During the reign of Jingkang, the nomads from the Jin Dynasty besieged Bianjing. Wang Yan generously abandoned his family and went to Hebei to beg thieves to serve the country. He was placed under the account of Zhang Suo, Ambassador Zhao Fu of Hebei Province, and was promoted to the control of the capital. At that time, Yue Fei was a general under Wang Yan.
In September of the first year of Jianyan (1 127), Wang Yan led 7,000 people to cross the Yellow River from Yuefei and attacked the nomads from Xinxiang County, Weizhou. After a day of fierce fighting, Song Jun regained Xinxiang and won the first victory since crossing the river. The Jin people thought that the main force was coming, so they sent tens of thousands of good soldiers to surround Wang Yan's army. At this point, Zhang Suo has been demoted to Lingnan, and the Zhaofu Department of Hebei West Road has been abolished, leaving Wang Yan and others alone. Seeing that Wang Yan was outnumbered and had no foreign aid, he broke through. Due to the grim situation, several generals fled with their troops, and Yue Fei left because of different methods and strategies to resist gold. Wang Yan fought for dozens of miles and entered the western hills of the city of * * * (now Huixian County, Henan Province). He sent his confidants to contact the heroes of the two rivers to form an alliance and * * * resisted the gold.
Jin people were afraid of Wang Yan and offered a reward for the first one. In order to prevent accidents, Rebecca often changes places to sleep at night. His subordinates were moved by his anti-Jin Gongxin, and they tattooed the words "Red Hearts Serve the Country and Swear to Kill the Golden Thief" on their faces to show their loyalty to Wang Yan and Song Ting. The reputation of the "eight-character army" gradually spread, and the rebels in the two rivers responded one after another. Fu Xuan, Meng De and Jiao all joined in, and the team expanded to several hundred thousand people. Jin Jun's repeated encirclement and suppression failed. On the one hand, Wang Yan stepped up training, and at the same time sent someone to contact Tokyo to stay in Zong Ze, set a date and prepare to cut gold. Zong Ze received a letter from Wang Yan, calling him to Tokyo to discuss.
In May of the second year of Jianyan (1 128), Wang Yan led ten thousand elite people to cross the river to Kaifeng, and the Jin people sent heavy troops to follow, but they never dared to fight. In July, Zong Ze died, and Wang Yan handed over the military forces to the left-behind department in Tokyo according to the deployment, and led Qin Bing to the line to ask for resistance to gold in the north. Wang Yan saw Huang Qian Shan and Wang Boyan in power, and urged the loyal militia in Liangjiang to look forward to Julian Waghann, demanding that the court comply with the people's will and send troops to the Northern Expedition. At that time, the main peace faction in North Korea was in power, and the court sent Yuwen to pray for Song and go to Jin to discuss peace. In a fit of pique, Wang Yan's meeting arrangement was cancelled, and Weiyi Wang Lang and Xuan Zan were appointed as Scheeren, in charge of the imperial camp. At that time, Fan Qiong was a former general. Wang Yan was greatly disappointed when he learned that Fan Qiong had the intention of rebellion, so he claimed to be an official.
In the fourth year of Jianyan (1 130), Zhang Jun proclaimed Sichuan and Shaanxi and promoted Wang Yan to the former military system. In the same year, Xu Jin's general Wan Yan Loushi occupied Tongguan, and Zhang Jun planned a decisive battle with 8 Jin Army in Fuping. All the generals agreed, except Wang Yan and Qu Duan. Wang Yan thought that troops should be stationed in Li, Lang, Xing and Yang to hold our positions, but Zhang Jun wouldn't listen. Wang Yan asked for a local post, so he was appointed as the official in charge of Li, and was also appointed as the envoy of Jin, Jun and Zhi Jinzhou (now Ankang, Shaanxi). Later, as Wang Yan expected, the situation changed. Zhang Jun defeated Fuzhou, and Jingyuan was completely lost. In the first year of Shaoxing (1 13 1), Wang Yan successively pacified and sang zhong went to Shu to fight against thieves and fled, and sang zhong was killed by his subordinates. That winter, Wang Yan and Guan Shigu defeated thousands of cavalry led by Guo Zhen, a pseudo-Qi state, captured Guo Zhen alive and recovered Qin Zhou.
