The Xiongnu and the Turks are two powerful ethnic minorities that emerged at different times in history. The Xiongnu flourished in the Qin and Han Dynasties, and the Turks were more powerful than the Sui and Tang Dynasties. They all posed a great threat to the Central Plains Dynasty, but in the end they were defeated because they controlled the Western Regions, blocked the Silk Road, and were not conducive to the westward expansion of the Han and Tang Dynasties. The strong Han Dynasty and the prosperous Tang Dynasty were worthy of being the two peaks of China's feudal dynasties!
The Xiongnu and the Turks could become opponents of the Han and Tang Dynasties. They were undoubtedly very powerful, but which one was stronger or weaker between them? Many friends may think that the Huns are stronger: it took the Han Dynasty to accumulate 50 years of wealth to cripple the Huns, while the Turks also faced the New Dynasty after the war. Li Shimin only took more than ten years to defeat the Huns. So everyone will think that the Huns are much more powerful than the Turks. But is this really the case?
Let’s first look at the history of the Xiongnu:
The Xiongnu arose at the foot of Yinshan Mountain in present-day Inner Mongolia. According to the "Historical Records·Biography of the Xiongnu", "the Xiongnu, their ancestor was the Queen of Xia" The descendants of the Miao clan are also called Chunwei. In the Tang and Yu periods, there were Shanrong, Xunzhu, and Hunzhou. At the beginning of the establishment of the Han Dynasty, it was the period when the Xiongnu were most powerful. Maodun Chanyu was brave and skilled in fighting and led troops well. He not only unified the scattered tribes and annexed many surrounding small countries, but also almost died of the new Han Dynasty through the Baideng siege. Although in the end Liu Bang got out of trouble by bribing the Shanyu's wife, the king of the early Han Dynasty had to use the policy of marriage to improve the relationship between the two.
It was not until the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty that the emergence of Wei Qing and Huo Qubing basically put an end to the Xiongnu's troubles; by the time of Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty, the Northern Huns were destroyed and the Southern Huns surrendered to the Han Dynasty.
However, during the Eastern Han period, the Huns began to rebel again. In 88 AD, Emperor He of the Han Dynasty sent Dou Xian to lead an expedition to Mobei. Only then did they completely eliminate the Huns who had been entangled with the Han for nearly three hundred years (some of them moved westward into Europe). The final decisive battle was recorded by Ban Gu in "The Biography of Dou Rong in the Book of the Later Han Dynasty", which is the famous "Yanran Leshi".
At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, various ethnic groups from the surrounding areas poured into the Central Plains. Among them, the Xiongnu had the largest population. It was said in history that "Guanzhong had a population of more than one million, half of which were Rong and Di, and half of which were Han and Huns." In the Western Jin Dynasty, Empress Jia's political chaos led to the Rebellion of the Eight Kings, which lasted for 16 years, and gave the Huns another opportunity to rebel against China.
And the Huns left on the Mongolian Plateau continued to mix and intermarry with the Xianbei people and became the Tiefu people. Later, Helianding from Tiefu established the Xia Kingdom in Pingliang. In 431 AD, the Northern Wei Dynasty captured Helianding and Xia died. Tongwancheng, the capital of the Xia Kingdom, became the only relic left by the Xiongnu in East Asia.
Later Yang Jian established the Sui Dynasty and unified the Central Plains. The Huns who entered the Central Plains also integrated into various ethnic groups during this period. Wu Huan Hua became the last performance of the Xiongnu on the stage of Chinese history.
The history of the Turks is far more complicated than that of the Huns:
The Turks are the fourth nomadic nation to dominate the Mongolian grasslands and the Western Regions for a long time after the Xiongnu, Xianbei, and Rouran since the establishment of the Qin Dynasty. The Turks arose in the Northern and Southern Dynasties in the mid-6th century and declined in the Tang Dynasty in the mid-8th century. Their activities lasted for 200 years and had a profound impact on Chinese history.
