Why did the Song Dynasty lack horses?

The misfortune of "lack of horses" in the Song Dynasty, many scholars in the Song Dynasty lamented the suffering of the Song Dynasty, and all pointed the finger at the loss of sixteen states in the Song Dynasty. In my opinion, this is indeed an excuse for the "horse shortage" in the Song Dynasty. But what is more fatal than the hard life is the lack of intelligent talents in the Song Dynasty. In the eyes of many people, in fact, the resources of war horses in the Song Dynasty were wasted by the fatuous decisions of the rulers of the Song Dynasty. Tell a fact. Do you want to know how serious the lack of wise men was in the Song Dynasty? First of all, we must clarify the fact that although the Sixteen States disappeared passively because of wrong decisions in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, there was no shortage of war horses in the Song Dynasty. After years of efforts by the previous dynasties, the Zhou Dynasty left an army with enough military forces in the Song Dynasty in advance. Song Taizong even collected 42,000 horses after attacking the Northern Han Dynasty. At that time, it was a huge number. When Song Taizong thought he could be proud of the sword of Liao country and launched two offensive wars to recover the lost city, the number of war horses used by Song Jun at that time actually reached 200,000. This is simply a very proud thing.

More importantly, the cavalry in the Song Dynasty not only had advantages in the number of war horses, but also had good quality. At that time, through the strict training system of the army, a very powerful cavalry team was created in the history of the Song Dynasty, which was very prestigious at that time. During the first war between Song Dynasty and Liao country, the sleepy cavalry once defeated the cavalry of Liao country, and became famous in World War I. Song's horse was greatly praised. Later, in the war between Yanmen and Mancheng, Song Jun's cavalry, led by Li Jilong and Yang Ye, occupied a great advantage in front of the Qidan cavalry, forming an overwhelming situation. At that time, Song Jun's cavalry was not weak. On the contrary, the horses of the Song Dynasty were the iron army that ruled the world.

Compared with before, such war conditions are actually very lucky. It's much better than Liu Bangqiang, the Emperor Gaozu of that year. At that time, when Liu Bang was founded, how much did he suffer? In the society at that time, Liu Banglian couldn't get an ox cart, and Li Shimin, the enlightened emperor of the Tang Dynasty, had to bite his teeth and give money to others for the sake of national peace. Compared with them, I don't know how many times the situation in the Song Dynasty needs to be invited, but in theory, cavalry was the helper of the Northern Song Dynasty. Unfortunately, Song Taizong was a fatuous emperor. After two disastrous wars, he watched the consumption speed of the military forces in the Song Dynasty, and later had to turn to attack and defend, forming a defensive state. This is the dilemma of "horse shortage" in Song Dynasty. More precisely, the accumulation of these generations of war horses from the Zhou Dynasty to the early Song Dynasty was all messed up by the fatuous emperor Song Taizong.

Compared with Song Taizong, whose IQ is insufficient, there is a system of keeping horses in Deception and Deception in the mid-Northern Song Dynasty. Although there was an animal husbandry department in charge of raising horses in the Song Dynasty, after the founding of the new country, people were overstaffed. With the decline of officials' work style and the intensification of corruption in the Song Dynasty, raising horses became a means for officials in the Song Dynasty to pit money from each other. Every time a large number of war horses are reserved, a lot of public funds of the country are wasted, but when war requires war horses, few strong war horses can be used. During the reign of Song Renzong, the Song State was at war with Xixia, and the national army horse reserve only accounted for 30,000 to 40,000 horses, but it occupied 90,000 mu of private land. Therefore, the system of cheating people by raising horses in the Northern Song Dynasty made the economy of the Song Dynasty like "helping the poor".

This phenomenon continued until Song Shenzong ascended the throne. After the new emperor ascended the throne, the famous "Wang Anshi Reform" began to be staged. The people in Song Dynasty were fed up with this horse-raising system in cheat people and made many positive reforms to the equestrian system. The application of the famous "Horse Protection Law" to the whole country has promoted the development of the whole country and achieved immediate results. Powerful troops from the western regions formed this great Song cavalry full of blood and resurrection. For the next few decades, I have been chasing Xixia and playing hard. It can be seen that no matter what bitterness, as long as the Song Dynasty has the heart, it can raise a good horse.

In fact, throughout the long history, the army of the Song Dynasty always lacked war horses. Whether in the Northern Song Dynasty or the Southern Song Dynasty, the war horse is always an important turning point in the war, because the quality of the war horse fundamentally determines half the success or failure of the war. War horses were really scarce in the Song Dynasty. Some people say that war horses decided the direction of the Song Dynasty war, which is also the reason why the Song Dynasty was bullied by those nomadic people. So you will see that in most foreign wars in history, whoever attacks first loses. In the words of ordinary people, you can't outrun others. The offensive ability of the Song Dynasty is not commendable. But the urban defense ability of Song Dynasty was the most advanced. Why? In the final analysis, it is because of the lack of horses. Let's give an example. Even if the war is won, it is easy for the enemy to flee at once. Let's look at you again. You can only run after the enemy. Aren't you tired? Besides, how can you catch up with others? It's a little sad to think about it, which leads to the reason that even if the Song Dynasty barely won, there is no way to expand the results. The quality of "horse" is directly related to the strength of cavalry in Song Dynasty.

Due to the reform of horse breeding, until the Song Dynasty, in the face of the crazy attack of 8 Jin Army, the Xiliang Army of the Song Dynasty rose up against the enemy and still managed to work out the lower limit of more than 70,000 horses. This powerful war horse resource was originally the best fund in the Southern Song Dynasty, which restored the mountains and rivers. Unfortunately, Zhang Jun, the brainless commander-in-chief, once again staged a blind command in Fuping Campaign, which seriously led to the loss of the superiority of the western front army. Thousands of war horses have become the spoils of war, and they have invested everything in Xu Jinguo's army. No brain, once again destroyed the accumulation of war horses in the Song Dynasty! It's a little sad to think about it.

However, it was not until the Southern Song Dynasty, when Song and Jin ruled the river, that there was a horse shortage in the Southern Song Dynasty. At that time, iron ore and war horses were very scarce and could not be exchanged. In fact, it is precisely the national defense decision-making ability of the Song Dynasty that seriously led to the tragedy of the failure of the Song Dynasty.