In the middle and late Tang Dynasty, the internal and external situation of the Tang Dynasty was worrying, and there was a tragic situation of "the capital was six times trapped, and the emperor fled nine times". However, the Tang Dynasty, which was in its late stage of development, still had very impressive foreign wars. From 842 to 843 AD, during the reign of Emperor Wuzong of Tang, the Tang army performed a record of 3,000 cavalry attacking the Uighur King Tingya Chant alone, defeating 100,000 Uighur Army and destroying the Uighur Khanate. How did the Tang army in the late Tang Dynasty achieve a rare "war of national destruction"?
There are very complicated reasons behind the Tang army's 3,000 troops defeating the 100,000 Uighur troops. A comprehensive investigation should be conducted from multiple aspects such as diplomacy, military, and politics.
above picture_ Uighur
in the Tang Dynasty first, differentiated and disintegrated the Uighur tribes, enthroned and surrendered Uighur tribes, isolated Uighur Uighur Wujie Khan.
In October 840 AD, Wen Deyi, the governor of the Tang Tiande Army, reported to Emperor Wuzong of Tang, "The Uighur soldiers invaded and forced the Western Regions to 60 miles away." The border defense was in a hurry. Emperor Wuzong of Tang immediately ordered Zhang Zhongwu, the governor of Zhenwu Army, to lead the army to prepare for going north to guard the border and resisting the Uighur invasion.
in the first month of 1841, Liu Mian-kai reported that the Uighurs had retreated. The court believed that the harassment of the Uighurs was of general nature was not worth worrying, and ordered Zhang Zhongwu troops to retreat. But soon after, the Uighurs went south again invaded, and Emperor Wuzong of Tang wrote the "Imperial to the Betrayal of the Uighurs" to condemn the Uighurs' betrayal. In order to find out the situation, the court sent an official named Wei Mo to north to find out the truth without firing the first shot. The relationship between the Tang Dynasty and the Uighurs quickly became tense.
Above picture_ Emperor Wuzong of Tang Dynasty Li Yan (July 2, 814 - April 22, 846)
In May 841 AD, seven people from the Uighur tribe, including Wen Wusi, Prince Lizhi and General Duoxian, led more than 3,100 Uighur people to surrender to the Tang Dynasty.
html After Wen Weisi surrendered in April 1842, the Tang Dynasty officially enthroned the Wen Weisi tribe as the Guiyi Army. Wen Weisi became the General of the Left Jinwu of the Tang Dynasty, awarded tooth flag and weapons, and was incorporated into the Tang Dynasty border defense army sequence. This move shows that the Tang Dynasty highly affirmed the surrender of the Wenfos tribe. The Tang Dynasty hoped to be valued by being incorporated into the Tang Dynasty's border guards after the surrender of the Wenfos tribe and being valued. This matter was divided and disintegrated the hostile Ujie Khan and his subordinate tribes to the Tang Dynasty.
Wenfos surrendered to the Tang Dynasty and killed the tribe leaders Chi Xin and Pu Gu on the grounds of "invasion of the Tang Dynasty's border". Chi Xin and Pu Gu's tribes were engulfed by the other Uighur tribes. Nalingsu directed the army to invade the Tang Dynasty's border areas. The Tang army general Zhang Zhongzhi led 30,000 Tang troops to defeat Nalingsu's rebels, "all of which were reduced to 7,000 tents and allocated them to various roads."
The Tang Dynasty's attitude towards the hostile Uighurs in the north and the Tang Dynasty was clear: if the Uighurs learned from Wen Weisi and surrendered to the Tang Dynasty, they could be granted official positions and be valued. For example, Wen Wus himself became a general of the Tang Dynasty, and Wen Wus's tribe was incorporated into the Tang Dynasty's border defense force. However, if you fight against the Tang Dynasty, then the Lingsu tribe will be its end.
Then the effect of this effect is that when the 3,000 troops of the Tang Dynasty entered the imperial court of Wujie Khan alone, the other tribes of the Uighurs were at least waiting and watching the attack of the Tang army and did not resist the Tang army under the order of Wujie Khan. This laid the groundwork for the 3,000 Tang army's later staged a 100,000 Uighur army under Wujie Khan's command with less victory and more victory, and won time for the Tang army to rectify its troops in the north to prepare for war.
above picture_ Li Deyu (787-850)
Second, on the one hand, the Tang army accepted Wen Wusi's surrender and differentiated and disintegrated the Uighurs. On the other hand, we should prepare for the military military and prepare for the worst-case scenario - the Tang Dynasty and the Uighurs to go to war.
Li Deyu actively prepared for war in the northern border areas in the early days of Huichang. In 841 AD, more than 3,000 Tang army Chen Xu's troops and more than 3,000 Zheng Hua army gathered in Taiyuan area to prepare for war.In view of the defect that the Tang army infantry could not fight against the Uighur cavalry, Li Deyu also mobilized more than 700 crossbowmen from , Zhejiang West , Xuanzhou and other places to prepare for war, and strengthened the combat capabilities of the Tang army infantry to attack the cavalry.
In addition to mobilizing the army to gather and standby in today's Shanxi region, the court also appointed Liu Mian as the governor of Hedong and Li Zhongshun as the governor of Zhenwu Army. Li Deyu also suggested that the court recognize the brave and good at fighting Shi Xiong as the deputy envoy of the German army's defense.
