Yue Fei (1103 A.D.-1141 A.D.) was born into a very poor family.   His father died when he was very young and his mother could not support both of them.   As a result, she moved into a richer family and worked as a servant.   Yue Fei befriended the rich owner's son and together they studied martial arts and the art of war together.   Eventually, Yue Fei befriended many other warriors who had the same ideal of protecting the Sung Dynasty from Northern invaders, the Jins.   Yue Fei began to serve in the army when he was in his early 20's.   With incomparable martial art and military skills, he was quickly promoted to the rank of a general, and then the grand commander of the whole Chinese army.

The Jin Empire, growing in power, had invaded and captured Northern China earlier.   Now it tried to expand South many times but was pushed back.   In the first war and in a single battle, Yue Fei, with only 8,000 troops, destroyed a Jin army of 100,000 troops.   The Jin prince, the commander himself, was killed in a duel with Yue Fei .   The Jin Khan was furious, he sent a larger army under the command of his youngest son, the most talented Jin military leader of that time, Jin Wu Su.  Nevertheless, Jin army suffered defeats after defeats and Jin Wu Su had to retreat.   Yue Fei then pushed North, trying to recapture Northern China, which fell to the Jins in earlier wars, and rescue the two Sung emperors who were taken prisoners of war.

However, the current Sung emperor (Gao-Zong) objected because he thought that if the other two emperors were rescued, then he would have to abdicate the throne.   As a result, he ordered Qin Hui, the evilish priminister who had some personal grudges against Yue Fei (his adopted son was killed by Yue Fei's son Yue Yun), to plot to prevent Yue Fei's northward push and to get rid of him for good.   Jin Wu Su also used this opportunity to his advantages.   He bribed Qin Hui to spread bad rumors about Yue Fei, saying that he was cooperating with the Jins to overthrow the Chinese emperor.   Fell for this plot, the young emperor hurrily called Yue Fei back home and ordered him imprisoned.   Other generals, Yue Fei's friends, objected to the emperor's imprisonment of Yue Fei, sent him a message stating that if Yue Fei were killed, then there would be no other generals with enough skills to fight the Jins, plus this terrible killing would leave a bad impression on the emperor's image and nobody would serve him with loyalty.    The young emperor began to understand them and was about to release Yue Fei.   However, Jin Wu Su heard of this.  He sent a larger bribe to Qin Hui and asked him to kill Yue Fei.   Qin Hui ordered Yue Fei to be beheaded before the emperor had the chance to rescue him.

Legend had it that Yue Fei was an Eagle Deity from Heaven who was sent to Earth to protect the Sung Dynasty from the Jins. Although dead, Yue Fei was imprinted in the hearts of many Chinese as an image of skillful, righteous general (never lost a battle) with unchanged loyalty.   He left a famous war manual (written while he was in prison) that was used by later Chinese generals.   He was raised to the rank of a lord before his death.