I wrote in "Detailed Introduction to Yue Fei Chuan One: As a Farmer, How Did He Practice His Martial Arts?" It has been said that although Yue Fei's family had several hundred acres of thin land, it still belonged to a third-class household with only a slight surplus in the Song Dynasty. For third-class households, they can occasionally eat some meat in a good year, but when they encounter a bad year, they will have to sell blood and sell fields.
When Yue Fei was 14 years old, there was a flood in Xiangzhou, and too much rain in the summer severely hit the field harvest. The Yue family's life began to be sad.
Yue Fei practiced martial arts, this meal is not a small expense, and Yue Fei's younger brother Yue Fan is also getting bigger and bigger every day, as the saying goes, half a size eats poor Laozi, two and a half size children are at home, even if it is Jinshan Yinshan, it will also give you food.
The children of the poor had long been in charge, and the situation at home could not allow Yue Fei to stay at home. So at the age of 16, under the family tension, Yue Fei got married. (Except for readers, the marriage age is generally early)
His wife Liu gave birth to his son Yue Yun the following year. After leaving his descendants, Yue Fei, like many young people in rural areas today, left home at the age of 17-8 and went out to work.
Yue Fei's place of work is not far away, just in Xiangzhou Prefecture. He became a sharecropper of the Han family, a magnate in Xiangzhou.
The super big magnate in Xiangzhou is the Han family. The Han family not only produced cattle people like Han Qi, who had served as the prime minister of the three dynasties. Moreover, in order to show preferential treatment, the imperial court even broke the practice of being an official in a different place, and repeatedly allowed the Han family to serve as the first leader of Xiangzhou.
By this time yue fei, the Han family had developed at least seven generations in Xiangzhou and occupied a large amount of land. At that time, the governor of Xiangzhou was Han Xiaoguo, and his predecessor was his father.
The imperial court was almost like dividing Xiangzhou into the Han family, which was the Song Dynasty's favor for scholars.
Of course, these things did not mean much to Yue Fei, he became a tenant farmer of the Han family at that time, according to the social ethics at that time, it could even be said that the Han family was Yue Fei's master's family, and Yue Fei was the slave of the other party.
The so-called sharecroppers, according to the rules at that time, were borrowed from the Han family in the fields and cultivated cattle, and more than 60% of the annual harvest was handed over to the Han family, and the rest was their own. And not only that, if the Han family had other requests, such as asking the tenants to do some extra work, the sharecroppers could not refuse.
One day, Yue Fei went to Zhuangshu in Hanfu to borrow grain, which coincided with hundreds of bandits surrounding the villa. Yue Fei showed his superb strength, he climbed up the wall, drew a bow, and the sharp arrow went straight through the throat of the thief's head, killing him instantly. Hundreds of bandits were leaderless and immediately collapsed.
However, the Han family did not thank Yue Fei for this, whether it was Yue Fei's talent or merit, it was not valued by this once famous courtier family. Not only that, after Yue Fei became a famous general in the army, the Han family actually intentionally or unintentionally spread the saying that "Yue Fei was once a domestic slave of my family".
Therefore, as far as his personal career is concerned, Yue Fei's development in the civilian sector has been frustrated, and with the development of the situation, wearing a military uniform has become his only realistic choice.
What is this situation? It was the complete failure of the Song Dynasty's "plan to recover Yanyun".
The plan to recover Yanyun in the last years of the Northern Song Dynasty officially began in 1117, that is, the year of Yue Fei's 14th year. The Song Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty signed the "Alliance of the Seas", agreeing to divide the liao kingdom together.
Some people in later generations may want to accuse the Song Dynasty of seeing profit and forgetting righteousness, but in fact, under the international relations at that time, it was so cold-blooded and realistic. During the reign of Emperor Renzong, when the Song Dynasty was severely beaten by the Western Xia, didn't the Liao State also immediately suppress the territory with a large army and threaten the Song Dynasty to cede its territory?
The Song army was officially dispatched in April of the fourth year of Xuanhe, that is, in 1122, when the Liao state of Zhongjing had been attacked by Jin soldiers, and Emperor Tianzuo did not know where to go. The remnants of the Liao state had to re-establish power in Yanjing, historically known as the "Northern Liao".
By this time, five years had passed since the Alliance of the Seas. It took so long from the beginning of the plan to the dispatch of troops, and it is reasonable to say that the preparation will not be sufficient, so why does it fail?
