Why are foreign wars constantly defeated after Song Shenzong?

Song Shenzong is carrying out military reform, but why does it still fail in foreign wars?

165438+In the middle and late 20th century, Zhao Xu, the sixth emperor of the Northern Song Dynasty, and Wang Anshi, a great reformer, promoted a vigorous political, economic and military reform movement, the success or failure of which has been debated by the world, leaving us with a lot of thoughts today.

Motive force of reform

Song Shenzong succeeded to the throne on 1068. At this time, internal and external troubles are intertwined, and poverty and weakness coexist.

In terms of foreign invasion, ethnic contradictions are quite prominent, and the relationship between the Northern Song Dynasty and the northern Xixia and Liao countries is very tense. After Li Yuanhao of Xixia officially proclaimed himself emperor in 1032, he continued to attack the Song Dynasty and defeated Song Jun stationed in Shaanxi one after another. In the Song Dynasty, Shaanxi's army increased to nearly 400,000, and famous officials Fan Zhongyan and Han Qi were sent to take command, but it was still unable to stop the invasion of Xixia. Liao also robbed in the north and took the opportunity to blackmail. Iceland Ice Car 1042 is on the border of Chen Bing, threatening to hand over the land in 10 county south of Waqiaoguan recovered by Zhou Shizong after the Five Dynasties. There was nothing the Northern Song Dynasty could do, so it had to add money for Liao and give up its claim to land.

In terms of internal worries, class contradictions are becoming increasingly acute. Since the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty more than one hundred years ago, agriculture, industry and commerce have developed rapidly, and social contradictions have also increased day by day. China's long-term national policy of not restraining mergers has contributed to the expansion of the power of big landlords and businessmen. As a result, land annexation intensified, the privileged classes such as powerful families ran rampant, the gap between the rich and the poor was wide, the national finance went from bad to worse, the government's prestige in the United States was greatly reduced, and there were fewer and fewer officials and ministers. But the American government's tax revenue is getting less and less. Rich people loan sharks, use money to roll money, and small farmers and businessmen are overwhelmed.

Not only that, the number of government officials is also expanding. By the early 1960s, the total number of state officials had exceeded 25,000. In addition to the salaries of officials, there are also four seasons' clothing, servants' clothing, food, shelter, transportation, tea, wine, cooking materials, charcoal and salt, horse feed and other expenses, all of which are borne by the state. Bureaucracy and formalism prevail in the ranks of officials, and few can really do things. Most of them only care about how to increase the wealth of themselves and their families. They lack ideals and ignore the future development of the country. Speculation has become the only goal of officials.

In terms of national defense and army building, due to the long-term implementation of the national policy of valuing literature over martial arts and respecting literature over martial arts, the military command system in which soldiers and generals participate in the highest decision-making is controlled or even abolished by literature. The second chairman of the Privy Council and leading generals from all walks of life are mostly civilian, and they will be centered, directly under the command of the emperor and remotely control the front line. Under the guiding ideology of passive defense and preventing internal weakness and external weakness, the Northern Song government often relied on digging ponds and ditches in the areas bordering Liao, while building forts and trenches in the areas bordering Xixia, forming a long line of defense. In the deployment of the army, taking into account many checks and balances, the system of repeated garrison and internal and external repair is implemented. No soldiers were appointed, and the army was constantly mobilized. So the source of soldiers is unknown, the border defense is empty and the defense is weak, which gives the enemy an opportunity.

In order to cope with the internal and external wars, a large number of soldiers were recruited in the famine year, and the number of soldiers increased greatly, reaching nearly 1259000 in/038, which caused great pressure on the national finance. Under the influence of the whole society, the quality of army building has been seriously affected, and the overall training level of the army has declined. no

Song Shenzong is the most exemplary emperor in history. According to historical records, he never hunted, feasted or built palaces. When he is busy, he often forgets to eat and sleep. Eat after dark. He worked hard to reform and made Qiang Bing rich until he fell ill and died young. Since 1068, Zongshen has carried out social, economic and military reforms, including seven military reforms, focusing on Wang Anshi.

First, the provincial army merged with the battalion, that is, the number of army posts was streamlined, the old and weak soldiers were cut, and the retirement age of the original 6 1 was reduced to below 50 years old. The Imperial Army was merged according to the establishment of 300 Ma Jun 1 Battalion and 400 Bu Jun 1 Battalion, and the total strength was reduced to 796,000 according to the reduction of no more than 500 people in each headquarters. This reform exempted many people from the responsibility of serving the people, thus greatly saving redundant soldiers.

