Due to Zhang Xiaojing's individual combat ability in the hit drama "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an", this Sai foreign soldier and Chang'an bad marshal can easily beat the brigade commander, the prince guard rate, and the wolf guard twenty-man squad, which is inevitably exaggerated, what is the truth? This paper analyzes the formation of the Tang Dynasty's "Saiwai Soldiers" in combination with the background of the times, as well as the policies and institutional settings of the Tang Dynasty's Western Regions, and extends the process of military reform from the early Tang Dynasty to the Xuanzong period.
Prefectural military establishment
In the play, Zhang Xiaojing's period coincided with the transformation of the military system in the Tang Dynasty, that is, the period of the transformation of the military system of the government to the conscription system. Zhang Xiaojing belongs to the Eighth Regiment of the Anxi Army in the play, and the regimental structure is actually still the tradition of the prefectural military system. The prefectural military system in the early Tang Dynasty was based on the peasant household system of the bantian system, so the prefectural military system was also called the military household system, and the military household was a household registration system, and the military household needed to provide soldiers to the government for generations, and the government compensated by reducing taxes and miscellaneous services, and this household registration management system began in the Western Jin Dynasty.
Chang'an Twelve Hours Stills - Wen Team
In the first year of Tang Zhenguan (627), Tang Taizong divided the whole country into ten provinces, and set up 643 military palaces in various provinces, prefectures, and counties, collectively known as Folding Chong Province, of which 261 were in the Guanzhong area, forming"
Lift up the crowd in the middle of the gate to the four directions
"Pattern. According to the size of the organization, the folding chong province is divided into the upper, middle, and lower three grades, with the zhengsi pin folding chong du lieutenant as the chief, and the deputy chief left and right Guo Yi du lieutenant. The government is under the regimental system, also known as the battalion, under the command of the lieutenant, under the regiment, under the team, with the "team leader", the Wen Wujie in the play is called the Wen team, that is, the official position of the team leader, the team leader, the gang leader, the shi under the gang, the shi commander.
Generally speaking, each regiment has five teams under its jurisdiction, each team leads three groups, each group leads five shi commanders, each shi commander leads ten dings, and ten dings recruit two people as prefectural soldiers, which is the basic structure. There were 1,200 people in Shangfu, 1,000 in Zhongfu, 800 in Xiafu, and 10 in the fu army, 50 in teams, 100 in brigades, and 200 in regiments, which were expanded to 300 in the Wuzhou period. In the Battle of Beacon Fort, there were about 50 people under the Wen team, and it is in line with historical facts that more than 200 people of the Eighth Regiment were killed in the play.
Stills of the soldiers of the Eighth Regiment
The rise and fall of the good and the bad
The advantage of the prefectural military system is the integration of soldiers and farmers, military households are engaged in production in non-wartime, no different from ordinary peasant households, once they encounter war requisition, military households prepare their own equipment to assemble in the government, on the one hand, saving the military expenditure of the feudal dynasty, on the other hand, avoiding the conscription system to increase the peasants' burden and hinder agricultural production.
However, the shortcomings of the military system are also very obvious, the country is in the Taiping and prosperous war, the combat effectiveness of the military households will soon decline, and due to the enslavement of officers, the plundering of the wives and daughters of military households, the government's miscellaneous errands, etc., the officers conceal the flight or the military households do not report, privately occupy the land allocated by the government to the military households; the military aristocratic forces produced in the provincial soldiers are also difficult to restrain, in fact, Li Yuan, the founder of the Tang Dynasty, is one of the eight pillar states of the Western Wei Dynasty, he is the aristocratic force that rose under the military system, and Li Mi at the same time was also from the Guanlong military aristocratic clique. Therefore, the hereditary soldiers will raise arrogant generals who are difficult to restrain, which is also the internal and external factors that cannot restrain the division of the feudal town in the late Tang Dynasty.
Stills Zhang Xiaojing
The Tang Dynasty's military system reached its peak during the Tang Taizong period, and was abolished during the Tianbao period of Tang Xuanzong (742-755), during which there was also a remedial process, that is, the "united military system" in the Post-Wu period. This system is mainly to cope with the decline of the prefectural soldiers, by selecting Ding Hu Yin, physically strong people as unity soldiers, the United soldiers in the Wuzhou period enjoy free preferential treatment, the Tang Dynasty Emperor stipulated that the unity soldiers returned to the peasants in spring and summer, and the autumn and winter training or conscription, and unlike the prefectural soldiers, the equipment was issued by the government, but the united soldiers were used in the history of the war Record is very small, mostly in the form of local supplementary soldiers, to maintain local public order as the primary task, is to supplement the prefectural military system.
