When we look at the history of the Song Dynasty, we always unconsciously make people feel angry, as if they can't beat anyone, and pay protection fees to everyone. The point is that almost every Song Emperor seemed to be willing to buy peace with money, and he used it perfectly. So why is that? Because the founding of the Song Dynasty was based on money, this had to start from the early days of the Song Dynasty.
In 960, Zhao Kuangyin, who was in front of the Later Zhou Dynasty, launched a mutiny at ChenQiao, and after a period of emperor cosplay, he became the emperor of the Song Dynasty.
Yellow robe plus body
At this time, Zhao Kuangyin's biggest worry was that his subordinates would learn from each other and follow their own pace, then his Own Song Dynasty would become a short-lived dynasty, so the following scene occurred:
Zhao Kuangyin invited his subordinates to drink a glass of wine, and then sighed worriedly:
"What if your subordinates also want you to put on the imperial robe?"
Shi Shouxin, Gao Huaide and other generals offered their knees one after another, asking Tianzi to point out a way out.
Zhao Kuangyin smiled and gave them a similar way to list and cash out.
Everyone follows me and works hard, nothing more than to make a profit. Now that it is listed, why don't you hurry up and take advantage of the high point to throw away the cash, go home to buy a house and land, and enjoy the glory and wealth?
A glass of wine releases the military power
So the next day, a general took sick leave, demanding that he surrender his military power and return to his hometown. Of course, Zhao Kuangyin did not cut the door, the reward that should be rewarded, the seal that should be sealed, and the conditions given were very favorable.
Explain the background, everyone can better understand why Zhao Kuangyin did this, the regime of the five dynasties and ten countries before the Song Dynasty did not last long, an average of only 11 years. If the soldiers have soldiers in their hands, they have quite the original shares, which are getting bigger and bigger, and after exceeding the equity in the hands of the chairman, they can hold a general meeting of directors, either Zen concessions or bloodbaths, and in less than 20 years, the leadership team must change a poke.
In order to solve the risk of future replacement in advance and disintegrate these generals who held the original shares, Zhao Kuangyin had to redeem and buy these original shareholders in advance. As for the chips, it's money.
The benefits of the release of the military power from the cup of wine were too great, which made Zhao Kuangyin taste the sweetness, and from then on, as if he had found a plug-in, he used money to redeem most of the threats inside and outside.
Internally, Zhao Kuangyin took over the military, financial, and judicial powers of the envoys to the central authorities. At the same time, the elite troops were all incorporated into the central forbidden army, and only some second-class soldiers were left in the local area to guard the town, and the combat effectiveness could be imagined. This is why the border wars of the Song Dynasty were always hammered, and the towns guarding the frontiers were all playing soy sauce, but not a hammer that exploded?
As for the central forbidden army, Zhao Kuangyin was still not at ease, and he divided the central forbidden army into three divisions, namely the Palace Front Division, the Guards Pro-Army Ma Jun Division, and the Guards Pro-Army Infantry Division. And each of the three commanders is in charge. Moreover, there is only the command power, there is no right to transfer troops, and the right to transfer troops is in the hands of the emperor.
On this, Old Zhao was still not at ease, so he let the commander of the army move frequently, which created a situation in which the soldiers did not know the generals and would not know the soldiers, so that the soldiers and horses could not always be surnamed Zhao?
In this way, the military disaster is gone. However, since then, the status of military generals in the Song Dynasty has plummeted. Before the Song Dynasty, generals could rely on military merit in World War I to enter the generals. After the Song Dynasty, this was absolutely impossible, and it was absolutely impossible for a military general to become a director and enter the core of power.
Civilian and military attaches feuded
In the event of war, the military general was also arranged to supervise the army, the power was huge, and the general also had to look at his color. The emperor of the Song Dynasty would give a bag of tips before the generals went out on the expedition, which contained the method of arranging troops, and if the generals did not follow the emperor's wishes, they would win the battle. On the battlefield, it is often changing rapidly, how can it be predicted in advance, the general can not adapt to the situation, often tied hands and feet, can not be repeatedly defeated.
