The Qiang rebellion that dragged down the government of the Eastern Han Dynasty was largely due to the rebellion of the Qiang people (most of whom were called "Eastern Qiang") who moved inland. Since the Qiang people cannot be appeased, why should they move inland? One of the important reasons is that the Eastern Han Dynasty government wanted to use the Qiang people's force to serve as soldiers for the empire and help the empire guard its borders.
The tradition of the Han Dynasty governments using foreign armed forces can be traced back to the Western Han Dynasty. During the Warring States Period , all countries had a conscription system, the army and farmers were integrated, and all the people were soldiers. After the establishment of the unified empire of Qin and Han, the war was fought against the foreign princes on the border instead of the local princes, and the conscription system was difficult to adapt to the new form of war.
Why do you say that the conscription system does not adapt to the new situation?
for several reasons.
The first reason is that the conscription system is difficult to adapt to the battlefield environment. The new battlefield in has moved from the hinterland of the empire to the edge of the empire. The soldiers recruited from the Central Plains are difficult to cope with the complex terrain and harsh climate. The green mountains and green waters of his hometown and the yellow sand of the desert on the border made the soldiers a little afraid before they even started fighting.
The second reason is that it is difficult to adapt tactically. Central Plains soldiers usually make a living by farming, and in wartime they are mainly infantry. Let them fight against the prairie cavalry who are stronger than mounted archers and come and go like the wind. They are at an absolute disadvantage in terms of military skills.
In addition, the period of conscription to guard the border is one year. The empire has a vast territory. The recruited soldiers set out from their hometowns and sometimes have to walk for several months to reach the border. After they have just adapted to the battlefield environment and learned some military skills, they are sent back to farm, and the next wave of new recruits come to suffer and die. The process itself is very unscientific.
The third reason is the difficulty of logistical supply. The border areas are very economically backward and cannot support large-scale wars. Materials must be transported from the interior. In addition to the cost of soldiers, due to the long distance, the loss of materials during transportation was also very huge. According to the records of Han bamboo slips unearthed in Dawan, the loss was as high as 20%. If you add in the labor costs in transportation, the material consumption to support a border war is absolutely astronomical. Therefore, if the supply problem can be solved on the border, it will be of great significance to the national finance.
The drawbacks of the conscription system were fully exposed in the war between the Western Han Dynasty and the Huns. At that time, several sharp-thinking ministers proposed military reforms, and the use of foreign soldiers was one of the reform measures. Foreign soldiers are familiar with the battlefield environment, understand military technology, and can solve supply problems on the spot. They can basically avoid the three drawbacks of the conscription system.
There were two people who first proposed the use of foreign soldiers. They are both famous in Chinese history. One is Jia Yi and the other is Chao Cuo.
When Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty, Jia Yi proposed to find a way to make some Huns become subjects of Han Dynasty, disperse their power, set up a number of vassal states, and place them on the border from Longxi to Liaodong, and let them help the Han Dynasty Resist Yuezhi and other foreign races.
Jia Yi optimistically said that if foreigners were responsible for fighting the war, the Western Han Empire would be able to "people the world's soldiers", allowing the people to live a quiet life in the inner county, study, farm, and enjoy life.
During the reign of Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty, Jia Yi's idea was quite advanced. But after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the strategy for dealing with foreign races basically adopted Jia Yi's ideas. For example, after Hunxie King surrendered, his tribe was divided into five vassal states and placed on the border to help guard the Western Han Dynasty.
Chao Cuo also proposed two policies, which were later learned by Qing Dynasty people. One was "learning from the foreigners to develop skills" and the other was "using the foreigners to control the foreigners".
Chao Cuo said that the foreign cavalry is indeed powerful, but we can learn from them and train our own cavalry. He proposed that a small number of foreign cavalry be assigned to the Han cavalry to form the cavalry arm of the Han Dynasty. This would not only allow the barbarians to attack the barbarians, but also provide the Han cavalry with an opportunity to learn at close range.
During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Chao Cuo's idea was partially implemented. When Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty fought against the Huns, there were many Huns in the army, and 22 of them were granted the title of marquis. When Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty reformed the central military system, foreign soldiers also occupied an important position. Three of the eight schools of the Northern Army, including Changshui, Hu Qi and Yue Qi, were all foreign soldiers.
After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, foreign soldiers were often used in the Western Han Dynasty. I won’t say too much here, let’s return the topic to the Eastern Han Dynasty.
