Editor's note: In the last years of the Song and Jin Dynasties, the Song Dynasty's strategy of "joint Mongolia and destroying jin" has been criticized by some people on the Internet. They said that this strategic decision of the Southern Song Dynasty was as stupid as the "Maritime Alliance" that united the Jin Dynasty to destroy the Liao. The other side's view is that the Southern Song Dynasty wants to unite with Jin against Mongolia, and in the face of the Jin people who always want to go south to "find a supplement", it is also a hot face and a cold ass! Song Jin did not have the responsibility to unite against Mongolia on the side of the Jin State. So, is Jin Guo really that stupid? In the face of the aggressive Mongols, still thinking of going south to make a profit? Of course, it's not that simple.
▲ Battle map of the Mon-Jin War
Historically, in fact, after the Battle of Sanfeng mountain, Jin Aizong once had the opportunity to form a tripartite alliance with the Red Jacket Army and the Southern Song Dynasty to resist the Mongols. But this was missed by Jin Aizong's indecisiveness and the tumultuous operations of the people below. Li Quan, the leader of the Red Jacket Army and a great ambitionist, initially attached himself to the Southern Song Dynasty, opposing the Jin people, expanding his power, and even extending his influence to the Huainan region of the Southern Song Dynasty. Later, Li Quan was attached to mongolia and reaped the benefits at both ends. Previously, the Southern Song Dynasty handed over Chu Prefecture to the northern rebels who were attached to the Song Dynasty. In 1226, infighting broke out among the generals of ChuZhou, and Li Quan's brother Li Fu and Li Quan's second son were both killed. In 1230, Li Quan felt that his wings were already abundant, and seeing that the government army of the Southern Song Dynasty was extremely weak at that time, he blamed the Chuzhou mutiny on the Southern Song Dynasty, so he attacked the Song from the south, wanting to capture Huainan and even take Lin'an directly. At first, he won the victory, and after going deeper, he was defeated and killed by the Song army.
▲ The capricious Li Quan, whose heart is higher than the sky, can't even beat the famous waste general Zhao Fan Zhao Kui of the Southern Song Dynasty
His subordinate General Guo Yong'an participated in the Chuzhou Mutiny, but then killed his co-conspirators Zhang Lin and Xing De to atone for Li Quan's sins, and li Quan's forgiveness was obtained. After Li Quan's defeat, the Song army marched north to retake ChuZhou, and Guo Yong'an returned to Shandong with Li Quan's wife Yang Miaozhen, relying on the Mongols. Considering the previous operations of Muhua Li and Bo Lu's father and son in Shandong and Hebei, Wo Kuotai wanted to eliminate the influence of the Muhua Li family in northern China, so instead of taking advantage of Li Quan's defeat to reduce Li's fiefdom, Wo Kuotai treated Yang Miaozhen, Li Quan's son Li Xuan, and Guo Yong'an and other red generals, allowing them to expand their sphere of influence. In this way, the Shandong zhu will be favored by him, and the object of allegiance will be changed from the Muhuali family to Wokoutai himself.
▲ The far-sighted strategic master Wo Kuotai, whose layout was the key to Mongolia's rapid extinction of gold
However, GuoYong'an had no good feelings for the Mongols. In 1232, after annihilating the main force of the Jin army at Sanfeng Mountain, the Mongol army attacked Fenjing. At that time, Guo Yong'an served as the marshal of the capital and the governor of Shangshu province of The Eastern Road of Xingshan, and accompanied the Mongols in the army. He had secretly sent people to contact the Jin army in the city, hoping to lead some of the Han army to defect, and the inside and the outside should be combined to annihilate the Mongolian army that was tired from the siege in one fell swoop.
▲In the bloody battle of The Three Peaks Mountain, the main force of Dajin was lost
However, Jin Guo did not dare to trust this traitorous male from the Red Jacket Army and rejected his proposal. Although the defense of Fenjing was successful, because the city was depleted of materials, Jin Aizong still had to flee from Fenjing and go south to Guide (Shangqiu).
