The main problem of the Great Song Dynasty military affairs is not only its unique recruitment system, but also its institutional drawbacks, which as eunuchs and civil officials they did not dare to say at this time, in order to thoroughly talk about the military issues, I listened to the Privy Council Tong Guan, Cai Mao's report and also directly said straight to the point: Taizu Dingdu "four wars" of Kaifeng, there is no danger around the capital to defend, in order to protect the safety of the capital, it is bound to need a large number of troops to garrison. This was definitely a correct decision in the historical background at that time, Taizu absorbed the economic center of gravity of Chang'an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty, far away from the south, and it took a huge price to transport materials to Chang'an through the river, so the capital of Bianjing linked the political center of the north and the economic center of the south through the Bianhe River, which greatly pushed the Great Song Dynasty to a new height of economic development.

After years of historical changes, the current main contradictions and threats of the Great Song Dynasty have changed from the original internal to the military invasion and harassment of the surrounding external ethnic minorities, and with the annexation of the Great Liao State by the Jin State, this threat and contradiction has become increasingly prominent, it turns out that we can still abide by the good contract of the allies of Tanyuan for hundreds of years, and have always maintained peace and stability on the border, and now with the aggressiveness of the Jin army and the difficulties everywhere, this atmosphere of peaceful coexistence has been broken, with the pressure of the Jin people, As a result, the Western Xia in the west was also ready to move against China, and since the external form has undergone major changes, it is necessary for us to adhere to the defensive military policy of more than a hundred years ago, which is a key question.

In particular, the drawbacks of our dynasty in using civilian officials to check and balance military generals have gradually become prominent, and the "emphasis on literature and suppression of military forces" is not only reflected in the suppression of military generals by civilian officials above the court, but also in the military system within the traditional sphere of influence of military generals, civilian officials must also be suppressed above military generals. In particular, the military has added a civilian rank, and deliberately elevated the status of civilian officials, in addition to creating a situation of emphasizing civilian affairs over military force ideologically, and also suppressing military generals with civilian officials in the setting of ranks. The general practice is for civilian officials to take up the main posts and military generals to serve as deputy posts. In the war between Song and Liao and Song Xia, the imperial court often appointed civilian officials who could not lead troops to fight as the main position, and military generals who could really lead troops to fight served as deputy positions.

What is even more is the check and balance between the generals and the soldiers, in order to sever the connection between the generals and the soldiers, the army has implemented the "change of military method" so that "the soldiers are impermanent and the commanders are impermanent" and the goal of "the soldiers do not know the generals, and the generals do not know the soldiers". On the surface, the purpose of the "change of military practice" is to let soldiers know more about the situation in various places and train soldiers, but in fact they are afraid that military generals and soldiers will spend too much time together, and the two are closely related. In fact, in addition to dealing with the early threats, the current domestic stability and the people's identification with the Great Song Dynasty have been deeply rooted in the bone marrow, and it has become a very undesirable tactic so far. Moreover, every time there is a change of war, a large amount of the government's financial resources will be consumed, and at the same time, because the "generals" and "soldiers" are too short to get along, they are not familiar with each other, and when a war breaks out, the two do not cooperate tacitly, which greatly weakens the combat effectiveness of the army.

Then there is the separation between the soldiers and the people, and the inclusion of "dereliction of duty" into the army and their lifelong support, which deliberately separates the "soldiers" from the "people". The real military and the people should be that the army loves the people, the people support the army, and the army and the people are united as one family. Rather than completely separating the two, that is, to completely break the conscription system, which is no longer completely in line with this time. This is because most of the recruits are people who are hungry during disasters, and a system of raising soldiers is implemented in the year of disaster. They also encouraged the children of the battalion to take over from their fathers and brothers as soldiers, or to fill the army with criminals. At present, the recruitment of troops from all walks of life in the country is carried out by the chief officials or capital supervisors, and the "soldiers" or "wooden firms" are used as the standard, and the strong and healthy are selected to fill the forbidden army, and the weak ones are filled with the army. When a recruit enlists in the army, he tattoos words on his face or arm to mark the military number, so recruitment is also called "recruiting assassins". Their family members may stay in the barracks. The Song army implements a selection system, and conducts training and assessment according to the standards of upper, middle, and lower in the spring and autumn every year. Those who are strong and have martial arts skills can be promoted from the box army to the forbidden army; Those with outstanding martial arts skills will be given rewards and can be supplemented by rank officials; If the martial arts are not inferior, the horse army will be reduced to an infantry army, and it will not be reduced to a box army; The old and infirm are either demoted in rank, or cut off from the military, or demoted to "redundant personnel" and miscellaneous service in the army. The forbidden army, the box army, and the Turkish army generally retired at the age of 60, and their food and clothing supplies were halved. There are bereavement pensions for the families of fallen soldiers, and there are also provisions for resettlement for the disabled. Although it is very humane, the imperial court spent a lot of money to raise a group of homeless people and soldiers, whose combat effectiveness can be imagined, and in addition, it seriously restricts high-quality talents and professional military technical personnel to join the army.

