There are friends who comment, read your article, the historical roots are not bad, so there is no need to write too bluntly. This is really good advice, before writing things, always hesitate in the straightforward and complex, write too deep for fear of no one to read, write too shallow and always feel not enough fun.
After all, the Central Plains Dynasty and other world powers really did a real battle, so there were many discussants, but to be honest, this war was exaggerated a lot, and even made a bunch of non-existent misunderstandings.
First, the impact of the Battle of Qiros was very small
The Central Plains Dynasty's disregard for this war, the Old Book of Tang, the New Book of Tang and other orthodox historical materials can be seen, even do not bother to remember, "Zizhi Tongjian" is also a few strokes, gao Xianzhi, who lost the battle, returned to Chang'an Miansheng, still added officials to the knighthood, it seems that he is the victor.
Old Book of Tang Gao Xianzhi Biography: Nine years, the generals fought against the shi kingdom, pingzhi, and won the return of its king... He entered the dynasty, worshiped the fu yi tongsan division, and sought out Wuwei Taishou and Hexi Jiedushi.
Why is this so, because the strategic goal of the Tang Dynasty has been achieved, the Shi Kingdom has been destroyed, the kings have been captured, and the losses of the Anxi army are not large, and they have not been mentioned, otherwise Gao Xianzhi will not be added to the ranks.
Second, the Tang army was not numerous and the losses were not large
There are many theories on the Internet about the number of Gao Xianzhi troops, about three, one said 140,000, one said 70,000, and one said 40,000, it is said that the source is the Arab record. I don't know Arabic, and I don't have to read it, because their so-called records are all private notes, and their utility is the same as what we commonly call wild history, all relying on hearsay, and can't be taken seriously.
Not to mention 140,000, 40,000 Tang troops are exaggerated, that is an expedition to Central Asia, separated by thousands of miles, not to mention the entire Anxi Capital Protectorate garrison is only 28,000 people, where did Gao Xianzhi come from with 40,000 expeditionary troops?
Old Book of Tang: King Xiao Bolu was recruited by Tubo, his wife was a princess, and more than 20 countries in the northwest were all controlled by Tubo, and their contributions were incomprehensible. Later, Tian Renhuan and Gai Jiayun were tired of asking for it, but it was not successful, and Emperor Xuanzong specially xun Xianzhi used Ma Buwanren as a camp festival envoy to beg for it.
A few years ago, Tang Xuanzong ordered Gao Xianzhi to expedition to Xiao Bolu, and only 10,000 Tang troops were brought with him.
Little Buru is today's Gilgit, not in Afghanistan, but in northern Pakistan, west of the Gulling Ridge. Shiguo was one of the nine surnames of Zhaowu, with its capital in present-day Tashkent, the capital of Tajikistan, and the city of Tiros in Taraz, northeast of Tashkent, on the border of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
In terms of distance, Shi Guo is farther away than Xiao Bolu, and Xiao Bolu has already surrendered to Tubo, tubo is the number one enemy in the middle of the Tang Dynasty, and the new and old Tang books do not even call it Xiao Bolu there, but directly call it Tubo.
The main city of Xiao Bolu, called Lianyun Fort, is located in the Onion Ridge and is heavily defended.
Old Book of Tang: On the thirteenth day of July, it will be held at Lianyun Fort in Tubo. There were 1,000 soldiers in the fort, and 8,000 or 9,000 soldiers in the fifteen miles south of the city because of the mountain as a fence. There is the Po le river under the city, and the water is not crossed.
Fortified the city and strong reinforcements, Tang Xuanzong sent 10,000 expeditionary troops to fight a simple stone country, send tens of thousands, with what?
Third, the opponent of the Battle of Qiros is not a black-clad eater
How many people did Gao Xianzhi bring? This also starts from the reasons for the Battle of Shiguo. There are many reasons on the Internet, such as Gao Xianzhi's greed for unauthorized troops, and some saying that black-clad food tried to invade the Tang Dynasty, and Gao Xianzhi knew in advance that he sent troops in advance to eliminate hidden dangers.
This is actually not worth refuting, no matter whether Gao Xianzhi is a great greed, but the Battle of Shiguo was agreed by Tang Xuanzong, otherwise where did Gao Xianzhi come from?
The invasion of black clothes is even more absurd. The battle of TheRos took place in 751, and in 750 Abu Abbas Al-Safah became caliph, and its opponent, the Umayyad Dynasty (white-clad eclipse), had not been completely wiped out, and abbasids had invaded the east.
The true unification of the Abbasid dynasty did not take until the second caliph, Abu Djrfal Abbas (also known as Mansour), who ascended to the throne in 754.
This is also the biggest misunderstanding of the Battle of Qiluo, and the Tang army should be a coalition of Central Asian tribes in Khorasan.
Khorasan is a collective name for Central Asia, including Iran and Afghanistan, and has been administered by the governor since the destruction of the Persian Sassanid Dynasty.
