|
In 90 AD, General Dou Xian had encamped at Wuwei.[1] He sent Deputy Cononel Yan Pan with 2000 light cavalry to strike down the final Xiongnu defenses in the Western Regions, capturing Yiwu and receiving the surrender of Jushi.[1] Major Liang Feng was dispatched to capture the Northern Chanyu, which he did, but he was forced to leave him behind as Dou Xian had already broken camp and returned to China.[1] In the tenth month of 90 AD, Dou Xian sent Liang Feng and Ban Gu to help the Northern Chanyu make preparations for his planned travel as he wished to submit to the Han court in person the following month.[106] However, this never came to be as Dou Xian dispatched General Geng Kui and Shizi of the Southern Xiongnu with 8000 light cavalry to attack the Northern Chanyu, encamped at Heyuan (河雲), in 90 AD.[106] Once the Han forces arrived at Zhuoye Mountains, they left their heavy equipment behind to launch a swift pincer movement towards Heyuan.[106] Geng Kui attacked from the east via the Hang'ai Mountains (杭愛山) and Ganwei River (甘微河), while Shizi attacked from the west via the Western Lake (西海).[106] The Northern Chanyu—said to be greatly shocked by this—launched a counter attack, but he was forced to flee as he left his family and seal behind.[106] The Han killed 8000 men and captured several thousands.[106] In 91 AD, General Geng Kui and Major Ren Shang with an light cavalry of 800 advanced further via the Juyan Gol (Juyansai) into the Altai Mountains, where the Northern Chanyu had encamped.[106] At the Battle of Altai Mountains, they massacred 5000 Xiongnu men and pursued the Northern Chanyu until he escaped to an unknown place.[106] By 91 AD, the last remnants of the Northern Xiongnu had migrated west towards the Ili River valley.[107] The Southern Xiongnu—who had been situated in the Ordos region since about 50 AD—remained within the territory of the Han empire as semi-independent tributaries.[108] They were dependent to the Han empire for their livelihood as indicated by a memorial[f] from the Southern Chanyu to the Han court in 88 AD.[109] Following the military successes against the Xiongnu, General Ban Chao was promoted to the position of Protector General and stationed in Kucha in 91 AD.[110] At the remote frontier, Ban Chao reaffirmed absolute Han control over the Western Regions from 91 AD onwards.[102] Impact Military The statue Horse Stepping on a Xiongnu Soldier (馬踏匈奴), dated to the Western Han period, from the tomb of General Huo Qubing near present-day Xi'an Chao Cuo was one of the first known ministers to suggest to Emperor Wen that Han armies should have a cavalry-centric army to counter the nomadic Xiongnu to the north, since Han armies were still primarily infantry with cavalries and chariots playing a supporting role.[111] He advocated the policy of "using barbarians to attack barbarians", that is, incorporating surrendered Xiongnu and other nomadic tribes into the Han military, a suggestion that was eventually adopted, especially with the establishment of dependent states of different nomads living on the Han empire's frontiers.[112] In a memorandum entitled Guard the Frontiers and Protect the Borders that he presented to the throne in 169 BC, Chao compared the relative strengths of Xiongnu and Han battle tactics.[113] In regards to the Han armies, Chao deemed the Xiongnu horsemen better prepared for rough terrain due to their better horses, better with horseback archery, and better able to withstand the elements and harsh climates.[114][115] However, on level plains, he regarded Xiongnu cavalry inferior especially when faced with Han shock cavalry and chariots as the Xiongnu are easily dispersed.[114] He emphasized that the Xiongnu were incapable of countering the superior equipment and weaponry.[114] He also noted that in contrast the Han armies were better capable to fight in disciplined formations.[114] According to Chao, the Xiongnu were also defenseless against coordinated onslaughts of arrows—especially long-ranged and in unison—due to their inferior leather armor and wooden shields.[114][115] When dismounted in close combat, he believed that the Xiongnu, lacking the ability as infantry, would be decimated by Han soldiers.[114][115] During Emperor Jing's reign, the Han court initiated breeding programs for military horses and established 36 large government pastures in the border regions, extending from Liaodong to Beidi.