Study On Military Geography Of Hedong Province In Northern Song Dynasty

the demise of war left a deep imprint on the history of the Northern Song dynasty,which founded in the first year of Jian Long(960AD)and perished in the second year of Jing Kang(1127AD).War has become one of a main melody of Northern Song Dynasty,weather suppressed internal separatist insurgency in the beginning,or against invasion of the Khitan,Jurchen,and Tangut.Hedong Province,which was located in the northern area,has become important borders with Hebei and Shaanxi provinces.Due to its locating between the other two provinces,there would be strategic significance different from the others.Hedong Province has been a hotly contested spot,because of its staggered rivers and complex terrain.These strategic areas in Hedong include Shangdang,Taiyuan and districts near Taiyuan,military front in north Shanxi,and areas of linzhou,fuzhou and fengzhou outside the Yellow River.Therefore,the article focuses on the military geography of these four regions.In the early period of the Northern Song Dynasty,Hedong province was not completely under the control of the Northern Song dynasty,but belonged to Northern Han.At the same time,two months after the Northern Song was founded,Li Jun revolted in the Shangdang area,and defend there where terrain that is especially difficult.Thanks to Emperor ‘s clear understanding about this area and his exceptional military talent,the rebellion was successfully put down,which Consolidate the newly-established regime.North Han caused a lot of problems for the unification of the Northern Song dynasty,due to assistance of Khitan and the solidity of Taiyuan which located beside the Fen River.The Northern Song Dynasty finally defeated Northern Han in the forth year of Taipingxingguo(979AD)after the Hard management of two emperors in early times.It all depends on the rational use of geographical situation around Taiyuan.In the last year of Northern Song Dynasty,the invasion of Jin is mainly because that the geographical conditions of Taiyuan and its surrounding areas have not been fully utilized,apart from other factorsof war,thus led to the lose of Hedong Province,and accelerate the perish of the Dynasty.In the process of military confrontation,the use of geographical situation has great influence on the trend and outcome of war.It also affected the bilateral relations with Liao,Xixia,Most importantly,the trend of national policy.The war in Hedong will also affect the fortunes of the Northern Song dynasty.During the conflicts,The way of Services,operations,weapons,logistics and supply are different,so that the uncertainty of war increases.This paper focused on the research of military geography in Hedong Province,according to which we can further know the understand the geographical situation of each place,the use in history,and the change of the strategic status of Hedong Province in the Northern Song dynasty.