In the Battle of Waqiao Pass, both the Song and Liao countries were defeated, why did they say that

Because in the battle of Waqiao Pass, the Liao army won more and lost less, undoubtedly made a cheap profit on the battlefield, and for the Song army, although there was a slight loss on the battlefield, it did not allow the Liao army to achieve the established goal of occupying Xiongzhou, and there were no big losses on both sides in a war, so both sides of the Liao and Song dynasties claimed that they had won.

The Battle of Waqiao Pass was actually a follow-up to the Battle of Mancheng. In 979 AD, the Liao army attacked Mancheng, but due to the miscalculation of Mancheng's military strength, the Liao army was finally defeated by the Song army due to the light enemy. The defeat of Mancheng made Liao Jingzong very angry, so he led his army to avenge the defeat of Mancheng in 980.

The main part of this battle was that the Liao army besieged Xiongzhou but could not capture it for a long time, while the Song army kept moving troops around to support Xiongzhou and wanted to lift the siege of Xiongzhou. Although the Liao army repelled the support troops of the Song army many times in a month's time, but in the face of Xiongzhou, which was besieged on all sides, it still seemed a little helpless, seeing that there were more and more Song troops who came to relieve the siege, Liao Jingzong was worried that he would become the besieged side, so he had no choice but to order the retreat, and the Liao army withdrew from the border of the Song Dynasty in late November of that year, which was the battle of Waqiaoguan in history.

In the Battle of Waqiaoguan, the Liao army took the initiative to start a war, but it defeated the Song army many times on the battlefield, further weakening the already weak Song Dynasty army, so the Liao army naturally thought that it had won the war. The Song Dynasty was a passive response, although there were many defeats and few victories, but it did not lose Xiongzhou as a forward position and successfully repelled the Liao army, which made Liao Jingzong's wishful thinking fail, so the Song military also claimed that he had won this battle.

In fact, there are no obvious winners and losers in this battle, no matter who claims to be the victor, the war will only make both sides lose the war, and from a more long-term historical perspective, the Liao and Song countries were ultimately destroyed by the war, so what is the point of arguing about who is the winner?

Because morale is important for a country. They didn't want to tell everyone about the fact that they had lost the battle and let everyone down, so they could only say that they had won, which would also help them win the war later.

In the battle of Waqiao Pass, the Liao and Song dynasties were both defeated, and they said that they both won because it was a draw, and the two sides also won a game.

It's just that they didn't win in the traditional sense, but the Song State alleviated the civil war through this battle, and the Liao State also eradicated the internal spies through this war, so they all said they won.

The battle was ultimately won. But the win was very miserable. and also destroyed by other nations.

The battle lasted for twenty days, and the Liao army launched a total of five attacks before and after, but failed to break through the Song army's defense line, and finally the Liao army retreated, and the Great Song Dynasty won the victory.