Looking at China's history, we can see a phenomenon, that is, since the Song Dynasty, the leadership of civilians seems to have become a common practice in China's military history, and famous commanders such as Zong Ze, Yu Qian, Wang Shouren, Yuan Chonghuan, Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, etc. from the Song Dynasty are everywhere, which is extremely rare in other countries. Will Shakespeare rule the army? Did Balzac know the art of war? Can Molière fight? Foreign literati always seem to be out of touch with war, while Chinese literati have embarked on a different path with their own responsibility and courage. Cao Youwen, the protagonist of this article, is one of the outstanding representatives.
Abandon the pen from the Rong
Cao Youwen was the twelfth grandson of Cao Bin, the founding general of the Northern Song Dynasty. Although the ancestors started with martial arts, but in his generation, the Cao family had already put down the barrel of the gun and picked up the pen to abandon the martial arts and turn the text. In the third year of Baoqing (1227), Cao Youwen, who had been awarded the rank of professor, went to Tianshui (present-day Tianshuinan, Gansu) to take up the post. This professor is not the same concept as today's professor, and the Song Dynasty had a professorship in all states and counties, in charge of local teaching. Just when Cao Youwen was looking forward to going to Tianshui to take up his post, he unfortunately caught up with a generation of Tianjiao Temujin leading the Mongol army to conquer Western Xia, and one of the Mongol troops beat rabbits in the grass, broke into the Song territory and committed misdeeds, and even conquered Jiezhou (present-day Wudu, Gansu), and surrounded Tianshui, resulting in the famous "Dinghai Change".
It is reasonable to say that Tianshui was surrounded, and Cao Youwen should have returned the same way. What's more, he was a civilian official, and even if Tianshui was lost, he had nothing to do with himself. However, Cao Youwen was not afraid of danger, and actually single-handedly broke through the heavy blockade of the Mongolian army, entered Tianshui City, and organized the army and the people to defend together with the defender Zhang Wei. Soon after, Temujin died of illness on the way to the summer expedition, and the Mongolian army withdrew after hearing the news, and Tianshui was saved. After hearing of Cao Youwen's feats, the Sichuan Envoy Division deeply admired him, so he awarded him a banner with "full of courage" written on it to show his merits.
(Photo) Cao Youwen (?) –1236), courtesy name Yunshu, was a native of Liting, Tongqing Province (present-day Huixian County, Gansu).
In the fourth year of Shaoding (1231), Temujin's fourth son, the famous Mongol general Tuolei, led an army to attack the Jin Kingdom by force from Sichuan, known in history as the "Change of Xin Jiao". At that time, the Sichuan system made Gui Ruyuan fear the enemy like a tiger, and when the enemy was at the moment, he actually ordered the Song army to guard the defensive area and not to engage the enemy, resulting in the tragic destruction of Shudi by the Mongolian army. Most of the generals of the Song Army adhered to the mentality that more was better than less, and obeyed the order to avoid the enemy and not fight, only Cao Youwen resolutely opposed this policy of non-resistance. He scattered his family wealth and recruited five thousand townsmen to guard Tianshui, not only to defend the city, but also to save the people in the city. When the Song court heard the news, he felt that Cao Youwen had the talent of a great general, so he ordered him to lead an army to garrison Qifangguan (between present-day Hui County, Gansu and Luoyang, Shaanxi)). Cao Youwen thus broke away from the civilian official system and became a general of the same origin as his predecessors Fan Zhongyan, Han Qi, and Zong Ze.
Tiger General Kawanaka
In the autumn of the second year of Duanping (1235), the Battle of Song and Mongolia broke out in full swing. In August of that year, the Mongol army, led by Prince Kuoduan, invaded Sichuan and Shaanxi. The Sichuan system made Zhao Yanna fear the powerful front of the Mongolian army, blindly passively avoid the battle, and led the army to retreat vigorously, causing the Mongolian army to drive straight in, and even Zhao Yanna himself was surrounded in Qingyeyuan (present-day southern Huixian County, Gansu). Zhao Yanna, as the commander-in-chief of the Song army in Sichuan, once he was captured or killed, the situation was not good for the Song army. However, at this moment, Cao Youwen struck, and the Mongolian army, which had been invincible before, planted a heel in his hand.
