Battle of Zhizhi
| date | 36 BC Chr. |
|---|---|
| place | In Taras , Kazakhstan |
| output | Victory of the Han Dynasty over the Xiongnu |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
|
Xiongnu equestrian nomads |
|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 3,000 Xiongnu riders and infantry 10,000 Kangju riders |
40,000 men: Han crossbowmen, small Han cavalry units, allies from the Tarim Basin |
| losses | |
|
1518 fallen |
probably minor to insignificant |
The battle of Zhizhi (郅支 之 战) took place in 36 BC. Chr. Between the Chinese Han Dynasty under Chen Tang and Xiongnu - nomadic horsemen under chief Zhizhi Chanyu at Tara , the river Talas , in what is now Kazakhstan instead.
prehistory
56 BC Chr. Revolted against his brother Zhizhi. As his brother became more powerful, Zhizhi had to flee westward. 44 BC He allied himself with Kangju near Lake Balkhash . He later fell out with the Kangju, killed several hundred of them and forced them to build a fortress for him. 500 men and two years of construction time were required for the construction work. The fortress was probably built near Taras.
Course of the battle
Han Forces gathering and marching
Around 36 BC The governor of the Western Regions of the Han Dynasty was Gan Yanshou. His deputy commander, Chen Tang, claimed that Zhizhi was planning to found a large empire and proposed a preemptive strike. Gan Yanshou refused, but soon fell ill, so that Chen Tang mobilized the army as a deputy with an edict in Gan's name. Gan Yanshou was forced to give in. All of this happened without the consent of the emperor. An army of 40,000 Han Chinese and Hu (collective name for non-Chinese) gathered. The army marched on both sides of the Tarim Basin , united near the city of Kashgar , then moved over Kangju territory and finally reached the western shore of Lake Balkhash. At that time, a group of hundreds of Kangju riders returned from a raid against the Wusun and got behind the Chinese army, attacked them and made off with a large amount of captured food supplies and weapons. Chen Tang sent his Hu troops back and defeated the Kangju, killing 460 of them and freeing 470 Wusun prisoners.
Battle near the fortress and siege
Several Kangju nobles defected to the Chinese army and provided them with information and tourist guides. The Chinese camped 30 li from Zhizhi's fortress, and the two sides only exchanged rather hypocritical messages. Thereupon the army 3 Li approached Zhizhi and holed up for their part. The Xiongnu sent out several hundred horsemen and infantrymen, but eventually pulled them back into the fortress. The Chinese pursued them, attacked the fortress and managed to burn down part of the palisade wall. Several hundred Xiongnu tried to flee that night, but were all killed. Zhizhi thought about fleeing himself, but stayed in the fortress because he knew that the whole area was teeming with enemies. The fight went on. Even Zhizhi's wife and concubines shot bows from the ramparts. Zhizhi was wounded in the nose by an arrow.
Shortly after midnight, the outer fortification walls fell and the Xiongnu retreated into the inner citadel . At that time, several thousand Kangju riders attacked the Chinese in the dark, but failed to tear them up. Parts of the inner citadel were on fire at dawn. The Chinese piled up earth to climb into the citadel from the citadel walls. Zhizhi and about a hundred fighters then withdrew to the palace. This was on fire and was attacked from all directions. Zhizhi was eventually fatally wounded.
consequences
1518 Xiongnu died, including the Crown Prince and Zhizhi's wives. 145 men were captured and over 1,000 men surrendered. The soldiers were allowed to keep their booty and the surrendering Xiongnu were driven to the 15 kingdoms that participated in the battle. The following spring, Gan Yanshou and Chen Tang arrived in Chang'an City and presented Emperor Han Yuandi Zhizhi's severed head. This was exhibited on the city wall for ten days and then buried. Zhizhi was the only Xiongnu Chanyu killed by the Chinese.
controversy
A Chinese report tells of about a hundred men who died in 36 BC. BC under the command of Zhizhi in a kind of "fish scale formation" (shield formation) defended the palisade fortress against the Han troops.
" [...] more than a hundred foot soldiers who came through the (city / fortress) gate in a" fish scales formation ", who excused. "
According to a hypothesis by the British-American sinologist Homer Hasenpflug Dubs from 1941, some Roman legionaries fought against Han troops in this battle and were then relocated as prisoners to the Chinese village of Liqian in today's Yongchang after the defeat . However, this was rejected by modern historians and geneticists on the basis of critical evaluations of historical sources and DNA analyzes of the villagers. See: Roman-Chinese relations, section: Hypothetical contact with land .
Another, new hypothesis by Dr. According to Christopher Anthony Matthew, these warriors are not supposed to be Romans or legionaries with their turtle formation, but possibly descendants of the remains of the army of Alexander the Great , which partly settled in Asia in garrisons and settlements and their culture and fighting style ( Hoplites in phalanx formation ) of their ancestors of the Greeks and Macedonians . There are comparable, older hypotheses, for example, with the Kalasha in the Hindu Kush region of Pakistan , which originate from the descendants of Greek settlers or from the descendants of Greek soldiers in the army of Alexander the Great.
useful information
- The Battle of Talas took place in the same region in 751 AD.
Individual evidence
- ^ R. Zhou, L. An, X. Wang, W. Shao, G. Lin, W. Yu, L. Yi, S. Xu, J. Xu, X. Xie: Testing the hypothesis of an ancient Roman soldier origin of the Liqian people in northwest China: a Y-chromosome perspective. In: Journal of human genetics. Volume 52, number 7, 2007, pp. 584-591, doi : 10.1007 / s10038-007-0155-0 , PMID 17579807 .
- ↑ CA Matthew: Greek Hoplites in an Ancient Chinese Siege. In: Journal of Asian History. 45 (2011), p. 17ff.
- ↑ History of the Ancient World - Descendants of Alexander the Great's army fought in ancient China (July 9, 2012)