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Inner Asia in the 7th and, to a lesser degree, 8th centuries AD was marked by the expansion of the Tang Dynasty's realm in the Tarim Basin, across the Gobi Desert and into Middle Asia. Wars were fought against the Gokturk Empires and Xueyantuo, but also against the states of the Tarim basin. This expansion was not steady; for example, the Tang did lose control of the Tarim basin temporarily to the Tibetans in the 680s, and their expansion north of the Gobi was thwarted in 682. Emperor Taizong's military success was, in part, a consequence of changes he initiated in the Chinese army, including improved weaponry. The emperor placed a new emphasis on cavalry, which was very important because his non-Chinese opponents used the horse effectively in warfare.

Tang expansion

Tang Conquest of the Eastern Gokturks

The Eastern Gokturks were the primary threat to the Tang dynasty..Following Liang Shidu's defeat and death, the Tang dynasty prepared to march against the Eastern Gokturks.. In 630, the Tang army marched against the Gokturks and defeated them in Southern Mongolia, sending them to flight.. However, the real victory came when Li Jin, regarded as one of China's best generals, surprised the Eastern Gokturk Khan with a fast force of 3,000 Cavalry at the battle of Ying shan, which also involved a rear guard of over 100,000 Tang troops.. This battle destroyed the Gokturk army and capturing the Khan and over 120,000 Gokturks.Thus ended the Eastern Gokturk Empire. Emperor Taizong of Tang took up the title of Tian Kehan, or "Heavenly Khan" of the Gokturks..

Tang conquest of Xueyantuo

Xueyantuo had helped Tang armies defeat the Eastern Gokturks, but after the demise of the Eastern Gokturks, Xueyantuo-Tang relations turned hostile because Xueyantuo kept on making attacks on Gokturks who were now Tang subjects.

In 642, Taizong sent an army to attack Xueyantuo and destroyed it.

Tang Conquest of the Western Gokturks

The Western Gokturks were not an initial threat to the Tang, so initially relations were peaceful.However, Civil war and dispute in the Western Gokturks gave the Tang the opportunity to expand into Central Asia..From 642 to 645, the Tang army defeated the Western Gokturks and drove them out of Dzungaria..

In 657, the Tang defeated the last Western Gokturk Khan and took over all Western Gokturk terroritory..

The second Göktürk Kaghanate

In what has been described as "a response to something like a surge of something like national sentiment", the Eastern Türks under Elterish (a.k.a. Qutlugh) was restored in 682. In the Orkhon inscriptions, Elterish's son describes the modest beginnings of Elterish's struggle against the Tang Dynasty thus:

My father the kaghan set out with seventeen men, and as the word spread that he had set out and was advancing, those who were in the towns went up into the mountains and those who were in the mountains came down, they gathered, and there were seventy-seven men. Because heaven gave them strength, the army of my father was like wolves and his enemies were like sheep. When they were seven hundred, in accordance with the institutions of my ancestors my father organized those who had been deprived of their state, those who had been deprived of their kaghan, who had become slaves and servants, who had lost their Türk institutions"

The new Kaghanate was centered on the upper Orkhon river and in the Ötükän, presumably the Khangai mountains. Elterish and his deputy Tonyukuk began harassing the northern Chinese border, and his son Kapghan (a.k.a Mocho) succeeded in restoring almost all of the territories the first Türk Kaghanate had controlled in 550. After decades of war and border raids, peace was made in 721/22. The second Göktürk Khaganate survived until the 740s, when it fell due to internal conflicts and was succeeded by the Uighur Kaghanate

See also

• Horses in East Asian warfare
• Military history of China
• Protectorate General to Pacify the West
• Protectorate General to Pacify the North

Notes

1. Latourette, Kenneth Scott. (1965). The Chinese: Their History and Culture, p. 144.
2. Li, Zheng, 5000 years of Chinese history, p. 764-765.
3. Li, Zheng, 5000 years of Chinese history, p. 766.
4. Li, Zheng, 5000 years of Chinese history, p. 765.
5. Li, Zheng, 5000 years of Chinese history, p. 765.
6. Li, Zheng, 5000 years of Chinese history, p. 766.
7. Li, Zheng, 5000 years of Chinese history, p. 765.
8. Bo, Outlines of the History of the Chinese vol. 2, p. 512.
9. Li, Zheng, 5000 years of Chinese history, p. 766
10. Bo, Outlines of the History of the Chinese vol. 2, p. 512
11. Li, Zheng, 5000 years of Chinese history, p. 767.
12. Li, Zheng, 5000 years of Chinese history, p. 767.
13. Li, Zheng, 5000 years of Chinese history, p. 767.
14. Li, Zheng, 5000 years of Chinese history, p. 767.
15. Grousset, p. 103
16. Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, p.310
17. Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, p.311
18. Rene Grousset, p.106f
19. Rene Grousset, p. 109
20. Rene Grousset, p.112
21. Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, p.313

References

• Fairbank, John King, Herbert Franke and Denis Twitchett. (1994). The Cambridge History of China: Alien Regimes and Border States, 907-1368 (Vol. 6). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. OCLC 186526593
• Latourette, Kenneth Scott. (1934). The Chinese: Their History and Culture. New York: Macmillan. OCLC 220885107
• René Grousset, The Empire of the Steppes, New Brunswick 1970
• Denis Sinor, "The establishment and dissolution of the Türk empire", in Denis Sinor (editor), The Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, Cambridge 1990, p. 285-316
• Li Bo (李波), Zheng Yin (郑颖), "5000 years of Chinese history" (中华五千年), Inner Mongolian People's publishing corp (内蒙古人民出版社), ISBN 7-204-04420-7, 2001. http://book.jqcq.com/product/30157.html
• Bo Yang (柏扬), Outlines of the History of the Chinese (中国人史纲. 下), vol. 2, Shi dai wen yi chu ban she (时代文艺出版社) ISBN 7538700420, Dec. 1987

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