Bringing the Railway to Daming

Shule Town, one of the four towns of Anxi, held out for at least three years. How many years did Xizhou, where the Protectorate was located, hold out?
At this point, the video begins to interweave footage of various artifacts in the museum with edited clips of other Tang Dynasty documentaries and films, mimicking a "time travel" approach. This makes the audience feel as if they have traveled back with the artifacts to the tumultuous century from the Tang Dynasty's recovery of the Western Regions to the Anxi Army's entrapment in the Western Regions.

The video then showed several arrowheads unearthed from the fortress site, as well as carbonized barley particles from a cellar.

The inscription next to it indicates that the arrowhead was made during the Kaiyuan era, and the iron used contained meteorite iron components unique to the Kunlun Mountains.

The carbonized barley grains were tested and found to be of the same variety as the grains unearthed in Taicang, Chang'an!

"The Tang Dynasty's Six Codes states that the weapons and equipment of the Western Regions were made using the advantages of the terrain. This seems to answer the mystery of the logistics of the Tang army's century-long defense of the Western Regions—but the historical evidence does not stop there."

The video then showcased other ruins, artifacts, and subsequent archaeological discoveries—

The inscription on the fortress and the troop deployment tally from the seventh year of the Kaiyuan era; the tomb of Shi Jun, a Sogdian, unearthed in the southern suburbs of Xi'an, with the epitaph recording that he "frequently traveled between Shule and Suyab, knew the situation of the barbarians, and was familiar with the terrain."

In the murals of the Kizil Caves, the warrior on the left, wielding a halberd, wears Tang-style bright armor, while the caravan guards on the right wear chainmail with distinct Persian characteristics. This scene of East-West cultural fusion undoubtedly testifies to the intelligence sources of the Tang army in the Western Regions.

In the Dunhuang Mogao Caves, the contents of a certain document fragment are a battle report from a winter day during the Kaiyuan era: Five thousand Tibetan cavalrymen invaded the Pamir Mountains and captured the garrison commander Zhang Zilie, who led three hundred elite soldiers across the cold pool at night and destroyed their supplies!
"Behind this yellowed official document lies a three-dimensional defense system built by the Tang Dynasty over three generations: twenty-eight military farms centered on Shule City provided military rations, twelve beacon towers in the Qiepantuo Gorge formed an early warning network, and six passes on the southern slopes of the Pamirs constituted a deep defense line."

"When the Arab traveler Tamim ibn Bahir traversed the Wakhan Corridor in the 8th century, he exclaimed in his travelogue: 'Every thirty li there is a Tang army fortress, with watchtowers facing each other and courier horses like stars!'"

Subsequently, the video was further refined step by step with more archaeological discoveries, or rather, it restored various pieces of evidence of the Tang Dynasty's control over the Western Regions.

For example, the rammed earth ruins of the fortress, with their bluish-gray color, contain a large amount of burnt camel thorn, which makes the rammed earth resemble concrete. The drainage system of the fortress, reconstructed through 3D scanning, is surprisingly consistent with modern plateau building standards.

On the north slope of Muztagh Ata, well-preserved beacon tower ruins were unearthed, with a base made of Kunlun jade depicting the Twenty-Eight Mansions – which corresponds to the record in the Tang Dynasty's Six Codes that "beacon towers transmit messages, and at night one observes the stars and during the day one observes the smoke."

With the help of modern technology, this early warning network, consisting of twelve main beacon towers and forty-six auxiliary beacon towers, can transmit military intelligence to the Kucha Governor's Office in just 45 minutes!
Upon seeing this, everyone from Zhu Yuanzhang to Zhu Yunxuan, who was just beginning to study history, showed expressions of shock.

Previously, they only knew that the Tang Dynasty had a strong military, but they did not know that it was so powerful. Judging from the various military concepts, arrangements, and technologies shown in the video, it was not only no less powerful than the Ming Dynasty before Liu Kuan's arrival, but it even surpassed it!

In other words, the Ming Dynasty in its original history may not have been as advanced as the Tang Dynasty more than 500 years ago in terms of military theory and technology.

This was both unacceptable and somewhat shameful to Zhu Yuanzhang—before Liu Kuan's arrival, he had been quite proud of the various military theories and arrangements of the Ming Dynasty.

The video continues, further detailing other aspects of the Tang army in the Western Regions, such as transportation and medical support.

The yak bone pendant unearthed in Tashkurgan, carbon-14 dating corresponds to the Kaiyuan era, and it is covered with the same wear marks as the bronze chariot ornaments unearthed in Daming Palace, Xi'an, confirming the record in the Tang Liudian that "for transporting goods on the plateau, animal power is essential".

"The research team has now discovered that a transport team of 300 yaks can travel 40 li (approximately 20 kilometers) a day in a plateau environment with temperatures as low as -20 degrees Celsius. This coincides perfectly with the distance between the beacon tower ruins (greater than 30 li) – this is no coincidence, but rather a logistics system based on precise calculations!"

