In 1161 AD, King Yan Liang of Hailing led a heavy army to attack, and the Southern Song Court was in a state of panic. However, in other words, the so-called "heavy troops" are actually about 70,000 land and sea soldiers, and in the history of ancient Chinese wars with hundreds of thousands of people, it is difficult for us to imagine that such a small number of troops can shake the foundation of a dynasty. However, the cowardly Emperor Gaozong of Song wanted to abandon Lin'an City again and flee. It is worth mentioning that after Yan Liang died in this battle, when Guanyan Yong ascended the throne as Jin Shizong, Zhao Zhuo actually sent people to celebrate, and the shame of the Southern Song Dynasty can be seen. Fortunately, the times created heroes, and at the moment of crisis, a man named Li Bao stood up.
In 1139, Li Bao raised a small army to resist the Jin army in his hometown of Shandong, and after the fall of Shandong, Li Bao fled to the south and visited Yue Fei. However, at that time, Yue Fei did not look up to Li Bao much, but only let him join the cavalry. Li Bao's heart was also quite high, and he felt that he was condescending, so he privately discussed with many people in the army that he wanted to return to the north to resist Jin. Yue Jiajun was known for his strict military discipline and wanted to behead them all according to military discipline, but Li Bao took this responsibility in his arms, saying that the matter was caused by himself and had nothing to do with others.
Li Bao, who originally had no name, did not enter Yue Fei's eyes at all, so Yue Fei admired the courage and responsibility of the other party very much, and instead of beheading him, he entrusted him with a heavy responsibility. Subsequently, Yue Fei received a tip that the Jin army would violate the covenant and march south. Li Baomao then proposed to go north to gather scattered troops, Yue Fei promised him, Li Bao did not fail Yue Fei, not only has been in Shandong to cooperate with the Yue family army against the Jin army, but also later brought back a team of nearly a thousand people.
Ten years after Shaoxing, the Jin State tore up the Peace Pact and led an army to invade the south. Yue Fei ordered Li Bao to lead his troops back to his hometown of Xingren County, looking for opportunities to attack the enemy, and was recruited by Han Shizhong, who was guarding Chu Prefecture on the way. It is worth mentioning that many documents refer to this history as Li Bao's "defection" from the Yue family army, which is not conclusive. In fact, Li Bao had repeatedly begged to return to the Yue family army, but was forced by the situation to refuse. In the eleventh year of Shaoxing, Yue Fei died unjustly, and a group of traitors and villains carried out liquidation and revenge against the Yue family's forces. At this time, Li Bao, who was under Han Shizhong,was lucky to avoid this disaster.
At that time, a group of powerful ministers who did not know how to govern the army firmly controlled the government and politics, and mixed the army into a mess, and it was difficult for the army to meet even the minimum needs for grain and grass. Although he escaped the disaster and was later promoted to deputy governor of Pingjiang Prefecture and deputy governor of Liangzhe West Road, the number of troops that Li Bao could control was also limited. Li Bao's ambition was not to be much of an official in the imperial court, and he hoped to form a powerful waterway army that could withstand the invasion of the Jin navy. In 1161, Li Bao finally waited for the opportunity.
In this year, Yan Liang gathered 70,000 elites and more than 600 large and small warships, and attacked the Southern Song Dynasty in four ways. After the news reached Lin'an, Zhao Zhuo was overwhelmed with fright. Just when the Manchu Dynasty Wenwu was in an uproar, Li Bao very calmly took the initiative to ask for help. When asked how many soldiers and horses were needed, Li Bao replied: "Three thousand crossbowmen, and one hundred and twenty strong ships can wade in the wind and waves." The ratio of troops was 1:23, the warship was 1:5, before that, several times the strength of the Jin army was not necessarily able to win, and now, this battle with a huge disparity in strength made the imperial court feel entangled, and Li Bao was a little impatient: "Things are urgent, please send it urgently!" Before leaving the army, Li Bao folded his arrows and swore an oath, and even wrote a suicide note.
In October of the 31st year of Shaoxing, Li Bao was stationed at Shiusu Island (石臼島, near present-day Rizhao, Shandong), and when he learned that the Jin state was plotting to launch a surprise attack from the sea, he did not immediately launch an operation, but waited for the opportunity. At this time, it was the autumn and winter season, and the north wind was blowing more, which was unfavorable to the raid. Finally, on October 27, the south wind blew on the sea, and Li Bao knew that the situation on the battlefield was changing rapidly, so Li Bao ordered a surprise attack for a good miss. It is worth mentioning that in order to break the powerful fleet of the Jinren, Li Bao also specially invented a weapon known as the "fierce oil fire cabinet", which can spew flames, much like the flamethrower used by the US military to grill the Japanese army shrinking in the cave during World War II.
How important is this battle in the history of human warfare? It is recognized as the world's first naval battle using gunpowder. You know, until the Ming Dynasty, the idea of naval warfare was still based on the battle of the ships. Later, some British military experts commented on the battle, saying that Li Bao's tactical concept and combat methods were very modern, and this battle deeply affected the entire human military history. Whether this battle had such a great impact is uncertain, but it is certain that it greatly extended the national rule of the Southern Song Dynasty. The powerful fleet that the Jin Dynasty spent more than ten years to assemble almost completely collapsed after this battle, and the situation in the Southern Song Dynasty turned into a crisis.
There is no doubt about Yue Fei's greatness, but yue fei and Zhao Shuo, who "crossed the line", this is still a topic of conversation. Some people believe that although Yue Fei was bent on fighting against foreign enemies, he inadvertently grasped too much power, and eventually gave others a feeling of "supporting the army and respecting themselves", which the emperor could not bear. In other words, Yue Fei lost his "political emotional intelligence" too low.
At the same time, Zhao Shuo was not the kind of emperor with great talent, and he was more concerned about the stability in front of him than the Jiangshan Sheji and historical status. However, from Li Bao, we can see such a playful detail: after Yue Fei's death, the traitors led by Qin Jun, began to ruthlessly liquidate the old generals of the Yue family, and many people were implicated. However, when the spearhead was aimed at Li Bao, Zhao Zhuo deliberately allowed Li Bao to leave relations with Yue Jiajun. He probably did not expect that the temporary cover-up had inadvertently left a brilliant talent for the Southern Song Dynasty who could turn the tide, as if he had saved his own life; the drama of history was nothing more than this.