After Qin Shi Huang unified the world, he began to expand in two directions, north and south, expelling the Xiongnu seven hundred miles to the north, occupying the Yellow River Loop area, and building the Great Wall of Ten Thousand Miles to block the Xiongnu from being outside the Guanwai, and also mobilizing 500,000 troops to conquer the Baiyue region to the south, officially incorporating Baiyue into the territory of the Qin Dynasty, which was the first large-scale expansion of the Territory of the Central Plains of China to the south, when the westernmost territory of the Qin Dynasty was Longxi County.
First, the origin of China and the Western Regions
After the establishment of the Han Dynasty, to the han wudi period, began to use troops against the Xiongnu, after decades of war, the Han Dynasty generals led by Wei Qing and Huo Quyi defeated the Xiongnu, expelled the Xiongnu from Hetao, Hexi, Monan, and Mobei successively, the Han Dynasty in the war with the Xiongnu, the Central Plains regime for the first time opened the Hexi Corridor, and under the envoy of Zhang Qian, created the historically famous Silk Road.
During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Li Guangli was sent on an expedition to Dawan, which was also the first time that the Chinese regime used troops against the Western Regions, after which the Han Dynasty began to open the Western Regions Capital Protectorate in the Western Regions tuntian and the Han Xuan Emperor period, formally setting up an administrative agency in the Western Regions and bringing the Western Regions under the rule of Huaxia.
In the early days of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Guangwu Emperor Liu Xiu gave up running the Western Regions on the grounds of the war in the Central Plains, and began to use troops against the Western Regions during the Han Ming Emperor's period, and by the time of the Han Zhang Emperor, Ban Chao reopened the Western Regions Capital Protectorate, marking the official beginning of the Eastern Han Dynasty to operate the Western Regions, and it was not until the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty that its forces withdrew from the Western Regions.
During the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Zhen defeated the Hu army guarding Hexi and opened the Hexi Corridor to the Western Regions, and the following year, the Three Kingdoms of Yanshan, Guizi, and Khotan in the Western Regions sent emissaries to pay homage to the Wei Emperor Cao Pi, and Cao Wei then set up a lieutenant in the Western Regions to administer the Western Regions.
During the Period of the Five Hu and Sixteen Kingdoms, the Central Plains fell into chaos, the Eastern Jin Dynasty was located south of the Yangtze River, and the Former Qin monarch Jian Jian sent the general Lü Guang to lead an army of 70,000 to attack the Western Regions, and Lü Guang broke the coalition army of the Western Regions led by Guizi, attacked the Guizi State, and threatened the Western Regions, after which Lü Guang used Liangzhou as a base to establish the Houliang regime.
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the Northern Wei Emperor Tuoba Tao first sent troops to destroy the Northern Liang regime that had divided Liangzhou and opened up the Hexi Corridor, and more than ten years later, Tuoba Tao sent the general Wan Dugui to lead an army across the desert and attack the Western Regions, breaking the Western Regions, such as Shanshan, Yanqi, and Guizi, so that the Western Regions submitted to the Xianbei regime northern Wei, and set up a Lieutenant Xi Rong in the Western Regions to administer the Western Regions.
During the Reign of the Sui Dynasty, the general Xue Shixiong was sent on an expedition to the Western Regions, and Xue Shixiong left yumen Pass, crossed the desert in the west, and attacked Yiwu (present-day Hami, Xinjiang), and then the Sui army established a new city in Yiwu and used it as a springboard for the Sui Dynasty to enter the Western Regions.
During the Tang Dynasty, countless troops were used against the Western Regions, and the Anxi Capital Protectorate and the Anbei Capital Protectorate were set up in the Western Regions to exercise practical control over the Western Regions, and there was a dispute with Tubo in the Western Regions for nearly a hundred years, and at its peak, the Tang Dynasty's control reached the Central Asian region west of the Pamir Plateau, which was the most powerful dynasty in controlling the Western Regions in addition to the Qing Dynasty.
