Jin Forces Take Lishui, 1129 CE

Background

In the fifth month of 1129 CE, the third year of the Jianyan era, the emperor, having crossed to the south, stayed at Jiangning Prefecture; the prefecture was therefore renamed Jiankang Prefecture, with Lishui under it and its rank fixed as a ciji, a secondary metropolitan county. The gazetteer records the renaming and the Jin invasion under the same year.

Time and place

Lishui fell in the eleventh month of that year. The gazetteer records that the Jin attacked Jiankang first, and that Lishui fell with it.

The event

高宗建炎三年己酉，帝南渡。五月，驻跸江宁府，因改名建康，溧水隶之，等为次畿。冬十一月，金人犯建康，陷溧水，尉潘振死之。

Translated: In the third year of the Jianyan era the emperor crossed to the south. In the fifth month he stayed at Jiangning Prefecture, which was therefore renamed Jiankang, with Lishui under it and ranked as a secondary metropolitan county. In the eleventh month of the winter the Jin attacked Jiankang and took Lishui; the wei, or county defender, Pan Zhen died in the event. This is a translation, not the words of the original.

The wei was the county's subordinate military officer. The gazetteer gives no route, no numbers and no account of the assault on the town.

Consequences

Lishui was taken by the Jin that winter and Pan Zhen died. The gazetteer records neither the extent of the damage to the town nor how it recovered. Lishui thereafter belonged to Jiankang Prefecture, until the prefecture was made a circuit in the early Yuan.

Uncertainties

The gazetteer says only that Pan Zhen "died in the event", and gives no account of his defence or of his career. Apart from the county defender, the movements of other officials in Lishui that year are not recorded.