Why is it that the greatest tragedy of the Song Dynasty is the lack of war horses?

For a long time, we think that the reason for the passive military and weak national defense in the Song Dynasty is the lack of cavalry, and the main reason for the lack of cavalry in the Song Dynasty seems to be the lack of war horses.

A large number of people think that because the Song Dynasty lost the traditional origin of China's war horses in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, it was impossible to form cavalry units in the later period, so they could only be passively beaten.

So, is this really the case? Was there no origin of war horses in the early years of the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty? Why couldn't the Northern Song Dynasty form a powerful cavalry unit?

First of all, it is certain that the Northern Song Dynasty controlled the origin of war horses in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China!

Many people think that the loss of sixteen states of Youyun made the Northern Song Dynasty lack of war horses, but in fact, sixteen states of Youyun are not the most important war horse producing areas in the traditional sense of China. Since the Qin, Han, Sui and Tang Dynasties, the most important origin of war horses in China is in the northwest, that is, the Hetao area and the central and northern parts of Shanxi and Shaanxi. The Northern Song Dynasty took control of this area in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

Later, due to Song Taizong's own screw-up, the Northern Song Dynasty lost this area. He forced Lee of Zhou Xia to become independent, and the most important war horse producing area in northwest China was lost.

Even so, the Northern Song Dynasty later mastered excellent horse producing areas such as Fenyang Racecourse.

We give examples to prove that there was no shortage of war horses in the Northern Song Dynasty.

In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, Song Taizong made a northern expedition to Youzhou. Among the more than 200,000 troops, there are 30,000 to 40,000 cavalry.

Later, in the Northern Song Dynasty, a cavalry unit of 3,000 people was set up in the military town of Hebei, which was called "Jingsai Army", with 5 horses each. In this way, this army alone has more than 10 thousand horses.

Even when the Northern Song Dynasty was about to perish, there were still 20,000 horses in Tian Yijian, the capital of the Capital of Song Dynasty, but these horses were taken away by the Jin people without bloodshed.

According to historical records, there were 200,000 cavalry in the Song Dynasty in Song Renzong's time! Even if the water in this figure is removed (some people may not have horses, and the Song Dynasty bravado), some people have made a concrete analysis. In the heyday of the mid-Northern Song Dynasty, it was not a problem that the imperial court had 60,000 to 65,438+10,000 horses, while the standing army horses in Liao country only had/kloc-0.2 to/kloc-0.50,000 horses in the same period.

Therefore, the lack of war horses in the Northern Song Dynasty is actually relative. At that time, the number of war horses in the Northern Song Dynasty was definitely more than that in Xixia, even though it was not as good as that in Liao. It is not impossible to form a powerful cavalry unit.

You know, the number of cavalry does not determine its combat effectiveness.

For example, in the early Tang Dynasty, there were more than 1000 Xuanjiajun in Li Shimin, but they broke the100000 army in Dou Jiande. Li Jing led 3000 elite cavalry to raid East Turkistan, captured Khan alive in World War I and destroyed his tribe. For example, in the Five Dynasties, Li and his son fought almost invincible in all directions with a small number of elite cavalry. Li defeated Bao Ji with 5000 cavalry.

It can be seen that the number of cavalry is only an indicator, and its quality is the key.

There were cavalry in the Northern Song Dynasty, and the number was not small. The key problem is that the fighting capacity is weak and there is no cavalry, which is also the reason for the lack of cavalry in the Northern Song Dynasty.

So why didn't there be a strong cavalry in the Northern Song Dynasty?

This should also start from the nature of cavalry.

People in the Central Plains mainly farm, and most people can't master riding and shooting skills, which is an innate disadvantage. At that time, the most elite cavalry units were heavy cavalry, namely "Iron Kite" and "Iron Tower". This kind of cavalry bears dozens of kilograms of armor and needs to master the professional combat technology of slow and steady, so most of the troops in the Central Plains are incompetent.

To form an elite cavalry, you must be a strong professional soldier, and this kind of soldier has proved countless times in the Five Dynasties that as long as you form a small group, you will often launch a mutiny and threaten the regime.

From the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Northern Song Dynasty paid more attention to literature than martial arts, strictly put an end to the appearance of arrogant soldiers and generals, and never allowed the army to have a small group tendency.

Therefore, under the military system of the Northern Song Dynasty, no amount of military forces could produce a powerful cavalry unit.

This is the root of the lack of cavalry in Song Dynasty, and it is impossible to form a strong cavalry.