The ancients said: "Sorrow can rejuvenate the country, and Yiyu can die." "It is about the diligence of the monarch, which determines the rise and fall of a dynasty, and throughout history, those emperors who have created a prosperous world are all dressed in their clothes and food, and they are trying to govern with great efforts. However, there are often counterexamples, in addition to the well-known Chongzhen Emperor, there is also a monarch who is diligent and worried about the people, but it hastened the decline of the country. He was the penultimate emperor of the Jin Dynasty, Jin Xuanzong.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >, accidental ascension to the throne</h1>
In 1189 AD, Jin Shizong, the great golden lord known as "Xiao Yao Shun", came to the end of his life, and as early as four years ago, the crown prince he had painstakingly cultivated for more than 20 years had died, leaving behind two imperial grandsons, Guan Yan Xun and Guan Yan Jing. Although Yan Xun was older, it was his younger brother who inherited the throne: shuzi's identity, making Yan Xun uncompetitive in this choice between the two.
In the blink of an eye, nineteen years later, the new emperor, Yan Jing, was seriously ill, his six sons died one after another, and two concubines were still pregnant in the harem. After careful consideration, Yan Jing passed the throne to his most cowardly and incompetent uncle, GuanYan Yongji, because he promised that if Yan Jing's concubine gave birth to a boy, he would be made crown prince.
Ironically, as soon as the seemingly loyal and honest Yan Yongji ascended to the throne, he could not wait to get rid of his nephew's two concubines, and then made his son the crown prince. At this time, Yan Xun was still a prince, and the estrangement of blood made him seem to be farther away from the throne.
Sometimes, though, opportunities come suddenly. In 1213 AD, Genghis Khan's Great Mongol Empire marched south and was approaching the capital of the Jin Dynasty, Zhongdu. Under the pressure of the strong enemy, the right deputy marshal Hu Shahu, who held military power, was hunting and amusement, and Yan Yongji urged him to lead the troops to battle, but it annoyed this flying general, he fell to death the falcon in his hand, simply sent troops to rebel, abolished Yan Yongji, and planned to take the throne himself.
Hu Shahu did not expect that the imperial court ministers led by Shan Yi, the chancellor, did not buy it, and they put aside the deposed Completed Yan Yongji family and looked for an heir from the brothers of the previous generation of emperors, Completed Yan Jing, and Completed Yan Xun became the only candidate. It was difficult to disobey the will of the people, hu shahu sadly dispelled the emperor's dream, he sent someone to meet Yan Xun, and by the way, he extinguished Yan Yongji.
In this way, the unprepared Yan Xun became the emperor in a vacuum, which is the historical Jin Xuanzong, can he undertake the great cause of the Jin Dynasty?
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > second, the alliance under the city</h1>
Jin Xuanzong did have the ambition to exert himself to govern, but the situation was stronger than the people, Hu Shahu had meritorious service, and it was he who had the final say in the court. The Mongol army was already approaching Zhongdu, but Hu Shahu was still busy giving his comrades the rank of knight, and his son Pig Dung was also given the title of Soldier Attendant. It was not until the Mongol iron horse reached the city that he sent the general Gao Qi to meet the enemy, and as a result, he was defeated repeatedly. Hu Shahu could not hang on to his face and threatened his life: "Today's military dispatch has been fruitless, and it should be done under military law." However, The Tiger Gao Qi was once again defeated.
Hu Shahu is known for his fierceness and ruthlessness, his military orders are not playful, in the face of the threat of death, Shuhu Gaoqi chose to take the risk. After careful preparations, Gao Qi led his men to surround Hu Shahu's mansion and cut off Hu Shahu's head to ask Jin Xuanzong for his guilt. The timid Jin Xuanzong not only did not punish the crime, but instead appointed Gao Qi as the left deputy marshal to run the imperial government. However, this defeated general was the second hust tiger, and Jin Xuanzong would soon pay a heavy price for it.
Inside the city was a chaotic riot, and outside the city was a Mongol army that stepped up its attack. However, in order to build the capital, Yan Liang requisitioned 1.2 million people to build it after two years, which can be described as the city's high trenches, easy to defend and difficult to attack. The Mongol army was longer than field battles, shorter than sieges, and helpless against the tall Zhongdu, and turned to attacking the hinterland of the Jin Dynasty, and the two countries spent the following spring.