There are many records of the origin of the Turks in history books. One is that they are descendants of the Xiongnu, the other is that Pingliang miscellaneous nonsense, and the third is that they are descendants of the Suo Kingdom. No matter which theory is used, two things about the Turks are conclusive: one is that the national totem is the wolf, and the other is that they mastered iron-making technology.
htmlAt the end of the 5th century, the Rouran people declined in the confrontation with the Tuoba clan of Xianbei. The Turks originally submitted to the Rouran people and were the iron workers of the Rouran people. They continued to grow and develop in the process of helping Rouran fight against Xianbei. When Ashina Tumen became the leader of the Turks, the Turks began to break away from the rule of the Rouran people.html In 0546, Ashina Tumen proposed marriage to Rouran Khan Anagui, but Anagui scolded Tumen as his "forging slave" and refused with a bad attitude. Tumen was furious, and he severed his relationship with Rouran and proposed marriage to the Western Wei Dynasty. In 551, Tumen married Princess Changle of the Western Wei Dynasty and officially became an ally with the Western Wei Dynasty. The next year, Tumen gathered elites to defeat Rouran Khan Anagui, and Anagui committed suicide. Subsequently, Tumen called himself Ili Khan and established the Turkic Khanate.In the same year, Yang Jian replaced the Northern Zhou Dynasty and established the Sui Dynasty. His attitude towards the Turks was very cold. In addition, Princess Qianjin hated the Sui Dynasty that destroyed the Northern Zhou Dynasty. Therefore, a full-scale war broke out between the Turks and the Sui Dynasty.
In addition to using military means to fight against the Turks, Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty also adopted Chang Sun Sheng's suggestion to drive a wedge between the big and small Khans of the Turks. The unified Turkic Khanate in 583 AD split into eastern and western parts. Since then, wars between the Eastern Turks and the Western Turks have continued.
After years of war, the Eastern Turks' national power declined greatly, and Qimin Khan had to surrender to the Sui Dynasty. In 605, Qimin Khan followed the orders of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty and dispatched 20,000 cavalry to help the Sui Dynasty quell the Khitan rebellion. In 607, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty visited the northern frontier, and Qimin Khan even cut the grass to clear the way in person, with a very respectful attitude.
After the death of Qimin Khan, his son Shibi Khan succeeded to the throne. Shibi saw the chaos in the Sui Dynasty and decided to betray the Sui Dynasty. In 615, Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty once again patrolled the northern border fortress, and at the end he besieged Emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty in Yanmen. Since then, Shibi relied on his strong strength to assist Dou Jiande , Liu Wuzhou , Liang Shidu and other separatist forces. Even Li Yuan also asked the Turks for help when they raised troops in Taiyuan.
However, as the process of unification of the Tang Dynasty accelerated, the confrontation between the Eastern Turks and the Tang Dynasty began to become fierce. In 626, Jieli took advantage of the civil strife in the Tang Dynasty to launch a large-scale attack on Guanzhong and marched to Chang'an. Li Shimin, who had just ascended the throne, took only six cavalry out of the city to meet Jie Li. He used a strategy of suspicion to prevent him from advancing, and formed an alliance with him at Wei Bridge.
Li Shimin certainly would not be angry with this. After the internal integration was completed, he sent Li Jing to the Northern Expedition in 629, and finally captured Jieli alive in 630 and destroyed the Eastern Turks.
After talking about the Eastern Turks, let’s look at the Western Turks. Compared with the Eastern Turks, the history of the Western Turks is more chaotic. Since the establishment of the Western Turks, wars with the Eastern Turks have continued. In 628, the leader of the Western Turks, Yehu Khan, was killed by his uncle Mohe Duo Khan, which caused the Western Turks to split into eastern and western parts. Since then, the Western Turks began a civil strife that lasted for more than 20 years.
html In 0657, Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty appointed Su Dingfang as his general and launched a large-scale campaign against the Western Turks. Su Dingfang defeated the Western Turks at the Yiji River. Shaboluo Khan fled westward and was captured alive when passing through Sudu City. The Western Turks perished. However, some Western Turkic tribes were dissatisfied with the control of the Tang Dynasty and moved westward.But "a centipede insect is dead but not stiff". When Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty passed away in 683, Khan Jietilishi took the opportunity to establish the Post-Turkic Khanate, continued to expand his power, and basically restored the former territory of the Turkic Khanate.
