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Wang Fuzhi's "Treatise on Song" said: "When Jianyan was three years old, Song Was immortal, the people's lives were dead and alive, and the people's hearts were turned against their backs, and they were precarious to seek peace and security. ”
Jianyan was the first era name of Emperor Gaozong of Song. It can be seen that after the change of Jing Kang, the situation of the newly established Southern Song Dynasty court was not optimistic, and it was a matter of minutes for a mismanagement and disintegration.
At that time, the main battlefields of the Song-Jin war were the Central Plains and Shaanxi, and the northwest battlefield played a crucial role in containing the southeast war situation. On the battlefield of Shaanxi, Zhang Jun, who was in charge of running Sichuan and Shaanxi, came to a wave of riots, and despite the opposition of his subordinates, he turned from defense to attack, and launched the Battle of Fuping against the Jin army in five ways.
If you are afraid, you are afraid of the blind command of the commander. As a result, the Song army was defeated, losing 16 prefectures, and most of Shaanxi was occupied by the Jin army.
Before the start of the war, some people in the army advised Zhang Jun not to fight the Jin soldiers in the plains around Fuping in view of the characteristics of the mostly cavalry. He said, "Soldiers move in a profitable manner. Today, the terrain is unfavorable and cannot be fought. It is necessary to set up a high position to avoid the enemy's charge, so as to win. ”
This person was none other than Wu Jie.
▲ Portrait of Wu Jie and Wu Xuan.
Like Yue Fei and Han Shizhong, the brothers Wu Jiu and Wu Xuan were only no more than nobody at first, but later they came to prominence on the battlefields of Sichuan and Shaanxi, and in the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, they guarded the gates of Sichuan and tried to turn the tide several times. The brothers have been keeping this for nearly forty years. History said, "Wei Jiu is the brunt of it, and there is no Shu for a long time."
Wu Jiu struggled in the army at a young age and became famous in the Western Xia battlefield in his early years. Once, when the Song army barracks was besieged by the Western Xia army, Wu Jie personally led more than a dozen people under his command as the vanguard, launched a surprise attack, and beheaded 146 enemy soldiers. As soon as he debuted, he was a C-bit, a proper fierce man. Wu Jie is not an illiterate old man, who often recharges himself with a rough understanding of literature and ink, and must read the "Seven Books of the Martial Classics" every day and study the art of war. This was vividly reflected in his subsequent use of troops.
Wu Jie was also known for his strict management of the army. After Song Jin started the war, he came to Fengxiang, which was devastated by the war, and while calming the people's hearts and calling on refugees to return to their hometowns, he recruited soldiers and horses and trained soldiers. When the tooth soldiers who had escaped in Qingxiaoling two years ago also came to apply, Wu Jiu enforced the law impartially and ordered all those who had been deserters the year before to be pulled out and executed. Since then, his generals have fought desperately, and no one dares to escape.
Youdao is the brother of the tiger, Wu Jiu's younger brother Wu Xuan, who followed in the footsteps of his brother when he was a teenager and joined the army.
The brothers came from humble backgrounds, and their father, Wu Jie, was probably just an obscure low-ranking officer who died before Wu Jiu joined the army, so that when Sichuan officials wrote tombstones for Wu Jiu decades later, they could not find any praise to boast about his family lineage, so they had to pass it away. Later, Hong Mai's "Yi Jian Zhi" did have the deeds of Wu Huan", "meritorious service to the commanding envoy" and "second son Yan En's official", but historians believe that these records are absurd, but they are only made up by later generations.
After Zhang Jun, who was in charge of the main battle faction, took charge of the overall situation, he was introduced by his right-hand man Liu Ziyu, reused Wu Jiu, who was only able to know people, and let Wu Xuan serve as the captain of his own guard. This courtier, who was interested in recovering the lost land, did not listen to Wu Jie's words at the crucial moment, which made a big mistake. After the defeat of Fuping, Zhang Jun was helpless and almost lost all of Shaanxi.
At the time of crisis, Wu Jiu was appointed as the governor of Shaanxi, and together with his younger brother Wu Xuan led thousands of remnants of the army to garrison Shangyuan (located southwest of Baoji City, Shaanxi) east of Dasanguan, a major battle broke out.
