| Simply speaking, fortress defence is to fight with fortress as base. It originally refers tothe tactics in battles. Nevertheless, this item springs into the strategy layer once such tacticsand battles are guided macroscopically and universally by the country and government. As aresult of the special historical background together with the very geopolitics and geostrategy,the item "fortress defence"originally has double meanings both in the micro tactic and themacro strategy layers.In the essay, "fortress defence"presents in a generalized sense. In addition to the citiesand stockaded villages in plains, fortress, also including the hilly towns lay in the areas ofmountains and knaps, as well as stockaded villages by the lakes or rivers, added to all sorts ofarmy corps, community, pass, barriers forts etc, in spite of the sizes and names of which are ofgreat difference, are of military defence in nature.The very geopolitics situation , in which nations of the Song ,Liao ,Xia, Jin, andYuanstand and coexist ,tore the traditional military defence line of the Great Wall to pieces,morever, with the great losses of the two areas where war horses f high grade were produced.Thus , the Song Dynasty failed to set up the calvary troopers to fight with the calvary ofnomadism people from the north, although faced with the invasion peril hang over. It makesgreat challenges that the nomadism people assaulting fortified positions rises , together withthe cosmical pratise of petrariaes and kinds of firearmes improving.According to different military countparts and phases of the fortress defence,the SongDynasty military period can be divided into four phrases ,that is ,the Song versus the Liao, theSong versus the Xia, the Song versus the Jin and the Song versus the Meng and Yuan.Accompanied with the discussion and argument among the political outstandings and thepreeminent from the other social status,many debates with big scales come into being,probing into the why and how to make effective fortress defence and the related measuresmatch with,from many dimensions and azimuths, all of the which gives a great push to thedevelopment of the fortress defence in the Song Dynasty.This presents an unique value inhistory.Thanks to the hard exploring, the importance of the set-up of the fortress defence hasfinally been realized. Hence this makes it effective to have the measures practised in theHebei and Hedong districts in Beisong Dynasty, which not only keep the Liao's calvalrytrooper within the limits to have won a number of victories such as the Cganyuan battle etc,but also brings about the deterring force to maitain the long-term peace between the two.The successful experiences made from the Song vs the Liao battles lends a valuablemirror for the Song Dynasty against the Xia. In the battles, the Beisong Dynasty have learnedgood lessons from the precipitate of the early periods, as a result of which , the strategy offortress defence has come into being finally,which also leads to themake-ups of the tactics,thatis, to set up fortress against fortress,to build stockaded villages in group as base to nibbleand assault the counparts'until the last victory the stablization of the war situation included.The ignorance and lack of fortress set-up in the Huai Rivers'two areas end s in thedisastrous rout of the early Nansong Dynasty. Owing to the loyal courtiers and faiful soldiers'brave and hard hold to the grounds and the fortress defence system, NansongDynasty finallyholds his grounds and stabalize the war situation not to worsen. Accompanied with the... |