html In 0691, Jietilishi Khan died, and his younger brother Qianshan Khan succeeded him. There were wars and peace between Qianshan and and Wuzhou . At the same time, Qianshan continued to expand externally, which brought the post-Turkic people to their peak. In 716, during a battle, Qianshan was ambushed by the enemy because he underestimated him, and his head was missing.The Viga Khan who succeeded to the throne pursued a policy of peaceful diplomacy towards the Tang Dynasty, which alleviated the harm caused to the Turks by Qianshan Khan's year-round wars. In 741, Denli Khan, the son of Viga Khan, was killed, and the Turks fell into successive civil wars.In 745, Baimei Khan was jointly killed by the Tang Dynasty and the Uighurs, and the Turkic Khanate was later destroyed.
After the demise of the Turks, part of the Turks were merged into Uighur and part of them were integrated into the Tang Dynasty. The word Turk gradually disappeared from the annals of history.
Comparison of the internal conflicts between the Xiongnu and the Turks
From the history of the two, one thing can be found, that is, the Turks are far less united than the Xiongnu. Although there are factors involved in Zhang Sun Sheng's plan to alienate people, it is also related to the internal conflicts of the Turks.
Before the establishment of the Sui Dynasty, due to the weakness of the Central Plains dynasty, the Northern Dynasties countries had to make peace with it or pay tribute to it. At the same time, the Turks often went south to plunder people and wealth. In addition, they guarded the Silk Road, were rich and had no strong enemies outside, so they would naturally fight internally due to uneven distribution of spoils.
The Turks were originally a loose nomadic empire. The tribal leaders of the Khanate were quite independent. In addition, there were many tribes of the opposite sex conquered by force. Therefore, facing the fat sheep of the Central Plains, they ignored the orders of the Great Khan and went south to "graze the valley". This is why the Turks invaded the Central Plains much more frequently than the Huns. Whichever tribe "struck grass valleys" more often would be more powerful. In this case, the Turkic Great Khan's control declined year by year, and noble rebellions frequently occurred within the tribe. In 581, in order to "live a stable life", the Turkic Great Khan Shabolu had to establish three other minor khans, namely the Second Khan Anluo, Apo Khan Duluobian, and Datou Khan Dingjue.
However, Shabolu's appeasement policy made the situation worse. Soon Datou Khan united with Abo Khan to fight against Shabolu. A three-year-long war broke out between the two. Eventually, the Turkic Khanate split into the east and west in 583.
In the following ten years, not only were the Eastern and Western Turks fighting, but the heterosexual tribes within them were also rebelling. "Datou attacked Jiuquan, and then the three kingdoms of Khotan, Persia, and Yita immediately rebelled. Shabolu was close to Qu Zhoupan, and his tribes Bogu and Shuhe Luoxun were also upset." The resistance of the conquered conquered the Turks' military power and greatly weakened their rule.
Although the Xiongnu also experienced bad internal strife such as "Five Shanyus Standing Together", the split of the Xiongnu was mainly due to the attack of the Han Dynasty. After Huo Qubing expelled the Xiongnu from Monan, the Xiongnu was forced to retreat to Mobei where natural conditions were harsh. The quality of pastures seriously declined, which directly restricted the normal development of the nomadic economy. In this case, the authority of the Xiongnu Chanyu declined. Some Xiongnu tribes surrendered to the Han Dynasty for the rich pastures in Monan. For example, in the third year of Emperor Yuanshuo of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, King Yi Zhanxi of Zuoguli fled to the Han Dynasty. In the second year of Yuanshou, King Hunxie and King Xiutu surrendered all of them to the Han Dynasty. In the second year of Emperor Xuan Emperor Shenjue of the Han Dynasty, King Xianxian Shan of Rizhu led tens of thousands of his horsemen to return to the Han Dynasty.