The first problem is actually the lack of military preparations.
According to the reasoning, in fact, Emperor Huizong of Song also made some preparations.
For example, Emperor Huizong of Song twice consulted the generals along the border, and also contacted the Han people in Liaodi to search for intelligence, etc., but in the most critical military, he miraculously did not do anything to rectify.
To the Northern Expedition, where is the army? The normal idea was to reorganize the Hebei Army, with the Hebei Army as the main force in the Northern Expedition.
At its peak, the Hebei Forbidden Army once had a strength of 300,000. However, in the early years of Emperor Huizong of Song, Zhang Shunmin of Zhiding Prefecture said that Dingzhou, as an important military town in Hebei, often had more than 100,000 troops. However, due to the shortage of military funds and the lack of troops, Zhang Shunmin found that only six to seven thousand people were left when he inspected it.
Dingzhou, as the largest concentration of troops in Hebei, was still like this, and at that time, could the entire Hebei be able to pick out tens of thousands of people for the Northern Expedition?
Emperor Huizong of Song had always been enthusiastic about the Northern Expedition, but he never expected to reorganize the Hebei forbidden army system in the past, which was really confusing.
I guess one reason is that the emperors of the Northern Song Dynasty were afraid of the Liao state, because they were afraid that the reorganization of the army would arouse the vigilance of the Liao state, so they simply left the Hebei army there and let it go, preferring to transfer the Shaanxi forbidden army to serve as the main force when fighting.
The second is a problem in high-level decision-making.
When Emperor Huizong of Song led an army of 150,000 troops to send troops, he once had the "Three Strategies of imperial pen", what does it mean?
Best strategy: If the Song army arrives in Hebei and finds that the Liao military and civilians take the initiative to welcome, then they will take advantage of the situation to recover Yanyun.
Zhongce: If the remnants of the Liao state are willing to bow their heads, then it is also possible to adopt them as vassals.
The next strategy: If the Liao state insists on refusing to surrender, then do not fight, the Song army will be treated as a border patrol exercise, just come back.
It can be seen that song Huizong's psychological problems, on the one hand, greed, on the other hand, timidity. Even if the Liao state was about to be destroyed, he did not have the idea of confronting the Liao state hard.
In contrast, when Emperor Taizong of Song attacked the Northern Han Dynasty, what was his attitude toward the Liao state that might intervene?
"Hedong disobeyed his orders, and he should be questioned. If the Northern Dynasty does not come to the aid, the peace treaty will be as old as ever; otherwise, there will be war! ”
Song Huizong's "Three Books of Imperial Pens" looked comprehensive, but in the eyes of the generals who commanded the troops, they revealed the fear of fighting the Liao army everywhere. Since the emperor didn't want to really fight, how could the generals below have the determination?
Therefore, Tong Guan's Northern Expedition actually sent troops with this hesitant mentality.
And what about tong guan, the commander of the Northern Expedition?
Tong Guan is not a man without merit. Although Cai Jing once commented that Tong Guan did not have real skills. But from the perspective of the Song and Xia wars, Tong Guan had at least one advantage:
He can withstand political pressure.
During the Song and Xia Wars, Emperor Huizong of Song considered it an ominous omen because of a fire in the palace, so he issued an edict ordering the withdrawal of troops from the front. However, Tong Guan dared to hold the emperor's hand and did not issue it, so that the army continued to attack and won the victory.
This kind of leader who does not understand professionalism but understands politics is actually familiar to us in modern times, as long as it does not interfere in the business, this kind of leadership is still good.
But the problem was that Tong Guan's performance in the war against the Liao was not like this, after receiving Emperor Huizong's "Imperial Pen Three Strategies", he issued an order that "it is not allowed to kill the Liao people without authorization", and said, "Wang Shi crossed the line, the Liao people will naturally eat pot pulp to meet them, and there is no need to prepare for war at all!" Using the Western Army is actually just to intimidate! ”。
Therefore, the Western Army actually fought with the Liao Army under this "no-war" mentality.
It is not that the Western Army of the Northern Song Dynasty cannot fight, nor is it without excellent generals, but whether it is political, logistical, or intelligence, it has been dragged behind, so the failure of xuanhe and the Northern Expedition cannot actually talk about specific military issues at all, and it can be said that from the moment it went to the battlefield, the Song army lost.