The Game Between Tang China And The Tibetan Kingdom In Helong And Western Regions From Seventh Century To Mid-eighth Century

The Tibetan Kingdom,a regime whose fate is similar to Tang dynasty,almost flourishes and declines along with Tang China.In the long run,friendly contacts and war conflicts between Tang dynasty and the Tibetan Kingdom are interactive and two different forms of association promote the understanding and recognition of each other.Clashes are outcomes of the games between Tang China and the Tibetan Kingdom,from the perspectives of interaction of two populations,which are also indispensable components of the communications of both regimes.Thereby,the research on the games between Tang dynasty and the Tibetan Kingdom contributes to deeping our cognition of the conflict process of Tang dynasty and the Tibetan Kingdom.After unifying the Tibet Plateau,the Tibetan Kingdom starts to expand towards Helong and Western Regions in order to strive for broad existing space.However,owing to these two areas having been under the governmence of Tang dynasty,the acts of the Tibetan Kingdom with no doubt have violated the baseline of Tang China.Facing the aggressive military assaults from the Tibetan Kingdom,Tang dynasty strikes back on the frontier in good time.First of all,Tang dynasty and the Tibetan Kingdom fight with each other in two battlegrounds of Qinghai and Western Regions respectively in the third year of Yifeng and the first year of Tiaolu.Although the warfare of Qinghai commanded by Li Jingxuan and Liu Shenli eventually fails,the war distracts a part of military force of the Tibetan Kingdom,which offers chances for Pei Xingjian to manage Western Regions successfully.What's more,the rebellion occurring in the Tibetan Kingdom causes Lun Zannie commanding troops in western regions previously to rush back to the Tibetan Kingdom,which in some extent reduces the resistance for the victory of troops of Tang government.Secondly,through the textual research on the passage of “News of Victory of Defeating the Army of the Tibetan Kingdom in Hexi ” writed by Fanheng and recorded in the book of “articles completely from Tang dynasty”,we could confirm that the time of the historic events disclosed in the news of victory is supposed to be the event of Wangchui defeating troops of the Tibetan Kingdom in the first year of Tianbao;we could also demonstrate the relationships between the event of Wangchui defeating troops of the Tibetan Kingdom in Hexi area and incident of Huangfu Weiming defeating troops of the Tibetan Kingdom in Longyou region in the same year.Finally,The reason why Geshu Han could successfully recapture the City of Shibao is that troops of Tang dynasty attacks on the army of the Tibetan Kingdom in Jiannan Dao and Longyou areas at the same time to disturb the attention of the Tibetan Kingdom.Tang government distracts the military force of the Tibetan Kingdom by the battles in Jiannan Dao to provide support for Geshu Han occupying the City of Shibao.With the development of the situation of conflicts between Tang dynasty and the Tibetan kingdom,the games between Tang dynasty and the Tibetan kingdom begin in the fields of politics,military force,diplomacy to enlarge the powers of own and weaken the counterparts of the opponent.In the period of Kaiyuan and Tianbao,the regime of Geshimi keeps a good relationship with Tang dynasty all the time,becoming the relatively important force of Tang government to resist the Tibetan Kingdom in western regions and offering support for Tang dynasty to stabilize the situation in western regions to a certain degree.Nonetheless,the Tibetan Kingdom also undertakes to look for regimes which can be united with to take a favorabe situation in the course of infringing in western regions.Under the persuasion of the Tibetan Kingdom,the regime of Qieshi becomes the main accomplice of the Tibetan Kingdom to invade in Tang China.The Tibetan Kingdom's frequent invasions to Helong and Western Regions cause the troops of Tang dynasty to enter into trouble.To change the disadvantages,Tang government actively tries to weaken the strengths of the Tibetan Kingdom attacking Tang China,Tang government parts the alliance of the Tibetan Kingdom and Supi regime and persuades Supi regime to resist the Tibetan Kingdom together.Furthermore,under the efforts of Tang China,the regime of Humi changes from the vassal of the Tibetan Kingdom to the proponent of Tang China,which makes Tang government could control the strategic area.The frequent battles between Tang dynasty and the Tibetan Kingdom make the consumption of grains and funds for troops rather great.Therefore,how to ensure the supply of grains for troops timely and validly becomes a problem which should be solved immediately for the emperor and ministers of Tang dynasty.Faced with the frequent invasions from the Tibetan Kingdom,the troops assigned by the Tang government temporarily could not satisfy the need to defend the borders,and the large scales of transporting grains for troops also result in heavy financial burdens of Tang government.The troops arranged in the areas of border and the aggravation of the situation of frontier defence of Tang dynasty give rise to the policy of reclaimed-field along the frontier.Longyou in the front district of the border firstly conducts the policy of reclaimed-field and achieves fruitful results.The reclaimed-field center of the troops of Tang China changes with the shift of the battle center between Tang dynasty and the Tibetan Kingdom.Owing to the renaissance of the Second Turkic Khanate in the latter reign of Emperor Gaozong and the happening of the incident of the Tibetan Kingdom with the Second Turkic Khanate invading to Hexi afterwards,the situation of Hexi continues turbulent for a time.To ensure the safety of the border,Tang government arranges a great many troops here,reclaimed-field in Hexi area springs up afterwards as well as develops in a large scale,which becomes the center of reclaimed-field of Tang China and plays an important role in cementing the frontier defence.