[116] In preparation for the military use of the horses, the best breeds were selected to partake military training.[116] The Xiongnu frequently raided the Han government pastures, because the military horses were of great strategic importance for the Han military against them.[116] By the time of Emperor Wu's reign, the horses amounted to well over 450,000.[116] At the start of Emperor Wu's reign, the Han empire had a standing army comprising 400,000 troops, which included 80,000 to 100,000 cavalrymen, essential to the future campaigns against the Xiongnu.[117] However, by 124 BC, that number had grown to a total of 600,000 to 700,000 troops, including 200,000 to 250,000 cavalrymen.[117] In order to sustain the military expeditions against the Xiongnu and its resulting conquests, Emperor Wu and his economic advisors undertook many economic and financial reforms, which proved to be highly successful.[117] In 14 AD, Yan Yu presented the difficulties of conducting extended military campaigns against the Xiongnu.[59] For a 300-day campaign, each Han soldier needed 360 liters of dried rice.[59] These heavy supplies had to be carried by oxen, but experience showed that an ox could only survive for about 100 days in the desert.[59] Once in the territory of the Xiongnu, the harsh weather would also prove to be very inhospitable for the Han soldiers, who could not carry enough fuel for the winter.[59] For these reasons, according to Yan Yu, military expeditions seldom lasted longer than 100 days.[59] For their western campaigns against the Xiongnu, the Han armies exacted their food supplies from the Western Regions.[118] This placed a heavy burden to the western states, thus the Han court decided to initiate agricultural garrisons in Bugur and Kurla.[118] During Emperor Zhao's reign (r. 87–74 BC), the agricultural garrison in Bugur was expanded to accommodate the heavy Han military presence which was the natural result of the empire's westward expansion.[118] During Emperor Xuan's reign (r. 74–49 BC), the farming soldiers in Kurla were increased to 1500 under Protector-General Zheng Ji's administration in order to support the military expeditions against the Xiongnu in Turfan.[118] Immediately after the Han conquest of Turfan, Zheng established an agricultural garrison in Turfan.[118] Even though, the Xiongnu unsuccessfully tried to prevent the Han from making Turfan into a major economic base by military force and threats.[118] Diplomacy The Western Regions in the 1st century BC In 162 BC, the Xiongnu troops of Laoshang Chanyu had invaded and driven the Yuezhi from their homeland; the Chanyu had the Yuezhi monarch executed and his skull fashioned into a drinking cup.[57][119] Thus the Han court decided it was favorable to send an envoy to the Yuezhi to secure a military alliance.[120] In 138 BC, the diplomat Zhang Qian left with an envoy and headed towards the Yuezhi encampments.[57][121] However, the envoy was captured by the Xiongnu and held hostage.[57][120] A decade went by, until Zhang Qian and some of his convoy escaped.[57][120] They travelled to the territories of Ferghana (Dayuan 大宛), Soghdiana (Kangju 康居), and Bactria (Daxia 大夏), ultimately finding the Yuezhi forces north of the Amu River.[120] Despite their efforts, the envoy could not secure a military alliance.[66][120] As the Yuezhi had settled in those new lands for quite some time, they had almost no desire to wage a war against the Xiongnu.[66][120] In 126 BC, Zhang Qian headed to the Hexi Corridor in order to return to his nation.[32] While traveling through the area, he was captured by the Xiongnu, only to escape a year later and return to China in 125 BC.[47] The Xiongnu attempted to negotiate peace several times, but every time the Han court would accept nothing less than tributary submission of the Xiongnu.[122] Tributary relations with the Han comprised out of several things.[123] Firstly, the Chanyu or his representative was required to come pay homage to the Han court.[123] Secondly the heir apparent or a prince needed to be delivered to the Han court as hostage.[123] Thirdly, the Chanyu had to present tribute to the Han emperor and in return will receive imperial gifts.