The Northern Song Dynasty was an era of unprecedented economic and cultural prosperity in the feudal history of China, but it made little achievements in military affairs. In 979 AD, Song Taizong, who had just ascended the throne, was ambitious and wanted to make a difference in the military, and launched a war against the northern Liao country. Trying to recover sixteen counties, but unfortunately, Song Jun suffered a heavy defeat in the Gaoliang River. From then on, the foreign war in Song Dynasty changed from strategic attack to strategic defense, which also laid the groundwork for the signing of the "Union of Yuan" in the Song and Liao wars in the future.
In A.D. 1004, Xiao Taihou and Emperor Shengzong of Liao led a great army south, and 200,000 Liao soldiers were on a roll, approaching the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, killing each other became a gesture of dialogue. Encouraged by the pacifists, Song Zhenzong, the menacing Liao army, wanted to move the capital to the south and fled. Under the persuasion of the hawks who were subject to the prime minister, Song Zhenzong made up his mind to personally make diplomatic relations.
At Song Jun's insistence, Xiao Talan, a Liao army, was killed by Song Jun, and the war was reversed. In the end, the two sides signed the famous "Oath of Alliance" in Kuizhou, and the warring sides opened a 120 peace situation.
First, the loss of "sixteen States"
In 9 16 AD, Lu Ye Baoji, the leader of the Khitan, conquered the tribes on the grassland through bloody conquest and established the Khitan Dynasty. The Great Wall in sixteen northern states blocked the Khitans from going south, and this line of defense collapsed in the later Tang Dynasty. Shi Jingtang, a husband and wife in the later Tang Dynasty, wanted to help himself ascend to the throne with the help of the Khitans.
So he reached an agreement with Qidan to cede sixteen strategically important states of the Central Plains to Liao as a gift. The cession of sixteen states made the Central Plains lose its barrier, and the Central Plains dynasty could no longer use the Great Wall as a barrier to resist the invasion of northern nomads.
In this political transaction, it became the biggest victim after the Northern Song Dynasty unified the Central Plains. The northern frontier defense in the Northern Song Dynasty seems to have been torn open with a huge gap, revealing a naked chest, waiting for a fatal blow from the nomadic people in the grassland.
Second, the "Battle of Gaoliang River" became the root of the Song and Liao wars.
In 979 AD, Song Taizong sent troops to destroy the Northern Han Dynasty. Encouraged by the victory, Song Taizong and Zhao Guangyi, who were eager to make contributions, decided to recapture the "sixteen states" ceded by the later Tang Dynasty in the Northern Expedition. However, Song Taizong made a serious mistake. The Central Plains has just been unified, and the army has been exhausted after years of fighting. It is taboo to go to a powerful country like Liao with a tired army.
In the early stage of the war, Song Taizong successively won Yizhou and Zhuozhou, but Song Taizong, who was eager to make contributions, did not rest his army, and chose to continue northward, leaving Song Jun alone in the hinterland behind enemy lines. Liao army reinforcements meet Song Jun in the Gaoliang River outside Youzhou. Tired Song Jun was caught between Scylla and Charybdis and suffered heavy losses. Song Taizong also fled back to the Song Dynasty with serious injuries. In the following 25 years, the Song-Liao border friction occurred frequently.
Third, Xiao Taihou, the Liao country, increased its chips by "promoting peace through war"
Since ancient times, "promoting peace through war" has been the usual means of politicians. The Liao dynasty poured out the power of the whole country, and the empress dowager and the emperor used personal expedition to attack the Song Dynasty. Her core purpose is "promoting peace through war". In her later years, she hoped to solve the border problem between Song and Liao through negotiation, and harmony was her goal from the beginning. However, the Liao dynasty's attack did not achieve obvious results, nor did it lay a city in the Song Dynasty.
Xiao Taihou decided to put all your eggs in one basket, put off an adventurous journey to the named state capital, hoping to win more benefits from the Song Dynasty at the negotiating table by relying on the momentum that the named state capital defeated Song Jun in World War I.. Unexpectedly, Song Jun accidentally injured George W. tarlan when he was investigating the pre-war terrain in Ai State. Xiao Dalan's death plunged the momentum of the Liao army, and Xiao Taihou was deeply saddened.
As the reinforcements of the Song Dynasty gradually flocked to Jizhou, the Liao army alone went deep into the hinterland of the Song Dynasty for more than 600 miles, which was already dangerous. When Xiao Taihou faced an unfavorable battlefield situation and was not defeated by Song Jun, he made peace.
Impact 1. The Main Contents of Yuan Dynasty Alliance
It is of extraordinary pioneering significance for the Zen House Alliance to end the war by peaceful agreement rather than war. In the single-source alliance, the Baigou River is the national border, the two sides withdraw their troops, and Liao returns Song Sicheng and Yingzhou. Song and Liao agreed that the two countries were brotherly countries, and Emperor Sheng of Liao was young and called brothers. In the Song Dynasty, Miao was given silver 10 Liang every year and 200,000 horses were donated. The two sides set up markets at the border to carry out mutual trade.
Impact 2. The "Temple Alliance" achieved a win-win situation for Song and Liao.
It seems that the conclusion of "Yuanmeng" by Song and Liao Dynasties was the content of compensation in the Northern Song Dynasty, but at that time, this 300,000-year-old coin accounted for 1.5% of the annual cash income of the Song government, and the Song Dynasty achieved long-term peace at the minimum cost. In the past, every spring, the Liao Dynasty basically invaded the border of the Song Dynasty and robbed it. After the two sides signed the contract, there was no robbery, and the Song people obtained a stable production environment.
The conclusion of the Mongolian-Yuan alliance also brought a hundred years of peace and prosperity to Liao. In A.D. 1020, the emperor of Liao Dynasty built a magnificent royal temple on his mother's family fief. To commemorate Xiao Taihou's achievements, Xiao Taihou urged the signing of a peace treaty, resolved a mutually damaging war, and received an annual gift of 300,000 RMB.
For Liao country, this is undoubtedly an unexpected best result, and it can also boost the political prestige of the emperor and empress dowager of Liao country and play a positive role. The Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival reproduces the prosperity of Bianjing, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty. Behind this prosperity is the "Longyuan Alliance" concluded by Song and Liao. After this win-win treaty, the 25-year-long war between Song and Liao ended and 120 years of peace began.
120 years, the economy of the northern song dynasty developed rapidly, and the material civilization reached an unprecedented height, and a large number of writers and artists appeared, among which six of the eight masters of the Tang and Song dynasties also appeared in this period. It can be said that this period, like Italy in the Renaissance, released powerful cultural energy in a short time and pushed Confucian culture to a new peak. This is the most prosperous era, and it is also an era full of ideological vitality.