The Southern Song Dynasty Empire was born in a stormy environment. With the rise of Mongolian tribes in Mobei grassland, the Jin people had just perished when they were invaded by Mongols. The soldiers and civilians in the Southern Song Dynasty struggled for more than 30 years, but they could not reverse the situation. Finally, Lu Xiufu jumped into the sea with the late Song Emperor Zhao Min and died. This also marked the official collapse of the Southern Song Dynasty, and the Song Dynasty officially became a historical dynasty.
This kind of ending even made China people feel timid after nearly a thousand years, and even some extreme netizens supported malicious Japanese, which is the so-called "there is no China behind the cliff".
At this time, many netizens began to miss Huo Qubing, who was more than 2,000 miles deep in Mobei and arrived in Xushan. Three hundred thousand troops attacked Xiongnu in the north and recovered Meng Tian in Henan, or Geng Gong, who was hungry and eager for the blood of Xiongnu. These generals in Qin and Han dynasties, thousands of miles away, are the heroes, national prestige and national treasures of our nation.
But if we continue to think, many people will think of a new question-"Why did nomadic people still fight in the Qin and Han Dynasties, but the Great Song Dynasty went backwards more than a thousand years later?"
Today I want to share an immature idea and try to interpret this problem from the perspective of "scientific and technological development".
In fact, nomadic people began to harass China as early as Shang Dynasty, but due to the natural conditions in the north, the number of nomadic people was small and the tribes were scattered, which could not form an effective threat. Even after the countries in the Warring States were killed and Zhao in the north was raped and killed by 400,000 troops, nomadic people still dared not invade.
However, the nomadic people at this time were not idle. A tribe called Xiongnu began to rise, and tribes of all sizes defected. Even the East Lake in the east and Wusun in the west have been surrendered and are willing to send them away.
The Huns, who formed their power, apparently drifted away, and began to seek to seize territory in the south of the Central Plains, but unfortunately they met the State of Qin, which had unified the Central Plains. Meng Tian, the general of the State of Qin, was ordered to lead 300,000 troops to attack Xiongnu in the north, recover Henan and cross the Yellow River to occupy Yangshan. Later, the Great Wall of Wan Li was built to integrate the original Yan, Zhao and Qin Changcheng, and keep the Huns out of the Great Wall.
However, with the demise of the Qin Dynasty, the Han Dynasty stepped onto the historical stage. Although Liu Bang has been concentrating on rapidly restoring and improving the national economy so that the people can live, after all, the war in the Central Plains has just ended, and it will take some time for the national strength to recover. As a result, the Huns began to take the opportunity to invade the border of the Han Dynasty, sometimes as far as a few hundred miles away from the capital of the Han Dynasty.
Emperor gaozu Liu bang led his troops forward. After being besieged by 400,000 Xiongnu troops in Dengbaishan for seven days and seven nights, he fled back to the capital, began a comprehensive rest, and adopted Liu Jing's suggestion to kiss Xiongnu. Although modu chanyu repeatedly violated the covenant concluded between the Han Dynasty and Xiongnu and invaded the border, Liu Bang and the subsequent emperors resisted the impulse to fight back on a large scale.
After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ascended the throne, relying on the information accumulated by several emperors, he quickly dealt a fatal blow to the Xiongnu through the wars in Henan, Hexi and Mobei, creating a good situation that "Xiongnu is far away, Mobei has no Wang Ting, and cattle and horses are indulged beyond the Great Wall".
Although the suppression of the Han Dynasty before promotion was not as good as that of Meng Tian in Qin Dynasty, it was actually the "peak work" of the Central Plains against the nomadic people in the north in feudal times. Later dynasties not only never realized that there was no Wang Ting in Mobei, but were also beaten by nomadic people to change dynasties.
During the Western Jin Dynasty, many nomadic people beyond the Great Wall took advantage of the weakness of the Western Jin Dynasty and successively established several Hu people's regimes, which soon formed a period of confrontation with the Han regime in the south. Then the whole Central Plains was in chaos for more than 300 years, and it was not until the Sui and Tang Dynasties that Hu and Han lived together that they got a chance to breathe. However, the prosperous period of the Tang Dynasty did not realize the long-term suppression of the frontier. Except for the most powerful decades, the rest of the time was more compromise, and finally it was affected by the overall decline of the Anshi Rebellion.
In the Song Dynasty, the land of the Central Plains was directly taught by the Jin people in the northeast and the nomadic people in the north in turn. First, they ceded territory for peace, and then they were directly replaced by Shen Lu in China. Although the Ming Dynasty was revived briefly, it was not brought into the Central Plains until modern times by the fishing and hunting nationalities in Northeast China.
