As for where the soldiers are the most proficient at fighting, it can be said that the most debated topic in the past is just like the province that is often discussed in modern times has the most powerful fights, and some people even have a special ranking list. But in the end, it often ends in controversy, because at different times in history, there have been brave and warlike armies in various places, and no one can convince anyone!

"Why do you think She soldiers and Huai soldiers are good at fighting?" Zhao Yu thought for a while and asked rhetorically.

"The She tribe grew up in a wild land, and the people were fierce, brave and aggressive; Most of the Huai soldiers are in the two Huai, and since I crossed to the south, I have confronted Jin and Meng across the river, and have been fighting for more than 100 years, and the natural people are still martial! Chen Changshi said.

"There is some truth in what I said, but it is not fundamental. Thinking about the Warring States period, Qin Zhiruishi, Wei Zhiwu, Qi Zhiji, and Zhao Zhibian were all powerhouses for a while. In addition, the Cao Wei tiger and leopard cavalry of the Three Kingdoms in the late Han Dynasty dominated by Qingzhou soldiers, the Shu Han Dynasty with the Yizhou army as the main camp, and Yuan Shao's Euphorbia warriors dominated by Hebei soldiers were also invincible; Then there were the Beifu soldiers of the Eastern Jin Dynasty with Jiangdong people as the main force, the eighteen cavalry of Yanyun of Sui, and the Xuanjia army of Taizong of Tang Dynasty; And our dynasty is not without a strong force, Taizu's selected soldiers from all over the country, the Royal Dragon Banzhi, Yue Wumu with Henan and Hebei soldiers as the main force, the back army and the Western army are all dominant! Zhao Yu smacked his wine and said.

"Your Majesty's words mean the strength of an army, not determined by geography, so what does it have to do with it?" Chen Changshi heard it and felt that the emperor's words seemed to be reasonable, but he was still puzzled, so he asked for advice.

"The strength of the army is related to many factors, but the main one is nothing more than the military system, training level, weapons and equipment, and the country's financial resources, and it is also affected by the general trend of the world and the political situation of the country at that time." Zhao Yu thought for a moment and said, "This is like the clams on this table, which are just ordinary seafood in the coastal areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, but they are worth thousands of dollars in the north, but this difference is only because clams are easy to corrupt and difficult to traffic over long distances!" ”

"Although His Majesty's metaphor is vivid, I still find it difficult to agree. People in the world often say that the people of Jiangsu and Zhejiang are not ancient, and they are good at calculation, but they are cowardly and cannot be soldiers, so after the loss of Jianghuai, Jiangnan is not guaranteed! Chen Renweng's eldest son, Chen Lishi, said

And the north and south of the clam theory is also derived from Emperor Renzong and a clam anecdote: "Renzong every private banquet, ten sides to offer cooked food, is the beginning of the autumn of the year, the first arrival of clams, or to offer, Renzong asked Ande has this evil, its price geometry, said each thousand dollars, a sacrifice of twenty-eight pieces, on the unhappy said: "I often prescribe not to be extravagant, today a chopstick, cost twenty-eight thousand, I can't bear it, so I don't eat." ”

Because of his refusal to eat steamed clams, Renzong achieved a reputation for frugality, but Renzong may still be entangled in his heart for a while. Of course, this can't be blamed on the northerners for not knowing the goods, at that time, anyone who can eat clams should be qualified to say that they are local tyrants, so the emperor of Kaifeng can't help but complain that this thing is too expensive.

"Well, that's a good question! The reason why there are strong soldiers in a certain era from a domain has a lot to do with the military system at that time. Zhao Yu nodded and said, "As we all know, the previous dynasties before our dynasty mainly conscripted compulsory soldiers, and Ding Zhuang men worked in agriculture in peacetime, took up arms in wartime, and went to the battlefield. As a result, young people cannot take a long time to their fields, otherwise the country is in danger of famine. But not being able to take a break meant that there was no guarantee of a fixed amount of training, which was only possible for a very small number of elites at the time. ”

In this way, the quality of the soldiers themselves is required, if the people of a certain place are martial, they themselves are skilled in bows and horses, and the countryside is closed, it is easy to form a small community between fellow villagers, and they have a tacit understanding between them, which can reduce the run-in time. In the Han Dynasty, huge arsenals were established in various counties, and as soon as the conscripts arrived, they took up their weapons and put on armor, and they could immediately carry out combat missions. This is also the fundamental reason why the previous Qin Dynasty could not do it, so that the Han army could seal the wolf Juxu. ”

In addition, the Han Dynasty adopted a policy of one-way economic circulation, which led to a large concentration of wealth in the northwest, to be precise, the Guanzhong region. This allowed the small communities in the Guanzhong region to have a more generous resource allocation than other regions, and further made the Guanzhong troops in the Han Dynasty more warlike than other regions. With them, after the Han Dynasty established the capital of Chang'an, the national capital never fell to foreigners, even the Huns only killed a county guard with the help of the rebels, but they couldn't even touch the edge of Chang'an. ”

"Don't think that after reading two books, you will be preoccupied with others, and your knowledge is thousands of miles behind Your Majesty, so you will listen to those nonsense!" Chen Renweng snorted coldly.