The second is to change the officer law into the army law. The original service law was that people took turns to serve according to households, while the conscription law was that the government paid people to serve. The source of money includes three parts: first-class households who should be servants pay according to the amount of land, which is called idle money; Female households, single-family households, etc. Those who refused to obey the officers before paid them half of the money, which is called service fee; In addition, there will be an extra charge of 1/5, which is called free service charge, which is an extra charge in case of disaster.

The third is to implement Sun Tzu's Art of War. In view of the disadvantages of the garrison law, such as the separation of soldiers from generals and poor command. The newly established army will make it a first-class organizational unit, with thousands to more than 10 thousand troops under its jurisdiction, and appoint a commander and a lieutenant as commander-in-chief, with teams and departments under it, and the commander-in-chief as commander-in-chief.

The fourth is to establish martial arts, that is, military schools. 1072 In May, Zongshen ordered Wu Chengtang to set up martial arts and selected civil and military officials who knew the soldiers as professors. Moreover, it is stipulated that students mainly come from unrecognized envoys, children of officers and generals and civilians with certain military knowledge and skills. Only those who pass the examination recommended by the relevant officials and pass the martial arts pass are eligible for admission. The living expenses of Wushu students are borne by the state, and the educational system is three years. They mainly study military theory, military history and tactics, formation and individual martial arts. They also gave political and ideological education to students in previous lives, and cultivated their loyalty and patriotism to the monarch.

Fifth, the implementation of the insurance law, that is, the combination of soldiers and farmers. Since 1070, insurance organizations have been established in rural areas, stipulating that every 10 insurance company has one policy, 50 insurance companies have one policy and 10 insurance company has one policy. The total number of insurance companies in China has reached 6.93 million.

Sixth, implement the law of raising horses, that is, change the official animal husbandry supervisor to raise horses for the people, register them voluntarily, and the horses are provided by the government with rewards and punishments.

Seventh, in 1073, the Military Equipment Supervision Office was established in Kaifeng to be in charge of American weapons manufacturing. Materials, specifications, standards and quality of military equipment. When producing in various places, the military equipment supervision personnel will give instructions and accept them. In addition, the military equipment supervisor directly manages a workshop with more than 8,700 people and is responsible for the production of important weapons.

The reform measures taken by Song Shenzong and the United States against Qiang Bing have achieved certain results. First of all, it changed the military command system and establishment system. After the implementation of the Art of War, the army mainly implemented the establishment of generals, divisions and teams. When soldiers are large in scale, they are sometimes temporarily organized into troops, thus forming a new four-level establishment of army, general, division and team. After appointing other generals, generals and lieutenant generals have the right to control, train and command their troops, and they will have T.

At the same time, officers and military attaché s, such as instructions, patrols, coaches, city coaches, instructors, etc., are generally set up to take charge of training matters, thus improving the combat capability of the army. 197 1 In August, Song Ting set up Taohe appeasement department, taking it as the main official, and began to operate Hehuang area, and then established Tongtong in Guweizhai. More than a year later, under the American policy of March and appeasement, Wang Shao led the army to expand the land by more than 2,000 miles and occupied five states. This battle embodies the effectiveness of military reform. Fourthly, the establishment of Wushu established the ancient military education system in China. Since the establishment of Wushu in the Northern Song Dynasty, China began to have the embryonic form of a military school.

Although it failed to reverse the reality of the lack of military talents in the Song Dynasty, the military education system established by it was further improved in the Southern Song Dynasty and extended from the central government to the local government. It was inherited by the Ming and Qing Dynasties and gradually replaced by modern military schools after the Opium War. At the same time, the Song Dynasty also promulgated seven Wu Jing, which marked the emergence of traditional military science in China.

Due to historical limitations, the reforms in Song Shenzong and the United States have not achieved the expected success. The compromise with Liao and the fiasco of Xixia War proved this point. Shortly after the victory of Hehuang War, the relationship between Song and Liao was tense. Liao blackmailed Song again and proposed to redraw the border between Wei, Ying and Shuo in the north. After two years of negotiations, Song Ting was worried that his military strength could not stop the invasion of the Liao army, and decided to yield to the demands of the Liao country and the United States, make concessions, give up 700 miles of land, and ensure that all the land north of the ancient Great Wall was transferred to the Liao country.

