On November 25, 1004, Song Zhenzong and Kou Zhun arrived in the southern city of Zhaozhou. Bounded by the Yellow River, Lanzhou is divided into northern and southern cities, with the southern city being relatively safe.
Song Zhenzong saw the smoke and dust rolling on the other side of the river in Nancheng, and his heart drummed, he just wanted to stay in Nancheng and not go to Beicheng. But the main forces of the Song army are all in Beicheng, and if they do not go, the so-called emperor's personal conquest will not even finish the scene, which will not only have no meaning, but will also be laughed at by the Liao people.
Under the persuasion of Kou Zhun to be both hard and soft, Song Zhenzong was forced to go to Beicheng. After that, he completed a symbolic personal campaign on the upper floor of Beicheng City, and finally met with the vast number of officers and soldiers, and the soldiers downstairs immediately had high morale and shouted long live.
Although he ran back to Nancheng after the tour, his goal of boosting morale and deterring the enemy had been achieved, and he liked to go wherever he went, of course, he soon fled back to Tokyo from Nancheng.
However, the emperor really worked in this way, and after that, the battlefield situation of the Song army was very good, and various armies arrived in Zhaozhou one after another. The Liao army not only failed to capture several cities, but also lost its commander Xiao Taorin under the city of Zhaozhou.
Empress Dowager Xiao, who was in power in the Liao army, saw that this situation was not right, and did not dare to be arrogant anymore, and immediately sent people to seek peace. Song Zhenzong also immediately agreed, as long as he didn't fight, he could give money.
Therefore, the Song Dynasty sent 100,000 taels of silver and 200,000 horses of silk to the Liao State every year, on the condition that the Liao and Song dynasties did not fight,
Thus was born.
At first glance, isn't that a good deal? For this amount of money, for the Song Dynasty, it was simply a drop in the bucket. One hundred thousand taels is 300,000 guan, which is only equivalent to the financial revenue of a prefecture and county in the Northern Song Dynasty.
And with this little money, the Song Dynasty could easily recover it in the trade opened at the border. And not to mention those silk cloths, one or two southern states can handle it.
What's more, as soon as the agreement was signed, the military expenditure of the Song Dynasty was also saved. According to Mr. Wang Weixiang's article "On the Monetary Economy of the Liao Dynasty", during the war between the Song and Liao, the annual military expenditure of the Northern Song Dynasty was as high as 50 million taels.
During the 119 years of peaceful coexistence between the Song and Liao, the Song Dynasty paid a total of 19.52 million silver silk to the Liao State, which is indeed a drop in the bucket compared with military expenditure, and is only equivalent to one-tenth of the annual fiscal revenue of the Northern Song Dynasty.
In this way, the Song Dynasty not only ended the 25-year war between the Song and Liao sides at a very small price, but also exchanged for nearly 120 years of peace between the two sides.
But one issue that was overlooked was the precondition for the signing of the alliance of the Liaoyuan, that is, the Liao state proposed this peace treaty when the Northern Song Dynasty had the upper hand militarily. Therefore, many people believe that this treaty is a shame for the Northern Song Dynasty.
In fact, this is not the crux of the Northern Song problem, the Liao State did not take much advantage, for the Northern Song and Liao State, the most fundamental point is that they have lost each other's military confrontation and have lived a comfortable and peaceful life.
Such a peace may seem like a good thing at the moment, but what does it mean for the country in the long run if military power declines or does not prevail? 120 years later, the results came, and in 1125, the Liao state was destroyed by the Jin state; In 1127, the Northern Song Dynasty was destroyed by the Jin State, and the Northern Song Dynasty also had an even more humiliating "Jingkang Shame".
From a military point of view, the Liao State and the Northern Song Dynasty were successively destroyed by the Jin State, which means that they lost their military advantage. There was no major war between the two great powers abroad, and the focus of the contradiction naturally turned to internal affairs, Liao's internal affairs were chaotic, the economy was poor, and from time to time they had to borrow money from the Northern Song Dynasty to spend; And the corruption of the Northern Song Dynasty became increasingly serious, and the Yu Chen, the Son of Heaven did not want to forge ahead, and was self-satisfied.
