Recently, a small short film called "The Last Transfer of Datang Mobei" caught fire, although this small film is an advertising film, but it has made the feeling of a movie, and even when watching this film, many people can't help but cry.
Compared with the so-called "sincere works" that claim to have invested hundreds of millions of dollars and used many big stars, this small film is more like a movie and has a spiritual core than them.
Some friends may not have seen this short video, here is a brief introduction.
The short film is set in 790 AD, during the reign of Emperor Dezong of the Tang Dynasty in the Western Regions.
At this time, the two major capitals of Anxi and Beiting had been isolated from the interior for 25 years, and only the two isolated cities of Guizi and Xizhou were left.
One day, Guo Yuanzheng of the Ninth Cavalry Regiment of the Xuange Battalion of the Wuwei Army in Guizi City led his troops to Xizhou City with military expenses to deliver military expenses to the Tang army here, but encountered enemies on the way, except for Guo Yuanzheng, the rest of the soldiers were all killed.
At this time, a tramp looked for money and food on the corpse of The Tang Army, but was captured by the surviving Guo Yuanzheng, and the two traveled together to Xizhou; on the way, they encountered both merchants and thieves who were concerned about the Tang Dynasty. At the same time, the identity of this tramp is actually the Tang Army, after the loss of his Dock Fort, he was ordered to break through with the family letters of the soldiers, but he had no money and no food and became a beggar.
After the two encountered thieves, they killed each other with fewer enemies, and Guo Yuanzheng was also unfortunately killed; the wandering Tang army Lu XIV finally arrived at Xizhou City with military expenses and completed the task, and the Tang army here was already full of white hair...
After the introduction, this article will combine this short film to help you understand the decline and fall of the Tang army in the Western Regions after the Anshi Rebellion.
The opening of the film directly points out: The Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty Mobei garrison was transferred back to Chang'an to counter the rebellion. The mobei here refers to the western region, which was called moraine west during the Tang Dynasty.
After Emperor Taizong of Tang pacified Gaochangguo, he established the Anxi Capital Protectorate in his homeland, and in its heyday, in addition to its inherent jurisdiction, it also set up sixteen capital governorates in the sixteen kingdoms west of Khotan and east of Persia, and set up sixteen governorates, ruling over eighty prefectures, one hundred and ten counties, and one hundred and twenty-six military palaces.
During the Wu Zetian period, he also built the Beiting Capital Protectorate, and divided the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains with the Anxi Capital Protectorate.
During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, the Anxi Jiedushi envoy and the Beiting Jiedushi envoy were established, with 24,000 troops and 20,000 troops respectively;
After the Outbreak of the Anshi Rebellion, Li Siye, the deputy envoy of Anxi Jiedu, sent five thousand troops to the battlefield, Sima Li Qijun led seven thousand troops, and Ma Phosphorus led three thousand elite troops back to the interior to suppress the rebellion, and never returned.
In 766, taking advantage of the period when the main forces of Hexi and Longyou of the Tang Dynasty were also in the interior to suppress rebellion, the Tubo army completely occupied the Hexi Corridor, and since then the Tang Dynasty's inland and western regions have been cut off.
The lone army in the Western Regions had less than 30,000 people to face ten times the number of troops attacking, and after 25 years of bloody fighting, it still held out.
The short film said that there were still two cities left at that time, which was actually an artistic exaggeration, when the Guizi of an Xizhi and the Xizhou of Beiting Zhi were still in the hands of the Tang Army, in addition to many small towns.
Just a few years before that, the Tang Dynasty monk Wukong had spent a long time in the Western Regions.
In the Book of Goku's Entry into the Book, it is recorded:
The book has a Tang manuscript of the sixteenth year of the Gregorian calendar, and due to the isolation of the western region from the interior, it does not have this era name at all
Gradually, when Wang Pei Lengleng, the town guard envoy Luyang, stayed in May; the second as for Khotan, Fan Yun Qu Sa Na, Wang Wei Chi Yao, the town guard envoy Zheng Zhao extended to Stay in June; the second Wei Rong City was also known as the Bowl Huan Kingdom, Zheng Yue Was afraid of the country, the town guard envoy Su Cen; the second according to the city of Sedder envoy Jia Yi, the second to Anxi, the four towns Jiedu made Kaifu Yi and the third division pick up the right scattered riding Chang Shi Anxi Dadu Protector and Imperial Master Guo Xin.
