What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
Some people say that the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty was based on the social roots left by Wang Anshi's transformation. Some people also say that the collapse of the Northern Song Dynasty was actually caused by the difficulty of Jing Kang of Emperor Huizong of song.
In fact, this is not the root answer, why the Northern Song Dynasty will collapse, the root should be caused by the ideas left by the kings of the Northern Song Dynasty from generation to generation, and then go back to the depths, the collapse of the Northern Song Dynasty and the Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin also have this great connection.
When studying the history of the Northern Song Dynasty, we can find that when the Northern Song Dynasty was established, the northernmost defensive zone in the entire Central Plains, Youyun Sixteen Prefectures, was occupied by the Khitans, so this laid a foreshadowing for the collapse of the Northern Song Dynasty.
Perhaps many people do not understand what kind of strategic value of Youyun Sixteen States has, and we may be clear to everyone when we talk about it. The entire Central Plains presents a geographical division of high west and low east, and at the same time presents the geographical distribution of the north high and south lowlands, and the cloudy area has many mountains, if the Central Plains army can occupy here, relying on the mountain range advantage of the Youyun generation, it can achieve the purpose of using infantry to resist the threat of nomadic cavalry.
In other words, Youyun Sixteen Prefectures are the northern barrier of the Central Plains Dynasty, and if you lose here, then, the enemy cavalry troops will drive straight into the southern plains, and the plains battle itself is the advantage of cavalry, so the loss of Youyun Sixteen Prefectures, for the newly established Northern Song Dynasty, is equivalent to showing its hinterland naked to the Khitans.
Losing Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures, the Northern Song Dynasty lost its northern barrier
Therefore, the establishment of the Northern Song Dynasty was actually built in a dangerous situation. Some historians believe that "the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty was actually doomed from the beginning, and the idea of kings was the root of the collapse of the dynasty." "When the Northern Song Dynasty was founded, the empire had lost the cloud barrier, and the Northern Song Dynasty was tough on the surface to retake this strategic place, but in fact it was very weak.
When the Northern Song Dynasty was first established, because of the Northern Han Dynasty, Youyun Sixteen Prefectures were ceded to the Khitan State; and after the Northern Han Dynasty was annexed, the Northern Song Dynasty wanted to take back Youyun Sixteen Prefectures, and had to face the khitan as a strong enemy. However, the Northern Song Dynasty had just been established, and it did not have too strong strength to fight against the Khitan at all.
In addition, the vast majority of the Northern Song army was infantry, and without the support of the land of clouds, the Northern Song infantry could not resist the Khitan cavalry at all. And Zhao Kuangyin was also well aware of the strength of the Northern Song Dynasty and did not have the ability to shake the Khitans, so after several rounds of symbolic military use, the Northern Song Dynasty's strategy towards the Liao began to shift from tough to flexible.
Why is it that the strategy toward the Liao has begun to shift from tough to flexible? This actually has a lot to do with the national situation faced by the Northern Song Dynasty. At that time, the Northern Song Dynasty was popular with the style of literati and business, and the financial income of the Northern Song Dynasty was far more than that of the Khitans, so the Northern Song Dynasty was not short of money.
At the same time, there is a drawback, is the country vigorously developing the military or the economy? According to the current situation of the Northern Song Dynasty, it will take at least a few decades, and these decades will have to be continuously invested. If the economy is developed, it will not take decades at all, because according to the current economic foundation of the Northern Song Dynasty, a little development will directly take off the economy.
Zhao Kuangyin developed the economy, resulting in the prevalence of literary atmosphere
Therefore, Zhao Kuangyin chose to develop the economy after weighing the pros and cons, after all, he believed that with money, the state would have the energy and funds to do something else. Perhaps we ordinary people think that with money, there is no problem in developing people's livelihood and military affairs. The reality is indeed so, the Northern Song Dynasty spent a huge amount of money to build troops, equipment, war horses, weapons are the highest configuration, but the Northern Song Dynasty lacks exactly the people who can fight.
Why? The Northern Song Dynasty court vigorously developed the economy, which announced to the people of the world a concept, our Northern Song Dynasty state development is mainly based on economic construction, so as long as we do a good job in economic construction, we have everything. In addition, with the relaxation of economic wealth, the people's income has been guaranteed, there is no worry about food and clothing, and there is no impact of poverty and hunger, so what is the next step? Of course, it is to develop spiritual and cultural construction.
If the country vigorously develops the spiritual construction of literature and culture, then a big problem will arise, and the wind of culture will prevail, and people will go to study and who will go to war.
In addition, the prevalence of literary customs is accompanied by the decline of the wind of learning martial arts, and one rise and one fall is the social norm. The Northern Song Dynasty could not grasp both ends. The literary atmosphere directly gave the ideological concepts of the people of the Northern Song Dynasty a type, which also made the people of the Northern Song Dynasty have no desire to learn martial arts to serve the country, and also lacked the belief of the Northern people to fight fiercely.
Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangyi were not enough to regain Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures
Let's look again, during the reign of the two emperors Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangyi, although these two first kings of the Northern Song Dynasty were very tough and urgent in their attitude toward retaking Youyun Sixteen Prefectures, they really implemented very few military deployments. In particular, Zhao Kuangyin, although he threatened not to seize youyun sixteen states, he would not be able to sleep and eat, but during his reign, did you take back you sixteen states? No.
