There is a kind of theory on the Internet that the Tubo people stay in the Tibetan Plateau and rarely expand outwards because they have a disease - they will get drunk when they come to the plains, and then lose their ability to attack. Is there such a disease? The answer is definitely. I remember that when I was a soldier in the barracks in the 1990s, there were a few recruits from the snowy area who couldn't sleep, and at first, the company cadres said that they were lazy, and the military doctors of the health team saw them and said that they were drunk, but this was not a serious disease. Soon, they adapted, and one by one they became brave.
However, the existence of drunken oxygen or disease does not mean that the Tibetan people in history have rarely expanded outward or even not outward in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, so let's start with a story. Wang Xiaojie is a famous Tang Dynasty general who is very familiar to everyone, and has appeared many times in modern film and television works, especially "Detective Di Renjie" portrays him as a violent, arrogant but loyal, brave, honest and courageous military commander, which has left a deep impression on people.
In September 678, the Tang army and the Tubo general Tan Qinling fought at the Dafei River in Qinghai, and there are two specific theories about this place: it is said that it is in the Cheji Plain southwest of present-day Gonghe County, Qinghai, and one is said to be the Buha River west of present-day Qinghai Lake. The Tang army was defeated and Wang Xiaojie was captured as deputy governor. At that time, the Tubo Dynasty reigned by the 35th Zampu Chidu Songzan, the son of Mangsong Mangzan and the great-grandson of Songtsan Gampo. Wang Xiaojie was spared death and returned to Tang because of Chidu Songzan.
The story is quite legendary or even very incredible, Chidu Songzan heard that his men had captured the famous General of the Tang Dynasty, ordered people to bring him up, prepared to humiliate him, and then dragged him out and cut it. Wang Xiaojie saw that Chidu Songzan did not have any fear, nor did he kneel, thinking that it was a disgrace to The Tang. Chidu Songzan looked at Wang Xiaojie casually, but unexpectedly, a dramatic scene occurred - Chidu Songzan cried, and while shedding tears, he untied Wang Xiaojie and told the guards around him: "This person looks too much like my father, and must be warmly treated!" Wang Xiaojie was then enshrined as a guest of honor, and not only escaped death, but also returned to the Tang Dynasty a few years later.
Prior to this, the Tang Dynasty and Tubo were constantly fighting for the smoke of the Western Regions, and the four towns of Anxi were put to rest. In April 670, Tubo captured guizi and the tang dynasty dismissed the four towns. In 673, the four towns of Anxi were restored to the Tang Dynasty; in 678, Tubo entered and occupied the four towns of Anxi, and in 679, the Tang Dynasty once again recaptured the four towns of Anxi... This kind of tug-of-war competition made the Tang Dynasty exhausted.
In 686, after quelling the internal Xu Jingye rebellion, Wu Zetian deliberately won the hearts and minds of the people, showing that he "should not be in Guangdong, in order to be in The Cultivation is not to kill, to be despised by the side, to retire the armored soldiers, and to do the work of the Three Emperors and Five Emperors", so he ordered the abandonment of the four towns of Anxi. In 689, Tubo took the opportunity to enter and occupy the four towns of Anxi. After that, wang Xiaojie's time came to repay the Tang Dynasty.
In 692, Tang Xiujing, the governor of Xizhou (present-day Turpan, Xinjiang), wrote to wu Zetian to request wu Zetian to recover the four towns of Anxi that had fallen to Tubo, and Wang Xiaojie became the best candidate because he had been Tubo's guest of honor and knew Tubo's inside story. As a result, Wu Zetian made Wang Xiaojie the governor of Wuwei Dao, and led an army to attack Tubo with the zuo Wu wei general Ashina Zhongjie. In October, after Wang Xiaojie led his army into the western region, he defeated Tubo and successively recaptured the four towns of Anxi, and placed the anxi capital at Guizi, guarding the town with 30,000 Han troops. Wu Zetian therefore greatly praised Wang Xiaojie, and said that when Tang Taizong was in the western region of The Four Towns, he later lost them to the Tubo people because he could not defend them. Today, the four towns can be taken back, of course, the credit of the great general Wang Xiaojie.
After the Anshi Rebellion, the expansion of Tibet was even more violent. Here, we throw aside the dry history and quote two poems by Tang Dynasty poets. One is Lü Wen's "Jing Heyuan Jun Hancun Zuo":
The line suddenly reached the source of the old river, and a thousand families outside the city were Made Han Villages.
The tree harvest did not invade the tomb of the captives, and the cultivation of the Qiangtun was broken.
The golden soup is fully dangerous, and the Fu lahua wind is also hidden.
The temporary bicycle was empty and tearful, and there was no way to say anything.
The poem was composed by Lü Wen (771-811) on a mission to Tubo, passing through the village inhabited by the Han chinese in the old Heyuan. At this time, the Tang Dynasty had basically lost the Western Regions and the Hexi Corridor, and Tubo gradually occupied the entire Hexi Corridor. Lu Wen was probably on the way back, in present-day Xining, where he saw the scene of "a thousand families outside the city as a Han village", where the Han people still live in clusters, the community is well preserved, and the Han culture and customs are dependent, which is not much different from the previous production and living conditions, that is, "the Fu Lahua style also exists".
