试析宋夏战争初期北宋军事失利的原因

北宋中后期,宋夏间爆发大规模冲突。虽然北宋的国土、户口、耕地、军队兵员、经济实力,均远远超过西夏,但宋夏战争初期北宋却在几场重要战役中惨遭失败。其原因有二,首先是宋朝建立后,宋太祖及宋太宗为了加强中央集权,采取了一系列措施。这些措施,固然加强了中央集权,加强了皇帝对军队的控制,但其中一些防范措施却走向了反面,严重影响了军队的战斗力。其次,宋夏战争初期,北宋朝野上下对西夏极为轻视,结果战略决策失误,最终导致惨败。

Northern Song's Failure at the Beginning of the War Between the Northern Song Dynasty and the Western Xia

In the middle and later period of the Northern Song Dynasty,the war between the Northern Song Dynasty and the Western Xia broke out.Though the Northern Song had far more fields,families and armed forces than the Western Xia,at the beginning of the war,the Northern Song was defeated.There are two fundamental reasons for this.First,some of the policies that enhanced centralization of state pow- er weakened the fighting capacity of its armed forces.Second,the Northern Song did not take seriously the force of the Western Xia,which directly led to mistakes in decision-making and eventually to loss in bat- tles.