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Battle Of Mayi
The Battle of Mayi (), also known as the Scheme of Mayi (馬邑之謀) or the Encirclement at Mayi (馬邑之圍), was an abortive ambush operation by the Han dynasty against the invading Xiongnu forces led by Junchen Chanyu, with minimal casualties from both sides. Although no fighting took place, it marked the end of ''de jure'' peace between the Han dynasty and the Xiongnu, and led to the beginning of the subsequent Han–Xiongnu Wars. The failure of the operation also motivated the Han court to develop effective cavalry forces and the use of offensive expeditionary military policies. Background Before the Battle of Mayi, there had been two main encounters between the Han Chinese and the Xiongnu. During the Warring States period, General Li Mu of the State of Zhao defeated the Xiongnu by luring them deep inside Zhao territory and ambushing them. With similar tactics, General Meng Tian of the Qin dynasty drove the Xiongnu north for and built the Great Wall at the edge of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Li Mu
Li Mu (; died 229 BC), personal name Zuo (繓), courtesy name Mu (牧), was a Chinese military General of the State of Zhao during the Warring States period. He is regarded by Chinese folklore as one of the four Greatest Generals of the Late Warring States period, along with Bai Qi, Wang Jian, and Lian Po. He is widely considered as one of the best defensive tacticians commanders of ancient warfare. Life In 265 BC, Li Mu was stationed in Yanmen Commandery and ordered to defend northwestern commanderies of Yanshan (雁山) and Daijun (代郡) from raids instigated by the Xiongnu (匈奴) and other tribes. He initially adopted an extremely defensive strategy, for which he was accused of cowardice and thereafter replaced by a more aggressive general. The Zhao state prepared an army of 1,300 war chariots, 13,000 cavalry, 50,000 infantry and 100,000 archers. The army was scattered in the countryside. The Xiongnu sent a small force to raid the border, and Li Mu pretended to be de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cavalry
Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from ''cheval'' meaning "horse") are groups of soldiers or warriors who Horses in warfare, fight mounted on horseback. Until the 20th century, cavalry were the most mobile of the combat arms, operating as light cavalry in the roles of reconnaissance, Screening (tactical), screening, and skirmisher, skirmishing, or as heavy cavalry for decisive economy of force and shock attacks. An individual soldier in the cavalry is known by a number of designations depending on era and tactics, such as a cavalryman, Equestrianism, horseman, trooper (rank), trooper, cataphract, knight, Drabant Corps of Charles XII, drabant, hussar, uhlan, mamluk, cuirassier, lancer, dragoon, samurai or horse archer. The designation of ''cavalry'' was not usually given to any Military animal, military forces that used other animals or platforms for mounts, such as chariots, Camel cavalry, camels or War elephant, elephants. Infantry who m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heqin
''Heqin'', also known as marriage alliance, refers to the historical practice of Chinese monarchs marrying princesses—usually members of minor branches of the ruling family—to rulers of neighboring states. It was often adopted as an appeasement strategy with an enemy state that was too powerful to defeat on the battlefield. The policy was not always effective. It implied an equal diplomatic status between the two monarchs. As a result, it was controversial and had many critics. Lou Jing (, later granted the imperial surname Liu 劉), the architect of the policy, proposed granting the eldest daughter of Emperor Gaozu of Han to Modu Chanyu of the Xiongnu. His proposal was adopted and implemented with a treaty in 198BC, following the Battle of Baideng two years prior. Wang Zhaojun, of the Han dynasty, and Princess Wencheng, of the Tang dynasty, are among the most famous heqin princesses. The 20th-century scholar Wang Tonglin praised heqin for facilitating the "melting of ra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Appeasement
Appeasement, in an International relations, international context, is a diplomacy, diplomatic negotiation policy of making political, material, or territorial concessions to an aggressive power (international relations), power with intention to avoid conflict. The term is most often applied to Foreign relations of the United Kingdom, the foreign policy between 1935 and 1939 of the British governments of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Prime Ministers Ramsay MacDonald, Stanley Baldwin and most notably Neville Chamberlain towards Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Under United Kingdom, British pressure, appeasement of Nazism and Fascism also played a role in History of French foreign relations, French foreign policy of the period but was always much less popular there than in the United Kingdom. In the early 1930s, appeasing concessions were widely seen as desirable because of the anti-war reaction to the trauma of World War I (1914–1918), second thoughts about the perceived ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Baideng
The Battle of Baideng (白登之戰) was a military conflict between Han China and the Xiongnu in 200 BC. In an alternate account, GroussetRene Grousset, 'The Empire of the Steppes',1970/2008,page27, says that the Xiongnu invaded Chinese Shanxi and besieged Taiyuan. Gaozu broke the siege and chased the Xiongnu north, but was blockaded by them on the Baideng plateau near Datong in far northern Shanxi. The presence of the armies is uncertain. The total strength of the Chinese army was over 300,000, but it is not known how much of the vanguard was trapped in the fort with the Emperor. Although Chinese historians write that the number of the Xiongnu army was 400,000.Chang, Chun-shu (2007The Rise of the Chinese Empire, Volume 1: Nation, State, and Imperialism in Early China, ca. 1600 B.C. - A.D. 8Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. p. 158. See also *Han–Xiongnu Wars The Han–Xiongnu Wars. or Sino–Xiongnu Wars, were a series of military conflicts fought over two centuries ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Emperor Gaozu Of Han
