Whenever the powerful Han and Tang Dynasties are mentioned, everyone can think of the strength of the country at that time, whether it is the Han Dynasty army or the Tang Dynasty army, their combat strength is very strong, and the Xiongnu and Turks can only escape far. But when we mention the Song Dynasty, we always discuss why the combat effectiveness of the Song Army is so weak. In fact, at the beginning of the founding of the Song Dynasty, the Song army was still a relatively strong army, after all, the Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin was a military general, coupled with the Liao established by the powerful Khitan tribe in the north at that time, the Song army had to maintain a huge army to defend the country.
However, the Song Dynasty had two distinct weaknesses in its confrontation with Liaojin, the first was that Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures were ceded to Liao, but this could not be blamed on the Song Rulers, because this was a historical legacy, as early as the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, Shi Jingyao of the Later Jin Dynasty ceded Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures to the Khitan in order to win over the Khitans.
So why is Yanyun Sixteen Prefecture so important? Because of its geographical location is very critical, Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures are mainly in the northern regions of today's Beijing and Hebei and Shanxi. Yan refers to Yanjing, and Yun refers to Yunzhou, which is today's Datong, an important base for the Central Plains Dynasty to guard against the ethnic minorities in the north.
However, Shi Jingyao ceded Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures to the Khitan out of his own selfish interests, and this decision can be said to have a very far-reaching impact. The Khitan deployed a large number of troops in Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures, ready to attack the Central Plains Dynasty from the south at any time. At that time, after destroying the Northern Han Dynasty, Zhao Guangyi of song planned to retake Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures with a single blow, but the Liao army used the strong cities and pools throughout Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures to block the attack of the Song army, and the Liao army sent the generals Yelü Hugo and Yelü Xieyi to defeat the Song army. Later Emperors of the Song Dynasty did not dare to provoke the Liao State, and could only choose to exchange peace for peace by offering peace and affinity.
So what weakness did the Song Dynasty have? The second reason is the severe shortage of warhorses in the Song Dynasty, which were very important for ancient armies to fight, because cavalry had an innate advantage in facing infantry. The Khitan always won victories against the Song army because they had a strong cavalry.
The reason for the lack of war horses in the Song Dynasty is mainly that the high-quality pastures are almost all controlled by ethnic minority regimes, and the Northern Song Dynasty had khitan in the north and western Xia in the northwest, which made the Northern Song Dynasty seriously lack warhorses, and the Song army could only rely on infantry to fight with cavalry, which of course was conceivable.
By the time of the Southern Song Dynasty, the entire territory had shrunk by half, and the lack of war horses was even more serious. On the other hand, the Jin Dynasty army, their cavalry units are very powerful, not only light cavalry "kidnapper horses" but also heavy cavalry "Iron Floating Tu", whenever the Jin Dynasty army goes south, the Song army is difficult to resist. The lack of warhorses has always plagued the Great Song Dynasty, although gunpowder has begun to be used in the Song Dynasty, but the rulers have not seen the great power of this weapon, otherwise the Song army can still effectively attack the cavalry troops of liao and Jin in the absence of warhorses. Relying solely on infantry passive defense is not good, we can see from history why the Han Dynasty and Tang Dynasty are strong, and a very important reason is that they have a strong cavalry force.