1, Chu-Tu Baiyue Battle (Spring and Autumn Period-Warring States Period)
In the territory of vassal states enfeoffed by the Western Zhou Dynasty, Chu was only a remote small country in the south. In the turbulent picture of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Chu grew into a superpower that decided the hegemonic pattern of vassal States at an alarming rate. History books mainly record the magnificent history of Chu's northern expedition to the Central Plains and its rivalry with Qin Jin.
However, it neglected a war that the Chu people never stopped from beginning to end: the Battle of Nantun and Baiyue. In the era of the growth and expansion of Chinese civilization, the Chu people played a great vanguard role in the south of the Chinese nation between conscious and unconscious.
The more profound significance is that Chu's southward expansion is like a huge melting pot, melting all the tribes in southern China into the surging blood of the Chinese nation. In this protracted war, Chu actually served as a bridge between the northern and southern civilizations of China.
2. Ban Chao defeated the Battle of Yue Guo (Eastern Han Dynasty)
This is only a few recorded battles in Han history. In the summer of 90 AD, Guishuang Empire sent 70,000 troops across the Pamirs to attack the vassal states in the western regions of the Han Dynasty. During the Han Dynasty, the Western Regions all protected the military forces of Ban Chao's western regions, and besieged the Yue army by luring the enemy into the depths, forcing it to send envoys to surrender.
In the Han Dynasty, a disaster in the western regions was easily solved without a single soldier in the central government. Judging from the history of governing the western regions in the Han Dynasty, this war naturally consolidated the * * * rule of the central government of the Han Dynasty over the western regions, and made the Silk Road form a natural dividing line-Qingji.
China * * * to the east of Green Ridge has continued to this day. However, people in the Han Dynasty knew little about Guishuang Empire at that time, and even Ban Chao, who had been in the frontier for a long time, was very strange to this country, and still called it Yue Wang as usual.
3. The Hundred Years' War between the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Qiang Nationality
Gui Shuang surrendered, the western regions were recovered, the south was pacified, and Wu Heng, the Hun, had no chance to sing. After several generations of kings' painstaking efforts, the Eastern Han Empire finally reached its peak. However, from beginning to end, they all faced a tenacious opponent-Hexi Qiang people.
First, Zero Qiang was destroyed, and then joined the Wolf Qiang to rebel. Zhong Qiang is finished, and Dong Qiang is in chaos. Qiang people are like a tenacious boxer. They are knocked down again and again in the ring, but they stand up again and again. They have struggled with the Eastern Han Empire for more than a century, and the painstaking efforts and honors of several generations of famous soldiers in the Eastern Han Dynasty will be scattered by this tenacious tribe.
Especially after the mid-Eastern Han Dynasty, with the expansion of local strongmen and eunuchs, political corruption provided a hotbed for the rebellion of Qiang people, accelerated the process of corruption in the Han army, and finally turned the battle between Pingqiang and Qiang into a bitter war of attrition.
Another result of the battle between Pingqiang and Qiang was probably unexpected in the Han Dynasty. In the long Pingqiang War, the power of Hexi warlords in Han Dynasty expanded day by day and gradually became a major event. Finally, there was the drama of Hexi warlord Dong Zhuo's going to Beijing to seize power, which opened the prelude to the struggle at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.
4, Sui attack Tuguhun campaign
The Great Sui Dynasty flourished in the Tang Dynasty with brilliant martial arts. He attacked Tubo and fought against Turks, leaving countless heroic legends in the vast history. However, the battle of attacking Tuguhun in Sui Dynasty was somewhat mediocre and bleak under the brilliant background of famous soldiers in Sui and Tang Dynasties. In fact, the Sui Dynasty's attack on Tuguhun was not only the prelude to the Sui Dynasty's unification of China, but also the beginning of China, which experienced division and war.
We can explain the battle of Tuguhun in Sui and Tang Dynasties from many factors such as national defense. However, through countless dusty history, we can clearly find that the battle of attacking Tuguhun in the west actually affected one of the great strategies of the powerful Central Plains Dynasty-the westward strategy. Just like the opening of the western regions in the Han Dynasty, the powerful Central Plains dynasty regarded opening up the Silk Road to restore the western regions as a grand strategy for national peace and development.
Tuguhun was a big nail leading to the Silk Road in Sui and Tang Dynasties. Defeating Tuguhun enabled Sui and Tang Dynasties to consolidate their position in Hexi region, and spread Chinese civilization to the western regions on this basis, which made the Silk Road across Europe and Asia unimpeded and opened the prelude to another great event of the Chinese nation.
