The national strength of the Northern Song Dynasty was at its peak from the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and reached its peak from the periods of Zhao Kuangyin, Song Taizu, Zhao Guangyi, Song Taizong and Song Zhenzong. At this stage, the Northern Song Dynasty was prosperous and powerful, and the chances of winning foreign wars outweighed the losses. Therefore, this stage of the Northern Song Dynasty is called the strongest stage of the Song Dynasty.
In addition, although the northern kingdom of Qidan is strong at this stage, there is still capital against Qidan in the Northern Song Dynasty. Even in many battles against the Northern Song Dynasty, the Khitan has always occupied the absolute advantage of the Northern Song Dynasty, and Xixia has not yet posed a substantial threat to the Northern Song Dynasty.
However, by the stage of Song Renzong, Yingzong, Zongshen, Zhezong and Hui Zong, the national power of Dasong began to decline. The reason is that this stage of Dasong is too comfortable and the foreign war is not active. He attached importance to the development of literature, and despised military promotion under the pretext of "reassuring the people".
Especially in the period of Injong, Song Renzong was indeed a wise monarch in the Northern Song Dynasty. However, Song Renzong refused to use force (war), and he liked to focus on national governance. Therefore, Song Renzong's rule was actually a watershed in the development of military strength in the Northern Song Dynasty.
San huang before Injong was very tough, saying that a foreign war was a foreign war. But when he came to Renzong, Song Renzong's first task was to talk about the provocations of Liao and Xixia. If the negotiations failed, he ordered the army to adopt a defensive strategy, euphemistically called "the sooner the better."
So in the Song Dynasty, from Injong, the military was somewhat relaxed; During the period of Yingzong and Zongshen, the internal friction in the Song Dynasty was very serious, and various forces engaged in political struggles in the name of "political reform", and the infighting among ministers was very serious. Many ministers are either in the process of relegation or on the way to relegation, such as Yan Shu, Ouyang Xiu, Su Shi, Fan Zhongyan, Wang Anshi and Sima Guang.
As one of the most famous political struggles between Wang Anshi and Sima Guang, it turns out that political reform is a road that needs continuous development. However, the bureaucrats in the Song Dynasty all had different ideas. Some bureaucrats firmly supported Wang Anshi's political reform, while others felt that the political reform was only causing trouble to the country, because these political infighting directly made the national strength of the Song Dynasty go from a state of continuous decline to a cliff-like decline.
However, during the Hui Zong period, some treacherous court officials tried their best to seek benefits for themselves in the name of inheriting Wang Anshi's political reform. During Hui Zong's period, the Song Dynasty was already strong outside and weak inside, and foreign Jin people (jurchen) were eyeing it.
When Hui Zong was still drinking and writing poems, the Jin people's army was killed at the gate of Kaifeng, Kaifeng was broken, and the two emperors Huizong and Qinzong were taken back to the State of Jin by the Jin people (the shame of Jingkang). Since then, Dasong has no choice but to withdraw from the sphere of influence north of the Yangtze River and began to settle in the south of the Yangtze River. At the same time, this retreat also doomed that Dasong could no longer unify the Central Plains.
The Northern Song Dynasty perished. Although Zhao Gou fled to the south and established the Southern Song Dynasty, the strength of this Southern Song Dynasty was obviously no longer the glory of the Northern Song Dynasty at that time. Besides, Song Gaozong and Zhao Gou never thought about regaining lost territory. He even felt that if they wanted to fight back, their kindness would be gone when the two emperors came back.
Also because of this idea, Song Gaozong's Southern Song Dynasty was very unintelligent, and only dared to defend and rarely dared to attack. Few victories were achieved in several attacks, one of which was won by Yue Fei. However, Song Gaozong is afraid of wolves and tigers. The next few monarchs in the Southern Song Dynasty were only Song Xiaozong, but in the Southern Song Dynasty of Xiaozong, there were no military talents available, and all the good talents were cleaned up by Zhao Gou.
