Chapter 7 Chapter VII The Expansion of the Tang Dynasty

When talking about the prosperity of the past dynasties, the words "rule by culture and martial arts" are naturally indispensable. Governance by culture naturally means to develop production, restore the economy, lighten corvee and pay less, and rest with the people.But the strength of a dynasty also needs to be accompanied by illustrious feats in foreign wars.The reason why the prosperous Tang Dynasty is "prosperous" is not only the impressive GDP achievements, but also the martial arts of expanding the territory.Annihilating the Turks, pacifying the Western Regions, and conquering Goryeo, a series of glorious victories earned the Tang army the reputation of being invincible in the world.The glorious military exploits, the territory of the Tang Dynasty that expanded in all directions like blood, and the glory that conquered all directions, modern people recall it with enthusiasm and yearn for it.

During the initial period of the feudal dynasties in China, their military power was strong, but the national economy that was waiting for prosperity would make the founding emperors choose to be patient for a while.Like the Han Dynasty's counterattack against the Xiongnu, the Tang Dynasty was also the same, but the difference is that the Han Dynasty's counterattack against the Xiongnu went through more than 60 years of four generations of emperors, Han Gaozu, Han Huidi, Hanwendi, and Hanjingdi. Repeatedly, Emperor Wu I of the Han Dynasty failed to completely surrender to the Xiongnu, and it was not until the Zhaoxuan Zhongxing period that the Xiongnu issue was completely resolved.The speed of the Tang Dynasty was much faster. In the early years of Zhenguan, after just a few years of recuperation, it quickly launched a war against the Turks. In the weakest period of the Turks, it dealt the most fatal blow. Then, it was The process of the Tang Dynasty expanding its territory and sweeping away the surrounding heroes.Compared with Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty who was good at using barbarians to control barbarians and disintegrate, the Tang Dynasty preferred to speak with strength. Whether it was the capricious Xueyantuo Khanate, the overconfident Gaochang Kingdom, or the endlessly disputed Western Turks, they all settled down with the fastest speed. , Let the opponent surrender with a hearty victory.China's territory reached its zenith during the Tang Dynasty, and the vast lands of the Western Regions and Outer Mongolia were included in the territory of the Tang Dynasty. It is no exaggeration to say that China's unified multi-ethnic state began to take shape from the Tang Dynasty.

So, how did the Tang Dynasty do it? When it comes to the military exploits of the Tang Dynasty, one cannot fail to mention the strength of the Tang Dynasty's military power, and the reasons for the Tang Dynasty's strong military power are inseparable from three points: the military system, the armament system, and the mind. When talking about the military system, it is natural to talk about the "fubing system" of the Tang Dynasty.The Fubing system was established in the Northern Wei Dynasty. It was revised several times in the Northern Zhou and Sui dynasties, and reached its peak in the Tang Dynasty. The Fubing system in the Tang Dynasty was inherited from the Northern Wei Dynasty, but it was more detailed in terms of system.When it comes to being a soldier, the common people have a saying that "a good man should not be a soldier", but under the military system of the Tang Dynasty, being a soldier is really a coveted honor.

Compared with the previous Northern Wei and Sui dynasties, the military system of the Tang Dynasty has two biggest features: one is the integration of soldiers and farmers; the other is the hierarchical system.The combination of soldiers and farmers is the source of soldiers for the country. It mainly comes from self-cultivating farmers who own land. Adopting the principle of drawing one out of three, the country is divided into 12 military mansions.In this way, it not only expands the source of troops, but also ensures the training of soldiers.But the greatest guarantee for combat effectiveness is the "hierarchy system" of the military system of the Tang Dynasty.

The Fubing system of the Tang Dynasty, firstly, divided the country's own farmers according to the ranks of rich and poor, and only those with richer economic conditions were eligible to join the army; The method is to eliminate the weak of the government soldiers, and those who are selected as the government soldiers, although they need to pay for the food, grass and equipment for the expedition, they are also exempted from taxes. In addition, if they participate in the battle and get spoils and military exploits, the country will also have generous rewards (such as land).If an ordinary farmer becomes a soldier, he not only has the opportunity to become a general from a soldier, but also has a chance to become a big landlord from a self-cultivator. With such "incentive measures", the soldiers' morale is naturally high and their enthusiasm for combat is extremely high.

