After Zhao Kuo was a famous general of the Zhao State, he was familiar with military books, but he performed mediocrely in the Battle of Changping, burying hundreds of thousands of elite Zhao troops and making the Zhao State collapse. Since then, Zhao Kuo's "talk on paper" has become an idiom allusion, specifically used to mock people who only theory will not solve problems in practice.
However, Zhao Kuo's good villains were still a generation of killing gods, defeated in his hands, and it could not be said that Zhao Kuo was too weak, only that the opponent was too strong. And the Song Dynasty also had a guy who talked about soldiers on paper, and his incompetence on the battlefield was even worse than that of Zhao Kuo.
This Song Dynasty version of Zhao Kuo is Ge Huaimin, and the defeat of Dingchuanzhai was caused by him.
Many people have a misunderstanding about the Northern Song Dynasty, believing that the Song Dynasty was a dynasty with strong culture and weak weapons from the beginning, and the army was full of straw bales, and several famous generals such as Yue Fei were produced in the Southern Song Dynasty. In fact, objectively speaking, the military strength before the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty was definitely not low, and there were many outstanding generals and soldiers in the army.
You know, the Northern Song Dynasty was also killed from the chaotic world of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms. Zhao Kuangyin was a general in the army, who had a very good set of leading soldiers to fight, and his famous generals were like clouds. Moreover, after a long period of war, the Northern Song Dynasty cultivated a large number of excellent generals and middle-level officers, who supported the military strength of the Northern Song Dynasty as the mainstay.
The image of the Northern Song Forbidden Army being weak and collapsing at the touch of a touch was actually only appeared in the late Northern Song Dynasty, and in the middle of the Northern Song Dynasty, the combat quality of the soldiers was still not low, especially the Western Army against the Western Xia, all of which were elite in hundreds of battles. Therefore, when the Northern Song Dynasty faced the Western Xia and Liao people at the same time, although it was passive, it also fought many victorious battles.
However, even the best soldiers are led by excellent generals. The Northern Song Dynasty had famous generals, but there were also straw bales and bear generals, and with their own strength, they could turn the good situation into a situation on the verge of collapse.
Ge Huaimin is such a person, his origin is somewhat similar to Zhao Kuo, his father is a famous general in the army, high status, seniority. Ge Huaimin's father, Ge Ba, was an old vassal of Emperor Taizong of Song's mansion, and was highly valued by the emperor, achieving the position of emissary of Jiedushi, and later in charge of the Tianxiong army.
Lao Tzu's hero is a good man, this rule is especially obvious in the Song Dynasty, the Song Dynasty's shade system is very preferential to officials, even if the father is a minor official, the descendants can generally get an official and a half- position. Ge Huaimin was born in the Shogun family, naturally very prominent, and belonged to the "noble circle" in the capital. The imperial court made Ge Huaimin the governor of Cangzhou, and let him go to the front line to undergo training and prepare for later reuse.
In the second year of the Reign of Emperor Renzong of Song (1042), the opportunity to reuse Ge Huaimin came. After the victory of the Battle of Haoshuichuan, the Western Xia continued to attack the northwestern border of the Northern Song Dynasty, but the Song Dynasty stationed a large number of elite soldiers and strong generals on the border, and the Western Xia could not defeat it for a while. In this year, Li Yuanhao's adviser Zhang Yuan (張元) offered a plan to the emperor, saying that the elite troops were in the northwest, so they would attack from Guanzhong, where they were weak.
Li Yuanhao heard that it was reasonable, so he ordered 100,000 troops and sent an army to create a momentum in the northwest direction to attract the attention of the main force of the Song army. By the time the Song army reacted, the enemy was already advancing directly to Weizhou (渭州, in modern Pingliang, Gansu).
Ge Huaimin's official position at this time was song jingyuan road through a little appeasement to solicit deputy envoys, which was considered to be a high position of authority. Someone in the capital gave Wang Yantuo a relationship and asked him to give Ge Huaimin more opportunities to make meritorious achievements. So the commander who went to block the Western Xia army in this battle became Ge Huaimin.