Above picture_ Uighur heavy cavalry
The Tang army stationed troops in the Shanxi area to prepare for war, deploying various armies and generals to prepare for war, and building Shanxi into a large rear for the Tang Dynasty to fight against the Uighurs. The Tang army went north to attack the Uighurs, and the main force of Shanxi's "big rear" was in charge of Shanxi and was ready to support the offensive troops in combat at any time. To take a step back, even if the Tang Dynasty failed to fight the Uighurs, the Tang army in Shanxi could become an important force in defending the country.
It is worth mentioning that the generals selected by the Tang Dynasty were all those who were good at fighting. For example, Liu Mian was a general of Ya. In his early years, he fought with the army of the vassal states and charged forward. He has made many military achievements in fighting in the border areas of the northwest region. During the , during the 2nd year of Emperor Wenzong of Tang, Liu Mian fought with the Dangxiang people and made many military achievements. According to the " Old Tang Book ", the Dangxiang people invaded today's Ningxia area, and Liu Mian led the army to fight with the Dangxiang people, and the fight left no Dangxiang people alive.
above picture_ Uighur text
Third, facing the 100,000 troops under Ujie Khan, the Tang army made corresponding deployments and joined forces with the armies of other ethnic minorities to form the Tang Dynasty's expeditionary force to fight back against the Uighurs.
Li Deyu's military preparation measures include:
. Training the strong men to cooperate with the garrison to defend Taiyuan, and build the entire Shanxi region into a wall to eliminate the Uighurs.
. Make full use of the power of ethnic minorities, such as the army of the Shatuo tribe and the Dangxiang tribe were incorporated into the Tang army to fight.
According to the records of the Tang army's military strength in the article "The Strategy of Emperor Wuzong of Tang to Treat the Uighurs in the South", we will find that the Tang army's ethnic minority troops participated in the war with a large number of troops.
It contains more than 600 Shatu troops who joined the Southern Army.
Joined the Southwest Front Army's Tuyuhun , Shatuo and Tielle cavalry more than 6,000 people; several members of the Dangxiang Tuoba army.
Joined several members of the Xi, Shi Wei and Khitan troops in the Southeast Army.
Among them, the cavalry from Shatu, Tiel and Dangxiang tribes will play an important role.
After deployment, the Tang army was divided into the South Front Army commanded by Liu Mian, the South Front Army commanded by Li Sizhong, and the Southeast Front Army commanded by Zhang Zhongwu. The three armies deployed comprehensive defense in the shape of a pin character to achieve strategic mutual support.
above picture_ Tang Dynasty cavalry
Fourth, the Tang army actively prepared for war in Shanxi, joined forces with ethnic minorities to participate in the war, built Shanxi into a rear base for eliminating Uighurs, and formulated a "heart-digging tactic."
The Tang Dynasty's preparations were very in place. Before the outbreak of the war, the Tang Dynasty had already learned about the specific location of Wujie Khan through spies. Wu Jie Khan was arrogant and underestimated the enemy against the Tang army and did not take the Tang army seriously at all. It was never expected that the Tang army would take the initiative to attack Wujie Khan. The Tang army general Shi Xiong gathered the elite cavalry of the Han people in the Tang army, the Shatuo Li Guochang 2 troops, the Dangxiang troops and the Tiel tribe who were good at riding and shooting to form a coalition of 3,000 people, and directly attacked the heart of the enemy's army, the Khan Court, with the "heart-digging tactic".
After the entire battle started, the Tang army quickly attacked without encountering too much tenacious resistance on the way.Since the Tang Dynasty had already divided and disintegrated the Uighur tribes in the early stage, most Uighur tribes were either neutral or supported the Tang Dynasty's war. Wujie Khan betrayed his relatives and did not have many direct troops around him to fight against the Tang army with him. Ujie Khan himself was also shot and injured by the Tang army in the melee.
It must be noted that the tactics of the Tang army's solitary army to destroy the enemy are often used by the Tang army, such as Su Dingfang led the army to attack the Western Turks, and Li Jing led the Tang army to attack the royal court of the Eastern Turks. This tactical application of the Tang army was successfully based on the mature use of high-quality cavalry equipment and tactics.
above picture_ Li Jing (571-649)
Fifth, behind the 3,000 cavalry, there are 100,000 Tang army reinforcements to support. There is a small episode in the battle. Ujie Khan escaped all the way under the pursuit of the Tang army, with hundreds of cavalry around him. After Ujie Khan had the possibility of fleeing further north, he attempted to rebuild the army and fight fiercely with the Tang army. This requires the Tang army to fight quickly and annihilate the Uighur troops.
At this critical moment, the 100,000 Tang troops commanded by Liu Mian were dispatched from Shanxi and divided into multiple routes to encircle the Uighur troops. Faced with the siege of the Tang army, the Uighurs had no choice but to surrender to the Tang army. After fierce battle, the 3,000 Tang army annihilated 10,000 Uighur troops and captured more than 5,000 Uighurs, winning a complete victory.
Above picture_ Image of the Uighurs
To sum up, behind the seemingly weak defeating the strong battle is the result of the efforts of the Tang Dynasty's multiple factors of political and diplomatic and military factors. These 3,000 Tang troops were like a dagger that penetrated directly into the Uighur royal court, giving the Uighur a fatal blow, forcing the Uighurs to surrender to the Tang Dynasty.
Author: Military handsome editor: Lilith
Reference materials: "The strategy of Emperor Wuzong of Tang Dynasty to treat the Uighurs moving south" Liao Yong Journal of Sichuan Normal University 1990
Text was created by the team of the History University Hall, and the picture is from the Internet and the copyright belongs to the original author
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