The "weak" that the Song Dynasty was called was not politically and culturally.

The Song Dynasty was the peak of the development of commodity economy and culture in China in all dynasties, but the foreign war was a mess. Emperor Taizong defeated the Liao Dynasty twice and ended in a crushing defeat. Later, he signed the Chanyuan alliance with the Liao people. The monies were not ashamed of every year. He also won fewer and more defeats against the Western Xia, which rebelled and established the country. As for the later shame of Jingkang, there was no need to mention. He first let half of the country and the Jin people, and finally the entire Southern Song court overturned the Mongols.

The Song Dynasty can be said to be the first dynasty in history to be invaded by foreign races and fallen into the country. By the Ming Dynasty, even if the lessons learned from the Song Dynasty's destruction of the country were learned, after several generations of reflection, it was still impossible to solve the border problems from the root.

Now that Zhu Youzhang raised this cliché issue, it is actually a bit difficult for the ministers present.

Faced with such questions, ordinary civil servants and military generals are not easy to answer casually. Now the emperor wants people to explain his confusion, but there is no public opinion on this issue. The predecessors already have many views. The explanation now has a little bit of the meaning of making a fool of themselves.

However, there are always people who want to show themselves in front of the emperor, so Zhang Heling took the lead and stood up and said, "Your Majesty, I think the weakness of the Song Dynasty is that it emphasizes culture and over military affairs. The Song Dynasty's country is rich and the people are strong, and the people are even more prosperous than the prosperous Tang Dynasty. However, the situation of military men is despised by the world. The army is very mean to the soldiers, so that the military generals dare not speak out before the foreign enemies, and the civil officials retreat, which leads to the great deeds and mountains of the Diyi."

Zhang Heling's words are basically a summary of the reasons for the strong civil and military strength of the Song Dynasty. His views are quite incisive, but they are arguments that are badly spoken by historical scholars.

The weakness of the Song Dynasty was mainly due to military affairs. Song Taizu himself was a military general who usurped power and seized the throne, so he was often mean to the generals who commanded the army. Under the influence of the atmosphere of valuing culture over military affairs, civil officials were in charge of soldiers, and corruption was prevalent, so the generals and soldiers were unwilling to be ordered by the court, and they were defeated in a row when fighting against foreign countries.

But this statement clearly means rebuking civil officials and favoring military generals.

As a foreign relative, Zhang Heling held a military position on his head. It was understandable that he spoke to a military general, but this made the civil officials present feel dissatisfied. Oh, the Song Dynasty generally recognized that it was weak because of its weak military. It must be the responsibility of military generals and soldiers. What does it have to do with us civil officials?

The left censor Min Gui stood up and said, "I do not agree with the statement of Shouning Hou."

Zhu Youzhang looked at Min Gui: "What is Min Shaobao's opinion?"

Min Gui said: "I think the weakness of the Song Dynasty is due to the loss of natural dangers. The son emperor handed over the land of Yanyun to Liao. Later, Xixia stole the land of Gansu and Shaanxi, so that our borders in China were not dangerous. The Jurchen cavalry went south in large numbers, and the emperor could not guard the border and blindly retreated, causing more than half of the land in the heart of the Central Plains to perish."

"In the Southern Song Dynasty, although there were natural dangers in the rivers blocking the Huhu, the troops of the Huhuhu were growing more and more prosperous, and there were treacherous parties in the Song Dynasty who were greedy for wealth and honor, and the country was in danger of their rebirth. However, there were virtuous ministers who used the southeast corner as their support and fought desperately with the Huhuhu for more than 150 years, leaving behind the bones and blood for our Chinese nation..."

From Zhang Heling's perspective, he did not want to excuse the generals of the Song Dynasty, but he knew only the arguments that he could only say.

From Min Gui's position, it is clear that the Song Dynasty was unable to resist the Jin people because it lost natural dangers, and also praised the integrity of civil officials such as Wen Tianxiang and Lu Xiufu until death.

Min Kyu's words were approved by most people, and even Zhu Youzhe nodded in contemplation.

From the emperor's perspective, I still agree with Min Kyu's opinions more.

