The confrontation between the nomadic peoples and the Han seems to have begun when the two ethnic groups were just beginning to be founded. During the Qin Dynasty, there was a great general Meng Tian who led an army to expedition to the grasslands, and Liu Bang, the ancestor of Han Gao, also had the shame of Bai Deng mountain, but in general, even if the Han nationality lost its advantage for a while, sooner or later it would be able to regain face.
Seventy years after Liu Bang was besieged by the Xiongnu, Emperor Wu of Han sent Wei Qinghuo to expedition to the steppe. The same thing happened during the Tang Dynasty, when Li Shimin was beaten to his doorstep by the Eastern Turks as soon as he ascended the throne, and three years later he made an expedition to the Eastern Turks.
So, the same expedition to the grasslands, why is Tang Taizong not late for three years, while the Han Dynasty is delayed for more than seventy years? Moreover, in terms of difficulty, the fighting power of the Eastern Turks was still above that of the Xiongnu, who could not only forge their own armor and weapons, but also contact many other countries through trade. Under these circumstances, how did the Tang Dynasty complete the counter-offensive within three years?
First, the foundation of national strength. After years of war, the entire country was poor when the Han Dynasty was founded. However, the Tang Dynasty was different, the wars in the last years of the Sui Dynasty were relatively short, and the Sui Dynasty once had a period of prosperity and peace, and the foundation left behind was still relatively good. For example, the grain prepared by the Sui Dynasty at that time was edible until the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty, and a fairly mature warhorse breeding system was left for the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty initially had only 5,000 warhorses, and soon snowballed to hundreds of thousands, laying a good foundation for the Tang Dynasty's war preparations.
When Tang Taizong succeeded to the throne, there was no shortage of grain for the country and no shortage of war horses, and Tang Gaozong also built many water conservancy projects for Tang Taizong.
Second, strategic preparation. In order to deal with the powerful Eastern Turks, Tang Taizong's first attempt was to divide the various tribes of the Eastern Turks. Especially when these tribes encountered natural disasters, the Tang Dynasty's humanitarian aid always came faster than that of the Eastern Turks. The originally unified Eastern Turks had already been divided by the Tang Dynasty before the war began.
Secondly, Tang Taizong also sent his own capable generals to the Eastern Turks to collect intelligence. The Eastern Turks, which had come and gone like electricity, gradually became no longer mysterious. The Tang Dynasty was able to capture the fighters that defeated the Eastern Turks in one fell swoop in a time, thanks to the development of intelligence work.
Therefore, in the winter of that year, taking advantage of the great disaster of the Eastern Turks, the people of all ethnic groups and the Khan were separated from Germany, and the 100,000 Tang army braved the snow to attack, and the entire Eastern Turks collapsed at a touch. The Tang army captured a large number of Turkic people and nobles, but fortunately, Tang Taizong tolerated all over the world, and did not be too embarrassed about these ethnic minority compatriots, and many of them gave them official positions.
This battle benefited not only from the national strength of the Tang Dynasty and sufficient preparations before the war, but also from the surprise of this battle. Originally, the Tang Dynasty had always had a soft policy toward the Eastern Turks, and Emperor Gaozong of Tang gave up many important places, and Emperor Taizong of Tang once exchanged money for peace. The Eastern Turks did not expect that the Tang Dynasty army would take the initiative to attack them in the winter.
In contrast, the Han Dynasty seemed to be much more decisive, and although Huo Anderson also captured a lot of Huns when they attacked, more of them were directly killed, rather than being brought back to the country to eat and drink.
However, after this war, the external troubles of the Tang Dynasty were basically extinct, and Tang Taizong also received the title of Heavenly Khan, which is a personal merit of Li Shimin, and it can also be regarded as an affirmation of Li Shimin personally