The battle of conquering the ancient and muddy land is the first springboard for Chinese civilization to break out of the barrier of Guanshan again and lead to Eurasia. Its significance is no less than Tang Ping's Turkic War.
5. The Battle of Victoria broke out in Tubo in the Tang Dynasty.
The brilliant martial arts in the prosperous Tang Dynasty are memorable, but the history of the late Tang Dynasty after the An Shi Rebellion always makes historians flinch. That dark age, which has always been regarded as eunuch chaos and vassal separatism, was under the pressure of survival, although it was the last time of the Tang Dynasty.
The army of the Tang Dynasty still partially maintained its strong fighting capacity in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty. With the courage to support the elderly, a generation of famous soldiers won hearty foreign wars again and again under extremely difficult conditions, which ensured the peace of the Tang Dynasty towards the end of the world and once ushered in a "comeback" for the country. In 80 1 year, Wei Gao broke the Victorian War of Tubo, which was the glory of Tang Jun's last era.
In 82 1 AD, the Tang Dynasty and Tubo joined forces in Changqing, which completely ended the continuous confrontation and war between the two military blocs after hundreds of years. In the following days, both sides faithfully abided by this agreement.
Wei Gao's brilliant martial arts in breaking Tubo is a key to open the door to peace between the two groups. The world belittles the politics of the late Tang Dynasty. But through the glory of the Victorian War, we can still vaguely see the glory of martial arts in the prosperous Tang Dynasty.
6. Battle of Uighur Uzbek Khan in Tang Dynasty
The battle against the remnants of Uighur in the Tang Dynasty can be regarded as a turning point in the strategic defense in the late Tang Dynasty. The border troubles in the Tang Dynasty have always been concentrated in the northwest, especially in Uighur and Tubo, two strong neighbors. After the decline of Tubo and reconciliation with the Tang Dynasty, the powerful Uighur empire also went to extinction.
In the late Tang Dynasty, when politics and military affairs were coming to the end of the world, it was the diplomatic and military efforts of several generations of politicians and militarists that solved this long-troubled border issue. After the defeat of Ujiehan, the Tang Dynasty awarded the title of Tuoba Si, who defeated the Uighur.
Tuoba Sibu, who claimed to be a descendant of Li Ling in the Han Dynasty, was also loyal to the Tang Dynasty, which not only became a barrier to resist the eastward invasion of the * * * empire, but also reopened the war-torn Silk Road and once again opened Chang 'an's passage to Central Asia.
7. Song Xiaping's Battle of Xiacheng
Historians are controversial about the content of Wang Anshi's political reform, but it is undeniable that Wang Anshi's greatest achievement is not in economy and politics, but in the military. Since Wang Anshi's political reform, the military reform in the Song Dynasty, especially in the northwest, has become the focus of the political reform.
In a sense, the northwest military town in Song Dynasty was the "special zone" of Wang Anshi's political reform. With the independent and unified command of the Northwest Army, the combat quality and comprehensive quality of soldiers have also improved with the deepening of political reform. Finally, it gradually reversed the passive situation of the Song Dynasty in the Song-Xia War and established a rare elite teacher for the Song Dynasty. Unfortunately, all these achievements were recorded by history because of the final defeat of the Northern Song Dynasty and the dispute between right and wrong of Wang Anshi's political reform.
In the disgraceful history of foreign wars in the Song Dynasty, the Northwest War in the second half of the Northern Song Dynasty was one of the few bright spots. And if history can really give the Northern Song Dynasty enough time to pacify Xixia and continue to build a powerful cavalry by taking advantage of the resources in Hexi area, perhaps the whole history of the Song Dynasty will be rewritten.
It is worth mentioning that in this turning point from the demise of the Northern Song Dynasty to the establishment of the early Southern Song Dynasty, the former Northwest Army also played an important role. There were a large number of soldiers from the Northwest Army in the troops of Wu Jie and Yue Fei, famous anti-Jin generals in the Southern Song Dynasty. They also dealt a heavy blow to 8 jin j on the battlefield, proving the glory and dignity of that expeditionary force.
8. The Battle of Xiangfan, Meng Gong in Southern Song Dynasty.
In the golden age when the Mongolian army swept across Europe and Asia, who could defeat the Mongolian army in the frontal field battle? Looking around the world, there are only a handful of people who can complete this answer, and Meng Gong, a famous Southern Song Dynasty star, is one of them. The battle of Xiangfan was the first real positive contest between the Mongolian army and the Southern Song army. The significance of this battle not only lasted for 50 years in the Southern Song Dynasty, but also made the fanatical mind of the Mongolian army gradually turn sober because of the winning streak.