Moreover, although the surrender of the Southern Xiongnu tribe to the Han Dynasty weakened the strength of the Xiongnu, they did not fight in melee all year round like the Eastern and Western Turks. This preserved their strength to a certain extent and created the basis for their eventual westward migration to become the "Whip of God".
Therefore, From the perspective of "humanity", the Huns are more powerful than the Turks.
Comparison between the Huns and Turks and the Han and Tang Wars
The Huns and the Han Dynasty:
1, The Siege of Baideng
3 led by Liu Bang 20,000 Han troops were besieged by 400,000 Xiongnu troops led by Maodun Shanyu on Baishan Mountain for seven days. Finally, they were able to break through by Chen Ping bribing the Xiongnu clan. After escaping, Liu Bang accepted Liu Jing's suggestion to make peace with the Xiongnu, open the closed market, and allow trade between the two tribes.
2, Battle of Henan
In 127 BC, the cavalry general Wei Qing led 30,000 cavalry out of Yunzhong and marched westward along the Yellow River. They carried out long-distance roundabout attacks on the Xiongnu King Loufan and King Aries in Henan, and recovered Henan in one fell swoop. In this battle, the Han army captured thousands of Xiongnu soldiers alive, seized millions of livestock, and controlled the Hetao area.
3, Battle of Monan
In 124 BC, Wei Qing led 30,000 horses out of Gaoque and attacked the royal court of King Youxian at night. King Youxian was defeated and fled with a few people. The Han army captured more than ten people under King Youxian, more than 15,000 men and women, and millions of livestock.
In 123 BC, Wei Qing led 100,000 cavalry to attack the Xiongnu twice, and captured 19,000 soldiers. The Han Dynasty also lost two generals and lost 3,000 people.After that, the Xiongnu moved to the north of the desert.
4. The Battle of Hexi
In 121 BC, Huo Qubing, the general of the Hussars, led thousands of fine riders from Longxi to Yanzhi Mountain and killed more than 8,900 Xiongnu. In the summer of the same year, Huo Qubing led tens of thousands of horses out of the north and attacked the Xiongnu in Hexi. The Han army crossed the Helan Mountains and entered the Qilian Mountains, annihilating more than 30,000 people from the tribes of King Hunxie and King Xiutu.
5, Battle of Mobei
In 119 BC, Wei Qing and Huo Qubing each led 50,000 cavalry and 140,000 "private slave horses" to accompany the army. Wei Qing led his troops out of Dingxiang and marched more than a thousand miles north to Mobei. They defeated Shanyu's main force and pursued them to Tianyan Mountain, wiping out more than 19,000 enemies. Huo Qubing led his troops out of Daijun
In the Battle of Mobei, more than 90,000 Xiongnu were annihilated, and the Han army also lost tens of thousands of soldiers and more than 100,000 horses.
6. The Battle of Shoujiang City
In 104 BC, the Xiongnu Commander Zuo wanted to surrender to the Han Dynasty. Emperor Wu ordered Zhao Ponu and his 20,000 horsemen to ride 2,000 miles from Shuofang to meet him. However, the incident was revealed, and Captain Zuo was killed. The Han army was surrounded by 80,000 Huns cavalry in the surrender city, and the entire army was annihilated.
7, Battle of Tianshan
In 99 BC, General Li Guang of the Second Division rode out of Jiuquan with an interest rate of 30,000 to attack King Youxian in Tianshan. They won the first battle. On the way to withdraw, they were surrounded by 60,000 Xiongnu troops. They had no food for several days and suffered 67/10 casualties. Li Ling was captured.
8, Battle of Yuwushui
In 97 BC, Li Guang led 60,000 cavalry and 70,000 infantry to attack the Huns from Shuofang; crossbow general Lu Bode led more than 10,000 cavalry, guerrilla general Niu Hanshuo led 30,000 infantry, and Yingan general Gongsun Ao led more than 10,000 cavalry and 30,000 infantry to fight in coordination; the Xiongnu led 100,000 cavalry to fight against Li Guangli Yuwu Shuinan. Li Guangli fought with the Xiongnu for more than ten days, but returned without victory. The other armies also failed.
