Military Defense System Of The Southern Song Dynasty, Huai River Region

In the war against the invasion of Jin Dynasty, Southern Sung Dynasty formed three theatres in Sichuan-Shaanxi region, JingXiang region and Yangtze-Huaihe region from east to west. The government had also made a series of measures for the three theatres, respectively, to construct them pertinently so as to normalize the initial battle efficiency against Jin Dynasty. The normalization lasted for the whole Dynasty. In the three theatres, Yangtze-Huaihe region played an important role, and Huaihe River Region was the most important one. A geographical analysis shows that Yangtze-Huaihe region acted as a protection of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, or liked Lin'an's role in Southern Sung Dynasty, and Huaihe River Region (the western and eastern accesses to Southern Sung Dynasty, or the region between the south of Huai River and the north of Yangtze River) was the practical centre of Yangtze-Huaihe theatre.The concept of Southern Sung Dynasty Defense System in Huaihe River Region is an overall description of a series of measures of Southern Sung Dynasty on the construction of military in Huaihe River Region, including three aspects, namely, defense strategy, military system, and fortification. Firstly, the defense strategy of Southern Sung Dynasty in Huaihe River Region was developed from the initial war against Yangtze River and Huai River, to the equal importance of them, then to the heavy Huai and light Yangtze in practice, and the final whole strategy against Huai River. In specific implementation, the strategy consisted of a combination of sailor, infantry and cavalry, permission and encouragement of civil armed forces and an emphasis on the construction of cities and passes, in which Shanshuizhai was a typical Defense form in Southern Sung Dynasty. The military command system of Southern Sung Dynasty in the early period included commanders-in-chief, army commanders and local commanders with the property of governmental assignment. From then on, these systems were gradually normalized and their right to exercise was finally fixed; army commanders and local commanders finally became a new level of administration with a central right of military, politics, finance and law. The earliest military in Huaihe River Region was remaining army in Dongjing and Yuyingsi, and then armies belonged to different commanders, and then Dutongsi. In the middle and late period of Southern Sung Dynasty, new local armed forces became the major part of it. Meanwhile, central imperial guard was also included, stationing in important towns and villages, important transportation passes and ports along the southern side of Huai River and the northern side of Yangtze River. Fixed fortification like cities, passes, ferry crosses and Shanshuizhai were major parts of fortification in Huaihe River Region.Southern Sung Dynasty Defense System in Huaihe River Region was distinctly characterized in military thought, military system and military geography, which characterized by heavy inside and light outside and pointed defense and emphasized fortification, official ministers being in charge of military, politics, finance and human resources, and a combination of sailor and infantry with vertical and horizontal geographical forms, respectively.From the whole front of Southern Sung Dynasty, Sichuan-Shaanxi region, JingXiang region and Yangtze-Huaihe region as a whole attached equal importance and necessity in the protection of the Southern Sung regime. The government had been working on a solution to the interaction of the three theatres, but in vain because of objective limitation. Huaihe River Regions were mostly separated, but historical materials indicate that the central government still united them in the unusual periods for the reason that it hoped that a local commander could be created to manage military and economic resources in order to play a better role in the protection of the capital. Since Southern Sung Dynasty considered Huaihe River Region as the war front, it gave priority to all military affairs in this region, thus making its economic strategies have more restrictions and just composes of stationing wasteland and recreation policies. Therefore, Southern Sung Dynasty Defense System successfully played as a protection of Lin'an and its rear, but it just gave a little assistance to economic recovery of the whole society.