If there were no Anshi Rebellion, could the Tang Dynasty keep the Western Regions?

Datang Western Regions is a term that many people dream of. No matter the frontier poems read in primary school or the movies about the western regions that I went to the cinema after the holiday, they all describe the glory of that year. However, with the decline of the Li and Tang Dynasties, its control over the Western Regions also weakened, until it disappeared. However, when we re-examine the detention system of the Tang dynasty to the western regions, we will find that it is only a matter of time before it loses the western regions.

Of course, China people are most familiar with the "Western Regions" or the one in the Westward Journey.

Immigration policy in Tang dynasty

Although the influence of the Tang Dynasty in the western regions was the strongest among the Central Plains dynasties, before the reform and opening up, all we could do was to let a small number of residents in the customs go to the western regions. Take the Governor's House of Qiuci as an example, there are only 4,974 households, 4,787 households in the Pisha House of Khotan and 0/167 households in Yanqi House.

In order to increase the population of the western regions, all previous dynasties have tried their best, but for the indigenous people in the western regions, the most is the refugees in the customs. For example, the famous Li Bai is a descendant of an exile. No local authority recommended him to be an official, so he can only wander all his life and try to make friends with big people. A man with a lot of money like Li Bai is not bad. They are more criminals or soldiers deprived of money. To put it bluntly, it is an ancient version of reform-through-labour prisoners, which is extremely unfavorable to the influence of the Tang regime on the western regions.

Everyone in China will recite Li Bai's poems and songs from primary school and even preschool, but few people know his family background.

Unlike Baiyue in the south, the western regions or Central Asia are more civilized. Sandwiched between India, the two river basins and East Asia, European civilization was sometimes introduced through some channels. For example, Loulan, an ancient country, is a typical western cultural type influenced by Greek and Roman culture. Therefore, compared with the Baiyue people who have little knowledge, the people in the western regions have undoubtedly seen too many battles. More importantly, although there were many exiles in the Han people's southward migration, most of them moved with their families to escape the war. They have a complete cultural background, and immediately began the traditional life of men plowing and women weaving when they arrived at their new house. Watching these neighbors live a rich life, the indigenous people in the deep mountains and forests are naturally not fools, and constant imitation and communication have become their daily life. After thousands of years, except for a few people, most of the so-called "Na Man" who stayed in the plain was assimilated, and all the indigenous lineages in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces came from that time.

Of course, the blood gap between the Han people and the southern natives is not big, so the face will not be as big as some people think.

Immigrants in the western region are much more miserable. Their position is equal to their labor camps, and the life of the aborigines is generally better than theirs. Perhaps because of the military superiority of the Tang dynasty, they were helpless to these immigrants for the time being, but when the power of the Tang dynasty declined, the indigenous cavalry immediately cut off the connection between the "reform-through-labor camps", and it would not take long. Therefore, it is not feasible to rule the western regions for a long time only by the power within the customs, and it is only possible to establish an effective system with the local people.

The limitations of China's political system are beyond the recognition of western people.

In fact, there are many precedents in the world for such a minority of tens of thousands of people to rule the local majority. The most classic is the Normans on the other side of the ocean. Tens of thousands of Normans ruled millions of Anglo-Saxons.

Norman Conquest, to some extent, created the real Britain.

The Normans built a large number of castles in England to protect themselves. But they also know that force can conquer land, but it can't conquer people's hearts. Therefore, William the Conqueror chose to keep a large number of local institutions in England from the beginning, such as the common law of the Angles and some primitive government structures. The most important thing is that Britain was brought into the political system of continental Europe, which greatly strengthened the feudal laws and allowed Norman and local English to marry. Therefore, even if the territory of the mainland is lost, the descendants of these French people can continue to live in England.