9, The Battle of Yanran Mountain
In 90 BC, Li Guang led an army of 70,000 people out of Wuyuan to attack the Xiongnu; the imperial censor Shang Qiucheng led an army of 20,000 people, and Chonghe Hou Ma Tong led 40,000 cavalry to fight in coordination. The Xiongnu Chanyu defeated the Han army with 50,000 cavalry on Yanran Mountain, and Li Guangli surrendered to the Xiongnu. Ma Tong and Shangqiu Cheng two routes failed to gain anything.
10. Six-pronged attack on the Xiongnu.
In 72 BC, Emperor Xuan of the Han Dynasty used Qilian general Tian Guangming and other five generals and captain Chang Hui to supervise the Wusun soldiers. They attacked the Xiongnu in six routes. The five generals rarely killed them. Only Chang Hui supervise the Wusun soldiers to defeat the royal court of Youguli and annihilate more than 40,000 Xiongnu.
11. Chen Tang’s battle to destroy the Chanyu Zhizhi
In 36 BC, Chen Tangjiao, the deputy captain of the Western Regions of the Han Dynasty, ordered 40,000 soldiers from various countries in the west city and officials in the field to attack and kill the Chanyu Zhizhi in two groups and destroy the northern Xiongnu.
12. Dou Xianbei attacked the Huns
In 89 AD, Dou Xian led the Qiang and Hu coalition forces to fight with the Northern Huns in Jiluo Mountain. The Northern Shanyu was defeated and fled. The coalition forces pursued and captured and killed more than 13,000 people, and more than 200,000 surrendered. Dou Xian climbed Yanran Mountain and carved a stone to commemorate his merits and returned.
html In 091, Dou Xian attacked Jinweishan again and defeated the main force of the Northern Xiongnu, beheading more than 5,000 people. The Northern Chanyu escaped, and the Queen Mother of the Shanyu was captured by the Han army. From then on, there were no more Xiongnu in the north of the Central Plains.The Turks and the Sui and Tang Dynasties:
1, The Siege of Yanmen
615, the Turkic Shibi Khan led 100,000 cavalry to attack the Sui Dynasty, and besieged Yang Guang in Yanmen for more than a month. Later, he withdrew the siege and retreated because he heard Princess Yicheng's words that the king's account was in trouble.
2, Battle of Wulongban
624, Eastern Turk Jieli Khan and Tuli Khan invaded the Tang Dynasty with all their troops. Li Shimin led his army out of Youzhou Road to Wulongban and met more than ten thousand Turkic elite cavalry. Li Shimin used counterintuitive tactics to drive a wedge between Tuli and Jieli, causing the Turks to retreat. Ten days later, another Turkic army was defeated by Chai Shao in Duyang Valley.
3, Weishui Alliance
626, Jieli Khan took advantage of the fact that Li Shimin had just ascended the throne and led an army of 200,000 southward, aiming directly at Chang'an. Li Shimin led six cavalry to the south bank of the Weishui River bridge and accused Jieli of treachery across the river. At the same time, Yuchi Jingde led his army to defeat the Turkic left-wing army in the Battle of Jingyang, and captured the Turkic general Zhifa Sili. Jieli was attacked on the flank and the general was detained, so he and Li Shimin killed the white horse on the Weishui Bridge as an alliance, and then retreated.
4, Battle of Dingxiang
630, Li Jing led an army of 100,000 to conquer the Eastern Turks.Li Jing ordered Xu Shiji to command the army, and he personally led three thousand cavalry to attack Dingxiang at night and defeat the Turkic army. Later, he sent envoys to the Turkic camp to appease the Turks and made Jieli relax his vigilance. Finally, he personally led more than 10,000 fine cavalry to chase to the Yinshan Mountains and captured the Turks' tent. Jieli Khan fled west on a thousand-mile horse and was captured by Tang general Zhang Baoxiang. The Eastern Turks were destroyed. In this battle, more than 10,000 Turks were wiped out and more than 100,000 were captured.