The Yuan Dynasty and the previous Great Mongol State, not to mention, several western expeditions have been fought all the way to Europe, and the western region and the entire Central Asian region are controlled by the Mongols, after the establishment of the Yuan Dynasty, it expanded in four directions: east, south, west and north, the north to the Arctic Ocean, south to the present-day Burma and Vietnam, as far as Indonesia, to the east annexed the entire Korean Peninsula, to the west to destroy the Wokoutai Khanate, and its territory reached the east of Lake Balkhash in Central Asia.
During the Qing Dynasty, similar to the Yuan Dynasty, it was also expanded everywhere, but the expansion of the Western Regions was the most important, the three emperors of the Qing Dynasty, Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong, spent nearly 70 years to pacify the Dzungar Department, and incorporated the entire Western Regions and parts of Central Asia into the Territory of the Qing Dynasty, even when the qing Dynasty was extremely weak in power, the Qing Officials headed by Zuo Zongtang still quelled the invasion of Xinjiang by Agubai of the Kokand Khanate in Central Asia, and preserved Xinjiang within the territory of the Qing Dynasty, which was the Qing Dynasty's emphasis on the Western Regions.
Why is the Chinese regime's strategy of controlling the Western Regions more important than other strategies?
From the Qin Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, except for the Qin Dynasty, the Song Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty, which did not expand westward due to national strength, strategy, and other reasons, almost all other dynasties, especially the great unification dynasty, regarded the control of the western region as the most important strategic direction.
There are several reasons for this:
1. The greatest enemy of the Chinese regime comes from the north.
Five thousand years of Chinese regime, foreign invasion has two most important directions: one is the north, the other is the west, very few heard from the east or south to invade China, almost none, the Ming Dynasty period there were Invasions of the Wokou in the southeast coastal area, at most can only harass, compared with the enemy in the north, not worth mentioning.
During the Western Han Dynasty, the biggest enemy was the Xiongnu, the Xiongnu in the north and northwest direction of the Han Dynasty, in addition to the Northern Xiongnu being the enemy in the Eastern Han Dynasty, there were also Qiang people in the northwest who fought a war with the Eastern Han For hundreds of years, from the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty to the Three Kingdoms period, the Xianbei and Wuhuan in the north rose successively, and during the Western Jin Dynasty, the biggest enemy was from the north and northwest of wuhu (Xiongnu, Xianbei, Xianbei, Qiang, Qiang).
After the Northern Wei of the Xianbei tribe entered the Central Plains, the northern grasslands rose against Rouran, Hua Mulan told the story of the Northern Wei against Rouran, the biggest enemy of the Northern Wei was still Rouran from the north, the division after the Northern Wei was divided into Eastern Wei and Western Wei, and then The Eastern Wei was replaced by Northern Qi, the Western Wei was replaced by Northern Zhou, the Sui Dynasty unified the Central Plains, and the biggest enemy of the Sui Dynasty was also the Turks from the north.
The same is true during the Tang Dynasty, the biggest enemy is also from the north of the Turks, starting from the Northern Song Dynasty, the biggest enemy is still from the north of the Liao Dynasty, Western Xia, Jin Dynasty, until the Southern Song Dynasty, the biggest enemy suddenly became the Northern Mongolia, after the Yuan Dynasty unified the Central Plains, there was no enemy in the North, because it was the enemy of northern China - the Mongols who went south to establish the Yuan Dynasty.
After the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, the biggest enemy in the early days was the Mongols in the north, including the remnants of the Mongol forces of the Northern Yuan, and the Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang and ming Chengzu Zhu Di combined more than ten times to attack Mongolia, in order to attack the ming dynasty's biggest enemy and establish a peaceful external environment for the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty put all its energy on the security of the northern border crossing.
In the late Ming Dynasty, the biggest enemy became the Later Jin (Qing Dynasty), because of internal and external troubles, the Ming Dynasty was destroyed by Li Zicheng's peasant army, and the Qing Dynasty entered Beijing to establish a political power by taking advantage of the fishermen, entered the Central Plains, and became the last feudal regime in China.
