In order to commemorate this anti-Yuan hero Lu Xiufu who coexisted and died with the country, his posthumous works were compiled into the "Lu Zhonglie Collection". In the Ming Dynasty, Yancheng West Avenue once built "Lu Zhonglie Gongfang", and Confucian Street also had a "Monument to the Hometown of Lu Gong of Song Cheng Xiang" and engraved "Haiguo Lonely Loyalty".
So, what kind of person was this Lu Xiufu, and why was he treated like this by future generations?
In 1236, Lu Xiufu was born in Yancheng, and before he was three years old, he moved to Jiangnan with his parents. Lu Xiufu has shown extraordinary talent since he was a child, and when he was studying at a private school, the teacher praised him: "Among these hundreds of students, only Lu Xiufu is far beyond ordinary people. "After Lu Xiufu was a little older, he liked to read books on governing the country, and his thinking gradually became quicker, and he was able to write poetry and write at the age of seven, and he entered high school at the age of nineteen.
It is worth mentioning that with Lu Xiufu on the same list of Dengke is Also Liufang Baishi's Wen Tianxiang. Li Tingzhi, the envoy of Huainan, was always in love with Cai, and after learning that the young Lu Xiufu was very capable, he invited Lu Xiufu to serve as an aide under his command. There are many talents in Huainan, and even have the reputation of "small imperial court", Lu Xiufu can still be smooth sailing in such an environment, and very few people can beat him in talent. Even so, Lu Xiufu never held his talents and was proud, but was very low-key and introverted.
Whenever an official came to socialize, Lu Xiufu sat alone in the corner away from the crowd and did not say a word. When Lu Xiufu attended the banquet, he was not humble and very solemn, and never said a word indiscriminately. Colleagues all thought that Lu Xiufu was strange and difficult to get along with, so Lu Xiufu did not make a few friends in a few years. However, Lu Xiufu's outstanding talent made him unable to keep a low profile, and Li Tingzhi attached great importance to him, and even if he was promoted, he would always take Lu Xiufu with him, so Lu Xiufu's status in his palace became higher and higher.
In 1275, the Yuan army entered, the situation in the Jianghuai region was very critical, Li Tingzhi's "small court" gradually collapsed, talented staff resigned, choose a good tree to live, only Lu Xiufu was not moved, always accompanied by Li Tingzhi' side, vowing to follow to the death. Li Tingzhi felt that such a talent as Lu Xiufu should not be buried here, so he put up with pain and promoted Lu Xiufu to the imperial court as an official, hoping that he could play a greater role for the country.
Unfortunately, at this time, the situation in the imperial court was more complicated, and with the Yuan army marching all the way, Lin'an was in danger, and the imperial court was in chaos. Every minister of culture and martial arts who was curled up in the capital trembled, and as Zuo Cheng Xiang Liu Mengyan first resigned and fled, the Manchu Dynasty Wenwu followed suit, leaving Lin'an one by one. Some officials who were afraid of being insulted even hoped to be impeached. How grim was the situation? When it was rumored that the emperor wanted to summon the cultural relics ministers to announce the new Zuo Cheng xiang, only six civilian officials were present.
At this time, the regent's empress dowager Xie Daoqing had to stand up and issue an edict in her own name, half begging and half demanding the officials of the world: "The Song Dynasty ruled the country for more than three hundred years, and has always paid special attention to talented scholars, and now, I and the young emperor have suffered disasters, and the Manchu Dynasty Wenwu has turned a blind eye, and none of them have contributed to our dynasty." Our country and mountains have not yet changed hands, and the law of the land still exists, and since then, as long as the civil and military officials are loyal to their duties, they will all be promoted to two levels in a row, but those who resign from their posts and flee will be severely punished. ”
The empress dowager, who usually responded to everything, did not have any officials to take care of her at this moment. Whether the imperial court proposed to promote officials and get rich, or used harsh punishments to intimidate, there was no restraint on this group of officials who had an iron heart and wanted To Protect Themselves.
After the fall of Lin'an, Lu Xiufu fled to Wenzhou and announced to the world with Zhang Shijie and others that he intended to rebuild the imperial court and restore Jiangshan. With King Yi traveling far across the ocean to Fuzhou to establish power, King Yi ascended the throne as Emperor Duanzong. Although the spark of the Great Song Dynasty still exists, this hope is too slim. Although there are several capable and capable ministers like Lu Xiufu in the DYNASTY, more are still moderate and useless.
When Kublai Khan heard that there were still remnants of the Southern Song Dynasty remaining overseas, he hurriedly ordered several generals to go to sea by boat, and sent the army to encircle Fuzhou in a two-pronged manner, intending to destroy this "maritime court". In the first month of the second year of Xiangxing, Zhang Hongfan led the Yuan army to attack The Cliff Gate, and the Yuan army arrived at The Cliff Mountain one after another, forming a three-sided encirclement of the Southern Song Dynasty. Chen Yizhong saw that the situation was becoming more and more unmanageable, and could only continue to flee the sea with the emperor. After more than a hundred days of turbulence, the crowd finally reached a small island in the southeast sea.
However, at this time, Emperor Duanzong Zhao Yan could not withstand the repeated toss and died.
In the eyes of most people, the death of the emperor was an ominous omen for the collapse of this "maritime court", and at this time, in order to avoid dying with this hopeless court, the timid and fearful officials fell to the tree and scattered. At this time, Lu Xiufu stood up and encouraged everyone: "Although Emperor Duanzong died, we still have Zhao Fu, the King of Wei!" At that time, Shaokang was able to rely on five hundred people and horses to establish a family business, couldn't we Great Song officials rely on this natural danger to restore the three hundred years of jiangshan? ”
A generous statement made the wen and military officials emotionally excited, and the crowd embraced the king of Wei as emperor, and Lu Xiufu was in danger of being accepted the post of zuo cheng xiang to turn the tide. The following year, the Song rebel general Zhang Hongfan launched a large-scale attack on Yashan, and the resistance was unsuccessful. Lu Xiufu knew that he was powerless to return to heaven, so he simply changed into a costume and persuaded the emperor: "The country is now irretrievable, as an emperor, you should coexist and die with the country, and do not stage the tragedy of the former Deyou Emperor." After speaking, he picked up the little emperor who was only nine years old, jumped down, and disappeared into the vast sea.
At that time, he was only forty-four years old, and he saw that the prime minister was martyred on the back of the little emperor, and some of his ministers and officers and soldiers jumped into the sea to martyr the country, and since then, the Great Song Dynasty has completely destroyed the country, and the whole country is in mourning.
One day after the Battle of Yamen, that is, on the morning of February 7, 100,000 corpses were floating on the sea, and Lu Xiufu's body was found by the people and buried. The body of the little emperor Zhao Fu was found for the Yuan army, only to see a child with a clear eyebrow wearing a dragon robe, a crown on his head, and a jade seal hanging from his body. After that, Yuan Bing handed the jade seal to Zhang Hongfan, who confirmed that the child was Zhao Fu, and immediately sent someone to retrieve it, however, Zhao Hao's body was already missing.
It is said that it was buried by the people in Chiwan Village, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, and the cemetery still exists today.
Resources:
"History of the Song Dynasty - Liechuan 210 - Zhongyi VI", "Song Shi Di Fu Benji"