In the third year of Shaoxing (1 133), Wanyan Zongbi led Jin Bing to invade Sichuan and Shaanxi. Zhang Jun called Wang Yan, Wu Jun and Liu Ziyu to defend the enemy in Xingyuan (now Hanzhong, Shaanxi). In February, the nomads from the golden army attacked Raofengguan, but Wang Yan and Wu Jie failed to resist, and each withdrew. Wang Yanduo withdrew his troops and ran to Dazhou (now Daxian County, Sichuan Province). In May, Wang Yan defeated Zhou Gui, Liu Yu's ministry, and regained Jinzhou. Zhang Jun submitted a report, granted Wang Yanbao the mission of resisting the army, and announced that Fu Si would attend the meeting, but Wang Yan refused to accept it.
In the fifth year of Shaoxing (1 135), in April, Wang Yan changed to be the prefect of Jingnan, and was appointed as the ambassador of Gui, Xia, Jingmen (now Jingmen, Hubei) and the public security army. Because of the war and barren land in the south of Beijing, Wang Yan settled in this field. Nearly two thousand cows were bought from Sichuan for officers and men to breed. And reclaim 850 hectares of land to improve military supplies. In February of the sixth year of Shaoxing (1 136), Zhang Jun invited Wang to be in charge of the pre-camp deputy army and supervise military affairs. In June, Wang Yan led the Eight-character Army to Lin 'an and was dismissed. He served as deputy envoy to the coastal areas of western Zhejiang and eastern Huai, and stationed in Tongzhou (now Nantong, Jiangsu).
In the seventh year of Shaoxing (1 137), in the first month, Wang Yan clashed with Xie Qian's army because he sent troops to hunt down the escaped sergeant, and the two army sergeants fought in the city. Some people in North Korea illegally violated their "lack of military and political discipline" and demoted their officials to the second place. Wang Yan felt uneasy and resigned himself. In February, he was appointed as an observer of Hongzhou, knowing Shaozhou (now Shaoyang, Hunan). Gao Zong also personally summoned Wang Yan: Because you are good at managing people, I appointed you as CEO.
In the ninth year of Shaoxing (1 139), Wang Yan died of illness at the age of fifty. After Wang Yan's death, the "Eight-character Army" was controlled by Liu Kun. In the tenth year of Shaoxing (1 140), in May, Liu Kun led the "Eight-character Army" to defeat Yan Zongbi's main force in Shunchang County and won the "Shunchang Battle".
Wang Yan and the Anti-Gold Struggle in the Late Northern Song Dynasty
"Changzhi County Records" contains: When Wang Yan was young, he was generous and upright. He likes reading books on military strategy and has learned a good martial arts. Seeing that he was quite talented, his father asked him to join the army in Beijing and got Wu Hewei (a junior officer). At that time, Xixia people invaded the northwest continuously, and Wang Yan once defended the northwest with famous teachers and fought with Xixia, making repeated military achievements.
Wang Yan spent most of his life in the struggle with gold.
In the first year of Jingkang (1 126), the nomads attacked the Northern Song Dynasty on a large scale, went south, crossed the Yellow River and reached Bianjing. Song Qinzong and his treacherous court officials advocated escape, while Li Gang and other warring factions insisted on resistance. Soldiers and junior officers all supported Li Gang and prepared to fight. Young Wang Yan couldn't bear to see the remnants of the motherland being ravaged. Hearing that Kyoto was in a hurry, he generously abandoned his family and joined the anti-gold ranks. Because of his outstanding martial arts and talents, Zhang Suo, the ambassador of Zhao Fu from Hebei Province, attached great importance to it and was under the jurisdiction of the capital.
