Di Qing (1008-1057), a native of Xihe, Fenzhou (now Shanxi), was a famous general in the Northern Song Dynasty.

Because there are tattoos on the face, he is good at riding and shooting, and he is called

"General Face". He was born in poverty, the first year of Song Renzong Baoyuan (1038) for the commander of Yanzhou, brave and strategic, in the Song-Xia War, he wore a cloak, wore a copper mask, charged into battle, and made outstanding achievements.

In the imperial court, Yin Zhu, Han Qi, Fan Zhongyan and other important ministers had a good relationship with him. Fan Zhongyan gave "Zuo's Spring and Autumn Period", and Di Qing read books and was proficient in the art of war.

Promoted to Privy Vice-Minister. There were 25 battles before and after his life, and the most famous was the attack on Kunlun Pass on the fifteenth night of the first month of the fifth year of Huangyou (1053).

During his lifetime, Di Qing was suspicious of the imperial court, which led to his final depression; After his death, he was courteously treated and respected, and was posthumously given the Chinese book order and the nickname

"Wu Xiang". Di Qing was born in poverty, and when he was 16 years old, because his brother fought with the villagers, Di Qing received it on behalf of his brother and was been

"Arrest the sinner, and make a name for himself", began his military career,[1] proficient in horseback riding, shooting.

In the early days, he was a cavalryman who belonged to the Imperial Horse Straight, and later chose to be scattered. In the early days of Baoyuan, Li Yuanhao of Western Xia rebelled, and the imperial court issued an edict to select guards to the frontier, and appointed Di Qing as the third class messenger, palace attendant and Yanzhou commander.

At that time, the generals on the front line were repeatedly defeated by the enemy, and most of the soldiers were afraid and timid.

After four years of fighting, he fought 25 battles before and after, and hit as many as eight arrows. Captured Jintangcheng, captured Youzhou, slaughtered the tribes of Luba, Suixiang, Maonu, Shangluo, Qingqi, Jiakou and other tribes, burned tens of thousands of stone of grain stored in Western Xia, seized 2,300 tents, and captured 5,700 people.

He also built Qiaozigu City, and built castles such as Zhao'an, Fenglin, Xinqi, and Dalang, all of which stifled the enemy's vital places.

In the battle of Anyuan, he was seriously injured, but when he heard that the Xixia* team had arrived, he rushed forward again, and the soldiers also scrambled to fight hard.

When fighting against the enemy, the cloaks were scattered, with copper masks, and in and out of the enemy's army, the Western Xia army was invincible, and no one dared to stop it.

[2] When Yin Zhu was the judge of the economic strategy, Di Qing asked for a meeting as an indicator, and Yin Zhu talked to him about * things and admired him very much, so he recommended him to Han Qi and Fan Zhongyan, the envoys of the economic strategy, and said: "This is the material of a good general." As soon as the two saw Di Qing, they thought he was a genius and treated him with courtesy.

Fan Zhongyan taught him to read "Zuo's Spring and Autumn Period" and said to him: "The generals don't know the history of ancient and modern times, so they only have the courage of a horseman." Di Qing changed his interests from then on, began to read, and finally mastered the art of war of the generals since the Qin and Han dynasties, so he became more famous.

Ji Gong was promoted to the deputy envoy of the Xishang Cabinet Gate, and later promoted to the Qinzhou Assassin History, the deputy head of Jingyuan Road, the deputy envoy of Jinglu Recruitment, and the commander of the four compartments of the Tianwu Dynasty, and the training envoy of the Huizhou regiment.

[3] Portrait of Di Qing Portrait of Di Qing [4] Song Renzong wanted to summon Di Qing and ask him about the military plan because of Di Qing's many military exploits, and when the Western Xia invaded Weizhou, he ordered him to draw a map of the matter and send it up.