Kyoshi Suwei
The duties of the Tang Dynasty fu soldiers included Su Wei, Zhen Shu and conquest, the Folding Chong Fu was directly subordinate to the superior Wei Fu, the transfer power of the Fu soldiers was directly attributed to the emperor, the emperor's dispatch instructions were issued through the military department, which formed a hidden danger in the middle of the Tang Dynasty, Xuanzong during the period of leniency, the transfer of power to the military department Shangshu, the eighth regiment as bait in the play was the "Lin Jiulang" Li Linfu who was then the bingbu Shangshu. The prefectural soldiers were successively transferred to serve in the weifu or border defense towns under their jurisdiction, and this power was also under the control of the military department.
In the Tang Dynasty, the number of times was clearly stipulated, generally speaking, the distance between the military government and the Fanshang Weifu was decided, once a month, generally 500 miles and five times, the soldiers of the palace were divided into five groups, and once every five months, there were 1000 miles of seven times, 1500 miles of eight times and other customizations. If the prefectural soldiers encounter war requisitions, the mission can be exempted, and generally speaking, the exemption of three times is the upper limit.
Stills Cui Ji
The reform of the military system brought about by the decline of the fu soldiers first began with the Jingshi Suwei. There is a difference between inside and outside the folding chong province, and the inner house includes the three guards of the five provinces of the left and right wei provinces, the three houses of the left and right guards, the xun yi fu, the yi yi fu, the yi wei, the three houses, the three guards of the prince, the xun wei, and the yi wei. There are six rates of guards in the Crown Prince's Eastern Palace, in addition to the left and right guard rates, there are also left and right Si Yu rates and left and right clearance rates. Therefore, the Yao Wei rate in the play always claims to be higher than the official rank of Cui Qi and General Gan, which is reasonable and well-founded, but the three guards under the jurisdiction of the left and right Wei rates are all from the children of high-ranking officials with more than five pins, high reputation and weak combat effectiveness.
The Waifu Suwei gave priority to the situation of assets and "took care" of the landlord class, which meant that the rich and powerful were exempted from bribery, or hired people to serve in their place, and completely transferred military service to poor peasants. Fan Shangsu Wei was assigned to the Twelve Guards of the Southern Guard, namely the Left and Right Guards, the Left and Right Xiao Guards, the Left and Right Wu Wei, the Left and Right Wei Wei, the Left and Right Leading Guards, and the Left and Right Jinwu Guards, which were the first twelve guards of the Yao Commandery of the Sixteen Guards. The Twelve Guards led the Fold chong Province, and the soldiers who led the various military palaces to Chang'an Shangfan, in the center of the Imperial Palace, garrisoned the Beijing Division, and were the backbone of the Southern Province. The other four guards of the Sixteen Guards are the Left and Right Guards and the Left and Right Thousand Niu Guards, the former is in charge of the Gate Guards, and the latter leads the Thousand Niu Bei body as the Emperor's attendants and yi guards, and these sixteen guards are collectively called the Southern Guards.
Stills Guard
Corresponding to the Soldiers of the Southern Prefecture was the Sixth Army of the Northern Ya. In the original Jingshi Suwei, a general drawn from Li Yuan's Taiyuan army was stationed at Xuanwumen, called "Yuan Cong's Forbidden Army", and when He arrived at Emperor Taizong of Tang, he placed the left and right Tun camps, renamed "Flying Horse", and was subordinate to Tun Wei. During the reign of Emperor Gaozong, the left and right Tun Camps were separated from the Tun Wei and renamed the Left and Right Yulin Army, which was known as "Yulin Lang". It is worth mentioning the selection of Yulin Lang, during the Taizong period, it was still mainly selected among the descendants of the Taiyuan pro-soldiers, combined with the selection of the elites in the provincial soldiers, and in the second year of Xuanzong's heavenly nature (713), Yulin Lang was all from the provincial soldier elite, at this time the provincial soldiers had actually declined, and the so-called elites had become old, weak, sick and disabled, which promoted the reform of the military system, that is, recruitment or employment.