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Wu Jie can not only win battles, but also good at fighting "beautiful battles", and the several battles on which he is famous are all full of the art of war.
The Qinling Mountains run through the east and west, there are several ancient roads connecting Bashu and Guanzhong, among which the Terrain of Chen Cang Dao is relatively gentle and can be used as a place for soldiers, and when chu and Han are in contention, there is a historical story of Han Xin 'Ming Xiu Zhan Dao, Darkness Chen Cang'.
Lu You has a poem: "The building boat crosses the snow guazhou at night, and the iron horse autumn wind scatters the pass." "The Great Scattered Pass on the Chen Cang Road can be called its first dangerous pass, which is the main road between Qin and Shu, and can be attacked and defended. The monks in front of the pass are steep on all sides, and the top is wide and flat, which is conducive to the tun soldiers, and forms a fortification that is easy to defend and difficult to attack with the Big Scattered Pass. Wu Jiu was the first to discover the military value of Shang Yuan, and when someone proposed to retreat to Hanzhong to defend Sichuan, he retorted: "I protect this, the enemy will never dare to cross me and advance, the wall is near, and he is afraid that I will step behind him, so he protects Shu ye!" ”
In March of the first year of Shaoxing (1131), the Jin army marched south in a big way, from Fengxiang to Shangyuan. Wu Jiu insisted on sticking to Shang Yuan, first commanding Ruoding, successfully repelling two attacks by the Jin army, and sweeping away the low morale of the Song army after the Battle of Fuping. The people around Fengxiang, out of national righteousness, disregarded the law of sitting together formulated by the Jin people and risked their lives to deliver grain and grass to the Wu Jie army that guarded shangyuan. The Jin army executed the captured people, but the people who could transport the grain continued one after another.
The Jin army could not take advantage of Shangyuan, so they sent Yan Zongbi's main force to the Sichuan-Shaanxi battlefield instead, planning to capture Sichuan.
Wu Jie's opponent, Guanyan Zongbi, was the fourth son of Guanyan Akuta, the famous Jin Wushu in Yue Fei's story, who was an outstanding fierce general in the Jin army, good at using soldiers, fighting bravely, often taking off his helmet on the battlefield, revealing bald hair and long braids. But in history, the first person to let Yan Zongbi suffer a lot was not Yue Fei, but Wu Jie.
▲ Finish Yan Zongbi (stills).
After Yan Zongbi led tens of thousands of troops to Shangyuan, Wu Jiu and the Wu Brothers used the tactic of "garrison arrows" to resist the enemy in view of the characteristics of the Jin army's intensive attack. They selected strong bows and crossbows, divided the archers into three rows, lined up at the front of the position, when the golden soldiers charged, the first team of archers aimed at the arrows, and then quickly crouched down, the second team, the third team successively released arrows, so that the shots took turns, the arrows rained down, repelled the golden soldiers many times, killing and injuring a lot.
The Jin army returned home in a big defeat, and the Wu Jie brothers were angry and did not give their opponents a chance to breathe. One night, the Jin army gathered its troops back to the camp, burned the fire to cook, and Wu Jiu ordered the divine archery to shoot at the fire with a strong bow, which frightened the Jin soldiers from lighting the fire and sat with dry food and waited for dawn. In the middle of the night, Wu Jiu organized a surprise attack and launched an attack on Yan Zongbi's camp, and the Jin soldiers were sleepy and tired, and they could not withstand the toss, and they were beaten again.
In the early morning of the next day, Yan Zongbi ordered a retreat to the north of Baoji, intending to regroup. Wu Jiu was waiting for this opportunity, he had already planted an ambush in the mountain stream along the way, and when the Jin army retreated, the Song army quickly turned to attack and ordered a pursuit. The Song army went all the way from Shangyuan to Shenchaguan to cover up, the Jin army was ambushed, suffering heavy losses along the way, abandoning corpses, and the grain and grass were heavily obtained by the Song army, until the Jin reinforcements arrived, they were able to break the siege and flee.