After Li Yuanhao surrendered to the Western Xia, Di Qing was transferred to the deputy capital of Zhending Road, and successively served as the commander of the guard infantry army in front of the palace, the defense envoy of Meizhou, the deputy commander of the Shengbu Army, and the deputy commander of the Baoda Anyuan Second Army.

[5] Di Qing struggled in the * team, and only became noble more than ten years later, when he still had black scars on his face.

Song Renzong once advised Di Qing to apply medicine to get rid of the black scar, Di Qing pointed to his face and said: "Your Majesty promoted the minister according to merit, and did not ask the minister's origin door; The reason why the minister has today is because of these scars, the minister hopes to keep it so that the drum can pacify the reign of Nong Zhigao Emperor You, Guangyuan Prefecture barbarian Nong Zhigao rebelled, captured Yongzhou, and broke through the nine states along the river, surrounded the city of Guangzhou, and the area outside the ridge was in turmoil. Yang Jin and other pacification envoys were responsible for dealing with the pacification of the barbarian rebellion, but the Song army did not achieve anything for a long time. He also ordered Sun Wei and Yu Jing to be pacification envoys and lead the official army to crusade against the traitors, but Song Renzong was still not at ease. Di Qing reported to ask for war, and when he met Song Renzong the next day, he said: "The minister was born as a soldier, and there is nothing to serve the country except to kill the enemy on the battlefield." I hope to bring hundreds of cavalry, plus some forbidden soldiers, to cut off the heads of the traitors and send them back to the capital. Song Renzong admired his bold words, so he appointed him as the envoy of the Xuanhui Southern Courtyard and Xuanfu Jinghu South and North Road, responsible for dealing with the Guangnan rebellion, and set up wine in the Vertical Arch Hall to see him off.

At that time, Nong Zhigao returned to reoccupy Yongzhou, and Di Qing joined Sun Wei and Yu Jing's * team to enter Pennsylvania.

[7] Prior to this, both Chiang Kai and Zhang Zhong were defeated and killed due to the underestimation of the enemy, and the prestige of the official army declined greatly. Di Qing ordered the generals not to engage the rebels in vain, but to obey his unified command.

Chen Shu, the ruler of Guangxi, took advantage of Di Qing's arrival, and led 8,000 infantry to attack the rebels without authorization, and was defeated at Kunlun Pass.

Di Qing said: "The inconsistency of orders is the reason for the failure of the * team. In the morning, the generals were gathered to the hall, Chen Shu was arrested, and Yuan Yong and other 30 people were summoned, and according to the crime of defeat and escape, they were beheaded at the military gate.

Sun Wei and Yu Jing looked at each other in astonishment, while the generals trembled with fright. [8] Di Qing Di Qing later stopped advancing and rested for ten days.

The scouts reported that they thought the Song army would not attack soon. But Di Qing gathered * team of men and horses the next day, crossed the Kunlun Pass in one day and night, and set up a formation from Quy Nhon.

After the rebels lost their dangerous positions, they all came out to meet them. The striker Sun Jie fought with the traitors at the bottom of the mountain and died, the morale of the rebels was extremely high, and Sun Wei and the others were so frightened that their faces changed.

Di Qing commanded the cavalry with a white flag in his hand, and rushed out from the left and right flanks, out of surprise for the rebels. Defeated the rebels, pursued for 50 miles, beheaded thousands, Nong Zhigao's party Huang Shimi, Nong Jianzhong, Nong Zhizhong and the pseudo-bureaucrats were killed 57 people, more than 500 traitors were captured, Nong Zhigao fled after setting fire to the city at night.

At dawn, Di Qing strictly managed the * team and drove into Yongzhou City, seized tens of thousands of gold, silver and jade silks, thousands of miscellaneous animals, and recruited 7,200 old and middle-aged people who had been captured and coerced by the rebels, and released and dismissed after being comforted.

The heads of Huang Shimi and others were hung under the city of Yongzhou for public display, and the corpses of the rebels were collected to build a Jingguan in the north corner of the city.

