Why did the Northern Expedition in the heyday of Liu and Song Dynasties arise, but it was defeated repeatedly? In my opinion, apart from the objective reasons such as the overall strength of the North and the South and the way of war, the most important reason for the failure of the Northern Expedition was Song Wendi, the initiator of the war.
First, the three northern expeditions launched by Song Wendi lacked careful strategic planning and deployment, and they could not listen to the correct opinions of officials widely, which led to a series of major mistakes in strategic decision-making.
Every time before the Northern Expedition, Song Wendi didn't make careful strategic planning and deployment, but just rashly launched a war, which was more of an impulse and gambling luck.
For example, before the Second Northern Expedition, King Pengcheng, the prefect of Pengcheng, declared the Northern Expedition many times in order to cater to the idea of recovering lost territory, but most of them were on paper and had no actual strategy and tactics. Knowing nothing about military affairs, I was very excited after listening to Wang's words. What else did he say? Look at what Xuan Mo wrote, it is meaningful to seal the wolf's house. ? (Zi Zhi Tong Jian) This sentence aroused Song Wendi's ambition to unify the Central Plains.
(Portrait of Song Wendi)
However, the excited Song Wendi didn't think about implementing the Northern Expedition, but attempted to conquer Kunming and recover the Central Plains in World War I. The Northern Expedition he initiated was more of an impulsive act to show his civil and military skills. He not only lacked careful strategic planning and deployment, but also failed to listen to the opinions of his subordinates widely, which led to repeated strategic mistakes, so that every northern expedition ended in failure. Its strategic mistakes are mainly reflected in the following points:
0 1, the management of Huaibei border town was neglected for a long time, and the offensive and defensive arrangements in and around the border town were not made before the Northern Expedition.
Sun Tzu's Art of War says: A good fighter seeks defeat first and then wins. Song Wendi always thought that once the army came out, it would succeed and recover lost ground, but he didn't expect that once defeated, the northern Wei army would counterattack and how to resist it.
After the failure of the Second Northern Expedition, the Northern Wei army crossed the Yellow River and killed the Yangtze River all the way, because Song Wendi lacked sufficient understanding of the enemy's situation, especially the management and offensive and defensive deployment of the military towns in Huaibei.
("Situation Map of Liu Song and Northern Wei Dynasty")
Minister He Chengtian once presented Song Wendi with "On Security", suggesting that Song Wendi should strengthen the military construction of major cities in Huai River and Huai River according to the operational characteristics of Xianbei people, recruit refugees and local armed groups for training, implement the military policy of combining garrison with defense, fighting in integration of defense and civilian technologies and repairing agriculture, and build a solid defense line along the Huaihe River to resist northerners' southward advance.
On Border Protection: As soon as you move far away, you will be close to the mainland; Second, deepen the resistance and prevention against the city god; Third, I made up a yellow ox to decorate military equipment; Fourth, plan classes and fights and don't make mistakes.
If anyone takes the people as their life and builds an agricultural war, there is no need to move the masses and there is solid defense. It is a benefit, and its advantages and disadvantages are also related to the county. Uncle Song? Biography of He Chengtian
If we follow this policy, Liu Song can freely attack and defend the Northern Wei Dynasty, without the need for the Southern Army to make a fuss about the Northern Expedition, which can be said to be the best policy. However, Song Wendi turned a deaf ear to this excellent suggestion.
Instead of strengthening his defense, he managed to control the important towns along the border. On the contrary, it is angered every time, wasting people and money. Once he failed, he lost a lot of weapons and equipment, destroyed the wealth accumulated by Song Wendi for many years, and emptied the national treasury.
Another minister, Zhou Lang, also criticized Song Wendi for marching northward and going its own way. He thinks that Song Wendi is letting sheep chase wolves and crabs catch mice, and this behavior of dealing with a man as he deals with you will surely fail.
Moreover, the method of fighting and defending depends on people's courage to attack. The reason for the defeat in the past year is to oppose this. Nowadays, people all know that it is not a sheep chasing wolves, crabs catching mice, heavy vehicles are weak, fat horses are fierce, and there is no way, but it is very appropriate. ? Uncle Song? Biography of Zhou Lang
02. The strategic guiding ideology is rigid and inflexible. Every time the Northern Expedition is with Wei Jun, it is a thousand-mile front on the south bank of the Yellow River.
Song Wendi's three northern expeditions were aimed at recovering the lost land south of the Yellow River, and every time after recovering the lost land, he took Luoyang, Tiger Prison, Sliding Platform, Licheng and other military towns as strategic support points and deployed troops thousands of miles along the Yellow River, waiting for the attack of the Northern Wei Dynasty.