This battle was the first fiasco suffered by the Jin army in the Song-Jin War, more than 20 Jin generals were captured, thousands of Jin soldiers were captured, and even Yan Zongbi himself was wounded by an arrow and escaped. The news of the great victory of the monk Yuan reached the imperial court, and even Emperor Gaozong of Song, who was keen to escape, was also excited, and sent envoys to comfort the front-line soldiers, and appointed Wu Jiu as the envoy of the Zhenxi Army, and Wu Xuan as the envoy of the Kangzhou regiment. As a result, Wu Jie became the first general in the Southern Song Dynasty to be worshipped as an envoy for military merit.
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Although the Battle of Shangyuan achieved Wu Jie's prestige, it did not stop the Jin army from attacking Sichuan in a big way, and the Song army was still at a disadvantage in the Song-Jin War. Soon after, the Jin returned and sent a large army around Shangyuan to attack the weakly defended Raofeng Pass (in present-day northwest of Shiquan, Shaanxi).
At the time of the Battle of Raofengguan, Wu Jiu had already moved to xianrenguan (southeast of Huixian County, Gansu) on the Qishan Road to garrison, and after receiving information about the Attack of the Jin Army, he quickly led thousands of elites to gallop 300 miles to reinforce Raofengguan.
After arriving at Rao Fengguan, Wu Jiu, while building fortifications, sent someone to send a citrus to the General of the Jin Army, sprinkling a drink, and wrote a note: "The army is far away, talk about quenching thirst." Today's decisive battle, each loyal to what they do. When Saori received this gift, he was horrified.
Sa Lijiu believed that Wu Jiu was good at using strong bows and crossbows, so he no longer adopted the tactics of the previous intensive attack, but instead sent a group of carefully selected elite soldiers, wearing heavy armor, to climb the mountain to attack danger. Behind each heavily armored soldier there were two soldiers to help climb the mountain, and the soldiers in front of them were killed, and the soldiers in the back put on heavy armor, and the former servants followed.
▲ Wu Jiu is best at commanding crossbow troops in combat.
As mentioned earlier, Wu Jie is the best at fighting beautiful battles. He improvised on the battlefield, changing the previous "garrison arrow" tactic, but rolling down boulders on the mountain to crush the golden soldiers, shooting the golden soldiers who boosted the heavy armor with a crossbow, blocking the opposing vanguard troops. The two sides fought fiercely for six days and nights, the Jin soldiers suffered heavy casualties, coupled with the crisis of food shortage, they had to close the army and kill horses for food, and after the war, more than 17,000 dead horse skins were abandoned under the Raofeng Pass. Embarrassed and angry, Sa Li drank to personally supervise the battle, and also beheaded several timid Jinjun Qianhu on the spot.
However, sprinkling away from drinking is not a fuel-saving lamp, the strong attack can not be achieved, can only be outsmarted, and then still won the Rao Fengguan with a "Pyrros-style victory". Wu Jiu retreated to Xian ren guan, and another big battle was coming.
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Li Bai's "Shu Dao Difficulty" has a sentence, "Green mud and plate, a hundred steps and nine folds haunt the rocks."
The Song people said, "The difficulty of the Shu Dao has been the head of the Qingniling Mountains since the past." This Qingni Ridge, just north of the Immortal Pass guarded by the Wu Jie brothers, was already occupied by the Jin Army at that time. Viewed from the Qingni Ridge, the Xianren Pass, which controlled Chen Cang Road and Qishan Road, became the only way for the Jin army to march south into Shu Province. Wu Jiu built the "Killing Jinping" and a pass in the northeast of Xianren Pass, forming two defensive lines and making full preparations for the war.
In the fourth year of Shaoxing (1134), Emperor Yanzong, who had returned from injury, led 100,000 elite soldiers to attack Xianrenguan. Wu Jiu's troops were only 30,000, and once the Jin army defeated the Wu brothers, it could take advantage of the situation to invade Sichuan and go down the river to Jiangnan.
