In October of the seventh year of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Jin soldiers divided into two roads and invaded the Song Dynasty on a large scale, attacking the city and plundering the land all the way, and everywhere was in a hurry. The panicked Emperor Huizong of Song hurriedly dispatched the Shaanxi transport magistrate Li Yi (李邺) to carry 30,000 taels of gold to the Jin kingdom to seek peace.
After Li Ye arrived in the Jin Kingdom, he was deeply shocked when he saw the fierce Jurchen for the first time, "People are like tigers, horses are like dragons, mountains are like apes, water is like Se, its strength is like Mount Tai, and China is like a tired egg!" This was the impression that the Jurchens left on Li Ye, which was full of surprise, fear and despair.
After returning to China, he reported this impression to Emperor Huizong of Song, but was accused by the government and the public of exaggerating the power of the Jin people, increasing the morale of others and destroying his own prestige, and gaining the insult of "six like pushing things".
It is a fact that a literati official like Li Yi is timid and cowardly, and is easily intimidated by the fierce arrogance of the other side, but his description of the Jurchens is also a fact, not a nonsense. At that time, not to mention the Han people who made a living from farming, even the heroes on horseback like Yelü Abaoji also praised the strength and bravery of the Jurchens, solemnly admonished his heirs that "Jurchen is invincible", and asked them to be wary of Jurchens. This image of the Jurchens has always been engraved in the memory of the Central Plains Dynasty, and has not been changed by the rise and fall of the Jurchens, and the "Liaoyi Biography" of the Ming Dynasty also said: "The Jurchens are full of ten thousand and unstoppable." Therefore, "Lady Zhen is dissatisfied with ten thousand, full of invincible!" This sentence has been widely circulated for more than a thousand years.
People generally believe that the Jurchens run rampant in the world with strong crossbows and horse machetes, and are like fierce tigers in the grasslands and mountains, but to say that they are "launched into the water like Se", it is exaggerated, Li Yi should have been frightened by the Jurchens to say so, they are actually the same as the Mongols, the big army of Yan Liang was defeated by the Southern Song Dynasty water division commanded by Yu Yunwen in the water battle of Quarry Rock is proof. However, this is a misconception,
The Jurchens were not only good at land warfare, but also good at water warfare, and they were once a people who were good at shipbuilding and navigation.
As for the defeat to Yu Yunwen, it was because the Southern Song Dynasty Naval Division was the peak of the world's navies at that time, with absolute advantages in tactics and technology. But other East Asian countries at the time were invaded by jurchens even across the sea.
According to the ancient Japanese book "Little Right Book", in the third year of Kuan Ren, that is, on March 28, 1019 AD, more than 3,000 pirates suddenly appeared on Tsushima Island in fifty large ships, and they carried out cruel killings and plunders of the islanders with large knives and burned down the Tsushima silver mine.
The pirates then attacked Iki Island instead, and then launched a further attack on the interior of Kyushu Island, attacking Chikuzen Yitu On April 7 with Noko Island as its base. Between April 8 and 12, the pirates invaded Hakata Bay. When the pirate fleet attacked the Japanese Hakata Bay, it also suffered the same storm as the later Mongols, but the Jurchens were not blown down by the storm, and their combat effectiveness was not damaged in the slightest, which showed that their ability to control the boat was far superior to that of the Mongols.
After many days of raging in Japan, this group of pirates Yang Fan left, this invasion killed a total of 463 people, robbed 1280 people, destroyed and robbed countless wealth, the Japanese called them "Daoyi", in fact, it is Jurchen. The Jurchens in the "Dao Yi Into the Kou" incident showed strong combat effectiveness and superb navigation and shipbuilding capabilities. The Japanese were even more in awe of their land combat effectiveness, calling them "trekking through the mountains and the wilderness, as fast as a flying falcon", which is almost the same as Li Ye's description, which shows that the Jurchens at that time had excellent abilities on both land and sea.
The Jurchens are so fierce that they are inseparable from their living environment, and they have lived for generations in the cold mountains and dense forests of Northeast Asia, making a living from fishing and hunting. In ancient times, the Jurchens lived in a region that not only had a harsh climate, but also ran rampant with wild beasts, and they often met large beasts such as tigers and brown bears, and if there was no superior physique and courage, it was impossible to compete with these powerful beasts, and the group could not continue.
Jurchen ancestors are known for being good at fighting tigers, because the area where they live is called the Bohai Sea Country, in ancient times there was a saying that "three people in the Bohai Sea should be a tiger", which means that as long as there are three Bohai people, they can kill a tiger, which shows that the bravery of the Jurchens is difficult for the Zhongyuan Shi Doctor to imagine, no wonder Li Ye will send out "China is like a tired egg!" after seeing them! "Lament, because in the era of cold weapons, people's physical quality is combat effectiveness, how can the weak Central Plains people beat this group of tigers and wolves?
