Du Gao

Du Gao

Du Gao (g ǎ o) (1173-1248 July 19), Zi Xin, Yu Geng, was born in Chengguan, Shaowu (now Fujian). He was a famous general and scholar in the Southern Song Dynasty.

Du Gao was born in an official family. He started his career in the reign of emperor ningzong of the Song Dynasty in Jiading, and later went to Jianghe and Huaihe to set up the shogunate. In the 12th year of Jiading (1219), he led the army to aid Chuzhou and solve the siege of Jin people. Tired official know Anfeng army, in Anfeng war and Luzhou war defeated the Mongolian army. He served successively as deputy and transit envoy of Huaixi, Zhizhi envoy along the Yangtze River, zhijiankang Prefecture, Minister of the Ministry of power and punishment, and Minister of the Ministry of officials. In his later years, he became an official with a Bachelor of Baowen Pavilion. In 1248, Du Gao died at the age of 75. He was presented with Kaifu instrument and the third division.

Du Gao was a talented man of literature and martial arts. There are some incomplete sentences in Quan Song Shi.

Source: Genealogy of Du family in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province

Life of the characters

Du Gao was born in an official family. His father, Du Ying, went to Jiangxi Province to put him in prison. Because of his father's relationship, Du Gao was arranged to serve in Haimen salt farm. Before taking office, he was summoned by Chen Pengshou, a prison officer in Fujian Province, to act as min Wei. Later, he was employed as an aide by Li Jue, a system envoy of Jiang and Huai dynasties.

In the 12th year of Jiading (1219), the Jin soldiers besieged Chuzhou (today's Chuxian County in Anhui Province), and he led the rescue. In the fierce battle, he was shot two arrows in the face. Not only did he not go to the battlefield, but also he was calm in commanding the battle, which greatly stimulated the morale and beat back the attack of Jin Bing. After a long time, Jin Bing had to retreat. This battle showed his outstanding military ability, and he was transferred to Jiangshan county. When Zeng Shizhong, the Huaixi Zhizhi envoy, was appointed as the governor of Luzhou (now Hefei City, Anhui Province), there was a mutiny there, and Du Gao went alone to quell the rebellion. At that time, tens of thousands of Jin soldiers stationed in Yulin port (now Yulin, Shaanxi Province) asked to surrender. Some people suggested that they should be killed after the Jin soldiers surrendered to seize the supplies. Du Gao believed that "it is not benevolent to kill and surrender, it is unjust to seize goods, and there will be future trouble if they accept them". He advocated that the Jin soldiers should be educated, and then all of them should be demobilized.

In the first year of Duanping (1234), Jin was destroyed by the Southern Song Dynasty and Mongolia. In order to recover the "three capitals" (now Kaifeng, Luoyang and Shangqiu) occupied by the Jin people, the imperial court sent General Quan Zicai, General Zhao Kui and General Zhao fan to fight. Du Gao was appointed as the judge of Huaixi transportation. He thought that "the Yangtze and Huaihe rivers have been suffering from famine for many years, and it is possible to consider the hinterland of the Yangtze and Huaihe rivers. The imperial court strongly opposed leaving Heluo.

In the first year of Jiaxi (1237), the Mongol king wenbuhua attacked Anfeng. When Du Gao knew Anfeng's army, he first moved the army and people to Huaicheng, and ordered his son Du Shu to escort silver and grain to meet them, and set up ambush around the city. The Mongolian army pounced on the air, and Du Gao led the army to pursue and fight fiercely, winning a complete victory, and the Mongolian army was defeated. The Mongolian army attacked the city with artillery and destroyed all the towers of Anfeng city. At the beginning, Du Gao made up for the damage immediately. Later, Du Gao invented a kind of mobile wooden building made of wood. Because it was very high, it could be placed next to the moat. There were arrow windows on it to shoot. The buildings were connected with crossbars, which could mobilize troops as on the city wall. The firmness of this kind of building was three times that of the ordinary city building, and it was easy to make Hundreds of them were built at a time to form a defense line. If a building was destroyed by the Mongolian army, it would be replaced by a new one, just like a moving wall.

After a long siege, the Mongolians finally used stones to fill 27 bridges on the moat of Anfeng City, which could directly attack Anfeng city. However, Du Gao immediately sent song soldiers to seize and hold the 27 bridgeheads inside the moat. The Mongolian army organized a group of brave warriors, who were made of more than ten layers of thick cowhide armor. They even covered their faces and attacked the song army. Du Gao took advantage of the fact that no matter how tight the armor was, he could not completely cover his eyes. He selected a group of archers from the song army, and used a special small arrow to shoot at the eyes of the Mongolian army, killing many brave warriors in the Mongolian army.

With the Mongolian army's siege time prolonging, all song reinforcements also approached Anfeng. Chizhoudu controlled LV Wende, who was the first song general to lead reinforcements to Anfeng. He broke through the encirclement of the Mongolian army with one stroke and entered Anfeng city to join Du Gao. The morale of the song army was greatly boosted, and they were informed of the deployment and operational plan of the song army in the periphery.

Therefore, after another fire attack by the Mongol army failed, Du Gao recruited brave men to counter attack the Mongol army and won some dams and bridges where the Mongol army filled the moat. At the appointed time, Du Gao's army and LV Wende's army in Anfeng City attacked the Mongol army inside and outside of Anfeng City with Yu Fan's army, Zhao Kui's army and Xia Guijun's army to repel the Mongol army, and beat back the Mongol army's artillery The siege equipment and other equipment that could not be removed were all destroyed, and the Mongolian army suffered a serious blow, leaving more than 17000 corpses and then retreated in a hurry. Anfeng's three-month persistence was another major victory of the song army in the Lianghuai battlefield. After the war, Du Gao was promoted to Vice Minister of Huaixi and also known Luzhou.

