The famous anti-Jin general Yue Fei died in early 1142, although the Yue family army he painstakingly managed was reorganized, but it was not disbanded, and this brave and warlike army was still active on the historical stage of the Southern Song Dynasty! After Yue Fei's death, there were three famous generals in the Yue family army and his descendants who were the most powerful, who fought against the Jin Dynasty and the Mongols, and used their own enthusiasm to protect the Southern Song Dynasty for more than a hundred years! So, who are these three famous generals after Yue Fei?
This first is the famous admiral Li Bao of the Water Army! In the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, Li Bao organized a rebel army to resist the Jin in the north, and in 1139 he went south to join the Song Dynasty. At that time, Yue Fei was meeting in Lin'an, so Li Bao was incorporated into the Yue family's army. Later, Yue Fei sent Li Bao north to organize a rebel army in response to the Northern Expedition. However, due to the orders of Emperor Gaozong of Song, the various armies were forced to retreat. Due to the road blockage, Li Bao's rebel army was not able to return to the Yue family army, but was incorporated into Han Shizhong's department.
Li Bao admired Yue Fei very much, and he cut off his hair and cried bitterly, asking to return to the Yue family's army. Han Shizhong had no choice but to write a letter to Yue Fei, and Yue Fei, in order to resist the overall situation of Jin, let Li Bao stay in Han Shizhong's army, and said: "Kill the enemy for the same country, and divide each other." Later, Li Bao achieved the official position of deputy governor of the two Zhejiang West Roads and admiral of sea vessels, and mastered the Southern Song Dynasty water army. In 1161, emperor Yan Liang of the Jin Dynasty personally led an army of 600,000 to the south, of which the water army had 70,000 people and more than 600 warships.
Yan Liang's task to the Jin Dynasty's water army was to march from the sea to the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions and sneak into Lin'an, the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty. The Southern Song Dynasty also got this news, Li Bao took the initiative to ask for help, proposed to preemptively attack, he personally led 120 warships, 3,000 sailors to the north. On October 27 of the same year, the Song Jin water army encountered in the waters of Jiaoxi, Mizhou, and the two sides engaged in a fierce naval battle. As a result, Li Bao won a big victory with fewer victories. The Battle of Jiaoxi and the Battle of Quarrying were both claimed to have saved the Southern Song Dynasty regime.
This second is the famous general Bi Zaiyu in the middle of the Southern Song Dynasty! Bi Zaiyu's father, named Bi Jin, was a general of Yue Fei and served as a Wuyi doctor in the Yue family's army. Bi Zaiyu was born as a shogun and was excellent in martial arts, "holding the bow to two stones and seven buckets, carrying one stone and eight buckets, shooting two stones with steps, and shooting one stone and five buckets with horses". During the reign of Emperor Ningzong of Song, the powerful minister Han Nongxu sent troops to the Northern Expedition, and as a result, the Various Song armies were defeated one after another, and at this critical juncture, Bi Zaiyu stood up.
In this war, others were repeatedly defeated, but Bi Zaiyu was invincible, and he won many victories with less victories many times, and successively won the Battle of Sizhou, the Battle of Lingbi, the Battle of Xuyi, and the Battle of Liuhe. Don't look at Bi Zaiyu, who is nearly sixty years old, but he wields a double sword in his hand, charges forward, leads more than 400 cavalry to defeat the 5,000 Golden Army, and personally kills the General of the Jin Dynasty. In this war, if Bi Zaiyu had not stepped forward, the Song Dynasty would have been in danger.
As for the third famous player, many people should have heard his name, he is Meng Jue! In the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, Meng Jue's great-grandfather Meng An and grandfather Meng Lin were both generals in the Yue family's army, "trying to have merit from Yue Fei's army." Meng Jue's father, Meng Zongzheng, was also a famous general, and in the Battle of Zaoyang, "in the past three months, more than seventy battles of size", the Jin army did not dare to go south. Meng Jue was even more powerful, first following his father to resist the Jin, and then leading troops to participate in the Battle of Caizhou, destroying the Jin Dynasty.
At that time, the Mongol generals admired Meng Jue very much and married him as brothers. Later, when the Song-Mongolian War broke out, Meng Jue was ordered to lead his troops to fight in the Yangtze River Valley, defeat the Mongol army many times, and build a defensive line with Xiangyang as the core. It was precisely because of the presence of Meng Jue that he resisted the southward movement of the Mongol army. In 1246, Meng Jue fell ill and died, but the Southern Song Dynasty still relied on the Xiangyang defense line for more than twenty years.
Resources:
1. "History of Song"; 2. "Continuation of Zizhi Tongjian"