And the most important thing is that the government military system solves a problem that the feudal rulers of all dynasties are extremely "entangled". The national army is strong, which often leads to the monopoly of generals, endangering the country's society, and the state's strict control over the army. Generals don't know soldiers, and their combat effectiveness is basically zero.The implementation of the Fubing system is based on land, so that the central government can firmly control the soldiers, and no general can take the soldiers under his command as his own.At the same time, the Fubing system has strict military dispatching rules, and the recruitment of troops must be based on the fish charm token of the central government, otherwise no soldier or soldier can be transferred without authorization.The government military system made the Tang army a real national army with strict management and strong combat effectiveness.This is the basis for the Tang army to sweep the world.

Corresponding to the Fubing system is the powerful military support system of the Tang Dynasty.Wars are fought based on comprehensive national strength. Without economic strength, one cannot fight a war, but with economic strength, one cannot fight a war without a security system. The most important security system of the Tang Dynasty was "horse administration".Everyone in the world says that the cavalry of the Tang Dynasty was strong, and it was the perfect horse administration system of the Tang Dynasty that created the powerful cavalry of the Tang Dynasty. From the early days of the founding of the Tang Dynasty, the Taipu Temple was set up in the central government to be in charge of raising war horses across the country, and animal husbandry supervisors were set up at the local level to plan special pastures for raising war horses.At the same time, taking advantage of the promotion of the land equalization system, a policy of reducing taxes according to the number of horses raised was introduced to encourage the common people to raise horses. Horses, which provided the Tang Dynasty with a sufficient source of war horses.During Tang Taizong's campaign against the Eastern Turks alone, 100,000 horses were recruited by the people of the Tang Dynasty, not counting the official horses raised by the Tang Dynasty government. This number has far exceeded the highest number of horses used by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to fight against the Huns. .At the same time, the weapon production capacity of the Tang Dynasty was also very strong.In terms of weapon manufacturing, the Tang Dynasty followed the old system of the previous dynasties, setting up a military supervision department in the central government and setting up military workshops in the local area, forming a huge military production system.But more detailed than the previous dynasty, the Tang Dynasty stipulated that every craftsman in charge of manufacturing weapons must engrave his name on the weapons he made. Once the quality of weapons in the war has problems, the responsibility can be traced immediately; otherwise, Once the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty made meritorious service, the manufacturers of the weapons they used were also rewarded.

The craftsmen of the Tang Dynasty were very active in making weapons and developing new weapons. The Tang Dynasty was the era of the fastest technological advancement of cold weapons in China. Tang knives that cut iron like mud and long-range Tang crossbows with a range of 200 meters appeared. In this period.The army of the Tang Dynasty was able to equip almost every soldier with a crossbow, which was unimaginable in previous dynasties. Another major feature of the Tang Dynasty army is its mind.Compared with the armies of previous dynasties, the army of the Tang Dynasty is a truly multi-ethnic mixed formation.The army of the Tang Dynasty was dominated by farmers of the Han nationality in the Central Plains. However, in the foreign wars of the past dynasties, the army of the Tang Dynasty was constantly replenished with fresh blood. Among the generals of various ethnic groups such as Turks, Uyghurs, and Tubo, there were people who served in the army of the Tang Dynasty. The famous general at that time.There are also a lot of ethnic minority troops in the Tang Dynasty army. For example, in the war against the Western Turks, the guides were the troops that the Tang Dynasty had recruited when it pacified the Eastern Turks.The multi-ethnic nature of the Tang army allowed the Tang army to be familiar with the characteristics of the enemy very easily, and to win every war with super cohesion.

