Chapter 11 Section 3 Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty Expanded His Frontiers and Lands

By the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (reigned from 140 BC to 87 BC), after nearly 70 years of recovery and development, the economic strength of the Han Dynasty had been greatly enhanced, and the reserves of grain and materials were quite sufficient.Especially in the third year of Qianyuan (154 BC) when Emperor Jing quelled the rebellion of seven vassal states with the same surname headed by Liu Bi (bibi), the king of Wu, the centralization of power was greatly strengthened, and the threat of internal division was basically eliminated.The conditions for restoring the territory of the Qin Dynasty and further expanding outwards are ripe.

In the third year of Jianyuan (138 BC), Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Minyue besieged Dongou, and Dongou asked the court for help.Emperor Wu immediately sent Yan Zhu to lead the army from Kuaiji (now the Yangtze River Delta and northern Zhejiang) across the sea to rescue, forcing Minyue to withdraw from the siege.It is said that Dongou was afraid that Minyue would make a comeback after the retreat of the Han army and asked to move inward, so most of the Yue people in Dongou were resettled in the area between the Yangtze River and the Huaihe River.

Three years later, King Ying of Minyue attacked South Vietnam. After receiving the report from South Vietnam, Emperor Wu ordered Wang Hui and Han Anguo to send troops.Yu Shan, the younger brother of King Minyue, killed Ying and surrendered to the Han army.Since the Han army could not stay for a long time, Emperor Wu still retained the Minyue Kingdom and made Yu Shan king.But Yu Shan was still capricious, so after the Han Dynasty destroyed South Vietnam in the sixth year of Yuanding (111 BC), Emperor Wu immediately sent Yang Pu and others to take advantage of the victory to march.The next year, the Han army captured Minyue, and Yu Shan was killed by his subordinates. Most of the Minyue people were moved to the Jianghuai area, and the local area became almost no man's land. Ye County was restored in Fuzhou, and now Huipu County was established in Jiaojiang District, Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province, which was subordinate to Kuaiji County (where the government is located in Wu County, today Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province).

In the early years of Emperor Wudi, the Xiongnu still frequently harassed the northern frontier of the Han Dynasty.In the second year of Yuanguang (133 B.C.), 300,000 Han troops ambushed in Mayi (now Shuozhou City, Shanxi), trying to lure Shanyu to invade and annihilate them in one fell swoop.But Shan Yu saw through the plot, and withdrew before the Han army was encircled.Since then, the Huns have intensified their harassment, and the northern part of the Han Dynasty has been harassed and plundered from the northern part of Shaanxi to the western part of Liaoning.Beginning in the sixth year of Yuanguang (129 BC), the Han army launched continuous attacks. In the second year of Yuanshuo (127 BC), they expelled the Huns' Aries and King Loufan, and recovered "Henan Land".The Han Dynasty set up Shuofang County (the seat of the government today in the north of Hangjin Banner, Inner Mongolia) and Wuyuan County (the seat of the government in the northwest of Baotou City), and repaired the fortress built by Meng Tian, ​​so that the border was restored to the line of the Yinshan Mountains.In the second year, it temporarily stopped operating in the southwest, and concentrated its efforts on building Shuofang City to further consolidate the border defense.

In the second year of Yuanshou (121 BC), the main force of the Han army attacked from the west road and captured the son of King Hunxie of the Huns.Soon, King Hunxie killed King Xiutu who refused to surrender, and led his people to surrender to Han.In this way, the territory of the Han Dynasty expanded to the entire Hexi Corridor and the Huangshui River Basin, that is, the east of Qinghai Lake and the northeast of Qilian Mountains. (Government is located in the northwest of Zhangye City, Gansu Province), Dunhuang (Government is located in the west of Dunhuang City, Gansu Province), and Jincheng (Government is located in the northwest of Yongjing County, Gansu Province).The Qiang people who originally lived in the Huangshui River Basin were driven to the west, and their connection with the Xiongnu was cut off.Since the Han Dynasty controlled the Hexi Corridor, the gate to the Western Regions has been opened.

