As the so-called teacher of the past does not forget the future, Zhang Jiashi believes that the history of the Song Dynasty has helped the current Qin Empire in many cases. Especially in terms of military affairs, Zhang Jiashi can be said to have a certain interest in the military history of the Song Dynasty.

Later generations believed that the military victory rate during the Song Dynasty was nearly seventy percent, but this military victory rate was also criticized.

There is a very interesting point of view, that is, from a logical analysis, the victory rate of the war in the Song Dynasty is like a game, I fight with you, you protect your head with both hands, I fight ten punches in a row, 7 punches are blocked by you, and the remaining three punches directly kill you. After that, your brain-dead fans preach everywhere every day, your win rate is 70%, and my win rate is 30%.

Strictly speaking, this view has to be said to have a certain truth, just like the war of later generations, once it loses in a decisive battle, then for a country's national fortune, even if there are more victories in other local small wars, it cannot make up for everything lost in the decisive battle.

And did the Song army have a precedent of victory in the decisive war?

Yes, and not in small quantities. If it weren't for this, the Song Dynasty would have been finished long ago, and it would not have been the turn of the Mongols to solve the Southern Song Dynasty.

In the history of the Song Dynasty, the decisive battles were won or lost as follows:

The Battle of the Gaoliang River was the first direct dialogue between the Liao Dynasty and the Song Dynasty on the battlefield, and it was an important war after the end of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, which ended the unification of the Song Dynasty and began to be militarily inferior overall.

In this battle, the Liao army gave full play to its superiority in cavalry, reinforced from afar, changed its passivity into initiative, and dealt a heavy blow to the Song army; the Song army advanced lightly and lost the first battle, which had an adverse impact on the future battle with the Liao.

Just like the influence of the so-called "black theorem", in the battle of the Gaoliang River, the Song army lost the initiative in the battle against Liao, and also lost the favorable foundation for recovering the sixteen states of Yanyun by means of war.

Xuanhe and Liao: Song attack. Song was defeated, and the corpses were invincible.

This battle can be said to have allowed the Jin State to officially see the weakness of the Song Empire at that time, and this battle can also be said to be the battle in which the Song army used the largest number of troops in the Song-Liao War.

Although the scale of the Battle of Dingchuan Village was small, this battle officially established the decisive war for Western Xia to break away from the control of the Song Empire.

In the second year of Song Renzong's Qingli, Li Yuanhao's adviser Zhang Yuan offered advice to Emperor Jingzong.

Zhang Yuan believed that all the elite soldiers of the Song Dynasty were gathered in the Song-Xia border area, while the military strength of the Guanzhong area of the Song Dynasty was very weak, and if the Western Xia army contained the army in the border area of the Song Dynasty, so that the Song Dynasty had no time to take care of the Guanzhong area, then a strong army could be sent to take the opportunity to attack the Guanzhong Plain and capture Chang'an.

Yuan Hao adopted Zhang Yuan's suggestion and sent 100,000 troops to attack the Song Dynasty on a large scale in two ways. All the way from Liu Liaobao attacked, all the way from Pengyang City to Weizhou to attack.

The Xia army took advantage of the chaos of the Song army, and the Western Xia army had cut off its rear road, waiting for work, and rushed over from all sides. Huaimin and his generals Cao Ying, Li Zhihe, Zhao Xun, Wang Bao, Wang Wen, Liu He and other 16 generals were killed in battle, and the Song army of more than 9,400 people was annihilated, and the Song army was defeated.

Ge Huaimin and his generals Cao Ying, Li Zhihe, Zhao Xun, Wang Bao, Wang Wen, Liu He and other 16 will be killed, and more than 9,400 people will be killed. Walking horses bear Wang Zhaoming, Zhao Zheng and others surrendered to Dingchuan Village, and the rear army made a detour to the cage city. After Yuan Hao won, he waved his army south, broke several villages, and reached Weizhou, where he burned people's houses and destroyed the city in the area of 600 miles in a vertical and horizontal area.

