When it comes to Song Dynasty, most military fans don't like it, because it didn't fight back against nomadic people like Han and Tang Dynasties, and lived in the shadow of barbarians in the north from beginning to end. However, if we study this period of history carefully, we will find that studying the history of the Song Dynasty is of great practical significance to the development of China at present.
As we all know, the Song Dynasty failed to recover sixteen states of Youzhou, and Song Taizong's two expeditions to Youzhou both ended in failure, so many netizens who didn't know the truth had a low military evaluation of the Song Dynasty. But how many people have thought, why can't the Song Dynasty restore the Han-Tang border and build a great empire across the north and south? This question is not difficult to answer. The international environment when the Song Dynasty was founded was very different from that when the Han and Tang Dynasties were founded. At present, the Chinese people are more optimistic about the Han and Tang dynasties. I totally agree that the Han and Tang Dynasties were the proudest dynasties of the Chinese nation (mainly the Han nationality). If we are a little more careful, we will find that these two dynasties are very similar: both dynasties were based on another unified dynasty, Qin Zuo was inherited by the Han Dynasty and Sui Zuo was inherited by the Tang Dynasty. Qin destroyed the six countries, ending the long-term division era of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period; Suiping the north and the south ended the five chaos and long-term division between the north and the south. Both dynasties ended in the second year, and the problem was the inheritance of the second emperor.
At the end of Qin Dynasty and Sui Dynasty, the world was once in chaos, but fortunately it didn't last long and the political structure of the country was not seriously damaged. After several years of war, the Han and Tang Dynasties gained a relatively complete empire, which was acquired by Qin Shihuang and Sui Wendi after decades of battles. Han and Tang dynasties got a big bargain!
In contrast, the Song Dynasty was not so lucky. The Zhou Dynasty it replaced was only the largest separatist regime at that time. In the process of founding the People's Republic of China, we did not accept the legacy of a great empire (like Han and Tang Dynasties). At that time, it was five dynasties and ten countries, and the world was in chaos. Local forces have been operating for a long time and have formed an independent country that has not yet been unified and established. National reunification is not as simple as the decisive battle between Chu and Han, nor is it as simple as the separatist forces defeated by the Tang Dynasty at the end of Sui Dynasty. National reunification needs a long-term war like Qin and Sui. More importantly, the international environment in which Han, Tang and Song lived (which is ignored by most scholars and politicians, but it is a decisive factor): the main enemy of Han is the Huns; The main enemies of the Tang Dynasty were Turks, and the main enemies of the Song Dynasty were Liao, Jin and other countries. The problem is: Huns and Turks are not real countries, they are just a powerful tribe, a nomadic people, living without a fixed place and relying on the sky for food. Tribal management is still at a relatively primitive level, with militarized organization, strong mobility and erratic coming and going. These two nomadic peoples are indeed international, and their activities range from other means of making a living. Generally speaking, they are not interested in means of production. When the desert is good and the cattle and sheep are fat, there will be no threat to the Central Plains. When natural disasters such as drought make their lives impossible, grabbing food in the Central Plains is their only choice for survival (unless the Central Plains takes the initiative to send them food). After all, the dependence of agricultural society on nature is far lower than that of natural grazing, and the agricultural population has no fixed place and scattered dwellings, which is easy to plunder. If you encounter resistance, you often fight if you can, but you can't fight and run. Therefore, after several major wars, the problem of Huns and Turks was basically solved in the Han and Tang Dynasties (it became a problem again after the Anshi Rebellion in the Tang Dynasty, but it was often ignored by historians), some surrendered to the Central Plains Dynasty, and some migrated to Central Asia and Central Europe. On the other hand, before the establishment of the Song Dynasty, Liao was already a major force in northern China. As early as the establishment, the ancestor of Liao people, Bao Ji, had already left the Tang Dynasty. When Baoji proclaimed himself emperor, North Korea paid tribute to Uighur and China paid tribute to wuyue. Shi Jingtang cut "Sixteen States of Youyan" and Qidan in 936 AD. At that time, Lu Ye Baoji had passed away, and his son Lu Ye Deguang took over the position of the kingdom of Qidan. Shi Jingtang called Yeludeguang, ten years younger than him, his father. When he wrote to the Khitan, he called the Lord of the Khitan Kingdom "the father emperor" and called himself "the son emperor". In addition to paying 300,000 silks to the Khitan every year, on holidays, messengers are also sent to give gifts to the Khitan monarch, queen mother and noble ministers. At that time, the Central Plains was still in the era of military separatism in the late Tang Dynasty, with frequent regime changes and constant wars. During the Five Dynasties, the longest regime in the Central Plains was only 17 years, and the shortest was only 7 years. In fifty years, there have been five dynasties and more than a dozen emperors. It was during the chaos in the Central Plains that Liao turned his hands into clouds and covered them with rain. In order to sow discord, and then the fisherman gains, Liao people usually play