Stills right Guard
In the third year of the first year, Emperor Xuanzong changed the decree, stipulating that Yulin Lang would no longer use the prefectural soldiers, and also chose the form of recruitment, and through the selection and reform of Yulin Lang, it brought about a major change, that is, the hundred-year-old system of prefectural soldiers was abandoned. Beginning in the eleventh year of the New Century (723), Emperor Xuanzong ordered the recruitment of elite soldiers in the two capitals and surrounding areas of the prefecture and baiding, who served as the Forbidden Army of the Southern Guard, called Changcong Suwei, and two years later changed its name to "Yi Qi", a total of 120,000 people, divided into twelve guards, replacing the Fanshang Fu soldiers, and full-time duty as the guard of the Beijing Division. In the sixteenth year of the new century, some of the horses were incorporated into the Left and Right Yulin Army, and became part of the Northern Imperial Forbidden Army.
"Left and right Dragon Wu, Left and Right Shen Wu, Left and Right Shen Strategy, the Sixth Army." - "New Book of Tang, Hundred Officials Zhi Si Shang"
The Sixteen Guards of the Southern Ya and the Sixth Army of the Northern Ya constituted the main body of the Central Forbidden Army of the Tang Dynasty, and the Longwu and Shenwu in the play belonged to the Northern Ya. During the Tianbao period, the size of the Beiya Forbidden Army was only the left and right Yulin and left and right Longwu four armies, and there was no Shenwu system, and Tang Suzong set up the left and right Shenwu armies until the second era of De (757), and according to the records in the old and new Tang Books, Shen Ce and Yulin were actually the same title, and they were different from the Shen Ce Army after the Anshi Rebellion. The soldiers who were incorporated into Yulin were originally fierce soldiers, but they were not taken seriously during the Tianbao years, and even the phenomenon of sub-service by money appeared. The entire Beiya Forbidden Army became increasingly corrupt, and the combat effectiveness of the Qi Riders was almost lost, and it was reduced to the Royal Ceremonial Army, and the Dragon Wu Army appearing in the play was actually not very effective.
Stills of Lin Jiulang
From the above, it can be seen that the level of the Jingshi Suwei during the Xuanzong Tianbao period did weaken a lot, but the Beijing Division maintained a relatively high scale, and it was inevitable that the political forces behind the various armies would be manipulated, and Li Linfu and the Eastern Palace were competing for favors, in fact, they wanted to support Li Mao to take the throne, and in this political situation, it was justifiable that the defense of the capital was challenged by the Wolf Guard, which was also the author's irony of the political chaos of this period.
Cypriot reform
The reform of the forbidden army and the reform of the race soldiers actually complement each other, the Wuzhou period began to change the prefectural military system, at this time the juntian system collapsed, displaced people, fugitives became a major social problem, the original intention of the conscription system is also to integrate population resources, but also to fill the loopholes in the prefectural military system, which formed the recruitment of mercenaries.
Since Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, its foreign policy has been dominated by active attacks, and after Emperor Taizong's death, there has been a major change, and the situation of border minorities invading the border has become more and more intense, and the Tang Dynasty's foreign offensive has turned into strategic defense. According to the tactical characteristics of the nomadic peoples, the Tang army urgently needed a border defense army with a large, flexible command and rapid response, which gave rise to a border defense system with a huge group army under centralized command. However, the military defense formed by the small crowd under the prefectural military system was obviously constrained, so in the second year of Yifeng (677), the Tang government recruited long-serving athletes from Guannei and Hedong to garrison the northwest, and began to replace the prefectural soldiers to take turns to defend the border. The transformation of the Cypriot defense system also formed two groups, one for the jiedushi and the other for the Cypriot foreign soldiers.
In the twenty-fifth year of the new century, Emperor Xuanzong issued an edict ordering that all the military towns under the heavens should be recruited from all kinds of conscripts and displaced customers who were about to be demobilized, and they could take their families with them, and after arriving in the army, they would be exempted from military service, equipment, and supplies for life, and all of them would be supplied by the state, so they were also called guanjian. In the play, Zhang Xiaojing called the thirteenth year of the old calendar as a conscription, that is, the thirteenth year of the new century, which is in line with the characteristics of enlistment at this time, and the Anxi Army mentioned in the play is closely related to the Anxi Capital Protectorate and the Beiting Capital Protectorate.
