Chinese military science and tactics
1. Overview of the development of military books and military science
Chinese military science has been silent for a long time since the pre-Qin, Qin and Han dynasties. According to statistics, there were 103 military books in the pre-Qin and Qin and Han Dynasties, and 147 military books in the remaining period. During the Three Kingdoms and Jin , the Southern and Northern Dynasties, there were only 88 military books in the past and 87 military books in the past. Among them, only a few of them are ", Sanlue " and "Cao Pusans" that have been valued by the military academic community. When the Tang and Song dynasties entered the Tang and Song dynasties, the situation was very different. According to statistics, , the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties have 50 military books, and 166 military books have been preserved; in the Song Dynasty, there were 229 military books, and 352 military books have been preserved, which far exceeds the former in quantity and greatly improves the quality. For example, "Question on Li Weigong", " Weigong's Art of War ", "Taibai Yinjing", "Hangml3 Wujing General ", "City Deposit Records" and other books all occupy an important position in the history of the development of Chinese military science.
In the Tang and Song dynasties, the status of military science in Chinese culture was on a rising trend. Military books before the Tang and Song dynasties were mainly private works, and theoretical teaching was also conducted by setting up accounts and entrusting disciples. After the establishment of the Tang and Song dynasties, they attached great importance to the development of military science. Emperor Taizong of Tang Li Shimin once discussed military science with military scholar Li Jing for a long time, leaving behind the famous military book "Questions on Li Weigong". The Emperor of the Song Dynasty also paid great attention to using military books to improve the command art of generals. The famous "Martial Classics General" and " "Seven Books of Martial Classics " were compiled by the official according to the imperial edict. The martial arts and martial arts established by specializing in training officers in the Tang and Song dynasties also had a positive role in promoting the development and dissemination of military theory.
In the Tang and Song dynasties, the phenomenon of literati discussing military affairs became increasingly common. From the pre-Qin and Qin and Han Dynasties to the Three Kingdoms, Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties, writing military books was mainly about the affairs of commanding soldiers and generals. Since the Tang and Song dynasties, more and more literati and doctors have appeared on the military forum. For example, Li Quan, a military scientist in the Tang Dynasty who did not directly lead troops to fight in his life, has a lot of works on military studies; Yue Rui, who wrote "Long and Short Classic", is also a commoner who has never been on the battlefield. In the Song Dynasty, there were not only many martial arts doctors who worked in military annotation and collation throughout their lives, but also Yongjia School , represented by Chen Fuliang and Ye Shi , and Su Shi , and Su Shi , Chen Liang , Xin Qiji and other literary masters who were obsessed with studying military science. They made great contributions to the school magazine, annotation and explanation of military classics, and also had their own unique insights on the nature of war, the establishment of the army and the strategic issues, and made an indelible contribution in promoting the development of military science in the Tang and Song .
Military Book is the main carrier of military science. The number of types is an important indicator of the development of military science. There were many types of military books in the Tang and Song dynasties, and they could be roughly divided into four categories: grammar, scattered, compiled, and translated.
, a category of writings of military books. Such as the comprehensive military books "Questions on Li Weigong", "Taibai Yin Jing", " Tiger Stamp Jing ", etc.; "Records of the City Defence" which specializes in city defense; "Jing Bian Bei Yao" and "Border Defense Turtle Mirror" which specializes in border defense and military geography; " Hundred Battles Strategy and Tactics " which specializes in strategy and tactics; "Military System of All Dynasties" which specializes in military system; "Han Dr. He Preparation on ", "Ten Theory of the Restoration", "Han Hundred Generals' Biography ", etc. Many writing styles were not available in previous dynasties.
The second is to annotate the military books. The annotations of military books began in the Han Dynasty and entered its first peak period during the Tang and Song dynasties.
In the Tang Dynasty, Li Quan, Jia Lin, Du Mu, Chen Yu, Sun Hao and others made annotations for " Grandson "; there were more than 10 annotations for "Sunzi" in the Song Dynasty, among which the most achievements were " Mei Shengyu's grandson ", "Zhang Yu's grandson" and Zheng Youxian's "The Ten Family Notes on the Unknown Stories of the Grandson" and so on. There are also many other annotations such as "Su Shu", "Three Notes", "Sima Rangju's Art of War", " Wei Liaozi ", " Guanzi ", and " Yin Fu Jing ". The most prominent feature of the annotations of military books in the Song Dynasty is that people are no longer satisfied with the scattered single military books annotations, but need to conduct a comprehensive study and sort out classic works in ancient military science, or to gather the results of military books annotations of predecessors.Its obvious signs are ", 10 Family Notes on Grandson " and "Shi's Seven Books Lecture Notes". The former almost brings together the remarks of important "Sun Tzu" annotators in the Tang and Song dynasties and previous dynasties, and has high theoretical value. The latter systematically explained the official "Seven Books of Wu Jing" and also set a precedent for later generations to relieve military books by titles and chapters.
