23. Political Intrigues Did in and Doomed Yue Fei
After the Jurchen tribes overran northern China, Yue Fei accompanied the Gaozong Emperor during the flight to the south, and assumed military command of the remnants of the Song forces. He managed to defeat the pursuing Jurchens, and kept them from advancing further into China. However, his efforts to recover the northern territories were foiled by a powerful peace faction, which balked at the expense of continuing the war. He was poised with his armies to recapture the lost Song capital of Kaifeng, when courtiers advised the Gaozong Emperor to recall him and open peace negotiations with the Jurchens.
The Gaozong Emperor worried that a final victory over the Jurchen would end with the release of his captive brother, the previous Song emperor, who had been taken prisoner in the fall of Kaifeng. As that would threaten his own claim to the throne, the Gaozong Emperor accepted his courtiers’ advice and recalled Yue Fei to the capital in 1141. There, the brilliant general was imprisoned and eventually executed on trumped-up charges in 1142. Ironically, Yue Fei had tattooed on his back the phrase “serve the country with the utmost loyalty“.