In March 1214, the Jin state in the city, which was short of food, asked the Mongol army for peace, and Genghis Khan saw that Zhongdu could not be attacked for a long time, and also wanted to temporarily suspend the army and strike, so he took the opportunity to extort money. Jin Xuanzong did not dare to have any objections, and in accordance with the requirements of the Mongols, he sent Yan Yongji's daughter Princess Qiguo, five hundred virgins and girls, and a large number of gold, silver, treasures and horses to reach a peace agreement with the Mongol army, and then gave up the good opportunity to intercept the attack in the middle of the road, and sent The Minister of State to complete Yan Chenghui to escort the Mongol army back to the grassland in a beautiful way.
< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > third, move the capital to avoid the enemy</h1>
As soon as the Mongol army left on its front foot, Jin Xuanzong, fearing that they would come again, immediately proposed to move the capital south. Tu Shanyi firmly opposed, believing that sticking to zhongdu was the best policy, and even if he moved the capital, he would also go to his hometown in the northeast of Jinguo. However, Jin Xuanzong was anxious to get far away from Mongolia and could not listen to it at all. Soon after, Tu ShanYi died, and officials of Kaifeng Prefecture in Nanjing wrote to request that the capital be moved to Nanjing, which further strengthened Jin Xuanzong's decision to cross the south.
In May 1214, Emperor Xuanzong of Jin abandoned Zhongdu, which had been the capital for 61 years, and led hundreds of officials of Wen and Wu to kaifeng. In order to stabilize the hearts and minds of the people in Zhongdu, he left the chancellor Yan Chenghui to assist the crown prince to stay behind.
The news of Jin Xuanzong's relocation of the capital immediately reached the ears of Genghis Khan, who angrily believed that the Jin state was not trustworthy, still hostile to the Mongols, and also saw through Jin Xuanzong's cowardice and incompetence, so he decided to go south again. At this time, there was a shortage of food and pay in zhongdu, and there were no rescue soldiers outside, so it was difficult to hold on any longer. Jin Xuanzong was reluctant to be the prince, and quickly recalled him to Kaifeng, and Yan Chenghui, who was responsible for staying behind, became the commander of the light pole, and the people's hearts in the city were even more shaken.
At the beginning of 1215, the Mongol army once again approached Zhongdu, and Jin Xuanzong sent three large armies north to rescue, which was the middle of the Mongol army's siege of the city to help. The main force of the Jin army carried a large amount of grain and grass, and the action was slow, and the leading general was greedy and misguided, and as a result, he lost his own life, and put all the soldiers and grain and grass in it.
After Yan Chenghui waited for rescue, Gao Qi, the shuhu, was afraid that he would make meritorious contributions in holding on to Zhongdu, stealing his own limelight and secretly obstructing the advance of reinforcements. After the main force of the Jin Army was destroyed, the other two roads also collapsed one after another, and there was no hope at all. In May, the helpless Yan Chenghui committed suicide by taking medicine, and Zhongdu fell.
As a strategic point connecting the northeast, the Mongolian plateau and the Central Plains, the loss of Zhongdu caused the Jin Dynasty to lose land contact with its hometown in the northeast, and the Mongol army could enter and leave the North China Plain at will. Soon, Shanxi and other places in Hebei were all captured by the Mongol army, and a huge uprising of the Red Jacket Army occurred in Shandong, and the Jin Kingdom was not far from the end.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > fourth, resentment against the Song</h1>
When Jin Xuanzong moved south, the millions of military households who relied on his rule also arrived in Henan, and they needed 3.6 million stones of grain per year, while Henan's annual tax was only 1.56 million stones, which was far from meeting the demand. At this time, Jin Xuanzong remembered the old coins that had been discarded by the Southern Song Dynasty on the grounds that the road was impassable since the Mongols and the Jin Dynasty began to fight. He put up the shelf of a big country, and sent people to the Southern Song Dynasty one after another to supervise the old coins, which made the Southern Song Dynasty monarchs and subjects feel exhausted.