In the autumn of the second year of Jiaxi (1238), more than half a year after the defeat of the Mongolian army in Anfeng, the Mongolian commander Chahan led the Mongolian army to attack Lianghuai again. The Mongolian army, known as 800000 troops, surrounded Luzhou (now Hefei, Anhui), intended to conquer Luzhou, and then used Chaohu Lake as the base to train the water army to cross the Yangtze River.

This time, the Mongolian army was more fully prepared. The equipment used to attack Anfeng was several times as much as that used to attack Anfeng. However, it was doomed that Mongolia would not get any benefits because Du Gao had made great contributions to guarding Anfeng and was promoted to the position of vice minister of Zhizhi in Huaixi and also known Luzhou, where the Vice Minister of Zhizhi was located.

Just as in the battle of Anfeng more than half a year ago, the Mongolian army and song army came and fought with each other for offensive and defensive equipment. In order to prevent the song army from reinforcement, the Mongolian army built a 60 mile long wall to encircle Luzhou, but it was eventually destroyed by Du Gao. The Mongolian army continued to attack Luzhou with guns. However, Du Gao used the abundant materials in Luzhou City, and built a turret on the basis of the wooden building designed last time to fight with the Mongolian army The army launched a gun battle. After such an offensive and defensive battle for a period of time, the Mongolian army knew that it could not take Luzhou, which was defended by Du Gao, so they had to withdraw the encirclement and move eastward.

However, at this time, Du Gao had more troops than Anfeng. After the withdrawal of more than half of the Mongolian army, he took advantage of the victory to open the city gate and attack the rear army of the Mongolian army. Song generals Lu Wang and Li Wei led 200 brave soldiers to the rear of the Mongolian army and defeated the Mongolian army. Du Gao commanded other song troops to chase and kill for tens of miles before returning to the army. They also sent LV Wende, Nie bin, etc. to lead the navy to guard the huaishui River, so that the Mongolian army could not continue to go south. After the war, Du Gao was promoted to Huaixi for his meritorious service.

In the third year, the Mongol army invaded again. Taking advantage of his fatigue, Du Gao ordered his son Du Shu and his son LV Wende and Nie bin to supervise the army. He attacked from outside and delivered 27 successful reports. The court was surprised and promoted Du Gao to minister of the Ministry of power and punishment.

In the first year of Chunyou (1241), Du Gao asked for his resignation again and again. The imperial court granted him the Minister of the Ministry of industry and retired as a direct bachelor.

In the second year of Chunyou (1242), the Mongolian army invaded the South on a large scale. Du Gao was appointed as the magistrate of Taiping prefecture (now Dangtu, Anhui Province). He was promoted to be a Bachelor of huawenge, a system envoy along the Yangtze River, and a government official of zhijiankang (now Nanjing, Jiangsu Province). He stayed in Anqing (now Anqing City, Anhui Province), Hezhou (now Hexian County, Anhui Province) and Wuwei (now no County, Anhui Province). In Zhenzhou (now Yizheng, Jiangsu Province), the Mongolian army was defeated.

In 1248, Du Gao died at the age of 75. The imperial court bestowed him as the third division of Kaifu Yitong.

Main achievements

Du Gao was a famous general who fought against Mongolia in Song Dynasty. He was brave and good at fighting. He made many miraculous achievements on the battlefield. He was born into an official family. Besides martial arts, he was also rich in literary talent and had his own views on politics. During his tenure as county magistrate of Lu'an (now Lu'an, Anhui Province) and Dingyuan (now Dingyuan, Anhui Province), he has made great achievements. In his later years, he devoted himself to Neo Confucianism, but regretted that no works were handed down.

When fighting against the invasion of Mongolia, Du Gao designed a special flat bottomed boat to go back and forth on the trench and kill the trench filling soldiers of the Mongolian army. In addition, according to historical records, Du Gao also invented goose pear gun, three bow crossbow and other weapons to help guard the city, and Du Shu, Du Gao's son, also invented a kind of row fork wood to help guard the city (but due to the lack of historical data, the use of these weapons can no longer be known). At that time, there was a new invention of using wood to open the net cover on the wall of Anfeng city. The elasticity and toughness of the net and the gap between the net and the wall were used to eliminate the big stones thrown by the stone thrower to protect the wall of Anfeng city.

Historical evaluation

Li zongmian and Xu rongsou: no one is more handsome than Du Gao in Huaixi. (cited by < I > < I > < I > History of Song Dynasty)

Zhao Yun: Du Gao and his wife are both meritorious. If they give up their military power, what can I do for them? (< I > "Song History" cited < / I >)

Liu Kezhuang: do your best to talk with Han. This pipa, vaguely like music, suddenly broken strings. Once a year, Zuo Mo has cheated the southerners. Sigh a few places, the city is as dangerous as an egg. After Yuan Kai lived in a jade tent, he reported to hu'er and Xiu for ordinary reading. Strict order, good fortune. Open the door and fight. Laugh in the middle of the night, Xi car felt room, beast Jing bird scattered. Each of them has a towering crown and a horizontal dust handle. Who is the king. There is no limit to the Yangtze River. No matter Zhou Lang was young or not, he was able to recover from the microtubule. Chilubu, build Beijing view. (< I > < I > < I > congratulations to the bridegroom Du Zixin

Tuotuo: Du Gao, Wang Deng, Yang Yao, and Zhang Weixiao, who thought of their own fame, were all gifted talents. (< I > History of the Song Dynasty < / I >)

Tao Zongyi: to be strict, to be good at writing, to learn quickly. (< I > < I > < I > Book History meeting < / I > < I > < / I >)

Hu Yinglin: Mongolia destroyed the Jin Dynasty, and the power had already defeated the Song Dynasty

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