Speaking of the Song Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty, it was really a period of enmity and resentment, it seems that the two sides were doomed to the fate of life and death at the beginning of the fight, and countless outstanding generals emerged, such as Zong Ze, Yue Fei, Han Shizhong, Li Gang and so on.
However, what we want to talk about today is a literati, a literati who has won more with less and defeated the Jin Army in a big way, that is, Yu Yunwen.
It is estimated that everyone is not familiar with this name, indeed, Yu Yunwen's popularity in history is not too high, but if it comes to merit, people are not ambiguous at all. It is said that our President, after reading his deeds, exclaimed:
"Great Yu Gong, one man through the ages."
You say, is this a high rating?
Yu Yunwen was born in Meishan, Sichuan in 1110, and was born into a jinshi, but because he was still in power at that time, The outspoken Yu Yunwen was suppressed and squeezed everywhere, and he never got any opportunity to take the lead. It was not until after Qin Jun's death that Yu Yunwen truly appeared on the political stage of the Southern Song Dynasty.
In the first month of 1160 AD, Yu Yunwen, as a special envoy of the Song Dynasty, sent an envoy to the Jin Dynasty, but he did not expect that this accidental visit actually helped to save the Southern Song Dynasty later. Along the way, Yu Yunwen noticed that the Jin State was constantly transporting grain and building warships, and also heard that the new emperor Yan Liang coveted the prosperity of the Southern Dynasty, so he concluded that the Jin State would soon invade the south.
After returning to Lin'an, Yu Yunwen reported the situation and was ordered to strengthen the defenses around Huai and Hai.
This time, he really guessed correctly, and the ambitious Guan Yanliang launched an invasion the following year. The first to bear the brunt was Luzhou, where the Song general Wang Quan was stationed, and as a result, the old brother slipped away without fighting, first ran to Hezhou, and then jumped to the south bank of the Yangtze River. His soldiers did not die on the battlefield of the charge, but most of them drowned in the rivers fleeing south, and it was indeed "a soldier who will bear a nest"!
In this way, on the contrary, it gave the Jin Army convenience, and the call was unimpeded all the way, and finally only relied on the veteran general Liu Qi to defend Zhenjiang alone and confront the Jin Army.
What was the imperial court doing at this time? Emperor Gaozong of Song had already been frightened and packed up his bags to prepare to slip away, but thanks to the efforts of the chancellor Chen Kangwei to dissuade him, he calmed down and sent Li Xianzhong to meet him, and Yu Yunwen went to serve as a staff officer. This is a rare good move for Gaozong, who has been confused all his life.
After Yu Yunwen arrived, The successor Li Xianzhong had not yet arrived, but the war situation could not be postponed, so Yu Yunwen personally supervised the division and prepared to fight with the Jin army to the end. With Yu Yunwen's extremely infectious mobilization before the war, the scattered Song soldiers, who had no fighting spirit, suddenly shouted like chicken blood, vowing to die to defend the country.
At this time, the large number of sternwheeler ships and thunderbolt guns that Yu Yunwen had prepared earlier played a role. Due to the backward technology and eagerness of the Jin army at that time, most of their ships were small in scale and less lethal, so the Jin army suffered heavy losses on the water.
Especially in the Battle of Quarry Rock, the two sides fought from morning to night, and the Jin army paid huge casualties and still could not cross the river. The next day, the Jin army, which had hastily attacked, was ambushed by Song soldiers, and more than 300 warships were burned and killed and wounded.
In this battle, Yu Yunwen fought against the 150,000 Jin army with 18,000 troops, and achieved a rare victory in the Song-Jin War.
At this time, The embarrassed and angry Yan Liang still demanded to attack at any cost, even for three days, otherwise he would be killed. In this way, instead, infighting was incurred, and his men staged a coup d'état that resulted in his life, and sent emissaries to Lin'an to make peace. It is a pity that Yan Liang's ambitions were great, but he died at the hands of his own people, which is a pity.
After this battle, Yu Yunwen became an important minister of the imperial court, after all, the Great Song Dynasty, which had been in the nest for many years, had not had such a long face for a long time. After that, Yu Yunwen was sent to Sichuan, where he joined hands with Wu Xuan to conspire for a great cause, and even launched the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains, achieving considerable results.
However, the newly enthroned Emperor Xiaozong of Song perfectly inherited the genes of his father Bao, believing that it would be good to live in a remote corner, so he ordered the abandonment of the Northern Expedition. After that, the Southern Song Dynasty reverted to its previous conservative and cowardly style, and no longer had the courage and boldness of the Northern Expedition.
In 1174, Yu Yunwen, who was overworked, died at the age of 64.