Daxia: Difference between revisions

Following nomad attacks on the northern commanderies in 676, the First Emperor dispatched the eunuch Ma Fuyeng to establish a fort on the northern approaches of the Hexi Corridor to deter further attack. This strategic fortress was dubbed Yang Daopian and from there Ma Fuyeng exerted a tenuous hold on the southern marshes of Xingkai and check the power of the nomad Degei confederation. In 679 the Degei raided and subsequently destroyed the settlements that had started to form around Yang Daopian. Lacking the means to properly breach the fortress, the Degei settled in their tents to wait for hunger to overcome the defenders. On hearing news of the siege, the Emperor raised a 60,000-man army and rushed to the Hexi Corridor. Degei scouts mistakenly assumed the vanguard of the imperial army to be the whole force that was sent against them, causing them to confidently enter the mountainous corridor. By the time they realized the actual size of the enemy force, retreat was no longer an option. Seeing the bulk of the besieging force leaving, Ma Fuyeng's forces rushed out the gates and stormed the nomad camp, overrunning the few defenders left. Trapped in the narrow pass between two forces, the Degei desperately fought to break out but were decisively defeated. The Emperor forced the Degei chiefs to prostrate themselves before him and imposed upon them the humiliating Treaty of Daopian. The treaty stipulated the Degei would become tributaries of Shang, they would migrate beyond the Urus river and settle there, leaving southern Xingkai for Shang colonization and they would provide 8,000 cavalrymen to serve in Shang armies.

Having unseated the Chen dynasty by treachery and with the stain of defeat on the battlefield against Northern Shang, Emperor Gong of Zhong wanted nothing more than to raise new armies to reclaim what he saw as imperial territory in revolt. However the destruction caused by his own insurrection, the pressure on a depleted treasury to pay the wages and bonuses of his standing army and a restless population that were tired of war and high taxes were insurmountable obstacles to realizing his ambition of fully reunifying the empire in the short term. By 918 the northern nomad commanderies were close to revolt, with pro-Corummese nobles and officials being forced to flee their lands by a certain Darukh Khan agitating to reunify the tribes under his command. Darukh Khan was the son of a local Degei chief and functionary and had served in a Chen cavalry unit. Angered by the reduction of imperial stipends going to local chiefs and the resulting disruption of local patronage, Darukh Khan renounced his Corummese titles and began arresting Zhong tax collectors. Darukh Khan proved to be a charismatic orator for he was able to convince thirteen other clan chiefs to follow suit and mount an attack on the garrison town of Baliq where they killed the town guards, shaved the moustache of the local magistrate before kicking him out of town and forced the townspeople to prostrate themselves before Darukh. Darukh proclaimed himself Great Khan of the Degei and Emperor of the Ching dynasty, with both titles implying universality of his rule, Corummese historians name him as the Fourth Great Impostor of the period for his ambition was to rule not just his fellow nomads but to advance south into the empire. In his desire not to be seen merely as a savage invader and out of his own personal sensibilities, Darukh Khan retained many aspects of Corummese customs and political culture. The Corummese language continued as the language of government in his territories, while the Degei dialect was mostly used in the army. He opened his own school to train bureaucrats for government, modeled on the Corummese service schools. Baliq was turned into his capital and he built extensive infrastructure, a palatial complex and stone brick walls; something unheard of in Degei settlements. In doing all this it is clear he did not want to destroy the empire, but initially emulate it and late fully seize it and use its resources for his own ends. Darukh Khan organized a massive raid against Naxia in the spring of 919, pillaging many settlements and making an abortive attempt at capturing the fortress of Gopteng. Emperor Gong's Naxia governor, a nobleman by the name of Kai Kiu organized a robust response, chasing the Degei's raiding parties out of Naxia and back into Darukh's defacto territory. Wary of an ambush and knowledgeable of nomad fighting tactics, Kai Kiu wisely did not pursue his enemies into the grasslands and marched back to Naxia. The Degei had been chased off but had acquired significant amounts of looted goods and coin in addition to valuable intelligence on the military dispositions and capabilities of Zhong forces in the area. Darukh Khan would wait until the spring of 920 to make another move. The Degei did not spend the rest of 919 in idleness however, sending envoys to the [[United Cities]] to reach agreement on the formation of an anti-Zhong alliance. The document recording the treaty has been lost to time but Zhong documents of the time record the expiration of the ten year truce once agreed between Emperor Gong and Tengu Peg-Leg, once ruler of the United Cities. So while the specifics of the alliance are unknown, that they collaborated from 920 and onwards is a widely accepted fact.