Preface
The Imperial Protectorate of the Western Regions, an ancient institution that has played an important role in Chinese history. During the Western Han Dynasty, China's territory reached its peak, and the Protectorate of the Western Regions was an institution established by the government to manage and control the western frontier regions.
However, this ambitious ambition will not be achieved overnight, but will require a series of twists and turns. From the dream of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to the realization of Emperor Xuan, what kind of story happened in between?
1. Emperor Wu's ambition
In 141 BC, Liu Che, who was only 16 years old, succeeded to the throne as Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty. The young emperor was ambitious, and he was eager to expand the territory of the Han Dynasty to every corner of the Eurasian continent.
However, it was the wild force that stretched across the north that stood in his way that stood in his way, the Xiongnu. This alliance of many nomadic tribes, with their brave horsemanship and iron horsemanship, established a vast nomadic empire on the Mongolian plateau.
The Xiongnu not only repeatedly invaded the Central Plains, but also included the Western Regions as vassals, firmly controlling the transportation arteries connecting the Central Plains and the Western Regions. As soon as Emperor Wu came to power, he began to prepare to deal with this serious challenge.
In the past ten years, Emperor Wu personally planned and commanded more than ten large-scale wars against the Xiongnu. He used a number of outstanding military generals, such as Wei Qing and Huo Quai, who made many miraculous achievements on the battlefield.
In 121 B.C., the hussar general Huo Qubing marched into Hexi, defeated the Xiongnu, and obtained the Hexi Corridor for the Han Dynasty; in 119 B.C., Wei Qing and Huo Qubing led 100,000 cavalry to fight Mobei with the Xiongnu and won a complete victory. The Xiongnu were killed, the troops fled, and there was no Xiongnu court in Monan.
However, Emperor Wu realized that force alone could not completely solve the Xiongnu problem. He needed to open another battlefield in the Western Regions and cut off the foundation of the Xiongnu. Therefore, he sent Zhang Qian, a counselor from the General's Palace, to the Western Regions to seek the possibility of an alliance with the countries of the Western Regions.
Zhang Qian, whose name is Zifang, is a knowledgeable literati. He was sent to Dawan (present-day Afghanistan) twice, but failed to do so, and was instead held captive by the Huns for more than a decade.
However, this resilient messenger was not crushed by the ordeal. On the contrary, he used this period of time to familiarize himself with the geographical environment and customs of the Western Regions, and strengthened his determination to open up the road to the Western Regions for the Han Dynasty.
In 115 BC, Zhang Qian finally returned to the Han Dynasty. He reported in detail to Emperor Wu what he had seen and heard on his journey to the west, and brought back many rare and exotic objects, such as the "heavenly horses" of the Hu people and the pomegranate trees of Dawan, which made Emperor Wu greatly appreciated.
More importantly, Zhang Qian's expedition opened up the "Silk Road" connecting the Central Plains with the Western Regions, laying the foundation for the Han Dynasty's later operations in the Western Regions. Since then, the seeds of the Central Plains civilization began to spread westward, and silk, ceramics and other Central Plains products were also continuously exported to the Western Regions, exchanging local good horses, good fruits and other precious items.
Second, Emperor Xuan's ambition
After the death of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, during the reign of Emperor Zhaoxuan, the Han Dynasty implemented the policy of "recuperation and recuperation", and the national strength was restored and developed. By the middle of Emperor Xuan, the Han Dynasty was unprecedentedly strong, and its attention once again turned to the Xiongnu threat in the north.
In 68 BC, Emperor Xuan sent his squire Zheng Ji to lead an army to Tuntian in Quli (present-day Korla and Yuli West in Xinjiang). At that time, the Han Dynasty ruled the area south of the Tianshan Mountains, while the Xiongnu controlled the north of the Tianshan Mountains. The two sides fought against each other in the Western Regions, and their strength was equal.
Zheng Ji was a tenacious and resolute general. As a young man, he traveled to the Western Regions many times with the army, and he knew this strange and challenging land well. After arriving at Quli, Zheng Ji led more than 1,500 people to reclaim the land, accumulate grain and grass, and at the same time expand his influence and contact the countries of the Western Regions.
