Later Zhou Shizong Chai Rong, Xiande succeeded to the throne in the first year of the reign as emperor. Holding the will of "for the king for thirty years and sweeping the world", we will carry out internal reforms and slowly strive to be strong. Recruit troops from outside and expand their territories.
From 956 onwards, it continued to attack the Southern Tang. In 958, the Southern Tang Dynasty and Northern Prefectures were all pocketed. By 959, he personally led the army and marched north, trying to restore Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures and other places by force. When entering the territory of the Khitans, because of the fear of the prestige of Zhou Shizong, the Khitan Mozhou Thorn History and the Yingzhou Thorn History both surrendered the city one after another. Unfortunately, God is jealous of talent. Such a meritorious monarch died young, reigning for only five and a half years, and "thirty years for the king" finally became a dream.
After the death of Zhou Shizong, the young son ruled the country, and various forces were eager to move, and Northern Zhou was ultimately unable to escape the short-lived curse of the five generations and eight surnames and thirteen kings. Zhao Kuangyin, the minister of military power in the dynasty, took all the power into his hands and eventually established the Northern Song Dynasty.
Like the monarchs of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the first consideration of this new regime is how to prolong the life of the dynasty, and how to easily take away the power in hand.
Faced with these problems, Zhao Kuangyin focused his attention on the control of those who exercised military power. First of all, in the conquest of the Later Zhou dynasty, the most powerful forbidden generals, these founding fathers after the founding of the country more or less with some "arrogance", "self-sustaining" temperament, coupled with the fact that they all held the power in the army, it was inevitable that the emperor would not be jealous. Therefore, Zhao Kuangyin's first priority was to remove these unstable factors. This major problem was solved, and when appointing new generals of the Forbidden Army, most of them chose new people with shallow seniority and good control, and then transferred them frequently in various names. ''Soldier Impermanent General, Impermanent Soldier'' "Let Zhao Kuangyin firmly put the military power in his pocket.
Secondly, it was a situation in which the former prime minister had nothing to do, and even the emperor had to be constrained by it. In addition, the deputy envoys and privy councillors who had been briefly set up during the five dynasties of the late Tang Dynasty were also set up as formal regular officials, and the mutual restraint between the officials was used to completely control the chancellor in the hands of the emperor. None of the thirteen monarchs of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms could realize their wishes, and under the top-level design of Zhao Kuangyin, the life of the Northern Song Dynasty was extended.
After completely grasping the fruits in his hands, Zhao Kuangyin set his eyes on the fruit trees of other people's homes.
In fact, as early as the zhou shizong period, he was already dissatisfied with the narrowing of the scope of the central plains government, and desperately wanted to expand to obtain more land. When Zhou Shizong died, he was discussing with the generals how to seize Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures by force. According to this situation, if Zhou Shizong did not die, the next step of Later Zhou would be to attack the Yanyun Prefectures by force.
However, history did not assume that Zhou Shizong was still dead. The task of expansion was placed in the hands of the nascent regime of the Northern Song Dynasty.
But to the south or to the north? The answer given by Zhou Shizong was north. Since ancient times, the north has always been the economic and political center of the country, and whoever wins Guanzhong is not far from the days of winning the world. If you want to unify the world, how can you not take Guanzhong first? So how should Zhao Kuangyin choose?
''South''',' history proves that Zhao Kuangyin finally chose to go south. What was it that made Zhao Kuangyin make the decision to go south in the era when the mainstream idea of "those who have passed the pass will win the world"?
All things seek advantages and avoid harms, and choose the south, naturally Zhao Kuangyin saw the southern value that could not be seen in the eyes of others. During the Five Dynasties period, the Central Plains region has been in the midst of war, the economy has not been effectively developed because of environmental influences, a large number of people can not stand such a life, in order to survive, in order to survive, in order to live, have fled south. The influx of a large number of people allowed the south to be fully developed during this period, and the original unfavorable geographical factors were effectively improved by virtue of the wisdom of the working people, and the future land of fish and rice gradually emerged at this time.
However, the situation of the "southward movement of the land" was not very clear during this period. Politicians who were keenly aware of this change and adjusted their career orientation accordingly could be said to have no second person at that time except for Zhao Kuangyin, the grandfather of the Song Dynasty.
Zhou Shizong's three attacks on the Southern Tang were all shallow and stopped, and when the point was reached, he immediately turned to the north. The importance of the Southern Tang was not understood at all. In addition to Zhou Shizong, the most regrettable ones are probably Li Sheng and Li Jing of the Southern Tang Dynasty, the father and son who do not know the true face of Lushan, who are in a period of increasing national strength and political changes in the Central Plains. For the Southern Tang Dynasty, the land crossed the Jianghuai River, sat on the name of the number one powerful country in the south, and the national treasury was full, and the form was very favorable. But unfortunately, we can't see the trend of slowly moving southward.
