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preface:
In less than four years, the Northern Song Dynasty went from a prosperous era to its demise, and the Northern Song Dynasty was founded by force, but why was the military strength of the Northern Song Dynasty so vulnerable later? And why was Emperor Huizong of Song so obsessed with Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures that he even did not hesitate to conspire with the tiger? What is the impact of the jingkang change? With these questions in mind, let's try to answer them together.
The military weakness of the Northern Song Dynasty
In the eyes of ordinary people, Tang and Song are two dynasties, and the two dynasties must be two eras, right? In fact, this is not the case, because the history textbook has been through the "broken generation history" method of telling the facts, talking about each dynasty, it will introduce the characteristics of the dynasty through the major historical facts in history, we think, each dynasty may have a certain period of time, in fact, most of the famous ministers and generals in the early Han Dynasty were Warring States people, the same reason, put in the Song Dynasty, the content of the history textbook, to a large extent, created an impression of an ordinary person on a certain era, the Kaiyuan prosperous era is our stereotype of the Tang Dynasty, In fact, the Northern Song Dynasty's foreign war victory rate is much higher than that of the Tang Dynasty, and many people may see this and say that this is false, why is the Northern Song Dynasty's military strength still broken? In fact, this was not the case, because Zhao Kuangyin's war against the south was also included, and the military decline of the Northern Song Dynasty began only when Zhao Guangyi was in charge.
The biggest reason for this problem may be the Song Dynasty's policy of "emphasizing literature over force", local riots are often caused by the army, and the stability of the small peasant economy makes the peasants the most stable factor in society, not to mention that Zhao Kuangyin himself is Chen Qiao's mutiny and then became emperor, so naturally this possibility should be eliminated.
1. Heavy literature and light force, the general is incompetent
In order to carry out light arms to the end, the Northern Song Dynasty restricted local military leadership through institutional means, dividing the power to hold troops, the right to transfer troops, and the right to unify the troops into three, and the three yamen responsible for protecting the emperor and defending the capital, the Palace Front Division, the Guard Horse Army Division, and the Guard Infantry Division, all held military power, but there was no power to transfer troops, and the generals of the three divisions also had no opportunity to participate in politics. So who is in charge of the right to mobilize troops? In the hands of the Privy Council, their duties are to control the military, control the tiger charm, and mobilize the army, etc., and the most interesting thing is that the chief of the Privy Council is generally a civilian, they know nothing about the military, and when the army is temporarily dispatched, another general is selected to lead. And these three parties are responsible to the emperor, the emperor will hold the military power in his hands, so it seems that the security of the regime is indeed guaranteed from the system, but it also causes the general's ability to grasp the army is insufficient, and when the real military war is carried out, it will definitely be stretched.
In order to restrict the generals, the emperor adopted the Tang Dynasty's supervision system, the purpose is to monitor the army and whether the generals are loyal to the emperor, whether there is any rebellion, in the real decentralization of power, the emperor gave the supervision army great supervision power, they naturally and magnificently in the army to act recklessly, in military operations, the existence of the supervision army greatly limited the actions of military generals, resulting in many tragedies in the Northern Song Dynasty. When Zhao Kuangyi personally conquered the Northern Han Dynasty, the famous general Guo Jin was humiliated by the overseer Tian Qinzhuo and hanged himself; the famous general Yang Ye was forced to die by the overseer Wang Ba; during the reign of Emperor Renzong of Song, the Western Xia invaded the border, and the general Liu Ping was forced to die by the overseer Huang Dehe.
Not only did the system of supervising the army limit the command of the military generals, the political status of the corresponding military generals was seriously degraded, taking Di Qing as an example, the highest official position he achieved from an ordinary soldier was a military official privy councillor, and in the view of civilian officials, Di Qing's ascension to the position would have a military merit-oriented impact on the army, they restricted the development of people with military industries, and even spread rumors of Di Qing's rebellion, forced by helplessness, he could only take the initiative to resign from his official post and leave Bieliang, but the imperial court still monitored and continued until he was depressed.
2. The source of troops is chaotic and the army is weak
In addition to the various restrictions on the generals, the unreasonableness of the military system is also another reason for the weakness of the army, the Northern Song army has poor combat ability, but the number of troops is very large, in Wang Anshi's change of law there is a proposal for redundant troops, compared to the Liao state's 300,000 troops, the total number of Song dynasty troops reached more than one million, but the huge gap in military combat ability made the Song soldiers still unable to defeat the Liao soldiers, in the late Northern Song Dynasty, Song Huizong intended to join forces with the Jin state in Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures, and the result was that the Jin state took the liao state as a whole, The Song Dynasty contributed only two defeats in the joint battle, and not even a single city was attacked by the Song Dynasty. So why is the army so numerous, but still lacks combat effectiveness? When the Song Dynasty was first established, there was a big problem, that is, the problem of the resettlement of displaced people, in fact, the best way since ancient times is to give the displaced people land, let them become part of the small peasant economy, naturally will slowly settle down, but the Song Dynasty does not have so much land, can not let it go, so it will recruit them into the army, so the complexity of the composition of the army can be imagined, so the number of troops rose sharply, and at the same time caused great pressure on the country's finances.
Why did the Northern Song Dynasty, which was so vulnerable, covet Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures?
The above reasons caused the northern song military weakness, song Huizong naturally knew his own situation, but why did he still want Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures even if the strength was so bad?
Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures were a natural barrier for the Central Plains Dynasty to protect agricultural areas and resist the invasion of nomadic peoples. In the Northern Song Dynasty, Ye Longli said in the Khitan Chronicle that the Yanyun states were "sincere and one husband dangguan, and ten thousand fu mo qianye." "Therefore, the Northern Song And Liao-Jin Wars were mainly about the battle for the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun. For the inland Central Plains Dynasty, Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures were equivalent to the gateway to defend the north, which could be used as a bridgehead to deal with nomadic peoples, which was of great strategic significance.
Such an important place, the Northern Song Dynasty naturally tried to occupy, Zhao Kuangyin succeeded to the throne to adopt the policy of first south and then north, that is, to deal with the "Ten Kingdoms" in the south first, settle the disputes in the south, and then recover the "Yanyun" continent in the north. It is a pity that after Zhao Kuangyin spent more than ten years to level the south, there was a historical doubt of "candle shadow axe sound", after Zhao Kuangyin's death, the second emperor Zhao Guangyi launched three wars in succession, intending to recover Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures, but all ended in failure, which can be seen as Zhao Guangyi's inferiority to his brother Zhao Kuangyin, and can also be interpreted as the military strength of the Northern Song Dynasty at this time has begun to weaken.
Although the problem of The Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun was temporarily shelved due to the alliance between the Northern Song Dynasty and the Liao, the rulers of the Song Dynasty did not forget this land. Emperor Shenzong of Song supported Wang Anshi's change of law because he hoped to make the country strong through restructuring and thus regain Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures. And this obsession went all the way to Emperor Huizong of Song, and history threw him a wink, so that the northeast of the Liao State produced a powerful Golden State, giving the Emperor Huizong of Song the illusion.
The change of Jingkang
1. It takes only three years from prosperity to demise
The change of Jing Kang was the most famous time in the Song Dynasty, when the Jin State rose in Liaodong, it was in the limelight, and the Liao State was defeated and retreated. As a result, Emperor Huizong of Song thought that this was an opportunity to take advantage of, so he sent emissaries to the Jin State to discuss how to destroy the Liao State together and then recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun.
Under the circumstances at that time, it was the Jin State that was the strongest, followed by the Liao State, and finally the Song Dynasty. At that time, the Liao State and the Song Dynasty had been at peace for a long time, there was almost no war between the two, and the Liao State and the Song Dynasty had close exchanges at that time, accepted a large number of Central Plains culture, were accustomed to a stable environment, and had no momentum for war. For a dynasty, any strange powerful force means a break in the balance, and for the Song Dynasty, it may be relatively good to unite with the Liao and the Jin Dynasty to confront.
What is even more ridiculous is that when the Song Dynasty and the Jin Kingdom reached an agreement, the Jin State attacked the main force, and the Song Dynasty recaptured Yanyun, but at this time the Song Dynasty had a privy envoy named Tong Guan, who led an army of 200,000 to attack the Liao State, but was defeated by the 30,000 Liao army. This laid the groundwork for the subsequent tragedy, and many Jin generals originally thought that the Song Dynasty ruled such a large territory should not be easy to deal with, and as a result, this war made the Song Dynasty weak and weak.
In the end, the Song Dynasty bought the Yanyun States from the Jin State at a cost of 1 million taels of silver, and the Jin State already had a general understanding of the military strength of the Song Dynasty, so the only thing waiting for the Song Dynasty was aggression. We cannot say that the Song Dynasty army was full of squatters and speculators, and many famous ministers and generals will eventually become martyrs of wrong policies. In the end, the Northern Song Dynasty quickly perished in just over a year, and Emperor Huizong of Song and his relatives were captured, and even princesses and concubines were clearly priced to offset the war reparations.
What are the effects of the Jingkang change?
The demise of the Northern Song Dynasty also had a great impact on textiles, handicrafts, and industries such as money minting and mining. For example, as the seven types of products of the "silk veil" category of two taxes, there are silk, cloth, silk wool, etc., of which the largest amount of silk, and the Jingdong region in the north is the concentration of silk production, but these two places are precisely the main areas of the Jin Army's southern invasion and battle, so the degree of infringement is also the most serious area, the city gate fire and pond fish, the Textile Industry of the Song Dynasty suffered a lot of losses.
In addition, the Northern Song Dynasty fired ceramics and so on, the Jin army invaded the south twice, destroying many kilns that made porcelain, and the Jin State not only stared at the money bags when it invaded, they also took away a large number of officials and craftsmen.
After the war, the economic center of gravity of the north was greatly hit, followed by the economic rise of the south, the migration of northerners to the south, and the social folklore and various customs of the peoples of the north and south also merged and evolved. In short, the southward migration of a large number of ethnic minorities in the north not only supplemented the labor force in the south, but also brought with it relatively progressive production technology and different cultures, which objectively promoted the southward migration of the economic center of gravity.
summary:
The change of Jing kang is a tragedy in Chinese history, in addition to the rulers and some ministers to be responsible for this tragedy, the policy of "suppressing martial arts and heavy literature" formulated by the rulers in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, while curbing the possibility of rebellion and rebellion, also laid the groundwork for the weakening of military strength. With the misjudgment of Emperor Huizong of Song, it directly or indirectly led to the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty, and also caused an inevitable impact on the Southern Song Dynasty.
References: "History of the Song Dynasty", "The Change of Jing kang", "The Song Dynasty: The Age of Romance and Stubbornness"