It can be said that the Tang Dynasty at this time was able to stand at the top of the nation and despise all ethnic groups, but only one country was always the great enemy of the Tang Dynasty, and there was a history of two and a half centuries of war between the Tang Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty. It is a powerful kingdom built on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Tubo. This is also the most powerful regime in the history of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China's history has long been threatened by the nomadic peoples of the northern steppe, Qin Shi Huang established the Great Wall for resistance, Emperor Wudi of han sent troops thousands of miles to expel the Xiongnu, to the Tang Taizong period, the Tang Dynasty famous generals such as clouds, strong troops, the elimination of the Eastern Turks, the expulsion of the Western Turks, since then the Great Wall has become a decoration, the Tang Dynasty border has long reached the northern Baikal Lake, at this time the Tang Dynasty's northern border is almost no strong threat, but everything seems to be an arrangement in the dark, there is no threat of the northern peoples, It also arranged for the qinghai-Tibet Plateau region, which had been in a fragmented pattern for a long time, and the backward slave system ushered in the first unification, followed by the birth of the powerful Tubo Kingdom. This country that harassed the borders of the Tang Dynasty for a hundred years and the powerful Tang Dynasty had its own victories and losses in the war for a hundred years, and the Tang Dynasty never eliminated this hostile force, but on the contrary, Tubo even invaded Chang'an City at its peak and occupied it for more than ten days. It can be said that the history of the war between the Tang Dynasty and Tubo is a history of the rise and fall of the Tang Dynasty, in the early Tang Dynasty and Tubo were each other's temptations, each other was a newly rising power, in the form of peace and affinity to develop their own strength, gradually becoming stronger, in Helong, the western region produced small regional friction, each had a victory and defeat, in the Kaiyuan prosperous era, the Tang Dynasty suppressed Tubo to fight, and after the Anshi Rebellion, Tubo gradually occupied the advantage and reached the peak of national strength to annex the Tang Dynasty's territory qianli Anxi, the Beiting Capital Protectorate returned to Tubo, and then weakened each other in the late Tang Dynasty, almost at the same time perished, It can be said that Tubo was the lifelong enemy of the Tang Dynasty. Let's take a look at the first large-scale confrontation between the two, the story of the battle of Songzhou.
Early Tang Dynasty, Tang Dynasty, Tuguhun, Tubo sphere of influence
The entire Battle of Songzhou can be divided into three parts
In the first month of the ninth year of Zhenguan (635 AD), the party members belonging to the Tang Dynasty all rebelled against Tuguhun. In April, Taozhou Qiang also defected to Tuguhun and killed Shi Kong Changxiu. Emperor Taizong of Tang was furious and went all out to enlist Tuguhun and cripple him, leaving a foreshadowing for Tubo to defeat and annex it in the future.
In the twelfth year of Zhenguan (638 AD), Songzan Gampo sent an army to conquer Tuguhun on the grounds that King Tuguhun had alienated Tubo and tang dynasty relations, resulting in the inability to marry a Tang princess, and annexed it (Tubo returned the tuguhun land after defeat).
In July of the twelfth year of Zhenguan (638 AD), Songzan Gampo brought 50,000 troops into Songzhou to threaten to marry a Tang princess, and the Tang Dynasty was not afraid to attack and opened the curtain on the Battle of Songzhou. The Battle of Songzhou ended with the defeat of Songzan Gampo, and the Tang Dynasty married Princess Wencheng into Tubo under favorable conditions.
