It is not so easy to attack Chang'an Luoyang from Lanzhou, first of all, Yelu Long must consider concealing his subordinates, this time he has gathered an army of 200,000, and Chang'an Luoyang's troops are only 50,000 horses, why is it so small? In fact, the main reason is because although this is the western capital of the Song Dynasty, but to be precise, it is only to accompany the capital, why the same Luoyang is ruined Why not consider attacking Luoyang, whether the Song Dynasty is the capital Luoyang or not, it cannot hold the northern territory. Let's talk about the problem of Luoyang, the ninth year of Kaibao of the Great Song Dynasty (976 AD) in March, Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin toured Luoyang to the west. At this time, the Great Song Dynasty had unified the Central Plains and even the entire south, realizing the situation that the Central Plains Dynasty was closest to the great unification in more than 200 years since the late Tang Dynasty. During Song Taizu's western tour of Luoyang, a major event occurred that shook the imperial court: Taizu proposed to move the capital to Luoyang. This incident naturally touched the fierce opposition of many ministers who had huge assets in Kaifeng and had enjoyed wealth and wealth in Kaifeng for a long time, especially Zhao Guangyi, who had served as the governor of Kaifeng for many years, and the forces there had long been entrenched. From the topography point of view, Luoyang sits on the danger of mountains and rivers, "the rivers and mountains arch on, the situation is the best in the world", and Kaifeng is located on the plain on the south bank of the Yellow River, is the place of four battles that can be defended without danger. If we only compare from this natural condition, the advantages and disadvantages of Luoyang and Kaifeng as national capitals are obvious.

Kaifeng was the capital of Wei during the Warring States period, and was called Daliang at that time, and later renamed Bianzhou. The canal opened in the Sui Dynasty entered the Jianghuai River through Bianliang, making it a throat to lock and control the north-south waterway traffic. By the middle and late Tang Dynasty, the northern feudal towns were divided, wars were frequent, the economic center moved to the south, and Bianliang became a necessary place for the transportation of grain from the south to the north. During the period of the Five Dynasties, Bianliang was successively the capital of the Later Liang, Later Jin, Later Han and Later Four Kingdoms, and the scale of the city continued to expand. By the time of Chai Rong of Zhou Shizong, Bianliang already had a triple city wall, the city was high and the pool was deep, the buildings in the city were regular, the roads were wide, and the commerce was prosperous, and it had the style of the imperial capital. After more than ten years of operation in the Zhao and Song dynasties, Bianliang City "is the most important thing in the world, the number of boats and vehicles, the throat of the river Shuo, and the transportation of Jinghu Lake", and the ministers of the court and the central government have lived here for many years. What's more, at this time, Luoyang (including Chang'an) has basically lost its conditions as the national capital due to the continuous wars that began in the late Tang Dynasty, the city was seriously damaged, and the economy was withered. In fact, Chang'an has moved its capital to Kaifeng since the Tang Dynasty and Luoyang since the Jin Dynasty, and has never become the capital of any dynasty. In the end, Song Taizu listened to Zhao Guangyi's suggestion: "There is no danger in Germany" and gave up the plan to move the capital to Luoyang, but Taizu also issued: "In less than a hundred years, the people of the world will be strong!" exclamation. But if the capital is really moved to Luoyang as Taizu wishes, he will be able to hold the northern territory without the southern invasion of the Jin soldiers? The answer, of course, is no. Here's why:

First, the natural environment and geographical advantages are important factors in determining the outcome of a war, but they are by no means the most important conditions. The dynasties before the Song Dynasty had the capital of Chang'an, and some of them had the capital of Luoyang, but in the end, they could not change the fate of the dynasty change, which can clearly illustrate this problem.

Second: the fundamental reason for the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty and the loss of a large part of the northern territory was the corruption and incompetence of the government at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, just like the war between the Qing Dynasty and the Eight-Nation Alliance. The opposite example is that when New China was first founded, it was able to remain invincible against the United Nations forces led by the United States despite the huge disparity in military equipment.

Third: Because Zhao Kuangyin, Taizu of the Song Dynasty, usurped the power of Zhou Shizong Chai Rong as a military general, and there were many things about the usurpation of power by military generals in the early stage, so the Song Dynasty formulated a policy of emphasizing literature and suppressing military force at the beginning of the founding of the country, and the result was overkill, resulting in most of the military generals not being reused, and even a few outstanding generals often did not die well, such as the famous generals Yang Ye and Di Qing, which was also an important reason for the low combat effectiveness of the army.

Fourth: because the Song Dynasty had lost the sixteen states of Yanyun before the founding of the country, resulting in the lack of horse farms, the Song army could not form a large cavalry force like the Han Dynasty, so it also lost its strong mobility and rapid reaction ability, and the enemy's strategic depth could not pose an effective threat in a short period of time, and these are the strengths of those nomads. The situation on the battlefield is changing rapidly, and sometimes time can determine the outcome of a war. Therefore, the Song Dynasty was in a strategic defensive state most of the time, using the flesh and blood of infantry to deal with the enemy's iron cavalry. This situation can be maintained without a big defeat in the case of a clear government, and once the government is in harmony, the consequences are obvious.

