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Wu Lin
Southern Song general, younger brother of Wu Jie, who fought beside him at Heshangyuan and Xianrenguan and then held the Sichuan front against the Jin for nearly thirty years
At dusk on a hilltop, a large tent stands open with a table holding a map marked with small stones inside, a saddled horse tethered outside, and fire stands burning; campfires dot the river plain below, and one tiny sentry stands on the slope.
Also known as Zi Tangqing · Prince of Xin · Shi Wushun
Wu Lin, courtesy name Tangqing, came from Longgan in Deshun and joined the army as a youth with his elder brother Wu Jie, making his name as a mounted archer. In 1131 he helped his brother rout the Jin at Heshangyuan, and in 1134 he fought hard at Xianrenguan to throw back the assault of Wanyan Zongbi and Salihe. After Wu Jie died in 1139 he gradually took over command of the Sichuan and Shaanxi armies and defeated the Jin at Yanjiawan in 1141. When the Jin ruler Wanyan Liang invaded in 1161 he recovered Qinzhou, Deshun and more than ten other prefectures, but after Emperor Xiaozong's accession the court ordered the land abandoned, and his army suffered heavily in the withdrawal. He died at Xingzhou in 1167 at sixty-six and was posthumously made Prince of Xin with the name Wushun.
Life and times
Dates 1102 CE–1167 CE