There are countless things that can be said about the deeds of the national hero Yue Fei, whether it is the official history or various wild history novels, there are many classic deeds about Yue Fei. And among these deeds, the famous Zhuxian Town Dajie can be said to be the peak moment of Yue Fei's life, with five hundred back army to break through the golden art of 100,000 golden soldiers. And the subsequent twelve gold medals brought Yue Fei's peak to an abrupt end, leaving the world with great regret.
In the tenth year of Shaoxing, Yue Fei led the Yue family army in the Northern Expedition, attacking the town of Zhuxian, which was only forty-five miles from Kaifeng, and repelled the 100,000-strong army of Yan Zongbi (Jin Wuxi) with an elite force of 500 men. On July 21, when Kaifeng, the former capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, was about to be restored, he was recalled by Zhao Shu and Qin Hui with 12 gold medals, and the Northern Expedition was defeated. When countless people in the later world talked about this matter, they all beat their chests and sighed, while lamenting Yue Fei's heroic martial arts, while scolding Zhao Shu's mediocrity and Qin Huan's treachery. To this day, there is also a Yue Fei Temple built in the Ming Dynasty in Zhuxian Town to commemorate this great victory. First of all, let's take a look at the geographical location of Zhuxian Town, a small town 22 kilometers away from Kaifeng, which is not of high military value like some military towns in the north. Zhuxian Town is an ordinary agricultural town, a small town that was not developed at that time, and the people have been engaged in agriculture for generations. And the great victory of Zhuxian Town occurred after the great victory of Yingchang, Yue Fei's fourth Northern Expedition, and the ultimate purpose of the Northern Expedition was to recapture Kaifeng. Therefore, as the commander of the Jin Army, Jin Wushu could not give up Kaifeng, a large city in the Central Plains with perfect defensive equipment, and instead lead the large army to Zhuxian Town to fight Yue Fei to the death, which was completely unreasonable tactically.
Is there historical support for this battle? Yes, from "The Biography of Song Shi Yue Fei", almost all the details are similar to what we see in the novel and the act. When Yue Fei withdrew his troops, the people stopped his horse and cried bitterly: "Xianggong goes, my generation has no trouble." He even borrowed Yan Zongbi's mouth and said, "Yue Shaobao broke my 100,000 horses with five hundred horses." ”
To make a digression, these descriptions are still the same as we are doing news now, and they have achieved "tripartite interviews", which can be said to be very solid. It is very amazing that except for "Song Shi Yue Fei", all official historical materials of the Song Dynasty do not record this battle. (Note: This battle is recorded in the "Chronicle of the History of Song", but this set of books was written by Chen Bangzhan in the Ming Dynasty on the basis of the "History of Song", and is not a historical source of the Song Dynasty.) ）
Is there a record of Yue Fei's withdrawal? Yes, and other historical sources are correct.
The "Song Shi Gaozong Benji" recorded: "In July, (Yue) flew to accumulate the class teacher, and then returned from the city. ”
The "Essential Records of the Department Since the Founding of Yan" recorded: "In July, Xuanfu in the west of Hubei made Yue Fei from the class of Zhaocheng. ”
The "Compilation of the Northern Alliance of the Three Dynasties" recorded: "On the 21st of July, Yue Fei was in Haocheng, and he returned to the army on the same day with twelve orders. ”
It should be introduced that the two books "The Compilation of the Northern Alliance of the Three Dynasties" and "The Essential Record of the Year Since the Founding of Yan" are very authoritative historical materials at the turn of the two Song Dynasties, especially the Gaozong Dynasty, and many times are accurate to the sky.
The problem that can be determined now is that on July 21, Yue Fei did receive many orders from the imperial court to return to the army, but the location of the return army was not Zhuxian Town, but Zhucheng.
Where is Chengcheng? In Luohe, more than 250 miles away from Zhuxian Town.
Yue Fei obviously achieved a great victory in Zhuxian Town, forty or fifty miles away from Kaifeng, and then prepared to retake Kaifeng, forcibly cross the Yellow River, and directly attack the Yellow Dragon, why did he suddenly run south back to Luohe, more than 250 miles away, to withdraw his troops?
It is very interesting that the two books "The Compilation of the Northern Alliance of the Three Dynasties" and "Essential Records of the Year Since the Founding of Yan" both record Yue Fei's marching route during this period of time very corroboratingly:
On July 8, Yue Fei fought a great battle with Finish Yan Zongbi in Haocheng and won a great victory, and Finish Yan Zongbi retreated north to Kaifeng;
On 10 July, Yue Fei defeated the Jin soldiers who came to attack in Haocheng County, killing the Jin general Ah Li Duo Pansy;
On 14 July, Jin soldiers attacked Yingchang, and Yue Fei's general Wang Gui, who was responsible for guarding Yingchang, could not hold back the withdrawal, and Yang Zaixing was the small merchant bridge at the junction of the two places where he died in this battle;
On the 21st, Yue Fei received an order to take a class from Haocheng.
From these historical materials, it can be seen that Yue Fei and his headquarters were stationed as far as Zhaocheng, and further north to Yingchang, Luoyang and other places, all of his generals were fighting.
Moreover, neither Yue Fei himself nor his subordinates had a record of fighting in Zhuxian Town in July of the tenth year of Shaoxing, not even a record of sporadic battles.
There is only one battle in Zhuxian Town recorded in the entire "Three Dynasties Northern Alliance Compilation" , seven and a half years ago in the third month of Shaoxing: " Niu Gao , Li Heng , Dong Xian , and Jin Ren fought in Zhuxian Town. " Liu Yu asked for help from the Jin people, and Fushu aided Yu with troops, and Wang Shi met in Zhuxian Town, and Wang Shi was defeated. ”
Now the question is, where did the historical materials of this great victory in Zhuxian Town in "The Biography of Song Shi Yue Fei" come from? The answer is very clear - the "Continuation of the Kingdom of Eguo Jintuo" compiled by Yue Fei's grandson Yue Ke.
When Yue Ke presented this set of books, it was when Emperor Ningzong fought against Jin Bing during the Jiading period, when Yue Fei had already been rehabilitated and posthumously crowned King of E. Against such a historical background, the more Yue Fei's achievements were exaggerated, the more he could stimulate the fighting spirit of the main battle faction and strike at the arrogance of the main war faction.
Let's make a little assumption here.
Major military victories such as recapturing Kaifeng and crossing the Yellow River must not be written blindly, because this kind of thing has too much influence and cannot be supported by other historical sources, but writing a great victory with less victory in Zhuxian Town, forty or fifty miles away from Kaifeng City, is not so true.
This battle does not involve the trade-offs of important cities, nor the death of important generals, but because it is particularly close to Kaifeng City, it gives people a regret of "falling short", by the way, let the lords and factions see - "the fucking things you did back then"!
Therefore, such a great victory that did not exist was thus listed in the history books.
I think that in history, Yue Fei did have a battle with the Jin army in Zhuxian Town, but this battle was only a small-scale encounter, not a great victory at all, let alone a great victory to defeat the 100,000 army. About the great victory of Zhuxian Town is just Yue Fei's grandson Yue Ke in order to curry favor with Song Xiaozong and facilitate his own promotion and wealth, a great victory that only exists in the book, this is a big lie.