Since soil organic matter (SOM) significantly competes with petroleum hydrocarbons to consume reactive oxygen species (ROSs), the efficient remediation of petroleum-contaminated soil by chemical oxidation is limited. In this study, an efficient treatment for the remediation of petroleum-contaminated soil comprising directional oxidation was constructed based on the enhancement of SOM stability. A mechanism was proposed whereby SOM pretreatment with hydrogen peroxide (HP) produced more binding sites, such as O-H, C=O, and C-O, thereby making SOM to be maximally stabilized by forming OM-Al-mineral complexes after adding aluminum salts (AS). The two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy (2D-COS) of the FTIR spectra certified that C-O was more sensitive to HP pretreatment and Al cross-linking. Specifically, the enhancement of SOM stability improved the relative reactivity of ROSs to total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs) (kTPHs), driving approximately 30 % of the ROSs to be transferred for the directional oxidation of TPHs. Under such conditions, the directional oxidation amount of TPHs by activated persulfate was up to 13,083 mg/kg (53.55 %), equivalent to 2.67, 1.82, and 1.39 folds of the control CK, HP, and AS treatments, respectively. Subsequently, indigenous bacteria degraded 10,969 mg/kg (44.90 %) of TPHs during a 60-day incubation. Notably, the expressions of the functional genes related to the biodegradation of alkanes and aromatic hydrocarbons were up-regulated. The final amount of TPHs removal, including directional oxidation and biodegradation, obviously increased to 24,052 mg/kg (98.45 %) in the sequential pretreatment with HP and AS. This study provides a new insight into the efficient remediation of petroleum-contaminated soil by enhancing SOM stability.