An important negative asset left by the Tang Dynasty to the descendants of the Western Xia
Dangxiang is a branch of the Qiang ethnic group, and in the early Tang Dynasty, Dangxiang Qiang and Tuyuhun, who lived on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, often united against the powerful Tibetans. During the reign of Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty, Tuyuhun was destroyed by Tubo, and the Dangxiang Qiang, who had lost its attachment, requested to be attached, and was placed in Songpan, Sichuan, by the Tang Dynasty, and the Dangxiang Qiang gradually multiplied into several large tribes. During the reign of Tang Kaiyuan, Dang Xiangqiang, who lived in the southeast of Qinghai and the south of Gansu, feared the Tibetan army that was robbing and killing everywhere, asked Tang Xuanzong for help and was moved to Qingyang, Gansu. During the Anshi Rebellion, Guo Ziyi was afraid of these alien races, and suggested that the Tang Dynasty Sect move the Tuoba Chaoguang Department in Gyeongju to the east of Yulin, Shaanxi and Hengshan, Shaanxi.
During the Tang Dynasty, the leader of the party tribe Tuoba Sigong was named the envoy of the Xiazhou Festival by the imperial court, because of the meritorious work of the Pinghuangchao uprising, once regained Chang'an, and was given the surname Li again, and was named Xia Guogong, since then Tuoba Sigong and his descendants surnamed Li have become the local feudal town forces with Xia Guogong. This part of the Dangxiang Qiang armed forces is also known as the Dingyan Army, and its sphere of influence is centered in Xiazhou and reaches a vast area south of Ordos in the east.
During the period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, its low-key development, no matter who was in power in the Central Plains, the Li clan (Tuoba clan) was "bowed down to the vassals", in exchange for the dominance of the place and a large number of rewards. After more than 200 years of construction, the Pingxia area is very rich, with the fertile pastures of the Jinze area in the south of Ordos as the core, and the agricultural area represented by Qiliping at the junction of the Xia and Song dynasties provides a large number of cattle, sheep, grain and grass for the Western Xia, at the same time, Ordos is also rich in the best green salt that can be used as currency at that time, and the Dangxiang Qiang of the Pingxia Department can be said to have soldiers, horses, grain and money, and the power has gradually expanded.
Song Taizu's treatment of the Li local government was dominated by Huairou, and Song Taizong once introduced measures to solve the problem of this feudal town, but ultimately failed. Once the two founding emperors could not solve the problem, let alone the later emperors, this was indeed a great regret of the Northern Song Dynasty. Relatively speaking, during the two founding emperors, if enough attention was paid to it, it was possible to solve the problem. The comprehensive strategic value of this region is almost similar to that of the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun, which is an area in contact with the Western Regions and the Mongolian Plateau, where war horses can be obtained. If the capital of the Song Dynasty was in Chang'an, it should have paid more attention to this area. During the period of these two founding emperors, this area belonged to the indirect management of the Northern Song Dynasty, and they did not realize that this region would be established independently, which was the main reason for the low level of attention. At that time, I was just thinking about returning to the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun, and I forgot about this relatively easy to obtain Western Xia, which was of the same value.
In October 1038, Li Yuanhao was proclaimed emperor, and the founding name was Daxia, and the Song people called it Western Xia (1038-1227). During the Wuhu Rebellion, a country emerged in the Longxi region, an important place of refuge for the Han people. The Song court was extremely angry, and the relationship between the two sides officially broke down. In the following years, there were four major battles between Song and Xia, and the Song army did not take advantage. In 1044, the Western Xia army defeated Liao Xingzong with 100,000 elite imperial commanders in the Battle of Hequ, laying the foundation of the three-legged pattern of Song, Liao, and Xia. At this time, the total strength of the Western Xia was about 500,000.
The Western Xia was a healthy adult male soldier, who produced in peacetime and served as a soldier in wartime, which was similar to the situation of the vassal states in the Warring States period, and was also the basic model of the northern nomadic regimes, such as the Liao, Jin, and Mongol states. At that time, the population of Western Xia was about 2 million, less than 5% of the population of the Song Dynasty, but the survival mode of all the people was soldiers, which led to the great military power it could use, and the size of the army was not much different from that of the Song Dynasty with the conscription system. The per capita military burden brought by the whole army was very large, and people had to carry their own rations when they went out to fight, compared with the Song Dynasty with a conscription system, the population of Western Xia was poor.
The Jurchens rose, and the Western Xia captured the Dingbian Army of the Song Dynasty (present-day Wuqi, Shaanxi) and declared themselves vassals to the Jin State. After the rise of the Mongols, the Western Xia was used as a training ground for actual combat, and troops were constantly sent to attack and harass assaults and drill troops. In 1227, the late Western Xia Emperor Li Xiao (xiàn) surrendered to the Mongols after half a year of siege in Zhongxingfu, and the Western Xia died. Genghis Khan died during the attack on Western Xia, and Tuo Lei killed Li Li in accordance with Genghis Khan's will. After the Mongolian army entered Zhongxing Mansion, it was launched**, and then stopped after Chahan's advice, but the population in the city was not much. Western Xia lost most of the population, the Dangxiang ethnic group was basically wiped out, and the area became a predominantly Han population area again.
The Western Xia blocked the passage between the Song Dynasty and the Western Regions, and forbade horses from the Western Regions to be given to the Song Dynasty (horses were an important military and strategic resource, and the northern regime prevented the Song Dynasty from obtaining horses). The northern region of Western Xia also produced a large number of horses, prompting Western Xia to have a strong cavalry. Relying on a policy of having a large number of cavalry and all the people to be soldiers, the Western Xia resisted the attacks of the Song army and other surrounding regimes, and established itself as a state for 190 years. The existence of Western Xia prompted the Song Dynasty to block another channel for obtaining horses, which eventually brought about a lack of cavalry and poor military performance in the Song Dynasty.