Song Taizong and Song Zhenzong, the father and son emperors, were the second and third emperors of the Great Song Dynasty, respectively. In terms of civil governance, they may be in the same line, but in terms of military affairs, they are worlds apart. Song Taizong, we may be jokingly called "Zhi Da Cai Shu", but at least he is assisted by famous generals such as Cao Bin, Shi Shouxin, Pan Mei and Yang Ye. He had two northern expeditions to the Liao State, intending to recover the sixteen states of Youyun, although the results were not satisfactory, but at least it also made the Empress Dowager Xiao of the Liao State fall into the water, but it was laughed at by later generations for a thousand years.
Compared with his son Song Zhenzong, we probably shouldn't laugh at Song Taizong so much. At least militarily, Song Taizong had a record of destroying the Northern Han Dynasty, and twice dared to show his sword against the powerful Liao State. Especially during the First Northern Expedition, he drove the expedition himself and rushed to the front line of the battle. We can't just judge heroes by success or failure, we should pay tribute to the bravery of Song Taizong.
Song Taizong succeeded to the throne in the "Candlelight Axe Shadow" and faced the suspicion that he was not in the right position, but even so, he still decided to destroy the Northern Han Dynasty in a big war and attack the Liao State in person. It's just that he didn't expect that the generals of the Great Song Dynasty had lost their fighting spirit and sharpness during the founding of the country. Song Taizu relied on the support of the old brothers of the Yishe Society to win the world from the orphans and widows of the Later Zhou Dynasty. He was very afraid that the old brothers would also learn to add themselves to a yellow robe, so he "released the military power with a glass of wine", relieved the military power of the general of the unified army, and let them feel at ease to be a rich man. However, this also led to the fact that when Song Taizong decided to go on the Northern Expedition, the generals of the Great Song Dynasty had already been raised to "captive pigs". They have lost their fighting spirit and sharpness, and have become difficult to cope with.
Compared with the bravery and fearlessness of his father Song Taizong, Song Zhenzong's performance is a big surprise. When the Liao State invaded the Great Song Dynasty, he even had the idea of escaping. In the Battle of the Abyss, he was so frightened that he cried. And when Yang Liulang killed the commander of the Liao army, Yelu Xiuge, and the Empress Dowager Xiao had no intention of fighting again, Song Zhenzong should have taken advantage of the victory to pursue and achieve more results, but he chose to negotiate peace with the Liao State and spend money to buy peace and sign the Yuanyuan Alliance.
Although Song Taizong was ridiculed by later generations, his bloody nature still deserves our respect. He hopes to gallop on the battlefield and expand his territory like the Tang Dynasty and Song Zu. If he can recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun and drive the Khitans out of the Great Wall, then he is definitely a great emperor. As the saying goes, Lao Tzu is a hero, but Song Zhenzong doesn't seem to have anything to do with heroes, he is more like a gentleman.