Zong Ze was a famous anti-Jin general who emerged at the turn of the Northern Song Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty. Before him, the Song army was defeated by the Jin army on the battlefield; after him, the Song army and the Jin army faced off from north to south, on an equal footing. Later generations praised Zong Ze as the first person in the Song Dynasty to resist Jin, which is indeed deserved.
Zong Ze's early experience was similar to that of most Song Dynasty civil officials, who obtained the title of Jinshi through the imperial examination, and from then on entered the career path, and began to work in the official field step by step. Zong Ze was a clean and honest official and sympathetic to the people's feelings, so he gained a good reputation during his tenure in the local government. However, in the last years of the Northern Song Dynasty, the government was controlled by power traitors and their henchmen, and the righteous Zong Ze was incompatible with them, so his career could only be marginalized for a long time.
Zong Ze really stepped onto the stage of history in the last years of the Northern Song Dynasty, when he was already an old man who was over the age of flower armor, but the torrent of the times pushed him to the cusp of the storm.
In 1126, the Jin Dynasty invaded the Northern Song Dynasty with an army of 100,000. The Jin army dispatched thousands of iron horses to attack Cizhou, and Zong Ze, who was then the governor of Cizhou, personally entered the city in battle armor and commanded the battle. All the soldiers and civilians of Cizhou, under the leadership of Zong Ze, fought back, and soon beat this Golden Army into the wilderness and fled. This was the first time that the Song army defeated the Jin army, although the Jin army killed only a few hundred people, but it broke the myth of the invincibility of the Jin army, and greatly encouraged the anti-Jin fighting spirit of the Song Dynasty soldiers and civilians in the Heshuo area.
Soon, Emperor Qinzong of Song's younger brother Zhao Zhao, the Prince of Kang, was ordered to send an envoy to the Jin Dynasty. When passing through Cizhou, Zong Ze decisively left Zhao Zhuo behind, because once it fell into the hands of the Jin people, it would be difficult to retreat with his whole body. Later facts proved that it was Zong Ze's persuasion that left a bloodline for the continuation of the Great Song Dynasty.
At that time, the Jin army devoted most of its troops to the siege of kaifeng city of the Northern Song Dynasty, leaving a large gap in the rear. Zong Ze took advantage of this to launch a surprise attack on the battlefield behind enemy lines and achieved thirteen victories in all three battles.
Zong Ze believed that the Jin army was only a paper tiger and not invincible, so he suggested that Zhao Zhuo lead a large army to Kaifeng qinwang in the name of the Great Marshal of the Terracotta Army. However, on the one hand, Zhao Zhuo was frightened by Jin Jun, and on the other hand, he may also have selfish intentions. Therefore, he ignored Zong Ze's advice and led the Qin King's army around Kaifeng, trying to avoid contact with the Jin army. Zong ze was also alienated as a result.
At the beginning of 1127, the city of Kaifeng was attacked by the Jin army, and Both Emperor Huizong of Song and Emperor Qinzong of Song became prisoners of the Jin army, and the Northern Song Dynasty fell. When Zong Ze learned of this news, he immediately planned to intercept the Jin army on the way back to the dynasty and retake Hui and the Second Emperor of Qin. However, Zong Ze's plan was not supported by Zhao Zhuo and others, and none of the Qin Wang's soldiers and horses arrived, and the interception plan was forced to be terminated. In the same year, Zhao Zhao proclaimed himself emperor at Yingtianfu in Nanjing (present-day Shangqiu, Henan) for Emperor Gaozong of Song.
After the large-scale plundering of the Jin army, Kaifeng Province has been basically reduced to ruins. However, as the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, kaifeng's status in the minds of the Song people is beyond doubt. In order to boost morale, Emperor Gaozong of Song appointed Zong Ze as the retainer of Tokyo and the governor of Kaifeng, and he presided over the anti-Jin work in the north. However, although this appointment sounds very authoritative, Song Gaozong did not allocate the army around him to Zong Ze's command, but let Zong Ze solve the problem of conscription on his own.
After the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty, bandits abounded in the Central Plains, and several of the most powerful bandit gangs gathered hundreds of thousands of people in a short period of time. However, although the number of bandits is large, they are basically a ragtag group, not only scattered, but also full of internal contradictions. Zong Ze took advantage of this to lobby the leader of the bandit group, and knowing the righteousness of the country, he soon incorporated hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses under his command. It is worth mentioning that the semi-official and semi-civilian armed forces led by Yue Fei at that time also defected to Zong Ze's army during this period. Zong Ze had known Yue Fei before and knew that this was a very talented young man, so he entrusted him with a heavy responsibility. It can be said that on the way to Yue Fei's growth into a generation of "god of war", Zong Ze's role was crucial.
Under Zong Ze's organization, nearly a million troops were gathered near Kaifeng. The chaotic order in Kaifeng City was gradually restored. Zong Ze learned the lesson of the Previous Jin Army's march southwards and ordered the army to build a patchwork of fortifications along the Yellow River from Kaifeng to the Yellow River.
The Jin state was worried about the recovery of the Song Dynasty, so he sent the "fourth prince" Yan Zongbi (alias Jin Wushu) to lead an army south, intending to strangle the anti-Jin armed forces that had just been organized under Zong Ze in the cradle. This time, however, the Jin army was beaten and fled. Since then, Zongze's prestige has begun to penetrate the hearts of the people, and the Jinguo people have both respect and fear when talking about Zongze, calling him "Zong Grandpa".
Since the anti-Jin situation was very good, Zong Ze suggested that Emperor Gaozong of Song return to Kaifeng, sit in the Capital Division, and command his army to cross the Yellow River to fight the enemy and welcome back the Hui and Qin Emperors who had been abducted by the Jin State. However, Emperor Gaozong of Song turned a deaf ear to Zong Ze's suggestion. The reason for this is not complicated, you rescued the Second Emperor from the clutches of the enemy, so where is his position as the founding emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty?
In addition, more importantly, the number of troops under Zong Ze's command at that time had far exceeded the number of troops around Song Gaozong himself. These people all obeyed Zong Ze's orders, not to the imperial court, which was unbearable for Emperor Gaozong of Song. Therefore, he chose to deal with it coldly, even if he lost the best opportunity to recover the country.
Zong Ze was worried about the country and the people, but he could not get a response from the imperial court, coupled with his advanced age and excessive labor for state affairs, as a result, he became a disease and could not afford to be sick. On July 29, 1128, Zong Ze died of illness in Kaifeng at the age of seventy. Before dying, Zong Ze left the last six words of his life: "Cross the river!" Crossing! Crossing! ”
Reference: History of the Song Dynasty