[123] Accepting the tributary system meant that the Xiongnu were lowered to the status of outer vassal, while the marriage alliance meant that the two nations were regarded as equal states.[123][124] In 119 BC, Yizhixie Chanyu (126-114) sent an envoy, hoping to achieve peaceful relations with the Han.[122] However, the peace negotiations collapsed, since the Han court disregarded his terms and gave him the option to become an outer vassal instead, which infuriated Yizhixie Chanyu.[122] In 107 BC, Wuwei Chanyu (114-105) also attempted to negotiate peaceful relations and even halted the border raids.[122] In response, the Han disregarded his terms and demanded that the Chanyu sent his heir apparent as a hostage to Chang'an, which once again led to the breakdown of the peace negotiations.[122] In 53 BC, Huhanye Chanyu decided to submit to the Han court.[123] He sent his son Zhulouqutang (朱鏤蕖堂), the Tuqi King of the Right, as hostage to the Han court in 53 BC.[123] In 52 BC, he formally requested through the officials at the Wuyuan commandary to have an audience with the Han court to pay homage.[123] Thus, the next year (51 BC), he arrived at court and personally paid homage to Emperor Xuan during the Chinese New Year.[123] In 49 BC, he traveled to the Han court for a second time to pay homage to the emperor.[109] In 53 BC, Zhizhi Chanyu also sent his son as hostage to the Han court.[125] In 51 and 50 BC, he sent two envoys respectively to Han to present tribute, but failed to personally come to the Han court to pay homage.[125] Therefore, he was rejected by the Han court, leading to the execution of a Han envoy in 45 BC.[126] In 33 BC, Huhanye Chanyu came to the Han court to pay homage again.[125] During his visit, he asked to become an imperial son-in-law.[125] Instead of granting him this request, Emperor Yuan decided to give him a court lady-in-waiting.[125] Thus, the Han court allowed Huhanye Chanyu to marry Lady Wang Zhaojun.[125][126] Yituzhiyashi (伊屠智牙師), the son of Huhanye and Wang Zhaojun, became a vocal partisan for the Han empire within the Xiongnu realm.[127] Although peaceful relations were momentarily achieved, it fully collapsed when the Han official Wang Mang came to power.[97][128] When Bi, the Southern Chanyu, decided submit to the Han in 50 AD, he sent a princely son as hostage to the Han court and prostrated to the Han envoy as he received the imperial edict from them.[129] During the Eastern Han period, the tributary system had made some significant changes, which placed the Southern Xiongnu more tightly under regulation and supervision of the Han.[129] The Chanyu was required to sent tribute and a princely hostage annually, while an imperial messenger would be dispatched to escort the previous princely hostage back.[130] The Southern Xiongnu were resettled inside the empire at the northern commanderies and were overseen by a Han prefect, who acted as an arbiter in their legal cases and monitored their movements.[131] Attempts by Punu, the Northern Chanyu, to establish peaceful relations with the Han empire always failed, because the Northern Xiongnu were unwilling to come under Han's tributary system and the Han court had no interest to treat them along the same lines as the Southern Xiongnu instead of dividing them.[132] Geography Commandaries of the Han empire, 2 AD In 169 BC, the Han minister Chao Cuo presented to Emperor Wen a memorial on frontier defense and the importance of agriculture.[133] Chao characterized the Xiongnu as people whose livelihood did not depend on permanent settlement and were always migrating.[134] As such, he wrote, the Xiongnu could observe the Han frontier and attack when there were too few troops stationed in a certain region.[134] He noted that if troops are mobilized in support, then few troops will be insufficient to defeat the Xiongnu, while many troops will arrive too late as the Xiongnu will have retreated by then.[134] He also noted that keeping the Xiongnu mobilized will be at a great expense, while they will just raid another time after dispersing them.[134] To negate these difficulties, Chao Cuo elaborated a proposal, which in essence suggested that military-agricultural settlements with permanent residents should be established to secure the frontier and that surrendered tribes should serve along the frontier against the Xiongnu.