After the Mongol army surrounded Zhao Yanna, Cao Youwen immediately made a decision and led his elite troops to the rescue. He sent his younger brother Cao Youwan (cao wan in some history books, but according to the cao clan genealogy, it should be Cao Youwan) to lead an army to secretly cross the Jialing River, go out day and night, cut a path into Qingyeyuan, and then lead another army to follow. After arriving in Qingyeyuan, the Song army launched an attack unexpectedly in the middle of the night. The Mongolian army did not expect that the reinforcements of the Song army would come so quickly and become a chaotic mess for a while. Seeing the arrival of reinforcements, the Aonohara defenders also opened the gate of the village and attacked the Mongolian army together with the reinforcements. Soon, Cao Youwen led the main force to arrive. The Song army attacked on three sides, and finally repelled the Mongolian army. This battle allowed the Mongolian army to understand the strength of Chuanzhong's "full of courage", and also greatly increased the morale of the soldiers and civilians of the Southern Song Dynasty. Cao Youwen also relied on this battle to be awarded the title of Grand Master of Wu De and Grand General of Zuo Xiaowei.
Defeat the strong enemy again
Realizing that Cao Youwen was a hard bone, Kuoduan immediately changed his strategy and turned to attacking the Da'an Army (present-day Ningqiang, Shaanxi). When Cao You heard the news, he immediately commanded his troops to seize the two natural dangers of Jiguan Pass (southwest of present-day Mian County, Shaanxi) and Yangping Pass (present-day Xilaomian County, Mian County, Shaanxi) north of the Da'an Army, while he himself held the military flag and dispatched the Song army on the nearby highlands. As soon as the Song army entered Yangping Pass, the Mongolian army was killed in front of the pass, and the fierce battle between the two sides resumed. Cao Youwen confronted the enemy with a frontal force, while he himself led his own soldiers to charge with strong crossbows, copying bread from the left and right sides and firing arrows on the other. The Mongol army could not resist and fled in defeat. Cao Youwen speculated that after the defeat of the Mongol army at Yangping Pass, it would concentrate all its efforts on attacking Jiguan Pass, so he ordered the generals Chen Geng and Shi Dangke to quickly rescue Jiguan Pass. Sure enough, when General Chen and Shi Er arrived at Jiguan Pass, the Mongol army had already killed them. When Chen Geng saw this, he led five hundred cavalry to attack first and went straight into the Mongolian army. When the infantry could be led to deploy left and right, attacking the Flank of the Mongolian Army. The defenders of Jiguan Pass also came out of the pass and joined the reinforcements to meet the Mongolian army. After a bloody battle, both sides suffered heavy losses. The Mongolian army saw that it could not win, and could only withdraw its troops and leave. With Cao Youwen's great wisdom and courage, the situation in Sichuan and Shaanxi has finally turned the crisis into safety.
Forced to fight
It is reasonable to say that the withdrawal of the Mongolian army was a good time for the Southern Song Dynasty to reorganize the rivers and mountains and consolidate its defense. But unfortunately, at this time, the Southern Song Dynasty was chaotic. Above the court, most of the courtiers would only fight each other in the same party, attacking each other all day long, and doing what they could do to strike at political enemies. But when it came time to make up their minds on major national affairs, the gang either bowed their heads and pretended not to hear, or they were talking about it and saying some false. Song Lizong could do nothing about this, and could only allow these people to fight for power and profit all day long. A year's precious time was wasted by the Song court in vain.