After a long period of planning, finally in 62 BC, he led 30,000 Western Regions coalition troops and 1,500 Tuntian soldiers to attack Cheshi Kingdom (northwest of present-day Turpan, Xinjiang) on the pretext of the attack on the Han Dynasty caravan by King Cheshi. The king of the chariot was powerless to resist and had to lead his people to surrender. Zheng Ji took advantage of the victory to pursue and advanced Tuntian to the Cheshi, so that the Han Dynasty's military forces successfully infiltrated the Xiongnu's sphere of influence.
The Huns smelled danger and sent a large army to counterattack. The two sides fought fiercely at Jiaohe City (northwest of present-day Turpan). Although the Han army was small in number, with its elite combat quality and tenacious will to fight, it repelled the Xiongnu attacks again and again, until the cavalry reinforcements of the four counties of Hexi arrived.
Just as the two sides were facing off, a power struggle broke out within the Xiongnu. After the death of Shan Yu Xulu Quanqu, the son of King Zuoxian, who was supposed to succeed to the throne, was excluded and had to lead more than 10,000 troops to surrender to Zheng Ji, indicating that he would join the Han Dynasty.
Zheng Ji personally led the army to meet him, escorted the king of Rizhu and others all the way to Chang'an, and killed all the escapees on the way. King Rizhu was named the Marquis of Guide by Emperor Xuan and placed in Beijing. With the submission of the king of Richai, the Xiongnu were responsible for managing the Western Regions, and the Xiongnu withdrew from the Western Regions, and the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains were unified under the jurisdiction of the Han Dynasty.
3. The Protectorate of the Western Regions
In 60 B.C., Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty issued an edict to officially set up the Western Regions Protectorate, with a jurisdiction of 2 million square kilometers. The Protector of the Western Regions was the highest military and political governor sent by the Han Dynasty to manage the Western Regions, with the rank equivalent to that of the county taishou, and ruled over more than 30 countries east of Dawan and south of Wusun.
Its main responsibilities are to protect the territory and the people, coordinate the contradictions and disputes between the countries in the Western Regions, maintain the local social order in the Western Regions, and ensure the smooth flow of the Silk Road. The kings and key officials of the Western Regions were given seals by the Han Dynasty, marking the beginning of the Han Dynasty's central power to exercise sovereignty over this vast land.
Zheng Ji became the first protector of the Western Regions. In addition to directly leading the Han garrison, he could also approve the transfer of troops from the Western Regions states at the imperial court. With his military prowess and in-depth knowledge of the Western Regions, Zheng Ji quickly pacified the turbulent situation in the Western Regions and restored stability to the region.
The establishment of the Western Regions Protectorate marked an overwhelming victory of the Han Dynasty in the geopolitical game with the Xiongnu. Since then, the Western Regions have been officially incorporated into the territory of the Han Dynasty and have become part of Chinese civilization.
At the same time, the developed agriculture, handicrafts, and commerce of the Han Dynasty also began to be introduced to the Western Regions, increasing the level of local productivity. The handicrafts and means of production such as silk fabrics and ironware produced in the interior have greatly improved the quality of life of the people in the Western Regions.
In turn, the culture, dance, and crops of the Western Regions, such as flax, beans, and carrots, as well as fine livestock breeds such as camels and horses, were also brought to the Central Plains, enriching the connotation of Chinese culture and adding luster to Chinese agriculture and diet.
The economic and cultural exchanges between the two places were unprecedentedly active, and the regional economy of the Western Regions was also integrated into the entire economic system of the Han Dynasty. Since then, the countries of the Western Regions have been "unhappy with the Huns" and "Muhan".
epilogue
A tribe that had once been nomadic in the steppes was eventually completely defeated under the iron rule of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, while a dynasty in the Central Plains, once an agrarian civilization, expanded its territory into the hinterland of Eurasia. All this is due to a magnificent iron-blooded epic.
This iron-blooded epic witnessed how the Central Plains Dynasty, an agrarian civilization, won the battle to the death against the nomads and expanded its territory to the hinterland of the Eurasian continent. It also enlightens us that only by having the courage to forge ahead can we stand tall in the long river of history and continue to write glories.