Northern Expedition, the term is often used to refer to the military operations of the southern regime in history to recapture the Central Plains, cross the Yangtze River and the Yellow River, and then unify the country. However, these actions often have unsatisfactory results, and most of them end in failure. This reflects the long-standing dominant position of the north in the political, military, economic, and other aspects of China's history, while the conditions and time for the south to unify the whole country are not yet ripe. The following is a brief review of several famous Northern Expedition failures in history for the reader's reference.
[1. The Northern Expedition of the Eastern Jin Dynasty Zu Ti]
At the beginning of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, in order to recover the lost land, the people who had been exiled to the south of the Yangtze River launched the Northern Expedition. Zu Ti became the main promoter of this action. At that time, Sima Rui did not have much interest in the Northern Expedition, but under the persuasion of Zu Ti, he appointed Zu Ti as the general of Fenwei and the assassin of Yuzhou, and gave him limited resource support. Zu Ti led his troops to cross the Yangtze River, vowing to become benevolent if he did not succeed. Establish a base in Huaiyin, manufacture weapons, and recruit soldiers to continue northward. After four years of hard fighting, Zu Ti successfully recovered a large area of land south of the Yellow River, so that Shile did not dare to invade the south easily. However, just as Zu Ti was preparing to go further into Hebei, the intervention of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and internal strife caused him to become angry and eventually die of illness, and the Northern Expedition was also a failure, and the northern territory was occupied by Later Zhao Shile.
[2, the Northern Expedition attempt of Huanwen in the Eastern Jin Dynasty]
After the failure of Zu Ti's Northern Expedition, Huan Wen, a powerful minister of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, also launched the Northern Expedition in order to establish his prestige. He first led his army into Shu and eliminated the Han kingdom of the Li clan, and his prestige was prominent. Subsequently, he made several northern expeditions. Among them, he personally led a large army to the vicinity of Chang'an and was warmly welcomed by the local residents. However, due to the lack of food and grass, he failed to conquer Chang'an and had to retreat. On another occasion he regained Luoyang, but the suggestion that the imperial court should return it to the north was rejected, resulting in the loss of the restored land again. In the last Northern Expedition, although he defeated the former Yan army, due to the cutting off of the grain route and the pursuit of the enemy, he suffered heavy losses, and the Northern Expedition failed again.
[3, Liu Yu's Northern Expedition feat of the Eastern Jin Dynasty]
In the last years of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Liu Yu controlled the government, and in the face of the invasion of the Xianbei Murong clan, he raised troops to the Northern Expedition. He led the naval army to the north, broke through the capital of Nanyan, and recovered the lost territory. Subsequently, he led his army to the north to conquer Later Qin, conquer Luoyang, and force Later Qin to surrender. This Northern Expedition not only regained the lost territory, but also brought Liu Yu's prestige in the imperial court to its peak, and finally realized the Chan Dynasty. However, during his stay in Chang'an, Liu Yu had to abandon Chang'an due to internal strife and enemy invasion, but the Northern Expedition still achieved remarkable results.
[4, Emperor Wen of the Song Dynasty Liu Yilong's Yuanjia Northern Expedition]
During the Liu and Song dynasties, Emperor Wen of the Song Dynasty Liu Yilong made two major expeditions to the north. Each Northern Expedition quickly captured important towns along the Yellow River and set up fortifications. However, as the seasons changed and the Northern Wei cavalry moved south, the Song army's defenses soon collapsed, resulting in the failure of both Northern Expeditions. This war, known as the Yuanjia Northern Expedition, was widely praised by later generations because of its scale and the lessons of its failure. Xin Qiji also lamented this history in his lyrics "Yongyule Jingkou Beiguting Nostalgia".
[5, Chen Qingzhi's Northern Expedition of the Southern Dynasty]
Xiao Yan, Emperor Wu of Liang in the Southern Dynasty, intended to attack Wei, and in the first year of Datong (529), he sent the general Chen Qingzhi to lead 7,000 white-robed iron cavalry to support Yuan Hao, the king of the Beihai of the Northern Wei Dynasty, to the north. The army led by Chen Qingzhi successively conquered Xingcheng (now Shangqiu East) and Liang (Shangqiu). Subsequently, they broke through Daliang (Kaifeng), Xingyang, and Tiger Prison, and finally entered Luoyang. Emperor Yuan Zi of the Northern Wei Dynasty fled north, and Yuan Hao ascended the throne in Luoyang. At that time, the actual ruler of the Northern Wei Dynasty was Er Zhurong, who sat in Jinyang and controlled the Luoyang Imperial Court. Knowing that there was a change in Luoyang, Er Zhurong immediately went south, and at the same time deployed various departments to quickly assemble, and then supported the Wei lord to march to Luoyang. Chen Qingzhi held the bridge over the Heyang River to defend against Er Zhurong's army. Erzhurong crossed the Yellow River on a raft. Yuan Hao and Chen Qingzhi's army was defeated, Yuan Hao was killed, and Chen Qingzhi fled back to the Southern Dynasty. Lord Wei recaptured Luoyang. The Battle of Chen Qingzhi's Invasion of Luo was a relatively in-depth military operation from the south to the north after the Liu Song Dynasty, similar to the Northern Expedition during the Liu Song Dynasty, with rapid advance and rapid rout.