Whether it is an army conquest or various peace talks, the Khitan people have one meaning, Youyun Sixteen Prefectures are given to you by the king of the Central Plains, so it belongs to your own inherent territory, if you want to take it back, then you have the ability to start a war, right? Regarding the attitude of the Khitans, Zhao Kuangyin did not use all his strength to provoke war.
Because he knew that even if he provoked a war, relying on these troops of the Northern Song Dynasty, at most he would fight some victorious battles, and it would be completely impossible to truly annihilate the Khitan troops. So, how did Zhao Kuangyin solve this matter? At first, Zhao Kuangyin offered to exchange the money for Youyun Sixteen Prefectures. But the Tianzi of the Liao Kingdom were obviously not intellectually inferior, of course, they were a hen who laid a golden egg in their own hands, and it was completely impossible to take it back with a sum of money.
The benefits brought about by the "Nagong" policy have accelerated the spread of the idea of "emphasizing literature over military force"
Zhao Kuangyin even offered a sky-high price, and the Khitan rulers did not let up at all. Then, since youyun sixteen states could not be bought, and the Northern Song Dynasty could not resist the invasion of the Khitan cavalry; in the absence of any way, Zhao Kuangyin could only spend money to buy peace, and stabilize the Khitan rulers by giving them the name of giving the year coins every year, so that they could invade the south as little as possible.
The Northern Song Dynasty did stabilize the ambitions of the Khitan people in the north to a certain extent through this way of breaking the wealth and avoiding disasters, but this also meant that every year the Northern Song Treasury had to spend a large amount of money to pay protection fees to the Liao State. Later, gradually Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangyi found that the method of giving the year coin every year could really keep the border stable for a long time, so this old coin tradition was gradually passed on from these two brother kings to the concept of the northern Song dynasty kings behind, no matter which generation of kings, basically every year will give the year coin.
If "Nagong" can be used to solve the border problem, the existence of the army is of little significance, because the border is peaceful, why raise a large number of troops to consume grain and grass there in vain? As a result, the idea of emphasizing literature over martial arts began to spread within the dynasty, and a mainstream ideology was formed.
To what extent this kind of thinking is serious, the civil officials at the same level in the entire Northern Song Dynasty court are far more powerful than military attaches, and the military attaches of one pin are even inferior to the civilian officials of the three pins. There is also the gradual development of military attaches into a hereditary system, that is, the familyization of Xiwu, and most of the generals of the Northern Song Dynasty are after some previous generations of generals. Therefore, under the influence of this atmosphere, wherever there are people in the Northern Song Dynasty who are willing to become soldiers, they all want to point out the country with a pen pole.
The dictatorship of the Northern Song Dynasty also marked the eventual demise of the Northern Song Dynasty
After Zhao Kuangyin was added to the yellow robe, he relieved many generals of their military power through a glass of wine and began to implement a centralized system; the centralized power system of the Northern Song Dynasty was different from other dynasties, they really held power in their own hands, and they did not give power to their courtiers at all.
Even if it is the later Qing calendar change law, or Wang Anshi change law, in fact, it is the king to give support, this is the implementation of the change of law, if the king does not approve of the change of law, Fan Zhongyan, Wang Anshi said a flower has no effect. Moreover, the Northern Song Dynasty also continued to control the political system, as long as the Northern Song rulers believed that some power was not in their hands, then they would be restless, so they tried their best to get the power back.
However, excessive concentration of power is not a good thing, as far as military power is concerned, the king controls the military power, even if the generals lead the troops, the power is still controlled by the king, then the generals are seriously restricted in fighting, and every arrangement they deploy must be reported to the emperor, and can only be implemented with the permission of the king, during which there is a time difference, and this time difference completely makes a strategic deployment miss the opportunity.
Moreover, the Northern Song Dynasty's excessive power in military and diplomatic aspects directly cut off the development of military diplomacy by hard and foremost, after all, it is extremely difficult for military and diplomatic talents to exert their ambitions in this regard.
In addition, the weakness of the kings of the Northern Song Dynasty in dealing with the invasion of foreign enemies also seriously affected the soldiers below, and the soldiers saw that the kings were afraid of the invasion of the north, let alone themselves.
Therefore, the excessive dictatorship of the king directly affects the soldiers, so how can the soldiers give up their lives and forget their lives for the country? Therefore, the central dictatorship of the Northern Song Dynasty also marked the eventual demise of the Northern Song Dynasty. In addition, the Northern Song Dynasty actually had no way to delegate power, because the case of Taizu's yellow robe was hanging over their heads, and they were worried that their throne was not secure, so the emperors of the Northern Song Dynasty had a very huge control over power.
The fall of the Northern Song Dynasty was doomed from the very beginning, the influence of the king on the country was too far-reaching, coupled with the national policy and development path implemented by the whole country, they avoided military development, in other words, they thought that military development was completely unnecessary, because as long as the annual payment of coins, where would there be so much war on the border?
However, it was precisely the influence of this ideology that directly led to the Northern Song Dynasty abandoning the military and also implementing the wind of emphasizing literature over military force, so that the ultimate fate of a country without military guarantees would not be too good. This is also the truth of the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty.