In the third year of Shaoxing in the Southern Song Dynasty (1133), the uprisings that broke out in Qianzhou and Jizhou in Jiangxi province spread to two and more places, and the momentum was not small, and Emperor Gaozong of Song ordered Yue Fei to lead troops to quell the rebellion.
Yue Fei went to Qianzhou, captured the leader of the rebels in the first battle, and the rebel troops surrendered one after another, and Qianzhou restored order. According to Yue Fei's strategy, his general Xu Qing soon quelled the rebellion in the surrounding areas.
Unexpectedly, Emperor Gaozong of Song, who had received the good news, gave Yue Fei a secret order, ordering Yue Fei to slaughter Qianzhou City. At that time, Yue Fei's position was not high, and he was then the envoy of Wu'an Army. Although Emperor Gaozong of Song's will explained the reason, Yue Fei was obviously shocked. How could he possibly do such a cruel thing as slaughtering the city, but he had to resist and disobey the order, and wrote to ask Emperor Gaozong of Song to take back his life.
Why did Emperor Gaozong of Song resent the people of Qianzhou so much? The "History of Song" records that the reason was that "because of LongYou's shock, the secret order was ordered to fly and slaughter the city." ”
Things have to start with Empress Dowager Longyou.
Empress Dowager Longyou was the empress of the Meng clan of the seventh emperor of the Song Dynasty, Song Zhezong, and her life experience was quite legendary. She was knowledgeable and virtuous, but the young Song Zhezong had a new love, and in the complicated court struggle, Empress Meng was deposed. A few years later, Emperor Zhezong of Song died young, and after his younger brother Emperor Huizong of Song succeeded to the throne, the Meng clan reverted to the throne and was honored as Empress Yuanyou.
During the reign of Emperor Huizong of Song, the old and new party rivalries caused by Wang Anshi's change of law continued, and Empress Meng's restoration of her position benefited from the support of Empress Xiang and the old party. After Empress Xiang's death, the New Party, led by Cai Jing, forced Empress Meng to be deposed twice.
In 1127, Empress Meng, who was in the Cold Palace, experienced the shame of Jingkang. After the Jin army captured Beijing, Hui, the Second Emperor of Qin, and the famous concubines in the six palaces were all taken away, and the entire imperial family was almost completely destroyed, and the Meng clan escaped the disaster because it was deposed. In view of her identity, she has become the backbone of the Song Dynasty at the time of peril, and zhang Bangchang, a pseudo-emperor supported by the Jin Dynasty, was welcomed into the palace and listened to the government in the name of the empress.
With the support of the Meng clan, King Zhao of Kang ascended the throne as emperor at Yingtianfu. Therefore, the establishment of the Southern Song Dynasty has a credit to the Meng family. Zhao Became Emperor and honored Meng as Empress Dowager. In order to avoid the name of her grandfather, she changed her name to Empress Longyou.
Due to the pursuit of the Jin army, the Southern Song Dynasty royal family fled to the south. In the third year of Jianyan (1129), Emperor Gaozong of Song sent 10,000 troops to escort Empress Longyou to Hongzhou. Liu Guangshi, a general stationed in Jiangzhou, did not dare to engage the Jin army, causing the Jin army to attack Hongzhou directly, and Empress Longyou and her party had to take refuge in Qianzhou by boat overnight.
However, the troops guarding the empress dowager were crushed by the rebel army halfway through, and most of the palace women accompanying them were scattered, and the guards were only less than 100 people. The embarrassed Empress Dowager Longyou rushed to the road in a small car carried by a local farmer.
The roof leaked during the overnight rain. It was easy to get to the relative safety of Qianzhou, and due to the lack of local supplies, Empress Longyou's guards could not buy anything, and they fought with the people at the market. A local tycoon took advantage of the situation to rebel, and the nearby people joined in one after another, besieging the city of Qianzhou, and even the township soldiers of Qianzhou also rebelled. The judges set fires everywhere and looted property.
Fortunately, a guard general led the people to resist hard, and Empress Longyou did not fall into the hands of the rebel army. She heeded the advice of the people around her, ordered the people to ascend to the head of the city, and announced the pardon of the rebellious people, and the city of Qianzhou was temporarily stable. Then the rescuers of the Song Gao Sect arrived and took her away.
Empress Dowager Longyou was more than half a hundred years old, and she was repeatedly frightened on the way to escape, and after returning home, she fell ill. Emperor Gaozong of Song was very filial to Empress Dowager Longyou, and therefore hated the people of Qianzhou. In the third year of Shaoxing, another rebellion broke out in Qianzhou, and after Yue Fei was ordered to quell the rebellion, Emperor Gaozong of Song secretly ordered Yue Fei to slaughter the city.
At that time, Empress Longyou had been dead for two years, and Emperor Gaozong of Song was still harboring such a big fire. As a rising top general, Yue Fei's strategy for counterinsurgency has always been based on forced landings and minimizing unnecessary casualties. Even the captured rebel leaders were pardoned by Yue Fei.
Receiving Emperor Gaozong's secret instructions, Yue Fei could imagine how surprised he was. He had no choice but to write a letter requesting pardon for the people of Qianzhou and the execution of only the leader of the rebels. For Yue Fei, this was already against his heart. However, Emperor Gaozong of Song did not listen and still urged him to slaughter the city. Yue Fei had to write several times to persuade him, and finally persuaded Emperor Gaozong to pardon Qianzhou.
At that time, the Southern Song Dynasty was quite embarrassed by the attack of the Jin army, and internal rebellions broke out, but Emperor Gaozong of Song wanted to slaughter the city to vent his anger. Some people say that this is the typical "nest horizontal". If the city is really slaughtered, it is bound to lose the hearts of the people and may provoke more rebellions. The rebels elsewhere are frightened, and the horizontal and vertical are also dead, and only by choosing to resist to the end, the next counterinsurgency will be more difficult.
If it wasn't for Yue Fei, if he were to be another general, the Qianzhou people would not necessarily have such good luck. Later, the people of Qianzhou heard about this and offered Yue Fei's portraits at home. Although Yue Fei violated Emperor Gaozong's wishes, the relationship between the monarch and the subject was relatively harmonious. The emperor was also using Yue Fei, and the subsequent rebellion in Yuan Prefecture was also pacified by Yue Fei's subordinate Wang Gui.
In the autumn of the same year, Emperor Gaozong of Song summoned Yue Fei and wrote the words "Jingzhong Yue Fei" in his own handwriting and made a banner to give it to him. That year, Yue Fei was 30 years old and officially became a town general.
Reference: History of the Song Dynasty