In the third quarter, I joined the army twice.
Evonne of Song Huizong was a dissolute emperor. His clumsiness in military affairs and his cleverness in music, painting, calligraphy, chess and poetry are all integrated into Song Huizong. This is not only his personal characteristics, but also reflects and embodies the characteristics of politicians in the late Song Dynasty to some extent.
Seeing that the Liao Dynasty was about to be annexed by the emerging Jin Dynasty, it adopted the policy of uniting the Jin Dynasty to destroy the Liao Dynasty in an attempt to recover the sixteen states, such as Shiyan and Yun, which were ceded to the later Jin Dynasty. In the fourth year of Xuanhe (A.D. 1 122), the Shaanxi army with the strongest fighting capacity was called the Northern Expedition by the Song Dynasty. At that time, the Liao Dynasty retreated to Yanyun area, leaving only the soldiers of Tsor, who actually defeated Song Jun. In the end, 8 Jin Army captured Yanyun area, and the Song Dynasty could only buy back several empty cities at a high price.
The monarch of Song Huizong and his subjects plundered the country and imposed many exorbitant taxes on the people. The most famous ones, such as the "Flower Stone Gang" in the southeast, the "common land" in the north and the "free husband's money" with a national income of 2 million. Hebei and other roads, the military logistics supply is heavy, coupled with the harassment and looting of the Liao army crossing the border, it is even more troublesome, and the people are in trouble.
After Yue Fei returned to his hometown, his livelihood was even more difficult in such a war-torn year. After repeated discussions, the whole family thought that with Yue Fei's martial arts, going abroad as a soldier was still a way to make a living.
In the fourth year of Xuanhe (A.D. 1 122), Yue Fei just turned 20 and has reached the age of Ding. His grandfather Yao Dawen, who is over seventy years old, loves Yue Fei very much. When he learned that Yue Fei was going to join the army, he tried his best to invite the famous gunman Chen Guang to teach Yue Fei marksmanship. After a period of hard training, Yue Fei has become the best sharpshooter, and no one can beat him in tangyin county. ②
In September and October, Liu Ge, the new magistrate of Zhengding County, Hebei Province, took office. According to the system of valuing literature over martial arts at that time, Zhen Dingfu was appointed as the peace envoy of Zhen Dingfu, and was in charge of the military affairs of six state capitals, including Zhen Dingfu and Xiangzhou. When the news that the second expedition to Liao failed at the front came, I was afraid. He was worried that the Liao army would attack Iraq, so he temporarily recruited a group of "dare to fight", and Yue Fei was among the candidates.
Liu Ge fell in love with the young man immediately when he examined the applicants. Yue Fei has a big head, square face and big ears, broad eyebrows, short eyebrows, bright eyes, medium build, extremely burly figure, and is naturally heroic. When Liu Ge talked with him, Yue Fei expressed his determination to defend his country to the death, and Liu Ge immediately appointed him as the captain.
In fact, the Liao army did not and could not attack the Song Dynasty, so Liu Ge used this warrior team for internal repression. There is a "drama thief" in Xiangzhou, whose leaders are Tao Jun and Jin Jia. They "attacked the city and pulled out the village", killed and plundered the officials and people, and repeatedly defeated the officials and troops, endangering one side. Yue Fei asked to kill pests for his hometown, so Liu Ge sent him to lead two hundred soldiers back to Xiangzhou. Yue Fei first sent 30 people dressed as business travelers to take Tao Jun and Jin Jia prisoners back to the headquarters. He also ordered 100 people to ambush at the foot of the mountain, challenge with dozens of riders, and pretend to be defeated and escape. When Tao Jun and Jin Jia took the lead in the pursuit, the ambush at the foot of the mountain attacked together, and thirty disguised businessmen also acted as insiders. They occupied Tao Jun and Jin Jia, and the rest of the parties were scattered.
Wang Jing, well-known in Xiangzhou, inherited Han Xiaoyu, reported to his boss, and recommended Yue Fei as the successor of Jiupin. Unexpectedly, Yue He was tired and poor for a long time and suddenly fell ill. When the bad news came, Yue Fei was heartbroken and ran back to Tang Yin.
Due to financial constraints, the court also abolished the informal compilation of brave fighters, and Wang Jing's recommendation became a piece of waste paper.