Finally, there are checks and balances between armies. At present, the forbidden army garrison of the imperial court is generally divided into the capital and other places. As the most important regular army in the country, the forbidden army was responsible for defending the capital, guarding the frontiers, protecting local prefectures and counties, and also suppressing popular uprisings and peasant uprisings, as well as defending and conquering the surrounding ethnic regimes. In order to be able to accomplish various "tasks" without threatening the state power, the imperial court does not conform to the current development trend in the distribution of the forbidden army, according to the current Beijing division of the forbidden army stationed in the army, in the Beijing division and the surrounding more than hundreds of thousands of troops stationed, not to mention the serious consumption of grain and grass materials, but also far away from the border pass in urgent need of defense, which completely deviates from the current military defense posture, no matter how much military the Beijing division has, it can not withstand the long drive of the enemy's cavalry after the border pass is lost, and the elite forbidden army in addition to part of the security of the defense of the Beijing division, they should go to the border where they are most needed to defend the frontier.

To sum it up simply, I think that the current imperial court has a command problem in the military aspect, that is, a problem of the administrative system, specifically because it does not understand the military affairs and civilian officials are excessively involved in the military. The second is the drawbacks of the more military methods, the army's regular nationwide mobilization of defense, not only wastes a huge amount of money, but also seriously hinders the running-in between officers and men, seriously affecting the army's combat effectiveness, and secondly, the conscription system is outdated, and it is necessary to establish a new military-civilian relationship in which the army and the people are in good condition, and select all kinds of military personnel from all walks of life in the country, encourage them to enter the army, and enhance military combat effectiveness. Finally, the Beijing Division and the surrounding garrison troops were re-armed, and these forbidden troops were transferred to the northeast, northwest and other border passes that needed real defense to protect the frontier. I don't know what you think of me, do you have any better suggestions and opinions?

After listening to me, the hall fell into a short silence, and all the ministers were bowing their heads and torturing, what does this emperor mean? Although many of them are also aware of these drawbacks, once they are reformed, they will lose a lot of benefits, after all, at present, the military generals still have to pat their civilian officials on the back, once the military attaches regain control of the military, then these civilian officials will also completely lose the right to speak and rule in the military. Other people are swaying in their hearts, although what the emperor said is right, but after all, this is an ancestral system of hundreds of years, and the so-called ancestral system cannot be violated, they

Some literati are very concerned about the ancestral system, that is, they are still extremely conservative and traditional in their thinking. This is a sudden and big turn, although this is correct, but it is also difficult for them to accept it in their hearts.

After a while, it was still Master Cai Jing who came out of the ranks, bowed his head and bowed his hand and said: Your Majesty, what the emperor said just now, the lower officials think it is feasible. Although Xia Guan did not have much to do with the military aspect, in terms of his military expenditure, Xia Guan believed that under the current system of conscription, the policy of the imperial court to provide soldiers for the elderly did carry an extremely heavy financial burden on the imperial court. Every year, military expenditures account for nearly half of the country's tax revenue, which greatly affects the imperial court's expenditures in other areas, especially when the war occurs, almost most of the country's finances are spent on the military. The imperial court could only come up with other economic policies, which increased the tax burden of the people and caused further poverty among the people at the bottom, which led to many local riots.

With Cai Jing's auxiliary explanation, some people's attitudes have also begun to loosen, after all, Cai Jing's influence is there, and what he said is also reality, the current palace ministers are all important ministers of the imperial court, and they are well aware of the current financial difficulties of the imperial court, but after Cai Jing's such a reasoned and well-founded analysis, some people are still pulled back to reality, after all, there is no money to be in this family, and no one can work well, and they have gradually returned to the current reality in the so-called ancestral system and morality.

Everything is in accordance with Cai Jing's will, and Bai Shizhong, the prime minister and subordinate servant, also came out of the ranks, bowed his head and bowed his hand, and said: Your Majesty, because the imperial court has been implementing the recruitment system, the number of troops in our dynasty is getting bigger and bigger like a snowball. In the second year of Renzong Zhihe (1055), the Privy Council announced the total number of soldiers in the country, and during the reign of Taizu Kaibao (968-976), there were 378,000 soldiers in the country, of which there were 193,000 in the forbidden army. During the Qingli period (1041-1048), there were 1,259,000 soldiers in the country, of which 826,000 were forbidden troops. In less than eighty years, the number of soldiers has more than tripled. In the early years of the reign of Emperor Hu, the nation's army increased to 1.4 million people. Although the number of soldiers is increasing, the quality is getting worse and worse. Although the number of soldiers has decreased after the new policy of the Shenzong Dynasty, there are still about 1.2 million people.