The war of the Tang army to open up the territory began with the counterattack against the Turks during the period of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty wiped out the Eastern Turks with lightning speed. But for the Tang Dynasty, the war was not over, on the contrary, it had just begun. The war to pacify the Western Turks created a huge vacuum in the vast Mobei grassland. In the history of wars between Chinese feudal dynasties and nomadic peoples, once a nomadic people who had dealt with the dynasty for many years was severely injured, then In the future, there will inevitably be a new nation rising from the grasslands, filling the gap left by it, and continuing to become the great enemy of the Central Plains dynasty.Looking at the previous history, after the Han Dynasty pacified the Xiongnu, the Xianbei people replaced them, and the Northern Wei Dynasty severely damaged Rou, and then the Turks took advantage of the situation. After the Eastern Turks were hit hard by the Tang Dynasty, a new tribe would take the opportunity to rise, following the Turks. Do you rule the grasslands?

Some people did have such plans, but Tang Jun didn't give them a chance.Throughout the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty did not give any tribe such an opportunity, because the Tang Dynasty's tactics were preemptive strikes. The first person to have such an idea was the Xueyantuo Khanate. The Xueyantuo Khanate was an important ally of the Tang Dynasty during the period when the Eastern Turks were ravaging northern China. The Xueyantuo Khanate, like the Turks, originated from the Tiel tribe, but it has always been under the rule of the Turks. During this period, the Xueyantuo Khanate launched wars against the Turkic rule many times, but most of them were suppressed.It was not until AD 627 that the Xueyantuo Khanate, led by its leader Yi Nan, launched a large-scale uprising against the Turkic Jieli Khan, and the Tang Dynasty took advantage of the situation to send troops to pacify the Eastern Turkic Khanate.The Xueyantuo Khanate also benefited greatly from this war. Its leader, Yi Nan, was canonized as a Khan by Li Shimin. The Xueyantuo Khanate also left its original nomadic residence, Jinwei Mountain, and migrated to the Mobei area where the Eastern Turks were active. They established their tooth tents in the Orkhon River Basin in Mobei.At the same time, Xue Yantuo also took the opportunity to "collect the foreign land" and took in a large number of East Turkic defeated soldiers, occupying many East Turkic territories. During the middle period of Li Shimin's reign, the Xue Yantuo Khanate had changed from a small tribe in the northwest to a At this time, it had 200,000 elite cavalry, controlling the vast land from the Daxing'an Mountains in the east, to the Altai Mountains in the west, and to the Hetao Grassland in the south.

Yi Nan, who became an upstart, soon became dissatisfied. In terms of affiliation, the Xueyantuo Khanate was a courtier of the Tang Dynasty, but Yi Nan wanted to be the boss even more.In the early days when the Xue Yantuo Khanate moved to Mobei, he was quite honest. He married the new princess of the Tang Dynasty and became the son-in-law of the Tang Dynasty.Before 639 A.D., he was extremely obedient to the Tang Dynasty. While paying tribute many times to show his loyalty, he vigorously developed trade with the Tang Dynasty, and every time he used tens of millions of cattle and horses to exchange goods with the Tang Dynasty.As his strength grew, Yinan became more and more disobedient. While plundering the Khitan and other ethnic groups in the northeast, he harassed the Uighur tribes in the northwest, and continued to rob people and livestock to strengthen his own strength. In the first 13 years of Tang Taizong's reign, there were constant complaints from neighboring ethnic minorities to the Tang Dynasty, accusing the Xue Yantuo Khanate of aggression. After owning the vast land of Mobei, he began to be dissatisfied with the barrenness and desolation of Mobei, and set his eyes on the fertile Hetao grassland.Of course, his ultimate dream is to get rid of his subordinates to the Tang Dynasty and become the real ruler of the grassland. From 640 AD, Yinan began to seek trouble from the Tang Dynasty.At this time, those who lived in the Hetao Grassland were subordinates of the Turli Khan who originally belonged to the Eastern Turks. They were photographed by the power of the Tang Dynasty before. The Xueyantuo Khanate did not dare to do anything wrong with this land, but at this time the barbarians relied on themselves. Strong force, decided to