the role of helping the weak and resisting the strong. In fact, this policy has become the main magic weapon to split and weaken the Central Plains dynasty (administering China by China is not an American invention, and the patent can be applied by Qidan). By the last week, Liao had become the main enemy of the Central Plains dynasty. And basically, Liao country is often the offensive side, and the Central Plains dynasty is often the defensive side. Although Zhou Shizong once made the Northern Expedition, it only defeated the Northern Han army, but did not conquer the Northern Han (supported by the Khitan) and returned to his hometown, not to mention recovering the "Sixteen Kingdoms of Youyan" (now some scholars like to assume history, claiming that if Zhou Shizong dies prematurely, it will definitely recover the lost land in the North, which is unacceptable and unfair for historical research). By the time we arrived in Song Liguo, Liao had been officially founded for 50 years and was almost a Confucian country. First of all, they are a real empire. Secondly, they are no longer nomads, but a country with agricultural civilization (of course, in terms of folk customs and social organizations, they still maintain the resilience and paramilitary nature of nomads, which makes the Liao army maintain a strong fighting capacity). Third, they monopolized the most important war resource at that time: the horse trade. Therefore, whether it is the Song Liao War or the later Song Jin War, the war between the two countries is no longer a simple struggle for food, but for living resources and living space. When it comes to this competition, it is a matter of competing for every inch of land. This nature is determined by the characteristics of agricultural civilization (in fact, we can understand it from the Sui and Tang Dynasties Korean War. North Korea is a small agricultural country, and its national strength is simply disproportionate compared with that of the Sui and Tang Dynasties. But it is such a small country that the troops of the Sui Dynasty and those of Emperor Taizong were all in vain. Owning land means having the right to survival (and development)! Therefore, the Song-Liao War and the Song-Jin War must be cruel, long-lasting and hard to win. The battle between Song and Liao is not a battle that can decide the fate of the war. What land means to an agricultural country is undoubtedly self-evident. This in turn explains why the Liao War in Song Dynasty always won first and then lost, and it was a fiasco. Liao and Hou Jin always invaded the south, in a word: the struggle for land resources.
It can be said that even Emperor Hanwu and Emperor Taizong, whom everyone admires most, are at a loss in the face of such a harsh founding environment. Why is this happening? On the one hand, it is the pressure of grassland on the survival of nomadic people. Since the Han Dynasty, the natural environment in the north, especially the grassland, has gone from bad to worse, and desertification has become more and more serious. Since the middle Tang Dynasty, especially in the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, the earth's climate has entered a dry and cold period, which has aggravated the survival crisis of the northern people, especially nomadic people. . This is the fundamental reason for forcing some nomadic people to change their way of life. (For example, the Khitan and Tangut changed from nomadic people to agricultural people) On the other hand, the loss of fertile land in the Central Plains dynasty made it impossible for sixteen states in Youyun or Hetao areas to recover. Friends who are familiar with the history of ancient wars know that before the emergence of stirrups and the maturity of gunpowder weapons, cavalry had the same advantages over infantry as tanks or fighters today. To recover the above areas, cavalry must be used. What caused the Central Plains Dynasty to lose its fertile land? Everyone knows that Shi Jingtang, the "son emperor", betrayed sixteen states of Youyun, endangering the Central Plains dynasty for hundreds of years, but many people don't know that Shi Jingtang, who was called a "traitor", was actually not a Han Chinese, but a Shatuo nationality (a branch of West Turkistan), and the Tangut controlled the Hetao area. These fertile fields, which were originally controlled by the Han Dynasty, were controlled by foreigners because of "inviting wolves into the room". So who is the culprit of "inviting wolves into the room"? It is the Tang Dynasty that was blindly touted by many scholars. Since the end of the Tang Dynasty, the Tangut people have controlled the area (since Emperor Taizong, the troops guarding the border in the Tang Dynasty gradually fell into the hands of foreign princes, and the Hu people established an army to fight for the central government of the Tang Dynasty, which eventually led to great disaster. This is why the Anshi Rebellion was also the fault of the Tang Dynasty. The Tangut people were sent by the Tang Dynasty to govern the Hexi Corridor because of their meritorious service, and since then, the tribe has gradually grown. Moreover, when the "An Shi Rebellion" and the "Huang Chao Uprising" broke out, which threatened the rule of the Tang Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty resorted to other nomadic peoples to suppress it without exception. (In contrast, when the Yellow turban insurrectionary uprising broke out at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Eastern Han Dynasty borrowed soldiers from China to suppress the Huang Chao uprising. ) Shatuo people can only enter the Central Plains, including three Shatuo people from Hou Liang, Later Tang Dynasty, Later Jin Dynasty, Later Han Dynasty and the last five generations. This laid the groundwork for Shi Jingtang's betrayal of the sixteen states of Youyun. China's misfortunes since the Middle Ages were actually the seeds planted by the Tang Dynasty (this sentence may upset many people who praised the Tang Dynasty).