Because the emperor needs to be vigilant about military generals who hold military power, it is inevitable to emphasize civil servants over military affairs. Moreover, peace in the world requires civil servants to govern the country, and the enthusiasm of civil servants must not be suppressed. Speaking of the Song Dynasty, the emphasis on civil servants over military affairs, did the Ming Dynasty not have one? It’s just that the Ming Dynasty currently emphasizes civil servants over military affairs is not as serious as the Song Dynasty.

The hall was discussing Song Fei's lessons fiercely, but a little guy poked his head out from behind Emperor Hongzhi, listened carefully, and his eyes showed a little shiny.

Oh, it's about the Song Dynasty. I didn't understand what happened in the past "History of Song" and so on, but I'm familiar with this passage, what is the shame of Jingkang, Yue Fei's northern expedition, Lu Xiufu jumped into the sea with the little emperor on his back...

Zhu Houzhao felt that it would be very difficult to understand what these old guys said for the first time, but if he asked him to add a sentence, it would be very difficult. Only then did he know what "the prosperous Tang and weak Song" meant. Chen Xi did not teach him these, but he vaguely remembered that Chen Xi mentioned some things when he was talking about the history of the Sui and Tang Dynasties that day.

The general meaning is to talk about a poem written by Li Bai called "Sending Bai Li to General Dong from Jinwu". Chen Xi went from "The Western Qiang Dynasty to fight against the army, Bai Qi assisted the army's power", which extended the Tang Dynasty's war against foreign barbarians rarely failed. "The horses were green on the edge, the flags rolled in the dawn, the hands were frost, and the cold wind was looking at each other's iron clothes", which made Zhu Houzhao very envious... She was wearing glowing iron armor and riding a horse under her crotch to fight. How heroic and heroic was that? Unfortunately, I can't ride a horse.

At that time, Chen Xi also briefly discussed why the people in the Tang Dynasty were very powerful in wars, but Zhu Houzhao was not interested in it, so he didn't pay much attention to it.

Zhu Houzhao thought to herself: "After listening to the class, I just spent time playing Cuju, and even forgot what he said. How great would it be if I could say a few words and let them know how powerful I am?"

Children actually want to show off the limelight most, especially in such occasions. Unfortunately, with his former urinary nature, it is good to be unwilling to show off. It is too difficult to show off. Before I came, my mother repeatedly told him not to speak, just to prevent him from being decent when the ministers gathered.

The debate continued there, and Zhang Heling obviously did not want to admit defeat. No matter what he did, it was to make the emperor feel that he had real materials in his stomach. Wouldn't admit defeat now mean that he was embarrassed?

What's more, Zhang Heling has some research on this issue. If he had changed to something else, he might not have been able to argue with everyone like Min Gui.

Zhang Heling said: "How did Min Shaobao explain that the Song Dynasty's national strength was several times that of Khitan, Dangxiang, Jurchen and other countries, but they were repeatedly defeated in foreign wars?"

Seeing that Min Gui was determined to debate with Zhang Heling to the end, Xu Qiong quickly came out to say: "I think that the decline of the Song Dynasty military was a weakening, and it was not achieved by one day's achievements. It was all caused by the Song Dynasty emperors who lived in the temple and did not compassionate with the soldiers and the people. If it were the Ming Dynasty, there were wise monarchs in history to create prosperity and His Majesty worked diligently to manage the country, and he would never raise a tiger like the Song people."

Xu Qiong is relocating the contradiction again.

If you want to say a loyal and upright minister, you shouldn't flatter the emperor at this time, but who is Xu Qiong? He is both a civil minister and an in-law of the emperor. If you want to say that his official reputation is not bad, but often you need to protect the emperor's face and you cannot ignore it when Shouning Hou argues with others. His words can not only stomp on the Emperor of the Song Dynasty, but also demonstrate the wisdom of Emperor Hongzhi, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone.

Some ministers were already thinking: "It's better for the Minister of Rites to be smooth."

Zhu Youzhang also saw that the question he raised might be inappropriate, so he started to discuss it. Zhang Heling and Min Gui couldn't argue. Finally, Xu Qiong came out to smooth things out, and he said it was just right. It was time to put the topic aside, and it wouldn't make much sense to continue.

Zhu Youzhang was about to wave his hand to signal everyone not to debate, but suddenly a childish voice came from not far away from him: "Father, my son has something to say."

