It is said that the first emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty was a man of both civil and military skills. Why did he get the name of a runaway emperor?

Zhao Gou’s personal profile Name: Zhao Gou Born: The first year of Daguan (1107) Zodiac sign: Pig death year: The fourteenth year of Chunxi (1187) Age: 81 Posthumous title: Emperor Shengshen Wuwenxianxiao Temple name: Gaozong Mausoleum: Yongsiling Father: Zhao Ji Mother: Wei Xianfei First marriage: 17 years old Spouse: Empress Xing, Empress Wu Children: 1 son Heir: Zhao Shen Most proud: Yiyang Deokshou Palace Most frustrated: Shenfa Hui, Qinnan The most unfortunate thing about returning and losing his position: Jianyan was exiled. The saddest thing: losing fertility. The best thing: bending the knee to seek peace. In the first year of Jianyan (1127) - the thirty-second year of Shaoxing (1162), Zhao Gou, Emperor Gaozong of the Song Dynasty, was born in the first year of Daguan in the Northern Song Dynasty. (1107) On May 21st, he became the ninth son of Huizong. Mother Wei Shi was a concubine with a lower status and was not favored by Huizong. Zhao Gouben had no chance to take the throne. However, during the Jingkang Incident, most of the Zhao and Song clans were kidnapped by the Jin soldiers. Zhao was the only one who slipped through the net. Naturally, he was the "Lord of the ZTE". In the second year of Jingkang, the 21-year-old Zhao Gou ascended the throne and reestablished the Zhao and Song regime. However, Gaozong, the "Lord of ZTE", was really in name only. The shame and humiliation of his father and brother being kidnapped could not arouse his hatred for the Jin people. His "monophobia" was incurable. During Gaozong's reign, no matter what the victory or defeat was on the battlefield against the Jin, he always surrendered and sued for peace, showing the utmost groveling and begging for mercy in front of the Jin people. History has arranged for a monarch who talks about "gold" to assume the mission of resisting gold and resisting bullying. It is difficult to achieve anything. Wandering from the Imperial Court: The Legend of "The Mud Horse Crossed King Kang" All the founding emperors would have legends that were different from ordinary people. From this, people were convinced of their identity as the "destined emperor", and Zhao Gou was no exception. There is a popular story in the Southern Song Dynasty about "A mud horse crossing King Kang", and the protagonist is Zhao Gou. The storyline is very simple, but there are two different versions. It is said that at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, Zhao Gou, who was King Kang at the time, went to the Jin camp as a hostage. The Jin soldiers took him north. Zhao Gou escaped on the way. When he fled to Cizhou, he stayed at the Jun Temple in Cuifu. The dream god told him that the Jin soldiers were coming. Gou woke up with a start and saw horses prepared outside the temple, so he rode on the horse and ran wildly. This horse actually carried Zhao Gou across the Yellow River, and after crossing the river, it turned into a clay sculpture of a horse. Zhao Gou went to Jinying as a hostage, which is true in history. In the first month of the first year of Jingkang, the Jin soldiers had already attacked the city of Kaifeng. The Song court asked the Jin for peace, but the Jin people demanded that the prince and prime minister be taken as hostages before they could retreat. Qin Zong ordered Kang Wang Zhao Gou to go to Jin camp. What happened next was completely different from the legend. After being under house arrest in Jinying for more than 20 days, luck came to Zhao Gou. For some unknown reason, the Jin people suspected that Zhao Gou was not a prince and sent him back instead of taking him north as in the story, so Zhao Gou did not need to escape at all. Qinzong had no choice but to order Su Wang Zhao Shu to replace Zhao Gou and go to Jinying as a hostage. After Qinzong agreed to cede territory, pay compensation and other demands, the Jin temporarily withdrew their troops, but King Su was not released. Instead, he was taken captive to the north and became Zhao Gou's scapegoat. Another story is that in the early years of the Southern Song Dynasty, Zhao Gou had ascended the throne, the imperial court moved to Yangzhou, and the Jin soldiers marched southward. The vanguard was about to attack Yangzhou City. Zhao Gou did not receive a battle report in advance. At this time, after hearing the news, he fled in panic overnight. Afraid that his pursuers would overtake him, he hid in a riverside temple. Suddenly he noticed the clay horse in the temple moving under the moonlight, so he rode the horse across the Yangtze River and fled to Hangzhou. Compared with the previous version, the latter version seems to have more real elements. Except for the "mud horse crossing the river" plot that closely follows the theme of the story, other plots are well documented. On May 1, the second year of Jingkang, Zhao Gou ascended the throne in Yingtian Mansion and established the Southern Song Dynasty regime as Song Gaozong. When the Jin people learned that Zhao Gou had reestablished the Zhao family's regime, they immediately began a new round of southern invasion, with the purpose of wiping out Zhao Gou before his foothold was stable. In the autumn of the first year of Emperor Jianyan's reign (1127), the Jin Dynasty divided its forces to attack the Song Dynasty. Emperor Gaozong was afraid of repeating the mistakes of the Jingkang Incident, and despite the opposition of the war ministers and generals, he moved the imperial court to Yangzhou in October. In February of the third year of Jianyan, Zong Han sent troops to attack Yangzhou and captured Tianchang. The forward was only dozens of miles away from Yangzhou City. Gaozong was having fun in the harem at this time. When he heard the battle report, he hurriedly led a few