Filial piety's ruling period is not long, only 20 years. During these 20 years, Xiaozong also made many achievements in foreign operations, but on the whole, Xiaozong still failed to save the downfall of Dasong.
The strength of Liao country was very strong from the beginning, and the change of Liao country's national strength was in the stage of low, medium and high. In other words, the most prosperous period of Liao was the middle period of their country (the period of Emperor Sheng Zong of Liao Dynasty). At this stage, the Liao country was invincible in the surrounding areas, and even the Northern Song Dynasty dared not provoke the Liao country casually.
Then, why did Daliao decline step by step? The reason lies in Liao Daozong. Before Liao Daozong, Liao's strength had been increasing. However, after Liao Daozong came to power, Liao fell into a situation of internal friction and division. At that time, the orthodox emperor of Liao was not recognized by other princes. After Liao Daozong came to power, he was betrayed by the powerful faction.
Although it is said that Liao Daozong successfully solved the rebellion of Chongyuan, this counter-insurgency also brought great influence to Liao's national strength. There are many Liao elites in Chongyuan's army in Lu Ye, and Liao Daozong mobilized most of them to counter the rebellion. The elite troops defeated the elite troops, and the final result was Liao Daozong's fiasco.
Arguably, after Liao Daozong solved the Chongyuan crisis in Lu Ye, Da Liao should settle down to internal affairs, but this Liao Daozong was a fatuous monarch. He ignored politics himself and appointed a group of traitors. It can be said that the internal affairs of the Liao Dynasty were even more chaotic than that of the Northern Song Dynasty, and people with lofty ideals did not want to stay in the Liao Dynasty, so the Liao Dynasty began to decline.
At this stage, Daliao, which sent troops to attack Xixia, was defeated and lost most of its elite. In fact, Daliao has entered the zombie stage of the whole people and can only barely maintain the balance at this stage. However, while maintaining a relative balance with the Song Dynasty, the Liao Dynasty neglected a potential rival-Nuzhen.
Jurchen has always been a vassal of Da Liao in name, and often pays tribute. Therefore, the kings of the Liao Dynasty are very helpful to the Jurchen, and there is no way to limit its development. However, it is this negligence that makes Jurchen get up. Jurchen leader Akuta took the opportunity to hit Daliao directly.
Not only that, Nuzhen also joined hands with Dasong to crusade against Liao, but Daliao, which lost its military strength, obviously could not cope with the attacks of Nuzhen and Dasong at the same time, and finally Daliao collapsed.
Xu Jin is very famous. Destroying Liao can also destroy the Northern Song Dynasty. Not only that, Xu Jin also captured two emperors of the Central Plains Dynasty. It can be said that the situation in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China was excellent. Even at this stage, the State of Jin had the strength to dominate the whole country.
However, the rulers of Jin left the bitter and cold place in the northeast and came to the Central Plains with a suitable climate, and began to make progress. After the army entered the city, it became the normal state of the military camp at that time, and almost all the officers and men were silent in the prosperity and beauty of the Central Plains.
Nuzhen, who lost the pressure of survival, just like the upstart who suddenly became rich, put all her energy into eating, drinking and having fun, but had little interest in dominating the whole country. They constantly attacked the Southern Song Dynasty in order to gain more prosperous land, plunder more materials and let themselves have more places to enjoy themselves.
Among the kings of the state of Jin, one emperor has a unified ambition. He is Emperor Xizong. However, the emperor was born at the wrong time. He wants to develop the state of Jin in an all-round way in order to achieve the ambition of unifying the people of the Central Plains. However, Emperor Xizong was a typical idealistic emperor. He kept silent about his dream of reunification, but turned a blind eye to the hero group and the queen group, gradually eroding his power. By the end of Xizong, the power of the court was gone.