Things are getting worse. In April of the second year of Jingkang (1 127), Bianjing was finally captured by nomadic people, and Hui Di and Qin were also captured by nomadic people. In May, King Kang of Song proclaimed himself emperor, that is, he rebuilt his speech. The hawks, led by Li Gang, put forward the correct ideas of "revenge against Japan" and "recovering lost territory", and sent Zhang Suo and Gao Fu to contact rebel forces in various places to plan to recover Hedong and Hebei.
Zhang ordered Wang Yan to lead Yue Fei, Zhang Yi, Bai et al. 1 1 generals and lead 7,000 troops across the Yellow River to fight the nomads from there. This battle defeated the nomads from the army and recovered the lost land such as Weizhou (now Xinxiang, Henan). Since then, Wang Yan's troops have become an important force against Jin, hitting Jin Bing hard many times, which made Jin Bing very frightened.
In order to besiege the king, the nomads from the army mobilized tens of thousands of troops and constantly strengthened their offensive against the king. Wang Yan knew that he was outnumbered and could not fight for a long time, so he decisively broke the city. After the breakthrough, it moved to the Xishan Mountain in * * City (now Huixian County, Henan Province), that is, Taihang Mountain.
At the critical juncture of this country's life and death, the people of the Central Plains rose up to save themselves, and the people of Taihang Mountain were the most active in resisting gold. They built on the mountain, built on the mountain, and cleverly attacked, posing a great threat to the nomads from the mountain.
At that time, there were many rebel groups on Taihang Mountain, the most famous of which was the "Taihang Loyalty and Righteousness Association" led by Liang Xing. The righteous people "worked together and died" and defeated the nomadic people from afar many times. After Wang Yan's army entered the Taihang Mountain area, it formed an alliance with the leaders of various rebel forces such as the "Loyalty Society" in Taihang. There are more and more people gathered here, and they are very brave and determined. Under the control of Wang Yan, the famous "Eight-character Army" was established.
The symbol of the "Eight-character Army" is the tattoo on the face with the words "Serve the country wholeheartedly and swear to kill the gold thief" to show their determination to swear a bloody battle with the gold man to the end. Their officers and men are United, fighting bravely and sharing weal and woe. Later, the village of 19, led by Fu Xuan, Meng De, Jiao and others, all obeyed Wang Yan's orders, and there were more than 100,000 soldiers at its peak. The soldiers' camp stretches for hundreds of miles, and the sound of drums and horns is endless. Since then, the people's armed forces scattered in Hedong, Binhe, Fen, Zezhou, Huai, Wei, Xiangzhou and other places in Hebei have all accepted Wang Yan's command. They tried their best to attack the Jin army. After the Jin people ordered Hebei people to shave their heads and store their hair, it aroused the fierce resistance of the Han people, and the team of the "eight-character army" was also growing.
The heroic struggle of the "Eight-character Army" and the Taihang people against the gold made the nomads from fear. Jurchen rulers were very afraid of this people's armed forces, and they offered a large sum of money for Wang Yan's head. In order to avoid this kind of plot, Rebecca sometimes has to change several residences overnight.
But the names of the "eight-character army" and Wang Yan are what the enemy is most afraid of. At a military meeting convened by the Jin army, a general of the Jin army who was appointed as the commander-in-chief heard that he was going to fight Wang Yan's "eight-character army", and he was so scared that he knelt down and cried: "Wang Dutong's army is as solid as a rock, and he can't beat it!" 8 jin j dare not fight Wang Yan head-on, so we have to send some skirmishers to stop Wang Yan's grain transportation. Yan Wang is ready for this. He sent troops to ambush the grain delivery road, and the enemy soldiers were surrounded as soon as they entered the ambush circle, and all the troops were wiped out. Rebels such as the Eight-character Army and the Taihang Loyalty Society, relying on Taihang Mountain, built a village along the mountain, cleverly attacked and won one victory after another. "The Biography of Yue Fei in Song Dynasty" contains: "... Liang Xinghui is loyal and righteous, a hero of the two rivers, etc. All of them won the battle, and the Central Plains was shocked. "
In the face of victory, Wang Yan did not dare to slack off, but stepped up his training and was always ready to fight back against the nomads from the army and recover lost ground. Today, at the southern foot of Taihang Mountain, there are still many remnants of rebel fortresses.