Externally, Lao Zhao also opened a killer skill of taking money to settle down. And the thing that Old Zhao most wanted to settle was undoubtedly the Sixteen Prefectures of the Central Plains.
Sixteen States of Youyun
It should be said that the problem of this Youyun Sixteen Prefectures originated from the Later Tang, and the Later Tang general Shi Jingyao was preparing to rebel and seize power, and in order to gain the support of the Liao, he gave the Youyun Sixteen Prefectures to the emperor of the Liao, and also called himself the Emperor of The Son. In the face of the good son who was sent to the door, and with a big gift, the Liao Emperor Yelü Deguang naturally smiled. Since then, the Central Plains has lost the Liaotian danger, the door has been wide open, and the Liao state can come and plunder at any time. This Liao state did not waste, every time one three five big fights, two four six intermittent beatings, Youyun Sixteen Prefectures became a piece of the Heart Disease of the Central Plains Dynasty.
Zhao Kuangyin specially set up a money-saving institution called "Sealed Pile Vault", he said, if the Khitan is willing, I will use this money to redeem Youyun Sixteen Prefectures, if the redemption fails, I will use this money to call on the warriors of the world to fight together! However, the idea is very beautiful, the reality is very bone, Old Zhao did not wait for the day to redeem, but his brother was beaten by the Khitan people.
Song Taizong rode a donkey cart to run
Zhao Kuangyin's younger brother Zhao Guangyi became emperor, and did not forget to reclaim the great cause of Youyun Sixteen Prefectures, so he lit up soldiers and horses, took the Northern Han Dynasty, and fought under Youzhou City in one fell swoop. The Song army did not have nonsense, came up to the steel Youzhou garrison, steel for 7 days, hardly failed to attack. At this time, the Song Dynasty had already passed the period of arduous entrepreneurship, and the evil consequences of Zhao Kuangyin's redemption policy began to appear, and there were no major generals available in the DPRK. As soon as the Liao reinforcements arrived, the Song army was defeated, and Zhao Guangyi had to sneak back to Kaifeng in a donkey cart.
Later, Zhao Guangyi organized another Northern Expedition, and since no one in the Song army could coordinate the whole army, this time it was still a big defeat. This time, a famous general Yang Ye was also pitted, and he died in this battle, which is also the origin of the story of "Yang Family General".
Yang Ye was besieged
Seeing that the Great Song Dynasty was so useless, Xia Zhou in the northwest could not see it anymore, so it caused a split up. The emperor at this time was Song Zhenzong, who sent troops to suppress the rebellion, fought several times without winning the war, so he was simple and rude, and gave money to redeem.
Next, we looked at this tumultuous operation of Song Zhenzong: Li Yuanhao, the head of the rebellion in Fengxia Prefecture, as long as he did not claim the title of emperor, Western Xia could get "silver ten thousand, silk ten thousand horses, and 20,000 yuan of money" from the Song Dynasty every year. Da Song's attitude is that if you take the money well, don't make trouble.
Tong Guan led the soldiers
The Great Liao in the north looked at it, and with this good thing, he couldn't sit still, and immediately took the army to talk to the Song Dynasty.
Song Zhenzong panicked this time, a Western Xia, the Song army can not fight, this down the big boss Liao army, then the Song army is still good? Immediately wanted to grease the soles of my feet. Without thinking, Kou Zhun grabbed Song Zhenzong with one hand and said goodbye to the emperor, I had already made arrangements, the emperor you just need to drive the conquest in person, you will definitely be able to retreat from the enemy. Song Zhenzong had no way to send the general to Liaozhou to supervise the battle, and did not think that it would really boost the morale of the Song army and defeat the Liao army.
