If it weren t for Gaozong Zhaogou s twelve gold medals, would Yue Fei really be able to smash Huangl

Mondo History Updated on 2024-01-29

Chinese usually have a special admiration for tragic heroes, so in the end it will be Guan Yu and Yue Fei who are respected as "martial saints" by the ancients, and the original god of war "King Wucheng" Jiang Shang Jiang Taigong has gradually lost the status of gods. Because Guan Yu and Yue Fei not only have the tragic ending of dying before their ambitions are rewarded, but also have the most respected characteristics of loyalty to the rulers, although Jiang Shang has complete merits, he is not so prominent in "loyalty". In the Qing Dynasty, because Yue Fei was an anti-gold hero, he naturally committed the taboo of the Manchurians, and finally Guan Yu became the unique "Guan Sheng Emperor".

In fact, according to the analysis of traditional historians, Yue Fei's status should be higher than Guan Yu's, because the former had the opportunity to succeed in the Northern Expedition, recover the lost land in the north, and even go straight to the Huanglong Mansion, the old nest of the Jin people, but it was only under the will of Gaozong Zhao Gou that he was forced to stop and fell short. In other words, Yue Fei resolutely chose the latter between Da Chenggong and Zhongjun, which caused great regrets, but it was highly consistent with the moral concepts of Confucianism. So if there is no twelve gold medal urgent orders from the imperial court, can the Yue family army, which has already arrived in Zhuxian Town and threaten Bianliang, really expel the Tartars and smash Huanglong?

First of all, it can be said very clearly that the goal of "smashing the Yellow Dragon" is impossible to achieve. Because at this time, although the Jurchens had exhausted the kinetic energy of the wild horses when they rose, the wealth and prosperity in the Han land had consumed their will. However, after absorbing the rest of the Liao State and integrating the tribes in the Northeast, its national power was at its peak. If the Song army wants to reach Huanglongfu, it is equivalent to penetrating the entire North China and Northeast China, and it will inevitably face the encirclement and interception of the most elite army of the Jin Dynasty. To do this, Genghis Khan and his Mongol army, which were later overwhelming, also spent a lot of effort. Although the Yuejia army, which was dominated by infantry, was relatively strong in combat, it was far from being comparable with the Mongols in terms of mobility and dependence on logistics, and it was impossible to reach Liaodong.

It is definitely not possible for the Yue family army to directly attack Huanglong, but it is not much of a problem to recover Bianliang. Because at this time, the Jurchen aristocracy also had great internal controversy and inconclusive conclusions about whether to occupy the entire Hebei and Central Plains. At that time, they had not yet established a complete bureaucratic system, and they had no idea how to govern the Central Plains, which was large and wide. This is also the fundamental reason why they initially supported Zhang Bangchang, Liu Yu and other puppet regimes. The Jurchens did not have much obsession with the dilapidated Bianliang, and it was not uncommon for them to cede the city to the Song people when they suffered setbacks against the Yue family's army. However, the difficulty of recovering Bianliang is completely different from recovering the entire north, and it may not be difficult for Yue's army to enter Bianliang, but whether it can gain a foothold there is another matter.

Under the repeated trampling of the Jin army's iron hooves, the originally rich Central Plains and Hebei were already exhausted, and they could not provide enough supplies for the Northern Expeditionary Army, so they had to be transported thousands of miles from the south. Moreover, there was no danger around Bianliang, and after the Jurchens firmly controlled Hedong, its strategic situation was even more sinister. If Yue Fei wants to use Bianliang as a base to gain a foothold in the Central Plains, and then slowly accumulate strength in order to move later, it is not impossible. But this requires the Lin'an court to invest all its resources with all its might, and even if the national strength is exhausted, it cannot be shaken in the slightest.

And it is obvious that Zhao Gou and the ** at all levels of the imperial court do not have such a strong will at all. Moreover, the people in the south are not necessarily willing to support the Yue family army on the front line at all costs, which is the fundamental reason why Yue Fei's Northern Expedition is destined to be a success.

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