During the ancient wars and chaos years, such as the wars of the Warring States Seven Heroes, the Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms, and other periods, the so-called millions of troops were mostly bragged, or a large number of people were gathered, and the actual combat troops may be less than one-tenth. For example, the 700,000-strong army of Jian Jian is estimated to have not yet been assembled, and the battle has already been lost. Therefore, most of the hundreds of thousands of troops in history have been intimidating. However, during the period of Emperor Taizong, Emperor Gaozong, and Emperor Xuanzong, hundreds of thousands of troops were basically "real hammers".
At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty adopted the prefectural military system, and there were 574-800 Folding Chong Provinces distributed throughout the country, and 627 of them were famous and could be examined. This number is variable, meaning that the minimum number of records is 574 and the maximum number of records is 800. The province was divided into three classes, with a strength of 1,200, 1,000, and 800 men. Therefore, in the early Tang Dynasty, the number of prefectural soldiers was about 800,000, of which about 260,000 were in Guannei Province, which was the main force of prefectural soldiers.
In addition, the Tang Dynasty not only had more soldiers, but also more horses. Horses in ancient times were not only very important servant animals, but also an important indicator of the strength of a country's military strength. As early as the "Zhou Li", Ma Zheng was already "the foundation of the armored soldiers and the great use of the country". In ancient times, there were no aircraft missiles, tank artillery, and the preparation for the war at that time was mainly focused on the military horses that could make the troops fast forward and retreat. The cavalry was invincible in the ancient battlefield, and the Tang Dynasty cavalry was the most powerful cavalry regiment at that time.
The Tang Dynasty did not have much family foundation at first, Li Yuan claimed to the Turks, got 2,000 war horses, and later got 3,000 Sui horses ("After the Tang Dynasty took over the Chaos of Zhou and Sui, it inherited the drawbacks of the world's conquest, including the embers only got three thousand Mu Mu"), these 5,000 horses became the starting point of the Tang Dynasty, the number is not necessarily accurate, but it is basically a few thousand horses. After the Tang Dynasty unified the Central Plains, Li Shimin, who fought the world on horseback, knew the importance of war horses and vigorously raised horses in Longyou.
In the land of a thousand miles, there were set up "Eight Fangs and Forty-Eight Prisons", "From Zhenguan to Linde for forty years, Ma Zhi."
seven hundred and six thousand
In addition, the Tang Dynasty had countless vassal states, and the Tang Dynasty also said to them:
This year's festival does not receive gifts, only your horses
”！ Therefore, horses are a very common tribute when paying tribute. In addition to the official horse farms, the Tang Dynasty also raised a large number of horses. Even the number of horses in the market is too large, resulting in a decline in the price of horses, and there has even been a situation where a horse can only be exchanged for a plain silk.
In the Tang Dynasty, whether it was the "xiang equestrian technique" of selecting good horses, the law on the management of horses, the "Stable Law", or the veterinary institutions set up by the state, they all reached an unprecedented degree of completeness. According to the "Six Classics of Tang", the Taibu Temple, a horse administrative institution, has 600 veterinarians and 1 veterinary doctor. The sheer number of veterinarians in the central government was rare before the Tang Dynasty. Under such comprehensive care, the number of horses in the Tang Dynasty reached the highest peak since the Qin and Han dynasties.
Before the Tang army went to war, the racecourse gave priority to the supply of strong war horses. After the strong horses are drawn, the inferior horses are supplied. Therefore, the Tang army cavalry can always show amazing impact and maneuverability in battle, and its material basis is much better than many later dynasties do not know.
In the early years of the new century, as the accumulation of defects in the official camp horse farm deepened and the war against Tibet continued, the number of horses in the stock became smaller and smaller. In order to cope with the needs of war, Tang Xuanzong promulgated preferential policies to encourage horse breeding. Those who raise more than ten horses by the people may be exempted from certain enlistments. So The crown prince Xun Gui competed to raise horses, "Panhe An clan has horses and thousands of horses, and is not devout." "Taiping Guangji" in the far part: "The rich in Yizhong are far away, sexual luxury and good horses, the first gorgeous, the clothes are clean, intended to be in the prince's house, often raise dozens of good horses." ”
The generals of each army also raised private horses, and the horses in each army were often counted in tens of thousands. After a period of recovery, the Tang cavalry also increased their war horse reserves to ensure their victory in a series of foreign wars during the Kaiyuan and Tianbao years. The abundance of war horses was only the material basis for the prosperity of the Tang Dynasty cavalry. However, the active attack spirit of the Tang Dynasty cavalry and the proper command of the generals were also the reasons for the strength of the Tang Dynasty cavalry.
All the Commanders of the Tang Army were well versed in the secret of "no good horse is no victory", and Fan Yang Jiedu gave An Lushan the confidence to rebel in large part because he also held the position of envoy of the Inner and Outer Stables, which allowed him to control the most important horse breeding base in the late Xuanzong era, the Lou Fu Horse Farm. "An Lushan's internal and external idleness made the supervisors worry about Lou, and the Yin Xuan victory over Jia Ma returned to Fan Yang, so his troops fell to the world and rebelled."
No one complained about the lack of horses until the fall of the Tang Dynasty, but after the Tang Dynasty, the number of horses in the Central Plains Dynasty decreased sharply, and later during the Song Taizong Taiping Revival Period, there were only about 200,000, and later even less. Why did the horses of the Song Dynasty raise fewer and fewer horses? Some people may say that the reason why the Tang Dynasty had so many horses, because the Tang Dynasty had a large area of horse-producing land, is obviously wrong. Because the main production areas during the Tang Dynasty were Longxi, Jincheng, Pingliang, Tianshui and Suizhou, they were still in the hands of the Central Plains Dynasty during the Song Dynasty.
But why didn't there be a horse in the end? Perhaps it can only be explained by "institutional" reasons. In the fifth year of Xi Ning (1072 AD), Wang Anshi initiated a sensational change of law, the core content of which was to implement the "Horse Protection Law", which distributed the horses from the state-run horse farm to qualified peasants, and at the same time exempted horse farmers from taxes and labor, and the government also gave subsidies.
The "Baoma Law" was originally a move to seek the country, but unexpectedly, the people were overwhelmed. Because once the horse dies of the disease, it will have to compensate tens of thousands of dollars, and the general well-off family will be bankrupt, so "everyone has a horse as a disaster." Causing a fierce public sentiment, within ten years, the country was short of horses. The reason why the Northern Song Dynasty eventually perished was not unrelated to it.
In fact, if you compare the territory of the two dynasties, you will understand that in the era of cold weapons, how many horses there are and how big the country is!
(References: Tang Dynasty Ma Zheng, New Book of Tang, etc.)