Emperor Gaozu of Han (2561 June 195 BC), also known by his given name Liu Bang, was the founder and first emperor of the Han dynasty, reigning from 202 to 195 BC. He is considered by traditional Chinese historiography to be one of the greatest emperors in history, credited with establishing the first Pax Sinica, one of China's longest golden ages. Liu Bang was among the few dynastic founders to have been born in a peasant family. He initially entered the Qin dynasty bureaucracy as a minor law enforcement officer in his home town in Pei County, within the conquered state of Chu. During the political chaos following the death of Qin Shi Huang, who had been the first emperor in Chinese history, Liu Bang renounced his civil service position and became a rebel leader, taking up arms against the Qin dynasty. He outmanoeuvred rival rebel leader Xiang Yu to invade the Qin heartland and forced the surrender of the Qin ruler Ziying in 206 BC. After the fall of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Modu Chanyu
Modu () was the son of Touman and the founder of the empire of the Xiongnu. He came to power by ordering his men to kill his father in 209 BCE. Modu ruled from 209 to 174 BCE. He was a military leader under his father Touman and later ''chanyu'' of the Xiongnu Empire, based on the Mongolian Plateau. He secured the throne and established a powerful Xiongnu Empire by successfully unifying the tribes of the Mongolian–Manchurian grassland in response to the loss of Xiongnu pasture lands to invading Qin forces commanded by Meng Tian in 215 BCE. While Modu rode and then furthered the wave of militarization and effectively centralized Xiongnu power, the Qin quickly fell into disarray with the death of the first emperor in 210 BCE, leaving Modu a free hand to expand his empire into one of the largest of his time. The eastern border stretched as far as the Liao River, the western borders of the empire reached the Pamir Mountains, whilst the northern border reached Lake Baikal. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Power Vacuum
In political science and political history, the term power vacuum, also known as a power void, is an analogy between a physical vacuum to the political condition "when someone in a place of power, has lost control of something and no one has replaced them." The situation can occur when a government has no identifiable central power or authority, after collapse, retreat with no successor, or inability to govern due to several factors. The physical analogy suggests that in a power vacuum, other forces will tend to "rush in" to fill the vacuum as soon as it is created, perhaps by an armed militia or insurgents, military coup, warlord or dictator. The term is also often used in organized crime when a crime family becomes vulnerable to competition. Hereditary or statutory order of succession or effective succession planning are orderly ways to resolve questions of succession to positions of power. When such methods are unavailable, such as in failed dictatorships or civil wars, a po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chu–Han Contention
The Chu–Han Contention (), also known as the Chu–Han War (), was an interregnum in Imperial China between the fall of the Qin dynasty and the establishment of the Han dynasty. After the Qin dynasty was overthrown in 206 BCE, the empire was divided into the Eighteen Kingdoms ruled by enfeoffed rebel leaders and surrendered Qin generals according to arrangement by Xiang Yu, the hegemon warlord. Due to dissatisfaction among the rebels, a civil war soon broke out, most prominently between two major powersXiang Yu and Liu Bang, who were the rulers of the Western Chu and Han kingdoms, respectively. Other contending kingdoms also waged war against Chu and Han and among themselves, but these were largely insignificant compared to the Chu-Han conflict. The war ended with a total victory to Han at the Battle of Gaixia in 202 BCE, during which Xiang Yu committed suicide after losing all his men in a last stand. Liu subsequently proclaimed himself emperor of the newly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Loess Plateau
The Loess Plateau is a plateau in north-central China formed of loess, a clastic rock, clastic silt-like sediment formed by the accumulation of Dust#Atmospheric, wind-blown dust. It is located southeast of the Gobi Desert and is surrounded by the Yellow River. It includes parts of the Chinese provinces of Qinghai, Gansu, Shaanxi and Shanxi. The depositional setting of the Chinese Loess Plateau was shaped by the tectonic movement in the Neogene period, after which strong southeast winds caused by the East Asian Monsoon transported sediment to the plateau during the Quaternary period. The three main morphological types in the Loess Plateau are loess platforms, ridges and hills, formed by the deposition and erosion of loess. Most of the loess comes from the Gobi Desert and other nearby deserts. The sediments were transported to the Loess Plateau during interglacial periods by southeasterly prevailing winds and winter monsoon winds. After the deposition of sediments on the plateau, t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Wall
The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand Li (unit), ''li'' long wall") is a series of fortifications in China. They were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against Eurasian nomads, various nomadic groups from the Eurasian Steppe. The first walls date to the 7th century BC; these were joined together in the Qin dynasty. Successive dynasties expanded the wall system; the best-known sections were built by the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). To aid in defense, the Great Wall utilized watchtowers, troop barracks, garrison stations, signaling capabilities through the means of smoke or fire, and its status as a transportation corridor. Other purposes of the Great Wall have included border controls (allowing control of immigration and emigration, and the imposition of duties on goods transported along the Silk Road), and the regulation of trade. The collective fortifications constituting the Great Wall stret ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