"What my father taught me is that I should examine myself in the future!" Chen Lishi hurriedly got up and saluted.

"Linzhou, don't be rude. Your Majesty is not only knowledgeable, but also often has a unique view of world affairs, and I have just heard what His Majesty has said, and it is a blessing for children to listen to His Majesty's teachings. Chen Zeweng saw his brother in front of the court, and glared at him.

"Yes!" Chen Renweng arched his hand, and then turned to the emperor and said, "Actually, my subordinates have a lot of confusion about this, and they are also deeply disturbed, and I ask Your Majesty to explain it in detail." ”

"Your Majesty, please!" Chen Changshi and Chen Lishi glanced at each other, and also got up and saluted.

"Why should a family be so polite, my opinions are inevitably biased, we can also discuss with each other!" Zhao Yu raised his hand to let them be polite. And I also feel that for this problem, if Chen Renweng, who is the secretary of the Ministry of War, is puzzled, it will bring trouble to the follow-up things, and I feel that I can take this opportunity to discuss.

So after Zhao Hao invited everyone to have a drink, he expressed his opinion. In the Tang Dynasty, the military system was further developed, due to the late Han Dynasty, Wei and Jin dynasties, a large number of Inner Asian tribes moved into the Guanzhong region, resulting in the entire northwest region from blood, system to culture has been changed. Taking the traditional farming and warfare troops as an example, the official equipment of the government soldiers in the Guanzhong region is spears and bows and arrows, which is a very typical combination of the equipment of the Inner Asian conscription army and the old peasant and soldier system in the Central Plains. Not to mention that the Guanlong group in the early Tang Dynasty had a strong Xianbei bloodline, which made the rule of the Tang Dynasty coated with a layer of Inner Asian color.

With the political advantage of being close to the capital and the natural advantage of being geographically close to the hinterland of Inner Asia, the northwest region has absorbed a large amount of technology and wealth from Inner Asia, and has a military power that surpasses that of the northeast region. The border troubles of the Tang Dynasty were mainly concentrated in the northwest and southwest regions, of which the northwest was the most tense. The so-called "catfish effect" played by the military pressure in the northwest made the Tang Dynasty think of danger in times of peace and constantly strengthen its armaments.

For this reason, six of the ten knots of the Tang Dynasty were used to defend the northwest frontier, and Anxi and Beiting were set up as the first defense line of the Tang Dynasty's border defense to consolidate the Western Regions. Like the northeast, the northwestern army also had a large number of foreign warriors, and before the Anshi Rebellion, almost all the generals of the unified army were Hu.

However, unlike the northeast, most of the foreign generals in the northwest remained loyal to the Tang dynasty, which led to a fateful duel between them and the rebellious northeastern army. When An Lushan led an army of 150,000 rebels composed of Khitan, Xi, and Northeast Han people to march to Chang'an, it was the northwest army of Gao Xianzhi and Ge Shuhan who stood in front of them. Unfortunately, the political situation in the central government was already corrupt at that time, and Ge Shuhan was forced to go to war due to his serious illness and was captured and died; Gao Xianzhi died in vain because of trumped-up corruption charges, and Chang'an fell.

Later, in order to quell the rebellion, the Tang Dynasty appointed Guo Ziyi, who was born in the Northwest Army, as Wei Weiqing and the Taishou of Lingwu County. From then on, the war between the main force of the Tang Army led by Shuo Fangjun and the rebel forces led by An Lushan and Shi Siming officially began. In this eight-year-long counterinsurgency war, Shuofang's military achievements ranked first.

In addition to the Shuofang army represented by the northwest, the Inner Asian tribes from the northwest also performed remarkably as foreign aid. The Hui cavalry in the Anshi Rebellion, the Northeast rebels out of the cavalry phobia, you must know that there are a lot of Khitans in the Northeast Army, but the Hui cavalry can defeat them in the cavalry battle, which has confirmed from the side that their cavalry level is higher.