provoke.In 640 A.D., Yinan first began to make unreasonable demands to the East Turks of the Hetao Grassland, asking the East Turks to assign the Hetao Grassland pastures to him.The East Turks naturally refused to agree to this kind of extortion request, and if they did not agree, they fought. The declining East Turks were no match for the Yinan. Not only did the Yinan rob them of a large pasture, but they also plundered thousands of cattle and sheep. What's even more exasperating is that Yi Nan was the first to file a complaint and reported to Li Shimin that the Eastern Turks had bullied him and robbed him of his pasture.In response to this provocation, the Tang Dynasty adopted a "calm" attitude. On the one hand, it issued a document reprimanding the Yinan and asked the Yinan to withdraw its troops. .Seeing that the Tang Dynasty did not conquest, the barbarians who were annoyed at the Tang Dynasty's partiality to the Turkic tribes became more courageous.In the second year, he simply played with fire again.This year, Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty was enshrining Zen in Mount Tai. Most of the elite soldiers in the north were transferred to the northeast, and the northern frontier defense was empty.Taking advantage of this opportunity, Yinan launched an aggressive war against the Eastern Turks of Hetao under the pretext of the Turks robbing the civilians of his tribe. The Eastern Turks remained unbeaten as before. Yi Nan's entire army was wiped out, and Xue Yantuo's army marched southward, even reaching the periphery of the Great Wall in one fell swoop. At this time, Yinan felt super good about himself, and he was going to issue a letter of credence to the Tang Dynasty, asking the Tang Dynasty to officially confer the Hetao Grassland to him, and the first fiasco in his life was about to happen, because at this time, he The place I arrived at was Shuozhou, Shanxi. The person who served as the general manager of Shuozhou's marching road was the famous general Li Ji. Li Ji was a famous general at that time, especially in the battle against the East Turks, he made outstanding achievements many times, and was one of the "three famous generals" praised by Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty.Although Yi Nan knew about this man, he didn't care. After all, he just beat up Turkic, and Tang Jun could do nothing to me, but Tang Jun let Yi Nan know how powerful he was.In May of that year, the two sides met in the outskirts of Shuozhou, Shanxi. The Tang army was like the Turks. If you come, I will fight. If you fight, you will be defeated. If you are defeated, you will run. I ran and chased, the battle line became longer and longer, and I saw that I had reached the foot of the Great Wall. However, at this moment, a large group of cavalry from the Tang Dynasty suddenly appeared on the two wings of the Xueyantuo Khanate, cutting off Yinan's army, and then Xueyantuo's army came He was horrified to find that there was a rain of arrows in the sky, and the rain of bows and arrows seemed to have eyes, covering Yi Nan tightly.Only then did Yi Nan understand that after running such a long distance, he got into the pockets of the 150,000 troops of the Tang Dynasty. At this point in the battle, there was no suspense at all: tens of thousands of cavalrymen of the Xueyantuo Khanate were shot and killed, and more than 50,000 people were captured. , Yi Nan himself fled back with more than 100 entourages.As for seizing the land of Hetao, I can only think about it casually. The defeat of Shuozhou dealt a heavy blow to the Xue Yantuo Khanate. After that, until the death of Yinan, he was very honest. Soon after the war, he sent envoys to apologize and proposed marriage to the Tang Dynasty for his son.Tang Chao also recognized this kid's face clearly, apologized and accepted, and asked for a marriage without talking.Afterwards, Yinan and Hetao East Turks also had many disputes. The Tang Dynasty both sided with each other and supported the Eastern Turks overwhelmingly. Although Yinan had resentment, he dared not speak out after seeing the strength of the Tang Dynasty.Until the death of Yi Nan in AD 645, Xue Yantuo did not have another war with the Tang Dynasty. When the news of his death came, the Tang Dynasty was in the process of conquering Goguryeo. Emperor Taizong Li Shimin ordered the whole army to mourn his death. But Yi Nan didn't expect until his death that Li Shimin had already dug another "pit" for him.When the Xueyantuo Khanate and the Tang Dynasty were married, the Tang Dynasty showed great favor, not only sending the princess, but even Yi Nan's son and nephew