The Song Dynasty army seems to be the weakest in the minds of many people, and the nomads in the past were always subservient in front of the dynastic army, even if they wanted to invade the Central Plains, they were always beaten to the point of turning over their horses and returning home, and few nomads could stand tall in front of the Central Plains Dynasty.
After all, the strength of the great power army of the Central Plains Dynasty is strong, and more importantly, the economic stability and abundant material resources accumulated by the powerful agricultural civilization in the Central Plains are incomparable to those of the ethnic minorities, and the Han nationality is the most populous ethnic group, and a million troops can also be called, coupled with the excellent military tactics of condensing for thousands of years, the crusade against the barbarian tribes is not a problem, but why did the overall military strength always fall behind in front of the enemy country in the Song Dynasty?
First of all, the basic situation of the Song Dynasty army, when recruiting men from the people, must meet the hard standards of the imperial court, at least the personal physical condition is to meet the standard, height and weight, of which height can be intuitively felt, it can be imagined that when the soldiers of high horses and horses form a "domineering landscape" on the battlefield, they can oppress each other in terms of momentum alone, causing a lot of pressure on the other side.
Perhaps the rulers of the Song Dynasty are based on this idea, so they have a high standard for the height of soldiers, as can be seen from the "Military Defense Order" in the Song history materials, the height standard of the First Cavalry Army of Tianwu is 5.8 Song feet, according to the unit conversion, that is, the current 1.84 meters, the height standard of the Second Cavalry Army is lower, 5.75 Song feet, 1.82 meters, and then down according to the rank of the soldiers, the standard is weakened in turn.
But just after experiencing the baptism of fire of the five generations and ten kingdoms, the devastated people became the people of another country from one country, and they did not have time to settle down from the chaos of the army, and they were conscripted into the army by the emperor, in such a situation, there was such a high standard for height, the Emperor of the Song Dynasty really took it for granted. Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin is a general, he knows the importance of soldiers' height and weight, and wants to build a strong army with high standards, but it seems that the actual situation is not taken into account, how can a man in an ordinary family grow to a height of more than one meter seven or even more than one meter eight?
Not to mention the Song Dynasty army is redundant, such as the minimum height requirement of the forbidden army is 1.74 meters, the number of standing troops before the Song Dynasty basically reached more than 200,000 during the founding period of the People's Republic of China, and developed to more than 500,000 in the heyday, but the Song Dynasty has exceeded 600,000, which is just the number of forbidden troops.
It is conceivable that the Song Dynasty, which did not achieve great unification, raised a huge number of troops, which was a great burden on the national treasury. Moreover, when he became emperor of Song Renzong, he ordered that the soldiers be paid according to their height, "more than five feet and eight inches, with a monthly salary of one thousand yuan; above five feet and seven inches, with a monthly salary of seven hundred yuan; above five feet and six inches with a monthly salary of five hundred yuan; and below five feet and two inches without salary, just eat and live."
Originally soldiers according to military merit promotion to get salaries, the result has now become according to the height of the salary, which is unfair to some powerful ordinary people, they on the battlefield to kill the enemy in blood, meritorious achievements, but the ruler under a paper order, announced the payment of military salaries according to height, in the eyes of later generations, such a practice is a bit of a joke, but the ruler himself thinks it makes sense, because in his view the battlefield to kill the enemy only needs to be brave, there is no skill to speak of, according to this statement, it seems that the tall manpower must be large, and he will contribute more on the battlefield. They deserve higher salaries.
Song Renzong not only requires soldiers like this, even the imperial guards in the palace also need to meet the height conditions, once, he selected a man with a height of 2 meters 2 to be the left straight of the royal horse in the national selection, this position is the honor guard who stands on the left side of the horse when the emperor travels, and also needs to find a symmetrical royal horse right straight, but 2 meters 2 people are already unattainable, it is difficult to find another one, but it is really impossible to find, and he has no choice but to transfer the tall man away and change two people of about 2 meters. From this point of view, It seems that Song Renzong just wants to travel on his own, and he thinks that the tall army is powerful enough on the battlefield to kill the enemy.
Of course, his idea is wrong, growing tall does not necessarily have strength, otherwise the Song army will not be defeated by the enemy country, the Northern Song Dynasty was first destroyed by the Jin State, and the Jin State has no hard standards for the height of the soldiers, but it is still brave and good at war, and the Song Army will be defeated.
After the establishment of the Southern Song Dynasty, the shortcomings of the Song Dynasty army were still not removed, so it still could not change the fate of being destroyed, only this time it was destroyed by the Yuan Dynasty established by the Mongols. Unfortunately, the Northern Song Dynasty's height requirements have lasted for more than one hundred and sixty years, and they have never thought of abolishing it, only to recruit tall people, often ignoring some ordinary soldiers with high combat effectiveness, and they think that the advantage has become a weakness.
The combat effectiveness of the army often needs to be practiced on the battlefield, and can not be won by just taking it for granted, the rulers of the Song Dynasty emphasize literature and light weapons, in addition to the founding emperor Zhao Kuangyin has excellent military combat capabilities, most of the descendants of the Zhao family in the future are cowardly and incompetent, talking on paper, perhaps there is enough ability to deal with the country's internal affairs, but in the face of powerful external troubles, they who have no military combat experience will of course think that the role of tall men in the battlefield is great, such a strategic thinking, can persist until then the subjugation of the country is already the blessing of the ancestors, the blessing of heaven.