At the beginning of the Song Dynasty, there was a famous general, who was brilliant in strategizing and had outstanding military achievements, helping Zhao Kuangyin to quell rebellions many times and was deeply relied upon by Zhao Kuangyin. With this information alone, of course, everyone can't guess who he is, because there were many famous generals with outstanding military achievements in the early Song Dynasty. But if I tell you that he is the big traitor who opposes the Yang family everywhere in the Series of film and television dramas of the Yang Family, it is estimated that many people can think of who it is. Yes, he is Pan Renmei, and the historical prototype is Pan Mei.
In folklore, the treacherous Pan Renmei and the loyal Yang Jiye have never been at odds. Pan Renmei repeatedly slandered the emperor and poured dirty water on Yang Jiye, so that Yang Jiye could lose the emperor's trust. In the process of Yang Jiye's conquest of the Liao army, Pan Mei not only made things difficult everywhere, but also announced a personal vendetta to kill Yang Jiye. What Pan Renmei did was deeply hated by people. However, legends are legends after all, and many legends do not match history. So, in real history, what kind of person is Pan Renmei?
The real Pan Renmei in history is completely different from the Pan Renmei in the impression of most people. Historically, his real name was Pan Mei, and not only was he not a traitor, nor did he kill Yang Jiye, but he was also a famous Confucian general in the early Song Dynasty.
As a teenager, Pan Mei was very ambitious, and he was eager to make a career, so he traveled around and made friends with like-minded people. At the age of 25, Pan Mei defected to the Later Zhou regime and befriended the heroic and chivalrous Zhao Kuangyin, and the two soon became confidants at first sight. After Zhao Kuangyin launched the Chen Qiao Mutiny and established the Song Dynasty, there was a general named Yuan Yanshun who followed Zhao Kuangyin's example and supported the army to stand on its own and rebel against the Song Dynasty. After Pan Mei knew about it, she immediately knew the righteousness to him and persuaded him to return to the Song Dynasty, and without spending a single soldier, Pan Mei solved a big problem for Zhao Kuangyin, making Zhao Kuangyin rely more on him. After that, Pan Mei followed Zhao Kuangyin on many expeditions, and successively quelled the rebellions in Huainan, Hunan and other places, and was particularly valued by Zhao Kuangyin.
Although Pan Mei was already a high-ranking official at that time, he still did not forget the kindness of the late lord Zhou Shizong Chai Rong to him, so he urged Zhao Kuangyin to recognize chai's descendants as nephews and raise them. It can be seen from here that Pan Mei is an upright and benevolent person who understands Entu Bao, not as treacherous and cunning as in folklore or film and television dramas.
As for the truth about Yang Jiye's tragic death in battle, in 986 AD, Zhao Kuangyin sent a three-way army to northernly attack Youyun Sixteen Prefectures, of which the main and deputy commanders of the West Road army were Pan Mei and Yang Jiye. Pan Mei and Yang Jiye cooperated with each other, divided their troops to attack, and the momentum was like a broken bamboo, and the good news was frequently reported, and they successively recovered the four continents such as Shuozhou and Yunzhou. However, the Eastern Road army led by Cao Bin was ambushed by the enemy and eventually defeated, and affected the entire Cause of the Northern Expedition. In desperation, Zhao Kuangyin ordered the three-way army to retreat one after another, in addition to the Task of escorting the people of Yunzhou to retreat safely.
Because the Western Road army escorted the people along the way, the march was slow, and soon the Liao army caught up. Yang Jiye suggested that the topographical advantage should be used at the mouth of the Shijie Valley to block the Liao army with strong crossbows and bows and arrows. However, this proposal was opposed by Wang Nong, who believed that the Western Road army had tens of thousands of elite soldiers and soldiers, and should not shrink back and foot, and should engage the Liao army head-on and deal them a heavy blow. There was no way, since the proposal could not be adopted, Yang Jiye had to lead the army to Shijie Valley Pass alone to block the Liao army, and agreed with Pan Mei to meet the troops at the Mouth of Chen Jia Gu.
After Yang Jiye led the troops away, Pan Mei came to Chen JiaGukou to arrange an ambush, but Wang Nong urged Pan Mei to retreat, saying: "The Khitan was defeated and wanted to fight for its merits, that is, to lead the troops away from the valley mouth." Pan Mei was silent and retreated according to Wang Nong's wishes. Yang Jiye also lost his support, so he had to fight alone, and was unfortunately captured and died of hunger strike.
Speaking of this, perhaps everyone is very strange, as the commander of the First Army, why should Pan Mei obey the words of a small overseer? There's a reason for this, of course:
First, the Song Dynasty has always had a system of emphasizing literature and suppressing martial arts, and military generals are not valued and their status is inferior to that of civilian officials. Moreover, wang nong, who was the overseer of the army, happened to be a close confidant of Zhao Kuangyin, and his words were actually equivalent to Zhao Kuangyin's words. Wang Nong was a civilian official at first, and a close confidant of the emperor on the other, so naturally he did not take the military generals Pan Mei and Yang Jiye to heart. As for Wang Nong's suggestion, Pan Mei did not dare to refute it more, because refuting Wang Nong was equivalent to refuting Zhao Kuangyin.
Second, Pan Mei was worried that if she had done a great job, she would attract the suspicion of the emperor. On this point, the Ming Dynasty thinker Wang Fuzhi gave a good explanation: "Pan Meizhi trapped Yang Ye and refused to save it, in order to avoid merit." The emperor mentioned here is actually not Zhao Kuangyin, but Zhao Kuangyi of Song Taizong, because Zhao Kuangyin had died at that time. If it was Zhao Kuangyin, Pan Meida would not have to worry about his own merits, because his merits could not reach Emperor Taizu. Since he was Emperor Taizong, Pan Mei had reason to worry. Therefore, in order to protect Mingzhe, Pan Mei did not hesitate to use a defeat to dispel Zhao Kuangyi's suspicions. Pan Mei was also demoted to the third rank of officer for this retirement, and did not receive other punishments.
As a generation of Confucian generals, Pan Mei made outstanding contributions to the Song Dynasty, and because of this, he was able to enter the Taimiao Temple and enjoy the sacrifices of posterity. However, due to the excessive misinterpretation of folk commentaries, Pan Mei's image was gradually scandalized and she became a traitor. This, of course, is very unfair to Pan Mei.