Let's first talk about how Tuguhun Washun was pitiful and angry with the Tang Dynasty. After Li Shimin succeeded to the throne, with his efforts to govern, the tang dynasty's national strength continued to increase, at this time Li Shimin set his sights on the surrounding nomads, and in the fourth year of Zhenguan (630), Li Shimin defeated the Eastern Turks, annexed them, and the Eastern Turks perished. The prestige of the Tang Dynasty reached its peak, and the surrounding ethnic minorities called Li Shimin the Heavenly Khan, and in the first month of the ninth year of Zhenguan (635 AD), the party members originally belonging to the Tang Dynasty all defected to Tuguhun. In April, Taozhou Qiang also defected to Tuguhun and killed Shi Kong Changxiu. This seems to me to be a kind of self-immolation, but the ridiculous thing is that King Tuguhun continued to move forward on the road to death, and Tuguhun Fuyun Khan had sent envoys to pay tribute to Tang, but before he could return, he plundered Yanzhou (present-day Ledu, Qinghai). Tang Taizong sent envoys to rebuke Fu Yun and enlist Fu Yun to enter the dynasty, but Fu Yun did not arrive on the pretext of illness, but sent his son King Zun to the Tang Dynasty to ask for peace. Emperor Taizong agreed, and ordered the king to come personally to greet him, but the king did not arrive. Fu Yun also invaded Tang Bian several times. This completely angered the Tang Dynasty and angered Li Shimin.
Tuguhun Khan invaded the Liangzhou route
In the ninth year of Tang Zhenguan (634), in June, Tang sent the general Duan Zhixuan of Zuo Xiaowei to lead an army to attack Tuguhun, And Fu Yun and the crowd fled far away, and the Tang army pursued it to qinghai Lake. On November 19, Tuguhun once again harassed Liangzhou. On the third day of the first month of December, Emperor Taizong of Tang made Li Jing the grand commander of the Xihai Province march, and the commanders of the Army Department Shangshu, the Jishi Road Marching Commander Hou Junji, the Punishment Department Shangshu Rencheng Wang, the Commander-in-Chief of the Shanshan Road March Li Daozong, the Governor of Liangzhou, and the Governor of the Last Road March, Li Daliang, the Governor of Minzhou, the Governor of equatorial March, Li Daoyan, the commander of the Expedition of Lizhou, Gao Yusheng, the commander of the Lizhou Thorn Shi Yanze Road March, and the Turks and Qifu He Li of the Tang Dynasty, attacked Tuguhun. On the eighth day of the leap month of the following year, Li Daozong defeated the Tuguhun army at Kushan (kushan, southeast of present-day Qinghai Lake). The Tang army divided into two routes, with Li Jing, Li Daliang, and Xue Wanjun leading their armies to the north, out of Tuguhun to the right, Hou Junji and Li Daozong leading the army to the south, and out of Tuguhun to the left. Li Jing's subordinate Wu Ren (阿孤吾仁) fought at Mandu Mountain and beheaded King Hun of Tugu. The Tang generals defeated Tuguhun at Niuxindui and Chishuiyuan, captured Murong Xiaojun, the confidant of Tuguhun Fuyun, and captured tens of thousands of miscellaneous animals. Hou Junji and Li Daozong defeated Tuguhun at Wuhai and captured the famous king Liang Quliang. Li Jing broke the three tribes of Tuguhun Tianzhu in the Red Sea, collecting 200,000 miscellaneous livestock; Li Daliang captured 20 Tuguhun famous kings and 50,000 miscellaneous animals, and arrived at the end of the western realm. Tuguhun Fuyun fled, and Xue Wanjun commanded the cavalry to pursue and break the Tuguhun Remnants. Soldiers are short of water, and thorn horses drink blood. Hou Junji and Li Daozong led an army to march two thousand miles in the wasteland, where frost would also fall in the middle of summer, lack of water and grass, shimi ice, horse snow, passing through the Xingsu River and reaching the top of the Cypress Sea. The loss of thought broke through the weight of the Tugu Hun car. Fu Shun, the son of Fu Yun the King of Tuguhun, led the country to surrender to the Tang army, and Fu Yun hanged himself and died, and Tuguhun was attached to the Tang Dynasty. Fushun was made a khan and the king of Xiping County, and Tuguhun became a vassal state of the Tang Dynasty.
