Quote:
Originally Posted by Triple C
No? I had a distinct impression that one of the most important military innovations at early Han dynasty (during Wu-Di's reign) was the adaptation of horse archer tactics and train the Chinese troops as such.
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No, it was in the Warring States Period during the reign of King Wuling (326 BC–Spring 299 BC).
Zhao (state) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The greatest contribution of Wu Di of the Western Han was to defeat the great Xiongnu confederacy. Xiongnu enjoyed military superiority over China for many centuries. Chinese had to build Great Wall to defend themselves since Warring States Period.
After several decades of preparation during Wen Di and Jing Di, Western Han achieved great advantage over Xiongnu confederacy economically and militarily when Wu Di took the power. Then, by taking advantage of the power struggle among the Xiongnus and through wars lasted over several decades, Western Han finally defeated Xiongnu. The anti-China faction of Xiongnu was driven west or far north. But Wu Di himself became addictive to the wars when he got old. The endless wars eventually also wore China down.
The very interesting first post by IDonT described the later wars between Eastern Han and Xiongnu as well as Parthian and Kushan Empires for the control of the Tarim Basin in Today's Xinjiang to ensure the opening of the Silk Road. The anti-China faction of Xiongnu was further driven west into Central Asia or even South East Europe.
It seems that there is debate about who are the descendents of those Xiongnus who went west, Turks, Hungarians or someone else?
The Chinese general Ban Chao (班超) who led the fights had famous saying 不入虎穴，焉得虎子 (if you don’t enter tiger’s den, how can you get tiger’s cub?).
Ban Chao was also a great diplomat. Most of his army came from local allies of China in many time. Only small number of Han Chinese army was stationed in that far away area for extended period to protect the Silk Road, which solved the logistic problem.
Ban Chao - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The pro-China faction of Xiongnu was settled in the north of the Great Wall. They revolted during Five Hu Sixteen Kingdom Period (4th to 5 th century) as one of the Hus to establish their own Kingdom. After that chaotic period, Xiongnu in China was gradually assimilated into Chinese.
Xiongnu - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
There is an urban legend saying that pure Han Chinese should have their smallest toe finger nail unbroken while Xiongnu’s was broken. Mine is broken. So, I am not a pure Han Chinese. I didn’t know any my Chinese friends have unbroken smallest toe finger nail. Therefore, there may be not many pure Han Chinese exist today.
Recently, some exciting news comes from the academic researches in China that some of the Chinese minorities may have generic link to some of the Hus in Five Hu Sixteen Kingdom Period. The DNAs of these people were compared with those of the bodies from unearthed Hu’s tombs. They found some matches.