Geomantic omen of Central Plains Dynasty
Tubo's ambition is not only to plunder property and population, but also to point the front of the soldiers at the land of the Tang Dynasty, which started the consumption of the war between the two dynasties that lasted for a hundred years. During this period, the Tubo army was the most persistent in the battle for Lingzhou, and it was simply death. The Tang Empire regarded Lingzhou as the apple of its eye and cherished it. Why the status of Lingzhou is so important, let's simply sort it out.
For the Tang Dynasty, the history of Lingzhou is of great significance. First of all, Li Shimin once defeated the Turks in Lingzhou. After the victory, he established Jimifuzhou (equivalent to the present autonomous region) in Yinxia Lingqing, managing Turkic, Tiele, Uighur, Tangut and Tuguhun. Because of the good national policy of the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Taizong and other Tang emperors were also called? Khan? . After the Anshi Rebellion, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty entered Sichuan, and Prince Hengli became emperor in Lingzhou, Ningxia, that is, Tang Suzong, who led a rebellion in Lingzhou and strengthened Ma Zhuang, thus reviving the Tang Dynasty.
Geographically speaking, Lingzhou is a treasure trove of geomantic omen in the northwest. It is located on the bank of the Yellow River, with Helan Mountain in the west and the Yellow River in the east. The land is fertile and rich in water plants. As early as the Qin and Han dynasties, in order to fight against the Huns, the land of Shuofang built a city here to settle the field and defend the border. Sui and Tang dynasties inherited and carried forward this fine tradition, and actively reclaimed land, built water conservancy ditches, built castles and cultivated farmland. Lingzhou is a vast animal husbandry area to the east, so Lingzhou is a dazzling pearl in the northwest, whether it is agricultural production or animal husbandry development.
Lingzhou ancient city relics
For Tubo, if we want to hold the occupied Longxi and Hexi Corridor, we can only consolidate it by taking Lingzhou. Using Lingzhou's rich animal husbandry and agricultural resources to increase their own strength further cut off the connection between the Tang Dynasty and the western regions and threatened the hinterland of the Tang Dynasty, so Tubo launched another offensive at all costs to seize Lingzhou and compete with the Tang Dynasty for hegemony.
Lingzhou, as an important town in the northwest of the Tang Dynasty and the barrier of the Central Plains, is the location of our time in Shuofang. Xuanzong vigorously manages here, and reserves a large number of military forces. It is also the land of Longxing in Tang Suzong, so it is naturally heavily guarded.
In 763, after the Tubo army captured Yuanzhou and Yanzhou, it targeted Lingzhou. However, it was temporarily suspended because the famous Tang Dynasty soldier Pugu Wynn killed the garrison commander in Lingzhou rebellion. Pugu Wynn made great contributions in the Anshi Rebellion, and more than 40 people in his family died. But even so, he was suspected and vilified by the court. Luo feng was first framed for rebelling against eunuchs, and then forced to rebel for fear of being killed. After the rebellion, Pu Guhuai colluded with Tubo and was pacified by Guo Ziyi. After that, Pu Guhuai died suddenly in Mingsha, and Lingzhou was recovered by Tang Jun.
After the death of Buguhuai, the Tubo army attacked Lingzhou again. The Tubo army has carried out dozens of large-scale military operations against Lingzhou. After many failed attacks, the Tubo army thought that it was not enough to win Lingzhou without destroying the economy of the defenders, so it often sent troops from Mingsha to invade the strategic locations around Lingzhou, destroy irrigation facilities, trample on or even cut off immature crops, rob and plunder money, food and population, rob horses, kill all the rebels, and attempt to starve the defenders and people of Lingzhou.
This recruit is really vicious enough, which makes Tang Jun once passively beaten, Lingzhou garrison drops sharply, and the guarding city strength is even weaker, which shakes the morale of the people to a certain extent. Fortunately, Ma Phosphorus, Xing Alkali and other famous soldiers took turns guarding the city in Lingzhou. Besides, the army is brave and powerful, and Tang Ting has made great efforts to protect it. Towns in the northwest of Tang Jun support each other properly and defend well. Faced with the frequent attacks of Tubo, they struggled to defend the city. Tubo troops can only retreat again and again, and get up the courage to attack the city again and again.
Because of the Anshi rebellion, Tubo saw the weakness of the Tang Dynasty, which made Tubo's ambition expand and he had the impulse to expand. In order to recover Yanzhou and lift the siege of Lingzhou, the Tang Dynasty sought foreign aid and formed an alliance with Uighur Southward and Nanzhao to jointly fight against Tubo, thus forming an advantage over Tubo in military strategy. At the same time, it also actively sent troops to counterattack the Tibetan territory, forcing the Tubo to divide their troops and reducing the pressure on Lingzhou.
Frequent dozens of attacks, the Tubo side can't move a hundred thousand levels, and tens of thousands of troops attack Lingzhou from a distance, and logistics and food and clothing are also very difficult. The Tubo defenders who occupied Yuanzhou and Yanzhou complained bitterly and demanded to leave. After the Anshi Rebellion in the Tang Dynasty, it was not peaceful, and it was exhausted by the peasant uprising in the buffer region.
So in order to gain time and accumulate strength, Tang and Tubo stopped fighting six times in a hundred years, but they quickly returned to the state of war until the last time. Why can't you afford it? First look at the internal contradictions in the Tang dynasty, tired of coping with the separatist regime in the buffer region, and the population of peasant uprising dropped sharply. At this time, the economy of the Tang Dynasty shrank sharply, so how could there be fewer people who were short of money to fight?