With this bowl of wine at the bottom, Liao could not eat Song, and Song could not retreat from the enemy, so the two sides talked about peace talks. At this time, Song Zhenzong was happy, and the things that could be used to settle things with money were not called things, if a small goal did not work, then two small goals, so Song Liao made a peace treaty: Liao and Song were about a country of brothers, Song Liao took the Baigou River as the boundary, and Song gave Liao 100,000 taels of silver and 200,000 silk every year. This is the famous "Alliance of the Abyss".
The Alliance of the Abyss
At this point, the Great Song Dynasty exchanged more than 100 years of peace by giving Liaoshi coins every year. During this time, Daliao did not collect protection fees in vain, and objectively helped the Song Dynasty sweep away the nomadic forces in the northern steppe and protect the stability of the Song Dynasty.
Here to say more, why does the Liao objectively protect the stability of the north of the Song Dynasty? Because the Central Plains have always been threatened by the nomads in the north, the Central Plains can only defend against the invasion of the nomads in the north. This placed a huge burden on the dynasty.
At this time, the Liao state unified the north, and when new forces rose on the grassland, the Liao would consciously eliminate it, so for the Song Dynasty, it only needed to face a grassland force - the Liao. In this case, as long as the Song Dynasty gave the Liao Dynasty coins every year, the military pressure in the north was suddenly reduced, and the military expenditure fell sharply.
Liao is objectively the umbrella of the Song
With the great reduction of military pressure, the dependence of the imperial court on the Hao clan was gone, and the society was able to enter the civilian society. In civilian society, the pressure of the people is not so great, so business flourishes. And because there was no need for military preparation, the Song Dynasty abolished the curfew, and the Song Dynasty lifted the restrictions on the Tang Dynasty City, and these measures made the night market of the Song Dynasty lively. According to statistics, during the peak period of the Song Dynasty, the annual tax revenue was 160 million yuan, the contract was 40 million taels, so much money, spending 100,000 taels was really nothing. Below put a map of the Qingming River, let's see that the street market was lively at that time.
Qingming upper river map part
If it has been like this, it has been quiet for many years. However, with the development of society, the army and institutions of the Song Dynasty became more and more bloated. Lin Chong of the Water Margin is a million forbidden army, which shows how big an army the Song Dynasty has, many of which do not exist at all, and are completely empty. There are also more and more branches of officials, and the efficiency is extremely low, and at the same time, the salaries of these officials are high, coupled with corruption and waste, and the burden of the common people is extremely heavy.
Officials forced the people to rebel, which caused the Fang La Rebellion, which caused great damage to the rule of the Song Dynasty, and coupled with the rise of the Jurchens in the north, the umbrella of the Song Dynasty was packed. As soon as the umbrella was lost, it was not long before the Northern Song Dynasty was destroyed by the Jurchens.
The change of Jingkang
Fortunately, the Zhao family left a tinder- Zhao Shuo, who established the Southern Song Dynasty in the south. This goods had no teacher for the trick of redeeming with money, and still adopted the method of money redemption, and signed the Shaoxing Peace Agreement with the Jin State, which stipulated: Song paid tribute to Jinna every year with 250,000 taels of silver and silk.
Of course, there were also a few military generals who were not convinced, wanted to work with Jin Guogan, and were also killed by Zhao Zhao, and redeemed by the redemption. For example, the anti-Jin general Yue Fei was killed. Han Shizhong was stripped of his military power and rewarded with a large amount of gold and silver jewelry. Zhang Jun and Liu Guangshi both surrendered their military power, and then drilled into the annexed land and collected money to play with the vast ocean of women. For this, Zhao Zhuo can not care, as long as they are not a threat to the country, greed for money and lust is not the original sin.
Since then, the Southern Song Dynasty and the Jin Dynasty have been small wars, until Genghis Khan unified the Mongols, and the Song Dynasty was destroyed by the Mongols. Since Zhao Kuangyin established the Song Dynasty in 960, it has been more than 300 years.