In the fourth year of Song Renzong's Qingli, the Northern Song Dynasty reached an agreement with the Western Xia. The peace treaty stipulates that the Western Xia will be a vassal to the Song Dynasty, and Yuan Hao will accept the title of the Song Dynasty; the generals, soldiers, and households captured by the two sides in the Song-Xia War will not be returned to the other party, and the history is called the "Qingli Peace Conference":

The peace treaty stipulated: Xia canceled the emperor's title, and the Song canonized him as the lord of the Xia state, gave him a gold and silver seal, two inches and one cent, and the text said "the seal of the Xia state", and allowed himself to be an official subordinate, nominally a minister to the Song Dynasty, and Feng Zhengshuo;

From now on, if the people on the border of the two sides flee to the territory of the other side, they cannot send troops to pursue them, and the two sides return the fugitives to each other;

During the Song-Xia War, the Song Dynasty occupied by the Western Xia Dynasty led Shanglu, Kaodao, Nan'an, Chengping, and other border Fan and Han residential areas to be demarcated from the middle;

The Song Dynasty gave the Western Xia 70,000 taels of silver, 150,000 horses of silk, and 30,000 catties of tea every year;

In addition, every year, 22,000 taels of silver, 23,000 horses of silk, and 10,000 catties of tea are given to Xixia on various festivals.

However, many of these regulations are useless:

Yuan Hao still claims to be the emperor in the country and exercises the power of the monarch. In order to support the position of the emperor alone, he was unwilling to receive the envoys of the Song Dynasty with courtesy in front of the people of the Xia Kingdom, exposing his vassal status to the Song Dynasty, blocking all the envoys sent by the Song Dynasty, settling them in Youzhou, and not allowing them to go to Xingqing Mansion, the capital of the Xia Kingdom.

Yuanfeng Five-Way Expedition to Xia: In the fourth year of Yuanfeng, the Empress Dowager Liang of Western Xia imprisoned Xia Huizong and often led to domestic political turmoil. Song Shenzong believed that the opportunity to capture Western Xia had arrived, and took advantage of this to launch the Five-Way Expedition against Xia. Song Shenzong deployed Li Xian's troops out of Xihe Road, Chong's department out of Yanyan Road, Gao Zunyu's department out of Huanqing Road, Liu Changzuo's department out of Jingyuan Road (Liu Changzuo was controlled by Gao Zunyu), and Wang Zhongzheng's department out of Hedong Road, hoping to conquer Western Xiaxing and Ling'er Prefecture in one fell swoop.

According to the battle plan, Jingyuan and Huanqing combined to capture Lingzhou, Hedong and Yanyan first met Xiazhou, then attacked Huaizhou, and finally attacked Xingzhou by four routes. The Song court also asked Tubo to send troops to cross the Yellow River to capture Liangzhou in order to contain the forces of the right wing of Western Xia.

In the five roads, Li Xian took the general Li Hao as the vanguard, set off from Lintao today, crossed the Mabit Mountain, went to the ancient city of Kang, and then took the new city of Xishi, and conquered Lanzhou on September 2. Li Xian set up the marshal's mansion in the city, and built Lanzhou, and Li Hao was the governor. In the first month of the following year, the Song Dynasty changed Xihe Road to Xihe Lanhui Road. Lanzhou was included in the territory of the Northern Song Dynasty.

Through the use of a series of indirect siege strategies, he successively captured Mizhizhai, Shizhou, Xiazhou, Yinzhou and other places in Western Xia. Soon, however, due to the lack of supply of military rations and heavy snowfall, more than two-thirds of the troops were reduced to non-combat personnel.

Liu Changzuo's troops on Jingyuan Road fought bravely and reached Lingzhou City by victory, but Gao Zunyu lacked an overall grasp of the battle situation, and blindly ordered Liu Changzuo to directly attack the city and the Song army to fortify the city under the siege of the city for 18 days without defeat. The Western Xia army flooded the camp of the Song army by releasing water from the Yellow River canal, and cut off its way of food and salary, and many Song soldiers died of freezing and starvation. Therefore, the Song court ordered the class teacher.

In this battle, the Song army only occupied some military points on the north side of Yin, Shi, Xia, Youzhuzhou and Hengshan, so that Western Xia did not dare to cultivate more than 200 miles along the border of Hengshan. But compared to the original intention of eliminating Western Xia, the results were indeed average.

Battle of Fuping: In September of the eighth year of Jin Tianhui, the Jin army defeated the Song army's counteroffensive in the Fuping area in order to capture Shaanxi.

