Throughout the ancient history of China, the opposition and integration between nomadic people and farming people in the Central Plains almost ran through. Nomads are familiar with bow riding since childhood, and almost everyone is good at fighting. They have always been known for being rough, fierce and fearless. However, in the process of integration of farming and nomadic peoples, nomadic peoples have almost always been at a disadvantage.
Except for a few cases, nomadic people have advantages. For example, at the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty, Xirong defeated Haojing, forcing Zhou Ping to move eastward and the Western Zhou Dynasty perished. At the end of the Qin Dynasty and the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the Xiongnu's "siege of Deng Bai" made strong men hate it; During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Hu people almost occupied the north of the Yellow River; In the Yuan Dynasty, Mongolian elite soldiers swept across Eurasia.
In most other cases, nomadic tribes were almost completely suppressed by the farming dynasty in the Central Plains. For example, in the Spring and Autumn Period, a single big country could conquer the Hu nationality; During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the Huns were driven away; During the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Wei broke Wu Huan; Sui and Tang Dynasties surrendered to the Turks; Breaking Mongolia in Ming and Qing Dynasties and so on. As a result of the long-term combination of opposites, nomadic people gradually merged into farming culture and became an indispensable part of China's civilized behavior. Then, why are fierce and powerful nomads always in a weak position in opposition to farming culture? The reasons are as follows.
0 1 The nomadic land with a small nomadic population "the main force of enterprise production" is far lower than agriculture. If a good sheep needs 5 mu of farm, and 80 or so sheep can raise a good man in the case of abundant water and grass, then an ordinary family of five needs 2000 mu of land resources. Therefore, the population growth of the vast grassland is seriously restricted. Under such circumstances, once the Central Plains dynasty became serious, nomadic people were almost always in a state of large numbers, and individual soldiers' literacy could not fill the huge shortcomings in the number of people.
Nomadic people are short of combat readiness resources, and war consumes soldiers, weapons and equipment and food extremely. The Central Plains Dynasty often relied on the rich population and local taxes to quickly prepare for war to cope with long-term opposition and consumption. Nomads can't support the cost of a long-term war, so they can only choose to cut the gordian knot. Therefore, the history books say that the Huns "advance if they benefit, retreat if they are not good, and don't avoid it." Mercenary, ignorant of righteousness. "
The military and strategic qualities of the Central Plains Dynasty were enough to defeat the nomadic people. Take the reversal of China-Hungary strength in the early Western Han Dynasty as an example. During the period of Liu Bang, the disadvantage of the Han Dynasty was exposed in the "encirclement of Deng Bai", but the Han Dynasty maintained its friendship through marriage and compensation. In the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, but more than 60 years later, the situation reversed, forcing the Xiongnu to flee to the desert in the north, and then almost perished. In fact, in the whole history, as long as there was no civil war in the Central Plains dynasty and there was no rush for success, nomadic people had almost no chance of winning.
In the final analysis, war is a contest of the overall strength of the opposing sides. In the opposition between nomadism and farming, nomads are basically at a disadvantage in terms of population, material supply, military literacy and strategic flexibility, which can only be compensated by personal literacy and dexterity to a certain extent. Therefore, all along, only in a good time, when nomadic people are full of energy, can we effectively test the Central Plains dynasty. As long as the Central Plains dynasty was properly resolved, did not kill each other and did not rush for success, it was almost always invincible. What do you think of this?