Zhenguan conquered the Battle of Tuguhun in the ninth year
Let's see who the leaders of the troops are, Li Jing, Hou Junji, Li Daozong, Xue Wanjun, Li Daliang, so that the lineup is enough to destroy five Tuguhuns.
From then on, Tuguhun was devastated, and in the third year of Tang Longshuo (663), Tuguhun was destroyed by Tubo, and Nuoyu Bowl ran to Liangzhou, leading thousands of accounts to attach Tang. Tang set up Anle Prefecture, with the Nozomi Bowl as the history of Anle Prefecture, and the descendants still inherited the Qinghai Di number until the time of Zhenyuan (785~804). Li Shimin's conquest of Tuguhun in the ninth year of Zhenguan greatly weakened Tuguhun's strength. At this time, Tuguhun had lost its role in defending the Tang Dynasty against Tubo, and then Songzan Gampo was in the Qinghai-Tibet region, conquering the south and the north, and gradually unifying the Qinghai-Tibet region. At this time, Songtsen Gampo had great self-confidence, he looked at the dragon in the east, and the desire in his heart was telling him that if he could get the support of the Tang Dynasty, it would be more convenient for him to expand his strength.
In the twelfth year of Zhenguan, Songzan Gampo, after integrating the domestic forces, drew 50,000 troops ( here to say, the Zizhi Tongjian and the New Book of Tang say that it is 200,000, here 200,000 is an exaggeration, after verification, Songzan Gampo's strength this time does not exceed 50,000). Attacking Tuguhun, tuguhun at this time had no combat effectiveness, was defeated, gave way to qinghai to the Tang Dynasty, and then Songzan Gampo troops went to Songcheng. Tubo and Tang Dynasty's first formal war "Battle of Songzhou" officially began, they both did not expect that since then Tubo and Tang Dynasty in the subsequent two hundred years, entangled, time and time war, Tubo is even more taking advantage of the fire and robbery, forcibly occupied the Tang Dynasty hard work, Anxi Capital Protectorate, and Beiting Capital Protectorate Of course, this is all afterword.
Before the Battle of Songzhou, Tubo first sent troops to defeat Tuguhun, Dangxiang, and Bailan Zhuqiang. The Dangxiang and Bailan tribes are both nomadic peoples with brave fighting power.
The Dangxiang is south of Tuguhun and is made up of many tribes, of which the Tuoba department is the strongest. In the third year of Zhenguan, the party sub-feudal department was surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, and the Tang Dynasty set up a qimi prefecture in its territory, worshipping its leader as an assassin. After that, all the party departments except tuobabu submitted to the Tang Dynasty, and the Tang Dynasty successively established the prefectures of Kun, Feng, Yan, and Yuan to control them. After the Tang army defeated Tuguhun in the ninth year of Zhenguan, Tuoba Bu, under the tutelage of the Tang Dynasty, also came to surrender, and the Tang Dynasty established thirty-two prefectures in its area, including Yi, Song, Lin, and Ke. Most of the above prefectures are subordinate to the Governor's Office of Songzhou. Bai Lan is close to the party item, "Wu De six years, the emissary into the DPRK", "victorious soldiers, brave fighting, good soldiers, customs and party items the same." (New Book of Tang)
However, it is still defeated by Tubo, which shows that Tubo's military strength at this time is very strong, but Dang Xiang and Bai Lan are both little brothers of the Tang Dynasty, and if you say that if you hit it, it is not the face of the Heavenly Khan, at this time Li Shimin is already in rage.