As early as the third year of Jianyuan (138 BC), Emperor Wu sent Zhang Qian to the Western Regions in order to lure the Dayue clan back to Dunhuang and Qilian Mountains to jointly attack the Xiongnu.Because he was detained by the Huns when going back and forth, Zhang Qian returned to China 13 years later.Although the purpose of contacting Da Yuezhi was not achieved, Zhang Qian personally experienced Dawan (in the Fergana Basin of Central Asia), Kangju (between Lake Balkhash and the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan), Da Yuezhi and Da Yuezhi. Xia (in today's northern Afghanistan) and other Central Asian countries made the Han Dynasty understand the specific situation in this area.In the fourth year of Yuanshou (119 BC), after the Han army defeated the Xiongnu again, Emperor Wu sent Zhang Qian to Wusun again.After arriving in Wusun, Zhang Qian sent deputy envoys to Dawan, Kangju, Daxia, Anxi (present-day Iran), Shendu (present-day India) and other countries.In the second year of Yuanding (115 BC), Zhang Qian returned to China, and the traffic between the Han Dynasty and the Western Regions, Central Asia, and West Asia was opened.

However, the struggle between the Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu in the Western Regions did not end. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty launched several military operations against the Western Regions. The largest one dispatched hundreds of thousands of troops, hundreds of thousands of livestock and hundreds of thousands of migrant workers to conquer Dawan.Due to the long line of communication and the difficulty in supply, although the Han Dynasty controlled the Tianshan South Road, it could not always control the north of Tianshan Mountain. The countries there were still threatened by the Huns and did not dare to fully obey the Han Dynasty.After many wars, in the second year of Xuandi Shenjue (60 BC), the Han Dynasty finally won a decisive victory, completely controlled the Tianshan North Road, and set up the Western Regions Protectorate.

The territory under the jurisdiction of the Protectorate of the Western Regions includes the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains west of Yumen Pass and Yang Pass to the present-day Balkhash Lake, the Fergana Basin and the Pamir Plateau. At the beginning, there were 36 countries, which later increased to 50 countries. It was located in Wulei City (now near Dongyeyungou, Luntai County, Xinjiang).The Protectorate of the Western Regions is not only the military garrison area of ​​the Han Dynasty, but also a special administrative area.On the one hand, it is different from the formal administrative districts in the interior. It does not set up prefectures and counties, and still retains the original state. The Han Dynasty generally does not interfere with their internal affairs, but controls their basic conditions such as military strength and population; On behalf of the imperial court, they are in charge of the diplomatic and military power of these countries. They can mobilize their armies, decide their foreign attitudes, and directly abolish their monarchs or even abolish a certain country when necessary.Because of this, the Protectorate of the Western Regions was also part of the territory of the Han Dynasty.

In order to open up to the southwest, around the fifth year of Yuanguang (130 BC), Emperor Wu conscripted soldiers from Ba and Shu counties (approximately equivalent to the eastern and central parts of Sichuan today) from Bodao (now Anbianchang in the southwest of Yibin City, Sichuan) He built a road to Kejiang (zangzang) (today's Beipanjiang and Hongshuihe), and established a new Qianwei County, and the government office was located in Bodao.Under such circumstances, the rulers of Qiong (in the area of ​​Xichang City, Sichuan Province) and Ruo (in the area of ​​Yanyuan County, Sichuan Province) of "Xiyi" requested ownership, and the Han Dynasty established more than a dozen counties in that area.However, due to the arduous road construction project and the fact that the Han Dynasty was busy dealing with the Xiongnu, some of the newly established counties were once cancelled.In the first year of Yuanshou (122 BC), the Han Dynasty resumed the development of "Southwestern Yi".After several years of management, the tribes on the Western Sichuan Plateau and the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, such as Qiongdu, Ruodu, Ranyu, Baima, Qilan, and Yelang, have all been brought under the rule of the Han Dynasty. 〔xi希〕(government is located in the east of today’s Xichang City, Sichuan), Shen Li (government is located in the northeast of Hanyuan County, Sichuan), Wenshan (government is located in the north of Maowen County, Sichuan), Wudu (government is located in today’s Wudu County, Gansu Northeast) and Zangke (where the government is located in the southwest of Huangping County, Guizhou today) five counties.Two years later, in the second year of Yuanfeng (109 BC), Yizhou County was established in the areas of the two tribes of Dian and Kunming (the government is located in the east of Jinning County, Yunnan Province today), and the southwest border of the Han Dynasty expanded to the present Gao The line between Ligong Mountain and Ailao Mountain.