The Jin army was arrogant, the pioneer Yiying did not listen to the order, and before the camp was set up, he launched an attack on The Killing Jinping, in a vain attempt to make a contribution. When Zong Bi learned of this, he chased after him, drew his sabre, and slammed into Yi Ying's helmet with the back of the knife, what kind of person is Wu Jiu, it is your turn to take the lead in charging. Seeing that Yan Zongbi was angry, Yi Ying had no choice but to retreat in shame. Facing Wu Jie, Yan Zongbi did not dare to take the enemy lightly.
The two sides were fiercely sword-fighting, but after all, the strength was very different, and at first Zong Bi also specially sent people to the front to persuade Wu Jiu to surrender: "The Zhao clan has declined, if Wu Gong can come to Dajin, we will choose a rich land with a radius of 100 miles to add officials to you." ”
Wu Jiu sent someone back: "I have served the Zhao clan, how dare I have two hearts?" "No matter what kind of dilemma you face, you must fight to the death, which is the backbone of the soldiers."
After Yan Zongbi first saluted and then attacked, Hugh began to launch a fierce attack on Jinping in the future.
When the two armies were fighting, Wu Jiu's younger brother Wu Xuan, who was a pioneer, led his troops to retake the lost camp and shouted to the soldiers: "The Jin people are pouring out of the nest, and this is our opportunity to kill the enemy and repay the country!" Wu Jiu held a long knife in his hand, stood at the head of the city and commanded the battle, and ordered: "I am waiting for the generals, and I will die in the city!" Retreater, slash! ”
After Yan Zongbi's army struggled and fought bloodily for several days, it took to kill Jinping. This first line of defense built by Wu Jiu, as its name suggests, cost the Jin soldiers dearly, and the Song army had retreated to the second line of defense in an orderly manner under the leadership of the Wu brothers. Some people thought that this pass was unstable, and persuaded the Wu Jie brothers to retreat and retreat to the Immortal Pass. Wu Xuan immediately retorted: "Retreat as soon as the troops are exchanged, and retreat without a fight." I think the enemy has suffered heavy losses and will soon be retreating. The armies need to continue to be patient. ”
Wu Jiu ordered to die, or using the old method, he arranged the familiar "garrison arrow" on the second line of defense, and slammed the Golden Soldiers with the Divine Arm Bow. The Divine Arm Bow is a kind of crossbow invented during the Northern Song Dynasty, with a range of more than 240 steps, which can penetrate elm wood and shoot through armor.
The Arrows of the Song Army were like flying locusts, and the Golden Soldiers were clad in heavy armor and connected by iron hooks, and the fish ran up. There were countless casualties on both sides, the corpses on the position were piled up, and although the number of Song troops was small, they were united in their will, and when the northwest building on the defensive line was tilted due to overwhelm, the Song generals even used silk to tie long ropes and dragged the building back. The Jin soldiers fought three battles in one day and repeatedly charged, but they failed to break through Wu Jiu's defensive line, and there was little military food left, and many soldiers were reluctant to retreat.
▲ The image of the Archer of the Song Dynasty in the "Xiyue Descending Spirit Scroll".
The counterattack of the Wu Jie brothers had only just begun. After several days of arduous defense by the Song army, one night, Wu Jiu sent a strange soldier, armed with a long knife and a large axe, beating drums and shouting, and killed the Jin soldier camp from the left and right flanks. Immortal Guan Jiu could not attack, the Golden Soldier was already exhausted, and after encountering the night attack, he became a bird of fright. In an instant, Yan Zongbi's camp was breached, and the Jin soldiers were completely defeated under the chain reaction of the loss of the camp, and they lost their armor and fled back to Fengxiang, and history repeated itself.
"Shu Dao is difficult, it is difficult to go to the blue sky." After this battle, Zong Bi may have a deep understanding of this poem. After the great victory of the Immortals, Yan Zongbi never set foot on the Shu Road again, and after that, the focus of the Song-Jin War shifted from Sichuan and Shaanxi to Lianghuai.
