In 89 BC, Emperor Wudi of Han issued an edict informing the people of the world that the name of this edict was "Luntai Sin Self-Edict", Emperor Wudi of Han believed that his policy in the early days of his reign was to hurt the people and waste the world's property, and in the last few years of his life, Emperor Wudi of Han changed the policy of implementing his life, and from then on he retired and recuperated, and no longer launched wars abroad.
Why did Emperor Wudi of Han do this?
Obviously, because The country was getting poorer and poorer after a series of foreign wars fought by Emperor Wudi of Han, in the early days of Emperor Wudi's reign, the Western Han Dynasty accumulated a lot of wealth after decades of recuperation and childbirth, the ropes worn through the money in the warehouse were rotten, and the population also increased sharply, almost doubling compared to the beginning of the Han Dynasty, but in the 54 years of the reign of Emperor Wudi of Han, except for the first 8 years and the last 2 years of no war, Emperor Wudi of Han fought for 44 years.
Young Emperor Wu of Han
Because of the long years of war, resulting in the fatigue of the people, the emptiness of the national treasury, the decline in population, and the reduction of grain production, Emperor Wudi of Han became the first Ming Emperor in history to raise military expenses by selling officials and selling knights on a large scale, and the country became poorer and poorer and the Han Wudi campaigned a long-term war abroad.
In 626 AD, the Xuanwumen Rebellion, Li Shimin killed Li Jiancheng, three days later Li Shimin became the crown prince, 2 months later Li Shimin became the emperor, at this time the Tang Empire had just been established, the situation at home and abroad was not very stable, but Tang Taizong still carried out a series of internal and external wars.
In the second year of Zhenguan, Tang Taizong first eliminated the Liang Shidu regime, basically unified the whole country, Zhenguan four years, the use of troops against the Eastern Turks, only one year, the destruction of the Eastern Turk Khaganate, Zhenguan eight years, the Tang Dynasty ambushed Tuguhun, Zhenguan thirteen years, the Tang Dynasty used troops on the Western Regions, destroyed the Gaochang State, and soon set up the Western Regions Capital Protectorate.
Tang Taizong Li Shimin
From the nineteenth year of Zhenguan, Tang Taizong personally conquered Goguryeo three times, although he defeated Goguryeo, but did not destroy the other side, during this period, the Tang Dynasty also attacked the Xueyantuo Khanate, and set up a capital protectorate in the south and north of the desert, which shows that Tang Taizong reigned for 23 years, most of the time was waging war, but did not hear that the Tang Dynasty became poorer and poorer, but the national strength continued to rise, and in the period of Tang Taizong's heir Tang Gaozong, the national strength reached its peak.
So the question is, during the reign of Emperor Wudi of Han and Emperor Taizong of Tang, they were almost all waging wars, so why did Emperor Wudi of Han fight more and more poorly, while Tang Taizong fought stronger and stronger?
There are three main reasons:
First, the wars of the Han Wudi era lasted long and were intense.
During the reign of Emperor Wudi of Han for 54 years, the war was fought for 44 years, and the longest and most intense foreign war during the reign of Emperor Wudi of Han was the war with the Xiongnu, which lasted for 44 years, while the war between the Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu lasted for hundreds of years, not only for a long time, but also with great intensity, such as the Battle of Mobei.
The Western Han Dynasty's war against the Xiongnu
The Han Dynasty dispatched 140,000 elite cavalry, equipped with 140,000 warhorses, infantry and logistics transport troops totaling 100,000 people, deep into the north of the desert for thousands of miles, to carry out a long-distance raiding battle, of which Huo went to the lake of Baikal, creating a record of sealing the wolf Juxu, this battle The Han army annihilated more than 90,000 Xiongnu troops, and its own losses were also very large, the Han army lost tens of thousands of soldiers, more than 110,000 warhorses, and countless grain, weapons, materials, etc. were lost because of this battle.
