Author: Chen Erhu
<h1>First, Zhang Shijie, a Han Chinese man of the Jin Dynasty, grew into a major general of the Southern Song Dynasty</h1>
In the last years of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Mongol army went south and swept through the Southern Song Dynasty, and a number of characters who could sing and cry emerged.
When it comes to the demise of the Southern Song Dynasty, people always think of Wen Tianxiang and his "Song of Righteousness", however, Wen Tianxiang exists more on the spiritual level, and in practical action, he is not outstanding at all, but he has become a hero who has been flowing for generations.
The author believes that in the last years of the Southern Song Dynasty, there was a character who should not forget that he devoted his life to fighting for the last blood of the Southern Song Dynasty, but in the end he was lonely and heroically martyred.
This person is Zhang Shijie.
Zhang Shijie was a native of Fanyang (present-day Zhuozhou, Hebei) in Jin, and was a member of the same clan as the Han general Zhang Hongfan who destroyed the Song Dynasty, and was Zhang Hongfan's brother.
At the earliest time, he was a general under Zhang Hongfan's father Zhang Rou, following Zhang Rou in the battle, and later because of the violation of the law, he angrily fled to the territory of the Southern Song Dynasty, when the flames were raging, jin and the Southern Song Dynasty to the later Mongolia and the Southern Song Dynasty, the smoke of war was everywhere, and the war continued.
For Zhang Shijie, a Han of the Jin Dynasty, he had no status, no wealth, and only one martial art, so he became a soldier of the Southern Song Dynasty, and because of his repeated military achievements, he gradually gained attention and became a general of the Southern Song Dynasty.
<h1>2. Qin Wang resists yuan</h1>
Looking back at Zhang Shijie's era, the Southern Song Dynasty mansion will fall, facing the brink of destruction, and later the most tragic battle of Yashan, the last battle between Song and Yuan, has also become a contest between Zhang Shijie and his brother Zhang Hongfan, and a scene of singing.
Time back to 1275 AD, the Yuan army (Mongol soldiers and horses) went south to destroy the Song Dynasty, along the Yangtze River down the river, the wind swept like clouds, even broke the Southern Song Dynasty soldiers and horses, and soon the soldiers and horses directly guided the Song capital Lin'an.
At this time, Lin'an was almost undefended, and the emperor was the five-year-old emperor Zhao Xian. Empress Xie, who was assisting the government, issued an edict asking all localities to raise troops to "Qin Wang" and defend the capital, but the people were panicked, and the civil and military officials everywhere saw the end of the Southern Song Dynasty, and each of them was pregnant with a ghost fetus and was ready to surrender to the Yuan Dynasty, and they did not pay any attention to any edict or any Qin king.
At that time, Zhang Shijie was already a general in the Southern Song Dynasty, and he decided to lead his troops to protect Lin'an, so he gathered more than 10,000 warships to arrive at the zhenjiang front line and vowed to fight with the Yuan army moving south.
Zhang Shijie ordered his ten ships to be in a team, and they were not allowed to act casually unless they had orders.
At this time, the Commander of the Yuan Army was his brother Zhang Hongfan and the Mongol general Ah Shu.
Zhang Hongfan took advantage of the Yuan army's large ship and launched a fire attack, because of the order of General Zhang Shijie, the Song army could not advance and retreat at will, and was caught off guard. After the battle, he was defeated by the Yuan army, suffered heavy losses, many soldiers drowned, and Zhang Shijie had to temporarily retreat.
Subsequently, the Yuan general advanced into Lin'an, and at this time there were still tens of thousands of soldiers and horses who came to Qin Wang, including Wen Tianxiang of Ganzhou Zhizhou and Qiangu Liufang.
Zhang Shijie and Wen Tianxiang believed that in order to boost morale and fight to the death with the Yuan army, there would be a turnaround, but a group of soft bones in the DPRK, led by Left Xiangliu Mengyan and Right Xiang Chen Yizhong, resolutely opposed, they had long planned to surrender in their hearts and cherished their own lives extremely.