Jin Xizong's government was finally killed by his trusted hero Wan Yanliang, and at this time Daikin's power completely fell into Wan Yanliang's hands. Yan Yanliang is a wise monarch. However, Yan Yanliang is persistent and inflexible. In the battle against DaSong, Yan Yanliang's army suffered a crushing defeat in quarrying Rocky Mountain. It is reasonable to retreat soon, but Yan Yanliang insisted on going south. Because of this, Yan Yanliang's men could only kill the king to protect themselves, and this war also took advantage of the Southern Song Dynasty. They took the opportunity to recapture Huainan.
Since Yan Hongliang, Daikin's luck has been declining, and there is no wise king among the succeeding kings. Moreover, the Nuzhen rebellion caused by the neglect of Nuzhen in Liao Dynasty occurred in Dajin, and the development of nomadic people on Mongolian grassland was ignored by Jin State. The Mongols became stronger step by step under the leadership of Genghis Khan. After Genghis Khan unified the north and south of the desert, the war between Mongolia and Xu Jin officially began.
The Mongolian-Jin War lasted for decades, but the stronger Mongolia fought, the weaker Jin State fought, and finally Jin State was defeated by Mongolian fighters.
There is a Tangut regime in the northwest, Xixia. Although Xixia's national strength is not very strong, their king is relatively good. Xixia's military strength has always been very strong, and even all the people are soldiers in combat. Qidan Liao fought Xixia, Song fought Xixia, Jin also fought Xixia, and even Mongolian fighters conquered Xixia from the beginning.
However, Xixia, a small place, is always a surprise. No matter how many armies these great powers launch, they can't conquer this country. Even Liao, Jin and Song were defeated by Xixia. Some historians once claimed: "If Xixia is given twice the territory, then Xixia will be the most likely country to unify the whole country."
Xixia is a hard country, so the countries in the Central Plains are helpless here. Xixia even lasted until Daikin was destroyed by Mongolia, and Mongolia spent a lot of energy fighting Xixia. Both cavalry and infantry in Xixia were extremely powerful, and the Mongolian army lost hundreds of thousands of talents and barely captured Xixia.
Dali is a long-standing political power. Before the establishment of the Great Song Dynasty, this land had political power. However, Dali obviously does not have much ambition to expand. They just want to keep this territory handed down by their ancestors. Therefore, Dali mainly focuses on national governance and foreign diplomacy. Dali had a good relationship with the Song Dynasty. Dali often pays tribute to Dasong, and even in order to please Dasong's officials, Dali also makes a special trip to get all kinds of jewelry and medicines for Dasong's officials every year.
So the kings of the Song Dynasty were very friendly to Dali. While Dali established a good relationship with the Song Dynasty, its neighboring countries were not strong, which also gave Dali an excellent living space. The perennial war-torn situation in the Central Plains did not have any impact on Dali.
However, being rarely threatened by strong enemies does not mean that Dali's army is weak. On the contrary, Dali's army is also very strong. When the Mongols invaded Dali, Dali's army once defeated the Mongolian army. This shows that Dali's military strength is also very strong.
In the Song Dynasty, chaos continued and competition was fierce. However, the Central Plains people's political power in this period was very weak, not only failing in foreign wars, but also all kinds of infighting at home. Therefore, when historians evaluate the Song Dynasty, they think: "The Song Dynasty paid too much attention to literati, but ignored the role of military commanders, attached importance to economic development, but did not develop the military. It's like making money, but it costs nothing. The disadvantage of the Song Dynasty was that it despised the military. "
In fact, the cowardice of the Song Dynasty was actually caused by many reasons. Lost sixteen counties, not only lost the breeding base of Liangma, but also lost the defense line of the Great Wall. Song dynasty can only hold half of the country. In the face of the most powerful cavalry in history, nomadic cavalry such as Khitan, Jurchen and Mongolia, as well as the Song Dynasty, which was dominated by infantry, could only play happily.
In addition, besides the military troubles caused by the policy of "worshiping and restraining martial arts", the intrigue among ministers made the Song Dynasty worse. Although other regimes such as Liao, Jin and Xixia attached importance to the army, their economic development was too poor. These countries were limited by their national strength and could not further unify the whole country.