The Research Of Several Questions For Dingzhou Military In The Northern Song

Dingzhou is located in eastern Taihang Mountain and the central of North China Plain.There were not area mountains, but many rivers, such as Tang River, Pai River in NorthernSong. Dingzhou and Liao were closely adjacent in geography, so it became one of the militarydefense center in Hebei. Thus the Northern Song’s rulers particularly emphasized the deploymentand defense function of Dingzhou’s military.Dingzhou was the second line of military defense in Northern Song. When the field wasstruck by the enemy, it could prepare a timely manner to support troop movements. Dingzhouestablished the Elm, Fang Tian and other Military defense works, and also built city wall andDingzhou tower for further strengthening. The Military actions were unified managed by the RimAnfushi of Hebei.These measures made Dingzhou’s defense system become highly tight to playthe role of defense better. The troop distribution of Dingzhou reflected the high expectations ofNorthern Song’s rulers for Dingzhou. In the Qingli time, the major imperial guards of Hebeiwere stationed in Dingzhou.Among the commanders,there were Mixin, Tian Zhong-jin, LiJi-long who were highly respected and also Han Zhong-yan, Sushi, Hu Zong-yu and otherfamous ministers. At the same time, the manufacture of weaponry, supply and transport of armyprovisions had strengthened the military defense power of Dingzhou.In many battles, Dingzhou fought against Liao’s, even Jin’s repeated attacks depending on it‘s superior defense project and huge military force. But due to the overall military weakness of theNorthern Song at the end, Dingzhou was conquered by Jin finally. Dingzhou, compared withother smaller army states along the border, had a obvious important military power. Butcompared with states of similar size like Xiongzhou and Daming, Dingzhou indeed had a toosingle characteristic. The main reason was that the military location of Dingzhou was tooimportant,once the military intelligence of Dingzhou leaked, the natural geography gap of Hebeiin Dingzhou would be taken use of by the enemy, so its own military characteristics became adouble-edged sword for Dingzhou’s development in Northern Song.