The governor of Khorasan, who was called Abu Muslim, was the founding father of the Abbasid dynasty, a powerful and ambitious man. Let's not say if he has the ability to invade the East, his mind is not here at all, but in Baghdad.
There are not many specific reasons to say, in short, there are many problems within the black-clad eater, and the governor of Khorasan has more than half of his energy focused on the court struggle, and it is difficult to say whether the Battle of Qiros has been agreed to by him.
This judgment was proved afterwards, and even if it won, the big food did not take the opportunity to invade the east. A few years later, the black-clad food and the Tang Dynasty were constantly in contact, and the exchanges were close, and many Arabs came from afar, and once they stayed, they did not leave, and continuously carried the Central Plains culture to the west.
For example, the late Tang Dynasty poet Li Xun (Of Persian descent), it is said that the Chinese monastic jindanshu was transmitted to Arabia, became alchemy, and then spread to Europe, and became chemistry. To this day, you can still see a considerable trace of the Central Plains culture in Arabic alchemy, such as the concept of the five elements, and then the chemical elements named after China.
Even in 757, at the invitation of the Tang Dynasty, the black-clad dashi sent troops to the western region to fight against the rebels of An Shi. This shows that at least from the perspective of the two governments, they did not trust the battle of Qiluos at all, let alone think that it belonged to the confrontation between the two countries.
Looking at the map, it is clear that Qiluo is far away from Datang and the black-clad food, who will bother to run so far to fight, the battle of Qiluo is completely an accidental coincidence.
4. Ning Yuanguo and Gelulu
So how exactly did the Battle of Tiros come about? Our historical records have only one sentence, shi guo has no subjects, which means disobedience.
This disobedience is too extensive, even if it refuses to pay tribute to the subject, as long as it does not invade as a disaster and does not collude with Tubo, Datang has no need to fight, because it is too far away, the expedition is too expensive, and the benefits are not proportional.
In recent years, Turpan has found a number of documents, which are records of the reception staff of the Jiaohe County Post Office, and the time is the Tianbao Decade, that is, July-October 751, which coincided with the period of the Qiluo War.
Jiaohe County is today's Turpan, so this batch of documents is also named "Tang Tianbao Ten Years of Jiaohe County Guest Envoy Volume", which records that a large number of important officials from Ningyuan State came to visit the Tang, including a prince.
Ning Yuanguo is Bahanna.
New Book of Tang: Ning Yuan, Ben Ba Khanna, or Cymbal Khan, Yuan Wei shi said broken Lorna. Go to Kyoshi eight thousand miles. Juxi Fengcheng, north of the Zhenzhu River.
Does it feel familiar to see The Khan? That's right, Gao Xianzhi sent an army to Shi Guo, that is, to unite the two departments of Bahanna and Gelulu.
Gelulu is a nomadic people west of the Altai Mountains in northern Xinjiang, known as Dawan in ancient times, located just south of shiguo, which is a neighbor of shiguo.
The reason why The name of The Khan is Ningyuan is because Tang Xuanzong Tianbao married a princess in the past three years and gave her the surname of Wang Dou (Dou is a foreign family of the Tang Dynasty, Empress Gaozu Dou), so this Khan is the hardcore little brother of the Tang Dynasty.
Judging from the Turpan documents, in just three months, Ning Yuanguo sent 8 emissaries to the Tang Dynasty, except once when the prince led the way, the rest were all generals, and they were the chief generals.
This is obviously not a tribute, the tribute is not so frequent, and there is no need to send a general.
The "History of the Political Relations between Tang and Tubo" writes that the Arab "Quanshi" says that Ningyuan guo and Shi Guo had a feud, and the reason why Gao Xianzhi attacked Shi Guo was that the Tang Emperor granted Shi Guo's request.
What resentment did Ning Yuanguo and Shi Guo have? I don't know, but it's normal, the two countries are next to each other, no contradiction is a strange thing. Ever since Ning Yuan hugged Datang's thigh, he had tirelessly asked Datang to lend a helping hand to destroy Shi Guo.
With this understood, everything became easy.
Fifth, all the truth
"Old Book of Tang, Biography of Li Siye": In the beginning, the king of Xianzhi Qiaoshi was about to make peace, but the soldiers attacked him, killed his old and weak, captured his ding zhuang, took the golden treasure and the camel horse, etc., and the people of the country cried, because they plundered the stone king's east, and offered it to quexia. His son fled and complained to the Hu state. The crowd is angry and conspires with the big food to attack the four towns. Xian Zhi was afraid, and led 20,000 troops deep into Hu Di to fight with the Great Food, and Xian Zhi was defeated. In the night, the two armies were dissolved, and the Xianzhi people were killed by the great food, and the survivors were only a few thousand.
Gao Xianzhi attacked Shi Guo in a big way, and Shi Guo immediately surrendered, but after the surrender, Gao Xianzhi carried out a massacre, and the Shi prince fled, crying for help from other tribes, so the Central Asian tribes formed a coalition army.