5. The Tang Dynasty's War to Destroy the Western Turks
html In 0657, Su Dingfang led more than 10,000 Tang soldiers and Uighur soldiers to conquer the Western Turks. Su Dingfang defeated the Chumukun tribe in Jinshan, and Qi Jin led more than 10,000 troops to surrender. Su Dingfang mobilized a thousand cavalry from them and marched to the Yiyi River together. Shaboluo Khan led an army of 100,000 people to fight, but was defeated by more than 10,000 people from Su Dingfang. Shaboluo fled westward and was captured alive when passing through Sudu City. The Western Turks perished.Compared with the war between the Han Dynasty and the Xiongnu, the war between the Tang Dynasty and the Turks clearly showed a crushing trend, especially the battle of Dingxiang and the battle to destroy the Western Turks. Li Jing and Su Dingfang only led more than 10,000 people to destroy the two Turks. It can be said that they have not wasted their efforts. Although there are factors of Turkic split, it is undeniable that the strength of the Turks in the Tang Dynasty was far inferior to that of the Xiongnu in the Han Dynasty. Unless you think that the Tang army was far superior to the Han army, and Li Su was far superior to Wei Huo.
Comparison of the strength of the Xiongnu and the Turks during the low period (westward migration)
Let's take a look at the achievements of these two peoples after they were driven to the west by the Han and Tang Dynasties:
The Xiongnu:
In AD 91, the Han army defeated the Chanyu at Jinweishan. The Northern Xiongnu knew that they could no longer dominate the Mongolian plateau, so they went west, and the long road of westward migration began.
The first stop of the Northern Xiongnu's westward migration : the Ili River Basin. Northern Chanyu and other tribes fled to the Wusun Kingdom and took root here, but their scope of activity was only in the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains.
The second stop of the westward migration: east of the Don River and north of the Caspian Sea. According to records in "History of the Western Regions" and "History" of the Roman Empire, around 290 AD, the Northern Huns "landed" in the Alan Kingdom east of the Don River, killing and replacing the king of Alan.
The third stop of the westward migration: west of the Don River, east of the Danube . After seizing the Alan Kingdom and resting, the strength of the Northern Huns was restored and developed. Their ambition to expand drove them to march west across the Don River and plunder the Ostrogoths living in the grasslands west of the Don River. After the Ostrogoths were defeated, they fled to the Visigoth settlements. The Huns pursued all the way to the Dniester River, defeated the Visigoths' 100,000 troops in one battle, and forced the Goths to the Danube River.
The fourth stop of the westward migration: east of the Rhine River and north of the Danube River. In the 520s AD, the Huns Oktar established the Attila Empire. In the following ten years, the Attila Empire attacked Rome three times, and bloodied the capital of the Western Roman Empire for the last time. Western Rome finally avoided being destroyed by the Huns by marrying princesses and paying large tributes.
At its peak, Attila's empire stretched from the Rhine River in the west, the Caspian Sea in the east, the Baltic Sea in the north, and the Danube River in the south. It was the first empire in Europe at that time.
Turks:
html In 0657, after Su Dingfang conquered and destroyed the Western Turks, some Western Turkic tribes migrated as a result of dissatisfaction with the control of the Tang Dynasty. They went all the way west, farther and farther, until they reached the Aral Sea. At first, the Western Turks lived north of the Syr Darya River, but with the restoration of Turkic strength, the Turks gradually expanded westward to the south of the Amu Darya River, and gradually approached the center of the Islamic world, Baghdad.At the beginning of the 11th century, Seljuk , a descendant of Western Turks, became the military leader of Sunni Islam. In 1040, Tughluq, the grandson of Seljuk, defeated the Ghazni army in the Battle of Dandankan and occupied the entire territory of Khorasan. In the following ten years, Tughluq annexed Media, defeated the Byzantine and Georgian coalition forces, captured Isfahan, and established the Seljuq Dynasty.