The situation of the Tubo dynasty was not much better. Similar to the situation in the Tang Dynasty, internal struggles were divided, slave uprisings broke out one after another, and the national strength of overseas wars was overdrawn year after year, and war-weariness was pervasive. Finally, in 82 1 year, the Tang Dynasty and the Tubo Dynasty reached the agreement of the sixth alliance? A peace agreement? History is called Changqing Meng Hui. Both sides * * * said together? From then on, I moved my screen to join the army, and I hated old evils, but the corridor was gone, and my uncle had traces. Since then, there has been no major war between the two sides, and Lingzhou has not been invaded by Tibetan troops.
Lingzhou, the hero city of the Tang Dynasty, still stands after a hundred years of war. The soldiers and civilians in the Tang dynasty struggled to hold on, which made dozens of attacks by the Tubo army go up in smoke. Even the peasant uprising in Huang Chao in the late Tang Dynasty failed to shake the city until the demise of the Tang Dynasty. Taking Lingzhou as a barrier, the Central Plains is worry-free.
However, Lingzhou was lost in the Song Dynasty, and was seized by the Tangut aristocrat Li in 1002. You know, the national strength of the Song Dynasty was far superior to that of the Tangut Li. The Tang Dynasty lasted for a hundred years, and the Song Dynasty was only 42 years after its founding. In the final analysis, the reason is that we don't know enough about ideas and concepts and don't realize how important the status of Lingzhou is.
On the issue of treating Lingzhou, the bureaucrats in the Song Dynasty were far less discerning than those in the Tang Dynasty. Lord and sent Yang Yi, Zhang Qixian and other brain-dead civil servants even demanded to give up Lingzhou, thinking that this ancient city had become a burden of the Song Dynasty, even including? Holy phase? Li Ling, who has a good reputation, also holds this view. Li Ling is a good official, but he undoubtedly doesn't know enough about Lingzhou. Of course, the hawks are firmly opposed. Peiji, the magistrate of Lingzhou, is a staunch hawk. Unfortunately, I was born at an untimely time and didn't get the full support of the Song Dynasty. He was besieged by the Tangut Army and died after two years of hard struggle.
When Lingzhou was besieged by Tangut Li, the civil service group in Song Dynasty gave no strength, and the military commanders group was also slow to rescue. In the Song Dynasty, Song Zhenzong ordered Wang Chao and other 60,000 troops to Lingzhou, with Zhang Ning as his deputy, to explore the Tangut. In the first battle, Zhang Ning sent troops to sneak attack and killed more than 5,000 Tangut people, which won the first battle. What happened next was somewhat puzzling. We could have gone deep into enemy-occupied areas and expanded our achievements. And Wang Chao's army, slow. It seems that Lingzhou, which has been besieged for two years, is indifferent and irresponsible. There is only one possible reason that he is afraid of war and dare not confront Li.
Unfortunately, the soldiers and civilians of Lingzhou persisted for two years, struggling to protect this significant isolated city for Dasong. At this time, the route for providing foodstuff in Lingzhou was cut off by Li's army, and there was a serious shortage of military supplies. There was no food outside and no reinforcements. Even if there are reinforcements on the border, they can't count on it. In order to survive for a long time, Peiji, the magistrate of Lingzhou, organized the military and civilians to build water conservancy and cultivate fields. He dare not slack off day and night. At the critical moment when the enemy attacked the city, he pricked his finger and asked Song Ting for help with a bloody book, but he sank into the sea. Pei Ji was not responsible for the fall of Lingzhou City, which was caused by the inaction of the ruling class in the Song Dynasty.
Wang Chao's army is still on the road, Lingzhou has fallen, and the Song Dynasty finally realized the pain. The gateway in Guanzhong area is wide open, and the threat is greatly increased. Shortly after the acquisition of Lingzhou, Xixia was established and became unscrupulous, cutting off the connection between the Song Dynasty and the western regions, constantly creating troubles and harassing the border of the Song Dynasty. Moreover, Xixia didn't reason with the Song Dynasty. You give him benefits, you give him money, and he comes after you in turn. He didn't discuss it, just like a capricious person's character. Even Genghis Khan was teased by Xixia many times and finally had to kill Xixia to get revenge.
These are nothing. The most terrible thing is that the Song Dynasty lost its only horse farm. Since then, there was no stable source of war horses in the Song Dynasty. The Tangut people cut off the connection between the Song Dynasty and the Western Regions, and the Song Dynasty could not buy war horses. The Tangut also banned other tribes under its control from selling horses to the Song Dynasty, which could only win with infantry. In the era of cold weapons, there were no powerful cavalry, and they lost their offensive ability, so they had to defend passively. Looking around Song Dynasty, Xixia, and Liao, Jin and Mongolia, they are all better than Xixia, and there is no fuel-saving lamp.
Due to the shortage of cavalry, Zhang Xun, a famous soldier in the Northern Song Dynasty, was forced to build Xiaping City according to the terrain, and contained Xixia cavalry with infantry and arm bows. Finally, he defeated 400,000 Xixia troops with several precious cavalry units, which made Xixia dare not harass the Song Dynasty again.
Confronted by powerful enemies in neighboring countries, and most of them were cavalry, the Song Dynasty could only strengthen the existence of infantry, and it was impossible to organize elite cavalry to attack the enemy like Han and Tang Dynasties. You should know that attack is the best defense, and passive defense will eventually perish. During the Han and Tang dynasties, it was cavalry who could restrain nomadic people. The fall of Lingzhou may also be doomed to the fate of the Song Dynasty, which became the eternal regret of the Song Dynasty, which led to the conquest of the Northern Song Dynasty by Jin Guo Tieqi and the trampling of the Southern Song Dynasty by Mongolian Tieqi, forcing Lu Xiufu to jump into the sea with Zhao Min, the emperor at the end of the Southern Song Dynasty.