"In the second year of Wuzong Huichang (842), Tubo Zanpurang Dama was assassinated by a monk, causing great chaos in the country. The general Lun feared the rise of the heat, claiming to be prime minister, and led an army of 200,000 to attack Shanzhou De Lun (quite
Yu Jiedu envoy) had 40,000 maidservants under his command, and the whole army was wiped out. He attacked again the next year, but was defeated again, and his power was declining day by day." On the carriage heading to Ningzhou, Zhao Guangfeng, who was accompanying the Dingnan Army, was giving Shao Shude the important information.
Explain the past events of Helong.
“Senior Zhao, after the assassination of Langdama, will Tubo have as many vassal towns as the imperial dynasty?” Shao Shude asked.
"Exactly." Zhao Guangfeng replied: "The Tubo headquarters is the 'Ru-Dongdai' system. It is based on the tribe and has thousands of households, called 'Dongdai'. The clan leader is the head of the thousand households; ten thousand households are one wing.
It is called 'Ru', which means the wings are long. The Tubo headquarters has five wings in total, that is, 50,000 households. The army governs the people and the military and government are integrated. Each wing has a long wing, which is no different from the military commander. It regards Zanpu as the co-master, but it is extremely independent.
"
“What is that theory of virtue?” Shao Shude asked again.
"In the last years of Tianbao, there were many troubles in the Central Plains. Elite troops from Hexi, Longyou, and Anxi were transferred eastward to put down the rebellion. There were very few people left behind, and most of them were old and weak, so they were invaded by Tubo one by one." Zhao Guangfeng replied: "Tubo already occupied Han.
Naturally, the land could no longer be ruled by the "Ru-Dongdai" system, so it was changed. For example, in the Hexi prefectures, a moral theory meeting was set up, and the chief said "moral theory". Moral theory can be regarded as the Tao of this dynasty, and the following moral theory is
There is a military town, which controls the troops. Under the military town, there is a state, and the chief is called "Jie'er", which is equivalent to the governor. Under the state, there are ten thousand households, thousands of households, and generals, all of which are military and political."
Shao Shude understood a little bit.
Taking Hedong Road as an example, "De Lun" is equivalent to the military leader in charge of the entire Hedong. "Military Town" is equivalent to Datong, Hedong, Hezhong, Zhaoyi and other vassal towns in Hedong Road, each of which is in charge of one or several states.
There are tens of thousands of households below the state, and there are three levels of generals and small military commanders. They all have a system that integrates military and political affairs. They manage the army and the people. The men produce when the farming is busy, train when the farming is slack, and go into battle when the farming is busy.
The Tubo people knew how to adapt to local conditions. They integrated their slave-holding army and civilians into the country's system of roads, prefectures, counties, townships, and li, which is especially similar to the current system of the country. Roads, vassal towns, states, and counties
, Township, Li, one-to-one correspondence, almost the same as that of the Tang Dynasty.
"On the fear of heat and Shang's servants and servants, they have been attacking and killing for several years, and they are becoming more and more unstoppable. In addition, his people are brutal, plundering Shan, Kuo, Gua, Su and other prefectures. They have hunted and killed many people in the fields. They are resentful both internally and externally, and have many subordinates.
He rebelled, so he returned to our dynasty in the third year of Dazhong (849). He threatened to ask 500,000 Tang soldiers to help him quell the rebellion, and named him Zanpu. After returning to the dynasty, he asked him to be the envoy of the Hewei Festival, but the emperor refused.
So he went back to Menchuan, gathered the remaining troops, and wanted to invade the border area. However, it rained continuously for days, and food and wages were no longer available. He was afraid that all the troops would disperse, leaving only three hundred people, so he returned to Kuozhou." Zhao Guangfeng said.