The most interesting thing is that Songzan Gampo gave his own reason for sending troops is that Dang Xiang and Tuguhun have tangguo princesses married in, I Tubo is stronger than them, actually there is no Tangguo princess, it is simply a shame, so it is also required to have a princess to marry in, when sending emissaries, it is estimated that the etiquette is not good, or the posture is too arrogant, in short, Li Shimin did not look at it, did not want to give the princess to refuse, this Songzan Gampo sprinkled gas on Tuguhun body, saying that he was provoking dissension, of course, this is all an excuse, This is like Japan, which was rapidly expanding, just to find a reason to send troops, and the Tibetan country at this time was also a period of expansion that frequently focused on neighbor wars. The tribes adjacent to Tubo such as Tang Xu, Su Bi, and Yang were all attacked by Tubo, and the conquest of Tuguhun was also part of Tubo's external expansion. The refusal of marriage and the provocation of the messenger are only excuses and fuses.
And why didn't the Tang Dynasty agree to Tubo's marriage request? Some people believe that during the Taizong period, after the Tang Dynasty destroyed the Eastern Turks, the country became increasingly powerful and powerful, so the Tang Dynasty generally married the surrounding forces to them when they submitted to them, in order to strengthen relations, and marrying Princess Honghua to Tuguhun is a typical example. At that time, Tubo did not explicitly submit to the Tang Dynasty, and the granting of marriage at this time had no practical significance for the Tang Dynasty.
Songtsen Gampo marched into Tuguhun, Dangxiang, and then marched into Songzhou for video
The Zizhi Tongjian records the strength of Tibet at this time: "In recent times, it has been strong, encroaching on other countries, and the territory is vast, and hundreds of thousands of victorious soldiers."
After defeating the Tuguhun, Dangxiang and other clans, Songzan Gampo led a large army to march in the direction of Songcheng, at this time Songzan Gampo did not "soldiers and nobles" but waited on the periphery, in a vain attempt to threaten the Tang Dynasty to marry the princess by force, (Songzan Gampo" said left and right: 'The princess does not arrive, I go deep.' It means that if the Tang Dynasty did not send a princess, I would hit him to send him to the end, probably in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau bullying weak bully habitually, did not expect that at this time the Tang Dynasty did not want to send a princess, the style of the prosperous Tang Dynasty is, you beg me, I consider not agreeing, but you want to threaten me, then don't think about it, convince you to say again, Li Shimin is the belt of this style.
Songzan Gampo did not directly chen soldiers under songzhou city, but garrisoned in the northwest of Songzhou city, around Gansongling, when the Tang Dynasty was the governor of Songzhou called Han Wei, when he heard that the Tubo army was approaching, he led part of the city defense army out of the city to observe the enemy army, and the enemy army encountered and was not afraid of death, the narrow road had to fight, the Tang army's military style was not retreating, although the number difference was huge, but Han Wei still chose to fight. Shi Zai "Governor Han Wei went out of the way to be a thief and was defeated" (New Book of Tang. Tubo Biography"). This small-scale contact war ended in the defeat of the Tang army, the Tubo army was condescending, the numbers were still superior, the Tang army did not have major losses in this defeat, but the impact of this battle was not small, after the war, some of the Qiang chieftains who were originally affiliated with the Tang Dynasty launched a rebellion, "The Qiang chieftain Yan Prefecture (i say KuoZhou) stabbed Shi Bei Cong Wo Shi, and the Nuozhou Thorn History took Li Buli and rebelled against the state" (Zizhi Tongjian). The Tang Dynasty was temporarily in a disadvantageous situation.
The Songzhou City area is hilly. High mountains all around.
At this time, Li Shimin did not focus only on the gains and losses of the Gansongling area in Songzhou, but behind it, the Tang Dynasty's policy towards the entire western nation did not have a strong deterrent, and these wall-headed grasses would hear the wind and betray the Tang Dynasty, thus becoming an unstable factor in the Tang Dynasty's borders, sometimes disrupting the borders and affecting the people's livelihood and development of the Tang Dynasty. At this time, Li Shimin clearly knew that in order to maintain the majesty of the Tang Dynasty, he would have to deal a heavy blow to every challenger.
