The loss of the sixteen states of Yanyun, why was the Northern Song Dynasty unable to recover it? The mystery behind history
The sixteen states of Yanyun are a major obstacle in the northern part of the Central Plains, so-called"The loss of Yanyun is the disaster of the Central Plains", Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures are lost, and the northern part of the Central Plains will be completely exposed to the iron hooves of the northern nomads, because the national iron cavalry can gallop the hinterland of the Central Plains and directly threaten the hinterland of the Central Plains. So, how did the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun fall away, and why was the Northern Song Dynasty never able to recover the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun?
In the chaotic times at the end of the Tang Dynasty, Shi Jingtang left his hometown for help.
The Sixteen Kingdoms of Yanyun refer to the northern part of Hebei and Shanxi provinces, including the northern part of present-day Beijing and Tianjin, as well as the sixteen kingdoms of Yan (You), Ji, Ying, Mo, Zhuo, Tan, Shun, Yun, Ru, Gui, Wu, Xin, Wei, Ying, Huan, and Shuo. The terrain is high, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it has always been an important defense line in the northern part of the North China Plain, and its strategic position is extremely important.
In 907, Zhu Wen usurped the Tang Dynasty and established the Later Liang, and the Tang Dynasty collapsed and implemented the Jiedu envoy system. In 911, Liu Shouguang, the assassin of Youzhou, ascended the throne and became emperor, and part of the sixteen states of Yanyun belonged to him, until 923, Li Cunqiao destroyed the sixteen states of Yanyun, Li Yu established the Later Tang, and the Later Tang Dynasty destroyed the Later Liang, and the sixteen states of Yanyun became the property of the Later Tang. Li Cunqiao founded the Later Tang Dynasty in 923 and destroyed the Later Liang.
After the death of Li Siyuan in 933, Li Conghou ascended the throne, and in order to disintegrate the local forces, he appointed Li Congke in Shaanxi as the envoy of the Hedong Jiedu, and at the same time transferred Shi Jingtang, the envoy of the Hedong Jiedu, to the envoy of the Chengde Army in Zhenzhou. Li Congke then organized an uprising in Qiyang, and Shi Jingtang later killed Li Conghou's followers. Li Conghou was imprisoned by Shi Jingtang and later killed by Li Congke's men.
After Li Congke ascended the throne, Shi Jingtang was appointed as the governor of Taiyuan Prefecture, and the military governor of Datong, Zhenwu, Changguo, and Weisai, but remained in Hedong and was appointed as the head of the Han cavalry. However, although he was reused by Shi Jingtang, Li Congke was already regarded as a major threat at the time, because Shi Jingtang had been running Hedong for several years, and Li Congke would find a way to fundamentally change Hedong.
As the conflict between the two sides escalated, Li Congke appointed Shi Jingtang as the envoy of Yunzhou Jiedu and issued an edict requiring him to immediately go to Yunzhou and establish power there. Shi Jingtang first pretended to be sick, and later Li Congke gave way to Li Congke's adopted son Li Xuan. Li Congke was furious, dismissed Shi Jinggang from his official position, and sent troops to fight against him. Seeing that the army was approaching the city, Shi Jingtang promised to leave the sixteen states of Yanyun and go to aid the Khitan Emperor Yelu Deguang, and then led the army south, passed through Yanmen Pass, and attacked the second army of the Tang army, and the Tang army was defeated.
Shi Jing Jiao established the Later Jin Dynasty with the help of the Khitan, and then destroyed the Later Tang Dynasty, and then ceded the sixteen states of Yanyun to the Khitan according to the agreement, and called Yelu Deguang, who was ten years younger than himself, his father emperor, and then entered 3 million horses of silk every year.
There are three factors that prevent the Beisha people from recovering their homeland.
Although the sixteen states of Yanyun were overthrown by Shi Jingtang, they failed to be recognized by the Central Plains Dynasty, and later the Han Dynasty failed to recover, but later the Zhou Dynasty Chai Rong, Ying, Mo, and Ning successfully recovered the seventeen counties of the three provinces, among which Ying, Mo Erfu surrendered to the sixteen states of Yanyun, and the Liao Hou actually only occupied the fourteen states of Yanyun, but unfortunately Chai Rong did not fight quickly, but the first to attack and did not complete all the work. Since then, the Northern Song Dynasty has also tried to reconquer the Yanyun region many times, but it has never succeeded, why? I think there are three reasons, and the last one is the most critical.
1. The dynasties before the Northern Song Dynasty could not surpass the Liao Dynasty. Liao is no different from the previous nomadic regime, the northern nomads were once powerful, but most of them existed in the situation of tribal alliances, the tribes were relatively independent from each other, and the cohesion was relatively limited, but it may be because of the rapid rise of a lord, it will also quickly collapse with the death of the lord. However, since the Wuhu and Sixteen Kingdoms, the nomads have been learning the culture of the Central Plains for a long time, so the development of the nomads is very rapid. In addition to the influence of the environment, the Liao State has always been dominated by nomads, and the Liao State is also ruled in a different way from the Central Plains Dynasty, and the cohesion of the country is also very strong. Therefore, the Song Dynasty was never able to occupy an advantage in terms of land area, army strength and military mobilization, and even due to the late establishment of the country, it was still at a disadvantage in terms of national strength. Even at the level of rulers, a generation of male lords Zhao Kuangyin also met a generation of virtuous queen Xiao Yanyan.
2.The fatal influence of the military system of the Song Dynasty. After the establishment of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Kuangyin took into account the situation that the soldiers were strong and the local forces were too strong since the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms"Strong roots and weak branches, internal and external prestige"The principle of a comprehensive reform of the military system,"A glass of wine releases the military power", put the forbidden army back under the emperor's command, and weakened the local military power by inducing local elites to join the forbidden army. At the same time, with the establishment of the Privy Council, the forbidden army was divided into two, the generals were separated, and the generals of the forbidden army were permanently resident but not resident in the comprehensive promotion of military reform, which not only reduced the risk of rebellion and ensured the stability of the imperial power, but also had a profound impact on the combat effectiveness of the army. Due to the chaos in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, the combat effectiveness of the army was still ***, but with the passage of time, the combat effectiveness of the Song army declined extremely rapidly, and the opportunity to restore the sixteen states of Yanyun in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty had been lost.
3.Local residents had a limited sense of belonging to the Song Dynasty. From the first year of Tianfu of the Later Jin Dynasty (936) when Shi Jingtang ceded the sixteen states of Yanyun to the Khitan (Liao), to the eighth year of Kaibao (975) when the Song Dynasty and the Northern Expedition basically unified the world, Liao's rule over the sixteen states of Yanyun lasted about forty years. In order to rule the local Han people, Liao Taizong adopted the division of the Han and Khitans"Customization"Ways of Domination. In this Liao version"One country, two systems"After two or three generations of rule, the Liao Dynasty's rule over the sixteen states of Yanyun became very stable. By the time the Northern Song Dynasty was established, the people of the region had begun to accept the rule of the Liao state, and their sense of belonging to the new Song state was probably not optimistic. Don't say anything to anyone'Huayi's distinction', they just want to live a stable life.
In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, the national strength was insufficient, and after that, although the Liao State declined, the military strength of the Song Dynasty was defeated and retreated, coupled with the problem of the people's sense of belonging, so that after the failure of the Northern Expedition of Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Guangyi of Song Taizong, the Song Dynasty lost the opportunity to reconquer the sixteen states of Yanyun.