How important is the eighteen states of Yanyun, and why is it the only pain in the Great Song Dynast

The eighteen states of Yanyun were the Song Dynasty's barrier against foreign enemies and the foundation for its outward expansion. However, due to some reasons, the Great Song Dynasty has not really taken the eighteen states of Yanyun.

The eighteen states of Yanyun are important barriers against nomads, so they are particularly important; Because the Great Song Dynasty lacks this place, it has been pressed and beaten by nomads, so it is said to be an eternal pain.

If it's important, why don't you recover him, don't find a reason for yourself. During the period of Zhu Yuanzhang, don't talk about the eighteen states of Youyun, the entire Han land was occupied by nomads, so don't play according to Da Qi's words, but doesn't Lao Zhu still recover the entire Central Plains?

Yanyun was sold by Shi Jingjiao, and the Khitan assisted him in destroying the Later Tang Dynasty and establishing the Later Jin Dynasty, and later Zhou Shizong Chai Rong recovered the three passes and three states. And then there was Song.

Because from the geographical point of view, the sixteen states of Yanyun are equivalent to our current Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and the northern part of Shanxi. Below the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun is the rich lower reaches of the Yellow River and the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, which is a plain area of the Pingchuan River, which is an extremely important barrier against the southward movement of the northern nomads, and its strategic position is self-evident.

These 16 places refer to Shunyi, Beijing, Xuanhua, Datong, Shuozhou, Shuozhou East, Yingxian and so on. The geographical location of these places is relatively superior, and there are many foreign nationalities in these places, if these places are not recovered, it will affect the stability of the court of the Northern Song Dynasty. That's why the Northern Song Dynasty has always wanted to recover these places.

Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures, also known as Youyun Sixteen Prefectures, Yun refers to Datong, Yan refers to Beijing. In terms of geographical location, the sixteen prefectures of Yanyun are mainly in the present-day Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and northern Shanxi. Since ancient times, this has been the Central Plains Dynasty, and to put it bluntly, it is the main barrier of the Han people against the northern nomads.

The terrain is dangerous, and the strategic position is very important.

It refers to Yunzhou, Youzhou, and also includes the northern part of today's Tianjin, as well as the present-day Beijing, and also includes the northern part of Shanxi, etc. Because these places are very important, they must be grasped in time, so as to avoid being taken advantage of by the Khitan.

It refers to the sixteen prefectures centered on Beijing and Datong, which are equivalent to the current Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi and other places. These places are easy to defend and difficult to attack, and they are the places where ancient soldiers must fight, and they are very rich.

The sixteen prefectures of Yanyun are distributed in the whole territory of present-day Beijing and Tianjin, as well as the northern region of Hebei and the northern part of Shanxi. Since ancient times, this area has been a battleground for soldiers, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it is the main path for ethnic minorities to go south. After the Northern Song Dynasty lost the 16 prefectures of Yanyun, it was equivalent to losing a natural barrier, so that the Northern Song Dynasty was always in a passive position.

Mainly in what is now Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and northern Shanxi; Because Zhao Kuangyin wants to establish a unified dynasty, it is his responsibility to recover the lost territory, which is a strategic location.

This mainly refers to Beijing, Tianjin, northern Shanxi, and Hebei, which have always been the regions of the Central Plains and have very important strategic significance.

It is some cities between the Northern Song Dynasty and the Khitan. This is due to the fact that once these places are acquired, then they can further rule the Khitan.

Reclaimed.

The Song and Jin joined forces to destroy the Liao, and the Song army was defeated during the Northern Expedition, so it had to ask the Jin army to help in the war, and the Jin army kept its promise to hand over the Yanyun region to the Song Dynasty after capturing Yanyun.

Therefore, Song Huizong did recover the sixteen states of Yanyun.

It's just that the Jin State saw the weakness of the Song Dynasty and was bullied, and soon the whole country went south to destroy the Northern Song Dynasty. The soldiers and civilians of the sixteen states of Yanyun had no sense of belonging to the Song Dynasty at that time, and the Jin army surrendered to the Jin army one after another when it went south, so the Song Dynasty occupied Yanyun for a long time, and it did not play any defensive role.

In the fourth year of Xuanhe (1122), Song and Jin signed the "Maritime Alliance", agreeing to jointly destroy Liao, and Jin returned to Song Yanyun Sixteen Prefectures. So the Northern Song Dynasty preset Yanshanfu Road and Yunzhongfu Road. After Jin Taizu drove Emperor Tianzuo of Liao to the west of Yanshan, in February 1123, he returned Yanjing[1], Zhuozhou, Yizhou, Danzhou, Shunzhou, Jingzhou, and Jizhou to the south of Taihang Mountain (where the Later Ming Dynasty built the Great Wall)[2].

But after Ah Gu was killed, Jin changed the incident with Zhang Jue to the Song Dynasty. In December of the seventh year of Xuanhe (1125), the Jin soldiers occupied the Yanjing region again. In the second year, the Jin State marched southward, captured the second emperor of Huiqin, and occupied the Central Plains, which is known as the "Jingkang Change" in history, and the Northern Song Dynasty perished.

In the Later Zhou Dynasty, the Liao State declined, but the Song Dynasty encountered the heyday of the Liao State, and famous generals such as Yelu Xuange and Yelu Xiuge were all in this period. In the later Zhou, they were all small states in the south of Yanyun, and the Liao soldiers did not have many defensive forces. The Song Dynasty mainly had to fight Youzhou, so the two Northern Expeditions were heavily resisted by the Liao soldiers.

Also, Chai Rong's military ability is far superior to Zhao Guangyi, Zhao Guangyi committed a taboo in both he and Cao Bin in the two Northern Expeditions, and the lone army went deep into the enemy territory and was surrounded, and finally suffered a heavy defeat.

The first is that the generals are not in harmony, Cao Bin, who was the main general of the East Road at that time, could not restrain the soldiers under him, so he also made a wrong decision; And the same Yang Ye and the supervising army at that time also had this problem, so Yang Ye died in the end.

The second is that Song Taizong himself also likes to command blindly, Cao Bin, as the "first general of the founding of the Northern Song Dynasty", in fact, his own military strength is not bad, but he met Zhao Guangyi, the master who likes to command blindly, Cao Bin shook and retreated, he refused to let Cao Bin advance, and he did not let Cao Bin want to advance.

Because the nomads in different periods had different control over the sixteen states of Yanyun, the nomads in the Later Zhou Dynasty had just obtained this piece of Han land and had not yet gained a stable foothold, and they had been operating for a period of time in the Song Dynasty.

This is because the emperor at that time did not pay special attention to the development of military strength, so the military strength was relatively poor.