[134] When Emperor Wu made the decision to conquer the Hexi Corridor, he had the intention to separate the Xiongnu from the Western Regions and from the Qiang people.[135] In 88 BC, the Xianling tribe of the Qiang people sent an envoy to the Xiongnu, proposing a joint-attack against the Han in the region as they were discontented that they had lost the fertile lands at Jiuquan and Zhangyi.[135] It had often been the meeting place between the Xiongnu and the Qiang before the Han empire had conquered and annexed the Hexi Corridor.[135] In 6 BC, Wang Shun (王舜) and Liu Xin noted that the frontier commandaries of Jiuquan, Zhangyi, and Dunhuang were established by Emperor Wu to separate the then-powerful Chuoqiang tribe of the Qiang people from the Xiongnu.[135] The Chuoqiang tribe and its king, however, eventually submitted to the Han empire and took part in the campaigns against the Xiongnu.[136] In 119 BC, when the Xiongnu suffered a catastrophic defeat by the Han armies, the Chanyu moved his court (located in present-day Inner Mongolia) to another location north.[137][138] This had the desired result that the Xiongnu were separated the Wuhuan people, which also prevented the Xiongnu from exacting many resources from the Wuhuan.[137] The Han court placed the Wuhuan in tributary protection and resettled them in five northeastern commandaries, namely Shanggu, Yuyang, Youbeiping (present-day Hebei), Liaoxi, and Liaodong (present-day Liaoning).[139] A new office, the Colonel-Protector of the Wuhuan, was established (near present-day Beijing) in order to prevent contact between the Wuhuan with the Xiongnu and to use them to monitor the Xiongnu activities.[139] Nevertheless, the effective Han control over the Wuhuan was lacking through much of the Western Han period, since the Xiongnu had considerable military and political influence over the Wuhuan while relations between the Wuhuan and Han often remained strained at best.[140] This can be exemplified by a situation in 78 BC, when the Xiongnu led a punitive campaign against the Wuhuan, resulting in General Fan Mingyou (范明友) leading a Han army to impede further incursions.[141] When they learned that the Xiongnu had left by the time the army arrived, the Han court ordered Fan to attack the Wuhuan instead, killing 6000 Wuhuan men and three chieftains, since the Wuhuan had recently raided Han territory.[141] Only in 49 AD, when 922 Wuhuan chieftains submitted during Emperor Guangwu's reign, did many of the Wuhuan tribes come under tributary system of the Han empire.[142] The Han court provided for the Wuhuan and in return the Wuhuan tribes guarded the Han frontier against the Xiongnu and other nomadic peoples.[142][143] When the Hunye King surrendered to the Han in 121 BC, the Han court resettled all the 40,000 Xiongnu people from the Hexi Corridor into the northern frontier regions.[144] The Hexi Corridor proved to be an invaluable region, since it gave direct access and became the base of military operations into the Western Regions[45] Possession of the Western Regions was economically critical to the Xiongnu, since they exacted many of their necessary resources from the western states.[145] The diplomat Zhang Qian suggested to the emperor to establish diplomatic relations with the western states.[146] He proposed to try convince the Wusun in reoccupying their former territory in the Hexi Corridor and to form an alliance with them against the Xiongnu.[146] In 115 BC, Zhang Qian and his men were sent towards the Western Regions, but they did not succeed in convincing the Wusun to relocate.[147] They were, however, successful in establishing contact with the many states, such as Wusun, Dayuan (Ferghana), Kangju (Soghdiana), Daxia (Bactria), and Yutian (Khotan).[147] Although the Han empire tried to diplomatically sway the western states over the years, it met with little success due to the Xiongnu's influence over the Western Regions at the time.[148] Therefore, from 108 BC onwards, the Han resorted to conquest in order to bring the western states to submission.[149] Since Loulan (Cherchen) was the closest western state to Han, it was key for the Han empire's expansion into Central Asia.[150] Turfan (Jushi), on the other hand, was the Xiongnu's entrance into the Western Regions.[151] By conquering Loulan and Turfan, the Han empire would gain two critical locations in the Western Regions, achieving direct access to the Wusun in the Ili River valley and Dayuan (Ferghana) between Syr and Amu Darya.