During the reign of Renzong in the Northern Song Dynasty, the specific time was 1 to 1042. Li Yuanhao, king of Xixia, proclaimed himself emperor without authorization, which triggered the Song and Xia wars. During the three-year war, the army of the Northern Song Dynasty exposed a series of major problems. According to the records of war history, the number of Song Jun is more than three times that of Xixia army, but the result is to lose more and win less. Finally, I had to sign a peace agreement with Xixia and pay a lot of property to Xixia to maintain peace between the two sides. Why did the army in the Northern Song Dynasty always lose by attacking many people? Lv Yijian's letter to Song Renzong clearly stated that there was no war in the imperial court for many years, and most of the weapons and equipment in Fanku were rusty, so bows and arrows could not penetrate the armor of Xixia people. Most of the soldiers' armor is made of hemp paper temporarily by the local government. Once it is soaked in rain, it is destroyed. The cavalry of SHEN WOO Imperial Battalion is armed to the teeth, but they can't get on the horse, so they need to help each other. The military horses in the Northern Song Dynasty were unbearable cold. Nine times out of ten, they froze to death from the central plains to the Xixia border, but they couldn't beat the Xixia army.
Faced with such a dilemma, it is no wonder that Song Renzong has to choose reconciliation. Subsequently, the Northern Song Dynasty carried out a series of adjustments and reforms to its own army, but because there were no effective methods, it did not improve much combat effectiveness.
1070, Song Shenzong appointed Wang Anshi as prime minister and presided over the political reform. With the painstaking efforts of Wang Anshi and others, the national strength of the Northern Song Dynasty increased greatly, and there was a plan to liquidate Xixia. Wang Anshi recommended Xiang Xuehai, who had worked in the northwest frontier for many years, to be a grain carrier in Shaanxi, exchanging salt, tea and silk produced in the Central Plains for precious stallions of Tubo and Qiang people, so as to improve the defect that the military horses in the Northern Song Dynasty were not cold-resistant and heat-resistant. Song Shenzong also ordered state capitals to supervise all kinds of weapons and military equipment. However, after the weapons and military equipment made locally arrived in Beijing, the inspection officials shook their heads. Why? Because there is no uniform manufacturing standard and the quality of craftsmen is uneven, many weapons and military equipment manufactured and produced can not meet the requirements of war and must be reworked. After receiving the report, Wang Anshi had a big headache for this matter. During the Northern Song Dynasty, weapons and equipment were manufactured by the government. However, due to the uneven distribution of iron ore and other resources, each military state could only organize its own production, and then the vassal state unified recycling management. Wang Gan, the son of Wang Anshi, was a famous writer at the age of 26. According to the mode of weapons production in past dynasties, he suggested that Wang Anshi concentrate craftsmen and production resources in several States in Kaifeng, the capital, and the Ministry of War sent people to supervise and manage production. This is not only convenient for management, but also can unify the production standards of weapons and equipment. Wang Anshi felt reasonable, so he asked Song Shenzong for approval and implemented it immediately.
/kloc-in the autumn of 0/070, military equipment craftsmen from more than a dozen States near Kaifeng gathered in Beijing and started unprecedented military production. Under the supervision and management of Ministry of War officials, these craftsmen not only produced weapons and equipment that met the needs of war, but also greatly improved their production efficiency. In the past, every craftsman was responsible for the weapons and equipment he made. From material selection to exercise, beating, shaping, grinding and polishing, he has gone through dozens of technological processes, which is time-consuming and laborious and prone to mistakes. After the unified management of the court, every step is supervised and guided by professionals, which not only greatly saves the production time, but also improves the production efficiency and saves a lot of manpower and material resources for the court. A year later, Song Shenzong proudly told the ministers that the sword and armor of Fanku could be used for more than ten years! In order to commend the officials who contributed to the weapon production line, the imperial court issued imperial edicts to commend Lv Huiqing, Ceng Bu, Wang Kan and others who contributed to the birth of the weapon equipment production line. Since then, successive dynasties have inherited this method of making weapons and equipment to serve the national security work.
The weapon equipment production line was born in the Northern Song Dynasty, more than 800 years earlier than Henry Ford's automobile production line in the United States. If it weren't for the restriction of China's closed-door policy since the mid-Ming Dynasty, perhaps China is still the most powerful country in the world, and there is no one!