"After fearing the heat returned to the court, the imperial court learned that Tubo was weak and strong, so it marched into the old land of Helong. Fengxiang's army recovered Qingshui and Qinzhou; Jingyuan's army recovered the counties of Yuanzhou and Shimen Pass, Yi Zang Pass, Muxia Pass, Zhisheng Pass,
Liupan Pass and Shixia Pass captured tens of thousands of people and animals; Shuofang's army recaptured Anle Prefecture and declared it Wei Prefecture; Xinning's army recaptured Xiaoguan. At that time, Xia Sui's Army and Zhenwu Army also sent troops to assist in the battle, including eight towns in the northwest of Beijing and Chang'an.
Almost all the Shence Army participated, which is called the restoration of the Three States and Seven Passes during the Dazhong Period."
“Why didn’t you continue to advance the army later?”
“Tubo tempted Dangxiang into rebellion, and the imperial court had no choice but to punish them,” Zhao Guangfeng replied.
“What happens after the begging is over?”
"The cost was huge and the finances were insufficient, so we ordered all localities to 'suppress the people and disarm them' and 'recover within their capabilities'. If there were Tubo tribes attached to them, they would collect them. If not, they would build fortresses and send troops to guard the territory to protect the territory and the people. The border vassal commanders should still
Those who made some achievements later successively regained Chengdu, Wei, and supported the three prefectures, but without the support of money, food and equipment from the court, they could only stop there."
Shao Shude let out a long sigh. At that time, the rebel army expelled the Tubo town generals and occupied the two states of Gua and Sha. They sent envoys to detour the Tiande army to return to the court, and the surrounding towns recovered six states and seven passes. Such a good situation was unexpectedly due to successive conquests.
The party items cost a lot of money, and they were "quite tired of using troops", so they stopped.
In fact, he also knew that Emperor Xuanzong had just ascended the throne at that time and needed dazzling achievements to stabilize the throne. The return of the Guiyi Army to the court and the recovery of six states and seven passes was enough for him. He continued to recover the lost lands of Tibet. What if he failed?
It's clearly not worth continuing the risk.
Moreover, too much money was indeed spent on the expedition against Dangxiang. Soldiers and horses were mobilized from eight towns in the northwest of Beijing and all roads in the east of Hedong. The government's finances were probably somewhat insufficient.
“What is the outcome of the fear of heat?”
"We fought with Shangnu and his servants for twenty-four years. In the seventh year of Xiantong, Tuoba Huaiguang, the general of Shangnu and his servants, beheaded him in Kuozhou and presented his head to the court." Zhao Guangfeng said.
After hearing this, Shao Shude felt a sense of tightness in his chest, so he got off the carriage and got on the horse, and then he felt more comfortable.
The Tibetans in the Helong area still have some strength. Forty years ago, they could mobilize an army of 200,000, but that was probably the last afterglow. Thirty years ago, they could still mobilize an army of less than 100,000, but now,
The Tibetans in the Helong land have been fighting each other for many years, and the country has experienced serf uprisings. Even generals like Lun Xie are unable to return to the country, and their power is getting weaker and weaker.
Shao Shude doubted whether they could still dispatch an army of 30,000. He remembered that more than ten years later, Shuofang Jiedushi Han Xun led his army to the west, and Tubo sent 7,000 cavalry.
Ten thousand people, even less than that. After all, twenty thousand people must have at least two ten thousand households. It is difficult for them to unite now that they are scattered.
Just now he also asked Zhao Guangfeng about the situation in Tubo in Huizhou. He was surprised to learn that it was a leader of ten thousand households. When he asked again, it turned out that ten thousand households did not necessarily have ten thousand soldiers, but three to five thousand people.
Maybe, I feel relieved a little bit.
The intelligence work of the imperial court on Tibet was so poor! If Lun Xingre had not surrendered, he would not have known that the country was in such chaos, and it did not care about its neighbors at all!
However, the population in the Helong area is really large. During the Tianbao period, there were more than 200,000 households and more than one million people, most of whom were Han people. Before the Anshi Rebellion, it was a famous and prosperous area in the Tang Dynasty. After the Anshi Rebellion, the Helong area was lost, and the household registration
Statistics are naturally impossible to talk about. But we can also understand it from some aspects. For example, the population of Dunhuang under Tubo rule increased by 70% compared with the Xuanzong Dynasty. At that time, Tubo ruled this area very stably, and there were no war-related problems.
