Chapter 217 Gentle Breeze and Drizzle

The fall of the Northern Song Dynasty had nothing to do with military affairs. The Northern Song Dynasty had a large number of inherited military families, and the imperial court also had a martial arts school specifically for training military generals, that is, a military academy. The number of the imperial guards and the wing troops exceeded one million. Who could destroy it?

The Northern Song Dynasty fell simply because the class struggle sparked by the emperor's reforms led to its internal collapse. This was a governance issue. Even without the Jurchens, the Northern Song would have perished. Just like how the Soviet Union possessed the world's largest nuclear arsenal, what good would it have done? The regime was already divided, and it had to fall.

The Song Dynasty army was divided into two types: the Imperial Guard and the Xiang Army. The Song Dynasty military system is considered the worst in Chinese history, but there are reasons for this, so we cannot blame the Song people too much.

During the late Tang and Five Dynasties, feudal lords were arrogant and wars were frequent. Almost everyone in society served in the army, and scholars seemed to have disappeared. At the beginning, the army was decent, but later it was reduced to old and weak soldiers.

The army could not go to the battlefield to fight, so they were used as laborers like criminals. At that time, all soldiers had to have their faces tattooed with words, saying "joined soldiers", to prevent them from escaping.

For example, people like Song Jiang and Wu Song in "Water Margin" had tattoos on their faces and were sent to a local military camp to do hard labor. People called them thieves and soldiers. This was a practice that had existed since the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period until the Song Dynasty, and no thorough reform had been done. Such an army was, of course, useless.

In fact, these troops were called "conscription" in the Han Dynasty and "commissioned service" in the Tang Dynasty. And what was called "commissioned service" in the Song Dynasty was a symbol of local autonomy in the Han Dynasty. This transformation is extremely unreasonable.

Because the situation was so bad that it was difficult to reverse, Emperor Taizu of Song had no choice but to select a group of strong and capable men from this army and form a separate unit called the Imperial Guard. The Imperial Guard was selected according to certain height and weight requirements. Initially, a living soldier was used as a model, and later wooden figures were made. These were sent to various local units, and those who met these standards were sent to the central government to serve as the Imperial Guard.

Therefore, the Imperial Guards were more suitable. Those who did not meet this standard were retained in the local areas as garrison troops. "Xiang" means the garrison of a city, and garrison troops referred to the troops stationed in the garrisons of various local cities. These soldiers were not required to fight in battles, but only to perform miscellaneous duties in the local area. They were assigned to perform any labor service required by the local government.

Logically, the first thing the Song Dynasty should have done after its founding was to demobilize the army. However, the Song Dynasty only demobilized the army as described above, and never demobilized the army.

This was also because the Song Dynasty, despite conquering the country, had not truly unified the nation. Their arch-enemy, the Liao Dynasty, had already existed for over fifty years. The so-called Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun had long been ceded to the Liao people by Shi Jingtang. At that time, Chahar, Rehe, Liaoning, and parts of Shanxi and Hebei were all in Liao hands.

The northern frontiers were completely removed, and the Song Dynasty established its capital in Kaifeng. Kaifeng was a flat land, jutting out onto the banks of the Yellow River. East of the Taihang Mountains lay a vast plain, and cavalry marching south from the north could reach the Yellow River in just a few days. Once across the Yellow River, they were at the gates of Kaifeng.

Therefore, when the Song Dynasty was founded, there was no national defense. If the capital could be established in Luoyang, the enemy coming from Beiping, crossing the river, and heading west along the current Longhai Line would still have to cross the so-called Jingsuo Mountains in the Zhengzhou area, which would barely be able to be defended.

If we march southward from the Shanxi frontier, Yanmen Pass in Wutai Mountain is a strategic location within the region, a second line of defense. A single charge to the Yellow River would be difficult, so establishing the capital in Luoyang would be preferable.

If the scale of the Han and Tang dynasties could be restored, with the capital further west, to Xi'an, that would certainly be even better. But why did Emperor Taizu of Song choose Kaifeng over Luoyang? He had his reasons for this.

Because the national defense line had been broken and the lost territory of Yanyun had not been recovered, he had to support the army. Supporting the army required food, and at that time, the army's food supply was already entirely dependent on the Yangtze River Basin.

The ancient Central Plains, known as the Great River, was in ruins by the end of the Tang and Five Dynasties, its economy relying entirely on the south for support. A canal ran north from Yangzhou. This wasn't a canal from the Yuan Dynasty, but rather the Tongji Canal, which ran north from Yangzhou along the present-day Longhai Line to Kaifeng. This was the canal from the time of Emperor Yang of Sui.

By the time the rice arrived in Kaifeng, the Bian Canal had already broken down before it could be transported to Luoyang. Transporting it by land would have been even more difficult, wasting significant manpower and resources. The founding of the Song Dynasty inherited the long period of chaos, darkness, and devastation of the Five Dynasties. Without the resources to transport military rations to Luoyang, Chang'an lay in ruins, not to mention its desolate state.

In order to save some grain transportation costs, the capital was moved to Kaifeng. Emperor Taizu of Song also said at the time that in the future when the country was at peace, the capital would still be moved west.

At the time, there were two national policies. One was to first attack the north bank of the Yellow River, defeat the Northern Han and Liao, and then the Yangtze River basin would be conquered without fighting. This policy was proactive, but also very dangerous.

If they were defeated, there would be no way to retreat. One option was to first pacify the Yangtze River basin, unify the south, and then attack the north. This policy was more cautious and prudent. Emperor Taizu of Song adopted the second strategy, pacifying the south first, but leaving the difficult task for future generations.

So, before his death, Emperor Taizu of Song obeyed his mother and passed the throne to his younger brother Zhao Kuangyi, who became Emperor Taizong of Song. After Emperor Taizong ascended the throne, he personally led two expeditions against the Liao Dynasty, but was defeated both times.

One battle took place on the banks of the Gaoliang River, which runs from Xizhimen in Beijing to the Summer Palace in Xishan. He was defeated in this battle and was shot by an arrow. He died of the wound when he returned.

Historically, this kind of thing was kept secret, as the Song Dynasty was in such a state at the time of its founding that it could not reduce its troops or demobilize them, and at the same time, it did not dare to fight the Liao Dynasty again.

Because if you want to fight, you can only win, not lose. If you lose, you'll retreat to the Yellow River, and the foundation of the country will be shaken. Under these circumstances, the Song Dynasty became a country that maintained an army but could not fight. Knowing that they could not fight, they had to maintain an army. Even more strange, they maintained an army but did not value them, while vigorously promoting civil governance.

This is understandable. The Song Dynasty reversed the adverse trend in Chinese history during the late Tang and Five Dynasties because it deliberately promoted civil governance.

In the Song Dynasty, people only wanted to use these troops to resist foreign invasions, while promoting civil governance and emphasizing culture over military affairs, so as to gradually curb the arrogance of soldiers and avoid repeating the mistakes of the late Tang Dynasty and the Five Dynasties.

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