Great Song Dynasty Writer

Chapter 110 "Shallow Water Plain and Good Water River"

The "military training" course in the state schools of the Song Dynasty was roughly equivalent to the military theory course in modern universities.

If you wanted to put on heavy lamellar armor weighing dozens of kilograms, lift a long axe and a mace, and experience what it was like to be a heavy infantryman of the Song Dynasty, you definitely wouldn't have that opportunity. The state school wasn't the same as the Kaifeng martial arts school that actually taught armor, archery, and horsemanship.

Moreover, even the Kaifeng Martial Arts Academy was only popular for a few years. After Fan Zhongyan proposed the suggestion of "restoring the military examination" in his "Ten Articles in Response to the Imperial Edict" in the third year of the Qingli era, the Martial Arts Academy was established at the Temple of King Wucheng in Kaifeng, mainly recruiting unranked officials, commoners, and those who failed the imperial examination.

It started off with great fanfare, with Emperor Renzong even appointing Ruan Yi as the martial arts professor to manage it. However, with the failure of the Qingli Reforms, the management of martial arts was handed over to the Chancellor of the Imperial Academy. To this day, it only has a staff of two hundred people. It's all talk and no action, and it has never really taken off.

Lu Beigu followed his three roommates to the lower dormitory lecture hall.

By this time, quite a few students from the lower dormitory had already arrived in the lecture hall. He chose a seat by the window, and the morning breeze, carrying the fragrance of grass and trees, wafted through the window, finally clearing his muddled mind a bit.

At the front of the lecture hall, several servants were carrying a sand table toward the teacher's seat.

To be honest, Lu Beigu was a little surprised by the appearance of sand table, but he vaguely remembered that Zeng Gongliang and Ding Du's "Wujing Zongyao" seemed to mention something about "building terrain with sand".

Lu Beigu only knew that the "Complete Essentials of Military Classics" was compiled during the reign of Emperor Renzong. Now his mind was a bit confused, and he really couldn't remember exactly when it was published.

At this moment, the teaching assistant from the lower dormitory brought over several stacks of books, distributed two books to each of them at each table, and told them to collect them after class.

"It really is the 'Complete Essentials of Martial Arts'!"

On the back of the cover of the first volume is a preface written by Emperor Renzong himself. It roughly means that during the Kangding era, the court was afraid that the generals in the army were ignorant of ancient and modern learning, so he ordered Zeng Gongliang, a scholar of the Tianzhang Pavilion, and Ding Du, the vice minister of the Ministry of Works, to collect ancient military strategies and plans of the current dynasty and compile this military book.

Since the instructor in charge of today's "martial arts" course hadn't arrived yet, Lu Beigu flipped through the pages below.

The first half of the "Complete Essentials of Military Classics" provides a detailed description of the military system of the Song Dynasty. It categorizes and explains topics such as the selection of generals and the use of troops, war preparation and training, army organization, marching and encampment, ancient and modern battle formations, communication and reconnaissance, city attack and defense, fire attack and naval warfare, and weapons and equipment. It is very comprehensive and detailed, and the sections on camp formations, weapons, and siege equipment are even accompanied by detailed illustrations, making it a rich combination of text and illustrations.

As for the contents of the second half, the first half compiles stories of military campaigns from various dynasties, preserving a lot of ancient battle data, while the second half begins to delve into metaphysics, discussing things like yin and yang divination.

Lu Beigu didn't know where these contents were taken from. Although "the important affairs of the state are sacrifice and war", this is the Song Dynasty now. It shouldn't be like the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, right?

"Is this something that can be shown to students in the state?"

Just then, Ji Yun arrived, and Lu Beigu quietly asked.

Ji Yun looked surprised and asked, "Why not? Is it some kind of secret? Don't all the military officers and martial arts students have a copy?"

"Brother Lu, you mean it wouldn't be good if Liao and Xia found out?" Lu Guangyu said.

Ji Yun scratched his head: "Even if we didn't know this military treatise, would we still be able to win?"

This question silenced everyone around.