Li Siye said that they were trying to attack the four towns of Anxi, and it was true from the position, and that Qiluo was not far from Shanye City, so the Tang army sent troops in advance to crush the enemy's plan. I have already refuted this statement before, the black-clad food has not yet been unified, self-care, where is the energy to invade the east? This was just the excuse Gao Xianzhi had found for himself.
Obviously, the most direct cause of the Battle of Qiluo was the killing of Gao Xianzhi.
There is a contradiction here, the Arabic record says that Gao Xianzhi killed the king of Shiguo, while China's history books say that Gao Xianzhi kidnapped the king and returned to take prisoners. This contradiction is very simple, there are two kings in the Shi kingdom, most of the tribes in the Western Regions implement a double-king system, Gao Xianzhi killed one and captured one, and there is no need to elaborate.
In the later period of Tang Xuanzong, he had a big problem, liked to pick things up, and had the ambition to annex the four seas, so he often encouraged the border soldiers to find nothing to do. It was not surprising that he did not deal with Gao Xianzhi, but the killing was unknown, and it had always been tabooed by the commanders of the army, and Shi Guo had already surrendered, so why did Gao Xianzhi do such a stupid thing?
The massacre was Ning Yuanguo's idea, and Shi Guo's surrender disappointed them, they came to take revenge, preferring to see the enemy dead.
Ning Yuanguo was a relative of the emperor, they were the closest to Shi Guo, normally speaking, they should also send the most troops, and they were allowed to pay high bribes, no matter from any point of view, Gao Xianzhi had to sell this face.
You can't let people run away in vain, and Tang Xuanzong is encouraging about border disputes, and if he doesn't agree, he won't be able to go back and sue you, saying that you are a tiger.
So Gao Xianzhi ordered a massacre, Shi Guo was slaughtered, his prince fled out for help, and the tribe formed a coalition to go to Qiluo, and Gao Xianzhi could only face the battle with a hard scalp.
On the eastern border of the capital of Shiguo, not far from the important town of Anxi, Gao Xianzhi lied that the great food invaded the east, but in fact, he and Ning Yuanguo had gone too far, and the people had come to take revenge.
Of course, Ning Yuanguo wanted to send troops, but he was afraid that it was not enough, and he pulled Ge Luolu again. Ge Lulu only went to see the face of the Tang Dynasty, and within a few days of fighting, Ge Lulu figured out the origin of the matter and was shot himself.
The Gelug were also a nomadic tribe, and the nomadic peoples had very similar moral values, especially disdain for disobedience.
After the surrender of Shi Guo, he was slaughtered, which seriously violated Ge Lulu's morality, so Ge Lulu turned around and rebelled, the Tang army won first and then lost, and Gao Xianzhi only returned to Chang'an with more than a few thousand people.
Sixth, the real number of Tang troops
According to relevant records, the number of Arab coalition troops exceeded 100,000, and the Gao Xianzhi coalition army was 20,000, of which the Gelulu army had at least 5,000, that is, in fact, the Tang army was 15,000 and 100,000, and the real Tang army in this one could not survive 10,000.
Although the Central Plains Dynasty did not directly fight with the world powers, related examples of warfare abounded, such as the remnants of the Xiongnu who were beaten untenable by the Han Dynasty, which ran to Europe and set off the disaster of Attila, and the Turks who were driven away by the Tang Dynasty also dominated Europe. Even the Ōtsuki clan, which was untenable in the western region, ran to India to establish the Guishan Empire, so the combat effectiveness of the Central Plains Dynasty was beyond doubt.
Quite simply, science and technology and economy are the core, and the Tang Dynasty's economy and science and technology are the best in the world, how can it not be beaten.
Taking Gao Xianzhi's expeditionary force as an example, why do I always emphasize that there are not many of them, because this army is so luxurious that even the infantry ride horses.
Old Book of Tang Gao Xianzhi Biography: Shi Infantry all had private horses, from the fifteenth day of Anxi's journey to the city.
The infantry were also equipped with private horses, rode horses to rush the road, dismounted and fought, and in 15 days they could rush from Anxi to the city of Aksu (Aksu, Xinjiang).
And the infantry also has more than one horse, because there are many supplies, one horse carries materials, one horse rides, and as for the cavalry, there are more, at least three.
Datang's strange knife is not to say, in fact, this war can not play a big role, hand-to-hand combat is a last resort, killing a thousand enemies and losing eight hundred.
The real firepower of the Tang army was still strong bows and hard crossbows, and the other point was the Bright Light Armor. Not explained here, interested can check out Li Wei's Law of War and related Tang Dynasty war materials.
Firepower is stronger than yours, armor is better than yours, and even horses are not necessarily less than you.
Think about how Datang relied on 28,000 people to suppress the entire western region, and the Turkic tribes did not know how much stronger than the Central Asian tribes.
If these 20,000 were all Tang soldiers, it would not be the result at all, or if Gelulu did not rebel, the Central Asian tribal alliance would have no chance of winning.
The Battle of TheRos was an accident and didn't tell anything.