is the third is to compile military books. The practice of compiling military historical materials began in the Tang Dynasty. When Du You compiled the book " Tongdian ", he compiled a large number of historical materials on military studies in categories. In the Song Dynasty, a compilation of military books appeared in a more complete sense, such as the "Martial Classic General Issues" which compiles the content and military materials of the previous dynasties, and the "Seven Books of the Martial Classics" which compiles the classic ancient military works.
is the fourth to translate military books. During the Tang and Song dynasties, the military culture of the Central Plains and the ethnic groups in the border were increasingly closely integrated, and one of the important contents was to translate ancient military books to the ethnic groups in the border. In the early Liao Dynasty, Yelu Bei, the King of Dongdan, translated "Yin Fu Jing", and , the Jin Dynasty, the books such as ", Sun Tzu's Art of War ", "Three Notes", and ", Six Tales ", and the books such as ", Xixia " were published. , Xixia published books such as "Six Tales", "Three Notes on the Art of War" and other books such as ", Sun Tzu's Art of War". This is the first time in the history of Chinese military science that it has translated and introduced military books on such a large scale. It has extremely far-reaching significance for the widespread dissemination of Central Plains military culture in the East.
2. Military Construction Thoughts
In the early and mid-Tang Dynasty, the military system was mainly implemented, which was in line with this system. The rulers and military scholars of the Tang Dynasty focused on building and governing the army and strengthening the usual military training and selecting generals. They clearly stipulated that soldiers who are responsible for combat tasks should be trained specifically, "using the power of reorganizing the army" and they should not be allowed to bear heavy labor. To govern the army, we must implement the criminal reward system, "rewarding is selfless and punishing is selfless." When choosing generals, we must select "generalists" who are both wise and brave, and at the same time, we should not ignore "partial talents" with certain expertise. When examining generals, you must be comprehensive, first observe and then take office, and do "not forget the good of one evil, and do not hide the merits with small flaws." In view of the strategic attack on the Turkic army in the early Tang Dynasty, the rulers of the Tang Dynasty paid special attention to the construction of cavalry units. For example, Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin, once formed a powerful cavalry group and went deep into the heart of the grassland and desert to pursue, which finally caused the entire Turkic army to collapse.
In order to prevent the separatist vassal states from the middle of the Tang Dynasty to the Five Dynasties, the rulers of the Song Dynasty re-enacted the history of the fall of power, and insisted on the high concentration of military power. The military administrative power belonged to Privy Council , and the military command power belonged to the "Three Divisions" and the Three Generals", which restricted each other and concentrated the power on the emperor. The Song Dynasty mainly used recruitment system , and its purpose was to recruit a large number of troops in disaster areas. The military aims to achieve the goal of "a famine year, rebel against the people but no rebel against the people, unfortunately happy to be reborn, and rebel against the people but no rebel against the people." Centralization and large-scale recruitment of soldiers certainly have the advantage of preventing military men from tying up troops and alleviating social conflicts, and also bringing various disadvantages such as separation of soldiers and generals, low quality of soldiers, poor education and training. To this end, military scholars of the Song Dynasty proposed in a targeted manner: "The army does not need to be crowded, but those who serve their lives will be defeated; those who do not have bravery, but those who die will win. "The recruitment system that has many problems also advocated reform, imitating the Tang Dynasty military system, so that soldiers and farmers can be united, and military forces are integrated with agriculture.
When the frontier nations such as the Khitan, Jurchen, and Dangxiang established armed forces, they were still in the process of transforming from military democracy to slavery society, and their thoughts on command also changed from "consolidation of troops" to centralized power. However, they were in a vibrant period of rising vitality, and they usually had talents in selecting generals and officials, and they continued to carry forward the fine tradition of strictly governing the army in the past, such as the Jin army. The law of the team, all of which, corps and hundreds of people have their own strengths. The sergeant beats the siege, and the sergeant holds the flag, and the sergeant holds the drum, and the sergeant takes all the flags and golden drums. The sergeant was killed in battle, and all four of them were killed. Chief Shi was killed in battle, and the sergeant was killed. A hundred people died in battle, and all the people were killed. Those who carry the warriors' corpse to return will get half of their family's fortune. "It is precisely because of such a fierce military discipline that they "cavalry riders, step by step, and reviewers kill, so they will win every battle."