were given the title of "Little Khan". There is internal strife, and everyone is a "little khan" appointed by the court, so why listen to you.As a result, before Yinan's bones were cold, there were many civil wars for the throne within the Xueyantuo Khanate. In the end, his adopted son Bazhuo killed several of his own sons and became a khan himself.Compared with the "godfather" Yinan, this Bazhuo is a man with a higher heart than the sky. In 645 AD, he took advantage of the opportunity of the Tang Dynasty to conquer Goguryeo and sent troops to attack Xiazhou in the Tang Dynasty. It was even worse for Yinan, who guarded Xiazhou was Sisi, a famous Turkic general of the Tang Dynasty.At this time, the Xueyantuo Khanate, which had suffered a lot of internal friction, could not even beat the Turkic cavalry who was defeated in the past, and the Turkic soldiers who held the strong man thought easily repelled him.Compared with Yi Nan who was lucky enough to escape, this Bazhuo was on the way back to the army, and the Uighur tribe under his command rebelled and ended up being killed.After that, the leaderless Xueyantuo Khanate fell into civil war.The Xueyantuo Khanate took advantage of the fire and robbed the Tang Dynasty thoroughly, and Li Shimin decided to send troops to completely wipe out the Xueyantuo Khanate. In 646 AD, after the Eastern Turks were pacified that year, the Tang army launched another large-scale expedition, led by Li Ji, Jiangxia King Li Daozong, Zuowei General Ashnadur, Yingzhou Governor Xue Wanche, and Daizhou Governor Zhang Jian. The army launched a massive attack on the Xueyantuo Khanate, but this time it was "killing a chicken with a sledgehammer". After hearing that the Tang Dynasty army came, all the tribes of Xueyantuo who suffered from the chaos of war surrendered one after another.Afterwards, Li Ji led only 200 elite riders to the Yazhang of the Xueyantuo Khanate to appease him. Yinan's nephew Duomo took the lead in surrendering, but Yinan's "Zhaowu Nine Surnames" still hesitated. Li Ji ordered the attack on the spot without saying a word. , More than 200 cavalrymen of the Tang Dynasty beheaded more than 5,000 enemies in one breath. The powerful combat effectiveness of the Tang army completely frightened Xue Yantuo's ministries.After the surrender of the ministries, Duomo went to Chang'an and was named a general. The territory of the Xueyantuo Khanate was assigned to the Yanran Dufu by the Tang Dynasty and became an area under the direct jurisdiction of the central government.So far, the Xueyantuo Khanate, which swept across the desert, quickly collapsed after more than 20 years of arrogance. While dealing with the Xueyantuo Khanate, the Tang Dynasty also eliminated two important opponents on the western front: Tuyuhun and Gaochang. Let's talk about Tuyuhun first.This is a force that gave the emperor of the Central Plains a headache in the Sui Dynasty. They were entrenched in the Qinghai area of ​​​​Gansu, blocking the Silk Road, and they are descendants of the Xianbei. Not to mention their fighting power, they also have an incomparable degree of civilization of other nomadic peoples. .If the purpose of pacifying the Xueyantuo Khanate is to stabilize the north, then the success or failure of the battle with Tuyuhun will be related to whether the Tang Dynasty can open up the Silk Road and whether the window for Chinese civilization to move westward can be opened again. Compared with the destruction of the Xueyantuo Khanate, the Tang Dynasty was at a disadvantage in the war with Tuyuhun.At the beginning of the Tang Dynasty's defeat of the Eastern Turks, Tuyuhun also sent Tonghao as an envoy, but not long after, he attacked and killed the caravan of the Tang Dynasty's envoys to the Western Regions.Afterwards, while the Tang Dynasty was managing Mobei, Tuyuhun occupied the Hexi Corridor, and continued to resist the Tang Dynasty's westward advance, constantly attacking Liangzhou, Suzhou and other areas on the west line of the Tang Dynasty.Naturally, the Tang Dynasty could not tolerate such arrogance, but Tuyuhun was better at "guerrilla warfare" than Turks and Xue Yantuo.When the troops of the Tang Dynasty were empty, they invaded aggressively, and when the soldiers of the Tang Dynasty arrived, they retreated quickly. Moreover, they were located in Gansu and Qinghai, where the terrain was complicated and it was difficult for the Tang army to pursue them. In this way, before 635 A.D., Tuyuhun came and ran, and ran, and repeated several times, tossing the generals of the Tang Dynasty until he was out of breath.Especially in 634 A.D., Li Shimin first appointed