▲ The bustling capital city was eventually captured by the Mongols
In June of the first year of Jin Tianxing (1232 AD), Guo Yong'an took advantage of the opportunity of infighting in the three prefectures of Xu, Su, and Pi in jinguo to attack the three prefectures in one fell swoop. However, the Mongol general Ashuru had already regarded the three states as his own pocket and was very unhappy, so he sent Zhang Jin, the Marquis of Hebei, to lead troops to teach the state to take over the three states. Suffering from such unfair treatment, the state that was already extremely disgusted with the Mongols had to turn against it. He conspired with Wang Dequan, the commander-in-chief of Xuzhou in the Jin Dynasty who had recently surrendered to him, to attack and kill Zhang Jin and hundreds of others, as well as Yang Miaozhen's marshal Tian Fu of Haizhou, summon the Huaibei generals and Hao Jie, and break with the Mongols and Yang Miaozhen, anyway, Yu Jin.
▲ Li Quan's wife Yang Miaozhen, she is the real creator of the Yang family gun
When he learned that the state had used security anyway, Emperor Aizong of Jin was overjoyed and immediately gave him the surname of Guanyan and the title of official and knight. ["An used a number of states anyway, and the work was great."] And its military strength is strong, and the material is slightly commendable. The state wants to rely on it, and the non-elite weight is not enough to strengthen its heart of the country. "In the seventh month of the lunar calendar in the first year of Tianxing (1232), Emperor Aizong of Jin "took An Yong as the Kaifu Yi Tongsan Division, the Marshal of Pingzhang And the Marshal of the Capital, and the Governor of Jingdong Shandong, and specially sealed the King of Yan, and gave him the title of 'Heroic Martyr and Martyr of the Difficult Protection Festival'. Give the surname To Yan, appendage, change the name to An. Give gold gilded silver seals, camel button gold seals, golden tiger charms, hereditary thousand households to declare their destiny, edict samples, card samples, imperial painting body propaganda, empty head Heshuo Shandong pardon text, cheap to engage in..." "Leap month (September) Peng Shen Shuo, sent envoys with iron coupon one, tiger symbol six, daxin card ten, weaving gold dragon wen imperial clothes one, Yue Wang jade fish belt one, bow ya two to yan wang yong'an, his parents and wives all gave it. And with hereditary proclamation of ten, ten of the county king's proclamation, and ten of the jade free of the beard, his allies can be given to him. Guo Yong'an was transformed into an official Andipin Yan king, and had the privilege of conferring the title of king of the county and appointing officials without instructions, and handling major matters as appropriate.
▲ Emperor Aizong of Jin completed his face and shouxu, young and promising, but he was born at the wrong time and became the king of the subjugated country
After the fall of Fenjing, gui de was not the place where he stayed for a long time. At this time, Jin Aizong had three choices--move west, go south, and go east.
Compared with Nanyang and Huaibei, which were controlled by warlords, Caizhou, which was still under the bureaucracy of the Jin Dynasty, seemed to be the best choice.
But those who understand the military know that Cai Zhou is obviously the worst choice! On the Great Plains of Henan, there was no danger to defend, and the Mongol army marched south from Bieliang and soon could take Guide (Shangqiu), and then Caizhou. Nanyang has mountains that can be used as protection, and Huaibei has the Luxi Mountains and the Huai Surabaya Network as a support.
▲ When Tuolei crossed the Southern Song Dynasty and entered the Golden Realm, it gave the Southern Song Dynasty a great blow
Compared with the hawks in the Jin Dynasty who tried to go all out to the west, invade Hanzhong, and even seize the entire Shu land of the Southern Song Dynasty to survive, Guo Yong'an was a typical dove. He had a good life when he was attached to the Southern Song Dynasty before, and he had a very good relationship with the Southern Song Dynasty. So, after breaking with the Mongols, he reconnected with the Southern Song Dynasty. Guo Yong'an defeated Yang Miaozhen in the first year of Tianxing (1233) and captured Haizhou (海州, in modern Lianyungang), where he tried to invite Emperor Jin to move the capital. Guo Yong'an undoubtedly hoped that after Emperor Aizong of Jin moved east, he would rely on the imperial court to consolidate his power and could plot north to Yang Miaozhen in Shandong. At the same time, under the friendly relations between Guo Yong'an and the Song, if the Jin State moved east to Huaibei, it could form a Jin-Song alliance, and the remnants of jin could use the Southern Song Dynasty as a backup to resist the Mongols. Guo Yong'an had connections in the imperial court, and it was the successor of the monk Guanyan Chen, the Marshal of the Zhongxiao Army, Pu Cha Guannu. After the Battle of Sanfeng Mountain, the monks of Yan Chen were martyred, and the loyal and filial army lost most of them, but the remaining personnel were still considerable in combat strength.
