Since the recruitment of soldiers by the imperial court was more for the purpose of maintaining social order and preventing the people from rebelling, the state did not give much consideration to the various qualities of the conscripts when recruiting soldiers, and many idlers and even ruffians and hooligans entered the army. In the face of natural and man-made disasters, the targets of the imperial court's recruitment were those unscrupulous elements who might cause harm to society, and these people brought some bad habits in society to the barracks, so that the army was full of market spirit and hooliganism, and the serious military discipline was gradually destroyed. So far, the folk song that has been widely spread among the people is: If you want to become an official, kill people and set fire to be recruited. Since the imperial court has always implemented a policy of appeasement, many thieves who accept Zhao'an can become court officials. Like Song Jiang and others in the late Northern Song Dynasty, they were appointed officials after accepting Zhao'an, and walked on the street proudly, causing the consternation of passers-by. Song Jiang and other thirty-six leaders were awarded official positions, and the soldiers under him were naturally organized into the imperial army. According to the regulations of the Song Dynasty's conscription system, soldiers were recruited and called "dependent on officials", even if they were old and frail, they would not be eliminated and become lifelong professional soldiers. As a result, there were not only elite young and strong soldiers, but also those who could not afford to fight, and who were hungry and sick. If such an army were to face the enemy, its combat effectiveness would certainly be greatly affected. And over time, the morale of the soldiers will also suffer.

Therefore, the lower officials thought that it was very necessary for the emperor to carry out an all-round restructuring in terms of the army's administrative system, recruitment methods and selection scope, and only with a strong military could we protect every inch of the territory of the Great Song Dynasty and protect every resident in this land.

In order to please the people, and his wife is the niece of Cai Jing, the minister of power, and he should stand up regardless of whether he is public or private, so he bowed his head and bowed his hand and said: Your Majesty, the lower officials very much agree with the views of Taishi Cai and Prime Minister Bai just now, since the early days of Taizu's founding of the country, in order to prevent the decline in the quality of soldiers, some regulations have been specially formulated, such as soldiers are not allowed to wear gorgeous clothes made of silk and other products, and military salaries and rations are issued every timeSoldiers must collect it in person, and they are not allowed to let others collect it on their behalf, so as to prevent the occurrence of empty salaries in the army. It was also specially stipulated that soldiers living in the west of the city should go to the warehouse in the east of the city to receive grain, and soldiers living in the east of the city should go to the warehouse in the west of the city to receive grain, so that the soldiers could develop the habit of enduring hardships and standing hard work. Later, with the end of the large-scale war, the training of soldiers was useless, and the quality of the soldiers declined sharply, Su Shunqin in the Renzong period said to Fan Zhongyan without worry: Now the soldiers in the battalions are unwilling to practice hard, and there are many generals and soldiers who gamble and drink all day long, go in and out of the barracks at will, wander around the market all day long, and take the profession of embroidery and painting as a skill, and dress up completely unlike soldiers, and everyone is accustomed to it. To what extent the forbidden army is arrogant, Ouyang Xiu was not without worries about playing the imperial court: now the soldiers are on duty, let others carry weapons for themselves, the forbidden army pays food, and hires people to carry food for themselves. How can such a soldier be willing to fight hard?

The iron-faced imperial historian Zhao pounced on Shaanxi, and saw that although there were many forbidden troops in the local area, they rarely conducted military training in peacetime, and the commander and some officials privately made the soldiers work for themselves, or five or seven hundred, or more than a thousand, and these soldiers did not even participate in the prescribed review. In his prelude, he questioned what was the difference between the state allowing such an army to participate in the war in the event of an emergency and the city people with no military training? The minister Tian Kuang mentioned in the prelude that some of the soldiers in the Northern Song Dynasty cavalry, the highest rank of the cavalry of the Northern Song Dynasty, "Longwei", could not even put on armor and mount their horses. As for the other low-level cavalrymen, they could only hold bows of five or six buckets while riding horses, and every time they taught archery, they shot arrows into the air, and because they had no strength, the arrows they shot out had fallen to the ground twenty paces before the horse. The hard armor of the Xixia army, even if it could be shot, could not be shot through, and it may not be able to be shot.

As the high-level dragon guard soldiers in the imperial cavalry, their combat effectiveness has been greatly reduced, and it is conceivable how bad the combat effectiveness of the low-level forbidden army will be. Because of this, the imperial court often lost more than won when fighting against the surrounding peoples. At that time, the Western Xia army knew that the forbidden army of the Northern Song Dynasty was vulnerable, and they were not afraid of the forbidden army, the main military force of our country, and they were very happy to meet the forbidden army every time they encountered it in a battle, because they knew that the combat effectiveness of the forbidden army was extremely poor. On the contrary, the local soldiers of the irregular army, composed of some ordinary people who live on the border all year round, are far more effective than the forbidden army. Sometimes the generals of the Song army deliberately exchanged the banners and numbers of the forbidden army and the native soldiers in order to fool the Western Xia army, so that the Western Xia army mistakenly thought that it was the forbidden army when attacking the native soldiers and took it lightly. Although the Song army was victorious through this tactic, it is unbelievable that the forbidden army, which was the main military force of the imperial court, fought bravely and skillfully in the battle to unify the whole country, and after just a few decades, it had declined to such a point.

