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The Battle of Qiluo, the head-on confrontation between the Tang Dynasty and the Arab Empire, why did the Tang Dynasty fail?

The Battle of Qiluo was a frontal war between the Tang Dynasty and the Arab Empire, and the Tang Dynasty was defeated. This war has always attracted much attention. Although this war did not change the geopolitical pattern of the Tang Dynasty and Arabia in Central Asia, it was very popular on the Internet. This article attempts to be realistic and objectively explain the ins and outs of the Battle of The Ross.

First, the Arab and Turkic scramble for Central Asia

For a long time, the scramble for Central Asia was mainly between turks and Arabs. Since the 6th century, the Turks have become strong, unifying the desert, conquering the western regions, and destroying the Khaganate. Since then, the Sogdian countries of Central Asia (Zhaowu Jiu surname) have been directly ruled by the Western Turks, and some of the Sogdian kings are directly served by Turkic nobles. After the collapse of the original Khanate of Khytarstan, its descendants were divided into the Tocharian states (around Afghanistan), and most of their kings were also Turkic nobles.

The Battle of Qiluo, the head-on confrontation between the Tang Dynasty and the Arab Empire, why did the Tang Dynasty fail?

The Tang Dynasty destroyed the Western Turk Khaganate in 657, but failed to achieve direct control over the Turkic tribes. For the Western Turks, Tocharians and Sogdians, the Tang Dynasty was only nominally canonized. Therefore, later, the Turks often joined forces with Tubo to attack the "Four Towns of Anxi", resulting in the abandonment of the four towns of Anxi many times, and the Tang Dynasty's foothold in the western region was unstable.

In 679, Wu Zetian sent a large army to defeat the combined forces of Tubo and Western Turks, and went deep into the Chu River Valley, the core of Western Turki, to establish shanye city, replacing Yanqi as one of the four towns in Anxi. Shanye City also became the westernmost stronghold of the Tang Dynasty. But the good times did not last long, and in 691, the city of Shanye was once again occupied by the Turks. Among them, the Turkic Shibu was strong, with the City of Broken Leaf as the big tooth (capital), and established the Turki Shi Khanate.

While the Tang Dynasty and the Western Turks were vying for the Western Regions, the Arab Empire continued to grow stronger. In 651, the Persian Empire was destroyed by the Arab Empire. The Persian prince Belus fled to the Tocharian region. Belus contacted Emperor Gaozong of Tang and wanted Emperor Gaozong to send troops, but Emperor Gaozong refused because of the long distance. Subsequently, the Tang Dynasty made Belus the Governor of Persia. However, such nominal canonization will not help in any practical way. Soon, the Arabs occupied Tocharia, and Belus went into exile in Chang'an.

The Battle of Qiluo, the head-on confrontation between the Tang Dynasty and the Arab Empire, why did the Tang Dynasty fail?

Since then, the Arab Empire has continued to encroach on the Sogdian and Tocharian regions. The region was ruled mostly by Western Turkic nobles, who chose to unite against the Arabs. Before the Battle of Theros, it had been the Turks who resisted the Arabs in the western regions. As early as 711, the Western Expeditionary Army of the Later Turkic Khaganate had reached the Iron Gate Pass, competed with the Arab army, and was finally defeated due to the lone army going deeper.

After the establishment of the Turki khanate, the country became the core force of Central Asia's resistance to the Arab eastward advance. In 724, the Arab governor of Khorasan, Said, led a large army to attack the Sogdian countries on a large scale, the stone kingdom was captured, the Kang state was forced to surrender, and the army reached the city of The Khanna. Subsequently, the Turk cavalry entered the Fergana Basin, defeated the Arab army, and destroyed the Arab strongholds in Central Asia. The Sogdian states were restored one after another. In 729, Turkishi annihilated the Arab army at Samarkand.

Second, Gao Xianzhi went to war without authorization, which made the Tang Dynasty lose face

The strength of the Turkishi Khanate was something that neither the Tang Dynasty nor the Arabs wanted to see. At the same time, the Tang Dynasty generals stationed in the western regions also wanted to achieve great military achievements, so they always deliberately created contradictions and provoked wars. In 734, the Tang Dynasty's Beiting defender Liu Zhuo intercepted and killed the Tuqishi caravan without authorization, and another caravan of Tuqishi returning from Tubo was also captured and stopped by the Onion Ridge Guard. This move finally angered the Tuqishi Khanate, who led an army of more than 200,000 to attack the tang dynasty's four towns of Anxi.

Sogdian States (Shōwu 9 surname)

The war lasted for two years, and the defenders in the western regions of the Tang Dynasty could not hold out. Therefore, the Tang Dynasty chose to unite with the Arab Empire and attack the Tuqishi from the east and the west. In 736, the Arab army attacked Tochara as promised, while the Tang Dynasty mobilized a large number of materials into the Western Regions to support the Western Regions army. Caught between east and west, Turkishi finally collapsed. In 738, the Great Khan Sulu of Turkishi was killed by his men, and his khanate was divided into three. The Tang Dynasty army seized the opportunity to march west and occupied the city of Shanye. Since then, the Tang Dynasty has once again controlled the entire Western Regions.