However, at the critical moment of the country and the nation, a group of capitulationists led by them are not really anti-gold. They are more afraid of people's armed forces than 8 jin j. On the one hand, they tried their best to disintegrate the power of peasant rebels, on the other hand, they wanted to maintain the rule of the southeast half by surrendering peace. On one occasion, Zong Ze called Wang Yan to Beijing to discuss military affairs. After Wang Yan arrived in Beijing, there was a heated debate on "main battle" or "peace negotiation" in the court. Knowing this situation, Wang Yan told the DPRK minister how the loyal teachers of the people of the two rivers struggled to resist the gold, and were "trying to lead their necks to look forward to Julian Waghann, willing to make a massive northern expedition because of the people's hearts"! His generous words, representing the views of hawks, were not only not adopted by the court, but also "made an order to avoid being right."
To his surprise, the court replaced Wang Yan's life with Wu Yinglang and Xuan Zan Scheeren, who were in charge of the imperial camp. This job means that he can't go to the front line against gold, let alone be under the jurisdiction of Fan Qiong. Fan Qiong is a capitulator. Wang Yan knew that Fan Qiong had "violated discipline" in the War of Resistance Against Gold and refused to go to his post, so he had to pretend to be ill and asked to be transferred to another place. It turned out that the "Eight-character Army" under the command of Wang Yan had contacted the patriotic general Zong Ze for many times to cut gold, and planned to March into Hedong area, recover the lost land in Shanxi and establish an anti-gold base area in Taiyuan. Due to various obstacles of the capitulators, this great opportunity will be wasted. Wang Yan didn't want to follow Fan Qiong, so the court changed its position again and asked him to put Zhang Jun's men in charge of the former army, so he had to lead some troops of the "Eight-character Army" south.
After a period of time, although Wang Yan led the army to fight against the nomads from several times, he spent a lot of energy because he was ordered by the imperial court to frequently confront the so-called "thieves" (that is, the armed forces of the hungry uprising). Because Wang Yan fought actively, Zhang Jun asked him to be the ambassador of Bao Kangjun and the secretary of Fu Xuan, but Wang Yan refused.
Wang Yan is busy with military affairs, but also engaged in local government affairs seriously, taking office incorruptibly, and trying his best to do something useful for the people. During the five years in Shaoxing (1 135), when he was the peace envoy of the public security forces in Jingnan Prefecture, he saw that the fields in Jingnan were barren and no one was farming, so he adopted the method of reclaiming land, specially sent people to Shu to buy back more than 1700 cows, taught officers and men to farm, and reclaimed 850 hectares of wasteland, which basically realized the need of food for the troops under his jurisdiction.
As early as June of the first year of Shaoxing (1 13 1), when Wang Yan led the "Eight-character Army" to Zhenjiang, his mother died of illness. He wants to go home to attend the funeral, and Emperor Gaozong won't allow it. Later, he controlled the capitulators in the imperial court, fabricated the so-called charge of "military and political disobedience" for Wang Yan, demoted him to the second class, relieved his military power, and forced him to leave the front line of resisting gold. It was not until February of the third year of Shaoxing (1 133) that the secretariat of Hongzhou was resumed, and it was only in charge of local administration.
Wang Yan's lifelong wish is to gallop on the battlefield, resist gold and kill the enemy, and serve the country faithfully. However, he was deprived of the military power without paying ambition, and he had endless resentment.
In the ninth year of Shaoxing (1 139), Wang Yan died in his post at the age of 49.
Yan Wang passed away in grief and indignation.
Here, we also want to add a little explanation to the story of "Deng Lu defends Luzhou".
It is said that at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, an army of nomads from the Golden Army besieged Luzhou. Luzhou Shoujiang, surnamed Lu, had 5000 soldiers under his command and held on for more than 40 days. Nomads were unable to attack again and again, and many soldiers were injured. Marshal Wu Shu was very angry, so he led hundreds of thousands of troops and pressed Lucheng with an avalanche. On the one hand, Deng Lu wrote a book, sent people to neighboring states for help at night, on the other hand, he actively responded to the enemy. He mounted his horse and fought fiercely with Wu Shu outside the city. Wu Shu was outnumbered and urged Deng Lu to surrender. Deng Lu scolded him and returned to the city.
