During the reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty, the Jin army attacked the city of Yan'an in Shaanxi Province, capturing all the soldiers and civilians in the city. Because the Repeated Massacres of the Jin Army after the destruction of the city before intensified the hatred of the Southern Song Dynasty soldiers and civilians against the Jin people, the Jin people began to change their strategy. In order to show leniency and win the hearts and minds of the people, the Jin people did not kill in Yan'an city and granted official positions to the captured Song generals.
What the Jin people did not know, however, was that a young man named Li Xianzhong was awarded the official position, who would later set off a storm in the three kingdoms of Jin, Western Xia, and Southern Song, and deal a major blow to Jin.
Li Xianzhong was born into a family of generals, his family guarded the frontier for generations, Li Xianzhong learned martial arts from an early age, and from the age of seventeen he followed his father from birth to death. When the Jin army attacked Shaanxi, Li Xianzhong and his father were ordered to defend Yan'an, and Li Xianzhong's father and son fought bravely, but they were outnumbered, and finally they were defeated and captured by the Jin people.
The Jin people saw that Li Xianzhong was very brave in and out of the battle front, and wanted to take this general into account, so he granted Li Xianzhong an official position. At that time, the Jin people supported Liu Yu to establish a puppet regime of puppet Qi, allowing them to serve as the vanguard and cannon fodder in the attack on the Southern Song Dynasty. Liu Yu mobilized troops in a big way to prepare for a southern invasion, and ordered Li Xianzhong to lead Yan'an's army and horses to Kaifeng, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty.
Before Li Xianzhong left, his father Li Yongqi took his son's hand and warned him that as long as he found the opportunity, he would return to the Song Dynasty and not be scrupulous because he was in the hands of the Jin people. Li Xianzhong obeyed his father's instructions, and immediately after arriving in Kaifeng, he sent someone to secretly contact the Southern Song Dynasty to discuss the matter of returning to the south.
The Jin people did not know that Li Xianzhong had contacted the Southern Song Dynasty, and Jin Wushu admired Li Xianzhong very much because he was tall and mighty, and promoted him to be an envoy to preside over the affairs of Tongzhou. The importance of the Jin people to Li Xianzhong did not change Li Xianzhong's determination to return to the south, and in order to show sincerity and serve the country, he also designed to capture the marshal of the Jin army and prepare to cross the Luohe River to return to the Song Dynasty.
However, it was not coincidental that the agreed boat did not arrive due to the delay, and Li Xianzhong waited for half a day, but he could not cross the river. Jin Bing chased after him, and Li Xianzhong knew that there was no hope of returning to Song with The Drink of Sa Li, so he swore an oath with Sa Li to drink and fold arrows, and he let Sa Li drink, and Sa Li drank to ensure that he would not retaliate against the people of the same state. After receiving the promise of sassa to drink, Li Xianzhong let him return to gold.
Li Xianzhong contacted his father before the incident, and his father took his family out of the city overnight, but in the end, because he did not respond, he was chased by Jin Bing and slaughtered, and more than 200 members of the family were killed.
The hatred of the family country made Li Xianzhong hate the Jin people to the bone, and he could not return to the Jin kingdom, but the Song Dynasty could not do it, and Li Xianzhong could only take twenty-six soldiers to the Western Xia. Li Xianzhong brought a meeting gift to Western Xia: Jin will "green face night fork". This man was a big problem for Western Xia, and repeatedly defeated the Western Xia army, so Li Xianzhong arrested him and made Lord Xia very happy.
As a sign of sincerity, Western Xia sent 200,000 cavalry to receive Li Xianzhong and grant him the official position of envoy to Yan'an. However, Li Xianzhong's determination to return to Song remained unshakable, which made Western Xia very bitter, and in order to avoid the tail from falling, Western Xia sent elite cavalry iron harrier troops to attack Li Xianzhong. Li Xianzhong led his subordinates to fight to the death, he took the lead as a soldier, rushed into the enemy position, fought several generals in a row, and the soldiers saw the situation and bravely killed the enemy one by one. The Western Xia army was defeated and panicked, collapsed, and lost more than 10,000 elites in the First World War.
