In the Battle of Liaozhou, the Northern Song Dynasty defeated the Liao State, why did it pay tribute to the Liao State instead?
During the Northern Song Dynasty, the south was gradually unified, and in order to unify the north, a war was launched to recover The Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun, which began a twenty-five-year war between the Song and The Liao, and finally ended with the signing of the Alliance of Liaoyuan, and the victorious Great Song Dynasty instead provided the Liao with "the cost of helping the army" every year with 100,000 silver taels and 200,000 silk horses.
Liao state he was established by the Khitan people, in 907 AD, Yelü Abaoji became the Khitan Khan, officially established the Khitan Dynasty, for a nomadic people, the climate is very affected, as long as they encounter natural disasters, a large number of livestock death, they will launch a war against the Central Plains Dynasty in order to survive, during the reign of Empress Xiao of the Liao State, also encountered great natural disasters, in order to obtain the required materials, but the Northern Song Dynasty in the Yang family general resisted, again and again frustrated the Liao army.
In the autumn of 1004, Empress Xiao of the Liao Dynasty and Emperor Shengzong of Liao personally led a large army south into the Song Dynasty. This Empress Xiao was the one who took a knife and cut off her own hand to accompany the burial of the former emperor, she personally led the army to attack the Song, the Great Song Dynasty was in chaos, many ministers advocated fleeing south, and Kou Zhun was a person who advocated a rivalry with the Liao state, under his insistence and persuasion, Song Zhenzong agreed to personally go to Liaozhou to supervise the battle, and his arrival greatly enhanced the morale of the army and defeated the Liao state. At this time, for the Liao state, the battle line was too long, the supply could not keep up, and at the same time, he was alone, and if the war continued, he would definitely fail, so he secretly bribed the minister of the Great Song, and under the proposal of the minister, song Zhenzong, who also hoped to negotiate peace, the discussion was quickly put on the agenda.
The Great Song Dynasty sent Cao To Liao to negotiate, after several rounds of peace talks, Song Liao signed a covenant: Song Liao is a brotherly country, Song gives Liao 100,000 taels of silver and 200,000 silk horses every year, and after the Song and Liao have set a good boundary with each other, they agreed never to attack each other, and since then, song and Liao have maintained a hundred years of peace, this price tag is a very humiliating thing for the victorious countries, but it is a very small amount for the finances of the Northern Song Dynasty at that time.
During the Northern Song Dynasty, his financial revenue peaked at 160 million yuan, that is, equivalent to 160 million taels, the compensation for the Liao is really a dime, this peace talk, brought a hundred years of peace to the people of the two countries, at the same time the Song Dynasty no longer worried about the liao state's attack, in the military to reduce the number of soldiers, to a certain extent to reduce the people's servitude and taxes at that time, from this cost, the Northern Song Dynasty and the Liao state both earned. However, from the perspective of the situation at that time, the Northern Song army occupied all the time and place, the Liao army was already at the end of the crossbow, and the Northern Song Dynasty had every opportunity to destroy the entire Liao army, but unfortunately, Song Zhenzong's timidity and fear led the Song Dynasty to compensate the defeated country with a victorious country, which was a fact that ordinary people could not accept.
The demise of the Northern Song Dynasty is inseparable from their monarchs, they are timid and afraid of things, grew up in the deep palace from below, did not experience the suffering of the people, and did not experience the baptism of war like their ancestors, when the war came, they only knew how to seek perfection, which led to the disaster of national subjugation.