Judging from the historical process of the whole feudal era, I believe everyone's feeling is that the fighting capacity of the Central Plains dynasty is getting worse and worse, and there are many discussions on the Internet about why this phenomenon occurs. The most mentioned problems are the internal friction of the Central Plains Dynasty, such as cultural sophistication, infighting, and not being good at foreign wars. For example, agricultural civilization is relatively passive to nomadic people, county system and other structural problems.
There is some truth in these statements. Of course, if the Central Plains civilization does not fight, nomadic people will not have a chance, but what I want to say today is that everyone may have overlooked a more important fact, that is, "the development of military science and technology."
Personally, I think that one of the important reasons why we were able to kill the Quartet in the confrontation with nomadic people in the Qin and Han Dynasties was that "the military technology was relatively advanced", so we were able to be in an invincible position and advance thousands of miles north in minutes. With the development of the times, there is no qualitative breakthrough in our science and technology. On the contrary, nomadic people are constantly absorbing the culture of the Central Plains and narrowing the scientific and technological gap in this respect.
In ancient times, the two most important aspects of military science and technology were "metal smelting technology" and "weapon manufacturing capability", while the Chinese civilization in the Central Plains had a very mature bronze smelting technology as early as the Shang Dynasty, and the bronze smelting technology was developed to the extreme in the Spring and Autumn Period, such as the famous sword of the King of Yue Gou Jian and the long-standing story of Mo Xie.
As for weapons manufacturing, I believe everyone knows the power of crossbows. This efficient killing weapon is still a controlled weapon today, and it is also shown in many film and television works and documentaries. As early as the Qin dynasty, Chinese civilization mastered the technology of producing crossbows by assembly line, and all kinds of parts can be used universally. An ordinary person who has never touched a crossbow can cause effective killing through simple training.
What is the life of nomadic people in the north at this time? During the Shang and Zhou dynasties, they lived a life of eating meat and drinking blood, and there was no formed social production system at all. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, although King Wuling of Zhao studied Khufu's riding and shooting concept in the north, the nomadic people in the north were fundamentally different from the Central Plains in overall organizational ability and military science and technology.
According to historical records, the Huns in the north of the pre-Qin period did not have mature iron smelting technology and did not know how to forge bronzes at all. A small number of metal weapons owned by its army are traded with the Central Plains, most of which are made of wood. Even the armor has only a small amount of leather armor tanned with cattle, sheep and horse skins, and its defense ability is almost zero.
On the other hand, the soldiers of the Central Plains army, metal weapons have become the mainstream, and their armor is quite different from that of the Xiongnu army. Compared with the Xiongnu army, this kind of equipment is the existence of crushing level. Even in the Han Dynasty, although the national strength declined just after the civil war in the Central Plains, there was still a huge gap in military science and technology. This huge gap is what we often hear now.
For example, in 200 BC, Liu Bang, Emperor Gaozu, attacked the Xiongnu, and was besieged by the Xiongnu army of 400,000 for seven days and seven nights. However, he may still be at loggerheads with the Xiongnu army, causing greater harm to the other side. If it weren't for the exhaustion of food and grass, Liu Bang must be a Hun, waiting for the army to help him.
The generation difference of this weapon is also supported by historical data. At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, General Chen Tang made an expedition of more than 2,000 miles, captured and beheaded Huns Khan alive, and had rich experience in fighting against Huns. He once said to his colleagues, "What's the difference?" ? A blunt crossbow is not good. I heard today that it is quite clever, but it is still three plus one. "
That is to say, nomadic people can only fight a Han soldier with five people because their swords and crossbows are not good. But now that they have absorbed some military technology from the Han Dynasty, three people can be equivalent to a Han soldier. The nomadic people who have learned a little fur in a short time can have such a great improvement, which just shows how big the gap between weapons and generations was.
We have fully realized the power of weapons to replace differences in modern times. Even if the war without difference is better than the United States and the Soviet Union, Vietnam and Afghanistan will be hated, while the war with difference will make the huge Iraqi army completely annihilated in an instant, which is the suppression of technology and system.
There is a substitute for weapons. As long as the Central Plains region is given time to rest, the problem of Xiongnu is not a problem at all. Meng Tian attacked Xiongnu in the north to recover Henan, the battle of Mobei in Wei Qing wiped out Xiongnu Wang Ting, Ban Chao rode 36 countries in the western regions, and Liling fought 80,000 Xiongnu with 5,000 steps.