In November, the situation was even more unfavorable, the Yuan army broke through Dusong Pass, Liu Mengyan heard the news and abandoned the official and fled, Chen Yizhong asked Empress Xie to send someone to ask for surrender to the Yuan army, but the commander of the Yuan army, Boyan, resolutely refused.
In 1276 AD, the Yuan army was like a bamboo, and successively took more than ten states and counties of the Southern Song Dynasty, and Empress Xie sent emissaries one after another to negotiate surrender, but Boyan was not allowed, leaving the Southern Song government in danger.
Zhang Shijie asked Empress Xie to take refuge in the sea with the little emperor by boat, and he led the army to fight a battle behind the city, and chen Yizhong, who was in a position of great power, did not accept Zhang Shijie's suggestion at all, and secretly sent his cronies to present the Song Dynasty's heirloom jade seal and the letter of surrender written in the name of the little emperor Zhao Xian to the commander of the Yuan army, Boyan.
After Bo Yan saw it, he asked Chen Yizhong to personally go to the Yuan army to discuss the surrender, and this Chen Yizhong was afraid of being beheaded, so he also fled in the dark.
Zhang Shijie saw that these people were bent on surrendering, and angrily led the soldiers and horses south to find the Yuan army to fight.
After a grievance and aggrieved, Boyan accepted the surrender, and the Yuan army marched towards Lin'an.
<h1>3. Raise the Little Emperor</h1>
Empress Xie's conscience found that before the Yuan army arrived, Zhao Yan, a flesh and blood of the Song clan, was appointed as the king of Yi, and the ambassador of Fuzhou and Fujian was pacified; Zhao Fu was the king of Guang, and sentenced Quanzhou and Nanwai Zongzheng, and ordered people to protect the second king from Lin'an and preserve the blood of the Zhao clan.
Zhao Yan and his party astutely evaded the layers of encirclement of the Yuan army and reached Wenzhou, where the chancellor Lu Xiufu found Chen Yizhong, who was hiding in the people, and Zhang Shijie heard the news and led his men from Dinghai to meet.
There is a Jiangxin Temple in Wenzhou, which was once stopped here when Emperor Gaozong of Nanzong fled south, and the throne where Zhao Shuo sat is still there.
Everyone watched the tears and jointly supported Zhao Fu, the King of Yi, as the marshal of the Terracotta Army, and Zhao Fu, the king of Guang, as the deputy marshal, which made the remnants of the Song Dynasty who had fallen into the country see hope and gradually gathered some patriots.
After the establishment of the Marshal's Office, after consultation, the two young princes arrived in Fuzhou, supported Zhao Yan as emperor, that is, Song Duanzong, changed Yuan Jingyan, crowned Yang Shufei as empress, and listened to the government, while the despicable and shameless Chen Yizhong became a left chancellor and privy councillor, with great power and monopoly of power, and supervised all kinds of soldiers and horses. Zhang Shijie was appointed deputy envoy to the Privy Council, Lu Xiufu was the privy council secretary who signed the letter, and the small government in exile was formally established.
It is said that people's hearts are unpredictable, and in the face of the grim situation, everyone did not work together to revitalize the Song Room, but fought for power.
Yang Shufei's younger brother Yang Liangjie had monopolized power by virtue of his sister's obedience to the government, and Zhao Liangjie,the prince of zhao clan, repeatedly advised him, causing Yang Liangjie to be jealous, so he sent Zhao and Yang Liangjie to eastern Zhejiang, weakening the centripetal force; the villain Chen Yizhong did not look up to the upright Lu Xiufu and also wanted to get Lu Xiufu out.
Zhang Shijie said bluntly to Chen Yizhong: "Now is the moment of crisis, and you are still fighting with the same party!" ”
This Chen Yizhong was afraid of Zhang Shijie, who commanded the troops in his hands, and had no choice but to give up.
Although the Southern Song Dynasty surrendered, there were still some prefectures and counties that still did not surrender, and Fujian and Liangguang were also under the control of the exiled small regime.
In November 1276, the Yuan army approached Fuzhou, at this time the small dynasty had accumulated a little strength, with 170,000 regular troops, 300,000 militia, and more than 10,000 Huai troops, which can be said to be more than the Yuan army, and it is completely possible to organize effective battles, one is higher and lower, but Chen Yizhong has long been frightened and only wants to escape.