[150] This happened in 108 BC, when General Zhao Ponu conquered these two states.[150] The farthest-reaching invasion was Li Guangli's campaign against Ferghana.[62] If the Han armies succeeded in conquering Ferghana, the Han empire would demonstrate certain military might to the western states and consolidate its control, while gaining many of the famed Ferghana horses.[150] The Xiongnu were aware of the situation and attempted to stop the invasion, but they were defeated by Li Guangli's forces.[150] After a campaign that lasted four years, General Li Guangli (李廣利) conquered Ferghana in 101 BC.[150] The control over Turfan, however, often fluctuated due to its proximity to the Xiongnu.[152] In 90 BC, General Cheng Wan (成 娩) led the troops of six western states against Turfan to prevent it from allying the Xiongnu.[152] The fact that the forces used comprised solely from the troops of the western states was, as Lewis (2007) remarked, a clear indication of the political influence that the Han empire had over the region.[153] Cheng was a former Xiongnu king himself, but he had submitted to the Han and was ennobled as Marquis of Kailing (開陵侯).[152] As a result of the expedition, the Han court received the formal submission of Turfan later in the year (90 BC).[152] This victory was significant in the sense that Turfan's location was the closest to the Xiongnu of all the western states, thereby they lost their access into the Western Regions with this Han conquest.[153] In 67 BC, the Han empire gained absolute control over the Turfan Depression after inflicting a significant defeat to the Xiongnu.[152] During the former Xiongnu rule of the Western Regions, the area was under the jurisdiction of the Rizhu King (日逐王) with the office "Commandant in Charge of Slaves".[154] However, in 60 BC, the Rizhu King surrendered to Protector General Zheng Ji.[154] Afterwards (60 BC), the Han imperial court established the Protectorate of the Western Regions.[64][152][155] The Han empire, now in absolute control of the Western Regions, placed it under the jurisdiction of its Protector General.[156][157] As its dominance of the area was established, the Han were effectively controlling the trade and shaping the early history of what would be known as the Silk Road.[64] In 25 AD, Liu Xiu was established as Emperor Guangwu, restoring the Han throne after a usurpation by the Han official Wang Mang, thus initiating the Eastern Han period.[89] During his reign, the Han empire began to abandon its offensive strategy against the Xiongnu, which allowed the latter to frequently raid the northern frontier.[158] It resulted into large migrations southwards, which led to the depopulation of the frontier regions.[158] During the Eastern Han period, various nomadic peoples were resettled in these frontier regions, serving the Han empire as cavalry against the Xiongnu.[158] With his primary focus still towards the interior of the empire, Emperor Guangwu declined several requests from the western states to reestablish the office of Protector-General of the Western Regions.[159] Early in Emperor Guangwu's reign, King Kang of Yarkand united neighboring kingdoms to resist the Xiongnu.[160] At the same time, he protected the Han officials and people of the former Protector-General, who were still left behind after Wang Mang's reign.[160] In 61 AD, Yarkand was conquered by Khotan and the western states fell in conflict with each other.[160] Taking this opportunity, the Northern Xiongnu recovered their control over the Western Regions, which threatened the security of the Hexi Corridor.[160] In 73 AD, General Dou Gu was sent on a punitive expedition to the Xiongnu and inflicted them a considerable defeat.[98] Immediately, the fertile lands of Hami (Yiwu) was reoccupied and an agricultural garrison established.[98] The next year (74 AD), he expelled the Xiongnu from Turfan and reoccupied the state.[98] The recovery of Hami and Turfan facilitated the reestablishment of the Protector-General, since these important locations were key points to control the Western Regions.[98] |
About us|Jobs|Help|Disclaimer|Advertising services|Contact us|Sign in|Website map|Search|
GMT+8, 2015-9-11 21:02 , Processed in 0.128343 second(s), 16 queries .
