In the Southern Song Dynasty, there were four Yang Mantang with the same name and surname, which were unique, and the most famous was Yang Zaixing, the first fierce general of Shijing Tu.

Yang Zaixing, the leader of Red Banner Yang, was martyred in Xiaoshang River, and the people of Chengbu Village were very dissatisfied with this, feeling the incompetence and mediocrity of the imperial court.

At that time, Yang Zaixing led tens of thousands of soldiers from Chengbu to the north to fight against Jin, and ended up with a horse leather shroud. Although the imperial court recruited Yang Zaixing to go north to resist Jin, it did not fulfill its promise in the Wugang army, and favored the people of Chengbu Miao and Yao, but increased taxes, and the phenomenon of land annexation became increasingly prominent.

Almost at the same time, the Wugang Army on the Hunan Road came out with an uprising leader Yang Zaixing (formerly known as Yang Mantang), this Yang Mantang is not the anti-gold hero Yang Zaixing, but a member of the Zaixing tribe, born in the fourth year of Yuanfeng (1081), Wugang Military City Buzhai (now Wugang County, Hunan) in the south of Miaoshou, born in a strong family.

At the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, Yang Mantang had a certain amount of power, and secretly formed a society in the southwest of Hunan (now south of Chengbu) to secretly cast weapons and recruit soldiers. In the first year of Jianyan, he took his troops out of the Wugang Army and was active in the Lingnan area.

In February of the fourth year of Jianyan (1130), Zhong Xiang led the people to revolt and defend his hometown at the critical moment when the Jin people slaughtered Tanzhou (now Changsha, Hunan) and Kong Yanzhou's army, which had been defeated from the battlefield, invaded Lizhou (now Lixian County, Hunan) and Dingzhou. The founding name of Chu, the year name is Tianzai (a heavenly war), Zhong Xiang proclaimed himself the king of Chu, and established his son Zhong Ziang as the crown prince and set up official subordinates.

Zhong Xiangyi's army resisted the robbery of the rout and the Youkou group, broke the county, burned the official mansion, and killed the corrupt officials, with the slogan "equal to the noble and the low, both rich and poor", which was responded to by the people of 19 counties in Ding, Li, Tan, Yue, and Chen (now Li County, Changsha, Yueyang, and Yuanling in Hunan).

The Southern Song Dynasty court was frightened and saw it as a great danger to the henchmen, so they sent troops to ask for it. In March of the fourth year of Jianyan in the Southern Song Dynasty (1130 AD), the Song Dynasty defeated the army of Kong Yanzhou, a group of Youkou to suppress it, and the righteous army fought hard and won the first battle. Later, because Kong Yanzhou was sent to infiltrate the rebel army as an internal response, Zhong Xiang was defenseless, seriously injured and captured, and then Kong Yanzhou brutally killed him.

After Zhong Xiang's sacrifice, hundreds of thousands of righteous soldiers were not frightened, and under the leadership of Yang Mi and Xia Cheng, they moved into the Dongting Lake area.

Yang Mantang learned that Zhong Xiangyi's army was in the Dongting area, and when he heard the news, he decided to be the first to respond to the call. In the first year of Shaoxing (1131), Yang Mantang and the military advisor Zhuge Twilight were in the base area of Gutian.

Yang Mantang said: "Today, the Song Dynasty has expropriated excessively and seized the land of my Miao people, as an official field, it is really too deceitful!" ”

Zhuge Twilight said: "King, I heard that Shijing Tu Yang Mantang also had an incident, why don't you join forces with him to fight against the imperial court?" ”

Yang Mantang thought for a while and said, "No, although this person is my brother, he is from a poor family, which is not appropriate." Moreover, if the two rebel armies of the Yang clan form an alliance and make a big move, the court will regard it as a great disaster, and it will be unfavorable to me and him. ”

Zhuge Twilight said, "What does the king want?" ”

Yang Mantang said: "Dongting Lake Yang Mi and Xia Chengyi's army are like the sun, and if you contact him, you won't be attacked by the enemy." ”

Zhuge Twilight said: "King, Dongting Lake is thousands of miles away from my Gutian, Yuanzhou is close to me, and Yang Qi's general Xia Cheng has already taken it, why don't you send someone to negotiate with you, okay?" ”