The Wu Jie brothers firmly guarded the gates of Sichuan, effectively saving a glimmer of life for the fragile Southern Song dynasty. Scholar Wang Zengyu believes: "From the first year of Shaoxing to March of the fourth year, the Sichuan-Shaanxi battlefield was the main battlefield, or even the only battlefield, of the Song-Jin War. Wu Jiu's army supported half of the Southern Song Dynasty almost independently, and the anti-Jin war achievements during this period were unique. ”
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Wu Jie was good at defending, and when he launched a large-scale offensive campaign, he may not be as good as Yue Fei, but in the official arena he was a person who knew the rules and was very deep in the city government, which was one of the reasons why the Wu brothers were able to avoid the butcher's knife of the Southern Song Dynasty court.
Previously, when Zhang Jun entered Shaanxi, Wu Jiu was at odds with his old boss Qu Duan and often had conflicts. Zhang Jun also wanted to get rid of Quduan, and it just so happened that Quduan had written a poem, "Don't go to Guan Zhongxing Emperor, but come to the river to pan flat boats", which was framed as evidence of disrespect for the emperor. In the end, QuDuan was falsely accused of rebellion and unjustly died in prison. Wu Jie played a role in it, which became a stain on his life, but also made him more trusted by Zhang Jun.
During the Song Dynasty, Jin Shaoxing's peace talks, the main war faction was purged, Zhang Jun lost power and stepped down, Wu Jiu did not forget the grace of the old Bole, tried to protect Zhang Jun's party, and asked him to resign from all military affairs to atone for the sins of Zhang Jun and Liu Ziyu. Although Emperor Gaozong of Song implicitly reprimanded Wu Jiu, he said: "You have become a great general from a small official, it is the grace of the imperial court, don't think that you are Zhang Jun's support." After that, Wu Jiu was not allowed to resign.
Emperor Gaozong of Song needed Wu Jiu to preside over the Sichuan-Shaanxi resistance to Jin, but preferred him to be a docile sheep. Wu Jiu was well aware of the way of the monarch, as a military general who led the troops abroad, in order not to let the emperor worry about his own rebellion, while interceding for Zhang Jun and others, he also asked Emperor Gaozong to enter the hajj after the autumn and see Tianyan, and the next year he immediately sent his son to Lin'an to report on the important border defense. These acts were all a sign of deference to Emperor Gaozong of Song and to alleviate the emperor's suspicions.
Emperor Gaozong of Song also ate Wu Jie's set, and praised him in front of the courtiers: "Jiubi tried to invite him into the court, and now he has sent his son to play things, which can be described as the body of a prince." Jiu Zhibing has been outside for many years, but he can be cautious and deliberate, and he is good and commendable. ”
As a general of the Southern Song Dynasty, Wu Jiu and Yue Fei also had a certain friendship. When Yue Fei led an army to retake Xiangyang, the Southern Song Court ordered Wu Jiu to cooperate with him to contain the Jin army in Shaanxi, so Wu Jiu sent an emissary to discuss military affairs with Yue Fei. When this emissary arrived at the Ezhou camp, he found that Yue Fei's life was simple and there was no one around to serve him, so he went back to report to his boss Wu Jie.
Wu Jiu liked beautiful women and was very good at fishing and hunting beauty, so he spent two thousand yuan to buy a woman with both talents and good looks, and sent it to Ezhou for Yue Fei. Yue Fei did not accept Wu Jie's kindness, "thank you but not accept." This shows the very different principles of the two celebrities in the world.
▲Portrait of Yue Fei.
Wu Jie was such a bureaucratic general, but he preferred soldiers and loved the people, no matter where he was stationed, he was committed to letting the people live and work in peace and contentment, and in order to reduce the burden on the people, he laid off redundant personnel many times.
Once, when he was on a tour of Lee State, a group of hungry old and weak women and children rushed to his horse to complain to him that there was no food to eat in the house.
When Wu Jiu heard this, he was furious and said, "I will first kill Gou Guangzu (the deputy envoy of Lizhou Road Transport), and then I will go to the imperial court myself to ask for guilt." Later, the grain problem was solved with the help of Hu Shijian, the envoy of the Sichuan system, but Wu Jiu still did not understand the hatred, and when Hu Shijian left Lizhou, he killed the few officials who had neglected their duties. Whenever the army was short of food, he would take out his family's money to buy grain from the people to save the emergency, but he never took it by force.