Under such circumstances, the military strength of the two countries will inevitably decline, and later even small countries like Xixia will not be able to defeat them. As the so-called boat goes against the tide, if you do not advance, you will retreat.
So, why was it that the Southern Song Dynasty was able to resist the Yuan Dynasty for 50 years? It stands to reason that the Southern Song Dynasty lost half of its country, and its national strength has become weaker, and it should be weaker militarily, but is it stronger? In the face of the powerful Yuan Dynasty, the Southern Song Dynasty still had no advantage, but the main factor in its "resistance" was that the Southern Song Dynasty had always maintained a state of war.
This is like an athlete, only by insisting on long-term training and maintaining a good state of exercise can it be possible to achieve good results, and the same is true for the Southern Song Dynasty.
The Northern Song Dynasty and the Liao State lost such a "state", and when a military power attacked, they quickly perished. This also proves the fact that peace needs to be supported by considerable military strength.
The economy is important, but for the survival of a country, military strength cannot be ignored. The invincibility of the Yuan Dynasty, and the defeat of the Ming Dynasty by the Qing Dynasty, was not because of how strong the economy was, but more because of the superiority of military strength.
The Northern Song Dynasty originally had an opportunity to improve its military strength, but it did not seize it, and this opportunity was Wang Anshi changing the law.
Throughout the Chinese dynasties, there is basically a characteristic, that is, after the early stage of the dynasty, after recuperation, the comprehensive national strength is improved, and most of them will appear a prosperous era.
After recovering economically, the dynasty usually had a period of relative expansion politically.
For example, in the Han Dynasty, after the emergence of the reign of Wenjing, Emperor Wudi of Han carried out large-scale military strikes against the Xiongnu. For example, in the Tang Dynasty, when Li Shimin first ascended the throne, he signed the Weishui Alliance with the Turks, and once the political situation of the Tang Dynasty was stable and its economic strength improved a few years later, Li Shimin immediately seized the opportunity to destroy the Turks, and it was a shame.
The same was true for the Song Dynasty, after Zhao Kuangyin's yellow robe was added, he also implemented a recuperation strategy for the restoration of the social economy, but unlike other dynasties, the Northern Song Dynasty did not usher in its own period of political expansion.
The heart disease of the Song Dynasty was to recover the sixteen states of Yanyun, which he had planned since Zhao Kuangyin, but he did not have time to implement it.
This heavy responsibility was handed over to the later Song Taizong, who did send troops, but he was not an opponent of the Great Liao State in several major wars, and later the Song Dynasty people even suffered from Liaoophobia.
What does this mean? The crux of the weakness of the Song Dynasty lies in the innate military deficiencies, and this responsibility is ultimately attributed to Song Taizu, because the tone of the Song Dynasty's emphasis on civility and light on martial arts was set by him.
Around this keynote, the Song Dynasty also had a particularly large number of government agencies, and in order to weaken the power of officials, multiple officials were implemented, so the bureaucracy was large and bloated.
At the same time, in order to defend the Liao State and Western Xia, although there were fewer wars and the combat effectiveness of the army declined, the army still had to be raised, and there were many personnel, so the necessary military expenditure still existed.
In this way, the government expenditure of the Song Dynasty was also a big problem. Against this background, Wang Anshi could not be more correct in implementing the method of enriching the country and strengthening the army.
The purpose of a rich country and a strong army is to achieve political expansion, to recover lost territory, to expand territory. However, the crux of the failure of the reform of the law is that the money is collected, but the war is in shambles, and the purpose of political expansion is still not achieved.
Some people will say that it is not the common people who suffer from foreign expansion. That being said, history proves that if you do not suffer for a while, you will suffer the pain of the country.
When the iron hooves of the Jin people stepped through the city of Tokyo, the suffering of the Northern Song Dynasty was not only for the people, but also for the emperor and many nobles. Therefore, the rise and fall of the world is the responsibility of the husband.
To sum up, the alliance seemed favorable in a short period of time, but in the long run, it would do more harm than good to both the Northern Song Dynasty and the Liao State, and eventually suffered the pain of destroying the country.