The strong physique of the Jurchens, in addition to the tempering of the environment, should also be related to their diet, as hunters, they feed on the beasts and birds in the mountains, and they are also good at collecting ginseng, which is extremely beneficial to the human body, so their physique is definitely far stronger than the Central Plains people who feed on rice grains. At that time, the Central Plains body was indeed relatively short, which is also recorded in the "Journey to the East" of the French missionary Lubruck who sent to Mongolia during the Southern Song Dynasty, who saw the Southern Song people who went there to pay tribute in Hara and Lin, the capital of the Mongol Empire, and he said: "These Khitans are short in stature", and Europe called China Khitan at that time.
After the Jurchens occupied the Central Plains, with the ease of life and the sinicization of culture, the will to fight gradually faded, and finally it was destroyed by the Mongols. However, hundreds of years later they re-emerged, once again dominating the Central Plains and establishing the Qing Dynasty. Although the Manchurian Jurchens and the Jin Dynasty Jurchens have many differences in culture and customs, after all, they have the same ancestors, and they also have the same living area and living environment, so their robustness and bravery are no less than those of their predecessors.
The Spanish missionary Palaifou, who was in China at the time, witnessed the image of the Manchus, and his description of the Manchus in his "History of the Tatar Conquest of China" was: "The body is fit, but the shoulders are too wide, and the limbs are evenly proportioned." Physically strong and strong, without the slightest delicacy. The hands are particularly strong and do not require any gloves. ”
Europeans were physically stronger than East Asians, but in Palaif's eyes, the Manchus were robust and had too wide shoulders, which showed that they had great strength in their bodies.
At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the Korean envoy Kim Chang-ye went on an envoy to the Qing Dynasty, and he described the image of the Manchus in his book "The Diary of the Old Jiazhai Yanxing": "The Qing people grew up in stature and were mostly rich in appearance. Looking at the mainlanders, they were short and thin, and the roads were windy and dusty, and the three envoys were all black. The clothes and hats worn are many here and the people, the robe is not in length, the gauze hat is wide or to the eye, and it does not look like a person, especially sighing. ”
Jin Changye pointed out in this description that most of the Manchus at that time were large and majestic,
In contrast, the North Koreans appear "slender" and "black", looking almost human-shaped, and Kim Chang-yek is ashamed of himself.
Another Korean envoy also mentioned in his mission diary, Gengzi Yan Xingzhi: "The Qing people grew up in Fengwei, and there were people with extremely hateful faces. He also said that most of the Manchus at that time were tall and mighty, and some of them were fierce and intimidating.
Nowadays, the Eight Banners disciples seen in the old photos of the Qing Dynasty, one by one, lifting caged birds, are obscene and weak, which is the result of more than two hundred years of extravagance and lascivious life erosion, plus opium smoking, their ancestors are not like this.
Zhao, the Prince of Li during the JiaDao period of the Qing Dynasty, wrote a "Miscellaneous Records of the Xiaoting Pavilion", which recorded the deeds of two military generals in the early Qing Dynasty: In the early years of the Qing Dynasty, there was a warrior named Alima, who was brave enough to lift the stone lion in front of the Shengjing Temple. He made many military achievements, but after entering Beijing, he ran amok and committed many evils. The Emperor wanted to get rid of him and sent a Batulu whose martial arts skills were second only to his to capture him.
When this Batulu saw Alima, he deliberately pulled him along, and when he was not prepared, he suddenly grabbed his hand and tried to control him. Arima was furious, threw this Baturu out the door with a wave of her hand, and scolded, "What are you counting, dare to fight with me?"
The Baturu had no choice but to tell him that it was the emperor's will. After hearing this, Alima smiled and said, "If a good man is afraid of death, if he wants to arrest me, he will come and arrest me, and there is no need to use a plan." So he tied himself up, sat in the prison cart, and went to the execution ground.
As she passed the Xuanwu Gate, Alima said, "I'm a Manchurian, so I can't let the Han people watch me being slaughtered, just kill me in the city." As he spoke, he hooked his foot to the city gate hole, and as a result, the prison cart pulled by the two cows was pinned and could not move forward, and the servant had to execute in the door hole, which showed the strength of this man.
