Why can't farming defeat nomadism after the Song Dynasty?
The collision of the two civilizations has always been the main theme of history. The dispute between nomads and agrarian peoples has not only left a deep imprint on the history of China, but also left an indelible memory in the history of the world.
both"Zhuang Zhi is hungry for Hulu meat, laughing and thirsty for Xiongnu blood"There is also a period of peace between Zhaojun and Song Liao, and the two sides are constantly competing with each other.
As a representative of the agrarian nation, the Central Plains Dynasty, although sometimes defeated, was at least able to hold on to the south of the Yangtze River and a corner of peace. These two civilizations each guarded their own realm, and the two sides maintained a relative balance, and this state lasted for three or four thousand years.
However, since the Song Dynasty, this balance has begun to be broken. The two nomadic peoples, the Mongols and the Jurchens, broke through the boundaries of agriculture and completely wiped out the agrarian civilization twice.
What is the force that has broken the balance between agrarian civilization and nomadic civilization, so that nomads have strong combat effectiveness? This phenomenon continued until the end of feudal society, and the agrarian people were never able to compete with it.
Some people believe that the difference between nomadic and agrarian civilizations is due to the aggressive nature of nomadic peoples, but this view ignores the fact that character is shaped by the environment and that race is not important.
As the ancients said, "Those who are in China are in China; Those who are in China and Yi Di are Yi Di. Although the "Five Hu Chaohua" people during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties were once nomadic peoples, after settling in agricultural areas, they had completely integrated into the Han people, and even some nomadic customs had disappeared.
The nomadic way of life is not innately so, but is determined by the hydrothermal conditions of the area where they live. They live in areas where the water and heat conditions are not suitable for agricultural irrigation, and they can only rely on natural vegetation to raise cattle and sheep and obtain means of production.
However, the growth rate of pasture grass cannot keep up with the needs of cattle and sheep, so they need to constantly move in search of new pasture. As a result, nomads have a greater demand for grassland territory, and they are full of yearning for the agricultural areas in the south with abundant water and grass.
After all, who doesn't want to live a stable life?
Food problems became the main cause of aggression. "Food, color, sex, too"The need for food is a basic human need. Peace and development cannot be achieved without adequate food.
That is why, when the nomads do not have enough to eat, they will come and invade the farming peoples. However, why didn't the agrarian peoples invade the nomads when they didn't have enough to eat?
This is mainly due to differences in disaster tolerance. The main grains** of the farming people** are food crops such as millet, rice, and wheat, which can be stored for a year or two as long as they are properly preserved.
The nomadic economy is less resilient to disasters, and the grain tax is also levied and stored in large granaries. In the event of a natural disaster such as a drought, assistance is provided to ensure that the victims can survive and wait for the next food harvest to be lifted.
In addition, farming peoples are born to farm, and even if they occupy the land of the nomads, they are unable to produce agriculture. On the contrary, they also need to invest a lot of troops to defend these lands, which is undoubtedly a loss-making deal.
In this case, these lands become chicken ribs, tasteless to eat, and it is a pity to abandon them.
The way of life of the nomads was very different from that of the agrarian peoples. Compared with the food crops of the farming peoples, the nomads mainly rely on trading with the farming peoples to obtain food, but because the grain trade is often limited by the food security of farming, the amount of food that the nomads can obtain is limited.
As a result, meat has become the main food of nomadic people**, but due to the short shelf life of meat, it is difficult to meet the needs of year-round consumption even when made into jerky. The nomadic people's way of storing grain is very unique, they store grain through grazing, and each living animal is a mobile granary, which they slaughter and eat, with milk and goat milk products, and live a very nourishing life.
In the extremely cold snow disaster, once the heavy snow covers the mountain, the survival of cattle and sheep faces a serious threat. With nowhere to feed, they had no choice but to freeze and starve to death, dealing a heavy blow to the herders.
Even if the frozen carcasses of cattle and sheep are disposed of and made into jerky, they are inedible due to decay and deterioration. Rapid processing can only solve the short-term hunger, but it cannot solve the problem of subsistence data in the coming year.
It takes at least a year to reraise cattle and sheep, compared to the food crops in the north that mature in just half a year and have a shorter growth cycle.
Due to the severe cold climate of the northern grasslands, snowstorms are frequent, resulting in a large number of herders lacking food. In contrast, the agrarian peoples and the state have sufficient resources for aid and rescue.