The Heyuan Army was placed by Emperor Gaozong of Tang. The Tang army was on the edge of this Tunji and effectively defended against the invasion of Tubo. When Emperor Suzong was in power, his land was occupied by Tuzhi. Zhengyu is a title for generals, generally referring to the officers of the Tuntian troops at that time; Breaking Qiangtun refers to the former site of the Tang barracks; and Vola refers to the material materials needed for life or life. However, the poet stopped the car and cried, because the Tang Dynasty was no longer able to recover the area.
Another poem is Sikong Tu's (837-908) "River Huang You Sense":
Since xiao guan, the war dust has begun, and the river huang has cut off the spring in a foreign land.
Han Er did all the hu'er language, but cursed the Han people to the head of the city.
Meaning: Since the Xiaoguan War, the spring wind has never blown in the Hehuang area anymore. The children of the Han family all spoke the Hu language and cursed the Han people towards the head of the city. Originally, it was normal for Huayi to live together and influence each other, and it was a very normal thing to integrate in ethnic groups, but due to the long time, it was also common for Han and other ethnic groups to learn tubo languages and wear Tubo costumes, and the tendency of Tuboization was also obvious. They didn't even know who their "ancestors" were, and they cursed the Han Chinese with Tubo.
Of course, we should also see that Tibet should be very limited, because of its geographical environment. Today, many people think that Tubo is a nomadic people, but this is not the case, this ethnic group is also farming and pastoral, as long as there is a suitable place for farming, they will cultivate it like the Han people. However, in this part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, there are too few suitable places for them to cultivate, so most people can only take the nomadic way. In addition, due to the cold plateau, it is difficult for the population to develop. In addition, in this part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, there are no famous horses, and horses are animals that can directly determine the combat ability of ancient armies. There is not enough population, food and warhorses, which directly determines the weakness of its ability to expand outwards, and all this has little to do with what netizens call altitude sickness.
Nevertheless, Tubo was still a trembling people with courage, and the Tang Dynasty's "Tongdian Tubo Biography" records that the Tubo army "is covered with lock armor, its system is very refined, the whole body is everywhere, only two eyes are open, and the wounds that cannot be injured by the sharp blade of the bow" can be done." The fighting power of this heavy cavalry has made the Arabs who wanted to march east several times completely dead in history.
Tubo is a powerful people that rose on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in the 7th and 9th centuries, and at its peak it once occupied the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the Western Regions and Kashmir, while competing with the Arab Empire and the Tang Empire. In Central Asia, they caused the Arabs a great headache and had to take a defensive position.
After the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty was very weak, so the Arab Empire re-planned to capture China, but because Tubo was sandwiched in the middle, they could not get around it. According to historical records, at this time, Tubo and the Arab Empire fought three huge battles in the western region, and Tubo won three battles and three victories, which completely cut off the idea of the Arab Empire going east. In the third battle, although Tubo won, its 170,000 elites were lost.
Mamun, the seventh caliph of the Abbasid caliphate of the Arab Empire, reigned from 813 to 833. His father, Harlan Rashid, was a generation of rulers who excelled in martial arts and forced the Byzantine Empire to pay tribute. In 809, when Harlan Lasid died on the march, Mamun and his brother Amin occupied the eastern and western parts of the empire separately, staged a battle of the brotherhood wall common in eastern autocratic countries, Mamun based in Khorasan, after 4 years of struggle, defeated Amin and became the ruler of the entire empire.
According to a journalist from Arab history, Mamun recounted the rebellions of Tubo and his allies Gelulu and other western countries in a conversation in 810, saying: "The alienation of Khorasan; (Gelulu) Ye Hu changed his position of submission; the resistance of the Tubo monarch Khan; the king of Gabro (i.e., Kabul) mobilized troops to attack the territory of Khorasan adjacent to him; the blackmail of the monarch (the title of monarch) refused to pay the annual tribute; all of this I know, but I can't do anything..." Even, Mamun added: "I think that I have no choice but to give up my current position, unite with the Tibetan monarch and seek asylum for him and his country, and I should first guarantee my personal safety and put myself in a solid position." ”
Later, Mamun listened to the advice of the ministers and decided to make peace with the hostile forces in the East, such as Tubo, Geluglu, and Gabro, and this time, Mamun finally defeated his brother and successfully ascended to the throne of the caliphate. However, after becoming caliph, Mamun soon ordered his army to "cross the east and advance from mount Hamadan to mount Zhiyi", restarting the war with Tibet.
At this time, Tubo fell into civil strife, and because of the clever disintegration with Gelulu, the Arab army was overwhelmed and once again established the rule of Central Asia. However, the Tubo people still stubbornly resisted, and even restored control of parts of the Onion Ridge for a time, until 842, tubo Zampurang Damma was assassinated, and the unified Tubo regime quickly collapsed.
Today, there is little information about the late Tubo resistance to the Arab Empire, but this is also the significance of the Tubo regime to China, which deserves further study. There is no doubt that the existence of the Tibetan regime has seriously delayed the long Process of Islamization in the Western Regions. (Text/Lu Sheng)