Population migration. Such population changes are a bit unbelievable. It can only be said that a large number of Tibetans and their affiliated tribes came over.
Maybe this is just an isolated case. After all, the population growth from more than one million to nearly two million is too exaggerated. But Shao Shude suspected that even after forty years of war, there may still be one million people there because there are constant Uighurs.
Party members migrated there to replenish the population.
I just don’t know how many Tibetan people there are and how many Han people there are.
“As envoy of Zhao, in the Helong prefectures, in addition to the rebel army, are there any Han family members?” Shao Shude turned around and asked Zhao Guangfeng.
"Commander." Zhao Guangfeng got off the carriage and replied: "In the second year of Changqing (822), Liu Yuanding entered the Tubo Alliance, and after more than Chengji, he went to Wuchuan and arrived in Wuliang, Heguang. Therefore, the city wall was not destroyed at that time.
"The land in Lanzhou is full of japonica rice, with peaches, plums, elms, and willows. All the households are from the Tang Dynasty. When I saw the envoy's command, the road appeared."
“In what year did Lanzhou fall?”
“The first year of Guangde (763).”
“Sixty years have passed from the first year of Guangde to the second year of Changqing. Do the local people still remember the Tang Dynasty?”
“When Liu Yuanding arrived in Lanzhou, more than a thousand local elders worshiped and wept, saying: ‘The army has not been here for a while, but today’s descendants can’t bear to forget the Tang Dynasty clothes.’” Speaking of this, Zhao Guangfeng was also a little sentimental.
“Sixty years have passed now...” Shao Shude murmured.
"In the fifth year of Dazhong (851), Zhang Yichao returned to the country, and the Gua and Sha prefectures were filled with brilliant people and the mainland. In the past few years, Zhang Huaishen went to court and said that he had gathered the Tibetan people in the prefectures and taught them Chinese customs and customs.
A change." At this point, Zhao Guangfeng hesitated for a moment, but still said: "If you go early, it may still be too late. There are more than one million Tianbao survivors, and they must be determined to join the Tang Dynasty."
"Recover Huizhou first." Shao Shude flicked his horsewhip and said: "More than a million Han people fell into Tibet, and the court didn't care about it. I want to take care of it. Sixty years after the fall of Tibet, when the Tang envoy left, the people still lined up to welcome them. How could the court bear to abandon it?
Ignore it!"
"If the commander-in-chief regains the Helong states, the world will pay attention." Zhao Guangfeng said solemnly: "The states in Guandong are attacking each other. If you kill me, I will kill you. What's the point? If you recover your homeland, you will recover me.
It is an old custom in China. When the heroes of the world heard about it, they felt ashamed to serve it and came to vote for the commander-in-chief one after another."
Shao Shude suddenly thought of Yang Yue, who had been hidden by him until now. Wasn't it because he was willing to surrender to him at a critical moment because of a promise to capture Hexi?
Don't let the hero wait for a long time. After returning home, he should have a good chat with Old General Yang.
On the twentieth day of the first month of the second year of the reign of Emperor Guangqi, Shao Shude led his army to Dingping County. He then continued north, passed through Ningzhou Lisuo Ding'an County (today's Ningxian), turned northwest, and arrived at Qingzhoulisuo Hue County (today's Qingzhou) on the 25th.
Yangbei).
The main force of the Yi Congjun army has gone north to Lingzhou via Yanzhou, leaving only Hengshandu and Zhongyongdu with 3,000 people. The Jinglue Army is stationed twenty miles southwest of Qingzhou, and the Tielin Army is still in the southeast of Qingzhou, led by Shao Shude.
The cavalry troops camped outside Gyeongju City.
The next step is to head west to Yuanzhou, but before that, he still needs to wait for a reply from Cheng Zongchu.