War of the Heavenly Horses
| date | 104 BC BC to 101 BC Chr. |
|---|---|
| place | Fergana Valley |
| Casus Belli | Assassination of a Chinese delegation |
| output | Victory of the Han |
| consequences | The Dayuan gave the Han 3000 Ferghana horses and installed a new king. |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
|
Wugua
|
|
The War of the Heavenly Horses or the Han Dayuan War ( Chinese汉 攻 大宛 之 战) from 104 to 101 BC BC was a military conflict between the Chinese Han dynasty and the Dayuan people ( Chinese大宛), which ended with a victory for the Han.
The Chinese emperor Wu von Han was told of large and strong horses ( heavenly horses ) of the Dayuan, which would be useful in the fight against the Xiongnu ( Chinese匈奴) in what is now Mongolia. He then sent a trade mission to acquire it. For unknown reasons, however, the Dayuan murdered the emperor's envoys and confiscated their goods and gold. In response to this provocation, Emperor Wu sent two expeditionary armies to Dayuan to capture its capital, Alexandria, Eschate .
After conquering the city, the Dayuan were forced to appoint a king who complied with the Han and cede the horses they required. These horses allowed the Han to reinforce their cavalry and defeat the Xiongnu in the Han – Xiongnu War.
background
Xiongnu
The Xiongnu first appeared in 215 BC. At the time of the first emperor Qin Shi Huang Di in the Chinese sources. Since the Han emperors did not succeed in subjugating them, they tried to appease the Xiongnu with tribute payments and marriage contracts as part of the heqin policy (Chinese 和 亲). The Xiongnu became economically dependent on the Chinese tributes and were therefore dependent on the empire. However, Emperor Wu of Han decided to stop paying tribute and decided to subjugate the Xiongnu.
Dayuan
The Dayuan lived in the Ferghana Valley in what is now Tajikistan . The Chinese explorer and diplomat Zhang Qian describes the country in 130 BC. As follows:
“Dayuan is located southwest of the Xiongnu country, about 10,000 Li (5000 km) west of China. Its inhabitants are sedentary, tilling their fields and planting rice and wheat. They also make wine from grapes. The people live in houses that are in fortified cities. There are about seventy cities of various sizes in this region. The people number several hundred thousand. "
Today it is assumed that the Dayuan are the descendants of the Greek settlers in Central Asia, who were founded by Alexander the Great around 329 BC. Were settled in Alexandria Eschate in the Ferghanatal. If this is the case, Dayuan (literally: Great Yuan ) would actually mean Great Ionians or Great Greeks . Formerly part of the Seleucid and later the Bactrian empire, however, these were since the Yuezhi incursion in 160 BC Isolated from the rest of the Hellenistic world.
The Han had had trade relations with the Dayuan for a long time and benefited from their goods and knowledge. When the trade mission of Emperor Wu arrived, however, it came into conflict with the Dayuan for unknown reasons and was executed because the Dayuan were not afraid of their military strength due to their distance from the Han. The angry emperor then sent a punitive mission under the orders of Li Guangli, the brother of one of his concubines, to the Fergana Valley.
First expedition
Little importance was attached to the First Expedition because the Han underestimated their opponent and the harsh marching conditions. The Chinese historian Sima Qian describes the Chinese plan as follows:
“The Dayuan army is weak; if we attack them with at least 3,000 Chinese soldiers armed with crossbows , we can be sure to overcome them. "
In the autumn of 104 BC Li Guangli began his campaign against the Dayuan. With 20,000 foot soldiers and 6,000 horsemen, he crossed the Taklamakan Desert in what is now Xianjiang. Because the inhabitants of the desert refused to provide Li's army with water and food, Li's army was forced to attack the oasis cities. However, it was not always possible to conquer the cities and the army began to starve. When Li finally reached Dayuan, he was unable to continue his campaign. After a defeat at Yucheng, the Chinese army withdrew.
Second expedition
The second expedition in 102 BC BC was much better equipped: Li Guangli were now 60,000 foot soldiers and 30,000 horsemen. Because of this superiority, most of the oasis cities surrendered this time. The only exception here is Luntai , whose population Li massacred. Nevertheless, the harsh desert climate took its toll. By the time Li reached Dayuan, he had already lost half of his army.
To break the Dayuan, Li besieged their capital Eshi (presumably Alexandria Eschate ). After 40 days, the Han, who had previously cut off the city's water supply, managed to break through the outer wall and capture the opposing commander, Jianmi. The city's nobility first withdrew behind the inner city wall, but then decided to surrender. King Wugua was beheaded and his head was sent to Li as a token of goodwill. In addition, the Han received the 3,000 Ferghana horses they coveted. Before he retired, Li installed the Han-friendly noble Meicai (Chinese 昧 蔡) on Dayuan's throne.
Individual evidence
- ^ Zhao Xu: Heavenly horses, the four-footed legends of the Silk Road. The Telegraph, June 21, 2018, accessed August 10, 2019 .
- ^ A b Burton Watson: Records of the Great Historian by Sima Qian: Han Dynasty II (Revised Edition) . Ed .: Columbia University Press. 1993.
- ↑ Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer: Small history of China . Munich 2008, p. 48 .
- ^ Thomas Barfield: Perilous Frontier: Nomadic Empires and China . Cambridge 1989, pp. 45-47 .
- ^ Benjamin Craig: Zhang Qian and Han Expansion into Central Asia . Cambridge 2018, pp. 68-90 .
- ↑ a b Sima Qian and Sima Tan: Shiji (Historical Records) .
- ↑ CJ Peers: Imperial Chinese Armies (1): 200BC-589AD . Osprey Publishing, 1995.
- ^ A b Marvin C. Whiting: Imperial Chinese Military History . Writers' Club Press, 2002.