The scene suddenly became quiet, and everyone present looked at the little prince Zhu Houzhao who was eager to try.

Queen Zhang, who was sitting next to Zhu Youtu, quickly winked at her son, and her expression seemed to be saying, "I forgot how did my mother explain to you? At this time, if your father doesn't ask you, just shut up and pretend to be mute. Even if your father asks you, don't show off if you don't understand!"

Zhu Youzang didn't have much thought. He was just curious why the prince would speak out today when he was abnormal today. But then he thought that his son was still young and encouraged his seedlings to grow up because he had been in poor health. He asked his son to get married earlier with a precaution, but he should not be too harsh on the little guy, let alone make him embarrassed in front of the ministers.

"Don't say anything you don't understand." Zhu Youzhang directly blocked Zhu Houzhao's way of expressing his views.

At this time, Liu Jian, who had been sitting upright and not speaking, stood up and saluted, "Your Majesty, the prince rarely expresses his own opinions. He speaks without restraint. No matter what he says, he is a brave attempt... Why not listen to what the prince has?"

Zhu Youzhang picked up the wine cup, smiled, and said, "Since even the Grand Tutor Liu talks to you, Prince, come and listen."

Zhu Houzhao was so excited that it was finally my turn to express his views. Humph, let you guys look down on me again. He stood up and raised his proud head and said, "My son believes that the people in the Tang Dynasty are very good at fighting because they have BMWs!"

One sentence attracted many ministers present to laugh.

It’s true that it’s childish words!

This view may sound absurd and ridiculous. The soldiers naturally have BMWs in wars. The people of the Tang Dynasty had BMWs. Didn’t the people of the Song Dynasty not?

But after thinking about this sentence for a moment, the smile on some people's faces became stiff, such as Zhang Mao and Ma Wensheng, who were aware of the military.

Zhu Youzing asked with a smile: "Does the Song people have no BMW?"

Zhu Houzhao thought for a while and replied: "I heard from the teacher that when the Song Dynasty, most of the good places for raising horses were occupied by foreigners. Without BMWs, the war would not be so powerful."

After all, the prince was young and didn't know how to sort out the language. In fact, when Chen Xi spoke to him, he used such superficial words to explain to him, because he was afraid that he would not understand.

The words are rough but not rough.

After Zhu Houzhao finished saying this, even Zhu Youzhang was reexamining the truth contained in this sentence.

The biggest difference between the Song Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty was that it set a low point in the land area of ​​all dynasties that unified the rivers and mountains since ancient times. It was said to be rich in all the seas, but in fact it only occupied the central plains, Jiangnan, Guangdong and Guangxi, and Bashu and other concise areas. Any suitable place for raising horses was basically stolen by foreigners.

Some people may wonder, before the Song Dynasty, the grasslands suitable for raising horses were not owned by the Central Plains, so why were only the Song people so unbearable?

Before the Liao Kingdom, most of the grassland people were nomadic peoples and could not be called a country. They had the awareness of managing their land since the Khitan, and they already had the land of the Central Plains such as the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun to build cities and consolidate their territory. The Song people lacked good horses and could rely on the northwest horse farm to maintain them at the beginning. However, when the Western Xia Dynasty was established, the horse farm was almost completely lost, and the battle could only be dominated by infantry, which made it more and more difficult to move forward.

Needless to say, the importance of horses on the battlefield is, but if you put aside the flexibility of the cavalry, just a frontal encounter can attack the opponent's camp and cause chaos on the opponent. If you win, you can pursue the enemy. If you lose, you can retreat quickly and return to the city to preserve your vitality and fight again.

But if there are no cavalry, or there are only a few old, weak and sick horses on the battlefield, the war will basically lose 30% from the beginning, which is not the morale loss of soldiers when they see the tall horses rushing towards each other.

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ps: Two consecutive updates!

I wish you a happy Dragon Boat Festival again! Why do you have to say this twice? Because the emperor is also celebrating the Dragon Boat Festival here, and there are guests at home. The emperor is typing while accompanying guests. As a result... I forgot to update after coding!

Since I have to have a good meal, the next chapter will be a little later!
Chapter completed!