Li Xianzhong captured a large number of horses, he recruited soldiers and horses, a large number of Song people came to defect, and soon there were more than 10,000 people. Therefore, Li Xianzhong took this soldier and horse that was concerned about the Song Dynasty to Sichuan and defected to the Song army, and there were constantly people joining along the way, and when they arrived in Sichuan, there were already more than 40,000 people.
Emperor Gaozong of Song attached great importance to Li Xianzhong, personally received him, and gave him the name Xianzhong, which led to Li Xianzhong's name. Since then, Li Xianzhong has been on the front line against the Jin army, and has repeatedly thwarted the Southern Invasion of the Jin Army. Li Xianzhong's reputation was greatly enhanced, and because he turned to the Jin Dynasty, Western Xia, and southern Song Dynasty, everyone in the world knew his prestige. Yan Zongbi even commented on Li Xianzhong: "This person is brave and brave, and it is advisable to avoid it." ”
The court of the Southern Song Dynasty did not dare to neglect Li Xianzhong, and not only granted him important official positions such as envoy to Huaixi and envoy to the Ningguo Army, but also promoted his military rank to the highest level of lieutenant.
After Emperor Xiaozong of Song ascended the throne, he made great efforts to prepare for the Northern Expedition to recover the Central Plains. Zhang Jun presided over the Affairs of the Northern Expedition, and Li Xianzhong and Shao Hongyuan served as the vanguard of the Northern Expedition. The two had different missions, Li Xianzhong attacked Lingbi County, and Shao Hongyuan was in charge of Hong County. Li Xianzhong was a pioneer and soon attacked Lingbi County, but Shao Hongyuan was repeatedly defeated, and the war situation in Hongxian County was deadlocked. Li Xianzhong sent people to persuade the commander of the Jin army in Hongxian County, and Hongxian raised the city to surrender.
The long-defeated Hongxian County was finally taken, which was a good thing, but Shao Hongyuan was narrow-minded and thought that Li Xianzhong had robbed him of his credit, so he held a grudge against Li Xianzhong. Soon after, the two men joined forces and captured Suzhou, and the soldiers pointed directly at the Central Plains. Emperor Xiaozong in the south was overjoyed when he learned of this, and conferred the title of Commander of Li Xianzhong's Kaifu Yi and the Three Divisions and the Palace Front, which made Shao Hongyuan even more jealous.
Later, the two had a conflict over the issue of rewarding soldiers, and the gap became wider and wider. The Jin army fought back fiercely, and Li Xianzhong led his army to fight a bloody battle with the Jin army, and won the first victory, but the Jin army's support arrived. Li Xianzhong asked Shao Hongyuan to send troops to attack the Jin army, but Shao Hongyuan did not move, causing Li Xianzhong to attack the crowd with a low position, and finally lost the battle and forced to withdraw.
The Northern Expedition ended in the defeat of the Song army, which, although quite successful, suffered heavy losses and impeached officials in the imperial court. Emperor Xiaozong did not know the reason for this, and demoted Li Xianzhong to the position of deputy envoy of the Guozhou regiment. Later, when the truth came out, Emperor Xiaozong was so guilty that he reinstated Li Xianzhong and rewarded him with 30,000 taels of silver, 30,000 horses of silk, and 10,000 taels of cotton.
A few years later, Emperor Xiaozong saw Li Xianzhong again and was surprised to find that Li Xianzhong was still tall and mighty, imposing, and specially ordered the court painter to paint a portrait of Li Xianzhong and hang it in the palace cabinet.
Song Xiaozong did not treat Li Xianzhong badly, but unfortunately, this mighty general lost the golden opportunity of the Northern Expedition due to the pitfalls of his colleagues, and his heart became more and more worried. In his later years, Li Xianzhong was weak and sickly, no longer as majestic as before, and his ambition was consumed by the years and the situation, and eventually died at home.
Li Xianzhong died of illness at home, and he was extremely honored before and after his death, which can also be described as a good death. However, for such a great general who had returned to his homeland from the Jin Dynasty and the Western Xia, who had sacrificed his family and subordinates to return to his homeland, the lonely death at home may have made him more frustrated and painful than the Ma Ge Shroud.
Resources:
History of the Song Dynasty