Yang Mantang said: "Good." The stakes are high, who is up to the task? ”

Zhuge Twilight said: "I am willing to serve the king and go to Yuanzhou." ”

Yang Mantang said: "This is extremely dangerous, and there is no military division in the army." ”

Zhuge Twilight said: "The two princes, Wen Taowu Luo, can they be sent?" ”

Yang Mantang shook his head: "Although Zhengxiu is witty, he is impetuous, which is inappropriate; If you rely on force, you will be in trouble. ”

Zhuge Twilight said: "Doesn't the king want to go to Yuanzhou in person?" ”

Yang Mantang said: "Those who know me, Zhuge also." Lonely has to do it, lonely can't go, and sincerity is not enough. ”……

As soon as he returned from Yuanzhou, Yang Mantang and his sons Yang Zhengxiu and Yang Zhenggong led the people of all ethnic groups in Miao, Yao, and Dong Jiutong to take Lingang as a base and hold an uprising.

The rebels operated in Wugang, Quanzhou, Yongzhou, Shaozhou and other state armies, cutting off the connection between Lingnan and the Central Plains. The rebels were so powerful that they besieged the walled city (Suining County), which always threatened the ruling institutions of the Song court, and the county had to move to Sujiazhou, which was under armed control in the north of Suining County, and lived in exile for more than 20 years.

At the same time, there was a Taoist priest named Mo Liuming in Penxi of the Wugang Army, this person was good at running, could walk 300 miles day and night, repeatedly offended the laws of the Great Song Dynasty, had thousands of people, and he had millions of dollars to recruit samurai.

When Mo Liuming learned that Yang Mantang had an incident in Lingang, he also joined the rebel army, and the two rebel armies became one. Since then, the Wuxi area of Hunan Road has become the world of the peasant army.

Zhao Gou proclaimed himself emperor in Lin'an in 1127, and only a few years after his accession to the throne, peasant uprisings were everywhere, and the Jin soldiers often went south to plunder. For this reason, he could not sleep and eat, and the internal instability made the emperor's position unstable.

The Song Dynasty quickly dispatched Cheng Changyu, the envoy of Dingli Town and the governor of Dingzhou, to lead the naval army to attack Xia Cheng Shuizhai by car and loach boats, and was defeated by the rebels at the mouth of the Xialan River (now northeast of Hanshou, Hunan).

After the rebels seized a large number of official and military vehicles and ships, they cut down timber such as pine and fir and camphor nan in the Ding and Li areas on a large scale, built large vehicles and ships, fortified them tightly, and cultivated land and water warfare, which not only gained the advantage of water warfare, but also obtained the prosperity of silkworms, and their strength increased day by day.

Yang Mantang, a member of the Miao nationality of the Wugang Army and the branch of the Dongting Lake Righteous Army, had more than 10,000 soldiers, robbed the rich and helped the poor, drove away the officials and soldiers, and threatened the security of the southwest of present-day Hunan and the northern part of Guangxi.

In view of the chaotic situation on Hunan Road, Song Gaozong had no choice but to send Prime Minister Zhang Jun to Dongting Lake to suppress the main force of Zhong Xiang and Yang Mi's righteous army. The pacification envoy of Hunan Road, Xi Yi, sent the commander Wu Xi to lead his troops to attack Yang Mantang in the Wuxi area.

Yang Mantang's spies had long known that the official army was coming to suppress them, so they decisively broke the team into pieces, pulled them all into the mountains, and started a guerrilla war.

The rebel armies in Mao'ershan, Dagu Mountain, Langshan and other places sent small units to attack the officers and troops entering the mountains from time to time, and they came and went without a trace. The firearms carried by the pursuing officers and soldiers were unable to give full play to their advantages, and they were at a loss for what to do.

As soon as Wu Xi arrived in Wuyang, Suining, he reorganized the local government and landlord forces, changed the battle plan, and decided to take the lead in eliminating the central stronghold of the rebel army, "Lingang County", and give Yang Mantang a dismount.