3. Strategic and tactical thoughts
Strategic thoughts in the Tang and Song dynasties can be roughly divided into three types:
1 is Active defense strategy . The active defense strategy represented by the Tang Dynasty emphasized the fight for the initiative in war, and in normal times, we should "guard the key points, build military camps, be careful to prevent defense, and make full preparations for war; on the other hand, we should implement policies of peace, unity and moralization for all ethnic groups in the border, and "management must be based on literary morality, and defense must be based on military power", and neither is negligent. In response to the military invasion of its nomadic aristocratic forces, we adopt a strategy of offense as defense and launch a fatal blow to its main force in order to achieve long-term stability. During the reign of Emperor Taizong of Tang, this active defense strategy was adopted, and tribes such as the Eastern Turks, Tuyuhun, , and Gaochang were successively pacified, and the northwest border was unified.
The second is "focus on the focus" and "summarize through war" . The Song Dynasty was the main representative of the implementation of this strategy. After the rulers of the Song Dynasty established a regime, they had a deep fear of the ethnic groups in the northern border. They dare not take active military actions against the Khitan and Dangxiang, but often adopt a negative attitude of building villages and waiting for others to attack. There are some things worthy of recognition in the defense strategy of the Song Dynasty . For example, in the Song and Yuan War, a large-scale defense strategy implemented by rivers, lakes, mountains, steep mountains, and high cities and deep ponds, had mutual support between various defense points. With the long-term persistence of Dayi Giant City and strong cooperation between land and water war, it successfully resisted the Mongolian army's years of attack.
Third, it is an active offensive strategy pursued by the Khitan, Dangxiang, and Jurchen. In the war with the Song Dynasty, most of these nomadic peoples were good at leveraging their cavalry's advantages in rapid action, either from afar to reinforce or long-distance raids. They could always gather powerful heavy troops on the battlefield in a timely manner to attack the Song army, which was mainly infantry and had difficulty moving.
After establishing the regime, Khitan, Dangxiang and Jurchen gradually began to adopt the defensive policy of building walls and placing Wu, which is in line with their gradual transformation from a nomadic economy to an agricultural economy.
However, when dealing with powerful foreign enemies, except for the Western Xia army adopting the policy of defending by relying on the wall, the Liao and Jin armies mostly despise their main combat targets. They do not use their own fortifications and good city defense techniques to consume the enemy's vitality, but instead launch an attack rashly, hoping to wipe out the enemy's entire army in one or two field battles. Later history shows that this strategic idea is completely wrong and will eventually lead to the destruction of the country and the family.
also made great progress in tactical thinking in the Tang and Song dynasties.
For field battles, the famous Tang Dynasty general Li Jing, based on the ancient formation, combined with the seven armies of the Tang army of the Tang army , created the "Seven Army Six Flower Formation" (including square formations, circular formations, geese walks, straight formations and other combat formations). The most basic combat formation adopted by Li Jing is a cone formation (wedge formation), which facilitates breakthrough and division of enemy formations. There is also a vertical formation (column tactic) arranged between crossbowmen, archers and vanguards. It uses it to directly put troops into battle, which is easier to maintain its own formation than a horizontal team, so it is easier to command.
The most distinctive part of the Song army's field tactics is the content of fighting against the attack of the cavalry group. For example, the stacked formation in invented in in the Song and Jin Wars is a multi-layer configuration of infantry holding different weapons, with cavalry standing behind.
When the enemy attacks, the crossbowmen in the formation fire in turn, continuously repelling the enemy's repeated attacks, taking advantage of their retreat, and sending cavalry to pursue them. There is also a tactic of using team-based cavalry, that is, taking advantage of the characteristics of the northwest region's ravines that are not conducive to the development of cavalry and group impact, controlling key passes, and sending troops to flexibly and maneuverably harass the enemy cavalry from different directions, forcing them to dispose of the troops everywhere, overwhelmed, and then waiting for an opportunity to counterattack and eliminate the enemy cavalry.
Khitan, Jurchen and Dangxiang peoples are known for their bows and horses. Their field tactics mainly refer to cavalry tactics. The frontal impact of wedge-shaped formations and the two-wing encirclement tactics are the most common. The latter is also called the "Three Live Formation", which means "the circular formation is arranged as the edge, the two wings are opened at the second time, and the left and right attacks."In order to resist the shooting of the Song army's crossbowmen, the Jurchen and Dangxiang troops usually put heavy armored cavalry in front, "when encountering battles, they first launch an iron cavalry to break into the formation, and when the formation is in chaos, they will be attacked; infantry will carry cavalry to advance", which is quite effective in dealing with infantry groups.
had a high tactical level in the Song Dynasty for offense and defense of city blocks. The Song army will build cities and build turrets, and use infantry to defend Changyuan as a good strategy to resist the impact of enemy cavalry. To this end, the generals and military scholars of the Song Dynasty emphasized the need to establish a defense system that is heavy in cities and trenches, expand the depth of defense, so as to facilitate mutual support from the defenders, fight against the enemy to fight against the city, and stick to it for a long time; emphasized the need to effectively use the stone thrower to kill and injure the enemy's siege forces; emphasized that you should not defend the enemy's siege at the close of the door, and "attack in the defense", and set up more secret doors and rush doors to attack from multiple directions and actively eliminate the enemy.