In July of the eighth year of Tianhui, in view of the defeat of Wanyan Zongbi crossing the Yangtze River and the setback of Wanyan Lou's attack in Shaanxi, Wan Yan Sheng, the deputy marshal of the left, adopted the advice of Wan Yan Zonghan, the deputy marshal of the left, and transferred the main direction of the attack on the Song Dynasty from Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shaanxi to Shaanxi. He ordered the right deputy marshal Wanyan Zongfu to be the commander of the attack on Shaanxi, and at the same time transferred Wanyan Zongbi's army from Liuhe to Luoyang, in an attempt to concentrate his forces, first set Shaanxi, and then enter Sichuan.

In September, Zong Fu led the army to Fuping East Xiatai County, and Liu Xi led the Song Army of the Fifth Route to the Fuping area, and the two armies were more than 80 miles apart. The Song army took a swamp overgrown with reeds as a barrier, set up camp and lined up, and the villagers who transported grain and grass and heavy baggage on all roads were guarded by chariots and horses, and set up a village on the periphery of the Song camp. The generals suggested that while the Jin army had not yet joined forces, they would attack Zongbi's army first, but Zhang Jun relied on his troops and sent a letter to the Jin army about a day of battle. After Sosuke received the battle letter, he did not reply, delaying the time and waiting for the Lou Room Army.

After Lou led the army to Fuping, he found that although the Song army had an advantage in strength, the barriers were not solid, and Zong Fu decided to fight, and until the appointed date, he still showed weakness. Zhang Jun mistakenly thought that the Jin army was cowardly, so he supervised the army to attack. Wu Jue suggested that the Song army move to the high ground to curb the golden cavalry, but Liu Xi and others thought that we were outnumbered and blocked the reeds, and it was difficult for the golden cavalry to gallop, so they did not adopt it.

On the 24th, Liu Xi sent more than 1,000 people to launch a tentative attack on the Jin army. Lou Room set up an ambush according to the danger, lured it into an ambush with light soldiers, and attacked him front and back, beheading him completely. Subsequently, Lou Mu ordered Xiao to ride 3,000 with the conversion rate of Wanyan, pad the road in the reeds with soil bags, and march through Nao, attacking the small villages on the periphery of the Song army. The villagers fled into the Song camp, causing consternation among the troops. Zongfu took advantage of the situation to launch an attack with the Lou Mur army as the right flank and the Zongbi army as the left flank.

The Song army rushed to meet the battle, lost its unified command, and the Fifth Route Army fought separately. Liu Qi first led the Song army on Jingyuan Road to meet Zong Bi's army, surrounded it, and killed a large number of people. Jin general Han Chang was injured by a stray arrow, but he still jumped on his horse and fought hard, broke through the siege with Zong Bi, and was forced to retreat. Seeing that the situation was critical, Lou Room led the right wing army to pounce on Zhao Zhe's army on Huanqing Road, supervising the division to fight, and reviving the army.

Due to the fact that the Song army of all roads did not come to each other's aid, Zhao Zhe was alone and left without permission, causing the troops to flee in a hurry. At dusk, the Jin army attacked violently, and the Song army was defeated and retreated to Pizhou, abandoning military resources and burdens.

The Jin army took advantage of the victory and quickly captured most of Shaanxi. The Song army retreated to the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains and Shangyuan, as well as Jiezhou, Chengzhou) and other places, fortified according to the danger, and confronted the Jin army.

Kaixi Northern Expedition: The Northern Expedition of the Jin Dynasty presided over by Han Yanxuan, the prime minister of the Ningzong Dynasty of the Southern Song Dynasty.

During the reign of Song Ningzong, Han Yanxuan gradually took power, and he strongly advocated the resistance to Jin, and was supported by the famous anti-war factions Xin Qiji, Lu You, Ye Shi and others.

During the Song Ningzong period, the relationship with the Jin Dynasty gradually tended to be tense. Song Ningzong was dissatisfied with the Jin Dynasty's arrogant demand to act according to the old etiquette and his humiliating position, so he also supported Han Yanxuan's tough measures against the Jin Dynasty.

In April of the first year of Kaixi, Song Ningzong adopted Han Yanxuan's suggestion, Chongyue Fei belittled Qin Hui, posthumously named Yue Fei as the king of Hubei, cut off the Shen King who was sealed after Qin Hui's death, changed the "false ugliness", and issued an edict to investigate Qin Hui's crime of misleading the country: "One day of arson, so that the worries of several generations." These measures have dealt a powerful blow to the main peace faction, encouraged the main war faction, and won the support of the people.

