Infantry Military Equipment And Tactics Of Warfare In The Tang Dynasty

Infantry has been an important part of warfare since ancient times,and for the Middle Kingdom in particular it was the largest and most important part of the army,as it could be quickly brought into battle regardless of the terrain or time of day,compared to cavalry and naval forces,which were constrained by the terrain.As an important part of Chinese history,the Tang dynasty attached equal importance to building its own army during its long period of internal and external warfare,and the Tang infantry played a vital role in both internal and external wars.This paper builds on previous research by analysing historical sources and exploring in depth the combat equipment,armament manufacture,training and application of tactical warfare of the Tang infantry.The design of the paper is based on the relationship between the renewal of equipment and the change of tactical methods of warfare,i.e.the needs of national military security created the demand for new weapons and equipment,while the creation of new weapons and equipment required a certain degree of technological innovation and productivity.The threat to national military security faced by the Tang dynasty can be divided into two periods,before and after the An Shi Rebellion.Before the An Shi Rebellion,the greatest military threat to the Tang army came from external ethnic minorities,and as it adhered to a policy of attacking instead of defending and fighting aggressively,it needed to build a flexible and responsive border defence system,so the Tang infantry needed a weapon that could be aggressive against cavalry.The emergence of the strangler is attributed to the revolutionary advances in steel smelting and casting technology that occurred during the Northern and Southern Dynasties,and to the strong productivity of the Tang dynasty.At this time,the two longest weapons most commonly used by Tang infantry were the lance and the strangler,with soldiers forming a dense gun formation for defence when the cavalry attacked and a limited line of strangler-wielding soldiers attacking in a stack.After the An-shi Rebellion,the military environment faced by the Tang dynasty changed dramatically;its main enemies were the rebels and feudal forces within the dynasty,and city defence warfare became a major component of warfare during this period.As the war progressed,the technology of city construction matured and the techniques of attacking cities improved,partly in two ways: firstly,in the construction of siege equipment,particularly crossbows and stone throwing carts;and secondly,in the development of fire attack techniques.Before the Tang Dynasty,the main fuels used for fire attack were firewood and oil,but during the late Tang and Five Dynasties periods,new fuels,such as kerosene and gunpowder,appeared on the battlefield and became rapidly popular.The combination of stone throwers and crossbows,which greatly increased the range of fire attacks,profoundly influenced the research and application of firearms during the Song dynasty,after which the firearms era flourished.With this design in mind,this article seeks to examine four issues in this paper.The first problem examines the military environment faced by the Tang dynasty and the science and technology involved in the manufacture of weapons and equipment during the Tang dynasty.The paper analyses the process of steel casting during the Tang dynasty and its advancement in the mass production of standardised weapons,in addition to the manufacture of armour,bows and crossbows.The second issue examines the composition of the military equipment of the infantry during the Tang dynasty.Using historical materials from the Dunhuang documents represented by P.3644 and the military books of the Tang dynasty represented by the Tai Bai Yin Jing and Li Jing’s Art of War,the article will comprehensively restore the composition of the equipment used in the infantry of the Tang dynasty,listing the various weapons and equipment used in infantry combat.The third issue examines the formation and training of infantry during the Tang dynasty,analysing the two different forms of formation of infantry in war and non-war conditions,and how they were trained in different conditions.The fourth issue examines the specific application of infantry tactics in the Tang dynasty,looking at the use of infantry by different generals in actual warfare,discussing the tactical use of infantry in different situations in terms of field attack,field defence and urban offensive and defensive warfare,and providing an in-depth study of individual issues.