Map of Anxi and Beiting
"Since then, guizi has placed the anxi capital protectorate, and 30,000 Han soldiers have been used to town it." - Old Book of Tang
In the fourteenth year of Zhenguan (640), Emperor Taizong conquered Gaochang with the general Hou Junji, and at the same time conquered Yanqi and Guizi, and then Shule and Khotan returned to the Tang, from which the Tang Dynasty completely controlled the western regions and established a permanent military and political institution, the Anxi Capital Protectorate. In the second year of Chang'an (702), the Tang Dynasty set up the Beiting Capital Protectorate to strengthen its control over the western regions. During the reigns of Emperor Ruizong and Wu Zhou, the four towns of Anxi changed hands. In the first year of Wu Zetian's longevity (692), Wang Xiaojie once again recaptured the four towns of Anxi, and the Tang court was stationed with 30,000 elite soldiers, which was the prototype of the Anxi army. By the beginning of the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, he set up the Moraine West Jiedushi Envoy, which had jurisdiction over the two major capitals of Anxi and Beiting, and thereafter set up The Anxi and Beiting Jiedushi envoys, with the Anxi Army having 24,000 troops and the Beiting Army with 20,000 troops.
The Battle of beacon forts
Since the fourteenth year of the New Century (726), relations between the Protectorate of Anxi and the Tuqishi Khanate have been strained, and the Khan of Sulu has immediately rebelled, and the Western Regions have fallen into a state of war. In October of the twenty-third year of the New Century (735), the Tujue Army invaded the City of Beiting and Anxi, which is the prototype of the Battle of the Eighth Regiment "Beacon Fort" in the play, and the twenty-third year of the old calendar in the play refers to the twenty-third year of the Kaiyuan Dynasty.
Stills from the Battle of Beacon Fort
Beacon Fort is not a place name, but a military defensive fortress, which plays the role of early warning and pass in the defense system, and can be used as a defensive chain of the Great Wall. The Tang Dynasty placed a beacon in thirty miles, and Zhang Xiaojing's Eighth Regiment should be near the city of Bachang, which belonged to the forward position of the enemy. According to historical records, the Tang general Gai Jiayun mentioned in the play was then the protector of the Northern Court and concurrently served as the envoy of Isi Jiedushi. In the history books, Gai Jiayun led an attack in the first month of the twenty-fourth year (736) and returned with a great victory on the twenty-sixth day of that month. It can be seen that from the enemy's attack in October to the attack of Gai Jiayun to the first month of the following year, the Eighth Regiment held out alone for more than 60 days, so that more than 200 people were killed, and only 9 people were spared.
In the play, Xiao Gui believes that "Lin Jiulang" Li Linfu is the initiator of the eighth regiment as bait, which can only be said to be possible, Li Linfu is the rebbe Shangshu of the twenty-third year of the new century, and it is loaded."
Seekers, Soldier Er Shangshu
That is to say, Li Linfu may have been in charge of the military department at the time of the Battle of Beacon Fort, and his decrees could influence the war situation. However, when the war in the Western Regions reached the Beijing Division, the delay in government decrees caused by the delay in information was possible, and Gai Jiayun, as a local emissary, also had a high degree of wartime response rights, so the Eighth Regiment held out alone for two months, and Gai Jiayun's responsibility was greater than that of Li Linfu.
Stills Chang'an
The tragedy of the Eighth Regiment was infinitely tragic under the interpretation of Zhang Xiaojing and other "grasshoppers", but objectively speaking, the 200-man Tang Dynasty Sai foreign soldiers, who held the isolated fort for two months, their combat effectiveness was really amazing, which reflected the success of the military reform in the middle of the Tang Dynasty. As a soldier, Zhang Xiaojing in the play is the sand in the tang dynasty that is small to dust, and it is this grain of sand that protects the family and defends the country, which supports the Chang'an Menghua of the Tang Empire.
Reference historical materials:
The Cambridge History of China, Sui and Tang Dynasties
Old Book of Tang
New Book of Tang
Zizhi Tongjian