Photo: Datang Territory Map.
Author: Night Stargazing
Usually, most of the soldiers we know about the Northern Shubian soldiers of the Tang Dynasty are learned from the poems of Tang Dynasty poets. For example, Wang Wei's "Envoy to the Plug": "The bicycle wants to ask the edge, and the country is too long." Zheng Peng out of Han Sai and returned to Hu Tian. The desert is lonely and straight, and the long river is full of sunsets. Xiao Guan waited for the ride and protected Yanran. At this time, Wang Wei was suppressed above the court, so "cycling to ask the side" was very shabby. The "Du Hu Yanran" recorded in the poem can be traced back to the record in the Book of Later Han, "The che riding general Dou Xian came out of the chicken deer plug,....... Fought against the Northern Xiongnu at JiluoShan. Great destruction. Chasing the Yanran Mountain three thousand miles north,......."
"Yanran Mountain" is the Hangai Mountain in the territory of today's Saiyan Nuobu in Outer Mongolia, which belonged to the Shan Yu Capital in the early years of the Tang Dynasty. In the twentieth year of Zhenguan (646), after Li Ji led his troops to defeat Xue Yantuo, the Tang Dynasty set up the "Yanran Capital Protectorate" in Gudan Yutai (present-day West Hohhot).
Photo: Wang Wei sent an envoy to plug it.
The Central Plains Dynasty first set up "capital protection" in the border area began in the second year of the Western Han Dynasty (67 BC), after more than 600 years of continuous attempts and various institutional construction of the Central Plains Dynasty, the capital protection system in the border area has become more and more mature.
With the unprecedented national strength of the Tang Dynasty, the generals in the border areas also carried the voice of the Tang Dynasty, and with great ambition, they continued to expand their territory, won many military merits, and set up a capital in the border areas. In addition to the Well-known Anxi and Beiting Capital Protectorates, in the first year of the General Chapter (668), the Tang Dynasty quelled the Goguryeo rebellion and set up the "Andong Protectorate" in Pyongyang; in the second year of the General Chapter (669), the Yanran Capital Protectorate was moved north to Jinshan (in present-day Outer Mongolia) and renamed "Anbei Capital Protectorate"; in the first year of the Reign of The lulu (679), the "Annam Protectorate" was set up in Songping (present-day Hanoi, Vietnam). At that time, the Tang Dynasty could be described as a powerful and powerful, and the Tang generals were "one body to fight for three thousand miles, and one sword was once a million divisions." (Wang Wei's "The Old General's Journey")
Photo: The movie "The Lion of the Heavenly General" reflects the story of the Western Han Dynasty when the Western Regions Protectorate and various ethnic forces jointly confronted foreign enemies.
Usually we only remember the six major capital protectorates of the Tang Dynasty, Anxi, Beiting, Anbei, Shan Yu, Andong, and Annan, but in fact, the New Book of Tang? The Geographical Chronicle records that the Tang Dynasty had a total of 11 capital protectorates, but the level of each capital protectorate was not the same, of which Anxi, Beiting, Anbei, and Shan Yudu protectorate belonged to the "Dadu Protectorate", the chief was from the Erpin Dadu Protectorate, while the Andong and other capital protectorates were "Shangdu Protectorate", the chief was the Zhengsanpin Shangdu Protectorate, and the remaining Capital Protectorates were "Zhongdu Protectorate", and the official rank was lower.
According to the historical records of the highest rank, "Anxi Capital Protectorate, Town Soldiers 24,000 people", with these more than 20,000 elite soldiers alone, the Anxi Capital Protectorate can manage and control more than 3 million square kilometers of vast land in the western region, of which the ethnic minority servants in the border areas have played a very large role in assisting in management.
Picture: Lin Jiulang in the "Twelve Hours of Chang'an", his prototype is Li Linfu of the Honey Belly Sword.
In order to absorb the shortcomings of the Qin and Han Dynasties' foreign relatives and chaotic government, the Tang Dynasty used a large number of ethnic minority soldiers who had no background in the clan and the military for many generations, so as to put an end to the phenomenon of collusion between the princes and ministers of the clan and the officials and eunuchs who colluded with the royal family and relatives inside and outside the family to harm the imperial program. Using the system design of going in and out, the military attaches of ethnic minorities can rely on the heads of military merit to obtain a very smooth path of promotion, which makes these military attaches not only accumulate military merit at the border, but also return to the court to be worshiped as a secretary of state and occupy a high position. And some of the courtiers above the temples will also be sent to the frontier and the town guard. For example, Li Linfu, who had a honey sword in his mouth, was the twelfth Dadu Protector (737-752 AD) of the Anxi Metropolitan Protectorate before the Anshi Rebellion, but Li Linfu "remotely led" this position and remained in Chang'an, and did not take office.