The premise for using foreign soldiers in the Western Han Dynasty was that their own military strength was very strong. Whether they used foreign soldiers to guard the borders or incorporated them into the central army, they were only used as a supplementary force.
But in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the situation was different. The military strength of the Eastern Han Dynasty was much weaker than that of the Western Han Dynasty. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Liu Xiu massively reduced the central army and county soldiers, and abolished the captaincy official and capital examination systems, resulting in "the king's brigade was weak" and "the people were unhappy". The consequences of "practicing war" are that the troops cannot fight and the people have lost their martial spirit.
The Eastern Han Dynasty's own military strength was not good, but the tradition of using foreign soldiers still existed. In fact, it is precisely because they are unable to fight on their own that they rely on foreign soldiers; and the more they rely on foreign soldiers, the less capable they are on fighting on their own. This is a vicious cycle.
we can give an example. In 185 AD, Bian Zhang and Han Sui rebelled, and the imperial court held an emergency counter-rebellion meeting. Huangfu Song advocated recruiting 3,000 Wuhuan cavalry. The Northern Army's Zhonghou Zou Jing believed that Wuhuan was too weak and Xianbei cavalry should be used. The ministers debated repeatedly. Some supported the use of Wuhuan and others supported the use of Xianbei , but no one proposed recruiting more Han soldiers. It can be seen that in the minds of the court ministers, Han soldiers are not good for fighting, and foreign soldiers are worthy of reuse.
The scale and frequency of the use of foreign force in the Eastern Han Dynasty far exceeded that of the Western Han Dynasty. Records of recruiting foreign troops in the Eastern Han Dynasty appear more than 80 times in history books. When Wuhuan rebelled, they used Xianbei to fight; According to scholars' research, the foreign soldiers used in the Eastern Han Dynasty included Xiongnu, Xianbei, Wuhuan, Fuyu, Qiang, Wuling barbarians, Jiaozhou barbarians, Baima Di, Kunming barbarians, etc. As long as they can be used, it doesn't matter who you are. Woolen cloth.
Border guards are of course inseparable from alien soldiers. The Southern Xiongnu was attached to the territory, and the Eastern Han Dynasty used them to guard the border; the Qiang was attached to the territory, and was used to guard the border; and the Wuhuan was attached to the territory, and was also used to guard the border. If Jia Yi lived in the Eastern Han Dynasty, he would probably be very happy, because the political concept of "the people and the soldiers of the world" were actually realized to a large extent in the Eastern Han Dynasty.
At that time, some people boasted about the policy of using foreign soldiers in the Eastern Han Dynasty, saying that "there is no need to fight for one man in the country, and there is no need to open up the treasury", "it does not move China, and does not bother the soldiers", which does not need to disturb the people of the Central Plains, and does not require the government to spend money. , this method is really great.
In fact, this is a kind of compliment. The Eastern Han government still has to spend money. If you don’t spend money, who will work for you? Minister Yuan An recorded that at that time, the Eastern Han Dynasty court gave 100 million yuan to the Southern Xiongnu and 74.8 million yuan to the countries in the Western Regions every year. There are also records that Qingxu Prefecture supplies Xianbei with 270 million yuan every year.
We have to admit that although it is expensive, it does save a lot of money compared to recruiting people from counties and states to serve as soldiers, and in theory it also improves military efficiency.
Therefore, the military situation of the Eastern Han Dynasty at that time was that foreign soldiers surrounded the empire, while the people in the inner county stayed away from the war and did not engage in fighting. To use an inappropriate analogy, they were like a group of wolves surrounding a group of sheep. People at that time also viewed it this way. Later, when the Kwantung princes raised troops, Dong Zhuo wanted to send troops to attack them, the minister Zheng Tai advised him that the Kwantung soldiers were lambs, while the Qiang and Hu soldiers were tigers and wolves, and they would not pose a threat at all. Although Zheng Tai's purpose was to deceive Dong Zhuo, he told the truth.
But the key problem is that mercenaries have no loyalty at all. If these foreign races rebel, what will the central government do? Especially when the Han people seriously lack military training. Not to mention that the Han people had a numerical advantage. Ten thousand people gathered in a hurry may not be able to defeat a few hundred well-trained people in a battle. Therefore, later generations used four words to evaluate the mercenary policy of the Eastern Han Dynasty: "Raising tigers brings danger."
