Greek immigrants from Central Asia

Editor's Note: In the Han Dynasty, the Han army was famous and powerful, and it was able to "make one Han the five Hu" against Shang Zhou Sun, and it was also able to outnumber the many when fighting against the Huns, indicating that the farming nation could also have Qiang Bing. However, in Central Asia, several agricultural countries were evaluated as "weak soldiers" by China's envoys, including the famous Parthian Empire. Why are the same farming peoples so different?

▲ Parthian Empire, Han Dynasty, Rome and Guishuang are collectively called the four empires.

"Historical Records Biography of Dawan": Dawan, Daxia and Rest in Peace are big countries, with many imported things and many aborigines, which are equivalent to China, but the soldiers are weak and the property is expensive; In the north, there are Yueshi and Kangju, and the soldiers are strong.

▲ Sima Qian

It is undoubtedly a strange thing that the military strength of the Han Dynasty as a farming country is strong, while the nomadic people have strong military strength in Central Asia. And decades after Zhang Qian's return, the Parthian Empire killed crassus, one of the three giants of Rome, and wiped out 40,000 Roman legions in the Battle of Calais. Later, Anthony's crusade to the East was seriously defeated, and the Romans were defeated in the siege of Longdia. Although the Roman Empire was able to counterattack Parthia many times with greater national strength, it could not subdue it after all. Such a performance can't be called a weak soldier in any case. This is related to the population distribution in the Western Regions and Central Asia. In fact, in Central Asia around A.D., the nomadic population even surpassed the agricultural population. Central Asia is dominated by grasslands and deserts, and agricultural settlements are scattered in narrow valleys and oases.

Judging from the population of western countries, in the Western Han Dynasty, Gu Mo had 24,500 people, Wensu had 8,400 people, Leo and Quli had only 1,000 people, and Qiuci had 8 13 17 people, making it a superpower in the Tarim Basin. Wusun is a nomadic people in Yili River and Qihe River basins, with120,000 households and a population of 630,000. Kangzhou in Aral Sea also has a population of 600,000.

The agricultural city-states in the Western Regions and Central Asia are all soldiers because of their small population, but their city-state soldiers are weak in fighting capacity. Even in summer, it was founded by Greek immigrants (that is, the kingdom of Bactria, when Zhang Qian went to the Western Regions, it should have been captured by the Scythians but still retained the Hellenistic characteristics). This is because, unlike many people's imagination, it is impossible to ensure the combat effectiveness of soldiers by the whole people. A truly powerful army is a full-time army. The warrior of ancient Greek city-state soldiers originated from the support of a large number of slaves. However, in the Western Han Dynasty, where classical militarism was practiced, the fighting capacity of county soldiers recruited by compulsory conscription was still very poor, and they were often harassed by Xiongnu in Wenjing era. Otherwise, Li Guang, who can defend the frontier, will not be called General Fei (Li Guang did badly when he later attacked Xiongnu).

After serving for two to three years without leaving agricultural production, outstanding soldiers will be selected to join the regular army. In other words, the powerful fighting capacity of the Han army "one Han is five Hu" is also the result of selecting talents and appointing talents and concentrating the population base of the farming empire. In addition, in the era of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, people who were brave and good at fighting were recruited on a large scale. After all, the hunting and grazing activities of nomadic people have the attribute of military training, and the harsh living environment makes only stronger people survive. Compared with the farming people who need to spend a lot of time engaged in agricultural activities, they must spend more time on martial arts and military exercises. Therefore, the proportion of nomadic people who can mobilize effective soldiers is undoubtedly higher than that of agricultural people.

Therefore, although Daxia, located in the Bactria Basin, is a big country with a population of over one million, its agricultural areas are scattered and its internal cohesion is poor due to the poverty in Central Asia. "Without a great ruler, cities are often small and long." The fact became a loose alliance of a group of small city-states, so it was conquered by the Yue people with a population of "100,400,000" and established Guishuang State.

▲ The heyday of the Parthian Empire

As for the rest, that is, the Parthian Empire, we need to pay attention to the fact that the weakness of the rest soldiers was brought back by Zhang Qian, not the information brought back by the China envoy who was sent to rest in 105 and was met by 20,000 cavalry in the early days of rest in the capital, Hecaton Pailos.

▲ Parthian soldiers

The Parthian Empire was also founded by nomadic people, but it was highly agricultural at that time and was deeply invaded by the Central Asian Scythians. At that time, the territory of Parthia Empire in Central Asia was mainly Khorasan area in northeast Iran, where the population was small and it was separated from Parthia's Persian homeland by towering mountains. Although the Khorasan region of the Parthian Empire adopted militarized management, agriculture still occupied the people's military training time, and local militia often lost to nomadic troops who gathered huge forces through horse superiority. Therefore, Zhang Qian, according to his own hearsay evaluation, lay in peace side by side with Dayuan and Daxia.

The Parthian Empire in the middle of the Western Han Dynasty did not reach its peak. At this time, the army of the Parthian Empire was in a difficult transition period. After the Seleucid dynasty annexed a large territory, the two river basins and the vast territory of Syria needed to be appeased and digested. In 124 BC, Ardaban I immediately went to the east after repelling the counterattack of Seleucid dynasty, and faced the Skettians who became restless because of Yuexi, and finally died in the battlefield because of the defection of Greek mercenaries. Later, with the efforts of Mitridati II, the Parthian Empire completed the reform and established the famous armored cavalry, but even in the late heyday, there were only a few thousand armored cavalry in the country.

In BC 105, the Chinese envoy sent a rest, which could welcome 20,000 cavalry. The Chinese envoy also gave a positive evaluation of "crossing dozens of cities and belonging to many nationalities". However, at this time, the transformation has not been completely completed. Even after the Battle of Calais decades later, there were only one or two thousand heavy cavalry led by Soren. Most of the 20,000 cavalry sent by the Parthian Empire at this time were light cavalry and poorly equipped servant troops. However, the Parthian army in this period, although not enough to fight against the Romans, has been able to fight back the Scythians and Yueshi people one after another.

Finally, it must be pointed out that the high mobilization rate of nomadic people does not mean that they have high martial arts. Except for the arid and barren areas such as Central Asia and Mongolian Plateau, farming in most areas can feed far more people than nomadic people. Of course, the militia of the farming people are no match for the nomadic army, but it is normal for the professional army to crush the nomadic people with fewer victories.

▲ In the battle of Mo Loki, the Tatars were defeated.

Not to mention the brilliant achievements of the Han and Tang Dynasties, take the Russians who are known as fighting nations but are good at growing wheat and rice. In the Battle of Moloki in 1572, Tsarist Russia, whose main force was deeply involved in the Livonia War, faced with 60,000 Crimean Tatars who came to steal the city with 25,000 troops, 40,000 Tatars were beheaded and Prince Tatar Khan was killed. Since then, the Crimean khanate, which ravaged eastern Europe, has been devastated and has become a loyal dog of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, dragging its feet in Turkey's foreign war for a long time. For example, in the battle of Vienna, it was completely annihilated after being met by Polish cavalry. The so-called belief in wolf totem has fighting power, but it is a traditional routine for swindlers to fool fools.

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Empire (69) Central Asia (3) Agriculture (1)