In the murals of the Kizil Caves, two Tang soldiers are pounding medicine by the glacier, and the inscription "Medicine Storehouse of Shule Governor's Office" is clearly visible on the wooden box next to them.

In 2020, archaeologists unearthed a pottery jar containing musk and borneol at a fortress site on the southern slope of the Pamir Mountains. The inscription "Supervised by the Anxi Pharmacopoeia" on the bottom of the jar is still legible.

Furthermore, there are three bronze surgical instruments nearby, whose shape is exactly the same as the "Golden Comb for Draining Pus" tool recorded in the "Secret Essentials of the Outer Terrace".

At the Mingtiegaidaban Pass, at an altitude of 5,000 meters, an even more astonishing artifact was discovered: a Tang Dynasty wooden tablet frozen in ice, with clear ink marks recording that in the first month of a certain year, "twenty-seven people died from frostbite, and twenty-five recovered."

Furthermore, in the Dunhuang Grottoes documents, in the "Collection of Judgments of the Jiedushi of Hexi", a memorial requesting "felt boots for guarding the Pamir Mountains" can be found.

"This clearly proves that the Tang army established a fairly complete material and medical support system in the Pamir Plateau of the Western Regions!"

"When the Tang soldiers patrolled wearing double-layered felt boots and wool blend cloaks, they probably didn't know that this cold-weather gear, which used Persian weft knitting techniques, was rewriting world military history—at the same time, the Vikings in Northern Europe were still using whole, untanned animal hides for warmth."

"In the millennia-old ice caves on the shores of Lake Karakul, the last secrets that ensured the Tang army's operations on the plateau are sealed away. In 2019, the archaeological team discovered another 37 well-preserved composite bows!"

"Through micro-CT scanning, two layers of ox horn pieces were found mixed in with the bow-shaped wood core, which was clearly made using the horn bow technique that was strictly prohibited from being exported by the Tang Dynasty law."

"The thin sheet of meteorite iron embedded in the bowstring has been tested and found to contain 8% nickel—this special material, originating from the Tashkurgan meteorite belt, is the key to the bow and arrow maintaining their high speed even at minus thirty degrees Celsius!"

"The Tang Dynasty bronze pot unearthed from the moraine on the north slope of Muztagh Ata still bears traces of fermentation of barley wine and sea buckthorn on its inner wall—this 'special drink for garrison soldiers,' which can both supplement vitamins and keep warm, combined with the presence of a garrison fort every thirty miles, truly allowed the Tang Dynasty's territory to break through the limitations of nature!"

Upon seeing this, Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Biao felt completely numb.

However, Zhu Biao felt alright, so he whispered, "Father, we can also learn from the various arrangements and techniques of the Tang army on the plateau shown in this video."

In fact, although the Ming Dynasty now rules over Tibet and the Western Regions, the troops in the plateau region are mainly local soldiers, and Tibet is still under the actual control of the chieftains.

Although the Ming army in these areas also had measures such as protection against the cold, medical care, and logistical support, their techniques differed greatly from those of the Tang army. Clearly, the numerous wars and the passage of over five hundred years had caused some of the Tang army's techniques for maintaining the combat effectiveness of its troops in the highlands to be lost.

Now that they have seen this video, they can learn from the Tang army's strengths and make up for their weaknesses, so that the Ming army's plateau troops can be better protected. Perhaps in the future, they can send troops to truly control Tibet.

Upon hearing this, Zhu Yuanzhang snapped out of his resentment that "the Ming Dynasty is not as good as the Tang Dynasty" and nodded in agreement.

At this point, after fully recreating the scene of the Tang army stationed in the Western Regions using various archaeological discoveries, the video turned to the original topic of the video—how the Anxi army ultimately held out in the Western Regions for decades.

"In the howling cold wind of the Karakoram Pass, a glacier encases a Tang Dynasty bamboo slip that tells a story: In the seventh year of Tianbao, the town general Zhao Chounu wrote in his patrol log, 'Today, three catties of meteorite iron were found on the glacier, and have been handed over to blacksmith Wang Huzi to temper his knife.'"

"He probably never imagined that this would be the last peaceful time for the Tang army in the Western Regions—archaeologists discovered fragments of a long sword at the Shule Town site that matched the nickel and cobalt content of the local meteorite crater perfectly, but the fragments were formed forty years after the seventh year of the Tianbao era!"

In the video, the fragments of the Mo Dao (陌刀) in the museum are covered with the marks of time and have long lost their sharpness. However, Zhu Biao and others seem to see through these fragments the battles fought by the Tang army in Anxi for decades.

The video camera once again focused on the Dunhuang Library Cave.