In this way, the myth of strong troops from the northwest and northeast has been shattered. But the glory of the Hui cavalry did not last long. In order to balance the feudal towns of the Han people in the country, the Tang Dynasty decided to introduce the Inner Asian tribes in the northwest again, and this time the Shatuo people were chosen. As a branch of the Turkic people, the Shatuo people have an innate ability to ride and shoot, and they were born in the Western Regions, a place where the three major civilizations clashed, and learned to use mounted cavalry.

From the beginning of the Pang Xun Rebellion, the heroic appearance of the Shatuo cavalry wearing heavy armor and holding a hammer and a horse to attack the enemy formation left a deep impression on the Central Plains people. In the troubled times of the Five Dynasties, the military superiority of the Shatuo people was truly reflected, although Zhu Wen had more abundant resources in theory, but he could not use the force of the Central Asian Tibetan people to maintain the Later Tang Dynasty.

After that, in the face of the rising Liao State, 5,000 cavalry with the Shatuo people as the core faced off against the Liao Taizu Yelu Abaoji on the prairie and defeated it from the front, but it also sang the elegy of the Tang Dynasty's Western Army. It's a pity that Li Cunmao, as a Shatuo person, really regarded his surname as Li, and did not take a similar approach to the Manchu Qing Dynasty to maintain the combat effectiveness of his tribe's army, coupled with the loss of war, he could no longer see the posture of the Shatuo cavalry in the Song Dynasty.

"This is precisely because the further west you go, the more isolated it becomes, and the harsh environment makes it difficult for one person and one family to survive, and you must rely on the strength of the tribe to survive. As a result, there are strong regional ties between the clans, and the members of the tribe often live in the local area for generations. Armies composed of such tribal members are often very loyal to their leaders and are very willing to obey the commands of their respective chiefs, and the tribal system ensures that after the tribal soldiers die in battle, their fathers, elders, wives and children have a basic survival guarantee, and they are naturally not afraid of death in battle! Zhao Yu took a sip of wine and ate another clam before continuing.

"The She people also live in the two vast lands, where the same living environment is extremely harsh, they have to compete with other tribes for limited survival resources, and live in semi-militarized villages to eat and live together, which makes it particularly easy for them to form an establishment and combat effectiveness once they start a war against a certain group." Zhao Yu said, "It is the same that the Huai army became the pillar of our army, and after the fall of the north, they moved south to the Lianghuai region and became Hakka. In the face of the oppression of the local natives and the invasion of the nomads, they had to form a community with clans as the link, and their combat effectiveness was naturally incomparable! ”

"There are many ministers who are puzzled, why did the Tang army, after introducing the tribes in the northwest according to this, use the weapons and equipment of the Tang Dynasty and equip it with cavalry technology from the westerly than the Western Regions to create a strong army that flourished for a while, and finally declined?" Chen Renweng pondered for a moment and asked with a frown.

"Let's take the Jurchens who invaded the Central Plains and forced me to cross south!" Zhao Yu said that he knows that military laymen often like to say how many people there are in an army, but those with military common sense know that the establishment is the foundation of an army.

A group of temporary pull-overs, the company commander is, a single strong man who doesn't know what the name of the unit is, and it is very likely that it will be counterproductive on the battlefield. Therefore, one word in military terminology is called "annihilation of the formation", no matter how much the army loses in battle, as long as the formation of the unit is still there, then it is a matter of time before it recovers.

As long as a tribe of nomads sends troops, each soldier can immediately know who his commander is and where his own queue is. Therefore, as long as this tribe is not broken up and reorganized, its combat effectiveness will not be weakened.

"The Jurchens conquered the Khitan, Bohai and other countries in only a few years, and had the reputation of being invincible, but they were destroyed by the Mongols after only a hundred years. I think there are two reasons for this: first, the Jurchens have a small population, and they have to absorb Han Chinese to supplement their troops in the war, so they cannot maintain the previous military system, and their combat effectiveness is inevitably weakened; Second, the Jurchens moved into the Central Plains meant that they lost the training of the harsh environment in the Northeast, and it was difficult to maintain the support of Wood, which was honed by the harsh environment, and it was inevitable that the combat effectiveness of the soldiers would not be as good as that of the next generation. Zhao Yu analyzed.

"As Your Majesty said, the current Tartars are also following the old path of the Jurchens, as the tribes they have continue to split and reorganize, and merge into their different conquered nations, their combat effectiveness will become weaker and weaker, and they will eventually lose to our dynasty's royal division!" Chen Renweng was a little excited at the beginning, and the current situation also confirmed His Majesty's statement, but he was shocked again, "Your Majesty, at present, our army is also constantly expanding and reorganizing, and has gradually broken the former army establishment with Quanzhou and Qiongzhou as the main body, will it also repeat the mistakes of the past......?"