Historically, the Song Dynasty was known as the "Weak Song" mainly because of its weak military strength and was often bullied by neighboring countries.
Even in the Northern Song Dynasty, in the face of local kings like Western Xia, they often chose to negotiate peace or send money, lacking enough courage and determination.
So, why was the military strength of the Song Dynasty so unbearable? What led to this? Let's go through history together and find the answers.
The weakening of the Song Dynasty army was not a problem of the army itself, but the fact that the people at that time were not rich enough.
In contrast, literati and merchants were probably the wealthiest.
Zhao Kuangyin inherited the army of the Later Zhou Dynasty, but soon after usurping the country, he was advised by the minister to disperse the military power and implement the "cup of wine to release the military power".
At that time, Zhao Kuangyin implemented the division of civil and military rule, and his military strength was acceptable, although he did not completely recover the country, but at least he was not bullied.
However, the emperors after Zhao Kuangyin got worse and worse.
The rulers of the Song Dynasty lacked military strength, which led to long-term invasion and plunder by foreign enemies.
Despite the fact that a significant part of the state's revenues are spent on raising soldiers, these funds are underutilized due to serious corruption.
In addition, the military thinking of the Song Dynasty was also incorrect, such as treating military books such as "The Art of War" as **, and restricting high school imperial examination bachelors with martial arts expertise.
All these factors led to the weak military strength of the Song Dynasty, which was difficult to effectively resist the invasion of foreign enemies.
So why was the military strength of the Song Dynasty so weak?
This starts with Zhao Guangyi.
Although Zhao Kuangyin's military strength was not outstanding during his reign, he was at least able to maintain domestic peace and fight against foreign enemies.
However, after the death of Zhao Kuangyin, Zhao Guangyi ascended to the throne, he preferred literati and was very jealous of military generals.
Zhao Guangyi was left by his elder brother because of the controversy over the throne and the military generals and ministers of the DPRK and China, and he was afraid that they would not accept him.
For the sake of face, he fought a lot of battles, but because he was not good at martial arts and strategy, the more he fought, the more he lost, and the more he was defeated, the more he was afraid that the generals would not be convinced, so he fought more.
After Zhao Guangyi became the king of a country, although he could not go to the battlefield in person, he knew the danger of letting the generals do their own thing.
Therefore, he decided to innovate the strategy, personally participated in the war, and formulated a "formation map", requiring the front-line soldiers to strictly follow the implementation.
However, this decision made life more difficult for the soldiers of the army, and the hope of victory became more slim.
Originally, the Song Dynasty had some military strength and excellent generals, but because Zhao Guangyi intervened too much in the battlefield, the officers and soldiers felt too stressed, causing them to be unwilling to die for the court or have already died on the battlefield.
At first glance, the "formation map" style of play seems a bit outrageous and ridiculous, but do you know that this kind of strategy has been better than the blue during the Song Renzong period?
At that time, the army of the Song Dynasty not only marched according to the formation, but the formation of Song Renzong was even more ever-changing, resembling fish, birds, circles, squares, lengths, flats, etc., only what you can't imagine, there is no formation that Song Renzong can't draw.
Although the Song Dynasty emphasized the civil and light military situation was very serious, the number of soldiers in the Song Dynasty was still quite large, not only soldiers, but also civilian officials, especially the number of civil officials during the reign of Zhao Guangyi rose sharply, the more civilian officials raised, the more soldiers were raised, the original Song Dynasty regular forbidden army was less than 200,000 people, and by 1049 the number of forbidden troops had reached 1.4 million.
Despite the sheer number, the combat effectiveness of the Song Dynasty army was really not flattering.
During the Northern Song Dynasty, after Song Zhenzong negotiated peace with the Liao State, the country was slack in the war, although the annual currency was exchanged for a short period of peace, but Song Zhenzong did not strengthen the military and border defense, but indulged in the illusion of "peace", resulting in less military training, frequent changes of generals, generals can not read the book of soldiers, soldiers do not know generals, generals do not know war.
The border cavalry did not wear armor into battle, and even the forbidden army had to hire people to carry the food, and the quality was worrying. The Southern Forbidden Army prides itself on not knowing how to fight, and faces the enemy like a man against a tiger, the Hebian Border Forbidden Army is lazy and proud, lacks hardware facilities, and most of the generals of the Hebei Border Forbidden Army are inexperienced or old.
The phenomenon of redundant soldiers and redundant officials in the Song Dynasty began in Song Taizong, and became more and more obvious. Soldiers and wealth are the major policies of the country, but the Song Dynasty is not good in both aspects.
Due to"Wen Qingwu"The soldiers of the Song Dynasty were often seen as a humiliating and humiliating thing. The Song Dynasty adopted a conscription system, and most of the soldiers recruited were famine victims or criminals.
To prevent soldiers from escaping, the Northern Song Dynasty would tattoo tattoos on soldiers' faces or arms, and mark them with military horns.
This apparent act of discrimination led to a very low status of the soldiers, and there was even a saying that only unscrupulous people would join the army, and their fathers and fellow villagers would be disgraced because of it.
This system completely destroyed the sense of honor and blood of the soldiers. Even the court of the Song Dynasty deliberately cultivated the contempt of the common people for the soldiers, equating the soldiers with criminals and shame.
In this case, is there still people with lofty ideals who are willing to join the army and serve the motherland?
Military personnel are one of the key factors in the survival of the country, and they need to be highly concerned and valued by the state. However, the rulers of the Song Dynasty brutally suppressed the military and military talents, and this behavior undoubtedly deprived the Song Dynasty of room for development in the military aspect.
Although the prosperity of the civil service system made the Song Dynasty relatively wealthy, the greed of the civil bureaucracy led to a deficit in the treasury, which eventually made the Song Dynasty passive and at the mercy of others.