"Time rewinds to the late autumn of the fourth year of the Jianzhong era of the Tang Dynasty (783 AD). The ink on a scroll trembles slightly under the dim light. 'The soldiers of Anxi and Beiting are all sons of Shuofang and Helong. They have guarded the border for forty years and their hair has turned white.' This passage pierces through a thousand years of time."

"This letter, intended as a plea for help, was soaked with sweat as it crossed the Tibetan blockade. Hidden within the letter were Khotan jade fragments, which, upon spectral analysis, were found to be of the same origin as tribute items unearthed from the Daming Palace site—this was the last token from the Western Regions Tang army to the Central Plains, carrying their tearful vow to 'defend the territory to the death'!"

The video then focuses on the ruins of the ancient city of Kucha, where rows of arrows are neatly stacked in a cellar. When the camera zooms in on the inscription on one of the arrow shafts, the characters "Zhenyuan Three Years" are still clearly legible.

"According to carbon-14 dating, these arrows were made in 787 AD, a full seven years later than the traditionally accepted date of the fall of Anxi."

"Correspondingly, there is the Kongmu Si Tie unearthed from Tomb 509 of Ashtana in Turpan, which records 'two hundred bolts of Persian brocade were transported to the market to provide winter clothing for the guards in the Pamir Mountains,' exposing the smuggling route of Sogdian merchants that crossed the Tibetan blockade—this was probably one of the logistical supplies that kept the Tang army alive in dire straits."

The video footage appears to be from the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang for what seems like the umpteenth time.

In front of a Nirvana Buddha statue, a detail of an unfinished donor portrait is magnified in the picture.

"The three characters 'Shule Town' on the military tally in this painting are clearly visible, and the outline of his face even shows obvious Sogdian features."

"Art historians discovered through comparison that the lapis lazuli composition in the paint is exactly the same as that found in the Bamiyan mines in Afghanistan. After testing, it was confirmed that the painting was created at the end of the Zhenyuan era (804 AD)!"

Upon seeing this, Zhu Biao, Zhu Xiong Ying, and others all had their pupils shrink.

Because this time is 14 years later than the fall of Shule Town, one of the Four Garrisons of Anxi, as described in the Zizhi Tongjian!
If we consider the 765 years since Guo Xin went to the Western Regions, then 39 years have passed between them!
Shule was not the seat of the Anxi Protectorate; Xizhou was, and Xizhou was the last to fall.

In other words, this evidence almost proves that the Tang army in Xizhou persisted for at least forty years, or even longer, after Guo Xin left!

The video ends here, but the main clips are promotional CG from the "Hexi Chapter" of the game "Sixteen Sounds of Yanyun", interspersed with other films and documentaries about the Anxi White-Haired Army, and the background music becomes increasingly desolate.

"Today, when the scientific expedition team discovered a letter from a Tang Dynasty soldier in a glacier crevice at an altitude of 5,000 meters, the ink on the letter that read 'Parents will see this letter as if they were meeting you in person' still brought tears to the eyes of this tough man."

"These letters that were never sent home stand in stark contrast to the Ministry of War archives unearthed at the Daming Palace site in Chang'an: on the imperial map, the four garrisons of Parthia had already been marked in red thirty years ago, which meant that they had fallen."

"However, in real time and space, those soldiers with white hair still guarded the last boundary marker of the Tang Dynasty in the Western Regions, year after year."

"To this day, their remains still lie in Anxi, buried beneath the yellow sand and snow. Their long swords and spears stand tall, while the Tang Dynasty's military flags and bugles have melted into the wind and sand, drifting through the ages..."

The narration of the video ended, and the video came to a close. The desolate and tragic background music composed of the sound of the xun, the Qiang flute, and the drum grew louder, as if the footsteps of the Tang army in Anxi were striking the hearts of everyone.

The video had finished playing, but Zhu Yuanzhang, Zhu Biao, and others remained in shock for a long time.

After a minute or two, Zhu Biao sighed, "The whole city is full of white hair, yet they will never abandon their swords. They fought alone for forty years, how could they forget the Tang Dynasty?"

"I never imagined that the Tang Dynasty had such a poignant history hidden in the historical records. If it weren't for later archaeological work and various scientific and technological testing methods, it would probably have been buried forever in the yellow sand and snow, unknown to anyone."

The young Zhu Xiong Ying also sighed with emotion: "If we start from the time when the Tang court transferred Gao Xianzhi and other elite Tang troops to Anxi to deal with the An Lushan Rebellion, even if the thousands of Tang troops left in Anxi at that time had only gone there that year, it would have been fifty years by the time of the archaeological discovery in 804."

"In other words, among the Tang army that later defended Anxi alone, a considerable number of soldiers may have served there for more than fifty years and were likely over seventy years old."

"No wonder the video calls these people the Anxi White-Haired Army—the whole city is full of white-haired people, it's really true."

At this moment, the eight-year-old Tang Prince Zhu Jing asked in bewilderment, "Why don't the Tang soldiers marry and have children in Anxi?" (End of this chapter)