Duan Shixuan to conquer Tuyuhun. Duan Shixuan was also considered a famous general, but after arriving, Tuyuhun disappeared without a trace. After plundering Suzhou, with no success, Li Shimin stomped his feet: Substitution!The person who was exchanged was the famous general Li Jing who had retired and returned home at this time, who once defeated the Turks. In December 634 A.D., Li Jing, as the general manager of Xikaidao, commanded an army of 120,000 to Gansu. Tuyuhun still took out their "magic weapon"-running away.The Tang army pursued aggressively, and Li Daozong's troops broke through Tuyuhun in the southeast of Qinghai Lake.But Tuyuhun's main force was especially present, and he was determined that Tang Jun would not dare to pursue him deeply, but Tuyuhun forgot: Li Jing's biggest characteristic is to directly attack Huanglong. If he fights, he must fight to death.As a result, the Tang army unexpectedly launched an operation, and first surrounded Qilian Mountain with Qibi Heli's Turkic army, cutting off Tuyuhun's escape route.Then, regardless of the lack of people and horses, the Tang army carried out a long-distance rapid march on the Qinghai grassland, trekking 2,000 miles on the uninhabited prairie, and finally captured the main force of Tuyuhun in the bitter sea of ​​Qinghai.This Tang army, which had been working hard to attack far away, unexpectedly burst out with powerful combat effectiveness, and defeated the Tuyuhun army who had been recharging their energy here.Tuyuhun Khan obeyed and took the road and fled, planning to escape to the Western Regions through the Taklamakan Desert.But Tang Jun would not give him this opportunity. Tang Jun, who had been on a long-distance attack, still pursued desperately, even to the point where the entire army was cut off.Li Jing ordered the troops to kill horses and drink horse blood to satisfy their hunger, but he did not relax their pursuit at all. In the end, in Tulunchuan, Qinghai, the Tang army caught up with the main force of the Tuyuhun army, and was defeated again in a big battle. The desperate Fuyun hanged himself to death, and the Tuyuhun Khanate, which dominated the Hexi Corridor, perished.Afterwards, the Tang army canonized Fu Yun's son Murong Shun as Khan, and Tuyuhun, like the Turks, became a loyal vassal of the Tang Dynasty.This war was of great significance for the later Tang Dynasty to pacify the Western Turks and expand the Western Regions.More importantly, the Longyou area in Gansu Province, which was originally the frontier of the war, has since been freed from the plunder of the Tuyuhun and developed at a rapid speed. During the westward advance of the Tang Dynasty, Gaochang was the next one to be solved.Compared with Tuyuhun, Gaochang is not a powerful regime, but a regime with an extremely important strategic position. More importantly, it is a regime that has no strength but is more arrogant than the above few. Gaochang State, located in the southwest of Turpan, Xinjiang today, is the gateway for the Central Plains Dynasty to enter the Western Regions.As early as the Han Dynasty, this was the place where the army of the Western Regions of the Han Dynasty colonized and defended the frontier.After several changes, the local residents are mainly Han nationality, and there are also various ethnic minorities in the Western Regions. It is the most economically developed country among the countries in the Western Regions.During the Tang Dynasty, the king of Gaochang Kingdom was Ju Wentai, a Han Chinese.Because they are both Han people, the relationship between Gaochang and the Central Plains was very close in the early days of the Tang Dynasty.When Li Shimin ascended the throne, Gaochang sent envoys to congratulate him, and the Tang Dynasty gave him a high-standard reception.But after a brief honeymoon period, conflicts arose. At this time, the strongest force in the Western Regions was the Western Turks, and as a regime sandwiched between the Western Turks and the Tang Dynasty, the position of Gaochang Kingdom was also vacillating, always wanting to use the contradictions between the two sides in exchange for the greatest benefit.In 639 A.D., Ju Wentai, the king of Gaochang, simply took refuge in the Western Turks and expanded around with the support of the Western Turks, which angered the Tang Dynasty.Li Shimin first sent envoys to question Ju Wentai, but Ju Wentai's attitude was tougher, and he even warned Tang Chao not to meddle in his own business.The reason for being so arrogant is because of the coercion and lure of Western Turks on the one hand, and because Ju Wentai feels good about himself on the other