The unification of Lingnan is the general trend.In the fourth year of Yuan Ding (113 BC), Emperor Wu summoned the king of Nanyue to come to Chang'an for an audience.In the second year, Lu Jia, the prime minister of South Vietnam who opposed the merger into the Han Dynasty, killed the king and the Han envoys and launched a rebellion.The Han army attacked in five groups. Before the other three groups joined forces, the two main groups had captured the capital of South Vietnam, Panyu (now Guangzhou), and captured Lu Jia in the sixth year of Yuanding.The Han Dynasty set up nine counties in the territory of Nanyue, of which Jiaozhi, Jiuzhen and Rinan counties are all in the central and northern parts of today's Vietnam, and Zhuya and Dan'er counties are in today's Hainan Island.

In the early years of the Han Dynasty, Weiman, a native of the Central Plains, led thousands of people into the Korean peninsula and established his own regime.At that time, the territory of Korea roughly included the eastern part of Liaoning, the southwest of Jilin and the northwestern part of the Korean peninsula.In the second year of Yuanfeng (109 BC), Emperor Wu sent troops to North Korea, and North Korea surrendered in the following year. The Han Dynasty set up four prefectures, namely Xuantu (tu Tu), Lelang, Lintun, and Zhenfan, which have jurisdiction over the southern part of the territory and the Hanjiang River Basin. The territory of the Western Han Dynasty reached its peak in the late period of Emperor Wu.However, due to the rapid expansion, too many constructions, the military and financial resources could not adapt, and the tyranny of some local officials caused the resistance of the local ethnic groups, so some areas had to be shrunk in the future.Shenli County was abolished in the last year of Emperor Wu, and Wenshan County was abolished in the third year of Dijie (67 BC) of Emperor Xuan.Most of the jurisdictions of these two counties were merged into the neighboring Shu County, so the territory did not decrease much, but the rule over the local tribes was relatively relaxed.In the fifth year of Emperor Zhao Shiyuan (82 BC), the two counties of Lintun and Zhenfan on the Korean Peninsula were abolished, part of their jurisdiction was abandoned, and the other part was merged into Lelang County.In the fifth year of Yuanfeng (76 BC), the eastern part of Xuantu County was abandoned, and the government was moved from the Korean Peninsula to the west of Xinbin County, Liaoning today.In the same year, Dan'er County on Hainan Island was merged into Zhuya County, but the resistance of the local ethnic groups was still quite fierce, and repeated suppressions by the Han Dynasty failed. Zhuya County was abolished, and all administrative agencies were moved inward.Although the administrative agency of the mainland government on Hainan Island was not restored until the Sui Dynasty, the exchanges between the island and the mainland people did not stop.People from the mainland continued to move to the island, which gradually increased the population, expanded the arable land, and deepened the relationship between the Han nationality and the local ethnic groups. Except for these partial shrinkages, the territory of the Western Han Dynasty was basically stable and remained until the end of the Western Han Dynasty.In the fourth year of Emperor Ping's Yuanshi (AD 4), the Qiang people's settlement on the east bank of Qinghai Lake was established as Xihai County, but it existed for a short time.