Subsequently, the Seljuk dynasty continued to expand, successively conquered Azerbaijan, eliminated the Bouveshi dynasty established by the Persians, and became the "King of the East and the West." After Tughluq's death, his son Arslan defeated the Eastern Roman Empire in 1064, occupied Ani, the capital of Armenia, captured Aleppo in 1070, and expanded his power to Jerusalem and Damascus.The following year, he defeated the Eastern Roman Empire again at Manzikar, captured the Eastern Roman Emperor Romanius, occupied eastern Asia Minor, and shocked the Eurasian continent.
At the end of the 11th century, the territory of the Seljuq Empire reached its peak. It started from the Hindu Kush Mountains in India in the east, reached the Mediterranean Sea in the west, the Arabian Sea in the south, and the border of Kivan Rus in the north. It became the first empire in West Asia at that time.
In summary, both nations have very good records against the West. It is difficult to compare which one is stronger and which one is weaker. But one thing that is certain is that the military strength of the Turks after moving westward is by no means inferior to that of the Huns! In terms of territory and performance, the Turks are even stronger.
Comparison of the territories and army numbers of the Xiongnu and Turks at their peak
The territory at their peak:
The Xiongnu: centered on the Mongolian Plateau, extending eastward to the eastern part of Inner Mongolia. It was adjacent to the Qin and Han Dynasties along the Great Wall in the south, and once controlled the Hetao and Ordos areas. It reaches the Aral Sea and Black Sea in Central Asia in the west, and reaches around Lake Baikal in the north.
Turks: reach the Greater Khingan Range in the east, the West Sea (Aral Sea) in the west, Vietnam Lake Baikal in the north, and the Amu Darya River in the south.
It can be seen that the Huns' territory was larger.
The number of armies at their peak:
Xiongnu: The Xiongnu’s peak period was from 176 BC to 128 BC. According to the "Book of Han·Biography of the Xiongnu": "At that time, the Han Dynasty was far away from Xiang Yu, and China was at war. Therefore, Maodun gained self-strength and had more than 300,000 men to control the strings."; In the 27th year of Han Dynasty Emperor Gaozu (200 BC), "Maodun sent more than 300,000 elite soldiers to surround Emperor Gao in Baideng." In the heyday of the Xiongnu, under the military minister Chanyu, the Xiongnu's combatable troops reached 500,000 (one soldier for every five Xiongnu members), and the population was 2.5 million.
The heyday of the Xiongnu partially overlapped with the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty (141 BC - 87 BC).
Turks: The heyday of the Turks was from 555 AD to 583 AD. According to the "Old Book of Tang Dynasty", the Xiongnu at this time "controlled more than a million strings, which was unprecedented in the prosperity of Beidi. They looked high on the Yin Mountains and had the ambition to despise the Xia Dynasty." According to the Spring and Autumn writing style, four to five million can also be called "more than a million", so it is not accurate. Let's look at another record. According to the "Book of Sui Dynasty, Biography, Volume 49, Beidi Turks", "All the people became bandits, and the number of people who controlled the strings was 400,000." The Turks at this time were at the end of their heyday - the Shabolue period. This should be a more accurate number.
The heyday of the Turks coincided with the Northern Qi, Northern Zhou and Sui dynasties, but did not overlap with the periods of Emperor Taizong and Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty.
Considering that the Sabolo period was already the eve of the Turkic split, the number of Turkic troops at its peak should have exceeded 400,000, so in this respect the two should be about the same, with not much difference.
In addition, considering the different times, the economic and equipment conditions of the two are not discussed here.
summarizes the above four aspects: In terms of internal conflicts, the Turks are more serious than the Xiongnu and have more internal friction; in terms of combat against the Han and Tang Dynasties, the Turks appear to be more vulnerable. Of course, this is related to the staggered period of their heyday and the Tang Dynasty; after moving westward, the Turks' performance is slightly stronger than that of the Huns; at their peak, the territory of the Huns was slightly larger, and the number of troops was not much different between the two. So, overall, the Huns are indeed stronger.
What do readers think? Please leave a message to correct me!
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-