After that, the Tang Dynasty readjusted the military deployment of the whole country. The establishment of the two major capitals of Anxi and Beiting was replaced by the two major envoys of Anxi and Beiting. There is a huge difference between the festival and the protection of the capital. Duhu was only a local military governor, and the moderation made the power greater, integrating administration, military, and finance. During the tang xuanzong period, the 10 major festivals made them master the world's soldiers and horses, and used soldiers to respect themselves. They often deliberately provoke wars with neighboring peoples in order to gain military merit and expand their sphere of influence.

Tang Dynasty knots make distribution

During the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, the two important emissaries in the Western Regions were Feng Changqing and Gao Xianzhi. In 747, Tui bo occupied Xiao Bolu in the Pamir Plateau, and Gao Xianzhi led an army to attack and outwit Xiao Bolu. After that, Gao Xianzhi became the envoy of Anxi Jiedushi. In 749, Gao Xianzhi defeated the State of Shushi again, pushing the Tang Dynasty's influence in the Western Regions to its peak.

Gao Xianzhi, like other emissaries of Jiedushi, vainly wanted to provoke a new war in the Western Regions in order to expand his political capital. After the fall of the Turkishi Khanate, the Sogdian countries of Central Asia were conquered by the Arabs, and they had to pay heavy taxes to the Arabs, and they were miserable. Therefore, these countries hoped that the Tang Dynasty would be able to protect them in the same way as the Turki khanate.

Gao Xianzhi

One of the stone countries of Sogdia, the capital city of Tuocheng, is located in the throat of the Silk Road, with developed agriculture and good business, which can be described as rich in the West. Gao Xianzhi coveted Shi Guo, so he falsely accused King Shi of "no courtesy" and led the army on a crusade. The king of the Shi Kingdom, Najuche Noshi (turkic), quickly made peace with Gao Xianzhi, who made peace on the surface and secretly sent troops to sneak attack, so it was easy to defeat the Shi Kingdom. Gao Xianzhi indulged the soldiers to kill and plunder, and did not spare the old, weak, sick and disabled. On the way back to his division, Gao Xianzhi used the same way to destroy the Tuqi Shi Shift Khan.

In 751, Gao Xianzhi shamelessly asked the central government of the Tang Dynasty for merit, which mentioned that he had "broken the Hu of the Nine Kingdoms", and transported the captured Tuqi Shi Khan, Tubo Chang, Shi Wang, and Li Shi Wang to Chang'an. Tang Xuanzong was also old-eyed, killed these kings, and returned them to Gao Xianzhi for a heavy reward.

Gao Xianzhi's behavior caused the attitude of the Central Asian countries toward the Tang Dynasty to plummet, "by the western regions disobedience." After the prince of shiguo escaped, he told the Sogdian states what the Tang army had done, so the countries turned to Arabia and tried to unite with Arabia to counter the Tang Dynasty. The Arabs also wanted to take this opportunity to capture the four towns of Ansi, so a great war was about to break out.

Third, the defeat of the Battle of Qiros

When Gao Xianzhi learned that the Arab crusade was imminent, he chose to preemptively attack. In April 751, Gao Xianzhi led a large army to invade the Territory of the Arab Empire for more than 700 miles, and went to the city of Qiros (Jambul City) to engage the arab Empire army. The Tang Dynasty army, one said there were 30,000 people, the other said there were 70,000 people. The number of Arab armies is not recorded, and according to the Code of War, the Arab forces participating in the Battle of Tyros would not exceed 90,000. The 200,000 circulating on the Internet is the entire Arab force in Central Asia.

The two sides fought fiercely here for five days, but did not see victory or defeat, and entered a stalemate. At a very critical moment, the Gelolu (Turkic) of the Tang army suddenly defected, and attacked the Tang army with the big food, and Gao Xianzhi was defeated and fled by night. Why did the Grove suddenly defect? It was mainly Gao Xianzhi who rebelled in the Western Regions and had long lost the support of all ethnic groups. This phenomenon also reflects that Gao Xianzhi has been unable to gain a foothold in the Western Regions.

The Battle of Qiluo, the head-on confrontation between the Tang Dynasty and the Arab Empire, why did the Tang Dynasty fail?

After the Battle of Qiluo, Gao Xianzhi was relieved of his post as the envoy of the four towns of Anxi and entered the capital as the general of the Right Kingo, and the post of jiedushi was held by Wang Zhengmi. After that, Feng Changqing also served as an envoy to Anxi Jiedushi. The Battle of Qiluos did not have a huge impact on the Tang Dynasty and the Arabs. In 753, Feng Changqing again captured the city of Daboru Bodhisattva. After Gao Xianzhi was transferred, the Sogdian states began to make friends with the Tang Dynasty, after all, Arabia was their greatest threat.

Interestingly, both Gao Xianzhi and the Arab Abu Muslim were killed shortly after, both because of the high merits. Shortly after the Battle of Qiluo, the Tang Dynasty broke out the "Anshi Rebellion", and Tubo took the opportunity to capture the Hexi Corridor. Decades later, tang strongholds in the western regions were successively captured by Tubo. Since then, Tibet has become the biggest obstacle to the eastward expansion of the Arab Empire.

Map of Tibet at its peak

However, Central Asia was largely occupied by the Arab Empire, where The Sogdians and Turks were gradually Islamized. After the war, a large number of Tang Dynasty people were captured in West Asia. One of the most famous is Du Huan, who escaped control after arriving in West Asia, so he traveled to the Middle East and Africa for more than ten years, and wrote the "Book of Classics", which recorded many observations in the Arab Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire at that time, which greatly broadened the horizons of Chinese.

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