious, the emperor must be holyly judged). Emperor Gaozong of Song pushed the boat along the water and replied: "Yue Fei specially gave death." Zhang Xian and Yue Yun were also enforced in accordance with military law. ”
Yue Yun was only 23 years old when he was killed.
(Zhang Xian, Yue Yun)
Zhang Xian, "Fei Ai will also." He followed Yue Fei to destroy Cao Cheng and retake Yang Zaixing, and together with Wang Gui and other generals, he surrendered the remaining 20,000 people of Cao Cheng and annihilated the remnants of Cao Cheng in one fell swoop. Subsequently, on Yue Fei's orders, he recaptured Suizhou, Dengzhou, Yingchang, and Chenzhou. After Yang Zaixing killed Xiaoshanghe in battle, Zhang Xian rushed to the battlefield in time to defeat the 8,000 elite Jin soldiers, and beat Jin Wushu to escape overnight. He commanded his troops to "regain the northeast of Linying, break through six thousand of them, get a hundred horses, chase fifteen miles, and the Central Plains earthquake." ”
When Yue Fei was forced to return to the dynasty, "Xian also returned." Yue Fei was relieved of his military power and left Ezhou to return to Lushan to live in seclusion, and Zhang Xian served as the deputy commander of the imperial armies, assisting Wang Gui in command of the Yue family army. Qin Ju conspired with Zhang Jun to kill Yue Fei, and the reward was offered to encourage the officers and men of the Yue family's army to inform. In the face of the reward offered by the traitorous courtiers, the generals of the Yue family army all scoffed.
There was a soldier nicknamed "Wang Diao'er", who was repeatedly dealt with by Zhang Xian because he was always good at framing whistleblowers and "treacherous and greedy". Wang Diao'er salivated over the heavy reward and secretly told Wang Jun: "Wang Gui was almost beheaded by Yue Fei, and later changed to a staff reprimand, and should be full of resentment towards Yue Fei!" Wang Junru obtained the most precious treasure and lured Wang Gui to come forward to report Yue Fei. At first, Wang Gui was like a man, sternly refusing and never giving in. Wang Diao'er provided Wang Jun with Wang Gui's privacy in time, and this bombshell finally made Wang Gui "fearful and obedient." ”
Wang Jun concocted a complaint against Zhang Xian on Behalf of Wang Diao'er, causing Wang Diao'er to report to Wang Gui that Zhang Xian and Yue Fei had been plotting and plotting to move around for Yue Fei to regain military power. At the same time, Wang Jun instructed Wang Gui to accept the complaint, immediately arrest Zhang Xian, and personally torture him to extract a confession. Although Zhang Xian was beaten to the point of exhaustion, he never admitted to the crime. Wang Jun was mad and maddened himself to forge a confession and "go down to Dali Temple" with Zhang Xian.
Qin Ju "corrected yue fei's father and son", causing his close associate Wan Qianbi to be unjustly imprisoned, and finally completed the charges against Yue Fei's father and son and Zhang Xian. "The Constitution sits dead, and the family is on credit."
(Wang Gui)
Wang Gui, a general under Yue Fei, followed Yue Fei in his battle against Chu Prefecture, defeated Cao Cheng, pacified Ji Prefecture, and recaptured Xiang Han, and together with Zhang Xian, called Yue Fei's right and left arm.
During the last major northern expedition of the Yue family's army, Wang Gui was once afraid of the enemy and timidly fought in the Battle of Yingchang, where Yue Yun fought to the death, and was punished by Yue Fei after the war. After Yue Fei was relieved of his military power and retreated to Lushan, Wang Gui succeeded him as the commander of all the armies stationed in Ezhou and became the new leader of the Yue family's army. When Zhang Jun and Qin Ju attempted to frame Yue Fei, they seized on his privacy and forced him to accept a false accusation letter from the soldier Wang Diao'er, and participated in the framing of Yue Fei against his will, resulting in the murder of Yue Fei's father and son and Zhang Xian.
After Yue Fei's father and son were killed, Wang Gui felt deeply guilty and knew that he was in danger, so he resigned. He later held a false title, left the army, and died of illness a few years later.
Niu Gao, "Initially a shooter, the Golden Man invaded, Gao gathered crowds and fought, and won many victories." The Jin soldiers attacked Jingxi again, "Gao won more than ten battles. In the War of Resistance Against Gold, he "won the battle against the enemy" and became a famous general who shocked the enemy's courage. After he was subordinate to Yue Fei's department, he was deeply influenced by Yue Fei and often served as a forward for the Yue family army to break the enemy.
"The Jin people attacked Huaixi", niugao was ordered to cross the river to meet the battle. Before the two armies, Niu Gao shouted at General Jin: "Niu Gao is here, where did Er and other nameless rats come from to invade my Great Song!" Jin Bing was frightened by the shouting, "They were all stunned and collapsed without a fight." The "Niugao" pursued for more than thirty miles, the Jin people trampled and killed half of each other, beheaded his deputy capital and five people from a thousand households, and dozens of people from hundred households, and the military was loud. Subsequently, Niu Gao rose to the rank of servant by virtue of his outstanding military achievements.
A few years after Yue Fei was killed, Qin Ju secretly ordered his henchmen to poison Niu Gao with poisoned wine in the name of a banquet for various generals. Before NiuGao died of poison, he said to his cronies with sorrow and indignation: "My Niugao is 61 years old, an official and an attendant, and he is satisfied. However, the imperial court forgot the hatred of the country and the hatred of the family and reconciled with the Jin kingdom, which made me die blind! It is a pity that my cow gao and horse have lived a lifetime, and I can't imitate the previous centaur leather to wrap the body and die, I can only die under the eaves! ”
These five tiger generals "are all generals of the Yue Fei Department, feared by the enemy, and also a master of the moment." "Yang Zaixing, Yue Yun, Zhang Xian, and Niu Gao all died because of their resistance to Jin, and won the eternal flow. Although Wang Gui escaped with his life, he was spurned by the world for participating in the framing of the father and son of the Yue family, and he felt guilty for life because his conscience was not lost. It turns out that justice is in the hearts of the people! The true national hero will always be a monument standing in the hearts of the sons and daughters of China!
(From left: Niu Gao, Wang Gui, Yue Fei, Zhang Xian, Yue Yun)
【About the author】Xu Yunhui, male, graduated from the Department of Chinese of Yunnan Normal University in 1984 and is now a senior lecturer at Baoshan No.1 Middle School Education Group in Yunnan Province. He has published two monographs and published more than 600,000 words in literary journals at or above the provincial level.
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