However, the Tang Dynasty still practiced the traditional detention system for the western regions, which is undoubtedly a huge burden for China people who are used to centralization. Therefore, after Wang Xiaojie recaptured the four towns in the first year of longevity, Emperor and Cui Rong debated whether to give up guarding the four towns. De Renjie's "Please stop the people from guarding the West Fourth Town as Shule" clearly pointed out: "Defending the West Fourth Town and East Anton, the deployment is increasing, and the people are lacking. It is useless to keep the western regions open and wait for the stone field. "

In fact, the buffer region system criticized by later generations in the Tang Dynasty was used to "govern" this problem.

By the time of Xuanzong, there were 490,000 town soldiers and 80,000 war horses in the country. The war horse alone needs to consume 8,989,438+/kloc-0,000 mangoku grain every year. Excessive consumption, coupled with the intermittent interruption of grain transportation, made Chang 'an choose to delegate more and more power to local governments in order to save money.

Many people criticized the Tang Dynasty for being too indulgent to local governments, but they were actually forced out.

But even with such decentralization, there is still a huge gap with Europe. First of all, our officials in the Tang Dynasty seem to have great power, but they are still greatly restricted. Theoretically, they only have military power, not legislative power, let alone supervision power. Even in the middle Tang Dynasty, except for the three towns of Heshuo, our envoys in other areas were only senior thugs of the Tang Emperor. It was not until Huang Chao subverted the original system that the power of the "buffer zone" was completely released.

In this case, it is difficult for Anxi four towns to truly integrate with the local people. Although "Yan Lu faces each other, Sang Ma is wild, and the world calls it as rich as Longyou", maintaining the western regions is still a huge burden for the declining Tang Dynasty. Perhaps the Tang Dynasty can give us some titles of this era, but it will never allow a "China" to be within its real jurisdiction, even if they are as loyal as Khotan.

Because Gao Xianzhi and others really can't have their own financial resources, and Gao Xianzhi himself is "sexually greedy", he sent troops to attack "the stone country is rude", and then "made peace with the stone country, led the troops to attack it, captured its king and all the people, and killed its old and weak. Xian Zhi was insatiable, plundering more than ten hooves and five or six gold horses. The rest of the horses and groceries were called "Yes" and all entered his home. This suffocating action forced the western countries to go to the black grain and lead troops to attack the four towns of Anxi, which led to the famous battle of Nero.

On the other hand, the feudal system in Europe has a clear definition, that is, "the contract between two free men", and the so-called aristocrat is "the aristocrat bound by the contract". This system seems to be loose, but it is far more effective than centralization when surrounded by foreigners. For example, the kingdom of Jerusalem established by the Crusaders lasted for decades under Saladin's rule. He claimed to have 300,000 troops, only 5,000 soldiers and hired sharpshooters plus/kloc-0.000 knights templar.

Now we can draw a hypothetical conclusion: if the existing immigration system at that time had not been truly reformed deeply and effectively (the local dialect reform in the buffer region failed in the end), even if there was no Anshi Rebellion, it would not have been possible for the Tang Dynasty to achieve long-term control over the western regions.

Although the Tang dynasty delegated some rights, it expanded the territory of the western regions to an unprecedented extent. However, there is not enough population to digest it. The harsh living environment and backward immigration system make the Han people in the western regions very scarce, and only the locals want to maintain their rule.

It's a pity that China lacks the feudal system in Europe, or it has almost no rule, or it is directly under the central government and has no "autonomy". As a result, the rich western regions became a burden to the country, and even famous officials like Di suggested giving up the four towns of Anxi for the sake of national finance. Once the court can't help, it's hard to say whether Anxi's army will "earn extra money" like Gao Xianzhi, which will lead to the alienation of the western countries from Germany.

Therefore, if a country expands to this point, it must be decentralized, and it is impossible to maintain the past centralized system. Genghis Khan's empire was finally divided into four parts, and the power of the governor of the British Empire was almost equal to that of the king, all for the purpose of "treating" acromegaly in the great empire.

Unfortunately, this problem was not understood until the end of the Tang Dynasty.