Wang Yan had never seen Ge Huaimin fight, did not know what his level was, and was very worried in his heart, so he warned Ge Huaimin several times before leaving, telling him not to go deep and camp in Dibei City. The meaning of this sentence is very clear, you should honestly stick to it, as long as you block the enemy, it is a great achievement, don't be a hot brain, send a head to the Western Xia Army.
Ge Huaimin repeatedly said yes, but he didn't listen to it in his heart. After Ge Huaimin led his army into Watting Village, he immediately ordered to continue to the north and enter Wugukou north of Watting Village. When Wang Yan learned of this, he was very panicked, and hurriedly sent a letter to Ge Huaimin, asking him to turn his back on the city as a battalion, show that the enemy was weak, and then set up an ambush to annihilate the enemy.
Wang Yandu told Ge Huaimin the way to win the battle, but Ge Huaimin still went his own way, and he did not listen to Wang Yan's advice and led tens of thousands of horses to continue north. When they reached the southwest of the Zhenrong Army, there was a subordinate who reported that the Western Xia Army was not far away, and Ge Huaimin ordered the camp to be set up.
The general Zhao Xun believed that the Western Xia Army was a labor expedition and the logistical pressure was relatively large, as long as he sent troops to intercept its return route, and then firmly held the town of Rongcheng to ensure the safety of the grain route, he could wait until the Western Xia Army was tired. When the time comes, you will be able to win.
However, Ge Huaimin was earnest in his efforts, felt that sticking to his style was not his style, did not listen to Zhao Xun's advice, and ordered the entire army to divide tens of thousands of horses into four roads and march towards Dingchuan Village.
After the Song army arrived at Dingchuan Village, the Western Xia army launched a fierce attack on the Song army. Because Ge Huaimin ordered the troops to be divided into four routes and dispersed the troops, the various departments were divided and surrounded by the Western Xia Army. At that time, the wind was fierce, rolling up the dust in the sky, and the various units of the Song army could not see the position of the friendly troops, and the position was chaotic.
As a result, Liu He's army in Hexi and Cao Ying's army in the northeast were defeated by Li Yuanhao, and the remaining troops panicked and rushed to flee for their lives in Dingchuan Village, killing countless soldiers who died of stampede. Ge Huaimin, the initiator of all this, did not have the heart to preside over the overall situation, because he was the first to flee to the city, and he fell from his horse in fright, and was almost trampled to death by the rebels. Fortunately, zhao Xun led the warriors to guard the gate bridge, and the Western Xia army did not attack.
After this battle, the Song army suffered a lot of losses, but the main force was still there. Zhao Xun thought that the breakthrough to the Zhenrong army would definitely be intercepted by the Western Xia army, and it would be better to detour to the city of Langgan, but Ge Huaimin now wanted to return to the Zhenrong army, did not listen to Zhao Xun, and ordered a breakthrough outside.
Before leaving, someone knelt under the horse and asked for a change of lane, but Ge Huaimin did not allow it, and immediately led the people to flee to the southeast. As a result, the Western Xia army was ambushed, the bridge that was moving forward had long been destroyed, and the rear road was cut off by the Western Xia army.
In this way, Ge Huaimin's army was completely destroyed, he himself died in the rebellion, and Zhao Xun and sixteen other generals were all killed. In the Battle of Dingchuan village, the Song army lost tens of thousands of elites and killed a large number of generals in the army, which can be described as heavy losses, and all this was caused by Ge Huaimin's incompetence and stupidity.
From the Battle of Dingchuan Village, it can be seen how much a general has a great influence on the outcome of the battle. The Song army did not lack generals, nor did it lack army capable of fighting, only the imperial court liked to appoint incompetent people and interfere with generals, which led to repeated failures. This cannot be said to be the failure of the political and military system of the Song Dynasty.
Resources:
History of the Song Dynasty
History of the Western Xia War
"The Story of ShuiShui"