Zongze called three times to "cross the river"

After the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty, King Zhao Gou, who had remained in Xiangzhou, fled to Nanjing (present-day Shangqiu, Henan Province). In May 1127 AD, Zhao Gu assumed the throne in Nanjing, and this was Song Gaozong. This remote Song dynasty, which later set its capital at Lin'an (present-day Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province), is historically known as the Southern Song.

After his accession, Song Gaozong had to recall Li Gang to the court as chancellor under the pressure of public opinion. But in reality, he trusted two of his cronies, Huang Qianshan and Wang Boyan.

Li Gang put forward many anti-Jin ideas. He also told Song Gaozong, "To regain Tokyo, we must use Zong Ze."

Zong Ze was a general who resolutely fought against the Jin Dynasty. Before the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty, Song Qinzong once sent him as a peace envoy to the Jin capital to negotiate peace. Zong Ze told people, "I am not going to return alive from this mission. If the Jin people are willing to retreat, it is good; otherwise, I will fight with them to the end. I would rather lose my head than let my country suffer disgrace."

When Song Qinzong heard how tough Zong Ze was, he was afraid that he would hinder the peace talks, so he removed him from his post as peace envoy and sent him to magnetism as a magistrate.

When the Jin soldiers attacked Tokyo for the second time, Zong Ze led the troops to fight against the Jin soldiers and won thirteen battles in a row, and the situation was very good. He wrote to the then King of Kang, Zhao Gou, asking him to gather all the generals to meet in Tokyo; he also wrote to three generals, asking them to act jointly to rescue the capital. The generals were not only unwilling to send troops, but also laughed at Zong Ze for talking crazy. Zong Ze had no choice but to lead his troops to fight alone. Once, the Song army he led was surrounded by the Jin army, which was ten times larger than the Song army. Zong Ze said to his generals, "Today it is death to advance and death to retreat, we must kill our way out of death." Inspired by him, the generals fought bravely with one against a hundred and repelled the Jin army.

Song Gaozong had long known Zong Ze's bravery, and this time, after listening to Li Gang's recommendation, he assigned Zong Ze as the governor of Kaifeng Prefecture.

At this time, although the Jin soldiers had withdrawn from Kaifeng, the city walls were all destroyed after two big battles. The people and soldiers were mixed; in addition, near the Yellow River, the Jin soldiers were often active on the north bank. People in Kaifeng were in fear and social order was very chaotic.

Zong Ze had great prestige among the soldiers and people. As soon as he arrived in Kaifeng, he gave an order: "Anyone who robbed the residents of their belongings will be strictly punished according to military law." Once the order went down, there were still several robberies in the city. After Zong Ze killed a few robbers, the order gradually settled down.The people of Hebei could not stand the plundering and burning of the Jin soldiers, and they organized volunteer armies to fight against the Jin army. Li Gang strongly advocated relying on the strength of the volunteers to organize a new anti-Jin army. After Zong Ze arrived in Kaifeng, he actively contacted the righteous army. Hearing of Zong Ze's reputation, the volunteers from all over Hebei accepted his command.

There was a leader Wang Shan in Hedong who gathered 700,000 men and wanted to attack Kaifeng. When Zong Ze learned this news, he rode alone to meet Wang Shan. With tears in his eyes, he said to Wang Shan, "Now is the time when the country is in danger, if there are a few heroes like you who work together to resist the war, will the Jin people still dare to invade us?"

Wang Shan was so moved by his words that he shed tears and said, "I would like to listen to the command of Zong Gong."

Other volunteers like Yang Jin, Wang Zaixing, Li Gui, and Wang Dalang, all had tens to hundreds of thousands of men and horses. Zong Ze also sent people to contact them and convince them to unite and resist Jin together. In this way, the outer defense of Kaifeng city was consolidated, the people in the city were stable, there were enough food stocks, prices were stable, and the situation before the chaos was restored.

However, at the moment when Zong Ze was preparing to go north to restore the Central Plains, Song Gaozong, Huang Qianshan, and Wang Boyan was afraid of the insecurity of Nanjing and prepared to continue to flee south. Li Gang was removed from his post by Song Gaozong because he opposed the southward escape.

Zong Ze was so anxious that he crossed the Yellow River and asked the generals of the volunteer armies in the north of the river to fight against the Jin soldiers together. He built twenty-four forts around Kaifeng, and set up camps along the Yellow River, interconnecting them like fish scales, called "Lianzhu Zhai".

Zong Ze repeatedly submitted a memorial requesting Gao Zong to return to Kaifeng and preside over the resistance against Jin. However, when the medal reached Huang Qianshan and other people, the traitors made fun of Zong Ze for being a madman and withheld his medal. After a short time, Song Gaozong fled from Nanjing to Yangzhou.