Speaking of the point, Tong Guan's old face was a little unbearable, after all, he knew these things in the twenty years he had been in charge of the army, but it was just because of his status and pleasing the old man before, he often reported good news but not bad news. At this time, the ministers uncovered the old bottom of the army, and he did not have to list at this time and said: Emperor Qiqi, the lower officials also have a deep understanding, in the last operation to recover Yanjing in the north, the forbidden army of the Beijing division due to perennial negligence in military training, some soldiers do not even know how to ride horses, and finally ride on war horses, but because they are afraid of falling off the horses, they hold the reins with both hands, and some soldiers simply can't even pull their bows and arrows, or the arrows they shoot out have no strength.

In the fourth year of Xuanhe (1122), Liu Yanqing commanded an army of 100,000 troops, plus the surrendered Guo Yaoshi Changsheng army, and killed Yanjing of the Liao Dynasty. At that time, Yanjing was outnumbered and weak, mainly relying on less than 10,000 Liao troops under the command of Xiao Gan. Due to the huge disparity in strength, Liu Yanqing thought that the Liao army would definitely flee in despair, so the army marched undisciplined, and was robbed and killed by Xiao Gan halfway. After losing the first battle, Liu Yanqing panicked and hurriedly ordered a retreat. Later, Guo Yaoshi's sneak attack on Yanjing failed, Xiao Gan sent troops to bluff and feign an attack, Liu Yanqing did not distinguish the authenticity, burned the camp overnight and fled, and all the military pay and materials were discarded. Knowing that our army retreated without a fight, Xiao Gan took the opportunity to pursue, but our army was defeated again, and finally fled back to Xiongzhou in a hurry.

As the Holy Lord said, many defensive policies and strategies formulated at the beginning are very unsuitable for the current social development and changes in the surrounding defense situation, and it is time to make adjustments.

Seeing that the privy deputy envoys said so, Cai Mao also stood up, if he didn't express his position at this moment, he was afraid that it would cause the emperor's displeasure, and the current situation in this hall was relatively clear, and there was almost no opposition to it, if it was too late, it was estimated that he, the nominal military chief executive of the Great Song Dynasty, would also be able to do it. Cai Mao also saluted and said: Qi Yu Emperor, the lower officials are also very much in agreement with the emperor's military restructuring just now, as Cai Taishi said just now, the cost of raising the army in the imperial court is very huge, aside from the forbidden army and other original armies in the imperial court, the light of the victorious army and the righteous victorious army is the heavy burden of the current imperial court.

The Changsheng Army originated in the period of Emperor Tianzuo at the end of the Liao Dynasty, and was known as the Resentful Army when it was first created. In the last years of the Liao Dynasty, the Jurchens rose, and Aguta led the Jurchen people to resist the brutal rule of the Liao Dynasty. However, the Liao army suffered repeated defeats and suffered heavy casualties. Therefore, Emperor Tianzuo ordered the recruitment of the descendants of the Liao army's dead soldiers and some displaced civilians to form a resentful army. The Liao rulers tried to hire these people to avenge their relatives and attack the Jurchens, but on the contrary, these mercenaries became an extremely heavy burden for the rulers. Regardless of the cost of supporting this army, the resentful army often robbed homes and houses, committing chaos, which caused the rulers of the Liao Dynasty a great headache.

In the fourth year of Xuanhe (1122), the imperial court pressed the Liao border according to the maritime covenant with the Jin State, and the Jin Dynasty army won victories in the north of the Liao Dynasty. Guo Yaoshi, the leader of the Changsheng Army, knew that Yanshan Mansion was difficult to defend, so he led his troops to surrender to our court. After the fall of the Liao Dynasty, according to the agreement of the Song-Jin Sea Alliance: after the Song and Jin jointly attacked the Liao Dynasty, the Song Dynasty recovered the land of Yanyun + Liuzhou, and the Han nationality in the land of Yanyun belonged to the Song Dynasty. The Khitan, Wu and other ethnic groups migrated to the territory of the Jin Dynasty. The soldiers of the Changsheng Army belonged to these ethnic groups and should have belonged to the Jin Dynasty. However, on the issue of the ownership of the Chang Shengjun, two completely different attitudes emerged in the imperial court and the Jin state.

Originally, it was thought that when Chang Sheng's army was guarding Zhuozhou of the Liao Dynasty, it should belong to the elite troops of the Liao Dynasty, and its military strength was extremely strong, but the number of soldiers was limited. After Guo Yaoshi surrendered, the Changsheng army was supported by the imperial court, and its strength grew rapidly. The imperial court let Guo Yaoshi recruit troops in the Yanshan area, so the number of Chang Sheng's army quickly increased, and at the same time, the imperial court also handed over the political, economic, and military power of Yanshan Mansion to the general Guo Yaoshi without reservation. Although the imperial court had sent Wang Anzhong to serve as the prefect of Yanshan Mansion, the power was lost, and the real power of Yanshan Mansion was firmly in the hands of Guo Yaoshi.

Due to the court's tolerant attitude towards the Chang Sheng Army, the Chang Sheng Army became more arrogant and unscrupulous. They wantonly plundered the property of the people in the Yanshan area, making the people in the Yanshan area miserable, so the people in these areas had quite a lot of opinions about the imperial court. At present, the imperial court completely pinned its hopes for the defense of the Yanshan area and the invasion of the Jin army on the Changsheng army, which made the border defense situation in Hebei even worse, which was undoubtedly a fatal reality for the imperial court. The existence of the victorious army increased the economic burden of the imperial court and made the problem of redundant troops and expenses more serious. At the same time, the social economy of Hebei, Hedong and Jingdong has been rarely devastated. Originally, the imperial court planned to use the rich people's fields and houses in the Yanshan area to feed the Changsheng army, but in fact, it is impossible at present, and the imperial court has paid a huge economic price for this.