And these achievements are also the peak moment against nomadic people. Only in 1388, the Ming army led by Hailan crossed the Gobi and defeated the Yuan army in the fishing sea, which was similar, but it was also when the Yuan Dynasty was the weakest, and it was not caused by the leading technology.
Compared with nomadic people, the army in Qin and Han dynasties not only had sharp weapons, but also had thick armor. Under the substitution of huge weapons, nomadic people in Qin and Han dynasties constantly coveted the land in the Central Plains, but they only took advantage of it. Many times they were beaten repeatedly, and even Wang Ting couldn't save them.
However, for any civilization in the Central Plains, the war with nomadic people is extremely low in cost performance. Whether it is a small battle or a big victory to drive nomads to the far north, the benefits are "negative". Regardless of the outcome of the war between the dynasties and the nomadic people, the Central Plains regime has not gained fruitful results, but a heavy burden, which is also a shackle that Chinese civilization cannot break through.
The nomadic regime has gained resources far beyond its own development level by constantly invading the Central Plains, including the application of military science and technology. "Learning is always much faster than creating". As long as nomadic people start to communicate with the Central Plains, whether it is trade or war, the related gap will definitely narrow rapidly.
Although the central plains civilization is very strict about the confidentiality of technology, it is also doomed to be unable to keep it secret forever. There are too many ways for nomadic people to get a glimpse of the secrets of civilized military science and technology in the Central Plains through the exchange of folk craftsmen, the smuggling of businessmen and the mutiny of captured generals. Therefore, this kind of scientific and technological suppression of nomadic people in Qin and Han Dynasties, especially the great advantages in military science and technology, is no longer a qualitative difference in the Five Chaos Period.
The Central Plains civilization needs to invest a lot of energy to develop the economy, and also to invest a huge amount of economy in border defense. In contrast, the northern nomadic fishing and hunting peoples have little economic pressure, and they only need to constantly learn the technology, system, commerce and trade of the Central Plains civilization. What is agricultural production? Catch it.
During the Tang Dynasty, nomadic people made great progress through the integration of Chinese culture, and their strength in all aspects was greatly improved. As a result, the scientific and technological gap between the northern nomadic people and the Central Plains civilization has further narrowed. For example, after the demise of the Tang Dynasty, the Liao Dynasty, which controlled sixteen states, broke away from a single nomadic economic structure, but agriculture and handicrafts developed simultaneously. Politically, he also began to call himself the emperor and established the Han system.
In the Song Dynasty, the Central Plains civilization was no longer unattainable to various nomadic fishing and hunting peoples in the north. Even though it has advantages in economy and culture, it is basically flat in system and military science and technology. For example, Jin Guo has a powerful "iron tower" almost equivalent to a tank, which makes Dasong miserable.
The Mongolian cavalry sweeping across Eurasia is no longer the leather armor riding and shooting we remember, but a "modern army" with a large number of heavy cavalry, light armored light cavalry and skilled use of crossbows and even cannons.
At this time, as long as the civilization of the Central Plains declines, all factions begin to fight against each other and even rebel in the civil war, nomadic people can go south in a big way, and the fishermen will benefit. Without the advantages of military science and technology, the Central Plains civilization could not resist at all, and it could only delay one or two things through planning, but it could not reverse the situation.
Personally, the demise of the Tang Dynasty is a "watershed" in the history of East Asia. Since then, the Han people are no longer the only unattainable heaven, but are regarded as objects that can be surpassed by the surrounding nomadic peoples. The humiliation of the Song Dynasty further proves this truth, and the Huaxia regime is no longer the object of worship and learning.
But fortunately, our splendid Chinese civilization has always been ahead. Whether it is the powerful Mongolia or the Nuzhen of the Qing Dynasty, nomadic people have indeed surpassed their masters by learning the technology of the Han people, but after all, they can't compete with the sadness of culture. The original characteristics of frontier nomads have been sinicized with them, otherwise they have not conquered the Central Plains, but have gradually been assimilated and become the inheritors of Chinese culture.
Today, although Chinese civilization has introduced some nomadic cultures, the pure nomadic cultures such as Xiongnu, Turkic and Xianbei have gradually died out with the passage of time, because they have merged too many things that do not belong to them in constant aggregation and division, which is the "price" for the progress of culturally weak nations.
With the end of the feudal era, the world has entered a new chapter, and even splendid feudal civilization can't stop the wheel of modernization. We really need to remember where we came from, because it will let us know where we are going, but too much nostalgia for the past glory and contempt for other nations and countries will only make us laugh generously as evidence.