There was also a warrior general, a warrior of the Jurchen Saltu family, who was given the title of Kubatulu and was a fierce general on the side of the Emperor Taiji. In 1629, when Houjin attacked Xuanhua City, he was the first to enter the city, but he was slashed in the neck by the Ming army, and his head almost fell. He held his forehead with his left hand and fell down after killing several people with a knife in his right hand. However, after the battle, his companions found that he was not dead, so they sewed his neck up and actually lived again.
Emperor Tai often hunted, especially liked to hunt tigers, once, Chu Kubaturu went out hunting with Huang Taiji, encountered a huge tiger fiercely pounced, the horse was frightened, fell him down, the sewn neck was broken again, this time did not come back to life. The courage of this person is also amazing.
At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, not only the ordinary Manchus were brave and fearless, but also the nobles in high positions, they were also extremely fierce, they liked to show their bravery by fighting tigers, and Aobai was a fierce man who could fight tigers with his bare hands. The supreme ruler of the Qing Dynasty was also proud of "shooting tigers", and The Emperor Taiji was known for fighting tigers.
In February of the second year of Tiancong,Huang Taiji led Zhu Belle and Qunchen to hunt in Sanwa, 400 miles northeast of Shengjing, and Huang Taiji shot and killed five tigers. The Records of Emperor Taizong of the Qing Dynasty recorded the shooting: "Xin Ugly, Shanghui Palace." Yes, the five tigers were killed, and all the subjects were shocked and brave. ”
This shooting also encountered a dangerous situation, when the Emperor Taiji single-handedly rode forward, a tiger suddenly pounced on him, and the imperial bodyguard Zhan Tu Xietu, who was about 20 steps away from him, hurriedly bent his bow and shot an arrow. After the tiger was hit by the arrow, he frantically counterattacked, threw ZhanTushetu under the horse, opened his bloody mouth and bit him in the throat. Emperor Taiji rushed straight forward with a loud cry, scaring away the tiger, and Zhan Tu Xietu was saved. In the Records of Emperor Taizong of the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Taiji personally shot 14 tigers.
According to records, at the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the Eight Banners under the Emperor Taiji could use a strong bow with a pull of 120 kilograms, but after entering the customs, with the pacification of the world, the war was less, and the flag people no longer had to rely on fishing and hunting for a living, their physical quality declined year by year, and by the Kangxi Qianlong period, the eight flags officers and soldiers could only use 90 pounds of hard bows, and in the Jiaqing period, the physical quality of the eight flag soldiers continued to decline, and they could only pull 20-30 pounds of bows
, the range is short, the power is weak, can only hit rabbits, shoot deer are barely, let alone shoot tigers.
Although by the late Qing Dynasty, the Eight Banner Soldiers had become the "sick men of East Asia" in general, there were still tall and strong Manchus in the army transferred from Guanwai. The British officer who had served in the Taiping Army, Augustus F. Lindley, who had served in the Anglo-Indian Navy and had a reputation as "one of the strongest swordsmen in the Anglo-Indian Navy," was so conceited about his courage and swordsmanship that he once recorded his encounter with a fierce Eight Flags general: "Somehow, I had a Manchu who gave orders. He was a very tall, strong guy, and no doubt an excellent swordsman in Terms of Chinese training... My opponent was holding a heavy straight-bladed Tartar cavalry knife... This inconclusive battle lasted for a while—in my silence. And the Manchus had been shouting and motivating themselves and his men, and finally a savage-looking township warrior came to his officer and took his bamboo spear and prepared to nail me. Encouraged by this, the Manchus pushed me even tighter, so that I could not spare my attention to deal with the new attackers, and in a few moments I would definitely be pierced by a short spear. But then my faithful Ali (his Indian minions) jumped out to support me... Instead of attacking the countryman, he focused all his attention on the Manchu, his short spear waving above his head and chiseling into the mind of the Manchu officer who was approaching me, and at the same time, the short spear pierced his heart, which was supposed to stab me. Before Xiang Yong could withdraw his weapon and withdraw, the tip of my sword pierced through his back to avenge Ali. According to this description, Augustus, a master swordsman, encountered a formidable opponent and could not get rid of it at all, and it was his servant Ali who sacrificed himself with the same death style to get him out of trouble, which shows that even at that time, there were still warriors among the Manchus.
Judging from the records of the Jurchens in Chinese and foreign historical materials for more than a thousand years, they are tall, physically strong, and extremely brave and good at war, and in the era of cold weapons, they are almost an invincible force. From the 12th century to the 13th century, and from the 17th century to the beginning of the 20th century, the Jurchens twice entered the Central Plains, and they were one-sided in their battles with the Central Plains army, and the reason for this situation was that in addition to the corruption and cowardice of the Central Plains Dynasty, it was inseparable from the overwhelming advantage of the Jurchens in physical quality.
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