Battle of Gansu
The Battle of Gansu was fought in 623 by the Tuyuhun Kingdom and the Tang Dynasty . Known and also present as a heroic legend to the present day, the general of Tang Chai Shao used a war ruse . This is said to have distracted the soldiers of the Tuyuhun with an erotic dance by two dancers. While the Tuyuhun nomads admired the dance performed on a neighboring hill and therefore dissolved their order of battle, they were attacked from behind by Chai Shao's cavalry and defeated. There were more than 500 Tuyuhun dead. The procedure still played a role as an anecdotal role model for the Chinese communists.
battle
The tribes of Tuyuhun and Tanguts had repeatedly attacked Chinese settlements along the western boundary of the Tang Empire. In 623 the Tuyuhun left their home on Lake Qinghai and invaded Gansu . The Tang General Chai Shao was sent to defeat the nomads and stop further invasions. Before the battle, the Tuyuhun had taken a hill and shot arrows at the approaching Tang forces.
Chai Shao was a cunning general, sometimes with very unorthodox ideas. He performed a diversion by sending two dancers and some musicians up a small hill near the Tuyuhun camp. The musicians played the pipa , a cupped neck lute , while the dancers performed an erotic dance for the nomads on the top of the hill. As hoped, the nomads' attention was fully focused on the dancers, their military formation disintegrating as they hurried up the hill to get a better view of the dance performance.
Chai Shao took the opportunity and surprised the soldiers by attacking them from behind with his cavalry . Over 500 Tuyuhun soldiers died in the ensuing battle, and the Tuyuhun were forced to withdraw from Gansu. The historian Charles Patrick Fitzgerald comes to the conclusion that it is highly unwise to be distracted from the pleasures of peace in battle: “It is most unwise, in the midst of battle, to let the mind dwell on the delights of peace. "
consequences
The hostilities between the Tuyuhun and the Tang continued after the battle. Between 634 and 635, the Tang Emperor Tang Taizong carried out a large-scale military campaign against the Tuyuhun, led by General Li Jing . The Tang forces were reinforced during the invasion by soldiers from the allied Tangut and Turkic peoples . The Tuyuhun were defeated, surrendered, and became vassals of the Tang Dynasty.
Individual evidence
- ↑ James Michael Keon: The Tiger in Summer , Harper 1953
- ↑ a b c d e f David A. Graff: Nicola Di Cosmo (ed.): Military Culture in Imperial China . Harvard University Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-674-03109-8 . P. 147f.
- ^ A b c d e Charles Patrick Fitzgerald: Son of Heaven: A Biography of Li Shih-Min, Founder of the Tʻang Dynasty . Cambridge University Press, 1933. p. 135
- ^ Denis Twitchett: HJ Van Derven (ed.): Warfare in Chinese History . BRILL, 2000, ISBN 978-90-04-11774-7 . P. 115