Some ministers of the Southern Song Dynasty suggested that they might as well give jin guoshi coins to support it in resisting the Mongols as a barrier to the Southern Song Dynasty, but they were opposed by the flesh-and-blood students. After several arguments, the imperial court adopted a compromise approach and sent people to the Jin Dynasty to ask for a reduction in the number of coins, but Jin Xuanzong had a tough tone, biting the original number and not letting go, and the Southern Song Dynasty resolutely refused to agree, and the relations between the two countries became increasingly tense.
Jin Xuanzong saw that the Mongol army was constantly marching south, and the imperial court's finances were seriously tight, and he was anxious to think of a way to obtain property and expand the territory. Internally, he fished as hard as he could, increased taxes on the people, and sent his cronies to supervise the civil and military officials, trying to consolidate his rule; externally, after looking around, he was frightened by the Mongol army, and the Western Xia had no oil and water to fish, so he targeted the Southern Song Dynasty.
In addition to Jin Xuanzong, the imperial court ministers headed by Gao Qi, the shuhu, also vigorously advocated the southern expedition, believing that "our soldiers are inferior to the northern sincerity, and they have more power than the southern ones." For Gao Qi and others, the southern conquest of Yu Gong could expand the territory and alleviate the financial crisis; Yu Private could lead the army to plunder and enrich himself. Emperor Xuanzong of Jin immediately agreed, and in 1217 he divided his troops into three routes and launched a large-scale attack on the Southern Song Dynasty.
However, the victory did not come as Jin Xuanzong had imagined, the Southern Expedition was inherently untenable morally, and the Southern Song Dynasty was not the soft persimmon of that year, and this battle lasted for seven years. The southern Song dynasty soldiers and civilians struggled to resist with the water network and the city pool, although the Jin State captured some states and counties, but lacked manpower and material resources to occupy, had to plunder and retreat, and at this time was often pursued by the Song army, with heavy losses.
This southern expedition, which was not worth the loss, did not bring any benefits to the Jin State, "the Shufu Wu rode to the end of the Southern Expedition", "the shima was ten times more than one", and the Southern Song Dynasty was also completely pushed to the opposite side of the Jin State. On the contrary, the Mongols took advantage of the main force of the JinGuo to march south and gradually encroached on the prefectures and counties of the Jinguo, and the situation in the Jinguo became more critical, and the important town of Taiyuan also fell during this period, and the Mongol army could overlook the Yellow River, and Kaifeng was already within reach.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > fifth, the country's decline</h1>
Jin Xuanzong was not without the ambition to work hard, but he lacked the talent to turn the tide of the situation, and he could not know the good responsibilities of others, not only failed to achieve the great cause of ZTE, but dragged Jin Guo into an irreparable abyss.
In terms of internal affairs, Jin Xuanzong was grateful to Hu Shahu for his ascension to the throne because of Hu Shahu's coup d'état; Hu Shahu was killed by Shuhu Gaoqi, and he reused Shuhu Gaoqi, making two consecutive mistakes on the same issue. After moving the capital to Kaifeng, he squeezed the people and reused his cronies to monitor the imperial court ministers and local officials, which led to the separation of the upper and lower levels, and the peasant revolt intensified, causing serious internal friction.
In terms of foreign relations, Jin Xuanzong bullied the soft and feared the hard, and blindly adopted an evasive approach to the Mongols; he struck a heavy blow at the Southern Song Dynasty in an attempt to make up for the losses suffered by the Mongols, but at a time when the balance of national strength changed, how could the Southern Song Dynasty monarchs allow him to be arbitrarily slaughtered. Later, when commenting on this period of history, Liu Qi, a literary scholar at the end of the Jin Dynasty, could not help but complain: "What the husband has cannot be guaranteed, but what he has, is it reasonable to take what others have?" "It is difficult to avoid the strong and bully the weak, and hope that it will be revived."
Fortunately for Emperor Xuanzong of Jin, he did not see the eventual demise of the Jin Dynasty with his own eyes. His son Jin Aizong took over the mess of financial collapse and enemies on all sides. At this time, the Golden State may be the most difficult situation in history to turn over.
Author: Tian Wenbin, a special guest author of our team
Resources
Jin Liu Qi's "Return to the Hidden Chronicles"
Yuan Detachment and other "History of Jin"
Qing Biyuan 《續資治通鉴》