Deng Lu led his troops to defend the city, and Wu Shu led his troops to the gate. Deng Lu ordered the shelling and launching of rockets, resulting in countless casualties and bodies. But the gate was finally opened by Wu Shu, and the nomads from the army poured in. At dawn, Deng Lu led soldiers and nomads from fierce street fighting, and finally retreated to the yamen. Herdsmen from afar flocked to the yamen. Deng Lu thought, the city is broken, how can I live? He committed suicide.
Wu Shu led a group of nomads from rushed into the yamen, only to find Lu Dengren dead, but his body was majestic and terrible. When I walked into my office and the back hall, I saw a woman's body lying on the ground and knew that Mrs. Deng Lu had died for her husband. Wu Shu was moved by the constancy of Deng Lu and his wife, so he took Deng Lu's son as his adopted son and buried Deng Lu and his wife in a dirt mountain outside the city. Later, Lu Gongzi grew up in battalion commander Jin and practiced martial arts. He is called "Lu Wenlong with two guns". When he learned about his life experience from Wang Zuo's storytelling, he resolutely abandoned the gold and returned it to the Song Dynasty to avenge his father and be loyal to his country. ……
In the biography of Yue Quan, the loyalty to Luzhou and the country was recorded.
Since then, this fascinating story has been interpreted by artists into a far-reaching drama "Eight Hammers" among Chinese people. Eight hammers include Liu 'an Mansion, Nanny Teaching Guns, Broken Arm Storytelling and many other operas. For hundreds of years, the story of Deng Lu, Lu Wenlong and "Wang Zuo's Broken Arm" has been widely circulated on the stage of drama in China and by word of mouth.
However, the events in Deng Lu and Lu Wenlong are not recorded in the historical records. Is such a heroic story completely from fiction to hitting the wall? This cannot but be viewed in the light of the historical fact that the Taihang people rose up to defend their country at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty.
As mentioned earlier, the southern part of Taihang Mountain, with Luzhou as the center, was once the most active area in the struggle against gold. Besides, Luzhou really has such a tragic and generous anti-Jin scholar as Deng Lu. He is the magistrate of Luzhou, Zhang Que.
Historically, when Jin Bing first invaded the Central Plains, Zhang Que, the magistrate of Luzhou, wrote a letter to Song Ting, saying: "Hedong is the foundation of the world, and it is well founded. ..... If the enemy has rebels, it is bound to go south. Lu (Zhou) city has not been built for a hundred years, and the soldiers are on the edge of the city. I grew up in Xizhou and am quite familiar with the military. If I get 100,000 feet, I will be able to resist the enemy. Otherwise, the only death is to serve the country. "
However, Zhang Que's repeated suggestions and demands did not receive any response. "Tired books don't report", the Northern Song Dynasty court never sent a single soldier to Luzhou!
Sure enough, in the second year, the nomads from Taiyuan were shot down all the way, and Zhang really had to stick to it. Nomads from the first to surrender, Zhang unmoved. Nomads from the besieged city, fierce attack again and again, Luzhou isolated, gradually tired of guarding the city. Someone once advised Zhang Que to break through the east of the city and flee to Dongshan. Zhang Que thundered, "If you really defend your country, you should swear to serve your country to the death. The head can be broken and the waist can't be bent! "
In the end, the city of Luzhou was broken, and Zhang Que and others all died in the battlefield and died for their country. Losing Luzhou is equivalent to opening the door to the Central Plains. Nomads from the army all the way to Bianjing, Hui and Qin emperors were taken captive by Jin people as pigs and dogs, and died in a foreign country. ...
From Wang Yan, to the Taihang rebels, to Zhang Que ... Shangdang figures are determined and resolute, loyal to serving the country, and their ambitions are hard to pay, which is sad. Then I will think of two poems by Du Fu:
But before he can conquer, his death often makes the hero cry.