As the Yuan army attacked Jianning Province and other places, Chen Yizhong and Zhang Shijie protected Yang Taifei, the Little Emperor and others to board a ship and flee.
Who expected that the party would meet the Yuan army sailors halfway, but due to the hazy fog, it was nearly evening, and the Yuan army did not find the fleeing Song army fleet, which can be said to have escaped a disaster.
After leaving Fuzhou, the small political power completely lost its base area and could only run around on the ship, going to Quanzhou, Chaozhou, Huizhou and other places.
In the spring of 1278, the shameless Chen Yizhong abandoned the little emperor under the pretext of contact.
The little emperor Duanzong was on the run for days, and on the way he was frightened by a hurricane, and when he arrived in Leizhou, he fell ill and died, only eleven years old.
(Schematic of the Battle of Cliff Hill)
<h1>Fourth, the final tragedy</h1>
At the initiative of Lu Xiufu, he also installed the seven-year-old Zhao Fu as emperor and changed his name to Yuan Xiangxing, but Empress Yang still bowed to the government.
The Yuan army will not let go of this small regime, and soon the troops will attack Leizhou, attacking in one fell swoop, Zhang Shijie led the army to retake Leizhou several times without success, and also lost many soldiers, the combat effectiveness was sharply reduced, and had to protect the little emperor to reach Yashan.
Yashan is located in the south of present-day Xinhui City, Guangdong Province, because of the confrontation with Tangju Mountain in the west, also known as Yamen. The entrance is only a mile wide, the inside is wide, it is a natural harbor, and it is a dangerous place for boats and boats.
Speaking in two parts, although Zhang Shijie was loyal and heroic, he had courage and strategy, lacked military ability, could not clearly understand the situation, and blindly felt that this cliff and mountain was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and "could fight with the tide, and could also go out of the tide." This is precisely this characteristic, which was used by the Yuan army and led to a great defeat and destruction of the country.
It should be said that Zhang Shijie is a man of integrity, but he has great ambition and talent, lacks strategic vision and military strategy, and has too many worries. As far as the situation at that time was concerned, the Southern Song Army was frightened by the Mongol army, and when Zhang Shijie reached Yashan, there were still about 200,000 troops of various types, while the Yuan army that followed was only tens of thousands, and only in terms of the comparison of troop strength, Zhang Shijie's men obviously had an advantage.
In addition, the main force commanded by Zhang Shijie is good at water warfare, and the ships are also superior to the Yuan army, and the Yuan army is not good at water warfare, if it effectively organizes to meet the enemy, controls the estuary of the cliff mountain, and responds flexibly, it is very likely to change the situation. It is a pity that Zhang Shijie made the wrong choice, connecting thousands of warships with iron cables, encircling them on all sides into a tower fence, backing the mountains and facing the sea, forming a "dead" above-water array, guarding the little emperor's imperial ship in the center, holding a passive attitude, completely exposing himself to the enemy and being slaughtered.
When Zhang Hongfan led the Yuan Army's marine division to arrive, seeing Zhang Shijie's move, he immediately controlled the estuary south of Yashan Mountain, and blocked the road for the Song army to break through from the north and south directions, leaving the Song army in a desperate situation.
The Yuan generals Ah Shu and Zhang Hongfan decisively took a fire attack and set fire to the ship, and Zhang Shijie ordered people to smear wet mud on the outside of the warship, alleviating the temporary predicament, but in the end could not change the situation on the battlefield.
When on a stormy morning, Zhang Hongfan organized the Yuan army to launch a devastating general attack, each yuan army had its own moderation, and the Yuan general Li Heng, who was good at water warfare, commanded the water division to take advantage of the morning tide and the sea returning to the south, quickly rushed to cross, crossed the shallow water that the warships could not cross in peacetime, launched an attack from the north, and achieved results, crushing the Song army in the north.