4. Mongolian national military science and tactics
Mongolian nation galloped across Asia and Europe in the Middle Ages, trembling the world, and achieved brilliant military victory. However, because their national language was born late and their culture was not developed enough, their years of war practice experience in commanding soldiers was rarely summarized and summarized, and they wrote a monograph on military studies to pass on to future generations.
(1) Overview of military writings
According to historical records, after Genghis Khan established Mongolian , many laws called "Zaza" were promulgated, involving the responsibilities of officers, combat methods and battlefield disciplines. Before the Mongolian kings of all dynasties went to war, they always read the Scriptures and acted according to their regulations. Mongolian generals also wrote their own military books. It is said that during the Qing Dynasty, King Chenggunzhabu, who once treasured the military strategy written by the famous Mongolian general Mu Huali , read it from time to time, so he is familiar with the way of using troops. However, today people understand Mongolian military science mainly include historical books such as "Mongolian Secret History", "Shengwu Personal End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of End of Yuan Dynasty 's "Secret View of Military Arts" and "Suppressing the Bandits" are mostly lost today, and only the catalogues are left.
(2) Army Construction Thoughts
When Genghis Khan first revolted, he wanted to build a powerful armed force that obeyed him. He attached great importance to the construction of the Qiexue Army (Guard) and expanded it to ten thousand people to maintain his authority and suppress the rebellious tribes. In response to the painful lessons of some tribes falling apart and finally losing, he instilled the idea of loyalty to his subordinates, so that the tribesmen, soldiers, and slaves remain absolutely loyal to him. Those who are unfaithful or sellers seeking honor should be punished or even killed. Select generals, put loyalty first, and pay great attention to the use. He divided his subordinates into several types: those who are brave and hardworking but do not know that soldiers are hungry, thirsty and fatigued, should not be generals; those who are lively and agile can be allowed to guard baggage; those who are stupid will be given a whip to guard livestock. Only those who are both wise and brave, discuss with their subordinates when encountering problems, and then push them to others can be given important tasks.
In terms of military governance, he emphasized absolute obedience, orders were prohibited, rewards were rewarded if they were meritorious, and punishments were punished if they were mistakes. Even relatives and relatives of the clan were no exception. At the same time, he was also very concerned about the suffering of soldiers. "The man in clothes is his own clothes, and the man in his own horses." In the decision-making of military and political affairs, he always discussed with his clan members and subordinates and chose good things and followed them, so he was supported by the soldiers.
Kublai After establishing the Yuan Dynasty, on the one hand, he inherited the good content of Genghis Khan's thoughts, and on the other hand, he also put forward a series of new views based on the development and progress of society. For example, he started from Confucianism and opposed blind slaughter and plunder, advocated "get the land and the people", and implemented the system of garrison and military farming, and farming and fighting. Further strengthen the centralized military leadership system, and advocated and established the Privy Council and the Privy Council to lead the national army. In the construction of military branches, the previous ideological tendency to focus on cavalry was changed, and the artillery and naval forces were added, which quickly changed the situation where the Mongolian army was unable to attack cities and was not used for water wars.
(3) Strategic and tactical thoughts
The generals of the Mongolian army paid great attention to giving full play to the advantages of their cavalry group. They strategically advocated the implementation of the policy of large-scale detour, long-range raids, and quick advance and retreat, and tried to eliminate the enemy's vitality in the form of field battles.Genghis Khan's several annihilation operations on the Eurasian continent, as well as the "fake way to destroy Jin" and the long-distance attack on Sichuan are typical examples of fully leveraging the advantages of the cavalry strategic group.
Mongolian army has rich tactics. In field battles, there are "crag soldiers spreading stars" tactics surrounded by three or five groups; there are "changing" tactics of repeatedly attacking a little, striving to defeat the entire enemy; there are "fatigue" tactics of "fatigue" tactics of "fatigue" tactics of "fatigue" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics of "scattered" tactics In terms of siege, we adopt various methods such as locking the city and forcing landing, day and night cave cities, throwing stones (fire) attacks, and even digging water to irrigate the city. It is invincible in the wars against Central Asia and European countries.
is particularly worth mentioning that the Mongolian army, who was on the eve of the Firearm Age, had already consciously created firearm tactics. They once brought the basic methods of artillery field battles, siege and defending cities to Arabs , and passed them to European countries through the Arabs. In China, the original tactics used by musket have already emerged. In 1364, the Yuan army set up defenses in Dadu, "collecting the Ding Zhuang and Miao army to connect the firearms and the troops." Although this passage does not explain the marshalling and application of muskets in detail, it is undoubtedly true that it has some connection with the subsequent popular firearm bombardment tactics and serial progress methods.
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