At the beginning of the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin once secretly made a rule: no one should kill scholars and doctors and people who write letters. It was also this ancestral precept that made the Song Dynasty develop a culture of heavy literature and suppression of martial arts, and in the following three hundred years, the status of military generals has not been high, not only in the court is highly suspected, but also not trusted by the emperor, so the Song Dynasty has become the dynasty with the most unjust cases of military generals. The Northern Song Dynasty killed the Yang family general, the Southern Song Dynasty killed Yue Fei, the Song Dynasty was a paradise for the literati, but it was a most humiliating era for the military generals, the story of the Yang family general was circulated for a thousand years, it was passed down by successive generations of artists, and various versions were deduced, in the eyes of the common people, the death of the loyal minister must have been framed by the traitor, not black and white, not loyal or adulterous, there was Qin Juniper who killed Yue Fei, and the unjust case of the Yang family general naturally fell on Pan Renmei's head, but when we carefully examined the historical materials, we found that this black pot, Pan Renmei carried it for more than a thousand years.
Pan Renmei is the historical Pan Mei, Pan Mei is the founding father of the Northern Song Dynasty, once with Zhao Kuangyin in the Later Zhou Dynasty as an official, the two have a very good personal relationship, Zhao Kuangyin Chen Qiao mutiny received strong support from Pan Mei, so after the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty, Pan Mei is also very trusted by Zhao Kuangyin, Pan Mei is extremely capable, rarely has great ambitions, once said to the hometown people: The big husband in the chaotic world when establishing a meritorious name, seeking wealth, doing nothing is simply a shame. Later, Pan Mei made many military achievements for the Song Dynasty, attacked the Southern Han Dynasty, pacified the Jiangnan, conquered the Northern Han Dynasty, and captured Taiyuan, and made great military achievements, which can be described as the pillar of the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty, but although Pan Mei's merits were great, but the reputation was not good, mainly because of a war mistake of Pan Mei, Yang Ye died on the battlefield.
In 983, Emperor Jingzong of Liao personally led the army to invade the south, but suffered a major defeat in Mancheng, the Liao army lost a number of generals, fortunately, Thanks to the breakthrough of the troops led by Yelü Xiexuan, the entire army of the Liao army was avoided, and Liao Jingzong was unfavorable and depressed, and in the autumn of this year, he suddenly fell ill and died, only 35 years old.
As soon as Emperor Jingzong of Liao died, the people's hearts in the Liao state were unstable, and the Liao Shengzong who had just taken the throne at that time was only twelve years old, and the young Empress Xiao had just encountered great changes, and her heart was also full of up and down about the future of the Liao state and whether the regime could be stabilized, and even wept to the ministers: "The mother and widow are weak, the clan is majestic (referring to the Khitan imperial family forces), and the Liao defense is not jing (the Threat of the Song Army), what can I do?" Han Derang and Yelü hurriedly knelt before expressing their loyalty, "Trust the ministers, etc., why worry about it!"
On the other hand, the Song Dynasty, at this time has become increasingly stable, Song Taizong has carried out diplomatic activities many times, sent envoys to bohai and Goryeo, hoping that the two countries can send troops to jointly deal with the Liao state, but has never received a reply, the Goryeo state was feared by the Liao state, not only cut the land and seek peace, but also has been submitting to the Liao state, paying taxes to the Liao state, and the situation of the Bohai state is more complicated, once destroyed by the Liao state, although there is a hatred of the country, but the Bohai state is too far from the Song Dynasty, because the Bohai people have scruples, so they did not reply to the Song Dynasty. Although Song Taizong's diplomacy was very embarrassing, but could not stop Song Taizong's foolish heart, in 986, Song Taizong launched the Northern Expedition, ordered Cao Bin to deploy the former army of Youzhou Dao camp on land and water, and at the same time, Song Taizong also took Pan Mei and Yang Ye as the main and deputy commanders, and led the Song army of Yun, Ying, and Shuo prefectures out of Yanmen to cut down Liao.