▲ Pu Cha Guannu was good at using soldiers although he was stubborn
Pu Chaguannu was a pragmatic man, and he also believed that moving east to Haizhou and uniting with the Southern Song Dynasty was the way out for the Jin Dynasty to survive. In the water network terrain of Huaibei, the Song army was able to send troops to support the Jin State. However, if on the Great Plains near Caizhou, the Southern Song Dynasty, which lacked field combat ability, even if lianjin resisted Mongolia, sent troops only to death, it would definitely choose lianmeng to destroy jin to eat a little leftovers.
Jin Aizong was also aware of the strategic considerations proposed by Guo Yong'an to move the capital to Haizhou. However, the villains in the imperial court began to speak out, believing that Guo Yong'an wanted to use the power of the imperial court to plot Shandong, and if it failed, it would give the imperial court to the Southern Song Dynasty as a gift. However, although the Jin court at that time suffered a fiasco at The Three Peaks Mountain, it still had a certain number of troops (even stronger than the national security). It was different from the situation in which Cao Cao welcomed emperor To han. If Emperor Aizong of Jin moved to Haizhou, then although guoyong'an relied on the imperial court, it was also subject to the imperial court, so what was to worry about? Seeing that Emperor Jin aizong had no intention of moving the capital to Haizhou, he simply launched a coup d'état to control Emperor Jin and forced Emperor Jin to appoint himself as a privy councillor and a governor of Quan.
However, Pu Cha Guannu was really not a dry eater, and as soon as he took control of the army, he immediately dealt with the Mongol army that was already approaching Guide, and attacked the enemy camp with 450 loyal and filial troops with firearms, and beat more than 10,000 Mongolian troops to the collapse of the whole army. The Mongol commander Sajis Buhua and 3500 Mongol soldiers were all destroyed, the Han army Marquis Dong Jun threw himself into the water and died, and Shi Tianze and Zhang Rou fled.
▲ Pu Cha Guannu used firearms and muskets in the Battle of Guide
The Battle of Guide was the last victory of the Jin army against the Mongols, and also the last glory of the loyal and filial army. Taking advantage of the great victory, Pu Chaguannu decided to hold Jin Aizong hostage and move east to Haizhou. If this is successful, Pu Cha guannu and Guo Yong'an join forces to form a shogunate dependent on the Southern Song Dynasty in Huaibei, and the Jin state may be able to continue to live. However, Pu Cha Guannu was ultimately a warrior and lacked defenses. During a certain imperial meeting, Jin Aizong assassinated him with ambush troops, and a generation of famous generals died.
Finally, Emperor Aizong of Jin moved to Caizhou and headed for the road of no return. In early 1234, under the joint attack of the Mongol generals Tai chu and Ashuru, the Han dynasty marquisEshuai Zhang Rong, Wang Zhen, Yang Jiezhige, Yang Miaozhen, and the remnants of Zhang Jin, who had previously been killed by Guo Yong'an, the city of Xuzhou was finally breached, and Guoyong ann died without surrendering and threw himself into the water. At this time, Cai Prefecture had been breached, Jin had perished, and Guo Yong'an had not been able to obtain the posthumous title of Jin Guo's direction, and the Southern Song Dynasty had posthumously awarded Guo Yong'an as an envoy of the Shunchang Army. A generation of tyrants, who eventually resisted Mongolia and died, also saved the last integrity. Imagine if Emperor Aizong of Jin really moved east to Haizhou, relying on the Southern Song Dynasty, forming a situation in which the three families of the Jin, Song, and Red Jacket armies were opposed to Mongolia, and whether the "Liankou Pingyu" could stop the iron hooves of the Mongol army from going south was really unknown.
Resources:
History of Jin
History of the Yuan
History of the Song Dynasty
Li Huguang's Complete History of the Mengjin War
"Yan Kingdom Kaifu Chronicle" inscription chronology re-examination"
Li Haonan, "On the Loyal and Filial Army of the Jin Dynasty"
This article is the original manuscript of the Cold Weapons Research Institute. The original outline of the editor-in-chief and the author Qu Mofeng shall not be reproduced by any media or public account without written authorization, and the offender will be investigated for legal responsibility.