In the autumn of the third year of Duanping (1236), after a year of recuperation, Kuoduan led more than 300,000 soldiers and horses to go south again and come to his old rival Cao Youwen to settle the general account. For Cao Youwen at this time, the situation has reached the most dangerous moment. Desperately fighting against the enemy at the front, he was not only subject to the drag of the incompetent commander Zhao Yanna. What was even more tragic was that due to the inaction of the imperial court, all the preparation measures were not in place, and the troops he could use in his hands were only a mere 30,000, and the grain and grass materials were pitifully small. Cao Youwen understood that relying on this strength to confront the Mongolian army was tantamount to death. Therefore, he assigned his troops to guard the Shuzhong Pass, intending to defend it by risk. As long as the Mongolian army can be forced to retreat through a protracted war of attrition, it will be considered a victory.
It should be said that Cao Youwen's move is really the only correct choice under helplessness. However, the Song commander Zhao Yanna actually disregarded the objective reality and strictly ordered Cao Youwen to take the initiative to attack in order to keep the enemy out of the country. Cao Youwen resisted the pressure, did not obey the blind command of his superiors, and deployed the Song army to hold the fortress, repelling the Attack of the Mongol Army again and again. However, the official level suppressed people to death. Zhao Yanna actually sent seven emissaries in a row to urge Cao Youwen to carry out the order within a day. Under such high pressure, General Cao could only obey the order and lead an army to attack the Da'an Army, which was conquered by the Mongolian army, in September of the third year of Duanping.
Bloody Yang Ping
Although Cao You could clearly smell it, this battle was more fierce and less auspicious. But he had no choice but to give it a go. He sent his younger brother Cao Youwan to lead an army of 10,000 troops into Jiguan Pass north of the Da'an Army, and planted more flags on the pass to show that there were heavy troops guarding, and at the same time issued an order to open the yang and close the city gate to attract the Mongolian army into the pass, and to ambush the soldiers and horses in the dangerous places outside the pass, waiting for the arrival of the Mongolian army. Cao Youwen led his elite to sit in the rear, and made an agreement with Cao Youwan: as soon as the Mongolian army came, they would raise fire as a trumpet, and then the two brothers would kill together, together with the Yangpingguan ambush, to surround and annihilate the enemy who had attacked.
On September 22, the Mongolian forwards arrived at Yangping Pass, saw the city gate wide open, and rushed into the city to seize the pass. The Song army ambushed and soon defeated the lone army into the Guanmeng army. The defeated Mongol army moved to rescue the troops and then attacked Yangping Pass. Cao You saw the situation and immediately led his army to kill from the Chicken Crown Pass. The two sides fought fiercely for a day, and the Song army gradually could not support it. Cao Youwan was wounded in many places and was forced to retreat to Jiguan Pass, and ordered someone to set fire to Inform Cao Youwen. Cao You heard the fire and rushed to the aid of his brother with three thousand elite soldiers.
However, God is not beautiful. Heavy rain fell on the way to the march, the flat ground was several inches of water, and the roads were muddy. The Song army was mostly infantry, and it was difficult to move in the rain. The Ministry will recommend taking a short break and waiting until the weather is clear before leaving. Cao Youwen said that the rainy day was not good for our army, but the enemy army certainly thought that we would not brave the rain to march, and if we could take it by surprise, we would certainly win a complete victory, so we refused the advice of the generals and ordered the soldiers to hurry up. On the twenty-seventh day, Cao Youwen rushed to the front line. The Mongolian army really did not expect that the Song army would brave the rain to come to the rescue and lax in its defenses. The opportunity could not be lost, Cao Youwen immediately sent five hundred death squads to storm the Mongolian army's large array, and he led his army to hold a strong crossbow and then followed up, killing the Mongolian army and collapsing. When Cao Youwan saw his brother coming, he also rushed down the pass and joined forces with Cao Youwen and fought bravely.