After that, Goku lived in QuzhiCheng for about a year; the next year, he went to the Uqi Kingdom and met yang Riyou, the town guard, and lived for three months; later he went to Beiting and met Most of the Beiting To protect Yang Xigu. Goku was invited to translate buddhist scriptures. Later, when the Tang Dynasty Xuanwei envoy Duan Xiuming came to the North Garden, he returned to Chang'an with the envoys taking a detour to the Uighurs.
The year Goku arrives in Chang'an is 790 AD, the year the story takes place in the short film.
The general Guo mentioned in the film refers to Guo Ziyi's nephew Guo Xin, who during the Anshi Rebellion, was the general of Ren Yunli and the general of Zuo Wuwei, who later went to Anxi to patrol, and then led the Anxi army to guard the western region.
After the Hexi Corridor was cut off, the connection between the interior and the western region was severed, and most of the emissaries who traveled to and from the road were sacrificed in the road.
In the third year of the Tang Dynasty (768), the Tang army in the Western Regions made contact with the Tang Central Committee.
In the seventh year of the Gregorian calendar (772), Emperor Tang Dynasty's "Edict to the Generals of Anxi and Beiting" said that it "does not move China, does not work hard to help the teachers, crosses thousands of miles, and has the response of the head and tail of the auxiliary car." Yi Wei Yi Huai, Zhang I right tucked, Ling Zhen in the Absolute Domain, Lie Cut in Xi Xian.
But the brief contact was then interrupted, and the Tang army in the Western Regions could not even figure out the change in the era name in the interior. For example, the book in the previous article has a manuscript of the sixteenth year of the Gregorian calendar, which should be 781 according to the year.
But in fact, at this time, Emperor Tang of Tang had already died, and there was no such era name at all, and at this time Tang Dezong had already succeeded to the throne, and the year name was the second year of Jianzhong.
In this year, emissaries sent by the Tang army in the Western Regions detoured to Chang'an, which made it clear that the new emperor had ascended the throne.
Tang Dezong was overjoyed to learn that the Tang army in the Western Regions was still holding out, and ordered all the garrisons to be promoted to the seventh rank in a row. Among them, Li Yuanzhong was the protector of the Northern Garden, and the envoy of the Beiting Festival, and Guo Xin was the envoy of the Anxi Metropolitan Protector and the Four Towns Festival, and later added guo Xin to the titles of King of Wuwei County, Kaifu Yi Tongsan Division, Inspector Right Scattered Riding Changshi, Shangshu Left Servant and Imperial Historian.
However, such a connection was not long-lasting, and then the western region became an isolated island again.
In the film, Guo Yuanzheng said that this time should be the eleventh year of Jianzhong! In fact, Datang also did not have this era name, when Tang Dezong had already changed the era name, 790 was the sixth year of The Tang Dynasty, and the year number of Jianzhong was only four years.
However, the Western Regions did not know these circumstances, and the coins it minted were still for Datang Jianzhong.
In the history of Chinese currency, "Datang Jianzhong Qian" is very famous, which is not only a testimony to the lonely persistence of the Tang Army in the Western Regions, but also symbolizes a spirit of never retreating until death.
As Guo Yuanzheng, a veteran soldier in the short film, said: Even if you change a cart of grain and grass, a knife, and an arrow, you must let the enemy know: Here is my Datang!
And he also knows that for those military, civilians and businessmen who fully support data, this money does not play much substantive role, but the word "Datang" on it symbolizes that the rule of the Tang Dynasty is still there, and the Tang army is still there!
After the veteran Guo Yuan was killed on the way, The Xuanwei army Lu XIV successfully arrived at Xizhou City and delivered the general Fee. He said a sentence: "The Ninth Cavalry Team of the Xuange Battalion of the Great Tang Wuwei Army, all reported." The real Ninth Cavalry Had All been sacrificed, but at this time, Lu XIV represented them, because he had all the spirit of this Tang army on him.
The short film then ends in the marching ranks of the white-haired Tang army, but the story does not end, because 790 AD is the last year of the Tang army's garrison in Xizhou.
A year earlier, Tubo, together with Gelulu and the White-Eyed Turks, had launched a major attack on Beiting.
