Speaking of southern song dynasty military generals, the most famous are the "four generals of Zhongxing", such as Yue Fei, Han Shizhong, etc., but for various reasons, most of their descendants abandoned Wu Congwen, so they did not form a family of martial generals. During the reign of the Southern Song Dynasty, the highest status and greatest influence was the Wu family general! They have been generals for generations and have a prominent reputation, but the end is very sad, and they are ruined and their families are destroyed! What the hell is going on here?
The "founder" of Wu Jiajian was named Wu Jie, a native of Longgan (Jingning, Gansu) of the Deshun Army. Wu Jiu was born a civilian, and later joined the army with his younger brother Wu Xuan, "with the sons of the Liang family under the Jingyuan Army". Wu Jie was "good at riding and shooting, knowing the art of war, and reading books to understand great righteousness", and made many military achievements in battles with Western Xia, and later participated in the suppression of the Fang La Uprising. By the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, Wu Jiu had become a mid-level general in the Western Army.
In the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhang Jun served as an envoy to Sichuan and Shaanxi Xuanfu, and his aide Liu Ziyu was very appreciative of Wu Jiu and Wu Xuan's brothers. Under the strong recommendation of Liu Ziyu, "Jun and Yue, Dayue, that is, the command system, the brother is in charge of the former soldiers". In the spring of the fourth year of Jianyan, Wu Jiu was promoted to deputy commander of the Jingyuan Road Horse Infantry Army, and even if he later lost the battle, Zhang Jun vigorously defended him, "Zhang Jun cherished Jie Cai, looking for Qin Feng's deputy governor and Zhi Fengxiang Mansion".
In the later Battle of Fuping, hundreds of thousands of Song troops were defeated, "all five roads fell, and Bashu was greatly shaken." The Jin army was even ready to take Sichuan with a single blow. Faced with a dangerous situation, Wu Jiu was appointed as the ruler of the Capital of Shaanxi Province, and he and his brother Wu Xuan collected the remnants and won the Battle of Shangyuan, the Battle of Rao Fengguan, and the Battle of Xianrenguan, defeating the Jin army and successfully defending the gateway to Sichuan and Shu. When Emperor Gaozong of Song heard the news, he made Wu Jiu the deputy envoy of Sichuan and Shaanxi.
At this time, Wu Jiu became the supreme military and political governor in the Sichuan and Shu regions, and gathered a large number of former relatives, friends, and fellow villagers under his command to form a military group. However, at this time, the Southern Song Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty were in the stage of war, and the imperial court needed the Wu family army to guard Sichuan. In the ninth year of Shaoxing, Wu Jiu fell ill and died, and his brother Wu Xuan took over. After the Song Dynasty and Jin Shaoxing peace talks, Yue Fei and the other three major generals were stripped of their military power, but the imperial court did not dare to move Wu Xuan.
Wu Xuan was good at governing the army, and his unit was known as "elite soldiers are the crown of the world". In 1165, Wu Xuan went to Lin'an to meet him, and was made the prince of Xin'an Commandery and the envoy of Sichuan Xuanfu, but died of illness two years later. Wu Jiu had five sons, and Wu Xuan had twelve sons, most of whom became generals, among whom the more famous one was Wu Gong, who commanded the envoys from the former official to the guards Ma Jun, or Wu Ting. Wu Ting was able to manage the army on horseback and rule the people under horse, and was a famous general in the Southern Song Dynasty.
Because the Wu family controlled the military and government of Sichuan and Shu for a long time, it aroused the suspicion of the imperial court. At that time, the Sichuan Metropolitan Commandery had 97,000 officers and men and 13,000 warhorses, while the Wu family had 60,000 officers and soldiers and 10,000 warhorses. Zuo Cheng Xiangliu wrote to the emperor, "The three generals of the northwest, but the hereditary military power of the Wu clan, the name is the Wu family army, and I do not know that there is a court." Therefore, after Wu Ting's death, the imperial court did not let his son take over.
However, later, due to the preparation of the Northern Expedition by the powerful minister Han Nongxu, Wu Ting's son Wu Xi was sent back to Sichuan as the deputy envoy of Sichuan Xuanfu. After the Start of the Kaixi Northern Expedition, Wu Xi actively dispatched troops, but was defeated. On the one hand, due to its combat strength, on the other hand, the Jin Dynasty began to lure in, and Wu Xi, who had long been dissatisfied with the Southern Song Dynasty, plotted a rebellion. However, the rebellion soon failed. Wu Xi's rebellion brought ruin to the Wu family.
"Zhao Xi's wife was executed, the pro-Kundi was removed from his name and stopped, Wu Xuan's descendants were also exiled from Shu, and Wu Jiu's descendants were exempted from sitting together." The glorious honor accumulated by the Wu family for more than eighty years was completely destroyed!
References: 1. "History of Song"; 2. "The End of the Chronicle of Song History"; 3. "Song Hui's Draft"