Song Jun, which has always been regarded as weak, played a strong fighting capacity and high-tech equipment advantage in the anti-Mongolian campaign, which proved one thing: once the war machine was fully started in the Song Dynasty, its fighting capacity was undoubtedly terrible.
High-quality military command personnel and efficient command system can fully enable the Song Dynasty to give full play to its economic and technological advantages. If there can be a promising monarch who can make good use of talents, properly adjust the national policy and give military commanders more initiative, and if there can be a few virtuous ministers who really take the country as their own responsibility, the fate of the Song Dynasty from extinction can be completely avoided.
Unfortunately, what we see is that the heroes of the Song Dynasty have no good end. Except Meng Gong, most famous anti-Mongolians in Song Dynasty were almost framed and killed. The treacherous court official was in chaos, and the emperor was fatuous, which pushed the Song Dynasty into the abyss. Even so, the victory of the battle of Xiangfan in Meng Gong built a solid barrier for the Song Dynasty to resist the southward invasion of the Mongolian army, which paid a bloody price for countless invasions.
The Mongols who learned from it began to adjust their original political and military policies, focusing on learning the science and technology of the Southern Song Dynasty and the tactics of the water army, and widely appointing Han generals and Han troops. Later, Mongolia's war to destroy the Song Dynasty basically turned into a war between the North and the South, which is a kind of irony.
9. The Battle of Hami in Ming Dynasty
In the history of the Ming dynasty, there was a place name that was particularly strange, but it was particularly eye-catching in history-Hami. The rise and fall of Hami also witnessed the rise and fall of the Ming Dynasty. In the prosperous time of Ming Dynasty, Hami was a buffer zone outside Jiayuguan, the western border of Ming Dynasty.
It was also the bridgehead to resist the harassment and invasion of Mongolian tribes in the Ming Dynasty. Hami was closely connected with the grand occasion of "all nations came to Korea" in Ming Dynasty. It is a transit point for envoys from the Western Regions and even Central Asian countries to visit Emperor China in Beijing, and it is also the only way for western businessmen to enter the mainland of China. There used to be a lot of business trips here and the economy was rich. The existence of Hami witnessed the ultimate prosperity and glory of the Silk Road. It used to be so important, but it was so easily forgotten by the Ming Dynasty.
Losing Hami Wei is not a big deal in the eyes of the monarch and his ministers after Jiajing: a small border with a population of several thousand people, just throw it away. In fact, the loss of Hami had a great influence on the border defense of the Ming Dynasty. From a military point of view, the Ming Dynasty lost the buffer zone outside Jiayuguan, which was originally on the second line of defense.
After that, it was directly exposed under the eyes of the enemy, and the military pressure on the border suddenly increased. The Ming dynasty even lost an important source of war horses, which directly affected the development of cavalry forces in the Ming dynasty.
10. Battle of Luoluo Bay in Ming Dynasty
The naval battle of Liaoluo Bay was a self-defense counterattack of the Ming Dynasty against Dutch colonists. Zheng Zhilong extensively absorbed the advanced experience and technology of the western navy and formed a powerful navy, which created a precedent for the eastern countries to defeat the western colonial countries in naval battles. Compared with the history of western colonial expansion, Zheng Zhilong and his family, who commanded the Luowan naval battle, are the representatives of China's maritime forces. As pirates, they have an independent army and an independent sphere of influence, and can even directly confront the western colonial forces in the ocean.
Their history of prosperity is nothing more than a historical copy of countless western maritime forces in China. In a sense, the expansion of Zheng's fleet and the attack on western colonial forces were the beginning for China people to think outside the mainland and explore the coastal areas of Wan Li.
After the Battle of Liaoluo Bay, the sea area between Fujian and Guangdong became increasingly calm, and overseas trade became increasingly prosperous. After the extinction of the Silk Road on land, the bridge of the Maritime Silk Road was built on the southeast coast of China, and the prosperity of maritime trade and the growth of merchant power became an irreversible trend at that time.
If history can follow this trend, perhaps ancient China will move towards its own unique modernization process. Unfortunately, the long river of history is always tortuous. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the war was in turmoil, and the Qing Dynasty closed its doors to the outside world, which finally blocked the natural development law that could have been produced. More than 200 years later, when the British colonists who came after the Dutch stormed the coast of China in the same way, it was a sad thing to find that their opponents' ships and weapons were not as good as those of the Ming Dynasty more than 200 years ago.