The founding emperor Li Sheng, who was the first emperor to have the ambition to unify the world during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, regarded himself as a descendant of Li Yuan of Tang Taizong and wanted to restore the foundation of the Tang Dynasty. If he could focus on the countries of Fujian, Chu, and Wuyue, unify them and develop their economy, then the power of the Southern Tang Dynasty would be unmatched. But unfortunately, in Li Sheng's eyes, Guanzhong was still the place where the "wind and clouds gathered" in those years, drawing on the experience of the predecessor Li Yuan's "Quickly Taking the Three Qins and Becoming an Emperor alone". Li Sheng set his first career in Guanzhong and Luohe, opposing the march in the direction of Jiangnan, but achieving nothing. In the end, they still have to complain about their own "lack of geographical advantages", but in fact, they are sitting on the treasure land without knowing it.
You know, just over four hundred years later, also on the land of the Southern Tang Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang also made a cause that shocked the world under similar circumstances to Li Sheng in that year. What Zhu Yuanzhang adopted was exactly the strategy of taking Jiangnan from the south that Li Sheng had abandoned
In addition, even the few generals who supported Song Taizu's southern expedition did not fully see the value of the south. The reason why Li Gu, Wang Pu, Zhao Pu, and others persuaded Song Taizu to take the south was that they believed that the south was a small country in the southern barbarians, and that attacking these countries was like an autumn wind sweeping away the fallen leaves, and it was effortless to take advantage of it. After dissolving these small projectile countries, you can concentrate on the north.
Only Song Taizu fully realized the value of the south and exerted its maximum value in the process of external expansion and unification. In view of the dilemma of insufficient finances in the Northern Song Dynasty, Song Taizu proposed to rely on the financial resources of the southern countries to make up for the shortcomings of the Financial Deficiencies of the Northern Song Dynasty and achieve the fullness of the national treasury.
After deciding on the general direction to the south, Song Taizu combined the suggestions of several courtiers and the experience of his many years of military career. A specific offensive range was worked out.
First conquer the land of Bashu, the richness of Bashu has existed in ancient times, Qin destroyed Chu, Jin destroyed Wu, Sui destroyed Chen, and must first lift Bachu. Obtaining this piece of heavenly land must have been of great benefit to the finances of the Song court. Moreover, it is also extremely convenient to go from Hunan to Lingguang, so after occupying its land, along the river, you can take Guangnan and Jiangnan.
In the actual use of troops, the first step was to first obtain the two lakes, and the second step was to destroy houshu. The second was Liangguang, while Wuyue and Fujian took the initiative to submit, and after the destruction of the Southern Tang in 975, the southern separatist forces had basically all ended. During this period, except for slight differences in the capture of Bashu and the Two Lakes region, the rest was carried out step by step.
The formulation of the strategy of "First South and Then North", the consideration and decision-making of the South is like this, what about the North? And what is the consideration?
In the policy considerations at that time, the main target of the North was the Northern Han Dynasty.
The Northern Han Dynasty, whose main territory was located in a regime in present-day Shanxi Province. At that time, its political power was actually not large compared with the Northern Song Dynasty. But the fatal thing is that the Northern Han still has a Khitan nest behind him. As a nomadic clan regime, its combat capabilities are naturally self-evident. Most people who have learned the history of modern Europe know that there are often small countries living in the gaps between the two large countries. This is actually a buffer zone, where the contradictions between the major powers can be resolved and digested. However, once the two countries border each other, from time to time there will be guns and guns.
Therefore, in order to avoid not directly confronting the Khitan as much as possible, the Northern Song Dynasty considered leaving the Northern Han issue for later handling. However, the infighting in the Northern Han Dynasty in 969 made Zhao Kuangyin think that he could take advantage of a loophole and personally lead the army to attack. As a result, at the time of the siege, the Khitan sent troops to help, and Zhao Kuangyin eventually led his troops to return without success.
In addition, in Song Taizu's "first south and then north", this "north" did not include Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures. When Song Taizu repeatedly discussed strategic issues with his subordinates, he did not mention Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures. As such an important region, Song Taizu obviously would not have been mentioned because of oblivion. This may be because the strategy is not taken into account in the formulation of the strategy. Fearing the military strength of the Khitans, they could not start the Northern Han Dynasty, nor could they put the Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures on the agenda, which had already been taken. But after all, Youyan is the homeland of the Central Plains Dynasty, and China's concept of home country since ancient times has made recovering the lost land of the homeland a heavy responsibility on the shoulders of every generation of kings.
Under such a burden of thought, Song Taizu naturally would not sit idly by in Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures. In the unified policy, there must be a place for Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures.
But in what way? Resorting to force, but facing the mighty Khitan Dynasty, was the Northern Song Dynasty really an opponent? What should we do if we run out of vitality and lose our troops, if we can't recover the lost land, or even cut new land?