According to ancient custom, after the death of parents, the son kept filial piety for three years, actually less than 27 whole months. Yue Fei lived at home from the fourth winter of Xuanhe to the sixth winter of Xuanhe (A.D. 1 124). After the expiration of filial piety, I went swimming in a nearby city to make a living. Due to the commercial prosperity in the Song Dynasty, small industrial and commercial points such as towns and cities below the county level appeared. The status of the town is higher than that of the city, and the city can be promoted to the town and the town can be promoted to the county. Swimming is similar to today's patrol. Because life is boring, Yue Fei can't help but drown her sorrows in wine. On one occasion, he was drinking and making trouble. When Yao knew this, he severely reprimanded him. Yue Fei has long repented and has been filial to her mother. He solemnly promised Yao that he would never drink again. Today Yue Fei can't swim, so he joined the army again for a living.
In the sixth year of Xuanhe, floods occurred in Hebei and other roads, and "people moved more". In Song Dynasty, the policy of recruiting soldiers in disaster years was implemented on the grounds that "if you don't accept being a soldier, you are afraid of being a thief". Recruiting bankrupt and exiled peasants who have no livelihood as soldiers can prevent them from becoming bandits. It is the wishful thinking of the rulers to turn the power of resistance into the power of maintaining rule.
Recruiting non-commissioned officers was called "inviting stab" in the Song Dynasty. Recruiters first measure the body length of recruits with a raft engraved with dimensions, then examine their running and jumping movements and whether they can ride horses, and finally observe their eyesight. Those who pass the exam will be tattooed on their faces and get clothes, shoes, coins and so on. According to the height of each person's figure, the upper, middle and lower imperial army and Xiang army were assigned respectively.
On the face, arms, hands, etc. The sergeant's, marked with the serial number and identity of the army, was left over from the buffer region in the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties, with the aim of preventing the sergeant from fleeing and facilitating the pursuit after fleeing. Tattoos are a sign of shame, and only criminals, handmaiden or some government craftsmen have this kind of treatment. Being a soldier was a humble occupation in the Song Dynasty. A man refuses to join the army unless he has to.
Yue Fei went to enlist in this famine year and became a "humble servant" again. He probably refused to be humiliated. With his superb martial arts skills, he tried to throw out "utilitarian soil", but he still couldn't help tattooing on the back of his hand. Yue Fei was assigned to the Pingding Army in Hedong Road (Pingding County, Shanxi Province). The imperial army (regular army) stationed in Pingding Station has five commanders, and each commander should have four or five hundred people in name. Among them, the second general of Shen Rui and the second general of XuanYijun belong to the system of guards and soldiers; The First Command of Guangrui Army belongs to the system of Guards and Horses Division. [14] Yue Fei was probably incorporated into Guangrui Army as a cavalry [14]. Sergeant Guangrui is five feet and five inches long, which is about 1.70 meters today. Soon after Yue Fei joined the army, he was promoted to "partial school".
Carrying out the recruitment system and supporting a large number of people who stopped production with huge military expenses became a stubborn disease in the Song Dynasty. The money and food distributed by the army should be provided not only to the sergeant, but also to the families of the soldiers; Not only troops but also family members live in the barracks. Raising millions of soldiers is actually raising five or six million people. Under the condition of low production level, the huge military expenditure burden is on tens of millions of farmers; Although Song Ting fished out, the financial expenditure was often extremely tight, even making ends meet.
In fact, a considerable part of the military expenditure fell into the pockets of the generals. Soldiers were deducted from their pay, forced to work hard for generals and other officials, and were abused. In order to support their families, they have to run other occupations. There is sharp opposition between officers and men in the army, and soldiers and civilians often take the road of escape and resistance. Political and military corruption, lax military discipline, dissatisfaction with the establishment of staff officers, generals deliberately reserved vacancies to impersonate and embezzle military salaries. The army is poorly trained on weekdays, or even does not train at all; In wartime, it will collapse at the touch of a button, or even collapse without fighting. Especially in the later period of Song Zongwei, Gao Qiu was in charge of military affairs and Tong Guan was in charge of military affairs. The whole huge military organization is riddled with holes.
The winter solstice in the sixth year of Xuanhe and October in the seventh year of Xuanhe (A.D. 1 125) was a quiet period before the Jin Army went south. Yue Fei and Liu live in Guangrui Barracks of Pingding Army. He was outraged by political and military evils and worried about the corruption of the military style. Since he was a child, he has heard many folk stories about Guan Yu and Zhang Fei during the Three Kingdoms period. Although the folk stories are exaggerated and inaccurate, they have reached the point where "the woodcutter is a child and he knows what he has learned". Guan Yu and Zhang Fei became hero idols that Yue Fei admired very much. After Yue Fei became a partial faction, he yearned to become a civil and military all-rounder on a par with Guan and Zhang. He practiced martial arts and training, and studied culture hard, which laid a solid foundation for later joining the cause of resisting gold.