宋朝拥有一支庞大的职业军队,其数字非常混乱。从宋初到宋仁宗朝,军队数量持续增长,最高达到141万。其中宋前期的三朝处于壮大时期,宋仁宗朝处于膨胀时期。从宋英宗以降一直到北宋灭亡,军队数量持续减少。南宋后期军队一般保持着六七十万的规模,扣除虚籍和非战斗兵员,真正的战士大约只有50%左右。 The Song Dynasty had a huge army of professionals whose figures were very chaotic. From Song Dynasty to Song Renzong, the number of troops continued to grow up to 1.41 million. Among them, the three early Song dynasties were in a period of great growth and Song Renzong dynasty was in a period of expansion. From Song Yingzong down until the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty, the number of troops continued to decrease. In the late Southern Song Dynasty, the army generally maintained the scale of six or seven hundred thousand. After deducting false and non-combat troops, the actual number of soldiers was only about 50%.