The Song Dynasty originally had no war horses and lacked iron horses, and the reason why Yelu Long was so powerful before was to improve the Iron Floating Tu and have all the war horses, this time he also wanted to use his newly developed fire cannon, as well as the armor cavalry, and the Khitan infantry battle to carry out scarecrow killing, resulting in blood and anger. The most important thing is to return Shi Du in the other way to say that the Northern Song Dynasty was a generation without generals, and the Han people in the Central Plains were not enough to resist the northern nomads, coupled with the policy of not knowing the generals and not knowing the soldiers, it made matters worse, so it went to extinction. In fact, this kind of generalized conclusion ignores an important fact in terms of strategic materials, that is, the importance of war horses to the war situation.

It is said that the Northern Song Dynasty was a generation without generals, and the Han nationality in the Central Plains was not enough to resist the northern nomads, and the policy of not knowing the generals and not knowing the soldiers made it worse, so it went to extinction. In fact, this kind of generalized conclusion ignores an important fact in terms of strategic materials, that is, the importance of war horses to the war situation.

In fact, the Northern Song Dynasty was not weak at the beginning, and the Song Zhenzong era even reached a peak. At that time, the Northern Song Dynasty had a pure cavalry force of 40,000 men. In 1001 A.D., he won more with less, at least he was able to draw with 200,000 Liao troops, kill Tielin Xianggong, the main general of the Tielin Army of Liao, kill 15 Liao generals, and behead 30,000 Liao troops. Song Zhenzong also used diplomatic means to sign armistice alliances with the Liao state and the party, and sometimes received a small number of trading horses from the two places.

And after the alliance of Song Liao Yuanyuan in 1005, the military strength of the Song army began to decline, what is the reason? Still a problem, War Horse!

The Central Plains does not produce good war horses. Because the Liao State, Dangxiang and Western Xia were opponents of the Song Dynasty, they often imposed a war horse embargo on the Song Dynasty. The main import channel for war horses in the Song Dynasty was Tibet. And because of the six valleys in the northwest Tubo itself, the country gradually declined, and the Song Dynasty was able to import war horses greatly reduced. The war horses of the Song Dynasty became more and more difficult, and the cost of raising horses by the government was too high; Folk horses are raised, and many horses in the southwest are not suitable for the battlefield. In the 1075 year of Song Shenzong, there were about 100,000 horses in the Northern Song Dynasty, and in the time of Song Huizong, the total number of war horses was only 1,800, of which there was no one in Kaifeng Mansion, Jingnan Road, Jingdong East Road and other places, and the whole country had fallen into a dangerous situation where there were no horses available in the army.

The Ming monarchs of the Northern Song Dynasty did not violate the alliance of the Song Dynasty and Liaoyuan, and they all understood the danger of starting a war against the Liao State, but the mediocre Song Huizong did not understand, and as a result, the Liao State could not be defeated at first. Later, the cavalry of the Jin State beat the Northern Song infantry like wheat.

In the face of the crisis of having no horses available, Song Huizong's way to avoid destruction should be to try his best to help the Liao State resist the Jin State, first stabilize the north, concentrate all his efforts to kill the paralyzed Western Xia, obtain the horse-producing land of the Western Xia, and maintain a stable source of war horses. After the Song Dynasty gradually developed a strong cavalry in the northwest, it could capture Youyun when it advanced, and it could protect itself when it retreated. However, Song Huizong couldn't see this, and felt that the northern Liao State and the Jin State were also fighting each other, so it was better to take the opportunity to provoke a war. Why didn't he want to think about it, no matter who won the Liao and Jin countries at this time, the Song Dynasty was bound to die. Because the Song Dynasty Plain had no horses to use and no danger to defend, if the Jin State defeated the Liao State and fought the Song Dynasty, the Song army would not be able to resist it; On the contrary, if the Liao State defeated the Jin State and then fought the Song Dynasty, the Song Dynasty would still not be able to resist.

The "Song-Liao-Yuan Alliance" was not a show of weakness by Song Zhenzong to the Liao State, but a short-term peace with the Liao State, which won the last opportunity for the Song Dynasty to breathe and rise for the later emperors of the Northern Song Dynasty. It's a pity that the last opportunity for the rise of the Song Dynasty, Song Huizong did not seize it, and missed the opportunity to take the opportunity to destroy the Western Xia and obtain the origin of war horses. The Han people in the Central Plains finally came to the first time because of the lack of war horses. After a period of war, Genghis Khan finally established the Mongol Yuan dynasty in the Han Central Plains. The lack of war horses made him Yelu Long continue to think of Chang'an Luoyang first and then annex the land north of the Yellow River in the Great Song Dynasty, this is also a God-given opportunity for Yelu Longxu, at this moment he himself is not all to consider attacking, but waiting for a time difference, when the time is up, it is when he attacks Chang'an Luoyang, he wants to take Chang'an Luoyang, as for other things can be said to be later, for him, the situation in Chang'an Luoyang has long been investigated, the soldiers and horses are controlled by Wenchen, Wenchen is too angry, Although it is not easy to deal with, it is by no means impossible to defeat, but the most important thing now is how to attack and how to take Chang'an Luoyang, but Yuanzhou himself will let Yelu Xiuge stay here first, as for other things, only the camera moves?