In the same year (August), Ren Yin, with the official Shangshu Hou Junji as the chief of the March of Theimi Road, Jia Chen, with the right leading general Holding the Lost Mind force as Bai Lan Dao, the left Wu Wei general Niu Jinda as the broad waterway, and the left leading general (one said right leading general) Liu Lan as the chief of the Taohe Road march, supervising the infantry to ride 50,000 blows" (Zizhi Tongjian)
From the selection of generals, it can be seen that Li Shimin attaches great importance to this battle, Hou Junji, and Liu Lan are all famous generals, Niu Jinda, Liu Lan is also a tiger general, plus 50,000 infantry riding elite Tang troops, it can be said that the enemy East Asia region that was able to defeat these 50,000 Tang troops at that time really did not have, even if you are surrounded by superior troops, it is difficult to annihilate, but who can fight with the Tang Dynasty.
The battle of Songzhou in its entirety
Songzan Gampo began to command the army to attack Songzhou City without waiting for the news of the Tang Dynasty's peace, and Songzhou City began to urgently report military reports, at this time the general Niu Jinda reported that it was not easy for a large army to march in the mountains, and he was willing to lead thousands of cavalry to raid the enemy camp.
Niu Jinda, as the vanguard of the Tang army, led the army to first engage the Tubo army, "Tubo besieged the city for more than ten days, Jinda was the vanguard, in September, Xinhai, covered up its unpreparedness, defeated Tubo under songzhou city, beheaded more than a thousand ranks" (Zizhi Tongjian).
After Niu Jinda arrived at Songzhou City, the Tubo army at this time had attacked Songzhou City for more than ten days, and at this time Han Weixue was smart, I defended the city and said that I would not go out, and Niu Jinda, after observing it, also had a clever plan, and repaired it in situ to attack the enemy at night, and sure enough, this plan worked. Tubo was defeated at the city of Songzhou, Niu Jinda originally wanted to enter the city to resist waiting for the arrival of Hou Junji's army, completely annihilate this force, and then go deep into Tubo territory, kill him and throw away his armor, it is best to capture Songzan Gampo alive and send it to His Majesty the Emperor, because Hou Junji and his good at long-distance raiding operations, when attacking Tuguhun, Hou Junji and Zhi Zhili marched two thousand miles in the wasteland, defeating Tuguhun's last resistance force, but unexpectedly, Tubo saw that the Tang army was really capable of fighting, and immediately retreated without losing. At this time, Hou Junji and Zhi Zhili were still on their way on horseback. Before the battle was over. You can imagine how Hou Junji should have when he saw Niu Jinda, old cow, what are you doing, I haven't arrived yet, can you wait for me? I was busy for half a day and went out on a tour. Niu Jinda estimated that he was also aggrieved, and no one wanted to fight Tubo so unbeaten.
However, it had to be admitted that Tubo's move was correct, otherwise when Hou Junji's army arrived, Songzan Gampo would be the second Auspicious Khan. After the war, Songtsen Gampo sent emissaries to apologize, admit his mistakes, and return the land of Tuguhun, wronged like a child, hoping to get the favor of the Tang Dynasty, become the son-in-law of the Tang Dynasty, and marry the Tang Princess. In the same year, Li Shimin agreed to Songzan Gampo's request and gave her the marriage of Princess Wencheng, who set out from Chang'an for two years before arriving in the Tubo capital of Lhasa, which is now Lhasa. With the arrival of Princess Wencheng, Tubo and Tang Dynasty ushered in a rare honeymoon period of nearly twenty years of peace, which was crucial for both Tang Dynasty and Tubo, at which time Tubo began to accelerate domestic culture, economic development, and continuous improvement of its own strength. It gradually developed into a major problem for the Tang Dynasty's confidants.
Next: The Battle between the Tang Dynasty and Tubo, the Battle of Dafeichuan, and the war between Tang and Tubo broke out in full swing.
References: Zizhi Tongjian, New Book of Tang. Tubo Biography", New Book of Tang. Tales of the Western Regions", New Book of Tang, Vol. 123, Liechuan Xxxv.