In the second year of Kaixi, Han Yanxuan, who was in charge of the military affairs of Pingzhang, did not make full preparations, so he rashly launched the Northern Expedition:

Some people believe that the "Kaixi Northern Expedition" was a military adventure taken by Han Yanzhou to gain political capital. Due to the implementation of the party ban, Zhao Ruyu was forced away, which made Han Yanxuan lose popular hearts politically.

At that time, the situation of the Jin Dynasty was not good, the Jin lord Wan Yan Jing indulged in wine, the government was sparse, internal strife broke out repeatedly, and the northern tribes repeatedly violated the Jin Dynasty border, and the soldiers were exhausted in the years of war, and the treasury was empty.

Therefore, Han Yanxuan thought that there was an opportunity, and took the restoration of his homeland and revenge for shame as a way to establish meritorious deeds, as a means to win people's hearts and improve his prestige. In order to gain more support, he also reactivated a group of ministers such as Xin Qiji who advocated the use of troops against Jin.

Before the start of the war, some people of insight analyzed the situation and proposed that it would be unfavorable for the Song Dynasty to conduct a war at this time, believing that the war had little chance of winning.

Ye Shi not only refused to draft an edict declaring war, but also wrote to Song Ningzong, believing that the rash Northern Expedition was "dangerous and dangerous".

Hua Yue, a martial arts student, wrote a book, believing that at this time, the Southern Song Dynasty "was handsome and foolish, the army and the people were resentful, the horse politics did not speak, the knights were not familiar, the heroes did not come out, the heroes did not collect, the food was not abundant, the situation was not solid, the mountains were not repaired, and the fortresses were not set up", and it was determined that the Northern Expedition would "have no merit in the division, and be defeated without a fight". As a result, Hua Yue was stripped of his school status and imprisoned.

The opposition was immediately suppressed by Han Yanxuan.

Han Yanxuan asked Li Bi, a scholar of the Academy, to draft an edict to boost morale: "The way of heaven is good, China has a reason to be extended, the people's hearts are obedient, and the husband will take revenge." ...... The soldiers are famous, the division is straightforward, the words are far away, the words are near, and they are not familiar with the heart of loyalty and righteousness? ”

So the Song Dynasty army launched an attack on the Jin Dynasty army without declaring war.

The Song army attacked one after another, Shandong Jingdong Zhaofu envoy Guo Ni sent troops to attack Suzhou, Jiankang Mansion, the capital Li Shuang led his troops to attack Shouzhou and Jiangling Mansion, and the deputy capital Huang Fubin attacked Tangzhou, Jiangzhou, and Wang Dajie attacked Caizhou.

However, the Jin army had already prepared, so the above-mentioned Song army attacks all ended in failure, and only Zhenjiang deputy capital was defeated again, but it could not turn the defeat.

The Jin army took advantage of the victory and went south. Wu Xi, the deputy envoy of Sichuan Xuanfu, rebelled against the Song Dynasty and surrendered the four counties outside the Guan, and Jin named Wu Xi as the king of Shu. Faced with this unfavorable situation, Han Yanxuan had no choice but to sue for peace with the Jin Dynasty, but it was unsuccessful because the Jin people proposed to behead Han Yanxuan and others.

In the third year of Kaixi, Wu Xi's rebellion was put down, and the situation in Huainan gradually stabilized. However, the Song court lord and faction began to conspire activities, and Shi Miyuan, the waiter of the Ministry of Rites, colluded with Empress Yang, Yang Cishan, etc., to kill Han Yanxuan, and Song and Jin dismissed the army to negotiate peace. In the first year of Jiading, Song and Jin concluded the Jiading Peace Conference.

The contents of the Jiading Peace Conference are as follows: (1) Song and Jin are "the kingdom of Bo (Jin) and nephew (Song);(", 2) Song lost the Golden Year coin from 200,000 taels of silver silk and 300,000 taels of horse, and gave another 3 million taels of Jin to the army; (3) Jin returned the newly invaded land to Song, and the two sides maintained the original boundaries; (4) Song presented to Jin the heads of Han Yanzhou and other people who presided over the Jin war.

(End of chapter)