At this time, General Li Yuanzhong had died, and the Beiting Capital was taken over by General Yang Xianggu. The Tang army of Beiting and the Uighur army joined forces against the Tubo coalition army, but unfortunately lost the battle, Tingzhou was lost, and Yang Xianggu led the Tang army of 2,000 people to retreat to Xizhou.
In the film, after Lu XIV's general Fei Arrived in Xizhou City, there is a scene of the Tang Army brigade marching at night, which is actually the last time the Tang Army in beiting went to battle.
In this great battle, the Tang army and the Uighurs united again, but they were still defeated. The Tubo army was also severely damaged and forced to recruit tens of thousands of troops from the distant state of Nanzhao to replenish the losses.
On the Uighur side, due to repeated defeats, coupled with the continuous replacement of its khans. In order to shirk the responsibility for the defeat, the unified general Yang Xiangjie Gangasi lured the general Yang Xianggu to the camp and killed him, and there was no Tang army in the Northern Court after that.
In the past, it was believed that after 790 AD, the Tang army in the Western Regions completely disappeared. In fact, although the Beiting court fell at that time, General Guo Xin still insisted on staying in Guizi.
A Chinese inscription of the tenth year of Tang Zhenyuan (794) was found in Cave 223 of the Kyzyl Caves in Xinjiang, which is the last remain of the last surviving Anxi defenders, but after this, the Tang army still held out.
So, what year did Tang Jun finally hold out? At present, the academic community generally believes that it was the third year of Tang Xianzong's reign (808).
There is such a written record in the stele of the Nine Uighur Khans:
The Tubo army attacked Guizi, the Heavenly Khan led the army to rescue, and for a while it was extinguished, the corpse was smelly and inhuman, so it built the Jingguan, and there were no embers.
This was the reign of the Uighur Tengri Nohe Khan, who ruled from 805 to 808. Although the inscription records a great victory for the Uighur army, I am afraid that the situation is not so optimistic, because the khan died shortly after the great war.
Although the Tubo army suffered heavy casualties, it finally captured Guizi City, at this time, 42 years had passed since the western region was isolated, and 18 years had passed since the fall of Beiting.
The Yunlu general Guo Xin, who had rushed to Anxi to inspect it with great vigor, was already full of white hair at this time, and the soldiers under his command were no different, the white-headed soldiers were trapped in the isolated city, and they would rather die than defend the last piece of Tang land in Anxi. This is probably not only a miracle in the history of world wars, but also one of the most tragic defensive battles in history.
And how the last battle was fought, the famous Tang Dynasty poet Yuan Shu's poem "And Li School Book New Title Lefu Twelve Songs • Binding Rongren" may give us the answer.
The poem tells the tragic story of a former Anxi soldier who fled to Tang after being captured by the Tubo army, but was regarded as a prisoner by the Tang army.
The poem is longer and excerpts from the key points:
The young man followed his father to Anxi, and the river Wei Guasha looked at it.
Tianbao has not been chaotic for several years, and the four corners of the wolf star are vigorous.
The Central Plains was plagued by border defense, and if there were jackals coming to cut them down.
The horses are full of flesh and blood, and the flesh of the soldiers is full of controversy.
In the middle of the night, the city destroyed the geese and geese, and the wife cried out without stopping.
The gloomy temple did not dare to rely on it, and the brittle thin river ice was safe and transgressive.
Deep in the thorns, the front is trapped and the back is buried.
PingMingbo rode on all sides, and the ancient tomb was deep in the forest.
The young man was captured as a prisoner and the old man stayed in the pocket.
The black kites are full of wild corpses, and the buildings are suddenly gray walls.
In the middle of the night, the Tubo army invaded the city, and the young captives were shaved off their beards and taken as slaves; the elderly cut off their feet to let them stay. The city was littered with corpses, and the city's buildings were reduced to ashes.
In the book "Anxi and Beiting: A Study of the Border Politics of the Western Provinces of the Tang Dynasty", it is believed that the Yin Sen Temple refers to the KumuTula Thousand Buddha Cave, and the brittle river ice refers to the Weigan River; and the deep thorns are similar to the environment of the former trapped Tribulus Terrestris and the poplar forest.
Therefore, it is judged that this Tang jun was captured when the city of Guizi was broken.
At this point, the last stronghold of the Tang army in the Western Regions was lost, and the next time the army of the Central Plains Dynasty set foot on this land, it would be many years later.