What's more, in April of 108 1, Song decided to take advantage of the civil strife in Xixia to attack Xixia. * * * sent 32 generals, about 300,000 troops and about 300,000 civilian workers. Xixia kept the main points, cleared the field, and some troops attacked, harassing Song Jun's route for providing foodstuff. In September and June of 5438+ 10, Song Jun successively occupied Lanzhou and other areas, but failed in attacking Lingzhou in 5438+10. On the other hand, there was chaos in two roads, and the siege lasted 18 days. Xixia army fought back, the river flooded and pursued with troops. Song Jun suffered a fiasco, with more than 300,000 soldiers and civilians killed or dispersed.

The next year, Zongshen decided to attack again. He planned to build cities and fortifications between the Song and Xixia borders to contain Xixia, and then capture Xingzhou and Lingzhou, the capital of Xixia. For this reason, the Song Dynasty artificially built a defensive fortress Yongle City under Yongle. Just after it was built, it was besieged by the Xixia army, captured in mid-September, and lost more than 10 thousand soldiers. Xixia people say to use civilian workers. When Zongshen heard the news, he cried in the early morning, but he didn't expect to fight Xixia.

In short, Song Shenzong has three main reasons; The military reform in the United States has not achieved the expected results.

First of all, the reform is eager to achieve success. Zong Shen and Wang Anshi share the same overall goal of making Qiang Bing rich, but there are differences on how to achieve this goal.

Wang Anshi believes that the country's major policy lies in the soldiers and peasants, and the country is not rich and the soldiers are not strong. It is necessary to rectify the army and manage the money. It is necessary to reduce expenditure and increase income. In short, financial management should be given priority. But Zongshen is more concerned about how to get rid of the weak situation and is eager to win the foreign war. He believes that dealing with soldiers first is dealing with farmers. Farming should make money, but there is no shortage of money. That is to give priority to military reform. He has courage and determination, but he is too impatient. He and Wang Anshi pushed forward political, social, economic and military reforms despite difficulties and opposition. They are too distracted and the reform work is ineffective. As a result, they lack understanding of the complexity and arduousness of the reform, leading to

Secondly, improper employment. Influenced by the long-term thought of valuing literature over martial arts, there are many mediocre generals in the army, and many measures of army reform have not been seriously implemented, which often get twice the result with half the effort. For example, Chen Zong, the fifth general of Jingxi, reported to the court that he received an imperial decree yesterday and sent two coaches to teach Ma Jun, both of whom were good at this. So Zongshen sent someone to try this case. As a result, the archer's pommel horse and stepping failed. Zongshen was extremely disappointed and worried about this. He instructed to punish manager Chen, hoping to punish others, but the effect was not good. In Yuanfeng 34, the imperial court sent people to all walks of life to check the implementation of military training. As a result, many of the twelve generals in Hebei failed. Some generals and generals don't know how to teach in the army, and so do some guards and envoys. I don't even know how to bow and horse. The generals on Jiangnan East Road and Huainan West Road are unfamiliar with martial arts. As a team, they can't even take care of each other.

Third, the army's implementation is weak and its style of work is not true. The peaceful days after the alliance of Buddhist temples for decades caused the inertial development inside and outside the imperial court, and Wu's position as a strategist was in jeopardy. In the army, there is a serious phenomenon that orders can't be done and prohibitions can't be stopped, and perfunctory response has become an atmosphere. The phenomenon that some soldiers serve has greatly affected the participation rate of some troops.

It is said that during the reign of God, there were many craftsmen, musicians, group embroidery, calligraphy and painting, ingenuity and hundreds of people in Shaanxi imperial army. Most of them are commanders-in-chief and junior officials, or more than 500 people, 700 people, 1000 people have not participated in military training. Some troops pay off their debts, gamble and plunder women from time to time. When Zongchao and Su Shi were in charge of Dingzhou, they reported that the local imperial army was poor and embarrassed, and his wife and children were naked and hungry. There are six or seven cases out of ten, because they don't punish schools, plunder, ask for money or borrow money. It's customary. It is also said that there are 100 people in Dingzhou city who open cabinets, show their cards and invite soldiers and civilians to gamble. Such an army naturally regards reform measures as a joke and will not ban them, let alone combat effectiveness.