However, for loose nomadic tribes, there is no way back even if they want to rescue. Therefore, they had no choice but to go south to plunder the surplus grain of the farming peoples in the south.
The aggressiveness of nomads stems from two reasons: first, they need more pasture to survive, and second, they are less able to withstand disasters. In the event of a catastrophe, the nomads would bear the brunt of the catastrophe, while the farming peoples of the south would have to face the threat of war and plunder.
Why did the farming peoples gradually lose to the nomads? This is a long evolution, not an overnight success. From the Shang and Zhou dynasties to the Han dynasty, farming peoples usually had the upper hand.
The Wuhu Rebellion was the first major defeat of the agrarian peoples after the Han Dynasty, but fortunately, they held on to the Yangtze River, and the Western Jin Dynasty and the Song Qi Liang Chen struggled to support themselves in the south. However, in the Song Dynasty, the army's combat effectiveness was like a face, and it collapsed at the first touch.
This is not because the agrarian civilization has weakened, but because the nomads have become stronger, and the agrarian people have not become stronger. So, in what ways have nomads become stronger?
Let's reveal them one by one. First of all, they have made technological advances. The nomads' strong fighting power mainly depends on cavalry, and to understand the reason why their armies have become stronger, we have to look for the answers from cavalry.
Since the advent of the saddle and stirrups, the cavalry's ability to fight on horseback has been significantly improved. Before the invention of stirrups, riders stabilized their bodies and performed various movements by clamping their legs.
However, with no support points for both feet, the rider could not wield swords and spears as much as he wanted, and it was easy to slide off the horse's back, limiting the use of power. Therefore, the war horses of the Shang and Zhou dynasties were mainly used to pull chariots, and soldiers sat on chariots to fight, and the invention of the saddle greatly improved the combat effectiveness of cavalry.
Cavalry was faster than chariots, and the saddle gave them a point of support for their feet, allowing them to exert greater combat effectiveness.
The appearance of the primitive stirrup can be traced back to the Western Han Dynasty, although the saddle shape at this time was simple, like a bandage, but this did not affect its strength as a ranger.
In addition to the development of equestrian technology, advances in iron smelting also provided cavalry with longer and more curved knives, which further enhanced their combat effectiveness. By the end of the Tang Dynasty, gunpowder had been widely used in combat, and Genghis Khan of the Mongol Empire took gunpowder technology to the extreme.
1.The advent of gunpowder had a major impact on the combat of the agrarian infantry and corps, especially after the long-range projectile of the trebuchet, the Rangers had a greater advantage in attacking and plundering the city, and the defensive power of the walls became vulnerable.
2.In the early days of institutional progress, the Xiongnu and Xianbei were both nomadic people who came out of the matriarchal society and maintained a strong matrilineal social heritage. Although their territory appears to be vast, it is actually made up of many loose tribal confederations.
If the steppe overlord wants to wage a large-scale war, he needs to obtain the unanimous consent of many small tribal leaders. If there is a disagreement, or if the interests of certain tribes are compromised, the loose alliance may disintegrate.
Therefore, the nomadic peoples in the north are often the Xiongnu, Turkic, Xianbei, Khitan and other ethnic groups who take turns to dominate, each holding the right to rule for a period of time.
Since the founding of the Mongolian state, the loose alliance regime of the nomads began to transform into a centralized regime. This transformation can be analogous to the fact that the feudal system in the Western Zhou Dynasty was replaced by a centralized feudal system.
Genghis Khan succeeded in eradicating the separatist forces of the tribes and sent his relatives and relatives to lead the army, so that the entire steppe army was under his orders.
In this way, the original plate of loose sand quickly condensed into a rope, and the combat effectiveness was naturally significantly improved.
Although during the period of tribal alliances, nomads could still go back and forth with agricultural civilizations, after the political system was on an equal footing, the combat effectiveness of nomads showed a one-sided trend.
In addition, the reform of a series of systems such as the military merit reward system and the war dividend system made the nomadic cavalry more courageous. The conclusion is that the nomads can no longer be suppressed institutionally, and the technological progress has not been made, so that the disadvantages of the agrarian peoples will become more and more obvious.
Even with a famous general like Yue Fei, even if the sixteen states of Bianjing and Yanyun were recovered, the Song Dynasty might not be able to change the fate of its demise. Because in the tide of the times, even a pig can fly as long as it stands on the tuyere.