The history books record that Wu Jiu, who was half a lifelong warrior, was greedy for beauty and took Dan medicine for a long time, and his health deteriorated after middle age, and he eventually coughed up blood and died, and died at the age of 47. Before Wu Jie's death, Emperor Gaozong of Song also specially sent an imperial doctor to treat his illness, but unfortunately, the imperial doctor learned the news of Wu Jie's death halfway through. After Wu Jie's death, Emperor Gaozong of Song resigned for two days.
However, judging from the historical background of the imminent signing of the "Shaoxing Huihe" at the time of Wu Jiu's illness and death, his death may also be called the end of the ambition of a general of the main war faction.
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After Wu Jiu's early death, Wu Xuan continued to guard the gate of Sichuan and did not let Jin Bing step into Shudi for more than twenty years. Wu Xuan dared not to leave his brother behind, and created the "stacking formation method" on the basis of the "garrison target", so as not to fall behind in the battle with the Jin army.
Wu Xuan still did not forget his ambition to recover the lost land, although this opportunity was waiting for more than twenty years. The former Wu family marshal gradually became the old marshal of the Wu family, and his lifelong military talent was eventually betrayed by the wrong military line of the Southern Song Dynasty.
In the thirty-first year of Shaoxing (1161), the Jin lord Yan Liang led an army of 600,000 people to the south to conquer the Song Dynasty, and the Southern Song court once again fell into a panic. On the eastern front, fortunately, the wen chancellor Yu Yunwen was ordered to command the battle of quarrying to stop the attack of the Jin soldiers. The Jurchen nobles, dissatisfied with Yan Liang, also staged a coup d'état in the rear, overthrowing the ambitionist's rule and forcing the Jin army to retreat, and the Southern Song Dynasty once again survived.
On the battlefield of the western front, Wu Xuan, who was over the age of flower armor, led the Song army on a campaign, and the sick veteran general was carried to the front line by the soldiers, and once again commanded the defense of Xianrenguan, and came to the killing Jinping where he had fought with Emperor Yanzong.
It is worth mentioning that Wu Xuan not only repelled the Jin soldiers on the battlefield on the western front, but also took advantage of the victory to pursue, successively recovering more than ten prefectures such as Qinzhou, Longzhou, and Taozhou. Wu Xuan and the generals finally returned to their hometown, after the Song army entered the city, the market was orderly, and the villagers surrounded Wu Xuan and greeted him endlessly, hoping that the Song army would take this opportunity to recover the lost land.
However, when the Song army on the western front won successive battles, the lord and faction once again made waves, and the imperial court ordered Wu Xun to be a class division. Seeing that the Northern Expedition was hopeless, Wu Xuan had no choice but to accept the edict and led his generals to retreat, abandoning more than a dozen newly retaken states. In this battle, Wu Xuan's army sacrificed dozens of generals and more than 30,000 soldiers. When the troops were withdrawn, the Song army generals and battalions who were unwilling to retreat wept bitterly, and their voices resounded throughout the wilderness.
A few years later, at the age of 66, Wu Xuan died of illness, and before his death, he only advised the Southern Song Dynasty court not to abandon Sichuan and not to easily send troops. Only these two things were worried about Wu Xuan's heart, and he did not mention a single word about private affairs.
Among the great generals in the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, there were very few famous generals like Wu Jiu and Wu Xuan who could defend one side and retreat with their whole body. The Wu brothers guarded the land of Bashu for forty years, and also defended the Southern Song Dynasty.
▲ "Lin'an Nian City Map" (partial) Image source/figure worm creativity.
bibliography:
(Song) Li Xin biography: "Records of the Year since Jianyan", Zhonghua Bookstore, 2013 edition
(Yuan) Detachment: History of the Song Dynasty, Zhonghua Bookstore, 1985 edition
(Yuan) Detachment: The History of Jin, Zhonghua Bookstore, 1975 edition
(Qing) Wang Fuzhi: On the Song Dynasty, Zhonghua Bookstore, 2003 edition
Yang Qian' Sketch: Wu Jia Jiang: The Biography of Wu Jie Wu Ting Wu Xi, Hebei University Press, 1996