Song Taizong originally thought that the timing of the Northern Expedition was just right, the Liao army must be fleeing, in order to wash away the shame of the Sorghum River, Song Taizong learned the lessons of the previous battle, and did not directly attack Youzhou, but divided the troops into three roads, with Cao Bin as the Eastern Route Army to capture Zhuozhou, to contain the main force of the Liao army, while the Western Route Army Pan Mei and the Eastern Road Tian Zhong were responsible for attacking the rear of the Liao army, this battle is supposedly song Taizong well planned, at the beginning of the war was also a series of victories, conquered the five states of Youyun Sixteen Prefectures, but what Song Taizong did not expect was that Song Taizong did not expect that Although Empress Xiao was young, she was superior in wisdom, and she decided to take advantage of the Khitans' superiority in riding and shooting to introduce the main force of the Song army into the plains, concentrating forces to first break the Song army's Eastern Route Army, and then block the Song Army's Middle Route Army and The Western Route Army.
Although Song Taizong did not know anything about the deployment of the Liao army, he heard the news of the Song army's continuous victory, and he was not happy or worried, because the battle line was too long, Song Taizong was afraid that the Liao army would cut off its own supply line, but sure enough, as Song Taizong expected, Cao Bin, who thought that the old and heavy Cao Bin was really cut off by Yelü Hugo. Cao Bin's army of 100,000 men gathered the best elite generals in the Song army at that time, but it was precisely because of the pride of the generals that Cao Bin's command failed. Cao Bin's army ran out of military food after ten days, so he retreated to Xiongzhou to wait for rescue, song Taizong heard about it, and scolded Cao Bin: There is no problem with Cao Bin's approach, the withdrawal is mainly to avoid greater losses for the Song army, but from the later war situation, Cao Bin hastily retreated, resulting in the direct defeat of this war, and as soon as Cao Bin retreated, it led to the loss of strategy for pan Mei and Tian's re-advancing Chinese and Western armies.
Song Taizong hurried to stop Cao Bin from withdrawing, Cao Bin then asked the sergeant to take five days of rations to attack Zhuozhou, but the march alone was four days, the fifth day the army was already tired, the attack on Zhuozhou naturally ended in failure, Yelü Huge led the army all the way to follow, looking for an opportunity to launch a general attack, Cao Bin picked up the remnants of the army and was unexpectedly surrounded by the Liao army, the great defeat of the Eastern Route Army made Song Taizong angry, helpless, had to order Pan Mei Yang Ye and other generals to lead the army to escort the people of Zhou County to retreat south, and many generals of the Song army persuaded Pan Mei to let Yang Ye fight with the Liao army. It is believed that although the Eastern Route Army was defeated, the two route army horses and grasses ended in a sloppy way.
Yang Ye believed that Song Taizong only allowed himself to escort the people to retreat south and did not receive combat tasks, Yang Ye said to Pan Mei and others: "Now the Liao soldiers are very strong in strength and morale, and they cannot fight with them. The imperial court only asked us to escort the people of these states, just lead the troops from the Dashi Road, first send people to secretly tell the defenders of Yunzhou and Shuozhou, and wait until the day when the army leaves Daizhou, and order the troops of Yunzhou to leave first. My troops were stationed in Yingzhou, and the Khitans were bound to resist, so they ordered the people of Shuozhou to leave the city and enter the Shijie Valley directly. Send a thousand archers to ambush at the mouth of the valley, order cavalry to support in the middle of the road, then the people of the three states will be foolproof.
However, Wang Nong refuted his suggestion, saying: "Leading tens of thousands of elite soldiers is so afraid and cowardly. Just go straight to yanmen beichuan and move forward with great fanfare. The generals sneered at Yang Ye, Yang Ye had no choice, had to agree with Pan Mei to go and attack the Liao army himself, then Pan Mei and others deployed in the valley mouth and ambushed the Liao army, but Pan Meibu thought that the Liao army was defeated and planned to fight for merit, so he led the army away from the valley mouth, Pan Mei could not control it, the armies were in chaos, Yang Ye lured the Liao army to the valley mouth, but did not see the ambush to kill, desperate, desperate to fight, died on the battlefield.
When Emperor Taizong of Song heard of Yang Ye's martyrdom, he was very distressed, and Pan Mei was demoted to the third rank and was given the title of Inspector Taibao. In the fourth year of Yongxi (987), he served as an inspector. Ren Zhending prefect, soon after, was reassigned to the capital deployment, and the state was sentenced. Jiaguan Tongping Zhangshi died a few months later at the age of sixty-seven. He was posthumously awarded the Zhongshu Ling (中書令) and was given the title of Wu Hui (武惠).