At the same time, Zhang Hongfan's army gave a fierce blow to the Song army from the south, the north and south were attacked, the Song army was defeated at once, and at dusk, many ships of the Song army were destroyed, and the soldiers suffered heavy casualties, completely chaotic.
At this moment, Zhang Shijie realized that the warships were connected by large ropes and could not act effectively, so he urgently cut the ropes and led more than ten ships to protect Empress Yang and bravely break through.
When Zhang Shijie led the ship out of the siege, he found that the little emperor's imperial ship was too large, and it was blocked by the horizontal and vertical ships in the middle and could not move.
Zhang Shijie quickly sent a small boat to pick up the little emperor, because of the wind and rain on the sea, it was difficult to defend the enemy and me, and Lu Xiufu, who was by the side of the little emperor, was deeply afraid that the ship that came to pick up the little emperor was taken advantage of by the Yuan army to pretend, and categorically refused.
Zhang Shijie heard this, sighed incessantly, and had to carry Empress Yang out of the cliff gate and break through.
(Topographic map of the Battle of Cliff Hill)
<h1>5. Aftermath of Cliff Mountain</h1>
Lu Xiufu saw that the general situation had gone, and the Yuan army was pouring in from all directions, he did not want the little emperor and his family members to be captured and humiliated, he first drove his wife and children out of the sea, and then said to the little emperor Zhao Fu: "The matter has come to an end, the heavens have died Zhao Song, Your Majesty should sacrifice his life for the country, I think that Emperor Deyou was already humiliated, and His Majesty must not be humiliated again." So he put on the dragon robe for the little emperor, hung the Chuanguo Jade Seal on his chest, and then carried Zhao Fu on his back and jumped into the sea. Many officials, women and soldiers jumped into the sea and staged a scene of sadness.
When the battle was over, there were corpses floating everywhere on the surface of the sea, and it was unbearable to see.
At this time, the captured Wen Tianxiang was also in the Yuan Army's Yashan camp, witnessing all this tragic and tragic thing with his own eyes, and choking up and writing, "When you come to the South China Sea, people die in chaos." The fishy waves beat the heartbreak, and the wind blew the sideburns. ”
Zhang Shijie protected Empress Yang and rushed out of the siege, and when she heard the news of the death of the little emperor, Empress Yang was heartbroken, tearful like rain, and committed suicide by throwing herself into the water.
Zhang Shijie fled to the sea with the remnants of the army that broke through, preparing to recruit the old troops, look for the descendants of the Zhao clan, and reorganize the mountains and rivers, but suddenly encountered a strong storm in the area of Pingzhang Mountain.
Zhang Shijie looked up at the sky and sighed: "Heaven is absolutely Zhao Clan Jiangshan, I Zhang Shijie have done my best, a king died and a king was established, and now it is dead." Now the wind and rain, providence! "As we spoke, the ship was overturned by the wind and sank into the sea.
It is said that a few days after Lu Xiufu threw himself into the sea, his body surfaced on the surface of the sea and was buried by the common people.
It is said that when the Yuan army was cleaning up the battlefield, it found the body of a young child dressed in yellow, with a golden seal on his body, and the words "Treasure of the Edict" were written on it.
The history records that Zhang Hongfan was in the sun of the cliff mountain, Le Shi Jigong, and this matter was rumored by posterity to be "Song Zhang Hongfan destroyed the Song here" In fact, the title is "The great general of the Zhenguo State Zhang Hongfan destroyed the Song here".
And the truth of history, Zhang Hongfan was born in the area ruled by the Jin Dynasty, did not serve a day as a Song subject, although he was a Han Chinese, but each of them was its master, whether it was the Song Dynasty, the Jin Dynasty or the Yuan Dynasty, it was a part of the history of the Chinese nation.
It is said that Zhang Shijie's body was washed away to the shore of Huangyang Mountain and was buried by locals, and there is still a tomb of Zhang Shijie.
Looking back at history, Zhang Shijie, a person who cannot be forgotten.
(Cliff Hill Fort Site)
【About the author】Chen Erhu, pen name Hongye, is a Khitan of the Mongolian ethnic group. Deputy Secretary-General of the Weng Niu Te Banner Writers Association.
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