(Song Jun's Li Qian Yellow River defense line is strategically supported by important towns such as Sliding Platform, Luo Yang, Licheng and Tiger Prison.)
As a result, winter came, the Yellow River was frozen, and Xianbei cavalry crossed the river and lost their land, which not only wasted Liu Song's manpower and material resources, but also made preparations for Song Jun's strategy in advance, fully demonstrating Song Wendi's rigid strategic thinking.
In fact, before the third Northern Expedition in the 29th year of Yuanjia, Liu Xingzu, the secretariat of Qingzhou, suggested that Song Wendi should attack Hebei directly to defend against risks. If Song Jun listens to Liu Xingzu's suggestion, it will not only achieve miraculous effect, but also disturb the morale of Wei Jun, Henan Province and weaken the military pressure of the Northern Wei Dynasty on Henan Province, which is also beneficial for Liu Song to save the war situation in Henan Province. However, such a best policy was actually adopted by Song Wendi? Italy stops in Henan? The reason is refusal.
Henan blocked hunger and the wild was plundered; Stick to the city and pull it out in the middle of the month. Retain public office and transfer to the party; Follow the trend and things will be quick. Today, the fake handsome died and was forced to spend the summer. Domestic speculation disturbed him, and he was too busy to travel far. Fools say it is appropriate to drive Zhongshan for a long time, according to its main points. To the north of Jizhou, the people are prosperous and the wheat is ripe. Because the capital is easy, just people will go. If Zhongzhou vibrates, it will collapse to the south of the Yellow River. I asked you to send 7 thousand troops to his heart. If the former defeated the enemy, Zhang Yong and the armies in southern Henan should help the river for a while, so that the sound and reality can be combined. At the beginning, the company was established to graze and caress the soft, with Taihang in the west and Serbian troops in the north. It is advisable to give more gifts because of the command, which is awesome and pleasing to the eye. If it can be successful, it will be clear; If you can't get it right, it's not a big injury. Urge clothes and listen to laws. ? Tong Jian
03. Before the war, military supplies were improperly raised, soldiers lacked training, and their combat effectiveness was low.
Sun Tzu's art of war said: the soldiers and horses have not moved, and the food and grass go first. Since we are going to wage war, we must prepare military supplies and food in advance. This is military common sense. However, according to Song Shu? Rousseau's biography records:
When the army grew up, princes, princesses and courtiers each donated money and silk to help the country and enrich the people, and some even donated hundreds of thousands of private wealth. There are companies that play military but not military. The rich in Yang, Nanxu, Yanzhou and Jiangzhou have family assets of more than 500,000 and monks and nuns of more than 200,000, and a quarter of them will be changed. At this rate, things will be solved. ?
As the army grew stronger, Song Wendi thought of mobilizing social donations and even lending money to the people, so that officials could reduce their salaries to solve their urgent needs. Even the minimum supplies of the army can't be guaranteed, which shows how sloppy and trivial Song Wendi's Northern Expedition was.
(singing and preparing sand)
During the first Northern Expedition, the famous Tan Daoji had won a series of military victories and dealt a heavy blow to the enemy. But he was forced to retreat because of lack of food, but for Tan Daoji's trick. Sing sand? Empty city plan, it is estimated that Song Jun was wiped out.
In addition, Song Jun's strength is also insufficient. Only when he went to war did he hastily recruit subordinates to supplement him. These people have no formal military training at all and their combat effectiveness is low. And Song Jun's main arms are mostly water army and infantry. Facing the tough Xianbei cavalry on the battlefield, it is basically that sheep meet wolves.
Second, most of the Northern Expedition generals selected by Song Wendi lacked military ability. In the face of war, they can't catch the fighter plane quickly, can't cooperate with friendly forces, and even flee without fighting. This is an important reason for the repeated defeats of the Northern Expedition.
Song Wendi not only didn't understand the art of war, but also lacked foresight in selecting generals for the Northern Expedition. Look at the performance of the Northern Expedition coach he chose:
The coach of the first Northern Expedition was Dao. Yan Zhi deployed along the Yellow River and returned to the base camp of Dongping Xuchang. As a result, when winter arrived, Wei Jun began to counterattack and successively captured Luoyang and Hulao Pass. Seeing that Luoyang and Hulao Pass were lost, Yan Zhi dared not recover them. He led the army to retreat by water. When I arrived in Licheng, I burned my boat, lost my armor and fled back to Pengcheng on foot.
The man who talked about military affairs in front of him was Wang, commander-in-chief of the Central Route Army during the Second Northern Expedition. In the face of war, doing nothing but killing people and greedy for money, a sliding platform can't be captured in ten days.