Lies don't hurt, but the truth is the sharpest knife. Over the years, the Liao and Xia dynasties have been very clear about how the Song army was organized, how it deployed its generals, how it marched and set up camp, and how it formed battle formations. Whether or not the book "Wujing Zongyao" existed, they were already very clear about it.

The Song Dynasty was also well aware of these two adversaries.

The truth is, even if everything is clear, nothing can be changed; the fight will still be fought the way it always has to be fought.

The Song Dynasty lacked cavalry, so it had to build strong fortifications and fight protracted battles. Also due to military system and atmosphere, the suppressed Song generals liked to be greedy for merit and advance recklessly. From Gaoliang River to Haoshuichuan, there are countless examples of Song generals who were greedy for merit and advanced recklessly and were lured into the enemy's ambush and killed in the past hundred years. They have been dying one after another.

Of course, there were also Song generals who were not greedy for merit and reckless, but this often turned into another extreme. For example, Wang Chao in the Battle of Chanyuan held a large army and stayed in the city. He remained unmoved as the Liao army marched south and Emperor Zhenzong issued various orders to send troops.

Anyway, the Song army had no small problems, from its military system to its manpower and its generals.

The noisy lecture hall immediately quieted down when the teacher in charge of the "military training" course arrived.

Lu Beigu noticed that behind this gentleman stood an unfamiliar military officer, wearing a scarlet robe embroidered with seahorses, with a gold fish talisman hanging from a silver belt, and an old scar about an inch long on his left cheek.

Military officers in the Song Dynasty were quite different from civil officials. Due to the policy of emphasizing civil affairs and suppressing military affairs, the number of high-ranking military officers was very small. Many famous generals in Song history had pitifully low ranks. However, because the ranks of military officers were generally low, the colors of their official robes looked frightening. Military officers of the fifth rank and above could wear purple robes, while those of the sixth and seventh ranks wore scarlet robes, and those of the eighth and ninth ranks wore green robes.

If you were a civil official, you wouldn't have the chance to wear a purple robe unless you were one of the Three Excellencies, the Privy Council, or the Grand Councilor.
"This is Commander Liang, the military commander stationed in Luzhou."

"Seven years ago, in the first year of the Huangyou reign, he participated in suppressing the rebellion of the barbarians in Yujingjian, personally donned armor and went into battle to behead three people. Two years ago, in the first year of the Zhihe reign, he went deep into the mountains with Prefect Liu and pacified more than 800 Liao people."

The teacher's introduction immediately caused a stir in the school.

As a frontier prefecture, Luzhou was required to have a military commander to oversee the rotating garrison of the imperial guards. The "garrison commander" was a military officer directly dispatched from Kaifeng, whose duties included the daily training and tactical command of the Luzhou imperial guards and their coordination with the local militia. He was arguably the highest-ranking military commander in Luzhou.

Unlike other parts of Sichuan, students in Luzhou generally have a much better impression of military officers, because Luzhou was frequently plagued by Wuman rebellions, and their safety was indeed due to the military officers.

Moreover, this Commander Liang's military record was indeed outstanding. Seven years ago, the Wuman rebels even reached Sanjiang Village. This event made the people of Luzhou aware of it. He personally participated in the suppression of such a large-scale rebellion and went to the front lines to fight the enemy. He is someone that young people should respect.

"Fellow students, I, Liang, greet you!"

When Supervisor Liang clasped his hands in greeting, Lu Beigu noticed that his tiger's mouth not only had thick calluses, but was even bluish-black.

The students in the lower dormitory quickly returned the greeting, saying, "Greetings, Supervisor Liang/General Liang."

The teacher in charge of the "Military Training" course nodded in satisfaction. Although the Song Dynasty valued literature over military affairs, Commander Liang was, after all, the military commander of a prefecture and had protected the people of Luzhou. If any students of the Luzhou Prefectural School were to be negligent, it would be the prefectural school that would lose face.

"Today we will talk about the Battle of Qianshuiyuan of the Former Tang Dynasty and compare it with the Battle of Haoshuichuan of our Dynasty. If there are any omissions in my account, Supervisor Liang will supplement them later."

(End of this chapter)