The Battle of Mobei is only the largest battle in the Han-Hungarian War, the two sides have dozens of large and small wars, the more famous battles are the Battle of Longcheng, the Battle of Hexi, the Battle of Henan, the Battle of Monan, etc. The losses of the Han Dynasty in each battle are not small, the loss of numbers is at least tens of thousands of people, and the material losses cannot be counted.
In addition to the wars with the Xiongnu, the Han Dynasty had a series of other wars, such as the farthest expedition in the entire Western Han Dynasty, that is, Li Guangli's expedition to Dawan, which was carried out twice before and after, losing tens of thousands of people, horses, and countless materials, and finally successfully obtaining dawan's good horses.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty expanded his territory everywhere
Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty also launched a war to destroy the Wei dynasty of Korea, setting up the four counties of Han (Lelang County, Xuanju County, Zhenfan County, Lintun County) on the Korean Peninsula, for the first time in history, expanding the central plains political power to the Korean Peninsula, Emperor Wudi of Han also opened up the southwest, recovered the Yelang Kingdom and the Yunnan Kingdom, and also opened up Minyue, the destroyed South Vietnamese State, expanding its power to Guangxi, Guangdong, Hainan, and northern Vietnam.
The wars launched by Emperor Wudi of Han were all wars of large-scale territorial expansion, and far away from the Central Plains, the farthest war expedition distance reached more than 10,000 miles, such a long distance for logistics supplies is a huge consumption, Korea, southwest, western regions, Fujian and Vietnam are thousands of miles away from the Central Plains, Emperor Wudi of Han launched so many wars in 44 years, for personnel, materials, grain, wealth are huge consumption.
Relatively speaking, Tang Taizong's time and intensity of war were shorter than that of Emperor Wu of Han, Tang Taizong reigned for 23 years, and launched a war for 18 years, and the main foreign wars were to surrender the Liang Shidu regime, attack the Eastern Turk regime, open up the western region, defeat Tuguhun, conquer Goguryeo, destroy Xue Yantuo, and open up the desert north and south of the desert.
Tang conquest of Goguryeo and The Battle of Baekje
The time to take over the Liang Shidu regime was very short, the Tang army suppressed the territory, the Liang shidu was killed by his cousins, the rest surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, the development of the western region lasted only one year, the attack on Gao Changguo, most of the western regions surrendered, when attacking Tuguhun, the Tang army suffered greater losses, more than half of the army was killed, but it was able to defeat Tuguhun with a small number of troops, and the battle of Xue Yantuo lasted for two years.
Tang Taizong launched the longest lasting war during his reign was to conquer Goguryeo, Tang Taizong still personally led the army to fight, the first battle was fought for 10 months because it could not be captured and retreated, the Tang army invested more than 100,000 people, divided into land and water attacks, although some achievements were achieved, but did not break through Goguryeo, due to lack of logistical supplies, so withdrew, after that, the Tang army also sent a small force to attack Goguryeo, for the purpose of harassment, until 649, Tang Taizong was ready to send 300,000 troops to attack Goguryeo, Due to the death of Emperor Taizong of Tang in that year, the war was canceled, and it was not until 668 that Emperor Taizong's son Emperor Taizong of Tang destroyed Goguryeo.
The Tang army went out on a campaign
In general, the scale of any war under Tang Taizong is no more than that of Emperor Wudi of Han, whether it is the duration of the war, or the scale and intensity of the war, the war between Emperor Wudi of Han and the Xiongnu exceeds all the wars launched by Tang Taizong in his life, the war is actually fighting for resources, fighting is consumption, compared to national strength, Emperor Wudi of Han invested the most resources, so the consumption is the largest, far more than Tang Taizong, naturally the more the fight is poorer.
Second, the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty was a conscription system, and the period of Emperor Taizong of Tang was a military system.