hand.Ju Wentai once visited Chang'an in Sui and Tang dynasties. He told his subordinates that the Tang Dynasty was not as powerful as the Sui Dynasty, but Ju Wentai forgot that the day when he came to worship Li Shimin was a time when the Tang Dynasty was waiting for prosperity. In the first year of Zhenguan, the old mind looked at the problem, and the consequences were terrible. Something terrible is coming.In 640 A.D., the Tang Dynasty launched an expedition of 200,000 troops to Gaochang, but after dispatching troops, they discovered another reason for Ju Wentai’s arrogance. Fighting, eating and drinking are all problems.When Gaochang came to Gaochang, Gaochang was under the Han regime again, and the city defenses were strong, and Tuo was also dragged to death.This is Ju Wentai's wishful thinking, but can Tang Chao let him succeed? The chief general of the Tang Dynasty this time was Hou Junji, the general manager of the march, and what he brought to Gaochang was an alternative military performance—a track and field performance. This time Tang Jun not only let Gao Chang understand that they can fight, but also run.From the beginning of the dispatch of troops, the Tang Dynasty marched in a hurry. If the fight against Tuyuhun was a sprint, then the fight against Gaochang was a long-distance race.After the Tang army entered the desert of the Western Regions, Lop Nur, the famous "Sea of ​​Death", was separated from Gaochang. Many generals advocated a detour, but Hou Junji was very determined, so he went through Lop Nur to see who died!As a result, 200,000 Tang cavalry began the most difficult long-distance race in their careers. There was no water source, no food, a long-distance march, and sandstorms that may appear at any time.The Tang army went on bravely, followed by intense heat, cold, lack of water, and sandstorms. After seven months of rapid marching, 200,000 soldiers of the Tang Dynasty miraculously passed through Lop Nur. According to Hou Junji’s report, There are as many as 5,000 Tang soldiers trapped in quicksand alone. After passing through the sea of ​​death, Ju Wentai was the next to die.In August 640 A.D., 3,000 pioneers of the Tang Army appeared at the foot of Gaochang City. This was an extremely terrifying army: the soldiers of the Tang Army were all covered in smoke and dust, and the horses had frightening manes because they had not been cared for for a long time. The armor was also dirty and tattered, but everyone's eyes were burning with anger.The siege of the city was like a broken bamboo. Gaochang City was breached in just one day, and the Western Turks, who had always been known as the backstage of Gaochang, saw this scene and slipped on their horses without saying anything. When the news came, Ju Wentai in the court spurted blood on the spot. Scared to death. In this way, the Tang army used a rapid march beyond the limit of human endurance to pacify Gaochang State without bloodshed, and the Western Turks, who had witnessed the powerful power of the Tang army, also voluntarily surrendered after the war.So far, all the land of the Western Regions has fallen into the hands of the Tang Dynasty.Afterwards, the Tang Dynasty established Xizhou in Gaochang, and established the Anxi Protectorate to exercise central power. The local Han people in Gaochang also accepted the adaptation of the Tang Dynasty and became the "Xizhou Army" that later shocked the Western Regions and Central Asia. , Played a key role in the subsequent battle to quell the Anshi Rebellion. In addition to the expansion in the north and the Western Regions, the Tang Dynasty also carried out an unfinished war in the Sui Dynasty on the Eastern Front-the Battle of Goguryeo.Compared with the devastation on the northern and western fronts, this war has been protracted.Tang Taizong Li Shimin's two expeditions to Goguryeo suffered setbacks after winning the first battle. The reason was that Goguryeo was solid and clear, and all the people were soldiers, which made the Tang Dynasty return without success many times.In Tang Taizong's later years, he temporarily stopped military operations against Goguryeo, turned to political isolation, and supported the Silla regime in the south of Goguryeo.In 662 AD, the Goguryeo issue was finally resolved. Tang Gaozong Li Zhi sent Su Dingfang, the left guard general, to attack Goguryeo, and finally wiped out Goguryeo completely. Silla, which was allied with the Tang Dynasty, also took the opportunity to occupy the Korean peninsula and established the Korean Silla regime. .So far, the Tang Dynasty, which has swept the world, has reached its peak in foreign victories.