At that time, there was a golden dragon robe among the corpses of the rebels, and his subordinates said that Nong Zhigao was dead and wanted to report to the imperial court.

Di Qing said: "How do you know that this is not a scam? I'd rather say that Nong Zhigao is missing, than dare to deceive the imperial court to covet war exploits. "At the beginning, when Di Qing arrived in Yongzhou, he encountered a poisonous miasma here, some people said that the rebels released poison in the upper reaches of the river, and many soldiers died when they drank water, Di Qing was very worried.

One night, there was a spring water gushing out from under the village, take a drink, the taste is sweet, * team relied on this to tide over the difficulties.

[9] Di Qing Di Qing was later reinstated as the deputy envoy of the privy council, and was promoted to the envoy of the national army and the Yin of Hezhong. After returning to Jingshi, Song Renzong rewarded him for his merits, appointed him as a privy envoy, and rewarded him with a set of mansions in Jingshidun Jiaofang, and gave special priority to his sons to be promoted to official ranks.

At first, after Di Qing had led his troops south, Song Renzong often worried about him, saying: "Di Qing has a reputation for might, and the rebels should be afraid of his arrival." The person who served as the herald of the left and right must be Di Qing's cronies, although it was time to eat and drink, and he should be prepared for the launch of a surprise attack. So he sent messengers to the front to reprimand.

After learning that Di Qing had defeated the rebels, Song Renzong said to the prime minister: "Quickly agree on a reward, if you are slow, it will not play the role of reward." [10] At first, the Jiaozhi people asked for help* to help the imperial court crusade against Nong Zhigao, but Yu Jing said that they were credible, so he prepared 10,000 people's grain and grass in Yongzhou and Qinzhou to wait for them.

Song Renzong also issued an edict to reward Jiaozhi with 30,000 yuan for military expenses, and promised a generous reward after quelling the rebellion.

After Di Qing arrived, he ordered Yu Jing not to send an envoy to Jiaozhi to borrow troops, and immediately said: "Li Dezheng of Jiaozhi State claimed that he would lead 50,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry to support, but it is not true. And it is not beneficial for me to use barbarians to destroy the inner gangsters. With a nong Zhigao can run rampant and ravage the two Guangzhous, so that the imperial court is unable to crusade, if you borrow troops from the barbarians, then the barbarians are insatiable, unkind and unjust, and then start a war, how to resist them? Please cancel the assistance to be handed out. The opinion was adopted.

After the rebels were put down, people admired him for his long-term strategy. [11] Depressed and depressed, Di Qing Di Qing served as a privy councillor for four years, and whenever he appeared, the soldiers would always point to him and praise each other.

Because Di Qing's dog had horns and shone many times, the counselor asked him to be transferred out of the capital in order to protect his reputation, but Song Renzong did not reply.

In the first year of Jiayou (1056), the Beijing division sent a big water, Di Qing avoided the water and moved his family to Xiangguo Temple, and actually lived in the Buddha hall, the people were quite puzzled and discussed, and the court lowered Di Qing to the same Zhongshu Men under the Ping Zhang, and left Beijing to serve as the governor of Chenzhou.

In February of the second year of Jiayou (1057), he died of depression due to poisonous sores on his mouth. The emperor mourned for him, posthumously presented him with a Chinese book order, and gave him a confession

"Wu Xiang". [12] In the first year of Xining (1068), Song Shenzong ranked the generals of the modern era secondly, thinking that Di Qing was born in the army and became famous, deep and strategic, and could be cautious and preserved, with a beginning and an end, he was quite emotional and missed Di Qing, ordered to take Di Qing's portrait and put it in the palace, and personally made a sacrificial text for him, and sent a messenger to his house to sacrifice with the etiquette of the prison.

[13] Encouragement* team, dare not follow your orders. Later, he served as the prefect of Yanzhou as the envoy of the Changhua Military Festival, and was promoted to the deputy envoy of the privy council.

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