Objectively speaking, because the Tang army was well-equipped, well-trained, and had strong combat effectiveness, it won more victories over foreign countries and lost less, which greatly accelerated the promotion of these border minority generals. Therefore, we see that the Tang Dynasty had a large number of high-ranking ethnic minority generals such as Gao Xianzhi, Ge Shuhan, Zhizhi Sili, Ashina Sheer, Li Guangbi, and Shugu Huai'en.
Even An Lushan and Shi Siming, who are chicken and dog thieves and sheep thieves, can also set up festivals from a Turkic orphan who lost his father in a teenager, rely on his courage and good fighting, rely on military merit, and finally become a powerful side of Pinglu, and even have a high temple position such as Yushi Zhongcheng. So why were so many ordinary people in the Tang Dynasty keen to join the army and embark on the road of winning military merit?
Image: Tang Dynasty soldiers in murals.
In the Tang Dynasty, the imperial examination was divided into changke and system subjects, and the changke mainly consisted of six major disciplines, such as Xiucai, Mingjing, Jinshi, Mingfa, Mingshu, and Mingshu. The so-called "thirty old Ming Jing, fifty young jinshi", which means that being admitted to the Mingjing at the age of 30 is already considered old, but being admitted to the jinshi at the age of 50 is still young.
For most of the students who have studied hard for ten years, the ten years of hard study is only the beginning of the scientific examination journey, and the hope of finally succeeding in the final stage of success is very slim. For most ordinary people in the Tang Dynasty who had not read books for several years and did not know a few words, the road of thousands of troops and horses was too difficult and too long. Instead of reading the scriptures day after day and year after year, it is better to sacrifice oneself in the battlefield, join the army, and spell out this enthusiasm to win the head of a military meritorious person, if he can really obtain a knighthood by military merit, he can not only seal his wife and shadow, shine in the court, but also live a good life of "wearing silk in summer, wearing mink in winter, drinking wine every day, and eating meat every day".
Picture: The Tang army in the "Twelve Hours of Chang'an" who is stubbornly guarding the Beacon Fort.
The establishment of the conscription system makes the soldiers who join the army not only be responsible for all the expenses of the state, but also completely detached from land production, and the military salary, capture, military merit, and knighthood during the border period can all be regarded as windfalls. It is not difficult to understand why the Tang Dynasty had so many "Long March athletes" who went to the frontier to open up territory and expand the territory for the Tang Dynasty.
Photo: Tang Dynasty Hu head figurine at the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Museum.
In fact, it is precisely because of the completeness and maturity of the Tang Dynasty's border capital protectorate, the Tuntian system, the conscription system, and other systems, coupled with the large number of ethnic minority soldiers and generals, as well as the unimpeded promotion of soldiers and generals, that a large number of outstanding Tang Dynasty athletes, with the ultimate goal of obtaining military merit, have been practicing various riding and shooting skills and improving military skills since childhood.
No matter what ethnic group, what origin, what color, as long as you rely on a martial art, you are expected to be selected by the Tang Dynasty as a "recruiter", you can defend the frontier and win military merit. There was no racial discrimination and no monopoly of the clans, which greatly increased the enthusiasm of the Han common people and the nomadic warriors of the frontier ethnic minorities with superb riding and shooting skills to join the Tang army, supplemented by the best weapons and equipment, and the combat effectiveness of the Tang army was greatly improved, reaching a situation of one hundred.
Photo: The Eighth Regiment of the Tang Army on the Beacon Fort.
However, although the design of the Capital Protectorate and the Tuntian system and the temperance system on the border of the Tang Dynasty could provide a solid institutional design for the Shubian army in an environment surrounded by strong enemies, the military-government integration of the Capital Protectorate and the Jiedushi system made the Shubian generals with tens of thousands of Tang elite soldiers able to continuously become bigger and stronger, and even have hundreds of thousands of ethnic minority servants. Datang not only had no idea of the specific number of border military generals and servants, but also could not know the real border war situation.
The elite generals in these border areas of the capital protectorate not only have the suspicion of not being able to lose the tail, but also cause some ethnic minority servants to only know their loyalty to the capital protectorate and jiedu envoys to which they belong, but not loyal to the Tang emperor. Once those border protectors and moderation envoys who have become bigger and stronger have lost the necessary restraints, coupled with the fact that traitors like Li Linfu on the temple have constantly made rumors and constantly cracked down on persecution, the lack of system design has laid the groundwork for the "Anshi Chaos". In the end, An Lushan commanded an army of 490,000, holding 80,000 horses, and brazenly launched the "Anshi Rebellion" in the years of the Tang Dynasty.
Photo: The biggest impact of the Anshi Rebellion on Chinese history was to make the open and inclusive Central Plains Dynasty become closed and conservative, and the door to the world was closed for a thousand years.
But why didn't those Tang Shubian soldiers who were stationed in the westernmost region of the Tang Dynasty, such as Shanye City, support the army and respect themselves and establish themselves as kings? (See tomorrow's fourth episode)
Picture: But make the Dragon City fly will be in, do not teach Humadu Yin Mountain!