Basic Story
During Song Dynasty's invasion of the much weaker Northern Han Kingdom, Emperor Taizu of Song's army was surprised by Northern Han general Yang Ye and suffered a major defeat. Song general Pan Renmei was almost killed by Yang Ye and the Song army had no choice but to retreat. Years later, Emperor Taizu's successor Emperor Taizong initiated another invasion, again stopped by forces led by Yang Ye, his wife She Saihua, and their 7 sons. Pan Renmei was injured by an arrow from She Saihua. Emperor Taizong had to bribe corrupt Northern Han officials who spread rumors to create distrust between Northern Han's ruler Liu Jiyuan and Yang Ye. This eventually led to Liu Jiyuan's defeat and surrender.
After Yang Ye's reluctant surrender, Emperor Taizong awarded his family an impressive mansion in the capital Kaifeng called "Heaven Wave House". Gratified, Yang Ye swore allegiance to the emperor and defeated the Liao Dynasty forces from Song's northern borders again and again. The jealous Pan Renmei, also the emperor's father-in-law, offered to the emperor to name his son Pan Bao the vanguard, but the other ministers were not convinced since Pan Bao had no experience. Pan Renmei then offered to start a martial arts tournament in Kaifeng's Tianqi Temple for a month, and that the Yang family shall not participate. Yang Ye locked his sons at home, but on the last day the 7th son sneaked out the house, joined the tournament, and killed Pan Bao who had been using despicable means to kill his opponents.
After several attempts to kill Yang family members failed, Pan Renmei turned to the Liao army for help and assisted them in luring and besieging the outnumbered Yang Ye, his 7 sons and Emperor Taizong in the border city of Youzhou. With no better options available, Yang Ye's 1st son volunteered to dress as the emperor and meet the Liao prince for a risky peace talk called the "Double-Dragon Meet" in Golden Beach, while the real Emperor Taizong escaped. As feared, the meet turned out to be a trap, and only his two youngest sons remained when Yang Ye and his men retreated to Twin Wolves Mountain. He asked his 7th son to quickly fight a way out to Pan Renmei's camp for reinforcement. The 7th son managed to reach Pan Renmei, but was drugged, tied up and shot to death by countless arrows.
Severely outnumbered in the trap and with no sight of reinforcement, Yang Ye also learned the confirmed deaths of his eldest 3 sons. To avoid being captured, he committed suicide by knocking his head against a stone tablet bearing Li Ling's name. His 6th son managed to fight a way out back to the Song territory, but was confronted by generals ordered by Pan Renmei to kill him. Instead, the generals who all respected Yang Ye told him about his 7th brother's death and let him go. On the way back to Kaifeng, the 6th son also befriended a man named Wang Qin, who unbeknownst to him was a Liao spy.
When Emperor Taizong received the 6th son's report about Pan Renmei's crimes, he also received a report by Pan Renmei accusing the Yangs of treason. The first judge of the case was bribed by Pan Renmei's daughter Consort Pan and tried to help the Pans but that was stopped by the emperor's nephew Zhao Defang, also known as the "Eighth Virtuous Prince". The second judge escaped from his post for fear of offending the Pans. After a long time, the Eighth Virtuous Prince finally located a candidate for the post, a provincial official named Kou Zhun, who despite having only held tiny posts before, had a reputation of intelligence and moral principals. Finally Kou Zhun convicted Pan Renmei of multiple crimes and with the help of Eighth Virtuous Prince executed him.
As the new commander of the Song army succeeding his father, the 6th son Yang Yanzhao continued to fight the Liao forces under the new emperor. Emperor Zhenzong honored the Yang family by building a stone epitaph, which was disrespected by Xie Jinwu - the son-in-law of Wang Qin who had since become a high official. After Xie Jinwu received a heavy beating by the women in the Yang household, trouble began to arise which resulted in Yang Yanzhao being notified at the border. Worried about his mother, he without permission violated the military rules to rush back to the capital with a subordinate Jiao Zan, who couldn't control his anger and killed Xie Jinwu, creating more trouble.
Finally reinstated, Yang Yanzhao accidentally noticed that his 5th brother was a monk at Mount Wutai. Having given his soul to the Buddha at the period of despair after fighting out of Golden Beach, the 5th brother now refused to participate in Song army or return home, but he proved blood is thicker than water by helping his brother at a critical time and killing the enemy. Meanwhile, their sister - Yang Ye's 8th child - learned that her father's remains and golden sabre were kept by the Liao in Haotian Pagoda so she went across the border by herself in an attempt to retrieve the items. She was arrested but helped escape by someone who turned out to be her 4th brother, now under the false identity "Mu Yi", and who had married a Liao princess.
When Yang Zongbao, the son of Yang Yanzhao and Princess Chai, travelled to the Muke Fort in search of the Dragon Subduing Wood, which would help in breaking Liao army's Heaven Gate Formation, he met Mu Guiying, who after capturing him married him. Mu Guiying would prove instrumental in breaking the Heaven Gate Formation with the rest of the Yangs. When Yang Yanzhao died, there were few males left in the Yang family. Around that time, Western Xia invaded Song, and Yang Zongbao had been killed in action, so the twelve women in the family participated in the campaign against Western Xia. The women generals of the Yang family proved that they were not inferior to their male counterparts.
Read more about this topic: Yang Jia Jiang
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