From these histories, it can be seen that the biggest enemy of the Chinese regime is the nomadic peoples in the north, and has never heard of a powerful enemy invading from the south, so in all the dynasties and dynasties have put the defense of the north in the most important position, and also invested the most energy, the Western Han And the Xiongnu have waged wars for hundreds of years, consuming the savings of three or four generations, in order to eliminate the powerful threat of the north.
The north and the west are actually linked, during the period of Emperor Wu of Han, Zhang Qian was sent to the Western Regions to join forces with the Great Moon Clan to attack the Xiongnu from the east and west, which is enough to show this, during the period of Emperor Wu of Han defeated the Xiongnu, the Xiongnu did not have a royal court in the south and north of the desert, where did the Xiongnu go? Of course, it fled to the western region or central Asia in the west, and the Central Plains regime controlled the western region and could continue to defeat the Xiongnu.
By the time of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Eastern Han Dynasty fought against the Northern Xiongnu basically in the Western Regions and Central Asia, because the Southern Desert and the Northern Desert had been occupied by other nomadic peoples who were subordinate to the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the Northern Xiongnu had been compressed to the northwest, and it was convenient to attack the Northern Xiongnu by controlling the Western Regions, which was one of the reasons why later dynasties wanted to control the Western Regions, that is, to deal with the most powerful enemies in the North, and such enemies did not exist in the South.
2. Geopolitical reasons.
From the Qin Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, the Central Plains regime has been land expansion, rarely expanding from the sea to the outside world, even the most famous Zheng He went to the West, but also trade, diplomacy, and did not carry out territorial expansion, since it is expanding on land, from the geographical point of view of China, the west is the best direction of expansion, the western region must be firmly controlled in their own hands.
Because the loss of the western region will affect the Hexi Corridor, and the loss of hexi will affect Guanzhong, and if the Guanzhong is lost, it will affect the Central Plains regime, which is the basis of geopolitics, but all the wise rulers of the Central Plains can see this.
Taking the Tang Dynasty as an example, although the Eastern Turks were destroyed, the Western Turks rose in central Asia and controlled the Western Regions, making enemies with the Tang Dynasty, and the Tang Dynasty wanted to attack the Western Turks, it must first take the Western Regions, and after the Western Turks controlled the Western Regions, they would use the Western Regions as a base to harass the Tang Dynasty's borders of Dunhuang and Yumen Pass.
After the Huaxia regime controlled the nomads in the far north, its remnants of the forces may also invade Huaxia from the northwest or the west, so it will definitely pass through the western region, so the location of the western region has become unprecedentedly important, and Tubo has competed with the Tang Dynasty for control of the western region for decades. Wouldn't it be easier for Tubo to invade the Tang Dynasty from the Sichuan-Tibet line?
The reason for this is because of the important strategic position of the western region, whoever controls the western region can elbow Central Asia and Hexi, the western region is bordered by Central Asia in the west, the Hexi Corridor in the east, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau in the south, and the Mongolian plateau in the north.
3. Diplomatic and foreign trade reasons.
The most important road of ancient Chinese foreign trade is called the Silk Road, the starting point of the Silk Road is China, through the Hexi Corridor, the Western Regions, and then through Central Asia to Europe, or over the Pamir Plateau to the south to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, and the Western Regions is the most important strategic channel connecting the East and the West at that time, if this channel is not in the hands of the Chinese regime, then China's foreign trade will be interrupted.
China used tea, porcelain, silk and other items to central Asia and the West in exchange for horses, cotton, glass, gemstones, grapes, courgettes, etc., trade will produce a lot of profits, for the East and west are good, the Silk Road is a wealth and economic road, and the western region is the key to controlling the Silk Road, so the Chinese regime will do whatever it takes to control the western region.
In addition to foreign trade and diplomacy, the east and the west to send envoys to exchange, must pass through the western region, the western region is not controlled by the hands of the Chinese regime, it will certainly be controlled by the enemy of Huaxia, then this kind of exchange may be interrupted, for example, when Zhang Qian went to the western region, he was caught by the Xiongnu for about ten years, because the Xiongnu controlled the Hexi Corridor and the western region, so in order to ensure the smooth flow of diplomatic and trade channels, the Chinese regime will control the western region as long as it has strength.