After several battles, the Mongolian army suffered heavy losses and almost collapsed. But perhaps god did not bless the Song army, at this time, the balance of victory began to tilt in favor of the Mongolian army - the Sichuan and Shaanxi Song armies were mostly marching and fighting in the mountains, so the generals used to use cotton fur instead of iron armor to improve flexibility and mobility. But no, after being soaked by the rain, the cotton coat became extremely heavy, which greatly limited the play of the Song Army's combat effectiveness. By the twenty-eighth day of the battle, the Song army was not supported, and the position was gradually chaotic. The Mongol army took the opportunity to divide the soldiers and horses into ten teams and took turns to attack Cao Youwen. Cao Youwen was surrounded on all sides by the Mongol army, the officers and soldiers suffered casualties, and he himself was seriously wounded, bloodied and armored. A general stopped his horse's head and advised him to break through while the enemy's encirclement was not yet strong. However, Cao Youwen, who had been repeatedly restrained by his fainting boss, had long since lost any hope at this time, and even if he could get rid of it, Chuanshan would be unable to protect it. Thinking of this, Cao Youwen, who deeply felt that he had not been able to defeat the enemy and defend the land, sighed: "This is a heavenly disaster! I'm just dead. (History of the Song Dynasty. Cao Youwen Chuan" said that, he killed his sitting horse to show his determination to die, and then turned over and rushed into the enemy position, fighting and dying. His brother Cao Youwan was unable to break through and died in the early morning of the next day in the rebellion.
Real boy
After the war, when the Mongolian army was cleaning up the battlefield, it found Cao Youwen's body and his banner embroidered with "full of guts". The Mongol army was furious that Cao Youwen's recalcitrant resistance had caused themselves heavy casualties, so they decided to humiliate the corpse to vent their anger. However, before the Mongol army could strike, General Cao's body was burned by a girl who had quietly infiltrated the battlefield. The girl, who is said to be Cao Youwen's daughter, resolutely chose to end her life by suicide after burning her body. In the face of such a loyal father and daughter, even the fierce Ascite Mongol Army had to be moved. They buried Cao's father and daughter together and exclaimed, "Shu general true boy Han Ye!" (History of the Song Dynasty. Biography of Cao Youwen))
After Cao Youwen's death, there was no longer a field force in Shuzhong that could stop the Advance of the Mongol Army. More than 20 prefectures along the three roads of Chengdu, Lizhou, and Tongchuan fell, and countless people died in the war. It was not until Yu Jiu went to Shu five years later that the situation in Sichuan gradually stabilized.
Later, the Song court posthumously awarded Cao Youwen the title of Longtuge Scholar and Dazhong Dafu, known as "Yi Jie". This general, who was born as a civilian minister, resolutely gave up the preferential treatment that he could have enjoyed at the time of the national disaster (the treatment of the civil servants of the Song Dynasty was very high, which was rare in the past), and almost single-handedly led the army to fight with the Mongolian army field war front known as "riding and shooting invincible", repeatedly inflicting heavy damage on the enemy, looking at the whole world at that time, I am afraid that it is difficult to match the opponent. Liu Linrui, a Yuan Dynasty man, once wrote a poem in memory of Cao Youwen, which I use here as the end of this article to send a condolence note to this famous general who is almost unknown today: "The name of the wild goose pagoda is Xiangben Yiru, and the persistence has been a precursor several times. Yuan Rong is an enemy in the world, and the professor raises troops in the world. Huashi Gorge is loyal and courageous, and Buffalo Ridge is special. Who can match the Heroic Festival? Thousands of people called big husbands! ”
Author: Lin Sen, Zi Tianjun. Signed author of The Secret History of Fish and Sheep.
Hereby declared: This article is produced by "Fish and Sheep Secret History" and may not be reproduced anonymously without authorization. The picture source in the article is the network, which is stills of the film and television drama works "Zhao Kuangyin of the Legend of the Great Song Dynasty" and "Jianyuan Fengyun", and the copyright belongs to the original author.