[6, the battle of Yue Fei's Northern Expedition in the Southern Song Dynasty]
In the fourth year of Song Shaoxing (1134), Yue Fei successfully defeated the rebel general Li Cheng and regained Xiangyang, and then marched north to recapture Dengzhou, Tangzhou, and Xinyang from the puppet Qi. In the tenth year of Shaoxing (1140), Yue Fei marched north from Xiangyang, and successively recovered Yingchang (now Xuchang, Henan), Huaining (now Huaiyang, Henan), Zhengzhou, and cooperated with Li Xing, who resisted Jin behind enemy lines, to recover Luoyang and other places. In July of the same year, Yue Fei defeated the army of Marshal Zong Bi of Jin at Yuncheng, and inflicted a heavy blow on the counterattack of the Jin army at Yingchang, and took advantage of the victory to advance to Zhuxian Town (forty-five miles away from Bianjing), confronted the Jin army, and prepared to cross the Yellow River to regain the lost territory. Due to Yue Fei's victorious march, the people of Hedong and Hebei responded one after another, attacking the Jin army and cutting off its retreat. The Jin people were deeply panicked and prepared to retreat to the north. However, at this time, Qin Hui discussed with Gaozong to abandon the land north of the Huai River and sue for peace with the Jin people, and urgently ordered Yue Fei to retreat, Yue Fei was forced to retreat, and the recovered prefectures and counties were lost again. Song Gaozong killed Yue Fei, self-destroyed the Great Wall, and also ruined Yue Fei's Northern Expedition, and the Southern Song Dynasty exchanged the price of humiliation for a temporary peace, which was the "Shaoxing Peace Conference".
[7. Zhang Jun's Northern Expedition in the Southern Song Dynasty]
After a fierce confrontation with the Lord and faction, Xiaozong decided to send Zhang Jun on a northern expedition. Zhang Jun sat in Yangzhou and sent his generals Li Xianzhong and Zou Hongyuan to lead the Northern Expedition. The Song army won the first battle and recovered Lingbi and Suzhou. However, Jin soon gathered forces in Henan and launched a counteroffensive. Due to the discord between Li Xianzhong and Zou Hongyuan, Suzhou was lost, and then the Song army was defeated at Fuli, and the Northern Expedition was declared a failure. Seeing that the war had been lost, the Lords and factions began to advocate peace again, and gradually gained the upper hand. The main war faction was unwilling to compromise and persisted in the war of resistance. Xiaozong tested the peace conditions of the Jin State and felt that it was too harsh and unacceptable. But at this time, after the failure of the Northern Expedition, the Song army was no longer able to fight. The Jin State seized the opportunity to continue to attack the Song, and the Song Dynasty was in danger. In the end, Xiaozong agreed to the peace conditions of the Jin State to make concessions, that is, to return the Tang, Deng, Hai, and Si prefectures recovered by the Song Dynasty after the invasion of Yan Liang to the Jin State. In the Song Dynasty, the title of the Jin State was changed from the country of ministers to uncles and nephews, and the tribute was changed to the year coin, and the number was reduced by 200,000 compared with before. At the same time, the land of Qin and Shang was ceded to the Jin state. This is the famous "Longxing Peace Conference" in history.
[8, the Northern Expedition of the Southern Song Dynasty Han Yanzhou failed]
During the period of Ningzong of the Southern Song Dynasty, Han Yanxuan rashly launched the Northern Expedition, but soon suffered defeat. The failure of the Northern Expedition made Han Yanxuan the target of public criticism. His political rival Shi Miyuan took the opportunity to form an alliance with the Juhe faction and Han's opposition. And the Jin people took the killing of Han Yanxuan as one of the conditions for peace talks. On November 3, the third year of Kaixi, Shi Miyuan and others, with the support of Empress Yang, forged a secret decree, killed Han Yanxuan, and sent his head to the Jin Kingdom.
[9, Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Lin Fengxiang, Li Kaifang's Northern Expedition]
The Taiping Army marched north. On January 11, 1851, Hong Xiuquan launched an uprising in Jintian Village, Guangxi, and established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and the rebel army was known as the Taiping Army. On March 19, 1853, the Taiping army occupied Nanjing and renamed it Tianjing. After establishing the capital Tianjing, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom sent Lin Fengxiang, Li Kaifang, Ji Wenyuan and others to lead more than 20,000 people to the north. In May 1853, the Northern Expeditionary Army set out from Yangzhou, passed through Anhui, Henan and other places, entered Zhili, and approached Tianjin, forcing Emperor Xianfeng to declare martial law in Beijing. However, in August 1853, the Northern Expeditionary Army failed to attack Tianjin. In March 1855, Lin Fengxiang was captured during the breakout of Lianzhen, and died heroically in Beijing on April 3. Li Kaifang retreated to Fengguantun in Shandong, and was captured and sent to Beijing, where he was executed by Ling Chi on June 11. Although the Northern Expedition of the Taiping Army was a lone expedition and drove straight into the six provinces, due to the lack of support, it was difficult to escape the fate of the entire army. However, the heroic struggle of the vast number of soldiers shocked the heart of the Qing Dynasty, restrained a large number of Qing soldiers, and objectively played an important role in supporting the struggle of the Taiping Army in the south and the people in the north.