followers to ride out of the city and rushed to Guazhou to cross the river to escape. This sudden shock also left serious sequelae for Zhao Gou, and he lost his fertility from then on. In fact, the contents of the two versions of "Lou Chuan" in the Song Dynasty are similar, but there are differences in the place and time when the story took place. The former is in the north and the latter is in the south; the former is before the accession to the throne, and the latter is after the accession to the throne. Although the legends are all fabricated and even nonsense, they can also reflect the historical reality to a certain extent. The geographical and time span of the story of "The Mud Horse Crossing the River" shows Zhao Gou's life of escape from north to south during the period of the late Northern Song Dynasty and the early Southern Song Dynasty. Before taking the throne, on the way to escape in Hebei, Zhao Gou and his ministers burned firewood and cooked rice in the cold wilderness, and ate together under the hut. Shortly after taking the throne, another mutiny occurred. Dissatisfied with the eunuchs' misbehavior, the generals of the Royal Camp, Miao Fu and Liu Zhengyan, who were escorted by the retinue, surrounded the palace, killed the eunuchs, and forced Gaozong to give way to the three-year-old prince Zhao Min. Empress Zhezong and Meng were in charge of the affairs behind the curtain, and she was changed to the Ming Dynasty. . The mutiny lasted for two months. Later, Han Shizhong raised troops to quell the rebellion, and Gaozong was restored. Only half a year later, the Jin soldiers broke through the Yangtze River defense line and headed straight for Hangzhou, where the Song court was located.

Gaozong had no choice but to retreat to the sea to avoid the enemy, and wandered along the coast of Wenzhou for four months. There were waves in front of them, soldiers chasing after them, and food, clothing, and supplies could not be supplied in time. One can imagine the embarrassment of the Southern Song Dynasty monarchs and ministers. Once, Emperor Gaozong was so hungry that he ordered the boat to dock and walked to a temple to ask for food. The monks had no time to prepare, so they had to offer five cooking cakes. Zhao Gou actually ate three and a half cakes in a row. Understand the feeling of being hungry and cold. But all this did not seem to sharpen Zhao Gou's tenacious will, nor did it inspire his fighting spirit; on the contrary, the experience of being a hostage in the Jin camp allowed Zhao Gou to witness the strength and ferocity of the Jin soldiers. Whenever he thought of , he still had lingering fears. He abandoned the hatred of the country and family when his father and brother were taken captive, the country fell, and the soldiers and civilians who fought bloody battles in the Central Plains. He would rather endure the wind and frost on the road just to save his own property and life. On the way to escape, Gaozong never forgot to beg for peace from the Jin people. He repeatedly sent envoys to the Jin camp. In his credentials, he even called himself "Kang Wang" and said that he ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor without the permission of the Jin Dynasty. It was a big mistake, and now he was willing to give up the throne and surrender to the Jin Dynasty. The attitude of groveling and begging for mercy is vivid on the page. Emperor Gaozong's pleas could not stop the Jin soldiers from continuing to move south. However, the resistance of the majority of soldiers and civilians in the Southern Song Dynasty caused the Jin soldiers to suffer repeated defeats. In addition, the humid climate and dense rivers in the south of the Yangtze River were not conducive to the Jin Dynasty's cavalry operations. The Jin army's coach Wanyan Wushu Decided to withdraw troops. On their way to the north, the Jin soldiers were constantly attacked by the soldiers and civilians of the Southern Song Dynasty. When retreating to Zhenjiang, Song general Han Shizhong led the navy to cut off the return route of the Jin soldiers and forced them into Huangtiandang, 70 miles northeast of Jiankang. The Song army surrounded 100,000 Jin soldiers with 8,000 troops. The two sides were in a stalemate for 48 days. The Jin soldiers failed to break through the encirclement many times. Finally, they used fire attacks to open the gap and retreat. Wushu's army had just escaped from the siege of Han Shizhong and arrived in Jiankang. They were blocked by Yue Fei's troops and defeated again. Yue Fei recovered Jiankang. The Jin army never dared to cross the river again. In April of the fourth year of Jianyan, Emperor Gaozong learned at sea that the Jin soldiers were withdrawing to the north, so he returned to Yuezhou from Wenzhou via Mingzhou. Yuezhou was geographically remote and water transportation was inconvenient. A large number of officials and troops from the Southern Song Dynasty were concentrated here, and the supply of materials could not be guaranteed. In contrast, Gaozong never forgot Lin'an (Hangzhou) where he had stayed when fleeing. The transportation there is convenient, the rivers and lakes are intertwined, and the Jin cavalry cannot gallop, which greatly increases Gaozong's sense of security; it is also located in a land of fish and rice, with rich products, which can basically meet the needs of the Southern Song Dynasty court; and since the Tang and Five Dynasties, Hangzhou passed through After long-term development and construction, it has become a prosperous and beautiful "first state in the southeast". It is undoubtedly a huge attraction for Emperor Gaozong who has just suffered from displacement and is eager for a comfortable life. In the second year of Shaoxing (1132), Emperor Gaozong moved the capital to Hangzhou. The Southern Song Dynasty court finally got a chance to breathe and initially established a firm foothold in the southeast.