If crossing can be achieved, then a large part of the people must be willing to go to the Song Dynasty. And the main reason for this is that during the Song Dynasty, the environment of the literati was particularly good. This is probably the first impression of modern people on the Song Dynasty.
For a long time, the Song Dynasty has been labeled as "heavy on literature and light on martial arts". The successive defeats in foreign wars and the main reasons for the demise of the Song Dynasty are also related to it. From the appearance point of view, it is indeed the weak military force that has the status quo of being bullied. But who caused this? Or why is that? This is the main direction of our inquiry.
Who started the idea of "emphasizing literature over martial arts"? Zhao Kuangyin, the founding emperor of the Song Dynasty, was a man who became emperor by acting. It was he who put on the shackles for the development of the army, and it was he who pushed up the status of the literati.
He did this because of the past. First of all, because of his experience of being added to the yellow robe to become an emperor, he was always reminded of the consequences of the military general being too strong. Second, the bitter lessons of history. Especially the Tang Dynasty, the predecessor of the Song Dynasty, how An Lushan grew up step by step, and then how cholera tang. All because of the disobedience after having a strong military force.
Zhao Kuangyin knew the stakes, so he had to restrain those martial generals in advance to form his own forces. He himself "released the power of the army with a glass of wine" and took back the power of a group of old subordinates. Later, the famous general Yue Fei was unjustly killed, and the root cause was also that the military force was too strong.
We know the formation of the Song Dynasty ruler's idea of "emphasizing literature over martial arts". The next step is to analyze the impact of this approach.
As bystanders, we are well aware that whether it is a dynasty or an independent individual, in order to develop well, it is necessary to maintain "equilibrium". Even if there are groups or individuals with special characteristics, they must take into account all aspects of development.
The core and fundamental problem of the Song Dynasty lies here - overcorrection. They identified the problem and formulated the measures, but ignored the scientific nature of the measures. "Guarding the inside and the outside" was a national policy implemented by the Song government. The specific content of this strategy is to strengthen the construction of the central forbidden army, so as to achieve the purpose of defending the central government and deterring the localities. Note that this strategy has always emphasized that the central, local, and border areas were not within the consideration of the Song government. They are too afraid of being overthrown.
1, consume materials, breed corruption
After the construction of the Central Forbidden Army, because of its large size and strong importance, the material focus of the Song Dynasty was here. Even later, the grain and materials in the whole country were all for the supply of the capital. In ancient times, traffic conditions were limited. When it comes to grain alone, when it comes to transportation, three or four times out of ten are spent on the way. In this way, the ratio of useless consumption of materials in all aspects of life is too high.
By the time of Emperor Huizong of Song, such a number of roads had been seriously deformed. Officials in the capital deceived and deceived in the allocation of supplies and benefited from them. And the supplies obtained are profligate, and most of them are used for pleasure. This has undoubtedly increased the burden on the surrounding areas, and some local material reserves cannot even meet the normal military expenditure. At this time, once something happens, where will the follow-up supplement come from?
2, lose competition, strong army into weak army
Healthy competition between militaries can promote the growth of combat effectiveness and stabilize military strength. But what if there is no competition? The Song Dynasty blindly strengthened the construction of the Central Army. Over time, these central armies will breed the illusion of superiority. Because of policy reasons, it will make them feel that all local armies are inferior to them. Naturally, if you are used to being the boss, you will slack off your own strength. The local army is also insufficient in combat effectiveness because it has no corresponding support. So the final result was the weakening of the entire military strength of the Song Dynasty.
3, the national defense force is weakened, and foreign operations are weak
The two points mentioned above will directly bring about a consequence - when the foreign enemy invades, the Great Song is powerless. Most of the northern ethnic groups are relatively tough and have strong combat capabilities, once they invade, how can the Song Dynasty resist?
Border defense forces? It has been deliberately suppressed by the imperial court to a very weak state. Central Forbidden Army? I'm afraid that I have become an official who can only shake the mighty wind early. The materials needed for war have long been unknown where they have been used.
In summary, the weak performance and the end of the Song Dynasty's demise seem to be the curse of "heavy literature and light force". But the most fundamental reason is that the imperial power in power has carried out too one-sided corrections. They exaggerated the past political mistakes on the two aspects of military generals and military forces that could not be controlled, thus ignoring the benign factors necessary for national development. In the end, it led to the situation where the weak Song was deceived.
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