In the face of the embarrassing situation that Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures had more than enough and insufficient strength, it was different from abandoning the Youyan abandoned sub-sect and placing Yanyun in a position that did not have to be recovered or should not be recovered, and it was also different from Zhou Shizong and later Song Taizong and others who attached great importance to recovering their homeland. However, in the face of the strategic deployment of recovering lost territory, it is not only unclear to detect the enemy situation and despise the military strength of the Khitans, but more importantly, the problem of treating the recovery of Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures is regarded as a problem of the same nature as the use of force in other regions.
The Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun are actually a historical problem, as early as before and after the Later Jin Dynasty, they have been ceded to the Khitan one after another, and then experienced two dynasties of the Later Han Dynasty and the Later Zhou Dynasty. By the time of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun had risen to become a legacy of ethnic groups. With the continuous economic, military and other exchanges with the central plains ethnic groups, the Khitan and other ethnic minorities have shown a trend of Sinicization on the basis of various forms, and their comprehensive strength should not be underestimated.
At the same time, many of the customs and systems they brought with them gradually became popular in the Central Plains. The fusion between Yi and Han has diluted the concept of "Yixia Great Defense" since ancient times, and the state of estrangement and hatred between nationalities has been dissolved. Such a social environment enables the two nationalities to carry out more realistic, objective and rational exchanges. Therefore, Song Taizu put forward a new idea of peaceful redemption first, and force conquest as the second.
After the Southern Expedition, the military strength is bound to be reduced, coupled with the long-term running and fighting of the generals, the fighting enthusiasm in the army is insufficient. But huge sums of wealth have been acquired from the southern countries. Using this money, first effective negotiations with the Khitan were conducted, and if the negotiations failed, the money prepared for redemption was used for military expenses, and then the troops were sent to attack.
Although the Khitan had gradually sinicized at that time, many things were already following the Practice of the Han. But in their bones, there are still nomadic characteristics. The concept of territory supremacy has not yet been formed, and their desire for wealth is far above the territory. Therefore, if Song Taizong followed his own policy of using the gold to redeem Yanyun, it would have great operability. But unfortunately, before Song Taizu could carry out his own plan, in the cold winter of 976, he died inexplicably under the sound of the axe in the shadow of the candle, and this plan died.
Song Taizu is dead, but the problem of the north-south dispute is not over.
In the subsequent historical dynasties, there were many famous scholars who criticized this policy. Many people believed that Zhao Kuangyin's refusal to succeed Zhou Shizong in first attacking Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures and adopting the policy of first going south and then north was extremely wrong. The great opportunity to recover Yanyun was missed, resulting in many years of confrontation between the north and the south, and the poverty and weakness of the later dynasty. Some people even say that the important reason why the Northern Song Dynasty was successively under the threat of the Khitan and the Jurchens and became the weakest generation among the dynasties was because of the policy adopted by Song Taizu to first go south and then north.
But this is not the case.
When the Later Zhou Dynasty and the Northern Song Dynasty alternated, Emperor Muzong of the Khitan was an extremely absurd and corrupt person, and the struggle between the Khitan nobles was also extremely fierce. Zhou Shizong invaded during this period, and the Han generals under the Khitan rule all surrendered their cities. However, even the emperor was faint and the internal political situation was turbulent. The Northern Song Dynasty attacked the Northern Han Dynasty twice in 968 and 969, the former was in the last year of Muzong's succession, and the latter was at the time when Emperor Muzong was just killed by the Guards, both of which should be regarded as the most chaotic time within the Khitans, but the Northern Song army was outside Taiyuan City, and was defeated by khitan soldiers twice in succession, which just shows that the Khitan military strength is stronger than that of the Northern Song Dynasty?
Although there were meritorious achievements in Zhou Shizong's Northern Expedition, it was also necessary to see a large number of Han officials surrendering out of the city. If Zhou Shizong had not died of illness in the army, but had gone directly to attack Youzhou, which had always been an important town for khitan soldiers, the two sides would inevitably have to wage a fierce struggle here, and there was no evidence that Zhou Shizong would be able to win this battle.
In 979, Zhao Guangyi turned to Youzhou after destroying the Northern Han Dynasty. Along the way, a large number of defenders surrendered to the Song, but they were still unable to take Youzhou.
In fact, Song Taizu had always been obsessed with the reconquest of Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures, but he still formulated a strategy of first going south and then north, which also fully considered the actual situation at that time, rather than making a decision so casually. Just imagine, after the situation of the split pattern basically ended, Zhao Guangyi no longer had any worries about the future, and there was a situation backed by manpower and material resources throughout the country, and he was defeated under youzhou City. And Song Taizu can only rely on the character geography of the Central Plains, how can he easily win?
Only when a country unites and reunifies first can it use effective forces to seek development internally and expand its defenses externally. This is the most basic political theory of Song Taizu's "first south and then north" strategy.
If there was no stability in the interior and the situation of solving the small separatist regime in the south, they would rush to attack the Khitan army. I am afraid that the Northern Song Dynasty will be a short-lived dynasty again, the situation of division will continue for several years, and the history of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms will continue.
Reference books
"Ten Lectures on the History of Song" Deng Guangming