The official army randomly arrested a few villagers in Sujiazhou and asked them to lead the way to attack Yang Mantang's righteous army. How do you know that these villagers happen to be the eyeliner that Yang Mantang planted in the temporary county administration. Who is not easy to catch, Wu Xi caught the opponent's spies as soon as he caught it, and Wu Xi had to drink a pot.

Under the coercion of the Song army, several "villagers" served as guides for the officers and soldiers, and all the way to Song Xishui, Wu Xilema stopped advancing, and asked a guide with a horse whip: "What is this place called?" ”

The guide said, "General Hui, this is Song Xi." On the west side of the stream, there is a high mountain called the first line of heaven, which is a natural pass and easy to ambush. I am willing to ask the general not to lead the troops to go further, I am afraid of King Miao. ”

Wu Xi looked up at the mountain peak in the west, and sure enough, the mountain shape was steep, so he believed the guide's words, thinking that the thief Kou Yang Mantang must divide his troops to guard the first line of the sky, so he asked the military advisor Zhang Xiansong: "Is there a good plan?" ”

Staff member Zhang Xiansong said: "General, we should avoid attacking the real and attacking the false, look for fighters in the movement, and take them by surprise. ”

Wu Xi said: "The military advisor is reasonable, and he gave me an order to go to Dagu Mountain and raid the lair of the Penxi thieves." "Follow the guide and lead the way, heading east.

The township guide knew that Wu Xi had been deceived, so he was secretly happy, pretended to be very obedient, and led the officers and soldiers to walk along the area of Putou and Shanfang, and entered the towering Dagu Mountain.

Dagu Mountain is nearly 100 miles in circumference, the terrain is complex, the ravines are vertical and horizontal, the big col is connected with the small col, there are large areas of ancient trees and bamboo forests, the bamboo trees are thick, and the forks are densely covered. Yang Mantang led more than 1,000 elite people of the righteous army to wait here for a long time, waiting for Wu Xi and them to send them to the door and give them a head-on blow.

Yang Mantang's subordinates Mo Liuren were very good at ambush warfare, and he led hundreds of people to dig a lot of traps in various dangerous places in Dagu Mountain, and set up many hidden weapons in the woods that were about to explode, and Yang Mantang was very satisfied with this.

The officers and soldiers walked in the mountain for most of the day, until the end of the afternoon, they climbed the Iron Cliff Ridge on the Great Ancient Mountain, only to see that the topography of the mountain was suddenly flattened, and a lush bamboo forest was endless.

Since he did not encounter any resistance from the rebels along the way, Wu Xi, who had always been cautious, relaxed his vigilance at any time and ordered the troops: "Brothers, let's rest for a while." ”

"Yes, General."

So the soldiers of the Song army also relaxed and went to the bamboo forest. As soon as I sat down, something strange happened. Many soldiers' feet were caught in iron clips buried in the bamboo forest, and they couldn't pull them out. Some of them fell directly into the pit several meters deep, and were instantly pierced by the bamboo sticks of the trap, which was miserable.

"Oh no, we've been tricked." Wu Xi hurriedly asked the officers and soldiers to walk outside the bamboo forest. The officers and soldiers who were in a mess were like frightened birds, and they were in chaos without a fight, and when they touched the hidden mechanism in the bamboo forest, the bows and arrows set up there in advance were automatically fired, and hundreds of soldiers were concentrated.

Arrows were fired in the forest, and the officers and soldiers fell one after another. Wu Xi couldn't help but be shocked: "Today I am waiting for the time of death." ”

Yang Mantang stood on the top of the iron cliff, wearing a black robe, majestic, holding two small flags of different colors, waving them a few times, thousands of rebels appeared all over the mountains, and the Song army was so frightened that his legs and feet were weak, and he was stunned!

The condescending Yang Mantang bent his bow and arrows, and "swished" shot two feather arrows at Wu Xi, but Wu Xi couldn't dodge it and was hit by an arrow in his shoulder.

Wu Xi couldn't help but break the arrow feather, and threw out a small round ball in the direction of Yang Mantang. There was a loud bang, smoke billowed out, and a pungent smell followed.

"Get down, get down." Yang Mantang hurriedly shouted.