During the Han Wudi Period, the military system was mainly a conscription system, and there was a small number of conscription systems, the characteristics of the conscription system were conscripted by the state to serve the people, military service is the legal obligation of the people, the service period is generally 2 years, if there is a continuous war, the service period will be extended, and the conscription system is provided by the state with all war resources, such as food, weapons, materials, horses, and so on.
You should know that during the war, these things are very expensive, such as horses, a horse of the Han Dynasty can be sold for a hundred catties of gold, that is, 30,000 copper coins, the Battle of Mobei, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty dispatched 140,000 horses, which is 4.2 billion copper coins, which is an astronomical amount, the Han army lost 110,000 horses in the Battle of Mobei, that is, 3.3 billion copper coins.
The Han army fought everywhere
It should be known that the annual fiscal revenue of the Western Han Dynasty is less than 10 billion copper coins, and a war consumes one-third of the financial revenue, can the Han Dynasty not be poor? As the war continued, Emperor Wudi of Han had no money to fight, so Emperor Wudi of Han thought of many ways to raise money, including selling officials and selling knights, and the war that lasted for 44 years kept the Han Dynasty encountering financial deficits, so it became poorer and poorer.
The Military System of the Tang Dynasty was mainly the Prefectural Military System, and there was also a small number of conscription systems, which were characterized by the state conscripting military households into the army, and military households could be exempted from taxes, and in the event of war, military households needed to bring their own weapons, equipment, and horses to participate in the war, and the state uniformly provided grain, so that the burden borne by the state was much lighter, even if it was a war of the same scale, the State expenditure of the Tang Dynasty was three-quarters less than that of the Han Dynasty.
In such a comparison, the han dynasty's wars lasted a long time and were intense, and the state's expenditure was more, so the more wars were fought, the poorer the Han dynasty became, the poorer the people were, the Tang Dynasty's wars lasted short and the intensity was small, the Tang Dynasty's expenditure was relatively small, plus the Tang Dynasty's foreign wars were all victorious, and after the war, the corresponding resources would be obtained, either the number of personnel increased, or there were taxes to be collected, so the tang Dynasty fought more and more strongly, the premise was to win the war.
Emperor Wu of Han and Emperor Taizong of Tang
During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, a nation waged wars against the outside world, while the Tang Taizong period was a foreign war that integrated other conquered nationalities.
After all, during the Han Wudi period, there was no integration with the surrounding ethnic groups, and the large-scale exchanges between the Chinese nation and the outside world began with the Han Wudi, but only the exchanges, and the Han Dynasty at that time did not integrate foreign nationalities.
In the Tang Dynasty, it was completely different, Tang Taizong was a very enlightened emperor, he pursued a national policy of equal treatment, the Tang Dynasty regarded any foreign ethnic group as the same status as the Han nationality, almost all foreign wars in the Tang Dynasty had the participation of foreign nationalities, and there were many famous foreign generals and ministers within the Tang Dynasty, such as the Turkic royal family Ashina Sheer and the Tiele chiefTaini HeLi during the Tang Dynasty, and the Goguryeo Gao Xianzhi, the Turkic Ge Shuhan, the Khitan Li Guangbi and so on.
The Tang Dynasty had many Hu generals
Every time the Tang Dynasty conquered a nation, it used culture to assimilate these nationalities, recruited the outstanding talents of these nationalities for their own use, and when launching a foreign war, it also joined forces with these famous foreign generals to participate in the war, and there were also a large number of Hu people in the Tang army who participated in the war, which reduced considerable human resources for the Tang Dynasty, and people were the primary productive force.
The Han Dynasty only had one source of soldiers for the Han Dynasty, and the long years of war led to the continuous decline of the Han population, there were fewer people, there was no race in the land, the soldiers were also nervous, and they were getting poorer and poorer, but the Tang Dynasty had a considerable source of soldiers, as long as the people who conquered the land, they could join the Tang army, and they were treated equally, which was very remarkable, and the larger the area conquered by the Tang Dynasty, the more sufficient the soldiers, so the stronger the fight.