From the first year of Jianyan to the third year of Shaoxing in the Southern Song Dynasty (from the fifth to the eleventh year of Jin Tianhui, 1127-1133), during the war between the army and the people of the Southern Song Dynasty against the Jin Dynasty, Wang Yan, the governor of Hebei Province, led the Taihang Mountains District volunteers fought against the Jin army in Henan, Sichuan, Shaanxi and other places. After the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty, rebels rose up to fight against the Jin soldiers in the areas occupied by the Jin army. In September of the first year of Jianyan, Wang Yan led Yue Fei and other 11 generals, 7,000 people, to cross the Yellow River north and regain Xinxiang (now part of Henan). After being besieged by tens of thousands of Jin troops, they were outnumbered and led his troops to break through to the Yellow River. * City (now Huixian County, Henan Province), united with the rebels from the two rivers in the Taihang Mountains (i.e. Hedong, Hebei, and the central and southern areas of Shanxi and Hebei today), persisted in resisting the Jin Dynasty. The officers and soldiers of the unit had the Chinese character "Serve the country with all their hearts and vow to kill the golden thieves" tattooed on their faces to show their determination, so they were called the "Eight-Character Army". Not long after, Fu Xuan, Meng De, Liu Ze, Jiao Wentong and other leaders of the Lianghe Zhongyi Militia also led more than 100,000 people from 19 villages under their command to attack, repeatedly defeating the Jin army's edge and boosting their momentum. In the second year, Wang Yan wanted to lead the Eight-Character Army to the north to take Taiyuan. Since the Song Dynasty begged for peace from Jin Dynasty and was not allowed to send troops, Wang Yan and more than 10,000 elite Eight-Character Army soldiers were called to guard Tokyo (now Kaifeng, Henan). In three years, the Eight-Character Army cooperated with the Xuanfu envoy Zhang Jun in Sichuan and Shaanxi, and moved to Sichuan and Shaanxi with the Jin Army, winning many times (see the Battle of Sichuan and Shaanxi). In the first year of Shaoxing (1131), in the battle against the rebels of the Southern Song Dynasty and the puppet Qi army (see the battle of the Song Dynasty against Li Cheng), the Eight-Character Army defeated Sang Zhong, defeated Li Zhong, captured Guo Zhen, and regained Qinzhou (governing Shangbang, Today's Tianshui, Gansu) and other places. In February of the third year, the Jin army attacked Raofengguan (now west of Shiquan, Shaanxi). Wang Yan led the Eight-Character Army to cooperate with Wu Jie to guard the key pass. The Jin army wore heavy armor and forcibly climbed the mountain. The Eight-Character Army stood high and relied on the dangerous terrain to defend tenaciously for 6 days and nights, severely damaging the Jin army (see the Battle of Raofengguan). Xuan took advantage of the Jin army to retreat north and regained Jinzhou (governing Xicheng, today's Ankang, Shaanxi).
The Eight-Character Army originated from the rebel army and was later transferred to the official army. It defeated the Jin army many times and was an anti-Jin rebel army with outstanding achievements in the early Southern Song Dynasty